Wind in the Willows - Finished!

Now that the final clue has gone out for The Wind of the Willows I can finally reveal my finished shawl.  I added an extra chart that extended clue 7 and used up all but 4 grams of my yarn.

This is where the end of clue 7 left me.

I completed the diamond and added a modified tulip to create my extra chart.

Blocking was a bit of a challenge until I figured out what was going on.

No matter what I did the front edge of the shawl just did not want to close up.  Finally I figured it out - the increases occur at periodic intervals (every so many rows) instead of continuously (every other row).  The Treasure Island shawl was essentially 8 triangles, with continuous increases.  This shawl is constructed using Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi Shawl formula, so periodically you double your stitch count.  If you do this in the context of a circular shawl the shawl is constrained to remain a circle, even though you have these periodic doubling of stitches.  When I turned it into a cape I removed that constraint and ended up with this onion dome opening at the front.

When worn it hangs well, however.

I like the way that one increase round falls on the shoulders.


Project:  Wind in the Willows by Janine le Cras variations by Carolyn Blakelock
Yarn:  Sunglow on Selene by the Unique Sheep
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Wind in the Willows - Clue 6

I finished up this clue on June 15.  It is amazing how quickly you can finish something if you're a monogamous knitter, which I seem to have become.  I am actually almost finished with the shawl, and I even added an extra chart.

I'll finish it up tonight and get it blocking and figure out what to knit next.


Project:  Wind in the Willows by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  Sunglow on Selene by the Unique Sheep
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Wind in the Willows - Clues 4 and 5

I finished up Clue 4 on May 26, but couldn't post about it until the clue came out to the complete group, and that happened while I was at Bead & Button, so no blogging.  It was a straight forward piece of knitting, but the first time that beads were called for.

Then came the challenge of the final increase.  I agonized over this one for quite a while, trying to make sure that I did not screw up the symmetry of the design.  I actually graphed out the transition from clue 4 to clue 5 with the increases just to make sure it was correct.  As far as I can tell it is.

Project:  Wind in the Willows by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  Sunglow on Selene by the Unique Sheep
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Wind in the Willows - Clue 3

I finished this up a week ago - the advantage of getting the entire pattern so I could make the modifications for the group.  This one was easy to modify, I just added 3 extra purl stitches at the end to make the pattern symmetric.  Here is a close up to show how the two clues line up.

I have finished the chart modifications for all of the clues and am almost done with clue 5.  Making sure that things line up correctly has been one of the biggest challenges - along with modifying the written directions correctly - especially between charts 4 and 5.

Project:  Wind in the Willows by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  Sunglow on Selene by the Unique Sheep
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Wind in the Willows - Clue 2

I can finally show my shawl.  I finished this up last Sunday but couldn't post about it until today.  As I stated in my previous post, I skipped clue 1 and started with clue 2 so I would have a larger neck opening.  This meant that I had to do a long garter stitch tab - 162 rows - and picked up 81 stitches along the side and 3 stitches along the bottom. I also added extra rows between the lace motifs to avoid working lace stitches on wrong side rows.

I also worked clue 2 on my 3/4 shawl clue 1 test knit.  I realized as I was looking at the later clues that I needed to work more stitches for the 3/4 shawl version and I wanted to test out the increase row that I had worked out.

I still think the 3/4 shawl would look better if clue 1 were left out.  To do that all you do is a garter stitch tab with 146 rows, picking up 73 stitches along the side and three along the bottom.

Project:  Wind in the Willows by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  Sunglow on Selene by the Unique Sheep
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Wind in the Willows - Clue 1

The latest Unique Sheep Mystery Knit Along started last Friday (May 16).  For this one I picked Sunglow on Selene and Ellen of Earthfaire picked out the silver-lined yellow beads.  She picks out the beads if you select the bead option when you sign up for the club and she has an excellent color sense.  I used Selene on Watership Down and really like it.  This is a circular shawl, and you know how I feel about those, so of course I am making mine as a cape.  There was enough interest in the group that I am writing up the modifications and making modified charts for a half-circle, a three-quarter circle and a full-circle cape.  Laura was kind enough to send me the complete pattern to help me with my modifications and I'm sending her my modifications so they can get included in the pattern.  Pretty cool, huh.

Seeing as how I am now a moderator in the group, I dutifully did my gauge swatch.  I hardly ever do those for lace projects, but I felt that I needed to set a good example for the group.

If the picture looks like it is upside down, it is.  I had to shoot it upside down and then flip it.  My gauge is spot on.

Of course, when the first clue came out I was super excited to get going and didn't really look at the complete pattern as carefully as I should have.  The first clue is always an easy one - once you get past the circular start.  I did one of those on Evenstar with pure silk, no less, so I don't feel I have anything to prove at this point and happily avoid them.  I did clue 1 for all three variations so that folks could see what they looked like.

I started out with the half-circle as this required the fewest changes from the original pattern.  The first chart has 10 stitches and is worked four times around the shawl.  So, says I to myself, I need to work it twice, therefore I need 20 stitches when I get to that point.  The thing that I didn't take into account was the way a circular shawl works.  You see, there is a knit stitch between each repeat of the lace pattern and I didn't put that in at the beginning of the chart to make the pattern symmetric when worked flat as opposed to worked in the round.

I started out with a garter stitch tab, casting on 3 stitches and working 10 rows and picking up 5 stitches along the side and 3 on the bottom, ending up with 3 edge stitches, 5 body stitches, and 3 edge stitches.  I then worked the initial rows.

Row 1 - k3, p5, k3
Row 2 - knit
Row 3 - k3, p5, k3
Row 4 - k3, (yo,K1) 5 times, end k3 (16 sts)
Work 3 rows in stockinette stitch
Row 5 - k3, p10, k3
Row 6 - knit
Row 7 - k3, p10, k3
Row 8 - k3, (K1, yo) 10 times, end k3 to end (26 sts)
Row 9 - k3, p20, k3

Once I got to my 20 stitches, I worked Chart 1, two times around the shawl, purling the wrong side rows and keeping the 3 edge stitches on each edge in garter stitch.

After working the chart I worked the increase round:
k3, (K1, yo) 20 times, end k3 (46 sts)
K3, p40, k3

What I should have done is this:
On Row 8: k3, yo, (K1, yo) 10 times, end k3 to end (27 sts)
Row 9 - k3, p21, k3

And then add an extra knit stitch before that pattern repeat.  I didn't knit that one up, and honestly, at this point in the game you can't really notice the difference.  It does matter for Clue 2, however.  But the fix is an easy one, just a simple modification to the increase round:
k3, yo, (K1, yo) 20 times, end k3 (47 sts)
K3, p41, k3
sets things up for Clue 2.

For the three-quarter shawl I started with a garter stitch tab and skipped all of those early increase rounds, working a 60 row garter stitch tab and picking up 30 stitches along the edge and 3 along the bottom.  But wait, don't I want 31?  Yes, I really want 31, but again it doesn't matter, because you can get the extra stitch when you do the increase round.  I worked 3 repeats of the pattern.

Now the problem with this is the size of the neck opening, kind of small.
The original increase round that I worked is:
k3, (K1, yo) 30 times, end k3 to end (66 sts)
K3, p60, k3
When I really wanted to work:
k3, yo, (K1, yo) 30 times, end k3 to end (67 sts)
K3, p61, k3

But in reality, both of those turned out to be wrong when I looked at Clue 2.   That explanation will have to wait until Clue 2 comes out tomorrow.

I also worked the full-circle cape for clue 1.  This time I did 80 rows of garter stitch, picked up 40 stitches along the side and 3 stitches along the bottom.  And yes, I really wanted to work 82 rows of garter stitch and pick up 41 stitches along the side and 3 along the bottom.  But again, it doesn't really matter, it is a simple matter to fix it on the increase row before starting Clue 2.

In my haste to finish, I actually forgot to do the increase row on this one.  But once again, you can see how small the neck opening is, so I decided to skip Clue 1 entirely and start with Clue 2.

Of course all of these lessons learned have been incorporated into the instructions that I put together.

You may also notice that none of these use the yarn I bought for the project.  They are all leftovers from other shawls.

Project:  Wind in the Willows by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  Sunglow on Selene by the Unique Sheep
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Watership Down - Finished

I finished up the knitting Saturday evening, and blocked it Sunday morning and took this picture before unpinning it.  I finished up Clue 7 two weeks ago, but didn't feel like pinning it out to get a photo of it.  To start clue 8 you have to pick up the slipped stitches on the edge of clue 7 and knit into the front and back of each one.  I did the picking up first, slipping each slipped stitch (both legs) onto a knitting needle in the proper orientation.  As you can imagine, this took a little while.  Then I knit into the front and back of each stitch.  This took me two evenings.  Clue 8 went reasonably quickly, for a Never-Ending-Border.  I used my Knit Companion app on my iPad for both clues.  It is really great when you have to repeat the same chart multiple times.

Here is a beauty shot on my dress maker dummy and a close up of the beads in the border.

This shawl design has lots of possibilities for playing with color because of the two knit on edges.  The body of mine took 44 grams of yarn, the first border took 36 grams and the second border took 28 grams.


Project:  Watership Down by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Selene in Insecta
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Watership Down - Clue 7 - Half way done

I spent most of yesterday working on my Watership Down mystery shawl and managed to get through half of Clue 7.  Clue 8, the final clue, came out this past Friday and one of the test knitters has posted a picture of her shawl on the spoiler thread, so it is no longer a mystery.  Clue 8 is another knitted on border, so after I finish this one, I get to pick up all of the slipped stitches on this border and then knit into the front and back of each one and do another border using skein 4 (on the left).

That will get me more into the browns.  This is an interesting shawl design and you could have a lot of fun playing with colors.

I have been using Knit Companion on my iPad while knitting the border (I also used Knit Companion while knitting my Open Eye Tunic).  I have found that the app is very useful if you are repeating a chart multiple times.  If you use the smart counter you can even set the number of repeats that you are supposed to do and it will keep track of them for you, which makes knit on borders (also know as never ending borders or NEBs) more bearable.  I did not use it when I was knitting the body of the shawl because there were three charts, and we were only going through each one once.  Plus they all fit onto a single page.

Project:  Watership Down by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Selene in Insecta
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Watership Down - Clue 6 Done

Clue 6 came out on Friday, but I didn't even start it until this morning.  I've been focusing on my Open Eye Tunic, trying to get that done.  This was a very short clue and worked up very quickly.

Project:  Watership Down by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Selene in Insecta
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Watership Down - Clue 5 Done

I finally finished up Clue 5 this afternoon.  I almost ripped the whole thing out this morning.  I was working on it yesterday when I discovered a mistake as I was working the second to last row.  I put the shawl in a time out for the rest of day.  This morning I tried lace surgery.  I thought I had found the mistake, but was mistaken, so I ended up ripping out 4 rows.  As I was working the pattern I finally discovered my mistake.  I hadn't ripped back far enough, but the mistake was a missed yarn over, which is pretty easy to fix.  So now the mistake is fixed and the clue is done.


Project:  Watership Down by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Selene in Insecta
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Watership Down - Clue 4 Done

Clue 4 of the latest Unique Sheep Mystery Knit Along, Watership Down, came out yesterday.  The last two clues have been pretty short and I easily finished them Friday night, but waited until Saturday morning so I could get a decent photo.  I can only spread out one wing at this point.  The first transition is at the start of this clue, but because I don't do transition rows anymore I delayed my skein switch until row 7 of Clue 4.  Why row 7?  If you do transition rows as recommended by The Unique Sheep the complete transition takes 12 rows, 6 of each color, consequently when a transition is called for I do 6 more rows of the current skein and then switch to the next skein during the 7th.

I've also done 5 repeats of the Eyelet Chart on the front of my Open Eye Tunics, and have several great projects lined up and waiting to be started.

Project:  Watership Down by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Selene in Insecta
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Watership Down - Clue 3 Done

Clue 3 of the latest Unique Sheep Mystery Knit Along - Watership Down - came out last night.  It was a short one and I easily finished it before I went to bed, but waited until this morning so I could get a decent shot.


Project:  Watership Down by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Selene in Insecta
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

When I came back downstairs I had to take a picture of my two cats crashed on my daybed.

Fred (on the right) has pretty much taken up residence in that spot.  Jasmine (on the left) has lots of places she likes to sleep, but has staked out the other end of the daybed.  This puts her between me and my husband (he has a leather recliner out of the shot on the left), so she can get lots of scritches.  As you can tell, the daybed is my center of operations for all things knitting and crochet.  The little project bag on the back holds my Unique Sheep Crochet Block of the Month. And the little red stack to the left of that are my iPad, a notebook and my Kindle.  There are also eye glasses and a set of crochet hooks to the left of those.  And my computer in the foreground.  Everything I need close at hand.

Watership Down - Clue 2 Done

Seeing as how it is Friday, that means that a new clue of the latest Unique Sheep Mystery Knit Along is out.  And, seeing as how it is furlough Friday (the last one, thank goodness) I was able to get it done today.

Project:  Watership Down by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Selene in Insecta
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Watership Down - Clue 1 Done

The latest Unique Sheep Mystery Knit Along started yesterday.  This is their lace weight one and is another shawl designed by Janine le Cras and inspired by a book, Watership Down, which I read ages ago.  For this one I decided to try a base I hadn't used before, Selene, which is 100% wool.  I picked a colorway that I had been eyeing for a while - Insecta.

Project:  Watership Down by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Selene in Insecta
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)