Liquid Gold Sinua - Finished!

I finished this project up this past Monday - a holiday for me - but it has taken me a while to get a decent picture in natural light.  I've already worn it to work.  If I had gotten another skein or two I might have turned this into a tunic so I could wear it with leggings.  I really like the I-Cord cast on and bind off and have plans to use it again.  I skipped the ribbing at the bottom, and also lengthened it.  I added side increases starting at my natural waist.

Pattern:  Sinua by Susanna IC
Yarn:  madelinetosh DK in Liquid Gold
Needle:  US 6 (4 mm)

Liquid Gold Sinua - Fit Check

I finished up the second sleeve this past Saturday so I started working on the body again.  I started with the leftovers from the upper body and finished up the remains of that skein last night, so I took advantage of the situation to put half the stitches on a second needle and check the fit.  The pattern does not have any body shaping, but I started adding increases at the waist.  I'm working the increases every 10 rows because it is easy to remember and gives a reasonable spacing for the increases.  I haven't decided how long I'm going to make the body.  I just started my last full skein, and I have two leftover balls from the sleeves.  The pattern also calls for ribbed edging, but I'm going to skip the ribbing and work another I-cord bind off.  And the fit is perfect.

Pattern:  Sinua by Susanna IC
Yarn:  madelinetosh DK in Liquid Gold
Needle:  US 6 (4 mm)

Liquid Gold Sinua - One Sleeve Done!

Once I finished up my Margaret Beaufort I picked up my Liquid Gold Sinua again and finished up the sleeve.  This is actually the second start on a sleeve.  I had started working the sleeve on the other armhole using the remains of the skein that I had been working the bodice with - the skein I didn't continue with when I joined the body at the underarm, and had actually worked through the end of that skein, but I had picked up more stitches around the armhole and I wasn't sure I liked how it lay when I tried it on.  So I picked up stitches around the other armhole using my old standby method of picking up a stitch for every other row and knit that one to completion.  That pickup gave me 68 stitches to start with.  I increased 1 stitch at the shoulder seam on the second row of the stitch pattern as I was working the short rows, and then picked up an extra stitch on each side of the underam seam to close up any pesky little holes that sometimes happen down there.  That gave me 71 stitches, which is what the pattern actually called for.  I started the decreases when I reached the elbow, and worked 6 sets of decreases every 10 rows.  I ended up working 5 full repeats of the pattern chart - the part that you repeat, which I liked because I ended the sleeve on the end of the repeat.  I did an I-cord bind off, and looked up how to graft my end to my beginning.  Actually super easy and pretty intuitive, once you think about it.  One skein of yarn was perfect for the sleeve, I even have some leftover.

I cut the yarn on the remains of the skein on the other side, and wove in the end, and have picked up stitches with a fresh skein, now that I know I can work the whole sleeve with a single skein.


Pattern:  Sinua by Susanna IC
Yarn:  madelinetosh DK in Liquid Gold
Needle:  US 6 (4 mm)

Liquid Gold Sinua - One Skein Done

I am finally able to get a good picture of my Liquid Gold Sinua.  When last we saw this project I had just finished up both the front and the back to the point where I was ready to join them together and begin knitting in the round.  I had been working with two skeins of yarn, but when I joined I only worked with one skein.  I did not cut the yarn on the other skein, I just set it out of the way while I worked.  I've now worked a good four inches on the body and am almost to the end of my working skein.  I put it back on to two circular needles so I could try it on and also get a good picture.  I am happy to say that it fits perfectly.  At this point I may leave off working on the body and use the other skein to pick up stitches around the armhole and work on one of the sleeves.

Pattern:  Sinua by Susanna IC
Yarn:  madelinetosh DK in Liquid Gold
Needle:  US 6 (4 mm)

Practically Anything - Four Skeins Done

For the past 20 days I've been working on a test knit, but before I had started that project I had almost gotten through the fourth skein of my vest.  I have another test knit I need to get started on, but I decided to take a little break today and work on some of my other projects.  This morning I finished up the last few rows of the blue-green skein and joined the blue skein.

I can't share any details of the test knit that I just finished up, as it is for a club and must remain a surprise.  I will say that I really like the colorway.  I can share my yarn choice for the next test knit I need to work on - The Velveteen Rabbit, which is the next Unique Sheep Mystery Knit Along.  Ellen of Earthfaire has been working with Kelly of The Unique Sheep on some wonderful circle colorways made up of 12 skeins.  I offered to do my test knit in one of those circles so we would be able to provide the transition points for those sets as well as the traditional 6-skein sets.  This is the colorway that I chose - Enchanted Garden.

I still haven't decided on the bead color yet, but I have several options in my bead stash.  I spent some of last night grooming the charts and setting up the project in my knitCompanion, and putting together my Excel spreadsheet to calculate the stitch count and transition points.  I even cast on and worked a few rows, but I think I'm going to restart and go up a needle size before I really get going on the first clue.

I also got some new yarn in over the last few weeks - as if I need any more yarn in this house.  I did successfully complete all three projects this past summer for Camp Loopy, so I had to select my reward.  I ended up picking the skein on the left in the picture below.

I then had to pick a coordinating color to go with it as I have really been wanting to make Sivia's Layer Cake Shawl.  This is Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Color in the Clouds and Grapevine.  And of course while I was at the The Loopy Ewe web site some other yarn found its way into my cart.

This is madelinetosh Tosh DK in Liquid Gold and I bought it to make Sinua, from the Fall 2016 Twist Collective.

I also had some Jimmy Beans Bucks that were set to expire at the end of this month, so of course I had to find something there to spend them on and ended up with this yarn, which is also madelinetosh Tosh DK, in Havana.  I'm going to use this to make Caledonia, from the Fall 2014 Twist Collective.

Pattern:  Practically by Kelly Herdrich
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Wild Thing
Needles:  US 6 (4.0 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 - 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)