Miami Deco Drape - Left Panel Done!

I finished up the left panel of my Miami Deco Drape last night while watching a football game that we had recorded, and immediately started working the right panel, because there was still more football game to watch.  I cast off the left panel 14 rows earlier than the pattern called for (for the size that I am supposedly knitting) because I needed to make sure that the panel could be knit with four balls (or less) as I only have four balls of the dark purple for the right panel.  Although I picked up the stitches on both sides of the back panel using 40 inch circulars I quickly switched to 24 inch circulars to make the knitting a bit more manageable.  It is still a lap full of knitting that I have to wrestle.  I am very glad that I am not working the collar ribbing at the same time as I would definitely have run short of yarn.  When the right panel is done I will block it (per the pattern instructions) work around the armholes, and work the mitered squares that go on the bottom edge where the stair steps are, then I will pick up stitches along the top edge and work the Ladder Stitch using up some of my leftovers.  If I still have yarn left over I may do some kind of edge treatment on the unfinished edges - crochet or I-cord - just to make the edges a bit neater.

Pattern:  JSS #76 Miami Deco Drape by Jane Slicer-Smith

Yarn:  Trendsetter Yarns Merino 6

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Miami Deco Drape - Making Progress

I have also been making progress on my Miami Deco Drape, working on it after finishing up the first clue from Joji’s Open Up Mystery KAL.  At this point it is pretty boring knitting, basketweave.  I have stitch markers in to indicate the switches between the knit and purl sections, so it is pretty mindless, but I’m making good progress, and it is good TV and even reading knitting.  Now that I’ve finished up Clue 2 of the Open Up Mystery KAL, I’ll get back to working on this.  Maybe I can get the first side done before the next clue drops.

Pattern:  JSS #76 Miami Deco Drape by Jane Slicer-Smith

Yarn:  Trendsetter Yarns Merino 6

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Open Up Mystery KAL - Clue 2 Done!

Joji dropped Clue 2 yesterday, a day early, as she was in Australia for a teaching gig.  It was a pretty quick knit, especially as I was thoroughly familiar with the patten.  I do like where this is going and I see picking up stitches and some wings in the future.  I really like the subtle variegation of my yarn.  It provides interest without overwhelming the patterning.  The pattern is definitely challenging a lot of the knitters in the KAL.  It has stockinette, reverse stockinette and cables, and some folks are really struggling.  There are 3 edge stitches on each edge that are not charted, and I think that may also be throwing some folks.  If it were me, I would have charted those stitches.  I mean why have them explicitly in the written directions, but not in the chart?  I’ve always felt that the chart and the written should match, and my charting program automatically creates written directions from the chart so that they do match, not having them match just seems odd.

Pattern:  Open Up Mystery KAL by Joji Locatelli

Yarn:  PennyRose Yarns Benji

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Open Up Mystery KAL - Clue 1 Done!

Back on October 19, Joji Locatelli announced a one-skein mystery knit along.  Seeing as it was my birthday, I thought, why not.  I bought a copy of the pattern and did some virtual stash diving as most of my stash is catalogued on Ravelry and found this skein.

This yarn is Benji from PennyRose yarns, which has been discontinued.  It is 100% Merino and has about 470 yards in 100 grams.  The pattern calls for a single skein of approximately 420 yards, and warns that it uses most of the yarn, so having a cushion is recommended.  Although I have lots of fingering weight yarn in my stash, most of it is 400 yards per 100 grams, so I went to my light fingering, which is a much smaller group.  The dyer is Ruth Greenwald and I discovered her through Zen Yarn Garden yarns, when Roxanne was doing a Light and Dark Lace Club where she and Ruth would take turns dyeing the yarn, and Ruth created the patterns.  Ruth also had PennyRose yarns as her fiber business and I bought several skeins from her.  This one was stashed back in 2011, so it came from pretty deep stash.  

Before I started working on this clue, I checked out how to work the slip-slip-knit (left leaning single decrease), and the center double decrease in Patty Lyons’ book “Knitting Bag of Tricks”.  She has a method of working both of those as a single move, which gives a very neat result, and is fun to do, although working the CDD as a single move can be a bit fiddly.  Funny thing, when I pinned this out for the picture I initially pinned it out wrong side up.  I didn’t realize I had done that until I unpinned it.  I think the reverse looks pretty good.

Pattern:  Open Up Mystery KAL by Joji Locatelli

Yarn:  PennyRose Yarns Benji

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Miami Deco Drape - Back Panel Trim Done!

Once the back panel was dry, which didn’t take long, I picked up the stitches along the sides and worked the trim.  The pick up was made so much easier by those locking stitch markers every 2 inches.  Now, I did not work a gauge swatch, so when I blocked my panel I discovered that it was 32 inches long.  There is only one pattern set up for this mitered panel, and it appears that it should be only 30 inches long, if you have matched the pattern gauge.  If you’re making one of the larger sizes, the pattern does specify that the back panel should be 32 inches long, but I was not making one of the larger sizes.  The pattern has instructions for lengthening the panel by working the ladder stitch across the top until the correct length is achieved.  Needless to say, I did not need to do this.  I know this means that I might run short on some of my colors, but I’m not sweating it, I like improvising.

At this point the pattern has you start the collar, which is worked in two color corrugated ribbing.  You start out working the ribbing separately for where it goes across the top of the back panel, but when you start working the side panels you join the ribbing to the panel and work it along with the side panels.  I could not find anywhere in the pattern where it instructs you to join the ribbing to the top of the back panel.  Although the pattern does state that there is no seaming.  Huh.  Anyway, working the ribbing and the side panels at the same time, when you have two colors in the ribbing just doesn’t appeal to me, so I am just going to work the side panels, and then figure out the ribbing at the end when everything else is done, and I can see what my yarn situation is.  I have several ideas for how to tackle that part.  The left side panel is done in the dark green, and the right side panel is done in the purple.

Pattern:  JSS #76 Miami Deco Drape by Jane Slicer-Smith

Yarn:  Trendsetter Yarns Merino 6

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Miami Deco Drape - Back Panel Done!

I finished up the back panel last night.  After working through this part of the pattern I have to agree with one of the other knitters of this design with regards to the pattern instructions.  In their effort to minimize the amount of printing they combine instructions and leave out things that would have been helpful.  So, definitely a learning experience for me.  I did make a mistake on one of the diamonds, which I then repeated on the other two diamonds that are worked with the same colors - if you do it once it is a mistake, it you repeat it consistently it is a design feature.  Where the diamonds end with a solid color, as opposed to stripes, the pattern tells you to work the Ladder Stitch, which the pattern defines as:  Row 1,3 RS:  Knit.  Row 2:  Purl,  Row 4: Knit - garter st.  That works fine if the color you’re working the Ladder Stitch in is not your main color (the darker green), but it if is the main color you have to start with a garter ridge, not a stockinette stretch.  And being an engineer/scientist by training I tend to be literal minded, so on three of my diamonds I’m missing a garter ridge.

The pattern does tell you to block this panel before continuing, so I am blocking it.  This also allowed me to place locking stitch markers every two inches for the stitch pickup along the sides.  I need to pick up 11 stitches every two inches.  Most of my ends are already woven in, except for the ones along the sides and the top.

Pattern:  JSS #76 Miami Deco Drape by Jane Slicer-Smith

Yarn:  Trendsetter Yarns Merino 6

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Miami Deco Drape - Cast On!

Every so often, a couple of my favorite online shops offer orders for Trendsetter Yarns kits, an opportunity which I have taken advantage of on several occasions.   The latest such kit was this cool vest designed by Jane Slicer-Smith.  Now I have been admiring Jane Slicer-Smith patterns for a number of years, especially the mitered square construction, and I even have a book of her patterns, but this is the first time that I am knitting one.  The kit arrived last week, and then just a few days later, an update to the kit arrived with three balls of yarn, and an updated pattern with a post-it note that stated “updated pattern” just in case you were wondering why you had received three balls of yarn and a pattern out of the blue.  The fact that I now had three balls of yarn that were not all nicely secured with the others, and another printout of the pattern prompted me to immediately cast on.  After all, I wouldn’t want those three balls of yarn to wander off and get lost.  As I was looking over the pattern in preparation for the cast on I noticed that it stated that I was entitled to a PDF copy, so I took myself to the Trendsetter Yarns web site to see if there was an easy/obvious way to secure said PDF copy.  Spoiler alert - I did not figure that part out - but I did very nearly tumble down a rabbit hole of Jane Slicer-Smith patterns and kits.  Lots of patterns and kits.  I signed up for the Trendsetter Yarns newsletter, and then closed the browser and backed away from my iPad, took several deep breaths, and went and got a knitting needle and cast on.  But you can bet I’ll be heading back to that web site in the future, but first, I need to knit at least one of the kits that I have.

Pattern:  JSS #76 Miami Deco Drape

Yarn:  Trendsetter Yarns Merino 6

Needle:  US 6 (4.0 mm)

Step Into Christmas Cowl - Finished!

After finishing up my Sky Song shawl I decided to go ahead and finish up my Step Into Christmas Cowl, as I only had one more chart and the ribbing to do.  I am definitely pleased with how it came out.  After blocking I checked the gauge - 32 stitches and 36 rows.  My gauge on the matching hat was 33 stitches and 37 rows.  I do tend to knit tighter on smaller circumference needles, but it is always interesting to get some real data on projects that are so similar.  The stated gauge for both patterns is 32 stitches and 32 rows.  I haven’t tackled the matching socks, yet, and I will probably wait a little while on those, mostly because I have never done colorwork on socks before and I thought I might start out with a pattern that wasn’t completely colorwork.  I am also not a huge fan of working colorwork with superwash yarns.  Superwash yarns tend to be gauge liars because they tend to be slippery, unless you knit them at a fairly tight gauge (using twice the diameter of the yarn to select your needle size).  Non-superwash yarns tend to have a lot more stability because the stitches will hang on to each other, plus your floats will tend to felt over time giving your knitting even more strength and stability, and I’m must not sure about all-over colorwork socks in a superwash yarn.

Pattern:  Step Into Christmas Cowl by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Lolodidit Loriginal and Lil Lolo Loriginal

Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm) and US 2 (2.75 mm)

Step Into Christmas Cowl - Chart B Done!

After finishing up my Sky Song, I went back to my Step Into Christmas Cowl while I pondered what I might want to knit next, or which other WIP I might want to complete next.  I was happily knitting along on the light green/dark green Peerie pattern, when I got to the end of the round and I was one stitch off - the round was the second round and alternated the light and dark green every other stitch.  I looked at my stitches and couldn’t find two of the same color.  It was getting late so I just put it aside and figured I would look at it again in the morning.  The next morning I looked again and couldn’t find two stitches of the same color next to each other, which could only mean one thing - a stitch had dropped somewhere.  I did find it, and it had raveled down six rows, and it was a column with colorwork.  It took me three tries to  get it picked up correctly what with all those strands across the back, but I was successful in the end.

Pattern:  Step Into Christmas Cowl by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Lolodidit Loriginal & Lil Lolo Loriginal

Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm) & US 2 (2.75 mm)
 

Sky Song - Finished!

Finishing was just a matter of joining the two halves with a three needle bind-off.  It did state in the pattern notes that you could graft if you wanted to, but the bind-off was recommended to provide more stability to the shawl.  I went with the bind-off, quick and easy.  Blocking was straightforward.

Pattern:  Sky Song by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Miss Babs Yummy 2-ply

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Sky Song - Clue 6 Done!

I finished up Clue 6 on Tuesday.  It wasn’t an especially difficult clue, but I did make a couple of mistakes that caused me to tink back a couple of times, and to actually put in an afterthought lifeline and rip back a section, twice, if I remember correctly.  The Clue 6 song is My Girl by The Temptations.  I forgot to mention the Clue 5 song - One Love by Bob Marley.  The joining song is Rainbow Connection from The Muppet Movie, sung by Kermit the Frog.  I am a huge muppet fan.  The design really is spectacular, and the colors of this set by Miss Babs are also spectacular.

Pattern:  Sky Song by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Sky Song - Clue 5 Done!

I finished up Clue 5 this morning.  I almost finished it last night, but I was getting tired, and it is easy to make mistakes working with dark yarn in the evening when you’re tired.  I learned that the hard way and had to tink back once, and rip back once as a result.  I have Clue 6 all set up in my knitCompanion app and am all ready to go.  This is the final clue, so I will be joining the two halves of my shawl at the end of it.  Overall, a fun knit, and I really love the colors, and the design.

Pattern:  Sky Song by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Step Into Christmas Cowl - Chart A Done!

This is my small project knitting, when I don’t want a full lap.  I pick this up and put it down as the mood takes me, but this past weekend I finished up Chart A.  I have also done the first round of Chart B, just to get the color changes taken care of.  I replaced the red stitch in the last motif with red beads, just cause.  I’ll be using more red beads in a later motif - one that was also in the hat.  I started out on 16 inch circulars for the ribbing, switched to 20 inch circulars when I went up a needle size and started the color work, and then switched to 24 inch circulars, as I really hate having color work bunched up on my needles.

Pattern:  Step Into Christmas Cowl by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Lolodidit Loriginal and Lil Lolo Loriginal 

Needles:  US 1 (2.25 mm) and US 2 (2.75 mm)

Sky Song - Clue 4 Done!

Clue 4 was a quick and easy one.  Basically it is clue 1, but with the main colors and contrast colors flipped.  It was nice to have something so quick, and it shows off the contrast colors so beautifully.  The small triangle is Golden Hour, from the Kacey Musgraves song of the same name, and the larger triangle is Sunset.

Miss Babs kits - they really are quite wonderful, and I always have a hard time resisting them, which is why I have a fair number of them in my stash.  I spent some time looking at them in my online Ravelry stash last night, and looking at the patterns they go with.  I’m thinking of just binging Miss Babs kits for a while.

Pattern:  Sky Song by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Sky Song - Clue 3 Finished!

I finished up Clue 3 last night while watching Swordsman of Siena, a fun swashbuckler with Stewart Granger (one of my faves), and the movie actually debuted on my actual birth day, which I thought was just kind of cool.  This clue was not that hard, but it did take me two tries to get the rhythm of it.  I ended up with an extra stitch on my first go when I was switching to the second contrast color, so I ripped back to the end of clue 2 and started over.  The second go was smooth sailing, and it was fun.  This clue is “Birds flying high,” which comes from the lyrics of the song “Feeling Good” by Nina Simone.  This is the half-way point of the shawl, and Clue 4 has you start at the other end, so this piece gets set aside for now.

Of course after I took the top picture, my cat Jezebel had to come investigate the knitting.  She immediately went for one of the knitting needles, which she likes to play with.  She is very well-behaved with regards to my yarn and my knitting, other than that she likes to curl up on it.  She is a very smart, and very sweet cat.

Pattern:  Sky Song by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  Miss Babs Yummy 2-Ply

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Step Into Christmas Cowl - Cast On!

After I finished the hat, I caked up the yarn for the cowl, and cast on.  I am almost finished with the 9 rounds for the brim, but I’ve mostly been focused on working on Sky Song.

Once I get done with the 9 rounds, I will join the gold, go up a needle size and start the colorwork.

Pattern:  Step Into Christmas Cowl by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  lolodidt Loriginal and Lil Lol Loriginal

Needles:  US 1 (2.25 mm) and US 2 (2.75 mm)

Step Into Christmas Hat - Finished!

I finished the hat up this past Saturday and am happy with how it came out.  I did the crown on two 16 inch circular needles, which is the same way that I usually work socks.  I was concerned with the tension where I switched needles, so I made sure to trap the float before I switched needles, and it looks like that worked pretty well.  The hat fits my husband better than it fits me, so I will make another one in the next smaller size for myself.  I have plenty left over of all the colors except for the dark green, and I have plenty of that color in the other two kits.

It is very soft, and of course lighter weight given that it is fingering weight, but it will be nice when we want just a little more warmth for our heads and ears when we walk.

Pattern:  Step Into Christmas Hat by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  lolodidit Lil Lol Loriginal

Needles:  US 1 (2.25 mm), US 2 (2.75 mm)

Step Into Christmas Hat - Chart B Done!

Oh yeah, definitely potato chip knitting.  I finished up Chart B this morning while watching the latest Fleece and Harmony Wool Cast, and now I get to do the crown, so this will definitely be finished today, and then I can start the Cowl.  No mods to the charts this time.

Pattern:  Step Into Christmas Hat by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  lolodidit Lil Lolo Loriginal 

Needles:  US 1 (2.25 mm) and US 2 (2.75 mm)

Step Into Christmas Hat - Chart A Done!

Okay, this is definitely potato chip knitting.  After I switched to the larger needle and started the colorwork I just couldn’t stop.  I had to make myself stop when I reached the end of Chart A, although I did start the first round of Chart B just so I could take care of switching the yarn colors - weaving in the light green and the dark red.  I did try the brim on when I was halfway through the round where I switched to the larger needle and I’m happy to report that it fit beautifully.  I’m really enjoying this knit.  I do like working with fingering weight yarns, and I do like colorwork.  I did replace the red bobbles in the second motif with red beads, because I am not a fan of bobbles, and I thought beads would just be a nice touch, and of course I had the perfect beads in my bead stash.  On to Chart B.  This is going to be a quick knit.

Pattern:  Step Into Christmas Hat by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  lolodidit  Lil Lolo Loringal

Needles:  US 1 (2.25 mm), US 2 (2.75 mm)

Step Into Christmas Hat - Cast On & Brim Finished!

Working on my Sky Song shawl got me thinking about all the other Miss Babs kits that I have in my stash (something on the order of two dozen), as well as a the kits above, which are also for patterns by Lisa K. Ross.  The kits above, and the yarn in the picture below are for a set of patterns that Lisa put out in November and December of 2025.  It started with the Step Into Christmas Socks, which was run as an MKAL, and I bought the kit but obviously did not knit it up at the time.  When the matching Cowl and Hat patterns came out in December I bought them and also bought the kits for those in the same colorway so I could have a matching set.  This week I decided that I needed a small project to work on when I wasn’t working on my shawl and so I pulled the three patterns into knitCompanion and started looking them over.  The first thing I did was check the yarn requirements for each pattern and compared that with the yarn in the kits.  The two kits above are identical - one full sized skein (440 yards) in the dark green, and then mini skeins (124 yards each) in the other four colors.  The hat kit just had five mini skeins.

The Hat requires:  105 yards of the dark green, 80 yards of the dark red, 25 yards of the white, 40 yards of the light green, and 45 yards of the gold.  The yarn provided in the kit should cover that easily.

The Cowl requires:  145 yards of the dark green, 105 yards of the dark red, 50 yards of the white, 45 yards, of the light green, and 120 yards of the gold.  The gold might be a bit tight, but the other colors should have plenty.

The Socks requires:  204 yards of the dark green, 137 yards of the dark red, 115 yards of the white, 49 yards of the light green, and 80 yards of the gold.  And this is where I spotted a problem - the dark red yarn requirements actually exceeds what the kit provides.  Now I have no idea (because I didn’t do the MKAL at the time) if anyone had any issues running out of that color, and I didn’t feel like searching through the forum posts to answer that question.  But the fact that I had bought all three kits certainly made my happy as I should have enough yarn to complete all three projects, even if I have to borrow some from the other kits to finish.

I started with the Hat, as the smallest of the three projects.  Now, I’ve never knit a hat out of fingering weight yarn, but whatever, I’m game.  I did not do a gauge swatch, but when I switch to the larger needles (on the next round) I’ll try it on when I’m about halfway through that round and see if it fits.  I think it will, but you never know.  At the very least it will serve as a gauge swatch for the other two projects.

The knitting has been easy and enjoyable - knitting in the round is one of my favorite things because you just keep going around and around and you never have to stop and turn the work, so the rhythm is never broken.

Pattern:  Step Into Christmas Hat by Lisa K. Ross

Yarn:  lolodidit Lil Lolo Loriginal

Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm), US 2 (2.75 mm)