Tag Archives: Knitters Stash

Fiddle Faddle

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

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Still in major wandering around lost mode here but a few beginnings. Above you see the start of another Field of Flowers shawl from Knitter’s Stash. I knit one last year and have been asked about it so decided I would double check what I thought needed to be corrected. Namely the number of repeats and row ending. Also Ashley’s birthday is coming up and she has been asking for a shawl. She has taken to wearing my Siberian Winter shawl and it took me too long to finish that one for me to not stress while she crawls around the floor with it wrapped around her body. This leads to a problem…. she likes square shawls and I have less than half of this beautiful Alchemy mohair than I did of the Heaven mohair yarn. Oh sure I can ask Gina for more but would I get it in time to knit it up by the 18th? I thought of constructing it ala Stonington and using the blue mohair I got at same time on border but I am thinking something like feather and fan striped for border//edging would look nice and I don’t think I can stripe in Stonington construction. Well I know I can’t stripe using that border construction. Anyway I am toying with her birthday pressie from mama and doing some stealthy knitting. She is only in school for 4 hrs a day and I have baby waking up and cleaning to do during that period so I’m pushing the lucksies.

In other non-knitting news I decided to spin a bit. I have a bobbin of singles spun up already and will probably start the second bobbin today and then ply them together. I have never plied yarn on my wheel and only once or twice with spindle spun stuff. Its not that I prefer singles its just that I don’t spin well but enjoy doing it. I would never knit with the stuff I have spun so far. Guess I am very particular about my yarn. Here is an example: I don’t care for BS yarn at all but I like their naturespun cause it is plied and shows texture well. The general knitting malaise led me to try the drastic measure of doing something I don’t consider myself good at so that I would stop beating myself up over snafus{snafues?} I had @4oz of roving purchased at MS&W so sat down and decided I will ply and knit with it no matter how lumpy, bumpy, fuzzy it ends up. Here is my bobbin full~ and yes its not as full as other people’s bobbin fulls but its about half the bump:

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There is a really pretty chartreuse in there but no more in the bump and buried in the darker colors. Big bummer if you ask me. I like chartreuse and the color of Ashley’s shawl is getting me all hot and bothered. Too bad I can’t wear it unless its a little splash such as in this one day will be yarn to be knit into a hat or something.

Yesterday I was searching through my stash for some gray laceweight to send to Jessica and came accross this really pretty lavender hand dyed merino from Aussie if I recall correctly. It was a gift oh 6 yrs ago at least during a Holiday Gift Exchange at Helen’s lace list. I don’t do pastels but I adore this color. And the evil, wicked, horrible, no good Robbyn is tempting me with her beyond gorgeous shawl in pastel periwinkle. I really do hate fellow bloggers. They make my knitting seem so bland and I am lemning my way into prettiness I hope. No recollection at all about weight or yardage so living the daring life again by casting on another shawl. Lets face it ~ for Elka when life is bleh shawl knitting fixes all. From Kinzel’s Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting comes the Maple Garland Shawl. I am knitting it on size 2mm aka 0’s even tho the pattern calls for #5’s and I would normally knit lace with this yarn with size 3’s cause I like it OK. I was thrown for a loop by the absurd number of increases on certain rows and the pleatedness was torqueing my knitting. Really I had some 3 dimensional diamond going on for a while. This gives a little texture to base of flower and well not very clear here but looksie:

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I made this picture a teeny bit larger than usual so that you could maybe see the petal’s formation on top needle…. haven’t finished that round yet.

Ah almost time to go hide Ashley’s shawl from prying eyes and clean up the piles of yarn I have been demi-ing in this week. Hubby did say movies tonight and I made good use of the movie room which has a projector and sofa in it only. Lotsa floor space is oh so good for flinging about yarn :^>

Toodles and yarny days with knitterly evenings to you !

Weekend Knitting

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

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The extreem coupledom of past weekend is thanks to dropping the kidlets off at Todd’s aunt’s for an overnighter. An overnighter is almost always followed by Sunday dinner at said aunties. And Auntie dinners require travel knitting. 2 hours of sitting while Todd gossips with his aunt, the children play outdoors, and Grandma watches channel 2[the local Christian channel featuring 30 min vignettes of various moral delimas all aparently filmed in the 50’s&60’s] Socks, as anybody who knows me is well aware, are not my fave and would never fall under travel knitting. Nor was Reef with its multitudes of colors to be changed every row. Shawls, on the other hand, are the ultimate travel projects. Mostly made up of air they take little to no room and those requiring chart checking need only a quick glance to check how the long row should be worked. Ok for me a quick glance but then I have only been knitting simple shawls on large needles lately. So here it is: a brand spanking new and improved shawl WIP. Meadow Flowers Shawl from Knitters Stash pgs 22-25. The yarn is Lorna’s Laces Heaven in Rock Hill. I had asked for the color called for ‘Gold Hill’ and was told there was no such color[per Beth who now owns Lorna’s] but my shawl is ending up to look the same as the one pictured so I vote it a typo on pattern. I also think I have found an error probably already reported elsewhere: the pattern says to work to desired length ending with row 26 making sure you have a multiple of 6 holes per side. The pictured model ends with 181 sts which happens at the end of row 32. Ending at row 32 also [I think] gives you the multiple of 6 holes called for. My progress so far? I am at 109sts with 72 more rows to work. Not bad for a few hours of avoiding life lessons. Oh and for the Lint Police yes my dears this yarn comes from the to be knit shelf pictured earlier.