WiP Wednesday: Introducing Catkin

I've wanted to make a Catkin forever, but could never find the right yarn for it. A few months ago, while I was picking out yarn for that giant green baby blanket that took forever, I stumbled across a sale on JoJoland Ballad, a solid, fingering-weight yarn. I picked up two skeins each of lavendar and navy, and cast on a few weeks ago. So far, it's going quite nicely, though I imagine it's going to take me a pretty long time to finish. It's knit at a much tighter gauge than I typically use, which means more stitches, more yarn, and more time.

I've completed part one so far. I love the way the colors look together as well as the overall crescent shape. I think it'll look pretty awesome-- assuming I ever finish it.

WiP Wednesday: Lady of the Blue/Purple Forest Shawl

It's pretty rare that I knit for other people. As a rule, I don't have enough time to finish the projects I want to make for myself and don't care to add to the pile by promising friends and family members handknits. However, I sometimes find myself with yarn that isn't suitable for something for me, and that's when I designate it "present yarn."

This is Malabrigo sock yarn in eggplant. I originally intended to use it in a gigantic stole of doom, but wound up unraveling it because the color differences between the skeins were too big and caused the pattern to disappear. I decided to repurpose it, and used about 2/3 of a skein on the clockwork scarf I made a few months ago. The remainder of that skein will be used for some matching mitts, which I'll start sometime in the near future.

That still left me with one untouched skein, and I didn't want to use it on something else for me. Lately, I've been trying to branch out with the colors I knit with, and I do not need another dark blue/purple anything. So, I decided to make a shawl from it and give it to a classmate who 1) really likes to wear purple and 2) admires my shawls.

I'm not really in a hurry to finish this as I won't be seeing her again until August. That's probably for the best, as my knitting mojo tends to crawl into a hole and die when it's warm out. So far, I've completed the first chart (pictured) and have sort of started the second, but haven't made a whole lot of progress on it just yet.

FO Friday: Juneberry Triangle the Second

This is another project that I started in 2011. It took me ages to finish, though, as lace projects do not mesh well with knitting in class (the rule: if it has a chart, it's not a good class project) and I lost some of my blocking supplies in the move and hadn't gotten around to replacing them. It's also taken the better part of a week for this sucker to dry thanks to how cold and wet the air is in my dad's basement/ garage this time of year. 


Pattern: Juneberry Triangle by Jared Flood
Yarn: Cascade 220
Needle: US #8

Finished Size:  Not quite as ginormous as the first one that I made, but nevertheless Pretty Huge, as far as shawls go.  56" wide and 29" deep.

I modified this pattern by not completing all of the repeats in the second chart. I think I stopped 10 or 12 rows early and did a little fudging so that the next chart would line up right. If you look at the chart, it's fairly easy to replicate what I did. 

One thing that I think is really amazing about knitting lace is the way that blocking totally transforms what you've made. This is what my shawl looked like before I blocked it:

It's lumpy, uneven, you can't see the stitches or the pattern, and it's kind of on the small side. 

When you block something, you soak it in water until the yarn has been thoroughly saturated. Then, you stretch it to a more desirable proportion and pin it out so that it dries that way. 

When it's done, you can see the stitches and design much better and it's a lot larger (note the relative size of the box of tea bags). 

Big improvement, yes?

FO: Aeolian Shawl

It's finally finished! It took less than a month, but it still feels like forever.

Pattern: Aeolian Shawl by Elizabeth Freeman, available here.
Yarn: malabrigo lace in azul bolita, just over one and a half skeins. Maybe 800 yards?
Needle: US #7
Finished Size:  60" x 30" 
Notes: Since the shawl is modular, I changed the charts up a bit: one set-up chart, then six repeats of the yucca chart, then one agave chart, then one final agave chart, ending with the alternate narrow edging, as I didn't think I had enough to complete the original. I definitely made the right call; the last few rows of the edging and the bind-off eat yarn. 


I'm pretty sad it'll be a while before I can wear it. I got hot just carrying it around and posing it on my arm outside.

Casting off forever and ever and ever and ever...

...and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.

I've finally arrived at the end of my Aeolian shawl. All that stands between me and bright blue totally out of season shawl-y bliss is 439 (note: I'm about halfway through. All said and done, the shawl had 877 stitches at the end) stitches of stretchy purl bind-off. I guess it goes without saying that the dull repetitiveness of the bind-off is causing me to lose my ever-loving mind, and I'm therefore having to force myself to work on it, lest it sit in a drawer forever. Not that it really matters at this point. It'll be months before I'm able to wear it.

Hark! An Edging!

Now with 50% more Satan's Nipples. Twelve more rows...

Knitting Progress: ish.

 So, despite having been at the beach for several days now, I have yet to accomplish much knitting. I've only managed to work on my Aeolian shawl. That's partly because I don't want to sand-ify my projects by knitting on the beach (and hauling looseleaf patterns around is problematic for obvious reasons), but mostly because I've found I prefer reading books to be a more enjoyable pastime. I'm on track to have finished all of the books I brought with me by the time we get back Monday afternoon. I'll have Tuesday off to pick up any slack, but we'll probably be spending that day looking at more houses.


The first picture is of the completed Transition Chart, which I finished in the car. The second is of the agave charts: I did one regular, and one final agave. They took a pretty long time thanks to all the nupps. The Ravelry fora are correct: nupps really are Satan's nipples.

I've started on the edging, and I'll hopefully finish it today or tomorrow so I can either continue working on the omelet shawl (or maybe the Juneberry) or start something else. I'm really pleased with how it's turning out, even though it's taking longer than I anticipated.

Beach Knitting Docket!

So, my list of what I'll be knitting at the beach has been finalized:

• Complete second attempt at an Aeolian shawl
• Complete Omelet shawl
• Start and finish Orchid Thief shawl
• Work on second Juneberry shawl (may not have enough yarn with it to finish, don't want to pack more)
• Generic fingerless gloves (may be posting a tutorial)
• Second iteration of Idiot-Proof Sideways Scarf

I seriously doubt I'll be able to finish it all but it's worth aiming high. 

Remember the Omelet Shawl?

Yeah, I finally finished Chart B. It's funny how four and a half repeats of the same chart can take forever and kill your motivation. Given how easily distracted I am, I have to be careful which patterns I select, because nothing sends a project to the UFO pile faster than near endless numbers of chart repeats. I suspected that the Omelet shawl would do this to me, and I was right. I managed to finish Chart A and the first two repeats of Chart B fairly quickly, but after that? It went into a drawer and stayed there for about three weeks.

This is why I never finish anything.

I was finally motivated to get cracking on finishing it by the arrival of Brave New Knits* from the library. I've had it on hold for about six months now, and it's finally my turn to borrow it. I would like to knit the Orchid Thief shawl, but in order to do that, I need the size six needle that the Omelet is currently occupying.** So, I've managed to knock out the last two and a half repeats of Chart B and all of Chart C (easy enough: it was only ten rows) over the course of the past four days. I'm pretty pleased with myself, even though I still have Chart D (twenty rows) and Chart E (thirty-four rows, plus the bind-off) to complete.

Hopefully, my beach trip will be fairly productive, knitting-wise. I will, after all, have to return that book to the library when I get back.

*I very rarely buy knitting books. 95% of the time, there are only one or two patterns I really like, so I just check them out of the library (or, if they're available a la carte online,. I'll buy them). The exceptions tend to be stitch guides and Cookie A's sock books.
**In order to keep the number of projects in the to-finish pile at a slightly less horrifying level, I only buy one of each needle size.

Aeolian redux, deux!

Yucca chart: COMPLETE! I did six repeats:

I flew through this chart-- probably because this is the fourth time I've knitted it. Hopefully, it will take this time.

Same Song, Second Verse

I'm taking another crack at the Aeolian shawl. This time, I'm using some malabrigo lace in Azul Bolita. (I'm repurposing the Lacey Lamb for something else.) This is the set-up chart, completed!

Oh hey look another one!

So, I started my second Juneberry a few days ago. Now that I've gotten the hang of doing two-side lace, it's coming along much faster than the first one did. 

I figured out how to modify it to make it smaller (more on that once I've finished it), and am currently working my way through Chart D. Sadly, it probably won't be finished until early May because I have a bunch of stuff I need to complete before then, but it's shaping up quite nicely! 

FO: Juneberry Triangle

It's finally finished!

Pattern: Juneberry Triangle, by Jared Flood
Yarn: Jamieson's Soft Shetland in "Wood Nymph," 5 skeins, 600 yards
Needle: US #8
Finished Size:  65" wide, 35" deep. HUGE-NORMOUS, in other words. It's like a blanket, almost.
Notes: I should have blocked it in the bathtub. The wool grew a ton once it was wet and blocked; I think the size close to doubled. 

I've started a second one that I'm going to make smaller by changing the lace pattern. Once I figure out the nuts and bolts of the alterations, I'll post them here.

We'll call this one "Down to the Wire"

It looks like my knitting luck has changed: I finished my Juneberry Triangle with three or four yards to spare!

Now, onto the blocking! It'll probably take a few days to dry. This thing is going to be GIGANTIC.

And on to Shawl #4 of 2011:

Now that my Juneberry Triangle is getting close to being finished, I've decided to start on my fourth shawl of the year: an Omelet.I have a giant skein of Zephyr laceweight in Pewter, a misty gray that's the color of egg whites when they hit the skillet, that has juuuust enough yardage to cover it (hopefully, I will not run out of yarn at the end. I will cry). I've finished Chart A, and am pretty sure this shawl is going to take forever to complete. I have to do four and a half repeats of Chart B, and then there's still C, D, and E.

I'll probably start a second Juneberry in the meanwhile. I have some blue yarn that it would look great in.

Turning a Corner

I'm now officially more than halfway through the edging on my Juneberry Triangle, and it's becoming clear that this thing is going to be freaking huge when I finish it. I think my gauge is a bit larger than what the pattern called for, given the pre-blocked size and the amount of yarn I've gone through.

Chart D Is the Longest

All of those bobbles took forever.

The Shortest Chart is Chart C

It's not much different from the last picture I posted, but yay for 3/4 charts being finished!

I suspect that Chart D will take forever. Lots of bobbles, and I'm fast approaching Critical Stitchcount, in which each row seems like an eternity. 

Juneberry, deux.

Chart B: COMPLETE!

So far, I've used juuuust over one skein. I may have leftovers.

FO: A Pogona for me!

After finishing the one I made for Abby, I decided to make one for myself:

I used Sanguine Gryphon Little Traveller yarn in the Valparaiso colorway. Since it has more yardage than the purple mystery yarn, it turned out a little bit bigger.