Many thanks to Gail for all the help, and for the pattern (from her classic Stahman's shawls and scarves book). I had to start the dang thing three times, but once I figured out how to read the lace chart (from the bottom up, where the line starts at #1 -- duh), it went smoothly and was a nice challenge. The cashmere (from elann.com) was luscious to work with. If it hadn't sold out within a day of being offered, I'd have bought more to work with....
Next, three fun-fur projects -- the green and pink scarves were for Johnnie, and I made the blue one for myself yesterday:
The pink one uses fun fur and wool; the other two use fun fur and homespun, and I knit all three using two rows of one yarn, two rows of the other, repeated about 450 times (not really, but it's a lot of rows). I like the pseudo-lacy effect, and alternating the yarns rather than knitting them together makes the scarf less chunky and, well, furry.
Finally, I'm starting to branch out from wearables to playables, and am currently working on a little sheep from World of Knitted Toys:
Now, what's wrong with this picture? I spot at least five mistakes:
1. The wool isn't anywhere near the recommended DK weight -- it's chunky, to say the least.
2. Therefore, I'm using US size 10.5 rather than size 3 needles.
3. And they're double-pointed, not straight needles.
4. Because I decided I wanted to knit in the round rather than sew up all those dang seams.
5. So why am I even bothering to follow a pattern? Well, I like to pretend that I am. Actually, I'm adapting this pattern. Which could explain why I'm on my third attempt (the first time I didn't understand the pattern's terminology; the second time was my first try at adapting the gauge, and this time I switched to the DPNs).
I must comment on the DPNs: I HATED using double-pointed needles until I found these birch ones. They're very lightweight and easy to work with, unlike the metal ones that would clank awkwardly and slip right out of the stitches and just infuriate me. If you hate DPNs, try these -- they're mah-velous.
I also made (but forgot to photograph) a funny little frog for Maggie from Family Circle Easy Toys. It came out very cute, and even though I managed to follow the pattern perfectly, I've already come up with a few changes (make I-cords for arms and legs instead of sewing them up, and try knitting body in the round... yeah, I hate seams!). I'll probably make more animals before getting back to wearables... it's hard to think about making warm clothes when every day here has been about 60 degrees and sunny.
**ducks flying objects from soggy and frigid regions of the nation**
No comments:
Post a Comment