Multivalence - Finished!

I finished this up back on December 20, but needed to get a good picture (or at least one with a kitty in it).  The final clue did take a while to complete, all those double crochets!  But it was easy to memorize.  Blocking wasn’t too hard.  I pinned a tape measure in the center and used that to try to make sure that I pulled evenly all the way around.

I pinned in the vertices from clue 11 as I did not want to distort the loops in clue 12, and I pinned every vertex at the base of each of the 106 loops.

It is hard to get a picture that does it justice.

Pattern:  Multivalence by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Hook:  3.5 mm (E)

Multivalence - Clue 11 Done!

Once I finished up Advertence, I turned my attention back to Multivalence.  I had started clue 11, working through the first 2 rounds before setting it aside again for other projects.  I finished up clue 11 Sunday night.  I actually started working clue 12 using the same yarn color, working the first round, and then decided to switch colors for the final round, but discovered an error I had made in the first row of clue 12 when I was about three quarters of the way through the final round.  When I ripped back to fix that error I discovered that I had made an error earlier in the pattern as that first round no longer ended correctly.  I did some checking and discovered an error I had made in the final round of clue 11, that my error in the first round of clue 12 masked.  So I ripped back and fixed that and decided to do all of clue 12 in the same color.  I also modified the way that I’m working the first round of clue 12, which I like better, I don’t think I was doing the loop in the first round correctly.  So, all in all, it was a good thing that I had to rip back.

Here is a close up of clue 11 that shows the stitch pattern a bit better.

Pattern:  Multivalence by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Hook:  3.5 mm (E)

Multivalence - Clue 10 Done!

Over the long weekend I decided to focus on Advertence and Multivalence, finishing up Clue 10 on both.  I had decided on the color a while back, using the rest of the skein from my original Zodiac Hues set, as well as almost all of the skein from the second set that I bought.  The yarn amount was just about perfect, a few grams left.  I’ve already started Clue 11, with the purple.  Finally, the purple.  I’ve been saving the purple.

Pattern:  Multivalence by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Hook:  3.5 mm (E)

 

Iris Hues Lampy - Finished!

I finished this up last weekend.  I like how it came out, but am still contemplating if I want to add an I-cord edging all the way around, just to polish it up a little.

The original pattern calls for an I-cord tie, but I don’t really need that to keep it on, given the pattern modifications that I made.

I only knit one repeat of the Speckles section (the slipped stitches between the garter sections) so I would have enough yarn to work four repeats of the colors.  On the second half I reversed the color order and also the short row shaping.

Pattern:  Lampy by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Multivalence - Clue 9 Done!

I finally worked clue 9 on my Multivalence (clue 10 has already come out).  Besides the sock detour that has derailed my other WIPs the biggest delay on this clue was just deciding on the colors.  While I was pondering I ordered another set of Zodiac Hues to give me more options.  The first round was all just double crochets and I put markers every 50 to keep track of the count.  Fortunately my count has been matching the pattern.  The second round are popcorns, which actually went reasonable fast.  The third round filled in the gaps between the popcorns with more double crochets.  While I was working that round I found a popcorn that I hadn’t finished off properly, so it was just four double crochets in the same stitch, but I just used the single crochet before and after the popcorn to pull it into the proper shape.  When I was working the fourth round I found an extra double crochet between two popcorns, but I just ignored it.  I was not going to rip back and fix it.  As you can see, Jezebel approves.

Pattern:  Multivalence by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Hook:  3.5 mm (E)

Iris Hues Lampy - Twelve Sections Done!

I am three-quarters of the way done, and am very happy with how this is working out.  I think it is going to be a complete circle, or pretty close to one

Still no decision on how I’m going to work the finishing, but I love everything about it, the colors, the texture, the feel, the drape.  It is really just lovely.

Pattern:  Lampy by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)
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Iris Hues Lampy - Ten Sections Done!

Thanks to a couple of days in the office reviewing a document I finished up two more sections on my Lampy, one on Thursday and one on Friday.  I have also started the second half, so I am reversing the colors, as well as the short row shaping.  I am very happy with my yellow Speckles section between the two grays, and the size is looking perfect.

Pattern:  Lampy by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

 

Iris Hues Lampy - Half Way There!

I reached the half-way point last week.  I will reverse the short row shaping at this point.  For the first half you work short rows starting at the bottom of the wedge, knitting to the wrapped stitch and then knitting four more stitches before wrapping and turning.  On the second half I’ll knit almost to the end of the row - to the last four stitches - and then work progressively shorter rows, making sure I have three stitches between the wrapped stitches.  I’m happy with how things are turning out.  The fabric is nice, and I think the size is going to be perfect.

Pattern:  Lampy by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

 

Iris Hues Lampy - Six Wedges Done!

I am still making steady progress on my Lampy.  The knitting is fun and easy, and I love the colors.  I’m almost done with the seventh wedge.  I love the sheen of the Luster Sport, and it has a nice drape, even though I am keeping my knitting fairly tight.  I am toying with working a crochet edging on the bottom, but using contrasting colors, just for fun, but we will see how much yarn I have left over after working the shawl.

Pattern:  Lampy by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Iris Hues Lampy - Five Wedges Done!

So this is a super fun easy pattern and I really love the colors.  I wasn’t too sure about that darkest color, but I think it all works.  Those folks at Expression Fiber Arts are pretty color savvy!  The wedges work up quickly and are TV and book knitting, which is great, as this is the project that I take to work for meetings, training, and reading documents.  I think the size will be good, not too big (some of the shawls these days are ginormous!), not too small.

Pattern:  Lampy by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Iris Hues Lampy - Three Wedges Done!

I had finished up the second wedge and was working the transition to the third color when I decided to check my yarn usage and make some decisions about how I was going to proceed with the shawl.  I quickly realized that if I worked all of the rows called for in the Speckles section that I would have enough yarn to work three wedges of each color, but not four, and three wedges does not really lend itself to symmetry.  So, I ripped right back to the first Speckles section and decided to work only one repeat of the eight rows, instead of the called for three repeats.  By reducing the number of rows in the Speckles section I brought the yarn usage down to about 24 grams for each wedge plus color transition, so now I can easily work four sets of wedges.  I will continue working in this color order for the first two sets of wedges, then I will work a Speckles section with the yellow, just for a nice pop of color, and reverse the colors for the second half.  I will also reverse the short row shaping so everything will be symmetric.  Once I get done with all of the wedges I will decide how I want to go about finishing the shawl.  I may still work the I-cord tie, but if I do I will pick up stitches along the entire neck edge, instead of just attaching it at the start and finish.  And maybe I’ll do a little crochet border on the bottom.  We’ll see.

Pattern:  Lampy by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Iris Hues Lampy - Two Wedges Done!

I have now started this shawl three times.  The first time I did not read the instructions carefully and actually ended up swapping the right and wrong sides, as seen in the picture below.

The second time I ended up changing my tension partway through the first wedge, which was noticeable (as can be seen in the photo below), and the more I worked, the more I noticed, and the more I preferred the tighter gauge.

So, I ripped it all out again and started over one more time, and I’m much happier with the result.  I also decided to do the wrap and turn short rows instead of the German Short Rows as I noticed an interesting artifact of the double stitch where it actually interrupted the garter stitch pattern.  The wrap and turns are barely noticeable and I thought they gave a nicer edge.  I also decided to slip the first stitch of every row purl wise with the yarn in front, and then take the yarn to the back between the first and second stitches.  This is a trick I learned on my Winter Wonderland shawl, and I love the edge it gives.  I was perplexed by the pattern switching the slipped stitch from the first stitch on the right side rows in the Wedge section to the first stitch of the wrong side rows in the Speckles section.  I do not know if it is an error, but it is certainly an inconsistency.  As I am slipping the first stitch at the beginning of all my rows it doesn’t matter to me.  When I’m working the Speckles, I take both strands to the back when I slip the first stitch, and then drop the one that I’m not working with (the Winter Wonderland trick).

Pattern:  Lampy by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Multivalence - Clues 7 and 8 Done! (And Clue 4)

I was going through my projects this past week, and making sure that I had linked all of the appropriate blog posts when I discovered that I had completely missed presenting Clue 4, and had in fact linked Clue 4 from the mystery knit along to the crochet along!

Clue 4 was completed way back on April 30!  It was a lot of double crochet, with the contrast rows of single crochet and popcorns.  The clue called for working the single crochet rows with the popcorn in colors A and B, but I didn’t want to use the two greens together so I used A and C.

Clue 7 took a while.  It wasn’t hard, there were just a lot of stitches and I had to pay attention to make sure that I had the right combination.  I haven’t been conscientious about tracking my yarn usage on each of the clues, so I did each pair of rounds in a different color.  In order to complete all eight rounds I broke into a new set of Luster Sport mini-skeins, my Chromatic Hues set.

I used the yellow for the second pair, and the green for the third pair of rounds.

Clue 8 went fairly quickly, in contrast to Clue 7, and was a lot of fun.  I used color A for the first set of yellow swirls, and the yellow I used in Clue 7 for the second set.  I might have had enough of Color A to complete both sets of yellow swirls, but I didn’t want to play yarn chicken and lose.  I had enough of the blue to do all of the blue swirls, but not enough to do the final round of single crochets.  I actually tried that and lost at yarn chicken with about a foot of circumference to go.  So I ripped out the round, and broke out the other blue in my Zodiac Hues set and worked it in that.  I thought about just finishing the round with the second blue skein, but didn’t want to risk a difference in color in that last 12 inches.  

I have now used 10 of the 12 colors in my Zodiac Hues set, just the two purple skeins remain.  We’ll see what the remaining 4 clues bring.  If I had known the color usage in the full pattern from the start I might have made different choices, but I am really enjoying the mystery and the creativity it is invoking because of the impact of the choices that I have made on previous clues on my choices for the later clues.  The only thing that I do to inform my decisions is wait until someone else has posted a picture of the completed clue so I can see what the design is doing before I make my next color choices.  I am loving my colors, every time I look at my project it makes me smile.

Pattern:  Multivalence by Janica York Carter

Yarn: Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Hook:  3.5 mm (E)

Iris Hues Lampy - One Wedge Done!

Expression Fiber Arts has a pretty good business model, beautiful yarn sets with exclusive matching patterns.  This is one of those.  The yarn is Luster Sport, 50% Superwash Merino, 50% Lycocell.  The set is called Iris Hues.

I cast this on last week so that I would have an easy project for my work bag.  I’m working German short rows instead of wrap and turn for the short rows.

Pattern:  Lampy by Janica York Carter

Yarn: Expression Fiber Arts Luster Sport

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Multivalence - Clue 6 Done

Clue 6 took a couple of tries to get started as well.  The first go I used the dark blue that I had originally caked up for clue 5, but didn’t like it against the orange-yellow that I used for clue 5, so I switched for a green-blue (almost teal) instead.  The next challenge was getting the puffs to work easily.  You have to pull up enough loop so that you can pull the final loop through all eleven loops you have hanging out on your crochet hook.  Once I got the hang of it though it went pretty quickly.

Pattern:  Multivalence by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Hook:  3.5 mm (E)

Multivalence - Clue 5 Done

I’m not sure why I waited so long to work Clue 5. I think when I saw it worked up it looked a little complicated, and there was a fair bit of chatter on Ravelry - to the point that one member actually drew up the chart and posted it.  I saved all of that off in case I needed it, but in the end I didn’t need any of it.  I will confess that it took me a couple of tries to get this clue started.  On the first go I didn’t like the color I had picked (a dark blue), and on the second go I did not read the instructions for the first round completely through and made sure that I really understood what I was supposed to do and charged ahead with something that looked fine, but didn’t work when I got to the end of the round, so I had to tear it all out and begin again, but the third time went smoothly and the rest of the rounds were easy.  I always leave the old color still attached when I start the next clue just in case I find a mistake as I’m working the first round, and I’m glad I did because I did find a missing single crochet when I was working the first round of clue 6.  I thought about just leaving it - I wasn’t working into that stitch, but it meant that there was one less single crochet in that space and even if no one else would have noticed it I knew that it was there.  So, I paused on the first round of clue 6 and ripped back the last row of clue 5 to the mistake and reworked it.  Fortunately the mistake was about two thirds of the way through the round, so I didn’t have to rip that much and it didn’t take me that long to fix.

Pattern:  Multivalence by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiberarts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Hook:  3.5 mm (E)

Multivalence - Clue 3 Done

I finished up clue 3 of Advertence back on March 27.  Picking the color for this clue was a little bit of a challenge. I thought about continuing with the progression as packed, but in the end decided to go with the red that had the same saturation as the green.  Clue 4 is supposed to drop this coming week.

Pattern:  Multivalence by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport in Zodiac Hues

Hook:  3.5 mm (E)

Multivalence - Clue 2 Done

I finished up clue 2 last night.  I did not cut my first color until after I had worked the second clue.  I was glad that I hadn’t when I was working the first round of the second clue and discovered a mistake in the last round of the first clue, so I was easily able to rip back and fix that before moving on.  I did cut the first color today after taking the photo.  I will leave the second color attached until I work clue 3.  I am really enjoying crocheting with the Luster Sport, and the colors I have are gorgeous.

Pattern:  Multivalence by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport in Zodiac Hues

Hook:  3.5 mm (E)

Multivalence - Clue 1 Done

The Expression Fiber Arts 2023 Mystery Crochet Along started last Tuesday.  I had bought the first recommended color in Mirage Sport, which is the same base as is being used for the year long mystery knit along, but once I started crocheting with it I decided I didn’t want to use it and pulled out my Zodiac Hues set in Luster Sport.  As with Advertence I went down on the hook size.

Pattern:  Multivalence by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Hook:  3.5 mm (E)

 

Duha - Finished!

I actually finished this up almost a month ago, on November 28, over the Thanksgiving week holiday (I took the entire week off from work), then I almost forgot to post a picture in the forum thread in time for the final drawing.

Pattern:  Duha by Janica York Carter

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Hook:  US H-8 (5 mm)