I’m trying really very hard to keep my hands busy doing anything but snacking. Looks like knitting is filling the gap at the moment. This shawl took me a little over one week to knit. Granted, it’s not fancy but one week. A shawl. Me? Never happened before. [...]]]>

Venezia Boneyard Shawl

I’m trying really very hard to keep my hands busy doing anything but snacking. Looks like knitting is filling the gap at the moment. This shawl took me a little over one week to knit. Granted, it’s not fancy but one week. A shawl. Me? Never happened before. I must really want that box of Four Cheese Cheez-its. Knit, purl, knit, purl.

I might be paying the price for knitting-as-snack substitution, with finger numbness and an aching shoulder but I get a lovely prize at the end of it all. The silk merino wool blend I used blocks easily and drapes divinely.

Details
Pattern:  Stephen West’s Boneyard Shawl (Ravelry)
Yarn:  2 skeins Cascade Venezia in Hot Pepper
Needle:  Size 8US circular

Instead of the left and right M1 called for in the pattern, I substituted yarn overs along the center and edges.  I also took a cue from another Raveler with respect to the picot bind-off.  The original pattern instructs you to knit a number of garter rows before doing the standard bind-off. Nothing wrong with that at all.

I went all ooh-la-la when I saw this version though.  About three garter rows, then the grinding task of “cable cast on 2 stitches, bind off 4.”  I’m not sure how many stitches I had by the time I decided enough with the 12-row stockinette sections.  What I can tell you it that it took me over 2 hours to complete the picot process.  Hard work.  Really hard work but not so much that I wouldn’t consider doing it again. Just not right now, okay?

Another reason I’m seeing red is that February is American Heart Health month.  The Go Red for Women campaign targets women with the latest recommendations for heart health.  This year, updated guidelines rely less on dry clinical research and more on real-life situations and challenges.  My father died as a result of heart disease.  I’m making lifestyle changes that should go a long way toward keeping me around a bit longer.  Go Red urges you to “Tell 5. Save Lives.”  Consider this my due diligence.

I actually cast on for Eleanor in mid October but those 132 stitches sat for two weeks – just the promise of a cowl at that point. I knit it in fits and starts, hence the delay in finishing this beautifully simple pattern. I thought chart-reading would be a problem after my [...]]]>

Knitty Eleanor Cowl

I actually cast on for Eleanor in mid October but those 132 stitches sat for two weeks – just the promise of a cowl at that point. I knit it in fits and starts, hence the delay in finishing this beautifully simple pattern. I thought chart-reading would be a problem after my long knitting hiatus but this is easy-peasy. If you’re sitting on the fence about this pattern, time to jump in and knit it!

It helps that I rediscovered my Knee-sel™ from Nancy’s Knit Knacks.  Totally worth whatever I paid for it.  The name comes from the fact that you can prop it on your knee to read and knit at the same time.  It is a perfectly portable easel with a pop-up flap to hold papers or charts in place.  It made knitting in the waiting room so much more manageable, without having to wrangle papers along with a wily ball of yarn and needles.

By the way, I have no affiliation with Nancy or her Knit Knacks.

Choices and modifications

• The pattern calls for sport-weight such as Lorna’s Laces or similar.  I used about 2/3rds of one skein of  Kitchen Sink Dyeworks bamboo merino worsted with no adjustments for gauge. Despite weight difference, the cowl still retains the grace of lace but with a bit of heft from the slightly beefier yarn.

• I chose to knit the piece flat because I found it easier to manage moving the stitch markers. I cast on using size 9 US and switched to size 8 once I finished Chart A.

• I used Ravelry member Nakiru’s modifications to Chart B to make the pattern more symmetrical:

Edit rows 17,  31 and 45 of chart B so that the decreases in these rows showing “k-k2tog-k2tog-k2tog-k2tog” become “ssk-ssk-k1- k2tog-k2tog.” I tinkered with the pattern chart to make this mod a bit clearer:

Eleanor, Chart B Mods

• By the way, there is a bit of errata in the written instructions. Where it says, “When you begin working Rounds 5, 15, 35 and 48,”  it should read “When you begin working Rounds 5, 15, 35 and 43.”  The chart itself is correctly highlighted.

• Because the yarn is worsted weight, I did not repeat rows 23-49 as called for in the pattern. I had already reached the finish height of 12” by the time I hit row 50.

• I used a Kitchener stitch to seam the cowl. It might have been easier to do a 3-needle bind-off or crochet the two sides together but this way, the seam came out nice and clean with little tell-tale thickness on the inside.

Eleven days from start to finish.  Not a bad pace for me given that there were 440+ stitches at the end.  You’ll see from the finished product that I did not add a ruffle.  Why not?  Observe that little twist of yarn.  When you’ve only got a few yards to play with, [...]]]>

Pretty Raspberry Citron

Eleven days from start to finish.  Not a bad pace for me given that there were 440+ stitches at the end.  You’ll see from the finished product that I did not add a ruffle.  Why not?  Observe that little twist of yarn.  When you’ve only got a few yards to play with, you don’t take chances. I did add a little frilly edge but that’s it.  Still, I really liked how it turned out.

Final measurements (post blocking): 41” wide by 20” down the back.

**********

The finished Citron started out as 480 yards of delicious, slightly variegated raspberry-colored yarn from All Things Heather.  All I needed was a size 6 US (4 mm) circular needle and the pattern printout.  By the way, who’s with me in applauding Knitty for the option to “print only the essentials.”

The were a couple of things I let get in my way.  First was my M1 method.  In the beginning, I was using knit front and back (kfb) but that was a mistake.  The ruching increases use kfb and I totally lost count when trying to do the same thing in the other increase rows.  Instead, use the one of the pick-up between stitches methods. It’ll save counting errors later on.

Another tip? Use removable stitch markers to designate the “knit x, M1” pairs that begin and end rows 9 and 19.  Doing so avoids the need to be so mindful of the counting and knitting. For instance, if the instruction is [K10, M1] 6 times, then count off 60 stitches from just past the garter edge and place a removable marker.

Until I got reached my “aha!” moment, I kept going back along the row whenever something took my mind off increases and, within that, counting stitches.  Recounting became a tedious time-wasting exercise in futility.  Use the removable markers.

How about something really cute to hold said stitch markers?  Jen of Knitting Like Crazy wrote about these vintage inspired tins from Natalie’s Nest and I had to have a couple.  Or three.  These owls come in several colors and can be purchased in sets.

Hooty Owl

Vampire and White Rabbit

Too adorable. Resistance is futile.

What can you do with 100 yards of Aran-weight yarn?  Why, make a pair of fingerless mitts of course.  These should be the perfect complement to the legwarmers I recently completed for my friend Lu.

I based the mitts on the same alternating round stitch pattern of K2tog, YO, K1 and K1, YO, [...]]]>

Matching mitts for Lu

What can you do with 100 yards of Aran-weight yarn?  Why, make a pair of fingerless mitts of course.  These should be the perfect complement to the legwarmers I recently completed for my friend Lu.

I based the mitts on the same alternating round stitch pattern of K2tog, YO, K1 and K1, YO, SL1, PSSO.  For the rest, as is my wont, I decided to wing it.  I took some cryptic notes along the way so that I might be able to reproduce mitt number 2 just as I’d made number 1.  Despite my “chicken scratch,” I was able to read enough to replicate in such a way that any difference is barely noticeable.

By the way, the pattern is still in beta but if anyone is interested in trying it out before I add it to the list on the right (and to Ravelry), let me know.  I’ll send you the PDF straight away for a quick test knit.

Other business

It’s National Crochet Month (or NatCroMo as some have dubbed it)!  Find out more about this March event at the Crochet Guild Of America or join the party on Ravelry at an even jointly hosted by the  Crochet Liberation Front and Crochet on Ravelry.  If you just want to follow the action on Twitter, look for tweets tagged #natcromo.

Lastly, let me end the “which yarn for Citron” conundrum.  I went with All Things Heather in the raspberry color.  Butter Peeps ran a close second but the intensely-hued deep pink just said “Spring” to me.  So who won the random number sweepstakes for some lovely yarn?  Congratulations to #8,  Jen from Knitting Like Crazy.  I’ll contact you via email to nail down the particulars.

It was just one of those unexpected things. I was so hungry by the time I got home with my lunch and the golden-crusted baguette that I didn’t take the time to cut off a proper piece. As I rudely ripped into the loaf, leaving a jagged edge, I felt a quick jab [...]]]> …and other food-related knitting.

It was just one of those unexpected things. I was so hungry by the time I got home with my lunch and the golden-crusted baguette that I didn’t take the time to cut off a proper piece. As I rudely ripped into the loaf, leaving a jagged edge, I felt a quick jab at my left index finger. I figured it was my imagination and thought how funny it would be to fashion a knife out of bread then crumble the evidence (too many forensic cop shows).

Later on, as I sat knitting my Super Cupcake cowl, I noticed that the yarn kept catching on my finger. Upon closer inspection, I saw what looked like a splinter and a little dot of blood. It wasn’t my imagination. The french bread actually had cut my finger and left a little bit of itself behind as evidence! Laugh if you must, but it took a week for that sucker to properly heal.

Despite the aforementioned grievous bodily harm and a continuously cantankerous shoulder, I managed to finish both the cowl and the slouchy hat, making this pair the second of my Chicago winter warrior gear.

Yarn: Lorna’s Laces – (2) 225 yd. / 114g skeins in the Vera colorway
Needles: 16″ circular sizes 7 and 8US / 4.5 and 5.0 mm; size 8 dpns to finish
Stitch: Shaker rib

If you’re new to Shaker rib (or any of the other brioche-like stitches), it takes some getting used to the whole “knit one below (k1b)” business. It may be counter-intuitive but go ahead and drop that stitch. It’ll work out in the end. Promise. The only tricky part you might encounter (or at least I did) comes when you stop paying attention and purl the k1b and knit the purl. Hopefully you find your mistake before you’ve finished the round. If not, my advice is to frog back to the purl row.

My only other admonition? If you knit loosely as I am doing at present, take the time to check your gauge. Seriously. You see how my cowl looks a bit, um, large? That’s because it is. It turned out to be wider than the pattern’s 26″ circumference and hence not quite as face-hugging as I would have liked. The fault lies not in the pattern, but in myself.

I did a whole lot better on the hat. I tightened up my knitting and plowed through to the finish on that swell chapeau within five days, which is fast for me these days. Love, love, love everything about this hat. It has just the right amount of insouciant slouch. I think it looks adorable and will definitely be baking up more of these in the future.

Now, back to the baby dress.

This cute cadet-style coat from Old Navy came with dull brass buttons that did nothing for it. See for yourself. I consulted a friend and M&J; Trimming (love them!) to find the perfect antique silver flower buttons. Color me happy because these little things turn the coat from blah to beautiful.

Expressing myself with [...]]]> Shiny silver buttons

This cute cadet-style coat from Old Navy came with dull brass buttons that did nothing for it. See for yourself. I consulted a friend and M&J; Trimming (love them!) to find the perfect antique silver flower buttons. Color me happy because these little things turn the coat from blah to beautiful.

Expressing myself with color

And oh, what color! As mentioned previously, I’m taking an abstract art class with the goal of finding parts of myself I thought had left the building. The most recent assignment was to use the drip and splatter techniques of Jackson Pollock. The rest was up to us; how we used color, movement and layering to create with purpose. I know it’s not to everyone’s taste but I rather like it.

Finishing another hand knit

Pattern: Seed Stitch Cowl from VK Holiday 2009
Yarn: 75 yards of marigold dyed alpaca; 2 skeins of vintage Malabrigo; color unknown
Needles: Size 11US / 8 mm

The main difference between mine and the eye-popping green one in the magazine was the weight of the yarn. I doubled worsted weight to approximate the chunky yarn called for in the pattern. This resulted in a smaller cowl which I actually like better. It fits inside my coat and it’s equally useful as a layering piece over a sweater.

I also added the pale marigold alpaca as a carry yarn at the start and finish of the piece. If I hadn’t been so lazy, I’d have set up the tripod so you could see how perfectly this goes with the Leaf Beret. This is the second item I’ve finished in the space of a little over three weeks and, at the the risk of being immodest, I’m pretty proud of myself. To go from nothing to something and enjoying the trip? Happy-making!

Friends like you

Thanks for reminding me that words such as those some anonymous person used were just that: words and nothing more. Thanks for reminding me that I have people in my life who will tell me to move on, let go and forget the small stuff and small minds. Reminding me to remember who I am and am not.

Pattern: Melissa LaBarre’s Leaf BeretYarn: One skein Louet Gems sportweight in Mustard colorway; 100 grams and 225 yards.Modifications: [...]]]> I’m the kind of boob who forgets to tell you that I finished the Leaf Beret over a week ago. It is lovely, wearable and an easy knit – especially for those like me re-entering the crafty atmosphere.

Pattern: Melissa LaBarre’s Leaf Beret
Yarn: One skein Louet Gems sportweight in Mustard colorway; 100 grams and 225 yards.
Modifications: None. The pattern is very clear, as written. Even the chart-averse will have no problem understanding the leaf motif.

It wasn’t my beloved marigold alpaca, but I did try to hold true to the pale color of the original yarn. I did end up using the alpaca as part of a cowl that can easily be paired with the beret. It’s in the seed stitch collar stage and should be ready by week’s end.

I am also the kind of boob who cares way too much about what some anonymous person had to say recently in a new comment to an old post from 2005:

“JC has left a new comment on your post “Ciao 2005, Bon Giorno 2006!“:

how about sticking to one language, you pretentious boob, preferably the native lanugage (sic) of the readersip (sic) you hope not to put off…”

Dictionary.com says:

pre⋅ten⋅tious –adjective

1.	full of pretense or pretension.

2.	characterized by assumption of dignity or importance.

3.	making an exaggerated outward show; ostentatious.

---

Studying the brain of the boob

Please don’t confuse knowledge of more than one language as pretentiousness. This is simply a result of my environment and upbringing. I may be many things but feelings of self-importance are not part of my make-up. On the contrary, I’d rather ham it up and use self-directed humor to divert attention away from the “real me.” I will retreat to a corner before making an ostentatious show.

Like many people, I can be complex, intense, perceptive, impulsive and worried over the smallest things (like why I’ve lost a few readers or how to stop the cat from chewing my patterns). That may make me both perspicacious and paradoxical but never, ever a pretentious boob.

All the mother-to-be asked for was a kelly green hat. I thought to myself, “A hat’s not nearly enough,” and that’s how a quick [...]]]> It took me months to complete and I had to battle back against the boredom slog through every stitch in the middle, but I am pretty pleased with how things turned out.

All the mother-to-be asked for was a kelly green hat. I thought to myself, “A hat’s not nearly enough,” and that’s how a quick little knit morphed into a 28″ x 34″ blanket.

I was a little overwhelmed as I tried to narrow down my blanket options with Ravely’s pattern search: must be knit using chunky yarn and freely available. One pattern really stood out for its flexibility and adaptive nature: Thrifty Knitter’s Hooded Baby Blanket.

I decided that 400+ people couldn’t be wrong. You should see the variations in the Ravelry project listing! One that really caught my eye substituted a 4 x 1 flat ribbing instead of an endless sea of stockinette.

The other thing I really liked was the use of seed stitch for each color change stripe, much like the pattern used in the Dream in Color Tulip Sweater. This lends a subtle, elegant texture element to what could be an otherwise bland swath of knitted fabric.

Despite all the time and effort put into the blanket, I still thought something was lacking. I almost always make a hat and this time was no different – except for the fact that I actually followed a pattern for construction. Yep. Jennifer Braico’s Fixation Newborn Hat (Ravelry). Substitute leftover Berroco Comfort Chunky for Cascade Fixation and we have a striped hat with an inch of 4-stitch I-cord on top.

Determined not to make socks this time, I listened to the handful of voices who, in the past, have urged me to take the path of least resistance when it comes to easy-peasy baby gifts: the bib. I have finally seen the light! The bib is your friend – especially if you crochet – because you can knock one of these out in under two hours. Seriously.

The Coats and Clark pattern is called the So-Simple Baby Bib which requires size 3 crochet thread. So not the equivalent of chunky yarn, which is why I reworked gauge to create a bib roughly the same size as the one in the original pattern. If I hadn’t, I might have cooked up something suitable for a sloppy adult (like me) who’s always wearing tiny bits of food on their shirt. If you’re interested in the details for the pattern modifications, just email or PM me.

With the help of needles, hooks and patterns, I turned 7 skeins of chunky yarn into something the mom says she’d be proud to put on her baby. Funny how it took four months to make someones day. I’d do it again, too.