Finally FO And One Knitter’s Prayer

Let us begin with a couple of FOs. First we have the ex-filthy socks: Image298.jpg
followed by the finally blocked shawl: Image297.jpg
See I really do know how to knit.

The socks are Toe Up~my first and come from a kit put out by Bonkers. The colorway is Plum. The yarn has that plasticy feel some machine washable wools get but there is no notation that the wool is machine washable. The shawl comes from some wool/silk blend found in my stash. Actually spun by the now defunct Lumb mill{the same mill that did a lot of stuff for Rowan yarns} and feels kinda dry even post washing. Like paper almost. It was very rough to knit with and is now softer but is relegated to summer time wear. If anybody has the desire to knit a shawl out of it I do have one more hank of the yarn…. I used less than one hank for this shawl.

This is the time of year when many knitters discuss how much knitting they have to do and send out little prayers that the gifties will be well received. We also get notes about ungrateful relatives who have no appreciation for the time and skill that went into making said gift. I don’t knit holiday gifts for my family although I am considering breaking that rule. I do give handknit gifts year round however. Anyway I decided to add my own little prayer to the long list of poems/prayers out at this time of the year.

Oh Thomas, EZ, Walker, McGregor, Swansen, PGR and other knitting goddesses in addition to Fietelson, Szabo, Starmore, Thompson, Bush and other knitting high priestesses PLUS all knitters who have toiled in the name of their craft puhlease grant me the strength to not start another project. I am overwhelmed by the variety of stitches and yarns that tempt me daily.

There is the loverly top down ala Walker:Image299.jpg,

the shetland shawl ala EZ:

Image304.jpg

We also have the fingerless mitts needing only a dozen yarn ends woven:Image307.jpg

and another shawl “Shetland Tea shawl”: Image300.jpg

with its loverly first out of three lace patterns already complete:Image301.jpg.

Of course I do realize work must come in the way of pleasure and there is the pullover for Unique Kolours:

Image305.jpg

and the just arrived today Beach Bag for K1C2:Image306.jpg. Should I falter in my resolve could you please assist me from picking a small project such as one of these that have been set aside to be done asap: Ribble socks, Peticoat socks and Shadow Hat:Image302.jpg I shall not mention la Princessa which only has 1.5 of the 60ish starting edge points done.

Humbly your faithful servant, Elka

Pretty In Pink

Image286.jpg
Here is the Pretty in Pink cardigan for K1C2. Sorry for crappy picture. I was so excited to get my camara to work that I didn’t worry bout stylistics. Yes I do know I am not Miss Stylin to begin with but I usually do take 3 or 4 and pick the best. Anyway knitting is going pretty slowly over here due to being ummmm ‘…a super crab, super crab
She’s super-crabby, yow’ Terri however did send me a lovely fridge magnet which helped put everything into perspective. What really made the giftie special was she enclosed a note that had her childs scribbles on one side. What a treat! Thanks Terri.

A yarny day and knitterly evening to you all. Mwah.

2nd Time Cotton

Image273.jpg
Hmmmmmm I have knit an item before with this yarn and liked it a lot. So much so that I fingered it at a LYS even tho it doesn’t come in Elka friendly shades. Maybe Borealis? Oh well I get to knit another sweater out of it and am very pleased. The shawl edging is, believe it or not, finit. Record time for me. Maybe I will get a chance to block it today for photo tomorrow? Who knows. I do have quite a bit of yarn to play with and deadlines. Anyways…

Yarny day and knitterly evening to you knitbuds

Habits And FO

Image35.jpg
I got held up finishing this hooded cardigan due to using the wrong color combos on sleeves. After a reknit I had to seem and its very difficult to see sts for mattress stitching. I turned to Morgan and she got halfway through. I ended up having to undo all her hard work and seaming on my own since I couldn’t get my seams to match hers.

You see all those coilless pins? Maybe you noticed them earlier on my socks WIP pictured last month. Its a habit. I string together pins for decreases or increases as in inc each end every 6th row 10 times and then every 4 rows 5 times. I would string together 20 pins and when I had run out[having pinned them into each new stitch] I would string together another 10 pins knowing that my increase rate was now every 4th row. It saves counting sts to see if I did all my increases and the string serves as a reminder that something is changing-in this case number of rows between increases. But there are no increases in my socks so here is the other way I use them: every 10 rows I place a pin at beginning of round//each edge. I tend to fully fashion my increases and decreases so am in the habit of placing the pins 2 to 3 sts in from edge.

Not only does the use of coilless pins assist in keeping track of increases/decreases/rows but it greatly aids in seaming. Two ways. The first is ensuring you have the same number of rows per front and back. I hope I am not the only person ever in history of knitting to get to underarm and finding myself trying to gather up 2 inches of back evenly to 1 inch of front. I used to spend much time undoing my seams trying to find the missed rows. Eventually I decided that the real reason this happens is that sometimes we spread out our knitting widthwise to admire the fabric while measuring and other times we are anxious to get to 18″ and smooth our knitting lengthwise. It effects measurements and causes that argh mismatching. The other bonus is you can put away your tape measure when knitting the matching half. You know 23 rows for ribbing[I place markers at end of pattern changes as well] and 87 rows to underarm and 50 rows to shoulder for example. It saves time for us production knitters. The second way it helps seaming is on the off chance that you get those gathers due to missing rows while mattress stitching. Here’s a picture:

Image36.jpg
See how the pins line up in rows? While seaming when I reach a pin on one side I should also reach a pin on other side. If I do I know I am right on track. If I don’t then I know I missed a row and can undo back to previous pins. I usually remove pins after I have safely reached the next pair but my pin box was upstairs and I am downstairs plus you can see it more clearly.

OK thats this weeks handy dandy knitting tips and tricks. Hope it helps and happy knitting.