07.10.08

To take the chill off

Posted in scarves, shawls, stoles, and wraps, accessories, lace at 2:32 am by pauline

Actually, it’s been in the 90’s around here lately and we’re not really in danger of being chilly. But just in case in dips below 70 in the evening, I now have a Print O’The Wave stole to cut the chill. Here’s Katie modeling it for me.
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Since this is the first lace project I ever completed, I was amazed at the transformation that the mere act of blocking took my knitting: from amorphous blob to light lacey drapey fabric.

Here’s the “wingspan” pose that I’ve always wanted to shoot.

I have more pictures in my ravelry projects.

Yarn: Fiddlesticks Knitting Zephyr Laceweight Wool-silk - (about 1.5 balls)
Needles: Addi Turbo Lace Needles - size 4

Pattern: An adaptation of the traditional Print O’The Wave pattern by Eunny Jang

Started: May 1, 2008

Finished and blocked: July 6, 2008
My adaptations:

I opted to make the body of the stole in one piece, with all the “waves” going in the same direction rather than grafting it in the middle.
I made the body narrower, 3 repeats instead of 4 repeats, and longer, 36 repeats, instead of 34. For the border, I picked up 64 stitches on the narrow ends and 256 stitches on the long edges. It helps to make those numbers multiples of 8.

Finished size: 20″ x 72″

06.27.08

Summer of Lace

Posted in shawls, stoles, and wraps, accessories, lace at 4:45 pm by pauline

May and June have been pretty busy around here. My daughter-in-law graduated from med school. There she is with Emmett. My son and the rest of our cheering family are trying to get my sleepy grandson to turn around for the picture.

We visited Vermont, Massachusetts, and Maine. Who can visit Maine without shopping at LL Bean?

..and then look for some lobster?

In all my spare moments I worked on my Print O’The Wave Stole. Finally, I’m down to the final 35 repeats of the the 84 repeats in the border! I think I’m picking up speed now, after having worked on the border for what seems like an eternity.

I hope to get this done soon so that I can get to at least one other lace project this summer!!!

05.16.08

Getting a handle on things

Posted in accessories at 1:13 pm by pauline

I don’t even know if this counts as a knitting project, it seems more like one of those mom projects I’ve been tasked to do over the years like Halloween costumes, prom dress strap alterations, and doll repairs. Anyway, Katie just started classes at FIDM in San Francisco and it involves carrying a lot of stuff back and forth on BART. She found a sturdy bag that can accomodate her laptop and some notebooks and binders. The problem was that the handle was scratchy and uncomfortable.

I just happened to have some yarn in my stash that worked out quite well, both visually and comfort-wise as handle covers!

I just made a couple of garter stitch rectangles, wrapped them around the handles, whipped stitched them on and tacked the ends to the lining.

Yarn: Knit Picks - Swish Superwash - Coast Grey

Needles: US #6

05.10.08

It’s Leafling for April

Posted in socks at 11:09 am by pauline

My April socks are done! BMFA STR March 2008 Club socks, Leafling, by JC Briar.

The fit is great and I like the way they look. I opted to do the Symmetrical Toe because it will fit my feet better. I like the slipped stitches on the underside of the heel since I tend to wear socks out there first.

These socks took 120 grams, Emmett’s baby Leafling socks took 33 grams, and I have a small ball of yarn left over.

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts -Socks That Rock- mediumweight- colorway:Lucky ( 2008 sock club)

Needles: Addi Turbo Lace Needles size US 1.5 - 2.5mm

Started: April 4, 2008

Completed: May 7, 2008

Cast On: 60 Stitches

05.01.08

Fourth Time’s A Charm

Posted in shawls, stoles, and wraps at 10:18 pm by pauline

I queued Eunny Jang’s “Print O’The Wave Stole” about a month ago on Ravelry. This is my 4th try at knitting a lace stole. Hope I can persevere this time. I must overcome my short attention span. I just have to keep telling my self, “you will soon have a beautiful stole.”

I’m going a road trip to Southern California and back this weekend. Hopefully, I can get some knitting done in between babysitting Emmett and sleeping.
Eunny mentioned that the lace yarn version of the stole is huge so I’m knitting the body with 3 repeats instead of 4 repeats and cutting the length by 25% as well. I think that come out to 13 or 14 repeats on each of the body halves.

Yarn: Jagger Spun Zephyr Wool Silk - Sage Green

Needles: Addi Turbo Lace needles - size 4

04.25.08

In Search of Monotonically Decreasing

Posted in socks, baby stuff, shawls, stoles, and wraps, FO sightings at 12:32 pm by pauline

Since last August, I’ve been tracking the number of unfinished objects in hopes of gradually decreasing or at least maintaining the UFO count at the end of each month. I’ve been pretty successful so far except I had to fudge it a little by moving the end of the month a few days into the following month.

So, here are my UFOs as of April 3 (which is the end of March, according to my twisted rules). The official UFO count is 8. The goal is to maintain or decrease the count at the end of each month.

Since April 3, I’ve casted on BMFA Sock Club Leafling socks . I should be done with these soon.

And I joined the Mystery Lace Knit Along. Here’s Clue 1 completed.

So, I have about a week to finish 2 objects, either one of the new ones or something from the UFO list, in order to reach my monotonically decreasing ( my inner math geek is coming through ) UFO count goal. It’ll likely be the Butterfly Baby Cardigan and the Leafling Socks. The Mystery Lace won’t be done for at least 6 weeks.

On the FO sightings front, here’s Emmett wearing his new Baby Leafling socks! We will soon have matching socks.

04.03.08

It’s Mingus for March

Posted in socks, yarn at 10:42 am by pauline

Well, it ’s already April, but here they are, my March socks!

It’s Mingus, by Cookie. The yarn is Dream In Color Smooshy, Cocoa Kiss colorway. After I finished them, I weighed them and they came in at 60 grams. I guess it’s all the lacy goodness that runs throughout the whole thing! I have 55 grams of yarn left over, almost enough to do the whole thing over again! (not that I will)

The pattern is full of the Cookie sock genius. I was drawn to it by the meandering ridges and the lacy panels. It was a pleasure to knit.

Here they are on my new sock blockers from Blue Moon. I can’t believe I’ve gone for this long without sock blockers. I finally got around to using the “bank error” coupon from 2007.

The best part is that I get to wear them!!!!

Pattern: Mingus by Cookie A.

Needles: US size 1 Knit Picks Circular Bamboo 2.25 MM

Size: Small - cast on 64 stitches

Yarn: Dream in Color - Smooshy - Cocoa Kiss - purchased from Purlescence

Started: Feb 14, 2008

Finished: April 2, 2008

04.01.08

I love green

Posted in socks, booties, baby stuff at 2:40 am by pauline

I got my March Rockin’ Sock Club yarn in the mail last week. I was never much of a fan of this color until now. It is so cheerful and soothing to look at. Elaine was over and took this picture of the yarn because the sun was shining through the window just right:

Nate mentioned that Emmett was outgrowing all his socks so I couldn’t resist making a pair of baby socks out of the Leafling pattern that came with the yarn. I usually have plenty of yarn leftover when I make socks for myself anyway.

Pattern: Baby sock adaptation of Leafling by JC Briar - Rockin’ Sock Club

size: Cast on 32 stitches

Needles: size 2

Yarn: medium weight Socks that rock - Lucky colorway

Started: March 28 2008

Finished March 29 2008

03.26.08

Socks

Posted in socks, Jenny at 7:18 pm by jst

After several attempts of trying to knit a pair of socks, I finally got somewhere using a very basic pattern. I did not make the leg part very long because I did not think I had enough yarn. Good thing. I did not have enough yarn to make the leg 7″, instead I only made that part about 2″. Isn’t this cool! Of course, this is nothing compared to the more elaborate socks that PWW made. But this is a start.

03.14.08

It helps to have daylight

Posted in yarn, scarves, shawls, stoles, and wraps, accessories at 1:40 am by pauline

Last Sunday, we switched back to Daylight Savings Time. It meant losing an hour of sleep, but it also meant an extra hour of photographic opportunities in the afternoon and evening!

I convinced Katie to come straight home from work to model my Clapotis scarf!

It’s knit from two skeins of Fiber Fiend’s brilliantly hand-dyed Superwash Merino Sock Yarn. I made it 5 “ladders” wide and 25 “ladders” long.

When the scarf was a little more than half-way done, I blocked it so that Margit can display it at her Fiber Fiend booth at Stitches West. This scarf helped me (as well as many others at Stitches, I’m sure) realize the possibilites of sock yarn beyond socks. This doesn’t mean that I won’t knit any more socks but hey, I’ve got way more sock yarn stash that I have a need for socks.

The colors looked so different once it was wound up in a ball and then knitted up into a scarf.

Here is the finished scarf before I re-blocked it to get it out of its half-blocked half-unblocked state. The left is unblocked and the right is is blocked.

It wasn’t hard to decide that I wanted to block the scarf even though Kate Gibert, the pattern’s author, prefers it unblocked. Blocking in this case really showed off the colors in the yarn.

Hmm… just a few more months of scarf weather but much more daylight to come!
Materials:

US Size 4 needles

Approximately 430 Yards of Heavy Weight Sock Yarn

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