In the Studio with KnittingAmazon

Monday, August 28, 2023

Advertence - Clue 8 Done!

Clue 8 was pretty easy, and basically a repeat of clue 6, although the pattern is shifted. You can see it if you study the charts. I also got a picture of the entire project so far, with kitty bomb.

You can see that the second skein of my Dramatic Hues set is more purple. It is wonderfully soft, and Jezebel really likes it.

Pattern: Advertence by Janica York Carter

Yarn: Expression Fiber Arts Mirage Sport

Needle: US 4 (3.5 mm)

Sunday, August 27, 2023

Multivalence - Clues 7 and 8 Done! (And Clue 4)

I was going through my projects this past week, and making sure that I had linked all of the appropriate blog posts when I discovered that I had completely missed presenting Clue 4, and had in fact linked Clue 4 from the mystery knit along to the crochet along!

Clue 4 was completed way back on April 30! It was a lot of double crochet, with the contrast rows of single crochet and popcorns. The clue called for working the single crochet rows with the popcorn in colors A and B, but I didn’t want to use the two greens together so I used A and C.

Clue 7 took a while. It wasn’t hard, there were just a lot of stitches and I had to pay attention to make sure that I had the right combination. I haven’t been conscientious about tracking my yarn usage on each of the clues, so I did each pair of rounds in a different color. In order to complete all eight rounds I broke into a new set of Luster Sport mini-skeins, my Chromatic Hues set.

I used the yellow for the second pair, and the green for the third pair of rounds.

Clue 8 went fairly quickly, in contrast to Clue 7, and was a lot of fun. I used color A for the first set of yellow swirls, and the yellow I used in Clue 7 for the second set. I might have had enough of Color A to complete both sets of yellow swirls, but I didn’t want to play yarn chicken and lose. I had enough of the blue to do all of the blue swirls, but not enough to do the final round of single crochets. I actually tried that and lost at yarn chicken with about a foot of circumference to go. So I ripped out the round, and broke out the other blue in my Zodiac Hues set and worked it in that. I thought about just finishing the round with the second blue skein, but didn’t want to risk a difference in color in that last 12 inches.

I have now used 10 of the 12 colors in my Zodiac Hues set, just the two purple skeins remain. We’ll see what the remaining 4 clues bring. If I had known the color usage in the full pattern from the start I might have made different choices, but I am really enjoying the mystery and the creativity it is invoking because of the impact of the choices that I have made on previous clues on my choices for the later clues. The only thing that I do to inform my decisions is wait until someone else has posted a picture of the completed clue so I can see what the design is doing before I make my next color choices. I am loving my colors, every time I look at my project it makes me smile.

Pattern: Multivalence by Janica York Carter

Yarn: Expression Fiber Arts Luster Superwash Merino Sport

Hook: 3.5 mm (E)

Saturday, August 26, 2023

Iris Hues Lampy - One Wedge Done!

Expression Fiber Arts has a pretty good business model, beautiful yarn sets with exclusive matching patterns. This is one of those. The yarn is Luster Sport, 50% Superwash Merino, 50% Lycocell. The set is called Iris Hues.

I cast this on last week so that I would have an easy project for my work bag. I’m working German short rows instead of wrap and turn for the short rows.

Pattern: Lampy by Janica York Carter

Yarn: Expression Fiber Arts Luster Sport

Needle: US 5 (3.75 mm)

Slipped September - Take Two

I really should know better by now. I had joined this Artyarns knitalong almost a year ago. I do love their yarn, mostly I love their colors, but am not so much a fan of their knitalongs. You have to keep up to get the next part of the pattern, and if you don’t you are out of luck getting the final pattern, and getting them afterwards can be a real challenge. For this one I did manage to keep up and get the complete pattern, but then I never finished it. I had finished the front - which was as far as I needed to get - but I just wasn’t sure about where this was going and if I wanted to go there.

First, there is the gauge. The patterns tend to be worked at a pretty loose gauge, and you don’t even need to do that to get a nice drape in the fabric, the yarns will do that on their own, and you know how I feel about working at a loose gauge. I did use the smaller of the two recommended needle sizes (US 7 as opposed to a US 9!) but it is still pretty loose. The bias knit is okay. It does interesting things to the drape and the way the pattern pieces stretch under the influence of gravity. I finally knit up the back this past month. It was a quick and easy knit, but I should have paid more attention to the pattern instructions and gone down a needle size. The pattern states that the back is supposed to be 2-3 inches larger than the front, and that the garment is supposed to be oversized, but I didn’t really take that in and consider what that meant for the final garment. When I pinned the two pieces together and tried it on it was definitely oversized, a bit too oversized.

I was a bit disappointed, but wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I decided to go look at the finished projects on Ravelry, hoping to find some inspiration and I did. One knitter decided to turn the top in to a tunic. Now this is something that I can get behind. I love tunics because I wear tunics and leggings to work, and I had bought two skeins of each of the colors, so I should have plenty of yarn to work with. I dug the other two skeins out of my stash and caked them up and cast on again, with some changes. The first change was to go down to a US 5 needle. I considered going even smaller, but did some quick math - comparing the percentage change in size of the needle diameter and using that to guess the resulting size change. Originally I started knitting the smallest size but quickly realized that it would be a bit too small around the neck area, so I decided to cast on for the largest size, figuring I could always adjust the final stitch count by working few increase rows.

I really love the colors, and the effect of the slipped stitch pattern, and the whole thing has a sort of Egyptian collar vibe for me, which I also love. I’m not sure how far I will extend the patterning, but I will work the front and back the same. I’m thinking that I want to get down to the bottom of the armholes, and then maybe join the front and back and work in the round. I may then continue on with just the solid color (Golden Hours, a lovely yellow/gold) and work a lace pattern, and then work a different lace pattern with the multicolored yarn, maybe something a bit flouncy. I’m also not sure if I will continue the bias fabric. We’ll see when we get there. I will have to frog the original knitting and reclaim that yarn when I want to start working on the back.

Pattern: Improvised, based upon Slipped September by Iris Schreier

Yarn: Artyarns Merino Cloud

Needle: US 5 (3.75 mm)

Monday, August 14, 2023

Zorzal - Finished!

Once I finished the short rows, the stripes went quickly as well. After working the wedges I had 45.9 grams of Color A left, and 30.7 grams of Color B. I was able to work 7 stripes of Color B, ending up with 1.3 grams left. I was able to work 9 stripes of Color A, so I worked extra rows of Color A after using up all of my color B, ending with 2.9 grams of Color A left after the bind off. That is what I call a perfect project. I really hate having leftovers.

The shawl is a nice size and lays well on your shoulders. I will wear it to work tomorrow. I always pick out my outfit the day before so I don’t have to think about it when I roll out of bed at 5am.

I did block fairly aggressively, for me.

And I do like the way the garter stitch was opened up. I did knit this on US 6 needles, which is a size larger than I typically knit this yarn on for shawls. Jezebel supervised the blocking.

Pattern: Zorzal by Lisa Hanes

Yarn: SpaceCadet Yarns Oriana 8-Ply

Needle: US 6 (4.0 mm)

Zorzal - Two Wedges Done

This shawl is working up very quickly. Garter stitch is great when I have a good book to read. I used German short rows instead of the wrap and turn. I am now ready to work stripes until I run out of yarn.