Evenstar Cape - Finished!

I finished up my Evenstar Cape last weekend, blocked it Tuesday morning and had Bruce take a picture Tuesday afternoon.  According to knitCompanion it took me 101.5 hours.  Not too bad.  I have never used the project time before, but decided to check it out after seeing some posts about it on the knitCompanion forum on Ravelry.  My modifications are available as a free Ravelry download - Evenstar Cape.  At the time I am writing this post it has been downloaded 116 times.

Pattern:  Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf, converted into a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Eos in Midnight Delight
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Evenstar Cape - Border Progress

I have been working away on the border of my Evenstar Cape.  I did modify the original border pattern a fair bit, adding a two-stitch garter stitch edge, which helps the dagger beads lay better.  I also slip the first stitch of the wrong side rows, changed the slant of the decreases after the point and only have two rows of beads.  The down side of having those dagger beads pre-strung on the yarn is that you have to pause regularly to slide them further along the yarn.  I have to be careful when sliding the beads to minimize the stress that I put on the yarn, so I slide them in groups of 5 or 6.  The up side of having those dagger beads pre-strung is you have a ready made progress indicator.  I am almost half-way done with the border and last night I shifted everything to a shorter circular needle.  I had been working on a 40 inch, but it was starting to get a little annoying.  Now I am working on a 24 inch.  It bunches up the shawl stitches, but makes things easier to handle.

Pattern:  Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf, converted into a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Eos in Midnight Delight
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Evenstar Cape - Chart 3 Done!

It is amazing to me how quickly this shawl is working up compared to how long it took me to make my first Evenstar.  I suppose a lot of that has to do with experience.  When I knit the Evenstar shawl as part of the Mystery Knit Along (back in 2010!) I had only knit 5 other shawls and it was my first time using pure silk lace weight yarn.  It took me almost 4 1/2 months to complete.  This time around it will probably take me less than 2 months.  In other big news, today I published all of my modifications to Ravelry as a free download, with the permission of the original designer.  There is not enough detail in my modifications file to knit the pattern without the original pattern as I don't include all of the charts.  I do include my modified Chart 2 that shifts the start of that chart to make it symmetrical and I also include a modified Border chart.

Pattern:  Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf, converted into a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Eos in Midnight Delight
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Evenstar Cape - Chart 3 - 48 Rows Done

Twenty-four rows, of 567 stitches each, in two days must be some kind of record, at least for me.  The nice thing is that I've made it through all of the twisted rib rows, so now my wrong side rows are just easy purls.

Pattern:  Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf, converted into a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Eos in Midnight Delight
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Evenstar Cape - Chart 3 - 24 rows Done

I finished up the first 24 rows of Chart 3 today.  When this was done as a mystery knit along this chart was broken up into 3, with this being the first part.  I thought it would be a long horrible slog repeating those same 4 rows 6 times, but it really wasn't that bad.  I started Chart 3 on the 29th of August, so it only took me one week.  Every evening I would work a couple of rows, although I usually didn't make it through a complete repeat.  When you look at a pattern like this you think that it must take forever, but it really doesn't, especially if you break it up into reasonable chunks and just focus on making steady progress.

Pattern:  Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf, converted into a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Eos in Midnight Delight
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Evenstar Cape - Chart 2 Done

I finished up Chart 2 yesterday afternoon and figured out the increase for Chart 3.  The beauty of my modification to Chart 2 meant that I didn't have to shift Chart 3 to get things to line up (in the original pattern the beginning of round marker is shifted 10 stitches before beginning Chart 3).  It really makes me wonder about the original design process.  At this point there really isn't any more figuring to do until I get to the border, but at 567 stitches per row, that is going to take a little while.

Once again, I have an extra stitch at the end of the row because there are seven rows where the motif wraps across the beginning of the round.  On the other rows I work the last stitch the same as I work the first stitch to maintain the symmetry.  The increase row was a little bit different - I knit 3, then (k1, yo) to the last 4 stitches, knit 4.

I switched to my second skein towards the end of this chart, using up all of my first skein before switching.

Chart 3 is a long slog, so I'm breaking it up by working on some of my other works in progress.

Pattern:  Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf, converted into a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Eos in Midnight Delight
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Evenstar Cape - Figuring out Chart 2

Chart 2 presented the first challenge in my conversion.  I remember when I was knitting this shawl the first time I was frustrated by this chart because the motifs don't line up with the motifs in chart 1.  Chart 1 is worked over a 16 stitch repeat and chart 2 is worked over a 20 stitch repeat and they only line up at 2 points.  I spent a fair bit of time trying to modify the charts to make them line up, but in the end I gave up and knit the pattern as written.  The other frustrating aspect of this chart is that the pattern is not symmetrical as it is charted, although it is symmetrical when knitted.  This project gave me the chance to revisit that chart and see what I could make of it the second time around.

The first thing I noticed was the decrease row between the two charts.  First you knit a regular increase row, than a plain knit row, then a decrease row where you decrease 8 stitches, another knit row and then start knitting chart 2.  As I started working the math, the first thing I noticed was that if I did my increase row I would end up with 291 body stitches, while the chart needs 280 for the circular version and 281 for the flat version - remembering that extra stitch at the end of the row.  That meant that I would have 10 extra stitches.  My first thought was to take advantage of the fact that I could work an extra half repeat of the chart.  I fired up my charting software and first entered the chart as written, then I started adding columns and copying and pasting, expanding the chart in both directions.  As I worked I pondered the implications if I were to keep those 291 stitches on working the rest of the shawl and decided that the best course of action would be to maintain the stitch count as nearly as possible.  I also noted that there was a very simple way of making this chart work perfectly for knitting flat.

The solution was so simple that I wondered why the designer didn't adjust the chart during the design process.  All it requires is a little arts and crafts.  First, print the chart, then cut the chart vertically between stitches 15 and 16.  Also trim away the "no stitch" in column 21, cutting carefully around the 3 stitches in rows 47, 48, 49.  Now take that strip of stitches and place them to the right of stitch 1, carefully lining things up and placing those 3 stitches into the no stitch section of column 1.  Apply tape to secure.  When you knit the chart, there will still be an extra stitch at the end/beginning of the right side/wrong side rows.  Just knit/purl that stitch as appropriate.  On rows 33 and 53 that stitch is needed to handle the s1k2togpsso stitch as it was handled in chart 1.

Pattern:  Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf, converted into a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Eos in Midnight Delight
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Evenstar Cape - Chart 1

I will be starting my Evenstar Cape Knit Along in two weeks, but I wanted to work out the details of the conversion to make sure that I wouldn't lead anyone down the wrong road so I cast my cape on this past week.  Readers of my blog will get a look ahead at what I will be covering in the Knit Along as I capture my process.

When making a conversion like this the first thing that you have to do is carefully review the pattern.  The main things to look for are stitches that cross the end of round marker (also denoted in patterns by "dancing markers") and asymmetries in the pattern that might not lend themselves to being split into a cape (or semi-circular) shawl.  This kind of pattern review is most easily done by looking at the charts, so for the non-chart knitters I strongly recommend that you take the plunge and learn how to read charts.  It really isn't that hard.  I recommend J. C. Briar's book Charts Made Simple:  understanding knitting charts visually.  You can still spot these things by looking at the written directions, provided that they are well written - just look for the pattern repeats and then look at what other stitches you have to do that are not included in the pattern repeats.

For Chart 1 of Evenstar we are very fortunate in that the motif is symmetrical, although it does wrap across the end of round marker on rows 7, 13 and 27.  Row 7 begins with a special stitch - increase 7 in a k3tog.  The other two rows begin with a slip 1, k2tog, pass slipped stitch over (s1k2togpsso).  That special stitch is going to take a little careful thought (and some experimentation), so lets look at the easy stitch first.  The s1k2togpsso stitch is a type of double decrease, we're taking 3 stitches and turning them into one.  If you split that stitch apart by converting  from knitting in the round to knitting flat and you still want to retain symmetry in the design you would need to start those rows with a k2tog, yo and end those rows with a yo, ssk.  That takes care of the double decrease, but we need 4 stitches, not two.  What to do?  Easy, add an extra stitch at the end of the row.  When you're not knitting one of those 3 rows you just knit or purl that stitch as appropriate.

Now lets go back and look at the special stitch.  This one is easier to decipher if you look at the chart.  You will note that in row 6 there are 3 "no stitch" spots, so you know you need to increase 3 stitches.  After a little trial and error (and you have to be willing to experiment) I decided that an increase 4 in a k2tog is the way to treat this special stitch at the beginning and end of the row.  A word about the increase stitch.  Susan Pandorf offers 3 different ways to work this stitch and recommends that knitters try out each of the methods while working the swatch to determine which one they like best.  I prefer the method that uses the yarn overs.  It results in a nicely symmetrical Evenstar, with an open center, and is also easy to work.  There is just one small problem with using yarn overs, you have to do an odd number of increases because the yarn over has to be worked between two regular knit stitches and at the beginning and end of the row we need to work 4 increases.  To handle that I did the knit, yo, knit, and ended with a knit into the back of the stitch.

Now that we have all of those things worked out (and hopefully you've annotated your pattern appropriately) take a look at the pattern again and ask yourself if there are any other modifications that you would like to make.  For example, in rows 11 and 25 there are k4tog stitches.  I decided to work the first k4tog in row 11 as a ssssk and the second k4tog in row 25 as a ssssk, so that they would both slant away from the central petal.  The other thing to consider before you begin is whether you want to add beads, and where you would like to add them.  I decided to add beads to the points of the Evenstar.

Okay, we're now ready to figure out how many stitches to cast on.  Looking at the pattern we note that this is a traditional "Pi" shawl so it starts out with a number of rounds of knitting followed by increase rounds.  The last increase round before Chart 1 gets us to the stitch count for that round, which is 144 stitches.  But wait, we need an extra stitch to work this flat, so we need 145 stitches when we complete that increase round.  Obviously we don't want to start the shawl with 145 stitches, so go back to the stitch count before the increase round, which is 72 stitches.  We also have to consider edge stitches.  I like to work a 3 stitch garter stitch border, which would bring the cast on stitch count up to 78.  I cast on 78 stitches and knit 4 rows and then worked the increase row.  When you work one of these yo, k1 increase rows in a circular shawl you double the number of stitches, but when you work one of these yo, k1 increase rows while knitting flat you wind up at the end of the row and you've just knit a stitch and there are 3 edge stitches left.  If you do one more yarn over before you knit those 3 edge stitches you will actually increase by 73 stitches instead of 72, which gets us that extra stitch that we wanted for Chart 1.  Pretty cool, huh.

Pattern:  Evenstar Shawl by Susan Pandorf, converted into a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Eos in Midnight Delight
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Andromeda Cape - Third Transition

I finished up one of my test knits last week and have started on another but took a little break to work on my Andromeda Cape.  The photo does not capture the colors well at all.  There are some lovely subtle shadings that are lost and it is too yellow.  I tried to do some correction on it, but I couldn't make it any better.  I am almost to done with the easy knitting and to the first border.

The Unique Sheep Once and Future King Mystery Knit Along starts in just under two weeks, and that was the test knit that I just finished up.  I assembled all the clue files yesterday and just took my finished shawl off the blocking mats.  It is a really lovely design and it is always so much fun seeing all the different colorways being knit up.  The test knit that I just started is for the Inspired by Art Club, also by The Unique Sheep.  I almost didn't do this test knit because the shawl shape is not one that I enjoy working, but I really like the designer so I let her talk me into it.  I'm glad that I did.  I really like the design.

And speaking of cool designs, a fellow Raveler contacted me about converting a circular shawl into a cape (word is getting round that I do that sort of thing) and the shawl that she wants to convert is one that I've been eyeing as well.  It is Solar Flare and it is going to be a bit of a challenge to convert.  There is a place where the beginning of the round marker shifts 12 stitches, which isn't really possible when you're knitting it as a cape.  I think I have figured out how to do it, but won't know until I actually try it, so I ordered the yarn to make it.  It was designed to use Unique Sheep yarn, and there is even a special colorway, called, appropriately enough, Solar Flare.

And speaking of capes, I am finally going to tackle Evenstar.  I have had the yarn in my stash for a while now, and there seems to be a fair bit of interest so I'm going to do a Knit Along and post the modifications for the conversion to a cape.  I'm thinking about doing an I-cord cast on for the neck, and I-cord edges, just to give it a little something special.  If you're interested in joining, I started a discussion thread here, and The Unique Sheep sells kits here.  We won't be starting until after the Once and Future King MKAL is done, so probably sometime around the Labor Day Weekend.

Pattern:  Andromeda Shawl by Janine le Cras (converted into a cape)
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Verve in Magic Mirror
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

A Taste of Things to Come

Now that I am almost caught up with my backlog of crochet blocks, here are a few things waiting in the wings.  First up, of course, is the March 2013 Crochet Block, Ferris Wheel by Donna Kay Lacey. The yarn is Verve in Earth and Coal.  Check out that cute little spinning wheel stitch marker!  I rarely use stitch markers, and when I do they are pretty plain, but I have a whole tin (not an Altoids tin, but a Newman's Own Cinnamon Mints Tin) full of pretty stitch markers that I have received as part of kits and clubs.  One of these days I am going to make some jewelry out of them.  I'm thinking a chain-mail necklace.  I've always wanted to try chain-mail jewelry and even have a kit I picked up a couple of years ago at Bead & Button.

Yesterday I received two packages from The Unique Sheep, which went a long way towards making up for the rough week that I had.

This is the first shipment from the new Gourmet club.  The yarn is Back to Basics 2, a worsted weight Merino that I have never tried before, the colors are Lemon Balm and Laurel.  Along with the yarn were two cute cookies cutters, two cookie recipes and a pattern for a double knit pot holder.  I've been wanting to try double knitting and this might be just the project to get me started.  The pot holder is also supposed to be fulled, which is something else I have never done before.  And I am seriously thinking about making some cookies today...

I also received my yarn for the next Unique Sheep Knit Along - Treasure Island.

The colorway is Tranquility on Luxe, with gold lustered raspberry beads.  I will probably not be knitting along with the rest of the group because this is another circular shawl, well, actually I think it will be octagonal - pieces o' eight - get it?  But I will probably modify the shawl because I have decided that I don't really do circular shawls anymore.  Been there, done that, they are lovely to display and there is one living on my piano, but I don't really wear them.

Some time ago, when I pulled my Evenstar shawl out and placed it on my piano on permanent display

 I vowed that I would make another one to wear so I ordered a set of Eos from The Unique Sheep.

The colorway is Midnight Delight, and it is a set that is specially dyed up for the Evenstar shawl, which is why that skein on the right is fatter than the rest, that one will be the outer edge.  I still haven't completely decided on my design modification, but I am thinking about making it a circular cape, so keeping with the circular theme, but making the neck area bigger, and obviously not working it as a circular shawl - that would turn it in to a poncho, which would not do for this design.  I have seen some beautiful dresses made out of this pattern, especially this stunning one by FadenStille, but am not sure I want to tackle something quite that challenging.

You will no doubt have noticed the constant thread running through this post.  All of the yarn is from The Unique Sheep.  With furloughs looming on the horizon, my disposable income is going to being pretty sharply reduced, so I have been cutting back on the clubs as well as yarn purchases in general, but The Unique Sheep is exempt from the cuts.  Yes, I love them that much.  Zen Yarn Garden is also partly exempt.  I am sitting out the latest Fickle-Zen knit along,but I did sign up for the next Butterfly-Zen knit along.

Evenstar Shawl - Finished!

Finally!  I have finished my Evenstar Shawl.  It was quite a knitting adventure.  I will think twice about knitting lace with pure silk again.  It is lovely, but just not as easy to work with as a silk-wool blend.  We shall see how the shawl behaves once it is done blocking.  The design reminds me a bit of the rose windows in cathedrals.  A magnificent design by Susan Pandorf of Sunflower Designs.  The yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Silk Thead II in Tanzanite.

Evenstar Shawl - Update

This weekend I have been focusing on the edging for the Evenstar Shawl.  I really want to get this one finished, partly because it has been a work in progress for so long, but mostly because it is such a gorgeous pattern.  Susan Pandorf has really outdone herself on this one.  It is a lot of work, but well worth the effort.

The beads I am using are blue-lavender silver-lined matte iridescent (Beadcats stock no. 2-08-707-76).  Selecting a bead color to go with the yarn was quite a challenge.  In the end I went for subtle rather than flashy.  Carol (one of the Beadcats) helped me pick them out while I was at the Bead & Button show this year.  I am almost one-quarter of the way around the shawl.  The edging pattern is pretty easy.  I did make a couple of modifications.  I left off the fifth row of beads (at the very edge), I slip the first stitch of every right side row (makes the edge neater) and on the second half of the repeat (the decrease rows) I switched the knit 2 together decreases to slip-slip-knit decreases so the line of the decreases points towards the shawl while the line of the increases points away from the shawl.

Evenstar Shawl - Clue 6 - Done!

Well, I finally finished clue 6.  After clue 5, this one was pretty easy.  Now I just have to do the border and then the shawl will be done.  I used not quite 1 skein of my Blue Moon Fiber Arts Silk Thread II on the shawl.  I am starting the border with the second skein so I won't run out part way through.

Evenstar Shawl - Clue 5 - Done!

I finally finished up Clue 5.  No more twisted stitches.  Easy knitting now.  This shawl has been a bit tedious to knit.  I think that is partly because of the yarn.  Pure silk, while fun to fondle, is not as fun to knit as a silk/merino blend.  The yarn doesn't stretch, it just doesn't feel as alive as a wool.  The twisted stitches have also been a bit tiresome.  You have to remember which ones are twisted and which ones aren't and they are just more awkward to knit.  But the results are quite stunning.  Forgive the pink background.  I am at my parents' house and don't have any blocking mats with me.  I am on vacation!  My annual trip to Milwaukee for the Bead & Button show.  Tomorrow I hit the road again.  Five days of fun and hard work with my sister in the Beadcats booth, and then I head home again.

Evenstar Shawl - Clue 4 - Done!

I finally finished Clue 4.  It has been pretty slow going.  Lots of stitches, and 6 repeats of the 4 row pattern.  On the first row I actually counted the stitches on each repeat as I knit them.  Once I had the pattern established it was pretty easy.  The only challenge was that the row was long enough and the row patterns similar enough that I occasionally forgot which one I was doing, even with the chart sitting next to me.

Evenstar Shawl - Clue 3

I finally finished up Clue 3, thanks to getting my works in progress back under some semblance of control.  Of course, clue 6 is coming out on Friday...but I'll get caught up, eventually.

Evenstar Shawl II - Frogged

Well, this past week I decided to frog (rip out) the Evenstar Shawl that I was knitting in the Eos.  I am still working on the one that I am knitting in the Silk.  So now I have almost 1900 yards of wonderful lace yarn to make into another spectacular circular shawl, and there are several that I am contemplating.  There were two primary reasons that I decided to do this, one was just to get my works in progress under control, and the other was that the redesign just wasn't going where I wanted it to.  Sometimes you just can't get there from here.

Evenstar Shawl II - Clue 2

I also finished up clue 2 for my other Evenstar Shawl.  I added the four extra stitches to the chart repeat at the end of chart 1, so now the motif from chart 2 lines up perfectly.  Adding the stitches did shift where in the chart my round began by 5 stitches, so I drew a line on the chart to mark it.  I find the number of stitches that I shifted somewhat curious, as when we begin chart 4 we are instructed to shift the marker by 10 stitches, but in the other direction...

Evenstar Shawl - Clue 2

I finished up clue 2 of the Evenstar Shawl last night.  This one is being knit according to the pattern.  I also figured out how to make the clue 2 motif line up with the clue 1 motif.  It was stupidly simple when I saw it, but I don't think I would have without knitting the clue.  The basic problem is that clue 1 is a motif over 16 stitches and clue 2 is a motif over 20 stitches.  All I have to do is add 4 stitches to each repeat of clue 1 before I do the main increase row (where I double the stitches) and everything should work out.  I am going to rip back on my first shawl and try it tonight.  Modifying the pattern is just not working out the way I would like it, the motif is fairly complex and I can't get it to work out across the number of stitches that I have to work with.

Evenstar Mystery Shawl - Clue 1

I finished up clue 1 last night of my second Evenstar Mystery Shawl.  I'm glad to be done with this clue as it has some fidgety stitches - increasing 4 stitches in a decrease of 3 stitches and knitting 4 stitches together, to be specific.  Not easy with silk that doesn't stretch.  But I made it through and only dropped one stitch on one of the knit 4 together stitches, and I spotted it before it unraveled completely so I was able to pick up the dropped stitch and fix everything when I came around again.  My other issue right now is knitting needles.  I don't have enough.  I now have 4 lace shawls going at the same time and they all use size 3 needles.  I have been using the Addi Turbo Lace needles, which have a brass finish and pointy tips.  In desperation this morning I pulled out a set of KnitPicks size 3 circular needles (32 inches long).  KnitPicks needles have pointier tips than typical knitting needles.  They are as pointy as the Addi Lace, but the tip isn't quite as long.  They also have a nickle finish.  The cord is a bit stiffer than the Addi cord, but not excessively so (like the Susan Bates circulars).  I was pleased to discover that the silk actually slides easier on the nickle than on the brass.