Twisted Rib Pullover II

After I finished my first Twisted Rib Pullover, I cast on a second one.  This time I should have enough yarn to finish the neck band.  I got through the ribbing and then set it aside for a little while because I knew that I would need some mindless airport and airplane knitting.  I don't really like traveling, especially alone, but as long as I have my Kindle and my knitting I can get through anything.

So all of last weekend I worked on Mayan Garden and stressed about my upcoming trip, until it was time to do the on-line check in and I discovered that I could upgrade my ticket to First Class for a mere $225!  Apparently the price was deeply discounted because they didn't think they were going to sell those seats.  Unfortunately, it would have cost me $1000 to upgrade on the trip back.  Let me tell you, it was pretty cool to be sitting in first class knitting away on this pullover and reading on my Kindle.

Pattern:  Design 1835 from Moments No. 005
Yarn:  SMC Select Extra Soft Merino Fino in Malachite
Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Mayan Garden - Beauty Shots

And here it is, off the blocking mats.


Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm), US 5 (3.75 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Finished!

All done and blocking!  Blocking circular shawls, or capes, is always challenging, but I try not to get too obsessive about it.  I lay out the shawl as closely as I can and start pinning, always listening to the fabric and not forcing it to do anything it really doesn't want to.  Take that keyhole where the front edges don't meet - I believe that is a result of the way the increases are done in this pattern and perhaps also partly due to the fact that I did not increase my needle size until the last couple of charts.

Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm), US 5 (3.75 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Chart 14 Done

I made it part way through the 4th row of Chart 14 before I had to switch to skein 5 - row 174.  Just one more chart.  This time next week it should be done and blocked.

Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm), US 5 (3.75 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Chart 13 Done

I have been working pretty steadily on Chart 13 this week, plugging away at the long rows - 759 stitches per row, if I've done the math right.  I switched to skein 4 at the beginning of the increase row between charts 12 and 13 and only have 10 grams of a 75 gram skein left.  Each row took almost 3.5 grams of yarn.  I'll switch to skein 5 somewhere in the 3rd row of Chart 14 and that chart will consume about 40 grams of yarn, so I'll be almost half way through skein 5 when I start Chart 15.  Chart 15 starts with another increase row, so the yarn consumption is going to go up once again - to almost 4 grams of yarn per row, so I will switch to skein 6 a row or two before the end of Chart 15.  Of course, that assumes that I don't increase the needle size again when I start Chart 15, but even if I do go up a needle size, I will still have a comfortable margin to finish the cape.


Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm), US 5 (3.75 mm)

Tea for Two

My tea chest is all set up and fully stocked.  Yesterday we put up the shelf for my tea cups and tea pot (the shelf is actually centered over the tea chest - but I'm off to the side - parallax is real).  Unique Sheep fans may recognize the two cups hanging from the hooks from past Sip and Stitch clubs.  Bruce and I have gotten in to the habit of sharing a pot of tea when we get home from work.  Today it is Vienna Cinnamon from Tea Forte - one of my favorite places to buy teas.  That is a box of Tea Forte tea, with some of their cute little pyramids arranged in front, on the top of the chest, and those canisters in the top left compartment (hiding the cocoa canisters) are all Tea Forte teas.  Sip and Stitch Club fans will recognize the bags in the bottom right.

Mayan Garden Cape - Chart 12 Done

Despite being 13 rows, Chart 12 worked up very quickly, mostly because there was not a lot of patterning, and only two rows with beads.  I'm going up a needle size with the start of Chart 13 because there is a lot more patterning, and I may go up another needle size before I'm done.  It all depends on how the fabric is turning out.  I will be switching to skein 4 during this chart.

Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Fred Update

Fred is doing quite well, now that I know that I have to trim his claws regularly.  Jasmine keeps hers in great shape with her scratching pads, but I have yet to see Fred scratch his claws, and they had gotten so long that they were growing into the pads of his paws.  Poor thing!  Now that his claws are trimmed and his pads are all healed up he is a new man.  Here he is watching kitty TV, with Jasmine chilling in her tower.  Jasmine is pretty tolerant of Fred, and he would really like to be friends with her.  Sometimes he follows her, talking to her.  She remains aloof.

Here is another shot, so you can see his adorable face.  He is keeping an eye out for Jasmine.  I am still working on keeping his fur groomed.  It seems to be a constant battle, but he is getting better about letting me work on him and I am getting better at getting the mats out without hurting him.

Mayan Garden Cape - Chart 11 Done

It has been over a month since I have worked on this project.  I finished Chart 10 on Sunday February 9.  I'm not really sure why I have let it languish for so long.  Regardless, yesterday I picked it back up again and whipped out three of the four rows of chart 11 and this morning I did the fourth row.  This is the last of the short charts.  Chart 12 has 13 rows.

Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Willow Cardigan - Body Done, well almost

I felt a need to work in a fiber other than wool and to make something a bit more spring-like.  This is from Tahki's latest pattern book, Spring Fling, although I bought it as a single pattern from Fiber Art, Inc along with the yarn.  The yarn is Tandem, which is 28% Cotton, 28% Viscose, 28% Nylon, 16% Acrylic and comes in 50 gram balls with 107 yards.  It knits up nicely and it is easy to find the end of the ball (don't you hate those balls where you have to hunt for the end?).  When you get to the end of the ball it tends to fall apart and get a little tangled, but the tangles are easy to undo.

I modified the pattern to knit the body in one piece, separating at the armholes.  I joined the shoulders with three-needle bind off and did short row shaping (shadow wraps) on the shoulder.  Once I finish the collar (the front edging is extended up) I'm going to do top down sleeves so I can use up all of the yarn.  The pattern calls for a belt, but I probably won't do one, instead I may do just a single button and loop closure.

Pattern:  Tahki Stacy Charles Willow Cardigan
Yarn:  Tahki Stacy Charles Tandem in Ocean Deep
Needles:  US 7 (4.5 mm)

Cape Cod in Bloom Necklace

Remember this bracelet?

Lovely design, but...it is a bit long and will slip off of my hand with very little encouragement, and those focal beads add a fair bit of weight.  I wore it to work one day, and while it never came off, it was worrisome.  So, I decided to get a second kit and make a necklace.  I was going to try to do matching earrings, but when I did that the necklace came out just a little too short.

Project - Cape Cod in Bloom.

Coiled Agate Bracelet

This is the second shipment from the Annie's Simply Beads Kit-of-the-Month Club.  This is a memory wire bracelet - something that I've never done before (part of the point of the club was to try new things).  It is a fun, simple project that took no time at all to make.  I have set things up to automatically charge one of my credit cards, and the charge appears the first of the month, so I go and check my account to see what kit I will be receiving next.  The kits ship out on the 7th and mine arrived in a week.  This month I will be receiving the Simply Earrings kit.

Twisted Rib Pullover - Finished!

This one took knitting twice to get right.  It all started when, after knitting the sleeves, I decided that they were too tight and too short, so I decided to reknit them and make them larger, but then I was worried about running out of yarn.  As an experiment, when I started knitting the sleeves a second time I did the ribbing in the gold yarn that I had leftover from the Goldenrod Pullover.  That looked good, so I did the second sleeve the same way.  Then I faced the fact that I had not done contrast ribbing on the body.  I let that idea percolate a little while in my mind while I worked on other projects, and then decided to reknit the body with the contrast ribbing.  The only problem with doing that was then I ran the risk of running out when it came to doing the collar.  I decided to press on and see where I ended up, knowing that I could always do some modifications to the pattern when I got there.

As I started knitting the collar I knew that I would not have enough of the gold to finish the collar.  I searched on Ravelry and found a couple of people that had the same yarn in the same dyelot, but of the two people that I contacted, one wasn't willing to part with her ball, and the other one never replied.  Then yesterday I did another search on the internet and found a shop in the UK that was selling bags of 10 balls, and they had the gold color listed.  I almost ordered it, but stopped myself at the last minute.  Really?  Pay $80 for a bag of yarn when all I really needed was just one?  Obviously I needed to rethink things.  I tried the top on to see how the collar was looking and decided that it looked fine, so I finished knitting as much as I could with the yarn that I had, and raveled my swatches to get as much yarn as possible.  While that yarn was drying I sewed in the sleeves, and this morning I finished up the collar.

I did end up ordering more yarn from the shop in the UK (Claire's Yarns).  I tried to order the Eggplant, but they were out, so I got Malachite instead.  Turns out they were out of almost all of the colors, including the Mustard, so it wouldn't have worked out anyway.  What can I say?  I really like this yarn, and I love the top with the lace sleeves.  Now I can make three more.

Pattern:  Design 1835 from Moments No. 005
Yarn:  SMC Select Extra Soft Merino Fino in Petrol and Mustard
Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm)