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)