Stash and Shawl Update

I recently placed an order with Knitpicks. What did I pick up?

• A skein of Stroll Tonal in DeepWater. I love the color. It is HOT and BRIGHT outside today, and I think my pictures of rather overexposed -- the colors look lighter than they really are. The Deep Waters is darker than the picture seems. It's a lovely combination of blues and purples.
• I have been thinking of a scarf that would match my red and black jacket. Most overdyed yarns I find are not those two color combinations. I found Shamrock at the Knitpicks site. The Kavanagh colorway has a red main color (3 ply) with a fourth ply of black/gray/white. I was going to a couple of movies Friday, and wanted to be able to knit while I watched. The cable shawl is too complicated to knit in the dark, so I took a skein of the Shamrock yarn and needles with me. I cast on (30 stitches) at lunch and knit in the dark -- the whole skein. It wasn't until after the movie that I was able to look at what I had knit. Kind of a cool experiment. It's the Yarn Harlot's One Row Scarf pattern (not really a pattern, but a fun and easy knit that results in a fabric I like a lot. Details of the pattern are at my Missouri River Scarf page. In that one, the colors in the overdyed yarn kind of zigzagged. They are doing that in this scarf, too, which I love.
• Knitpicks put out a new pattern called the Seasons Shawl (Ravelry link). I bought it in Fall/Winter. I think it will be my next project after the Kilkenny shawl is finished. The yarn that came with the kit is all Knitpicks Shadow. Below (lighter than they really are), are, from left to right: Basalt, Nocturne Heather, Vineyard, Forest Heather, Sunset, Persimmon Heather and Midnight.

Speaking of the Kilkenny Cable Shawl, it's moving along. I have between 24 and 25 inches finished. It goes to 28 inches. I'm very ready to be finished and to block that baby!

Beach Stash Enhancement

While at the beach this past week, we went to Island Knits in Murrells Inlet.

There was stash enhancement:

1. Two skeins of Mille Colori by Lang. The shop owner had a scarf knit on large needles with this yarn; I liked it.
2. One skein of Plymouth Yarn Happy Feet.

Hot Shawl!

I'm still working on the Kilkenny cable shawl. I really like the pattern. I like the knitting. I thought when I first started that it would be something that would be difficult because I would need to continually refer to the chart, but not so. It is a four row pattern repeat, and very easy to memorize. Even so, it is still interesting enough to knit without getting bored.

I need to look at the pattern to see how wide it is supposed to be. The rows are very long, because it is knit horizontally -- across the shawl. Right now, it's between 12.5 to 13 inches wide. The cables run across the shawl (rather than long-ways) with narrow panels of "lace" in between -- simple yarn overs with decreases.

My only issue with it is that is is worsted wool, and it is July. We're at the beach. I don't know about holding this on my lap!

I also brought a fingering weight yarn and the pattern for the Yarn Harlot's Pretty Little Thing, in case the shawl gets too hot for me.

Alaska Stash

We have spent the last week on a cruise to Alaska. It was a wonderful trip! We had three ports of call -- Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. In Juneau, I stopped at a bead store (Peer Amid Beads -- close to the cruise ship dock). I don't have a picture of the beads I purchased. I'll post those later, but it was a fun store with a friendly shop owner. I asked her about nearby yarn stores, and it just happened that there was one just around the corner, called Skeins. Unfortunately, it was closed. :-(

On to Skagway. I stopped and asked the same question. Yes, there is a yarn store in the downtown area called -- well -- it seems to have three names. The Rushin Tailor (isn't that cute?), QuiltAlaska and Changing Threads. All three are in the same building, and I'm not really sure if they are different stores or not. I went back and took some pictures. Look in the background. Wouldn't that be a wonderful view from the doorway of your shop?

They had beautiful, hand-dyed yarn from two companies (at least) -- Raven Frog Designs and Rabbit Run Designs. I brought three skeins from Rabbit Run: two worsted wool and a 75% wool/25% nylon. The two worsted wool yarns are from the Water colorway and the Wildberry colorway. They match beautifully, so I think I'll knit a scarf that alternates between the two.

I brought a skein of wool that was greens and lavender - called hyacinth. Socks, I think, although it will be a thicker sock yarn. I like that!

The fourth skein is from Raven Frog, and it is a superwash merino. The colorway is Princess Matsoutoff's Gown -- green, royal blue and purple. I bought it because I loved the colors. Another scarf? Maybe the Yarn Harlot's one skein scarf? Who knows? I may just look at it.

If you look at the picture, taken on our cruise ship balcony (what a joy in itself!), all four yarns are there. The one at 12:00 is Water, the one peaking out at 2:00 is Wildberry. The blue/purple/green on is from Raven Frog Designs, and the Hyacinth yarn is pointing to about 8:00.

As for my current project, I am still working on the cabled shawl from Folk Shawls. I like it. It's enjoyable to knit, and the pattern was easily memorized. Just four rows, repeating across the wide width of the yarn. It's dark blue. I can't knit it in dim light, but otherwise, it's pretty simple. Lots of cables. Not boring.

Learning about a camera

I normally take pictures for this blog (and my other blog) using my Nikon CoolPix, which I love. When Circuit City was going out of business, Steve bought a Canon Rebel XSi for us. It's a digital SLR camera with two lenses. I've used it some, and love it, too, but feel as if I don't know much about its operation. We're planning a trip in May (Alaska!), so I wanted to take some time to become more familiar with it. I bought a couple of books from Amazon, and am working my way through one of them now (The Canon Digial Rebel XSi Companion). The picture above was snapped as I finished a chapter this evening.

Mason Dixon link

Go take a look at this post on Mason Dixon knitting if you haven't already seen it. Great YouTube video!

Edited later (much later) to add the LINK. (Bleh!)

Next?

So, now that I'm moving on, what is on the needles?

I was planning to do the Kilkenny cable shawl from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls, but I wanted to use Knits Picks Wool of the Andes in Blue Ink. The Blue Ink's delivery date kept moving farther and farther into the future. I had almost given up when it finally became available to order.

In the meantime, while I waited, I started a pair of socks with Mountain Colors yarn. I think the needles were too large for the yarn. The sock in progress didn't feel right. My KnitPicks yarn finally arrived, so I sat the socks aside. Between when I stopped knitting them until I moved them out of my knitting bag, three of the needles came out of the stitches. You know I don't like the project when I don't even care about the lose stitches and haven't put them back on the needle yet!

I finally started on the Kilkenny Cable shawl. It's going well. The pattern looks complicated, but it's not. I do it without a chart now -- it was that easy to learn.

Beach Scarf

Long time, no post. I have been knitting, but have also had some periods of not knitting, so progress has been slow.

I finished a scarf using yarn (and a free pattern) I bought at the beach last year. The scarf is really too short for my taste, and not really a color I like. I bought the yarn thinking I would use it to make a gift, but then changed my mind. I knit in anyway, but I kind of doubt I'll wear it, and the short length means I probably won't give it away.

BUT, it is a finished project.

Pattern: The pattern was free from Island Knits when I bought the yarn. I'm not sure I would actually call it a pattern. It's just a simple stitch repeat. Cast a multiple of 4 + 2 (I did 26). On each row, knit 2, knit one through back loop, pearl 1. Repeat to end of row.

Yarn: Ester Bitran Hand-Dyes Talinay -- it's a beige/pink/blue combination.

Needles: US size 9

The color of the yarn reminded me of sand and seashells, so on Ravelry I called it my beach scarf.

Jaywalker socks -- finished!

Finally, I've finished the second sock of my Jaywalker socks. I couldn't sleep last night, so I stayed up, watched reruns of FarScape, and knit until I finished it. The project had reached its "let's just get it over with" point, so I was glad to stitch that last Kitchner stitch.

Pattern: Grumperina's Jaywalker sock pattern. The pattern is very well written and easy to follow. I had read in several places that people were finding the original size to be too small, so I went up one size. I probably shouldn't have -- I probably should have knit the original size. The socks seem too large.

Yarn: Socks that Rock, medium weight, Fire on the Mountain colorway. Since I made the larger size, I barely had enough yarn. You can see the leftover yarn in this image. The pattern is written so that as you work the toe, you knit every other row "even" and work two pairs of decreases in the other rows until you have seven stitches on each needle. In the first sock, I took some advice from the Yarn Harlot (I think it was her), and as I got close to the end of the sock, I eliminated the "even" rows. Somewhere I read that this would give a sock toe a more rounded look. For the first sock, I did this at about nine stitches per needle. In the second sock, to save yarn, I did this from about eleven stitches per needle. I can't see any difference between the two socks, so I guess it worked. Even doing that I wouldn't have had enough yarn except that I hadn't cut off the long-tailed cast on. I snipped the extra yarn off and attached it to the other end of the yarn, giving me several more inches.

As of the yarn itself, I really liked it. Nice feel, great sock yarn.

Needles -- Knitpicks Harmony double-ended needles, US size 1, 2.25mm. I mainly knit with four needles in the sock, but as I worked the heel gussets, I used five needles (with a sixth as the extra one).

Color -- I really liked the Fire on the Mountain colorway, especially in the skein. As I knit it, I found it had much less red and much more pick than I had imagined. It was still nice, but it looked different knitted than as a yarn. Not a criticism; just an observation.

Highland Triangle Shawl 2

I finished the Highland Triangle shawl before Christmas and got it blocked so that it could be a Christmas gift in time for the actual day.

It's a great pattern, well written, but the outer boarder seems to go on FOREVER. I'm sure that's due to the fact that each row gets two stitches longer and longer.

Blocking feels like magic, opening up the lace. I'm always amazed when I unpin it and the points stay pointed and the open areas remain open. Wool is great, even if knitting with it during a commute is like carrying an electric blanket in my lap. :-)

Knitting time was more than three months but less than four.

Here are its vitals:

Pattern: Highland Triangle Shawl (Ravelry Link) from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls. I didn't make any modifications to the pattern, except for the yarn. I did use a couple of laminated excel spreadsheets to keep track of the row counts.

Yarn: Knitpicks Merino Style in Hollyberry. I think I ordered 11 skeins, which would be a total of 1353 yards (at 123 yards per skein). I must have used 10 of them and a little bit of the 11th; I can only find a partial skein in my stash.

Needles: US size 8, also from Knitpicks. My needles for this project were Harmony Options. I started with a short cable and worked my way up gradually to a 60 inch cable (as each row grew LONGER).

Finished Size: As it was blocking, I measured the triangle -- 98 inches across the long edge and 46 inches from edge to point. Big.

I took the images in the middle of the night, as I was wrapping gifts, and then it went to live with its recipient (my mom), so there are not outside pictures. I gathered some hints for the knitting of this shawl the first time I completed it, and they can be found at this link.

Click on any picture to see it larger.

Highlander Update

I'm still working on the Highland Triangle Shawl. It's moving along, although it feels slower and slower as each row is knit. Of course, that makes sense, because each row is four stitches longer than the last. To top it off, I count the stitches on the needle after each half-row is finished, to make sure everything is as it should be. The counting slows things down, too.

The pictures in this post don't depict the most recent look of the shawl. I'm actually working on the outer row. In fact, I'm almost done with it and with the shawl! And I'm glad of that. It's a really REALLY big project -- especially since I'm sticking to it until it's done. No breaks to knit something else.

A friend asked to see the pattern to see if she would like to knit it. She looked at it; she showed it to a fellow knitter, and they decided it was a Hard Knit. I don't think it's hard. I do think, because of the lace aspect, it's a knit that requires attention (just like any other lace). Mistakes are visible. It's just knits and pearls, and it doesn't require a real gauge, so wouldn't call it hard.

I've enjoyed it. I'm ready to be finished!

Regress as Progress

I'm making progress on the Highland Triangle Shawl, but sometimes, much to my chagrin, progress means regress.

This shawl is patterned in three sections -- a middle triangle, an inner edging and an outer edging. I've finished the inner body of the shawl and am working on the inner edging, which is the widest part. Remember, each row has two more stitches than the one which precedes it.

I was knitting along on the inner edging (lace pattern) when I looked down and saw that there was a mistake -- about 7 or 8 inches wide -- which caused that section of the edging to be off. It wasn't the whole edging, but just this section. The mistake was about 3 inches back from the working edge -- 10 or so rows. I tried to drop a stitch and see if I could fix it that way, but it was no good.

RIP.

I had to rip out 10 or 12 rows -- a total of over 2,300 stitches. I'm reknitting it now, but it has been a let down, to make that much progress and then take it out.

I knew that even if I could fix the section forward from when I noticed the mistake, I would always see it -- and would become the only thing I would see about the shawl. My first highland triangle shawl has a one row mistake in the edging on one side of the triangle, and it always ALWAYS jumps out at me.

So, regress, but progress. Mistake is gone. And maybe that is one of the great things about knitting. We can erase the mistakes.

A new project; an old pattern

I knew that I would do it. I told myself that if I had willpower, I could avoid it, but I didn't even fool myself.

I ordered 11 skeins of Merino Style from Knitpicks (Hollyberry colorway) in order to knit a second Highland Triangle Shawl.

Once I finished Steve's shawl, I picked up my jaywalker socks again, with the hopes of completing the second sock. As I worked on it, I decided on the Highland Triangle, and ordered the yarn. I knew that I would set the sock aside when the new yarn arrived, and even though I tried to convince myself that I could finish one project before starting the next, on the day the yarn arrived, I cast on. Oh, well.

In one photo the very beginnings of the new shawl is laying on my original shawl. Very much a beginning. I have more done now, but a long way to go.

Specifics:
Pattern: Highland Triangle Shawl from Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle
Yarn: Knitpicks Merino Style in hollyberry
Needles: US size 8, Knitpicks options (metal)

By the way, I ordered a set of the new acrylic Knitpicks needles. They are interesting, and I have imagine I would like them with the right yarn, but I wanted something "slicker" with this yarn, so I went with the metal. It's kind of useful, having my choice of metal, wood and acrylic.

End of a Web Site

For a couple of years -- 2005, 2006 -- I used a Geocities site as a companion to the blog. It was a web site with pages devoted to completed projects -- kind of an online knitting journal. It is a little too much to do, and I haven't added anything to it since 2006. I've been using the blog as a journal since then, taking care to have a "finished object" post for each completed project.

That was fine. The web site was still linked to the blog, so references to it still worked. Unfortunately, Geocities is closing down its free sites. I could pay for a site, but I don't want to do that, so I spent the day moving information from the webs site to the blog, updating links, and organizing.

While I was at it, I added tags to older posts. All finished objects can now be accessed from the sidebar -- either in the year they were completed or by the type of project it is.

Bleh. I'm tired!

Goodbye, Sandpiper Knits . com. Hello, organized blog.

Steve's Shawl

Steve's mother died early last Sunday morning. She has been suffering from Alzheimer's Disease, and on Sunday she just drifted away. We had been expecting this outcome for a few months, so since May, I have been working on a Prayer Shawl for him.

In my head, I saw his shawl as symbolic of the beach -- a place a peace -- because I wanted his shawl to say "peace" to him, and to remind him of quiet walks on the beach, as well as the presence of God in his life.

The shawl is rectangular (about 80 x 27 inches) and is knit on the bias. I started with one stitch and increased each row on one end, knitting front and back on the second to last stitch of the row and the second stitch on the next row. I continued this pattern until the triangle gave me the width I wanted, and then, still doing the increases, I started decreases on the opposite end of the rows -- knitting the third and second stitches to the last in the row together as well as slipping and knitting together the second and third stitches at the beginning of the next row. When it was long enough, I stopped doing the increases and kept decreasing until I was back to one stitch.

Two-thirds of the shawl is blue (Araucania Nature Wool Solids), but isn't solid. There are light and dark values of blue in the yarn, so the blue section looks a little like waves and water. The sand is Patons Classic Wool in Natural Mix. There is a surf line, which is a cream colored wool (two rows). I knit it with US size 11, harmony circle needles from Knitpicks.

Sewn to the sand are seashell charm. There is one in the picture to the left, although it is in shadow and is hard to see. On one corner are three charms -- cross with alpha fish (faith), anchor (hope) and heart (love).

Beach Yarn

While we were at the beach in July, I went to Island Knits yarn shop in Pawley Island, South Carolina. And, yes, there was some stash enhancement.

The black yarn in the first picture is VERY soft. It is from the Plymouth Yarn Company and is called Buckingham. It is 80% Baby Alpaca and 20% Silk. I found it with her sock yarns, but I think it would also make a really pretty scarf, and in fact she gave me a free lace scarf pattern when I bought the yarn. The color number is 500.

The next yarn is from the Ester Bitran yarn company and is called Talinay. It is a bulky weight wool yarn. She also gave me a scarf pattern with this one. I liked the model she had in the shop, so I'm anxious to crank out this scarf. It is color 220 -- tan, pink, blue and brown. It probably isn't a colorway that I would have chosen for myself, but I imagine it as a gift.

The third yarn is a sock yarn from Araucania Yarns called Itata Multy. It is 70% superwash wool, 15% silk and 15% bamboo. The colorway is 1002, and it is a mix of blue, purple and green. There are 430 yards in the skein.

Updates

How about some updates?

First: Today is the last day of Project Spectrum -- East. I've had trouble finding things that are yellow. When I was focused on taking pictures, everything was green. I did find a patch of yellow flowers in the Bob Evan's parking lot as I was waiting for my carpool ride to arrive.

Second: Here's another image of my Jaywalker sock. I still haven't started the second sock because...

Third: I've been working on a mystery project which will eventually be revealed. I hope not for a long time, but I imagine eventually.

Wood

Walking in the park the other day, I took lots of photos. Here are some of them centering around the "wood" aspect of Project Spectrum.

Knitting as Ministry

My church has an active prayer shawl ministry. Each week five or ten or more shawls are placed on the altar rail during the offering. These shawls go to our local Hospice House, to members of the congregation and beyond to offer comfort and prayers. It's a beautiful, blessed ministry.

I am a knitter. I am not part of this ministry. I thought I would be when it started, a few years ago, but I never jumped in and did it. I've never felt a calling to that ministry, even though I am a knitter, and could certainly knit the shawls. I've posted the photo above in order to show you how prolific and wonderful the ministry it; none of the projects are my work.

I have knitted two prayer shawls in my life. Both of them were for good friends of ours who had lost parents. One of them I just finished, and one was knit in 2006. The friends are husband and wife; the four of us -- well, I don't have words, but this couple is very special to us.

What I have noticed about knitting prayer shawls is that it becomes a compulsion. I knit late into the night, I knit in the car, in the movies, at lunch, at church meetings. I just HAVE to work on it. Knitting for me is usually a relaxing, creative enterprise. Prayer shawl knitting is in no way relaxing. I must do it, and I must finish the shawl as soon as possible. As I work, I find myself setting daily row goals. As I get closer to the end, those goals become larger and larger, and my drive to complete them becomes even stronger. When I finish, there is a wonderful sense of completion and relief. It is as if there is a call to FINISH it, and get it where it needs to be.

I suppose if I were knitting shawls for people I didn't know, I would have that drive about it, but I can't imagine doing this all the time.

All of that said, knitting these two shawls was a worshipful experience. It's not one I would trade for anything. I can't imagine that knitting a generic shawl would have that same kind of spiritual attachment.

I think I'll stick to my regular socks and failed sweaters.

Jeff's Shawl

I'm still working on the sock, and I'm almost done with the first one, but last Monday, I sat them aside and picked up another project.

A friend of mine's father died early last Friday morning. He had a stroke a week ago Thursday. On Monday I started a prayer shawl for my friend. I wasn't going to do that, but on Saturday morning, as I woke up, an image for the shawl came to mind. I lay in bed and designed the shawl in my head, and how it would visually represent Psalm 23 (an important passage for my friend during this time). I finished the shawl this evening and left it for him at his house.

Yarn: Patons Classic Wool -- black, denim blue, green, light blue, burgandy, tan. One skien of each, except for the denim blue and green (2 each).

Needles: Knitpicks harmony circular needles, 24 inch cable, size US 11 needles.

Pattern: 81 stitches across, stitched in Trinity stitch.

The shawl ended up being much longer than I envisioned it -- 86 inches -- and 24 inches wide. The yarn was OK, although I've worked with softer wool than this.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures
He leads me beside still waters
He restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths for his name's sake,
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, you are with me
Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me, in the presence of my enemies.
You annoint my head with oil
My cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord, my whole life long.