Kaya Tee - Cast On & Chart A Done!

What?  Casting on another project?  I am supposed to be reducing the number of projects I have on the needles, not increasing them!  But, yes, I did cast on another project this past weekend.  Since I retired I have been working on two things (among many others), finishing up (or frogging) unfinished objects, and knitting from stash.  Being an engineer, and also not a fan of expending energy making decisions that ultimately don’t really matter, I simply grabbed the first box of fingering weight yarn in my stash and opened it up, determined to knit everything in there.  At one point I had gone through my voluminous stash and sorted and cataloged (on Ravelry) and boxed everything that I had (at that time).  I sorted by fiber weight, and then alphabetically by fiber manufacturer/maker, so this box (F1) has yarns that start with the letter A.  My Lightning Thief shawl was knit with yarn that came from this box, and so is this project.  In fact it is the exact same yarn brand - Araucania Huasca.

I also bought this yarn from Earth Faire as a kit 10 years ago, and according to my Ravelry stash page it was supposed to become a Vestland Shawl, but when I went and looked at that pattern my response was “meh”, maybe not.  I have lots and lots of shawls, so how about a tee?  A quick Ravelry search led me to the Kaya Tee by Megumi Shinagawa.  Two colors, and some pretty lace, to which I can add the beads that came with the yarn.  Yesterday I pulled the pattern in to knitCompanion, grabbed my leftover yarn from my Lightning Thief shawl, and knit up a gauge swatch.  The pattern calls for US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 6 (4.0 mm) needles, with the gauge given for stockinette on the US 6.  I knit my swatch with US 4, US 5, and US 6 needles, matched the US 6 gauge and, more importantly, like the fabric.

I caked up my two skeins (a lovely blue and lavender) and cast on.  It took me two tries to get the join looking neat because you actually knit one row after the cast on before joining in the round, but paying careful attention to the tension at the join was all it took.  Setting up the charts in knitCompanion was a little problematic as they were obviously not made using charting software as the columns were not a consistent width.  I briefly considered recharting them (I have charting software on my laptop computer as well as my iPad), but decided that I could work with what I had and it just wasn’t worth the effort.  I am delighted with how it is looking so far.  As preparation for taking the photo I put some Barber cord on the needles and stretched it out, and then popped it over my head and turned to my husband with a big smile and said “there!”.  Unfortunately he had just taken a sip of coffee and he started to laugh at the little collar over my t-shirt, which resulted in coffee up the nose, which got me laughing, and apologizing.

So why did I cast on, when I just picked up an unfinished object (the Taliesin Socks)?  Because working on socks for too long (and I will, just as I will crochet for too long) will cause muscle strains in my hands and forearms, plus the pointy needles poking my fingers (because I like pointy needles for working socks) make my fingers sore, and switching what I’m working on is the best way to avoid that.

Pattern:  Kaya Tee by Megumi Shinagawa

Yarn:  Araucania Yarns Huasca Multy Botany Lace

Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm) and US 6 (4.0 mm)

Taliesin Socks - Cast On!

Actually I cast on these socks over a year ago (best guess - November of 2023), knit 9 rows of the ribbing and then just sort of forgot about them.  I discovered them when I was setting up my project box for Tessellation Nation.  The project was hiding in a Harris Tweed project bag that I had purchased from The Woolly Thistle.  When I had stashed it in the project bag I had failed to stash the yarn label with the yarn, so the first thing I did was hunt that down.  I have a large zip lock bag that has the Janel Laidman patterns along with yarn and that is where I found the yarn label, although I did go down a rabbit hole because there was a yarn label that had Taliesin Sock on it.  That yarn was used for the Damselfly Socks.  This yarn is Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in the Flashdance colorway.  The original skein was a total loss due to evil bugs, so it was pitched.  Fortunately I was able to procure another one.  The yarn does not match what is in the photo, but some sleuthing on Ravelry (looking at project pages for the pattern) allowed me to make the match.

I did not work the Latvian braid as she called for in the pattern (and in the video link she provided), with a second strand of yarn.  I worked a Latvian braid the way I learned how, where you make a stitch, put it back on the left hand needle, then knit into the back of the second stitch, and the front of the first stitch and drop them both off the left hand needle.  Then you transfer the first stitch on the right hand needle to the left hand needle as if to knit and repeat.  A video by Romi showed me how to join when I got to the end of the round.  You do end up with an extra stitch, so I did a decrease at the beginning of my second needle (I work on two circulars).  I also changed out the beads as I wasn’t crazy about the ones that were provided with the pattern.  Fortunately I have an excellent bead stash.

Pattern:  Taliesin Sock by Janel Laidman

Yarn:  Madelinetosh Tosh Sock

Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm0

Lightning Thief - Finished!

As is typical for me, once I get to a certain point in a project I focus on it until it is finished.  So last week I focused on finishing up Lightning Thief, working the rest of Chart B, and the bind off.  The bind off was a bit of a slog.  Not hard, per se, once I saw the pattern and got into the rhythm, but it still required focus, and time.

Blocking also took time (an hour), as every one of those picots had to be pinned out.  To do it I put three fingers of each hand into the loops (like a cat scratching) and pulled to stretch out the knitting, then I switched my left hand to the first three loops while I pinned with my right hand, being careful to pin into the picot.  Once they were pinned I repeated for the second three loops.  Once all the picots were pinned out I could then do the fine adjustments to get them all laying neatly, make sure my pin was solidly in the picot, and make sure things lined up neatly.

I did make one modification to the pattern, adding a bead on row 40 over the CDD so that the line of beads terminated neatly.

Pattern:  Lightning Thief by Lily Go

Yarn:  Araucanian Yarns Huasca Multy Botany Lace

 Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Tessellation Nation - First Five Petal Flower Inset

I’ve also been making good progress on my Tessellation Nation since my redesign effort.  I’ve made my first five petal flower and set it in, and started on the bottom right hand corner, which has a new frame color - purple!  The outlines for two Mandalas are emerging.  I also ripped out the stars that I had done and redid them, as I didn’t like the center construction on them.  The pattern has you do a round of single crochets (14 plus a slip stitch join, for 15 stitches) and then a round of 30 half-double crochets, two per single crochet, which was just unwieldy.  First I tried working twenty triple crochets in 5 sets of four with a chain between each set, and that fit, but I wasn’t crazy about the look.  I pondered the problem on our daily walk and when I came back I checked to see if the first two rounds of the pentagon 1 would work, and it did.  So now that is how I work my stars.  I did change the beginning of round 2 so I start with chain three and a double crochet into the same stitch.  That way when I finish the round I am ready to work into the chain space for the first join and the first star point.  I work a single crochet into the chain space, join and then work another single crochet into the chain space before working the star point.  I always use a magic ring for my centers, which allows me to cinch up the piece to fit the space nicely.

Pattern:  Tessellation Nation by Sue Maton 

Yarn:  Scheepjes Terrazzo

Hook:  3.75 mm (F), 3.5 mm (E)

Spinning Report - Skein 14

After finishing up those beautiful dyed tops that I had bought, I went back to the undyed Heinz 57 top and also dropped down to a smaller whorl (I had been working on my 12:1 ratio whorl, but have now switched to my 16:1 whorl).  Still working short forward draft, and trying to spin as thin and consistent a single as I could.  Here is the first bobbin.

It was not a fast spin, and the single on my second bobbin was definitely thinner than the first, as I had a fair bit left over (for me) even though the weight of the singles on each bobbin was comparable, and my final skein was only 68 grams (I usually shoot for about 80 grams).

I also put my smaller whorl on my Kiwi for plying (15:1).  I had a few issues with the plying - I did have a break on my first bobbin, but was able to rejoin it into the plied yarn okay (a better join than I’ve typically been able to do), but I also had some resistance from the wheel - so I decided it needed a drop of oil.  Unfortunately the oil bottle that came with my Kromski was 10 years old, and the plastic was the old plastic that grows brittle with age (and with exposure to oil, I suspect) and the bottle cracked when I squeezed it.  I thought that I had only gotten oil on my hands, but apparently I had also gotten oil on my drive wheel and more importantly on my drive band, but I didn’t realize that at the time.  No, I kept plying, and wondering where the strange noise was coming from, and why it wasn’t treadling as easily as it should.  I managed to finish the plying, and only after the skein was soaking did I take a look at the wheel and figure out all that had happened.  I cleaned everything up and wiped everything down, and treadled it for a few minutes, and it should be fine now.  Fortunately I had bought a new maintenance kit for my Kromski and it came with a new bottle of oil in a plastic bottle that is the better plastic.  I saved the old oil in a sealed container, and the application tip, which is really long.

I dyed the skein in Wool Tincture Dyes, in the color Deep Water.  It is a very uniform dye job, which made me happy, but that is probably because the dye packs and the jar is geared for a 100 gram skein, and mine was only 68, so it had plenty of room.  The yarn came out at a sport weight, although there are stretches that are thinner and some that are thicker.  Even with the challenges, I am happy with the result.

Skein 14:  240 yards, 68.1 grams or 3.5 yards/gram

Lightning Thief - Part B, Chart 1 Done!

Last night I finished up the lace part of the first Part B chart (all those beads!) and this morning I finished up the four knit rows that separate the first Part B chart from the second Part B chart.  Still more beads!  But these are the larger size 6 beads, not the smaller size 8, which will be easier to work with.  I am excited about finishing this shawl, I looked at some of the finished projects on Ravelry and it is really beautiful.

Pattern:  Lightning Thief by Lily Go

Yarn:  Araucania Yarns Huasco Multy Botany Lace

Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Lightning Thief - Part A Done!

Last night I finished up Part A of the Lightning Thief for the large size.  This morning I weighed my yarn and did the math to see if I could make the extra-large size (the designer conveniently included charts with row by row stitch counts for all of the sizes), but alas I do not have enough yarn to do that, so it is on to Part B.

Pattern:  Lightning Thief by Lily Go

Yarn:  Araucania Yarns Huasco Multy Botany Lace

US 5 (3.75 mm)