Harmonize - Finished!

I finished this shawl up a week ago, exactly, on July 21, but it always takes a while to get beauty shots.  I set it aside after getting through most of skein 4 because I was coming to the end of the pattern and needed to decide how I wanted to extend it to use up the rest of my yarn.  I ended up just working stripes of the main color and the contrast color until I was almost out, then working a couple of garter stitch rows of contrast color and ending with the main color, binding off on the wrong side row.

Pattern:  Harmonize Special Edition by Rosemary Hill
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Pashmi - Peacock and Amber
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Harmonize - Three Skeins Done

After finishing up my Encore shawl I didn't know what to work on next.  I have two more test knits to get done but this week at work has been so crazy and stressful that I just didn't have the mental energy to start them.  I worked for a night on my Mulberry Ombre dress, and then decided to switch to this shawl.  I don't have too much left on it, so maybe I can finish it up and get another WIP off my boards before I cast on my test knits.

I've also been thinking about what I want to do with the other two Harmonize sets that I have.

I'm thinking of working this set next, but using the gradiance as the main color and the red for the lace.  Once I see how that comes out I will decide what to do with my other set.

I may use the same shape, but do a design of my own.

Pattern:  Harmonize Special Edition by Rosemary Hill
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Pashmi - Peacock and Amber
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Harmonize - Two Skeins Done

This was the third project that I took along on our trip south.  I finished up the body of Facets on the first day down there, so I pulled this out for day two of the visit and got through most of the second skein.

Pattern:  Harmonize Special Edition by Rosemary Hill
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Pashmi - Peacock and Amber
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Harmonize - One Skein Done

This project has not been languishing as much as I thought it would, mostly because at this point it is pretty simple, so I took it to work with me.  Thanks to a couple of telecons and a day of online training yesterday I've managed to get a lot done.  I am almost done with Section 2 and the Chart B work.

Pattern:  Harmonize Special Edition by Rosemary Hill
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Pashmi - Peacock and Amber
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Harmonize - Cast On

I need another project on the needles about as much as I need more yarn in my stash.  But that doesn't stop me, on either front.  This is one I've been wanting to make for a while.  I have several Unique Sheep sets created for this pattern, but this is the first set that I bought.  It is on Pashmi.  The gradiance is Peacock and the main color is Amber.  I've been looking at the Harmonize pattern for a while now, trying to figure out how to translate it into something that would be easier to work from.  The pattern is densely laid out, and I'm not a big fan of how the charts are done - the shading and the colors are not so good for using in knitCompanion - and the charts are also "what you see is what you knit", which on the surface is not a bad idea, but it is not how most charts are done (always showing the right side of the pattern) so to work them requires a change in mind set.

I finally decided to tackle the pattern last week and decided to work from the written instead of the charts - the actual patterning is not that complex - so I went with my trusty Excel spreadsheet.  In the first tab I laid out every row of the pattern, all of the chart repeats, all of the color changes, the stitch counts, everything.  Then I created separate tabs to capture condensed versions of the directions.  For example, chart B is repeated 5 times with the first contrast color, so I captured that as one table, with 5 columns for the different stitch counts at the end of each row.  I did a similar thing with the next set of 5 repeats of chart B, except I added columns with the color changes.  I did that for the rest of the pattern and created tables for each section.  I pasted the tables into a Word document, turned it into a PDF and pulled it into KC.  Last night I set up the pattern and created all of my text objects and set up all of my row repeats, so I couldn't resist casting on and working through the first repeat of Chart B.

This project will probably go on a back burner for a bit while I work on some others that are further along, but with KC I can have multiple projects going and never worry about losing my place.

Pattern:  Harmonize Special Edition by Rosemary Hill
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Pashmi - Peacock and Amber
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Bigger on the Inside - Finished!

This was a pretty easy knit, kind of boring, actually.  The lace bit stayed interesting because of the increases and decreases, even though the lace pattern was an easy one to memorize.  Picking up stitches along the curved edge was fairly straight forward.  I hit on an easy way to pick up the correct number of stitches evenly.  I use my Knit Evenly app on my iPad and just pretend that I'm decreasing stitches, but instead of doing a decrease I skip a stitch.  Once I got past the Tardis pattern I could read while knitting, which made the last bit go quickly.  I did a gentle blocking job, pinning out the shawl and spraying it down with my spray bottle (seen in the top of the picture).  The glints at the top of the Tardis are beads.  I replaced the nupps (I don't do nupps) with beads.

Pattern:  Bigger on the Inside by Kate Atherley, published in Knitty, Issue 39, Spring-Summer 2012
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Pashmi in Doctor Blue
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Bigger on the Inside - Vortex Lace Done

Oh look, it is a scaly blue snake digesting its lunch.  This is the Time Vortex Lace section of the Bigger on the Inside shawl by Kate Atherley.  I am making it for a friend of mine who is a major Dr. Who fan.  I am using The Unique Sheep Pashmi in the color Doctor Blue.  And here it is blocking.  I love the transformation that blocking performs on lace.

The lace section is knit from point to point and then stitches are picked up along the bottom edge to knit the rest of the shawl.  That is why I decided to block it.  It is just so much easier to pick up stitches after blocking.  The lace pattern is pretty easy to memorize, although I couldn't knit this and watch the Graham Norton show last weekend.

Pattern:  Bigger on the Inside by Kate Atherley, published in Knitty, Issue 39, Spring-Summer 2012
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Pashmi in Doctor Blue
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Virgo Shawlette - Done

I finished this last night and blocked it before going to bed.  It is more of a scarf than a shawlette, but you could modify the pattern with fewer repeats of the Leaf Chart and deepen the short rows.  If I were going to do that, though, I would cast on and work the Leaf Chart, then pick up the stitches for the Oak Leaf Border, and then go back and pick up stitches along the cast on edge to work the short rows.  I would also play with the colors.

Here is the blocking shot (taken at night with the flash) so you can see the whole thing.  I had to curve it in order to pin out the Oak Leafs of the border.

Pattern:  Virgo Shawlette by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Pashmi in Virgo
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Virgo Shawlette - Body Done

I haven't been very productive this week thanks to late nights at work, but I have managed to finish the body of the Virgo Shawlette by Janine le Cras.  The Unique Sheep is doing a shawl series for the signs of the Zodiac.  This is actually the third offering.  They started with Taurus, and then did Cancer.  Now that Watership Down is finished and the next Unique Sheep Mystery Knit Along (Peter Pan) doesn't start until the new year I'm going to concentrate on the back log of projects that I have sitting around.

I'll have to wait until the sun is shining and the shawl is blocked to get a good picture (it is raining here again), but a close up helps a little.

Pattern:  Virgo Shawlette by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Pashmi in Virgo
Needle:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Wavelettes Shawl - Finished!

I was really at a loss as to how to get a good photo of this shawl.  It has been wrapped around my dress maker dummy all week, but that just made it look like the dummy was a mummy, a well-dressed mummy, but a mummy nonetheless.  Then I thought about laying it out on the floor, but it is pretty big, so getting all of it in one shot is hard.  Finally I came up with this arrangement.  You can see the colors and the textures, which is what I wanted.

Pattern:  Wavelettes Shawl by Janine le Cras published in Twist Collective Spring 2013
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Pashmi in White Queen's Castle
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Wavelettes Shawl - Blocking

I did a pretty relaxed blocking job, soaking the shawl and then just smoothing it out on the blocking mats without pinning it.  I did check to see that both sides were the same length, but not much more than that.

Pattern:  Wavelettes Shawl by Janine le Cras published in Twist Collective Spring 2013
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Pashmi in White Queen's Castle
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Wavelettes Shawl - Body charts done on second half

When I went to pick up the provisional cast-on I remembered why I don't like these kinds of patterns.  I ended up doing two rows of stockinette stitch before starting the body chart for the second half, and on the first pattern row I did some improvised fudging to get the lace pattern to line up as best I could.  If I were to do this again, I would do a row of purl stitches after the provisional cast on and before starting the lace chart.  I think that would make starting the second half a lot easier.

Pattern:  Wavelettes Shawl by Janine le Cras published in Twist Collective Spring 2013
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Pashmi in White Queen's Castle
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Wavelettes Shawl - Half Done

With Catkin finished, mostly, I picked up my Wavelettes Shawl again.  I haven't worked on this for a month but I really want to get some projects finished.  Once I finish this, I'm going to finish the Meris cardigan and then I'm going to do the Open Eye Tunic.  With the furlough starting this week, I'll have some extra knitting time.  After the four repeats of the border chart I ended up with 20 grams of skein 6 left.  I used all of skeins 4 and 5.  Now I'll start with skein 3.  I'll use up all of skeins 3 and 2.  Whatever I have left of skein 1 will join skein 6 in my stash of Pashmi remains that I have accumulated from the Crochet Block Club to become additional blocks.

Pattern:  Wavelettes Shawl by Janine le Cras published in Twist Collective Spring 2013
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Pashmi in White Queen's Castle
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Wavelettes Shawl - Body Repeats done on first half

Last night I finished up the 14th repeat of the body chart.  I've been weighing my yarn after each repeat and I have a spreadsheet where I can easily calculate how many repeats I can get with the yarn I have.  I played around for a little while with doing more repeats of the body chart than the pattern called for but decided that if I have extra yarn I will do extra repeats of the border chart.  The nice thing about the border chart is that I can do half of it if I want to, so right now I am planning on doing 5.5 repeats of the border chart, which would give me the most efficient usage of my yarn, while minimizing the risk of running out on the bind off.

14 repeats of the body chart used 86 grams of yarn.

Pattern:  Wavelettes Shawl by Janine le Cras published in Twist Collective Spring 2013
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Pashmi in White Queen's Castle
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Wavelettes Shawl - one skein gone and 9 repeats of the body chart

I have been working steadily on my Wavelettes Shawl this week, doing a repeat or two of the body chart each evening.  The chart is a simple one and I quickly memorized it.  I've used up all of skein 4 and started skein 5.  Based upon my yarn usage I'm going to be able to do 17 repeats of the body chart instead of the 14 called for in the pattern.  I want to use as much of my yarn as possible.  I really love the colors and Pashmi is so wonderful to work with.  This is the first time that I've knitted with it and it is going to make a warm and snuggly shawl.  I've ordered some Pashmi in Doctor Blue to knit a shawl for a friend and I know she is going to love it.

Pattern:  Wavelettes Shawl by Janine le Cras published in Twist Collective Spring 2013
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Pashmi in White Queen's Castle
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Wavelettes Shawl

Janine le Cras has had a couple of patterns published in some of the major venues recently.  This pattern was published in Twist Collective, an online magazine that is one of my favorites.  I always buy several patterns from each issue.  The Spring 2013 issue came out while we were working on the Treasure Island Mystery Knit Along so some of us decided to do this shawl as a knit along while waiting for the next Unique Sheep Mystery Knit Along - Watership Down (as if we need any more projects).  Janine mentioned that she thought the shawl would be lovely in Pashmi and I thought it would look lovely in pastels so I picked the colorway above - White Queen's Castle.  I've been wanting to do something in this colorway for a while now.

The shawl is knit from the center out starting with a provisional cast on and at first I was going to knit it symmetrically, starting with the pink and working to the green.  Yesterday I wound the first skein into a ball and did a swatch, and while I was working with the yarn I decided that I wanted to knit it asymmetrically.  I am starting with skein 4 and will work the first half with skeins 4, 5 and 6 (in that order), then pick up the stitches from the provisional cast on using skein 3 and work the second half with skeins 3, 2 and 1 (in that order).  After deciding my course of action, I unraveled my swatch and used it to create the crochet chain for the provisional cast on.  Aren't the colors lovely?

Because I am not using the recommended yarn, and the 6 skein shawl set only comes with 1200 yards, I don't have the same amount of yarn that the pattern calls for.  Fortunately it is easy to adjust the pattern by doing fewer repeats of the body chart.  Before beginning I weighed my ball of yarn - 52 grams.  After working one repeat of the body chart I weighed my ball again - 44 grams.  So one repeat, for me, took 8 grams.  I then set up a spreadsheet to calculate how many stitches per gram I was getting and try to get an estimate for the yarn usage of the border chart.  I had to do some adjusting because the body chart has slipped stitches, which reduces the amount of yarn used.  I ended up coming up with 16 grams as an estimated yarn usage for one repeat of the border chart.

It them occurred to me this morning that I should wind all of my skeins into balls and weigh them as there is usually some variation in weight between skeins and I wanted to maximize my usage of the yarn.  It turns out that for my set, the skeins all weigh the same, so I don't have to do anything fancy, like use part of skein 3 for the first half of the shawl.  Based upon my calculations I am going to do 11 repeats of the body chart on each half (as opposed to the 12 called for in the pattern) and the 4 repeats of the body chart.

Pattern:  Wavelettes Shawl by Janine le Cras published in Twist Collective Spring 2013
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Pashmi in White Queen's Castle
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Pineapple Posey - Both Blocks Done!

And here are both blocks.

Pattern:  Pineapple Posey by Donna Kay Lacey
Yarn:  Pashmi
Hook:  2.75 mm

This finishes up all the Pashmi blocks that I have in my stash. 

Pineapple Posey - One Block Done!

Well, actually both blocks are done, but the second block is blocking.  This is the February 2013 block from The Unique Sheep Crochet Block of the Month Club - Pineapple Posey by Donna Kay Lacey.  The yarn is Pashmi in Amethyst and Natural.  The photo does not capture the purple at all, I'm thinking it is a limitation of the camera. I've noticed this before with certain colors.  The photo was taken in natural light with no flash.

Pattern:  Pineapple Posey by Donna Kay Lacey
Yarn:  Pashmi
Hook:  2.75 mm

Tanglewild - Both Blocks Done!

I cranked out another set of blocks this weekend.  Now I only have one more set of blocks in Pashmi to do and then I will start on the blocks in Verve.   I have done 17 of the 26 sets of blocks that I have received,  and really honed my crochet skills in the process.

Pattern:  Tanglewild by Donna Kay Lacey, October 2012 Unique Sheep Crochet Block of the Month
Yarn:  Pashmi in Gingerbread and Pumpkin Spice
Hook:  2.75 mm

Tanglewild - 1 Block Done

This is the October 2012 Unique Sheep Crochet Block of the Month, Tanglewild by Donna Kay Lacey.   The yarn is Pashmi in Gingerbread and Pumpkin Spice.  This pattern calls for starting with an adjustable loop.  I've seen a couple of different ways to do this, but sometimes things can be a bit fiddly and here is the method that I came up with.  First I cut a length of yarn long enough to form into a circle with enough overlap to hold the stitches and large enough to fit several fingers into.

In this instance I used a single crochet to start the first stitch, which tends to stabilize things nicely.   Once I've done all the stitches I pull both ends of my starting loop to cinch up the circle, secure the ends and weave them in, and voila!

This is actually the beginning of the second block, so, if you will excuse me, I am going to get back to my crocheting.

Pattern:  Tanglewild by Donna Kay Lacey
Yarn:  Pashmi in Gingerbread and Pumpkin Spice
Hook:  2.75 mm