Oranjestad Shawl - Color B Done

I pulled this project back out yesterday so I could knit and read (Book 8 of the Saxon Tales).  I had actually gotten to the point where I was about to introduce Color C before I set it aside to work on some other projects.  I blithely worked two rows in Color C, and then realized that the first of those two rows should have been an eyelet row.  I really did not want to tink back 400+ stitches in each row, so I grabbed my Circular Stitch Holder from Clover

and carefully threaded it through the last row I had worked of Color B.  I bought these from The Loopy Ewe when I had a store credit I needed to use and didn't really need to buy any yarn.  I've used them as stitch holders but this was the first time I tried using one as a life-line.  I'm happy to say that it worked perfectly.  Once I had it in place I pulled the knitting needle out, pulled out the two rows I had just worked, and put the stitches back onto my knitting needle to start again.

Pattern:  Oranjestad Shawl by Lavanya Patricella
Yarn:  Uschitita Merino Singles
Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Another Scarf-in-a-Scarf - Halfway Done

Lots of telecons and some document review means that I'm quickly working my way through this project.  I'm already half way done.  I have to figure out what I can throw into my work bag next.  Not having knitting while on a telecon, or while waiting for my computer to reboot is just too scary to contemplate.

Pattern:  Scarf-in-a-Scarf
Yarn:  Hand Painted Knitting Yarns Precious
Needle:  US 7

Elizabeth of York - Take Three

Here is take three.  But wait, how did we get here?  One week earlier, as they say in the movies.

I had cast on my steek stitches and was happily knitting away when I discovered that I had missed 5 purl stitches in a row, way back on row 3.  I did actually drop two of the stitches down to fix them, but it was not easy, and it was late, so I set it aside to look at the next day.  Overnight I was thinking about it and decided that I wanted to start working in the round from the start.  It seemed to me that the only reason the pattern was not being worked in the round from the beginning was because you were not using both colors on all rows, but that didn't matter to me.  I do not need my steek to be the same all the way up.  Here is the steek from take three.

So, the next morning I cast on a new start, without frogging my original start, but this time I decided to try the Wild Orchid and Corn Crake again.  I do like purple and gold.  When I restarted in the round I did not use the smaller needle, I just went with the US 3 (3.25 mm) needle and a longer cord - 32", which holds the stitches perfectly, without bunching, but without stretching.

I also replaced the knot in the bottom band with the 4 knot stitch from the body, because the bottom band knots didn't pop forward as nicely.  And I discovered that two-color purling from the right side is easier (for me at least, knitting English) than two color knitting from the wrong side.  But once I got into the body pattern I decided that the Corn Crake was not providing enough contrast with the Wild Orchid and the design was getting lost.  So I frogged back my first start with the Spindrift to reclaim that yarn, and then I frogged back my second start, but only to the first two color row - so I didn't have to redo the cast-on.  I picked my stitches back up and joined the Spindrift and started on take three.

In the interim, I also charted out the right front, back and left front fully, including the interstitial stitches and the increases.  I had charted the main pattern from the book when I was working the swatch, and later added the lines indicating where the right front, the back and the left front began, but I didn't have where they ended and of course once I started working the increases I had to remember how many stitches to shift things and that was just getting to be too much work.  It was very easy just to create three new charts (save as is a wonderful feature) and then copy the appropriate columns to extend the charts out on either side of the main repeat (marking the repeat with borders) and then add a column for the interstitial stitches, plus add the columns for the increases and gray out the stitches appropriately.  I even put in the increase stitches so I wouldn't have to remember which way they needed to lean.  And the best part?  I can ditch the stitch markers, which were just getting in my way.

Pattern:  Elizabeth of York by Alice Starmore, from Tudor Roses
Yarn:  Hebridean 2-Ply in Wild Orchid and Spindrift
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Elizabeth of York - Bottom Band Done

I knit the swatch for this pattern (and made gauge!) last October, but it has taken me a while to sit down and figure out the pattern sizing and start working it.  When working these patterns I study them pretty thoroughly before I start knitting.  I will even type up and rewrite instructions for my unique size.  I find that the process really helps me understand what is going on with the pattern.  Last night I finally sat down with the pattern and the measurements and figured out what I needed to do for the body (for the most part), and so I caked up my yarn and cast on.  I am now ready to cast on the steek stitches and set up for working the pattern.  I hope the knots will pop out more towards the right side of the work when I block it, they keep wanting to go towards the back.

I was going to use Wild Orchid and Corn Crake as my colors, but changed my mind and went back to the original background color that I ordered with the Wild Orchid - Spindrift.  I actually started knitting with the Corn Crake but it seemed to compete too much with the Wild Orchid, so I tinked back and reknit the piece.

Pattern:  Elizabeth of York by Alice Starmore, from Tudor Roses
Yarn:  Hebridean 2-Ply in Wild Orchid and Spindrift
Needle:  US 2.5 (3 mm) and US 3 (3.25 mm)

Bed of Roses Shrug - Side Two, Half way done

I have a lot of WIPs right now, so I'm trying to finish some up.  After finishing my Juniper Ombre Shrug on Tuesday I decided to pick this one up.  Mostly because it was easy and I wanted to read while knitting.  I'm also close to finishing it, and once I get this one done I can get the Beluga shrug going on to its next phase and finish up the Paintbox shrugs.  I have two other projects that I really want to start, plus I have two more test knits I need to get started on.  One I have the yarn for, one I don't.  One of them will be mostly simple knitting, the other one is definitely not.

Pattern:  Traveling Zebra Shrug by Carolyn Blakelock
Yarn:  Biscotte & Cie Bis-sock
Needles:  US 2.5 (3 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm)

Another Scarf-in-a-Scarf - Cast On

Unfortunately, finishing up the central panel of the Beluga Shrug means that I no longer have easy knitting in my work bag.  Fortunately, I have several kits from Hand Painted Knitting Yarns.  This is a Scarf-in-a-Scarf kit that I had previously caked up, probably to take on work travel, so I grabbed a knitting needle of the appropriate size and threw it into my work bag.  I did forget to throw in a row counter, but garter stitch is pretty easy to count.

I grabbed a locking stitch marker from my tin in my Beluga Shrug central panel project bag so I could mark a row to count from in case (when) I forgot to click my row counter.

Pattern:  Scarf-in-a-Scarf
Yarn:  Hand Painted Knitting Yarns Precious
Needle:  US 7

Beluga Shrug - Center Panel Finished!

We had snow this past weekend, so I went in to work late on Monday.  I had a telecon that I needed to call in to, so I pulled out my knitting and finished up the center panel for my Beluga shrug.  This is the last Paintbox kit that I have though.

Pattern:  Traveling Zebra Shrug by Carolyn Blakelock
Yarn:  Biscotte & Cie Bis-sock
Needles:  US 2.5 (3 mm) and US 4 (3.5 mm)

Juniper Shrug - Finished!

I finished knitting the sleeves this past Tuesday and blocked the shrug.  Once it was dry I tried it on and decided I like the length of the sleeves so yesterday I used Skein 1 to work an I-cord bind off on both sleeves.  But then I was faced with the task of blocking the I-cord.  So I decided to pin it to my dress maker dummy and let gravity do most of the work for me.

This picture provides a pretty good shot of the sleeve lace, you can see the vertical panel I put in on the top and bottom of the sleeves, as well as the continuation of the lace pattern from the back.

At some point I'll get some beauty shots, but for now my dress maker dummy will have to do.

Pattern:  Created from Knitting Modular by Melissa Leapman

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Juniper Shrug - Skein 7

I finished up with Skein 7 this morning.  As skein 7 ended at the end of the 10th repeat I decided to place my sleeve stitches on waste yarn and block the shrug to see where I was with regards to size while I thought about how I wanted to finish it off.

Here it is blocking.  I stretched things out fairly aggressively.  The sleeves at this point are 20 inches, which is what my swatch predicted they would be.

Pattern:  Created from Knitting Modular by Melissa Leapman

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Juniper Shrug - Skeins 9 and 8

I've been focusing on my shrug this weekend and have worked skeins 9 and 8 on the sleeves.  I am alternating between sleeves, working through each skein.  I keep track of the rows I work with each skein in my notes, noting the row numbers from knitCompanion.  I have two copies of the chart, which I alternate between as well, so I don't have to reset anything or try to remember what I did on one sleeve when working on the other.

Based on my swatch I will need 11 repeats of the basic 12 row pattern for the sleeves.  I am currently working on repeat 9.

I will block the shrug once I have knit 11 repeats (putting my sleeve stitches on waste yarn) to make sure the sleeves are good before I finish them.  At that point I will also decide if I want to do anything else with the shrug, or call it done.

Pattern:  Created from Knitting Modular by Melissa Leapman

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Juniper Shrug - Skein 10

And the sleeves get longer.  I worked 27 rows in skein 10.  I probably could have worked 28 rows.  It doesn't look like I will use up all of the yarn on the sleeves, so I'm thinking I will pick up stitches in my I-cord bind off (unless I decide to pull it out entirely) and work some basic eyelet lace around and around to add some length and a little more coverage across the front.  For that I would start with skein 1, working the skeins in ascending order, rather than descending order.

Pattern:  Created from Knitting Modular by Melissa Leapman

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Juniper Shrug - Sleeves Started

After finishing up with the back, and skein 12, I switched to skein 11 to start the sleeves.  I worked the cast on and two repeats of the motif for each sleeve.  This left me with just less than 1 gram of skein 11 left.  Once I had finished with skein 11, I used skein 1 to work an I-cord bind off around the front edges.  I had all of those stitches on holders and I was tired of dealing with them.

Pattern:  Created from Knitting Modular by Melissa Leapman

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Juniper Ombre Shrug - Back Done

I finished up the back last night, working 48 rows, or one and one-half repeats of the motif.  This gives me 49 stitches between the spines.  I am including the 2 spine stitches for the sleeve, which takes the count up to 51, and will cast on 49 stitches to complete the sleeve, giving me 100 stitches total.  This will work out to 6 full repeats of the motif on the sleeves (3 on the front and 3 on the back of the sleeve), plus 26 stitches that I can use for a vertical motif, which will go down the top and bottom of the sleeves (13 stitches each).  I will finish off with a knit on border.  I've already picked out my patterns and recharted them in Stitchmastery so I can easily pull them in to knitCompanion.  For the vertical motif I am using #137 on page 225, but will replace the nupps with beads (I don't do nupps).  For the cuff I plan to use #180 on page 263.

I've spent the first part of this morning figuring out the cast on for the sleeves.  I tried to be all clever and work an I-cord bind off across the top, then an I-cord cast on for the front part of the sleeve, but it turned out that the I-cord cast on was too tight, even when I went up 2 needle sizes.  So I pulled it all out and will do a simple crochet cast on for the front of the sleeve and finish up with an I-cord bind off and edging.  I will work that in skein 1, so it will be a contrast edging.

Pattern:  Created from Knitting Modular by Melissa Leapman

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Juniper Ombre Shrug - Cast On

Last week I received my copy of Melissa Leapman's new book Knitting Modular - Shawls, Wraps and Stoles.  It contains design elements - wedges, vertical inserts, horizontal inserts, ends and knit on borders - that you can combine in a multitude of ways.  I learned from her Facebook page that she was holding a knit along for the book to encourage people to try their hand at designing their own shawls, wraps or stoles based upon the elements from the book.  I have been wanting to design a shrug that started out with a square worked from the center out, so I grabbed some yarn from my stash and sat down with the book.  The yarn set that I grabbed is the Juniper Ombre set from The Unique Sheep.  I have a number of these in DK weight yarn and also a number in fingering weight.  This is one of my fingering weight sets.

For working in the round she recommends a Magic-Loop Cast On, which I had not done before.  It did take me two tries to get it right, but once I got it I decided that I like it.  It creates a little button in the center, like a tiny little doughnut, and you can cinch it tight so there is no hole and it is very firm.  Before I grabbed my yarn I had flipped through the entire book, but when I sat down with my yarn and picked up the book again I opened it at random and just happened to like the lace wedge on the page I opened to.  It is #91 on page 148.  To work the square I cast on 8 stitches and then started with the first row of the chart.  The top picture is one full repeat of the chart.

Pattern:  Created from Knitting Modular by Melissa Leapman
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Oranjestad Shawl - Color A Done

I have been working pretty steadily on this shawl while reading.  I have been reading Bernard Cornwell's Saxon Tales, which are the source for the series "The Last Kingdom" although they changed enough that it was confusing to be reading the early books while watching the series, so we stopped watching the series and kept reading the books.  We had a similar experience with Game of Thrones.  We will watch it, eventually, after it is complete.  We doubt the novels ever will be finished, which is sad, because he created a very rich world (with some very twisted people in it, I really wonder about authors sometimes).  We've also read the Expanse novels, which made the TV series easier to understand, because that first season was pretty confusing.

Color A in the shawl is Unknown.  Seriously, that is the name of the colorway, although if you didn't know what it was you might have a hard time determining the name from the label.

The top label is the band from Color A.  The k is easy to pick out, but the rest?  Color B is Sugared Violets, which is easy enough to read, and it is dominated by purple, my favorite color.  I've been striping it in for a little while now, but have now cut Color A and am only working with Color B.

Pattern:  Oranjestad Shawl by Lavanya Patricella
Yarn:  Uschitita Merino Singles
Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Ambah Advent - Beauty Shots

I finally got some beauty shots of my Adventurer Shawl.

It is hard to capture the colors.

But I think you can get the idea.  I really loved the colors in this Sunshine Yarns Fall Harvest Kit.  This is the first time I've knit with their yarn, but I have several kits in my stash, so it will not be the last.

Pattern:  ADVENTurer Wrap by Ambah O'Brien
Yarn:  Sunshine Yarns Classic Sock in Fall Harvest colorway
Needles:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Oranjestad Shawl - Cast On

This is one of those crescent garter stitch shawls.  I don't usually knit with single ply yarn, but I really loved the colors in the original shawl so I tracked the yarn down and then a very nice Raveler gifted me the pattern (it was in my queue and on my wish list) as a thank you for my creating a progress tracking chart for Ambah O'Brien's Adventurer Shawl.  This is pure mindless knitting, except for the beginning and ends of rows.  I have the pattern set up in knitCompanion, complete with repeat rows - I'm getting pretty good at setting those up.

Pattern:  Oranjestad Shawl by Lavanya Patricella
Yarn:  Uschitita Merino Singles
Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Facets - Finished!

 

I had finished up the body while down in Florida, so after I finished up my test knit and had that shawl blocking I pulled this out and began working on the border.  Two days and about 20000 stitches later I did my I-cord bind off and finished up the neck edge.

There are several options for how to wear this one.

I really like the blocking photo because it shows off the lace so well.  The only place that I pinned it was across the opening.  I just patted and smoothed it into place.

Even though this was taken in mixed natural/artificial light and used the flash I think it actually captures the colors quite well.

Pattern:  TBD
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri in Monarchy
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)