Charivari Zebra - One Side Done

I finished up one side of the ruffles yesterday.  As predicted, I bound off on row 16.  I did use the larger needle for the bind off and tried to bind off loosely.  I've started working the second side of the ruffles.  I will probably just use up each skein as I go.  I also got out the other Paint-Box set that I have for this pattern.

I've been enjoying working with the neutrals - I so rarely do - but I do love color and this set is scrumptious.  I'm looking forward to knitting it up and I hope that Biscotte & Cie put together some more Paint-Box sets for this pattern.

Pattern:  Traveling Zebra by Louise Robert
Yarn:  Bis-sock by Biscotte & Cie
Needle:  US 2.5 (3 mm) & US 4 (3.5 mm)

Charivari Zebra - Three Stripes Done

I worked the third stripe today while pondering some weighty work related decisions.  This is great knitting for pondering things.  I caked up the white skein and ran into my first snag.  The skein is only 46.8 grams, so I know that I can't knit the full 18 rows the pattern, which takes about 24 grams and I only have 23.4 grams available.  I'm hoping I can make it at least through row 15 with the bind off on row 16.  We'll see.

Pattern:  Traveling Zebra by Louise Robert
Yarn:  Bis-sock by Biscotte & Cie
Needle:  US 2.5 (3 mm) & US 4 (3.5 mm)

Charivari Zebra - Two Stripes Done

I have been enjoying the Zen knitting of this project, the simplicity of the pattern, the long rows, and have completed two stripes on the first side.  My yarn usage is pretty much on target.  Because my central panel is longer than the pattern calls for I didn't quite make it through row 18 with the black, so I joined the dark gray and kept going.  I was able to finish the full 18 rows of the dark gray with just a little to spare - ending up with 25 grams to use on the other side.  When I was knitting the black stripe I kept careful track of my yarn usage, weighing the yarn remaining after every row, but now I only have to weigh the skein at the start and then knit blithely along.  The yarn is very nice to work with.  The ruffles are achieved by doubling the number of stitches and going up two needle sizes, then decreases back down to the original stitch count and switching back to the smaller needle.

Pattern:  Traveling Zebra by Louise Robert
Yarn:  Bis-sock by Biscotte & Cie
Needle:  US 2.5 (3 mm) & US 4 (3.5 mm)

Charivari Zebra - Center Panel Done

Look, I knit a snake!  Not really, stockinette just curls.  This is the center panel of the shawl.  I spent all of yesterday working on this while reading on my Kindle and listening to the rain on the roof.  I needed a nice quiet day of simple knitting and reading after the week that I had.  The pattern said to knit until the length is 125 cm, but I knit until I ran out of yarn, I'll weigh my other skeins to make sure I don't run short as I work the side panels, and to also make sure that I use them up as well.

Pattern:  Traveling Zebra by Louise Robert
Yarn:  Bis-sock by Biscotte & Cie
Needle:  US 2.5 (3 mm)

Charivari Zebra

I have bought several Paint-Box sets from Biscotte Yarns, mostly because they are party packs of color, and I'm a sucker for color.  Of course this is not one of the more colorful ones, but every once in a while it is good to knit with neutrals.  The color of the striping yarn is Charivari.  The Biscotte forum on Ravelry has been running a series of knit alongs.  I knit my Peacock Feathers shawl as part of one, and won a skein of Biscotte yarn, so when they announced another one I decided to dig out one of my Paint-Box sets and knit another shawl.  This set is for the shawl Traveling Zebra, and it gives me some mindless knitting when I don't want to deal with thinking, or I'm watching something that warrants more of my attention.

Pattern:  Traveling Zebra by Louise Robert
Yarn:  Bis-sock by Biscotte & Cie
Needle:  US 2.5 (3 mm)

Tudor Roses - Margaret Beaufort - Peplum Done

It took me a little while to wrap my head around what was going on with this peplum.  I love how the gathers come about solely through the use of knit and purl stitches.  I recharted the pattern into a continuous chart so I could knit the body as one piece - my usual method.  The short row shaping is worked on the front and back simultaneously - working the left front and back, and then the right front and back.  Knitting the edging was straight forward, and because the pattern of knot and knit stitches is worked over 4 stitches, the fact that I removed 4 stitches from the overall count when I converted to work as one piece had no net effect on my execution.  I would like to point out that these are knots and not nupps.  You know my philosophy on nupps.  Knots on the other hand are created by working into the front and back of a stitch, and then passing those extra stitches over the last stitch created.  Now I have to work more short rows to bring the knitting back up to the same level again, but before I do that I need to rechart the next set of charts into a continuous chart.

Pattern:  Margaret Beaufort, by Alice Starmore from Tudor Roses (2013 edition)
Yarn:  Alice Starmore Hebridean 3 Ply (517 g in Lapwing)
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Tudor Roses - Margaret Beaufort

This past weekend I decided to try again on Margaret Beaufort.  I pondered the swatch that I had done and the pattern and decided to try swatching again.  I started out swatching on US 3 needles, and then decided that I would try again on US 4 needles.  Yesterday morning I ravelled my existing swatch onto my Kniddy-Knoddy, wet the yarn and left it in the sink to dry.  Yesterday evening I knit up a full swatch on US 4, directly from the Kniddy Knoddy, and got gauge!

This was a very good thing as I had found trying to adjust the pattern to the gauge that I had gotten on larger needles to be something of a challenge, to put it mildly.  Of course I'm knitting the body as one piece so last night I cast on the stitches, but reduced each of the back pieces by one stitch and the front by two stitches, to account for the fact that I don't need them for seaming.  I also charted the peplum charts as a single chart and have imported it into knitCompanion.

It doesn't look like much, yet.

Pattern:  Margaret Beaufort, by Alice Starmore from Tudor Roses (2013 edition)
Yarn:  Alice Starmore Hebridean 3 Ply (517 g in Lapwing)
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)