Koi Rama - Finished!

I finished this shawl up last night, but didn't block it until this morning.  All last week I worked steadily on the final chart.  Even though I cast on for the large size I only used 3/4 of my yarn, and my shawl ended up a medium.  This just goes to show you how much gauge can influence the finished size of a project.  I used the recommended needle sizes, but I did not do a gauge swatch (I rarely do for shawls).  As long as I like the resulting lace, I keep going, and don't worry that much about the gauge.  I guess the designer knits looser than I do.  I also am not a strenuous blocker.  I pull until I feel resistance, but don't stretch my yarn to within an inch of its life.

I used to be a loose knitter, but I adjusted how I hold my yarn and now I almost always get gauge for commercial patterns.  I am a thrower rather than a picker and I pass the working yarn over my index finger, under the middle finger, over the ring finger and loop it once around the pinkie.  I have found, however, that I almost never match the gauge of independent designers.  At this point I don't even bother trying.  I look at the weight of the yarn and the finished item and pick a needle size that I think is appropriate.  When I look at the specifications for the pattern and compare my needle choice with the designers I can get a sense of whether or not they are a tight or loose knitter.  If I have never knit with the yarn before I will do a gauge swatch, just to see how it knits up, but I don't fully believe the results of gauge swatches.  I use them to get me started with a pattern and make the initial adjustments that I need, but they can't tell the entire story, so I check my gauge after I have knit some portion of the garment, and then if I am happy with the fabric I fine tune my adjustments.  If I don't like the fabric, I will ravel, change the needle size and begin again.  Thankfully, lace knitting has taught me to enjoy the process of knitting, and not just the end product, so I can rip out and begin again without anger or frustration.

Pattern:  Koi Rama by Kitman Figueroa
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Tinsel Toes in Pisces
Needles:  US 8 (5.0 mm), US 6 (4.0 mm), US 4 (3.5 mm)

Koi Rama - Chart 3 Done

I finished up chart 3 last night, staying up a bit late to get through it.  It was a bit of a problematic chart.  Early on I missed one of the wrapped stitches and didn't realize it until I was working the wrong side row.  I just did the wrap then and moved on.  And while we're on the topic of wrapped stitches, may I just say that I am not a fan.  I never know how tightly to wrap the stitches, and I find the whole affair fiddly.  I did try using a cable needle, but that was more awkward than passing the stitches back and forth between the needles.  I am glad that I am done with them.  Then two wayward beads inserted themselves into the knitting when I wasn't looking.  I remember feeling them under my fingers while I was knitting, and thinking I needed to slide them down the yarn, but then I got distracted (probably by a cat), and they disappeared.  I thought about them later, and discovered them lurking on the back of the work.  I thought about leaving them there as a silent witness to my inattention, but after I finished the chart I took an awl to them and broke them off the yarn.  To do this I carefully inserted the tip of the awl into the bead being careful not to poke into the yarn, then put the tip of the awl against a cork board and gave the handle of the awl a little wack with my hand.  The beads broke easily.  That is the safest way to get them off, although glass can go flying when you break them, so putting a cloth over the set up is recommended.  I do not recommend using a pair of pliers to break beads off of yarn as this can cause the broken glass to cut into your yarn.  The awl forces the bead apart and sends the sharp edges away from your yarn.

For those keeping track, the story so far.  I started with a 200 g set of yarn from The Unique Sheep.

I started with skein 4, the one on the left.  It was a little heavier than 50 g, 52 g to be exact.  I wasn't sure how far I would get on skein 4 so I threaded 100 beads onto it.  I used size 8 beads.  I am working the large size as I want to use as much of my yarn as possible.  I always hate having leftover yarn.  The bead counts for the large size are as follows:

9 x 8 = 72 beads needed for chart 1
8 x 8 = 64 beads needed for chart 2
7 x 8 + 12 = 68 beads needed for chart 3

I ended up making it to row 3 of chart 2 with skein 4, which included 1 row of beading on chart 2, so I needed the following bead counts on skeins 4 and 3.

Thread 72 + 16 = 88 beads on skein 4
Thread 64 - 16 + 68 = 116 beads on skein 3

Or I would have, if there hadn't been an error in chart 1 - the beads were missing on row 14 and I didn't realize it until I started looking at the beads needed for charts 2 and 3.  In the end I left off the corresponding beads on charts 2 and 3, just so everything would be consistent.

Here is a close up so you can see the butterflies and the fish and the beads I used.  They are an iridescent bead with colors very similar to the colors of the yarn - I went for blending rather than contrast.

Pattern:  Koi Rama by Kitman Figueroa
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Tinsel Toes in Pisces
Needles:  US 8 (5.0 mm), US 6 (4.0 mm), US 4 (3.5 mm)

Koi Rama - Chart 2 Done

Even though I wasn't up to knitting lace this past Thursday, I did want to get the next skein prepped for Koi Rama, so I started looking at the next charts to see how many beads I would need to string.  Making notes, and counting, and recounting, and checking my math again, and I kept coming up with a total that was less than what the patten called for.  Then I was looking at the charts again and I noticed a difference between the bead placement on chart 1 and the bead placement on charts 2 and 3.  Uh Oh, I said to myself, it looks like there is an error in the bead placement on chart 1.  I went to Ravelry and checked out some photos of finished shawls.  Sure enough, there should have been beads on row 14 of chart 1, but they were missing from the pattern.  I added the missing beads to my count, and voila!  The number tallied.  But now I was faced with a decision that I was not up to making on Thursday.  I went ahead and threaded enough beads to finish both charts, as written, just in case and then set everything aside.

When I came back to it this morning I had decided to leave out the corresponding beads on charts 2 and 3, just to make everything match.  I switched to skein 3 on row 27 ( row 3 of chart 2).  I used up all of skein 4, and didn't do any transition rows.  I don't do transition rows any more, and with this yarn it really wouldn't be necessary even if I did, the color change is wonderfully subtle.

Pattern:  Koi Rama by Kitman Figueroa
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Tinsel Toes in Pisces
Needles:  US 8 (5.0 mm), US 6 (4.0 mm), US 4 (3.5 mm)

Koi Rama - Chart 1 Done

As soon as Scorpius was off the needles and on the blocking mats I cast on Koi Rama.  This shawl is knit from the bottom up so you have to cast on a lot of stitches, and I am doing the large size, so I had to cast on even more.  My usual cast on is the long-tail cast on, but when I have to cast on 330 stitches I go for the knitted cast on.  The advantage of working shawls from the bottom up is that the rows keep getting shorter.

The pattern calls for casting on with US size 9 (5.5 mm) needles, but I didn't have a US size 9 with a long enough cable so I used a US size 8 (5.0 mm).  You then knit one row with the larger needles before switching to US size 6 (4.0 mm) and beginning the lace chart.  As you can see, I am actually using stitch markers to separate the repeats of the pattern, an unusual course of action for me, but this pattern is complex enough that I needed them.

There are suggested bead placements in the pattern, so of course I had to add beads.  Fortunately I had a good match in my extensive bead stash.  The recommended placement method is to pre-string them.  I have used this method before, but it really isn't my preferred method.  First, you have to string enough beads to get through your current cake of yarn.  The stringing is easy.  I use a Japanese Bead Threaders.  They don't tear up your fiber or your fingers the way that the Big Eye needles do.  Second, they don't stay put.  This pattern has you place them on the yarn overs.  I've done this before as well, and I always forget what to do with them when I work the next row.  For this pattern the yarn overs form pairs, so on the first yarn over I pushed the bead to the right side of the yarn over strand and on the second yarn over I pushed the bead to the left side of the yarn over strand.  They do tend to wander a bit while you're knitting the next couple of rows, but they are pretty easy to push back into the spot you want them to be.  When I started this cake of yarn I strung 100 beads, and it looks like I'll have a few to spare.  I'll collect the exact numbers for each yarn cake as I go.

The yarn is Tinsel Toes, from The Unique Sheep, in the color Pisces.  This was the yarn for the most recent Zodiac Club shipment, but the pattern really didn't excite me and the yarn really wanted to be made into Koi Rama.

It is a lovely gradiance set and I am starting with the darkest skein (on the left).

Pattern:  Koi Rama by Kitman Figueroa
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Tinsel Toes in Pisces
Needles:  US 8 (5.0 mm), US 6 (4.0 mm), US 4 (3.5 mm)

Mayan Garden - Beauty Shots

And here it is, off the blocking mats.


Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm), US 5 (3.75 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Finished!

All done and blocking!  Blocking circular shawls, or capes, is always challenging, but I try not to get too obsessive about it.  I lay out the shawl as closely as I can and start pinning, always listening to the fabric and not forcing it to do anything it really doesn't want to.  Take that keyhole where the front edges don't meet - I believe that is a result of the way the increases are done in this pattern and perhaps also partly due to the fact that I did not increase my needle size until the last couple of charts.

Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm), US 5 (3.75 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Chart 14 Done

I made it part way through the 4th row of Chart 14 before I had to switch to skein 5 - row 174.  Just one more chart.  This time next week it should be done and blocked.

Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm), US 5 (3.75 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Chart 13 Done

I have been working pretty steadily on Chart 13 this week, plugging away at the long rows - 759 stitches per row, if I've done the math right.  I switched to skein 4 at the beginning of the increase row between charts 12 and 13 and only have 10 grams of a 75 gram skein left.  Each row took almost 3.5 grams of yarn.  I'll switch to skein 5 somewhere in the 3rd row of Chart 14 and that chart will consume about 40 grams of yarn, so I'll be almost half way through skein 5 when I start Chart 15.  Chart 15 starts with another increase row, so the yarn consumption is going to go up once again - to almost 4 grams of yarn per row, so I will switch to skein 6 a row or two before the end of Chart 15.  Of course, that assumes that I don't increase the needle size again when I start Chart 15, but even if I do go up a needle size, I will still have a comfortable margin to finish the cape.


Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm), US 5 (3.75 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Chart 12 Done

Despite being 13 rows, Chart 12 worked up very quickly, mostly because there was not a lot of patterning, and only two rows with beads.  I'm going up a needle size with the start of Chart 13 because there is a lot more patterning, and I may go up another needle size before I'm done.  It all depends on how the fabric is turning out.  I will be switching to skein 4 during this chart.

Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Chart 11 Done

It has been over a month since I have worked on this project.  I finished Chart 10 on Sunday February 9.  I'm not really sure why I have let it languish for so long.  Regardless, yesterday I picked it back up again and whipped out three of the four rows of chart 11 and this morning I did the fourth row.  This is the last of the short charts.  Chart 12 has 13 rows.

Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Chart 10 Done

Lest anyone think that I have totally given up knitting for jewelry and beading, I have been knitting as well.  I actually knit Chart 10 last weekend, while watching the game, but only got around to photographing it this afternoon.  Things get interesting again with the next chart - more patterning and beads.

Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Chart 9 Done

I'm liking these short easy charts.  Quick and steady progress is always a good thing.  I started skein 3 on this chart so the gray is starting to come in, exactly where I wanted it to.  When I looked at this pattern this section seemed to me to be vines growing over ruins.

Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Chart 8 Done

This last chart was a pretty quick and easy knit and most of the wrong side rows were rest rows.  I tried to spread it out so the vine motif could be seen.  I've almost used up all of the second skein so I will need to go wind skein 3 before I start knitting again.


Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Chart 7 Done

The careful observer may have noticed that I made a mistake when I was working Chart 6 - I did the cabling on every one of the "vines" rather than just on every other one - so before I started Chart 7 I had to fix that.  It wasn't that hard, I slipped the stitches one at time to the other needle, and uncabled the cables when I came to them.  The only hard part was when I uncabled a cable that I wasn't supposed to and had to recable it.  Then I screwed up the three stitch crossing cables on the first row of Chart 7, but I didn't realize it until I was working the next right side row.  I tried to ignore it and tell myself it didn't really matter, but of course it did, so on the last row I fixed it.  It wasn't that hard.  The central purl stitch needed to be behind both of the crossing knit stitches, rather than between them.  I simply dropped that one stitch, laddered it down, fished it out from between the knit stitches and hooked it back up again.

Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Chart 6 Done

As I said, the charts are getting shorter even though the rows are getting longer.  This one was only 6 rows, and most of them easy knitting.  The second to last row had cabling.  I decided to do real cables rather than the twisted stitch variety.  The next chart has more cabling and beads, so it will take a little longer.

Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Chart 5 Done

I finished up Chart 5 yesterday while watching the AFC Championship game.  Even though the rows are getting longer (I'm using 60 inch cables and still cannot stretch it out all the way), the charts are getting shorter - at least for the next couple of charts.  The end of Chart 5 starts a new phase of the pattern - vines on a reverse stockinette stitch background.

Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Chart 4 Done

Even though the latest Unique Sheep Mystery Knit Along started this past Friday, I am going to stay focused on my Mayan Garden Cape.  I really don't like doing more than one lace project at the same time.  This weekend I knit Chart 4.  Now that I have gotten the hang of the pattern things click along at a pretty good pace.  I made it through the first 4 clues with the first skein of yarn from my set.  I'll be switching to skein 2 on the first row of Chart 5.

Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Chart 3 Done

I've gotten back in to my habit of working lace on the weekend.  Saturday morning is usually dedicated to lace while I listen to NPR.  We like Car Talk and Wait Wait.  This clue was easier than the previous two, I think I'm getting the rhythm of the pattern.  I am almost done with the first skein.  I'm going to use up each skein as I go, which should pretty much guarantee that I won't run out of yarn, although I do run the risk of ending up with a lot of the last skein left over but I can live with that.  The pattern calls for going up a needle size on row 69 of this clue, but I did not do that.  From what I saw on the forum, you don't really need to increase the needle size until the third needle size increase.  I might not even do that one.  I'll decide when I get there.

Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Second Chart Done

I got about half way through Chart 2 a little while ago, but put this aside while I worked on other things.  I picked it back up last night and made it to the last two rows before my brain started getting a little tired.  I finished up those two rows this morning.  Now on to Chart 3.  The pattern calls for going up a needle size half-way through this chart, but I am going to continue with the same needle size.  There is another needle size increase later on that I may or may not do.  I'll decide once I get there.


Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Mayan Garden Cape - Chart 1 Done

You may recall that I had Kelly of The Unique Sheep dye up this custom colorway for me so that I could knit Kitman Figueroa's Mayan Garden semi-circular shawl as a cape.  Yesterday I cast on and today I finished the first of 15 charts.

I started out with a long garter stitch tab, knitting a long enough strip so that I could pick up 62 stitches along its length.  This gave me 68 stitches total with the 3 stitches on each end so that I could start with row 8 of the pattern.  When I got to row 25 I counted my stitches and realized that I was 4 short of the 135 stitches that I needed to do 16 repeats of the first chart.  On row 25 I did yarn overs after and before the 3 edge stitches, and on row 26 I knit into the front and purled into the back of the yarn over.  I was then ready to start with Chart 1.  The pattern is definitely for advanced knitters, with lace patterning on both right and wrong side rows.  The charts are beautiful, with wrong side rows shaded.  There is one complication with them - plain squares are purl stitches on the right side and knit stitches on the wrong side, while knit stitches are denoted by a vertical line in the box, so I had to retrain my brain a bit when I first got started.  Once again I am using my Knit Companion app on my iPad, which I find just invaluable when using charts.  There are optional bead placements indicated in the pattern and I happened to have some dark green silver lined beads in my stash that remind me of Emeralds.  You can see them glinting in the photo.  As I don't usually use stitch markers, I found them very useful for helping me keep track of where I was in the pattern.

Pattern:  Mayan Garden by Kitman Figueroa, modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in custom colorway Mayan Garden
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm), US 5 (3.75 mm), US 6 (4 mm)