Elora - Five Colors Done

I have finished up my fifth color and have two cute little sleeve caps.  I will work the sleeves in turn, using up each of my skeins.  I have already caked up the next skein and I went ahead and divided it into two almost equal balls.  It is hard to get them exactly equal.

I picked up 90 stitches around the armhole for the sleeve.  The number of stitches is determined by how big you need the circumference of the sleeve to be at its widest.  Once you pick up the stitches, you work around exactly two-thirds of the stitches and start working the short rows, working back to the same point on the other side of the armhole, and continuing to work back and forth adding one stitch on each row until you get down to the underarm stitches.  It always takes me a couple of tries to get the pick up just right, and I went ahead and picked up the stitches for both sleeves to make sure that I could get them to match exactly.  I also put in stitch markers to mark the patterned section and where I would start turning for the short rows.  Conveniently enough, the patterned section fit perfectly into the initial row of the short rows.  I really love working set in top down sleeves this way as you get a perfectly shaped sleeve cap that you really cannot get knitting a sleeve separately from the bottom up.

Pattern:  Elora by Linda Marveng

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri in Brick & Clay Ombré 

Needle:  US 2.5 (3. 0 mm)

 

Elora - Body Done!

I finished up the body this morning, binding off the shoulders as I finished up each side.  Now I just need to figure out the stitch count for picking up the stitches around the armholes for my top down seamless sleeves.  I use Barbara Walker’s book Knitting from the Top.  It is a very straightforward method that always guarantees that I end up with sleeves that fit.  I really like how the Ombré fade is working out so far.  I haven’t decided if I will divide up the skeins into two balls, or just work both sleeves simultaneously from the same ball.  I suspect I may go with the latter.  Both approaches have their pros and cons.

Pattern:  Elora by Linda Marveng

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri in Brick & Clay Ombré 

Needle:  US 2.5 (3.0 mm)

 

Elora - Four Colors Done

I am pretty chuffed with how I divided up my fourth color as I only have about two yards left of the ball that I used for the back left, and only inches left on the fronts.  I did have 2.2 grams left of my third color after I worked the separation row where I cast off the underarm stitches.  That is the only left over yarn at this point.  When the balls started to get pretty small I pulled the one that I was sharing between the left and right fronts out and cut it in half, then I started knitting each section exclusively, ending each of them on the same pattern row.  With the fifth skein I will continue working each section separately until finished as I know that a single skein will easily work all three.  I will then join the shoulders with a three needle bind off and begin working the sleeves.

Pattern:  Elora by Linda Marveng

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri in Brick & Clay Ombré 

Needle:  US 2.5 (3.0 mm)

 

Elora - Three Colors Done

I have almost finished up my third skein and I am ready to start the armhole and neck shaping.  I have already wound my next skein, and divided it into two not quite equal balls.  The one for the back is a little bit bigger than the one that I will be using for the left and right fronts (knitting from both ends).  I spent this morning charting up all three sections - left front, right front, and back - completely so that I don’t have to think about any of the shaping or how to modify the pattern as my stitch count decreases.  I use the charting program Stitchmastery.  I started with the left front, and used my knitting to make sure that I had everything correct.  Once the left front was completed it was easy to get the right front - I just saved the file as a new file and flipped the chart vertically.  The back was easy, once I had the armhole shaping and the neck shaping charted.  I will be knitting all three parts simultaneously using two balls, one ball for the back and one ball for the fronts (working from both ends).

I received an ear burn from Linda Marveng today - she had seen my second post on this project and was chuffed about it.  She posted about it in her news thread on her forum.  I am super chuffed about the recognition.

Pattern:  Elora by Linda Marveng

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri in Brick & Clay Ombré 

Needle:  US 2.5 (3.0 mm)

Elora - Two Colors Done

You can definitely see the line between the first and second colors, but not the second and third.  Interestingly enough, there is a better blending of the colors on the stockinette sections.  It all just depends on how the colors played out in the skein while I was knitting.  It will be interesting to see how the rest of the colors blend and how it all comes out when it is blocked.  I am still moving forward with my method of just switching from one skein to the next when the one that I am working with runs out.  I have about twenty more rows to go on the body before I will be separating things for the armholes.  My third skein should get me pretty much to that point.

Pattern:  Elora by Linda Marveng

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri in Brick & Clay Ombré 

Needle:  US 2.5 (3.0 mm)

Elora - One color done

With Midnight Rose finished I grabbed the next WIP in my pile:  Elora by Linda Marveng.  I have been admiring (and buying) her patterns for a while now, but this is the first one that I have knitted.  I swatched for the pattern on January 26, 2019.  I finally cast on January 16, 2022.  Then the project was set aside while I worked some other things.  Since the swatching I have completed 95 other projects.  Since I cast on I have completed 9 other projects.  I am a strangely serial polygamous knitter.  I get a lot of projects on the needles, and then I start focusing on a single one.  Sometimes projects languish until I get them past a certain point and then I just want to see them finished.  Sometimes I just get bored or am no longer quite happy with how it is turning out and don’t know how I want to deal with it.  I currently have 19 WIPs, including this one.  The oldest is from 2010.  Besides this one, there are three others that I am actively working and they are all blankets:  Perseverance, Hearthside and the Seascair Blanket.  The first two are Mystery projects that I can only work when I get the clues and the yarn, and the third is my mindless work project.

For this pattern I am using an Ombré fade from The Unique Sheep.

I am working the body in one piece and am starting with the darkest skein, working until I use each one up and then joining the next.  I did not work any transition rows between my first color (skein 12) and the next (skein 11).  I am trusting the patterning to help break up the line that would otherwise appear if I were working straight stockinette.  When I get to the armholes I will have to divide up the balls and will go have to look at the math to determine the proportions.  I will then work the sleeves top down set in - picking up stitches around the armholes.  I will divide the balls in half for that, continuing working to the lighter colors - so the sleeves will continue the progression.  I had thought about making everything match vertically and decided I didn’t want to go through the hassle of that - even though I did put together a stitch count spreadsheet so I could.  I think that I will end up with a more visually interesting result doing it this way.

Pattern:  Elora by Linda Marveng

Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri in Brick & Clay Ombré 

Needle:  US 2.5 (3 mm)

Perseverance Knit Along: Clue 4 Done

I received the yarn for clue 4 of both Perseverance and Hearthside at the same time, and immediately caked them up.  I did clue 4 of Hearthside first, it took me a little while to get around to working clue 4 of Perseverance, but I finally tackled it this past weekend.  Then it took me a couple of more days to take a photo.  This was a very easy pattern and it did not take me very long to work it.  I did not have to change my needle size for this one.  My clue 5 yarn will be delivered today and the clue is already set up in knitCompanion.

Pattern:  Perseverance by Jane Vanselous

Yarn:  Expression Fiber Arts Enduring Worsted 

Needle:  US 8 (5.0 mm)