Perfect timing

So my Color Affection Shawl is done… I finished it on July 4 amidst searing heat on the East Coast.  I still don’t have photos of me wearing it but here are a few of the thing itself.  It is very long (the straight edge at the top measures 7 feet!) and is therefore difficult to photograph: This is the laceweight version of the shawl, done in Miss Babs Yet yarn (65% merino, 35% tussah silk).  I knit it on 3.0 mm needles and stretched it a little when blocking… you can see how sheer it is.  The green totally disappears against the grass in the background of the photo above. I used the yarnover trick everyone is talking about, and it helped a lot on the edges.  See? No puckering:

Still, the edge where I changed yarns was a bit tighter than the other edge, so next time I knit this I’ll take even more care to carry the yarn loosely.  More loosely than my usual loose knitting.

I used Jeny’s Surprising Stretchy Bind Off (JSSBO) on the dark gray edge and it worked well (I find Cat Bordhi’s video easier to follow than Jeny’s original instructions).  This edge might be a tad too corrugated for my taste but I’ll take it: Overall, I’m very pleased with this.  It’s very lightweight and lofty and will feel great wrapped around my neck on a chilly morning’s walk to work come fall.  I do envision wearing this more like a scarf than a shawl.  It’s just SO LONG!I thought these colors were fairly solid when I selected the yarn.  See what it looked like in the hank?  Perhaps I should have opened it up to take a closer look before I brought it home. The light gray yarn had a lot more contrast (with that deep blue) than I initially thought, and the green also had more highs and lows (and a few surprisingly flecks of red!).  People have knit this pattern with so many different yarns.  I think my favorites are the ones out of almost solid yarns, so that the stripes really pop.  Mine isn’t quite like that… but I still think the result is lovely and I’ll wear it a lot.

Now I’m just one of the 4,720 people in Ravelry who have knit this.  Talk about a viral pattern.

Progress report

I haven’t posted in a while… because I’m still working on all the same three projects.  I can happily report that I finished the first sock of the pair, though: Look at that eye of partridge stitch on the heel – so subtle. It will wear like iron but not be bulky at all – love it! This “willow” color is so hard to capture.  This (below) is truest to life (please ignore the weed): I have been knitting furiously on my Color Affection shawl.  I didn’t realize until I won the laceweight yarn kit from Miss Babs that the pattern included a laceweight option – I’d only seen fingering versions before that.  The two shawls have the same dimensions.  You know what that means, right?  There are WAY more stitches in the laceweight version!  I just keep going and going and going and still have a fair bit to knit. Here is a shot of the three-color striping section: Just as evidence that it’s growing.

I’m slowing spinning my SPAKAL fiber, too.  I have 29 little fiber-y nests and I’ve just spun #11.  Here it is! I have four wood bobbins and I’ve been filling them each with one ounce before transferring them to the storage bobbins.  I do this with a power drill.  Have I showed you this yet?  Maybe not.

The rubber band on the drill bit helps grip the plastic bobbin so that it spins properly.  I find I can get through 4 bobbins or so before the band breaks.  Then I go hunting for another one.  I’ve been labeling the storage bobbins in the order they are spun so that I can randomize when I ply.  I suppose if I were truly random I would put them in a box and shake them up… but I think we all know I don’t quite roll that way.  Accession numbers are in order.

What are you up to this summer?

This and that

I’ve begun several projects that haven’t made it to the blog yet.

First up, another pair of socks for office knitting.  Longtime readers may remember this pair, knit in spring 2009:

The pattern is the descriptively but boringly named Undulating Rib Socks (Ann Budd, while very clever, is not fanciful, at least when it comes to pattern names) from a great collection, Favorite Socks.  I loved these socks.  Loved the simple yet effectively textural pattern, loved the yarn (Dream in Color Smooshy), loved the color (Spring Tickle), which is green with flecks of brownish orange, just like real leaves.  But this yarn came into my life before my current sock yarn philosophy.  Yes, friends, it is 100% superwash merino, and the heels busted gigantic holes that couldn’t be fixed because the yarn was dissolving in front of my eyes.  Much sadness.

I’ve decided to knit a replacement.  Same pattern, but different yarn.  I’m using Shelridge Farms Soft Touch Heather in color Willow, which is fairly solid in color but much stronger than Smooshy (15% nylon, superwash wool but not merino).  Short time readers will recognize this yarn, from which I just knit a pair of mitts.  When I knit those mitts, my hands hurt.  My usual 2.0mm needles seemed too small for the yarn.  The yarn was labelled “light fingering” but to me, it seemed more like sport.  So for these socks, I went up to 2.25mm needles and am MUCH happier.  I initially cast on 60 stitches but ripped it back and began again with 54.  These socks will fit me now.Sorry about the color in the photo.  A storm was brewing and there was no sun to bring out the beautiful yellowish-green color here.  I have made a modification.  On the rounds where I need to increase from one stitch into three, I am using a different technique.  Do you see the difference between those increases in the first two pattern repeats (closest to the cuff) and the later ones?  I think the one specified in the pattern leaves a bit of a hole.  It wasn’t so apparent at the finer gauge, but it shows up here.  Anyway, I’m ready to put a heel on this sock.

In other knitting news, this has begun:Know what it is?  Garter garter garter garter garter… YUM.

I haven’t had much time to spin this week, but I’ve done this a few times: I’m using my power drill to move the singles from the wheel bobbin to the storage bobbin.  Fun!  I’ve made 5 of these now.  24 to go.  I’m not at all sure I’m doing it well, but I am certain that I’ll be better on bobbin 29 than I am right now.  There will be learning.

Impatient

I could not wait to start the Color Affection shawl.  Upon taking a closer look at the pattern, I realized I didn’t have quite the right needles on hand.  The laceweight version (the one I had wound the yarn for) calls for a 32” 3.0mm needle.  I have some metal 24” 3.0 mm needles (which I never use for socks anymore) but nothing longer.  And with laceweight yarn, I was pretty sure I wanted a wood needle for grab.  But I cast on anyway…

I forgot to do the yarnover trick I read about on the Harlot’s blog. So I knew I would start over again.  I also wasn’t sure if I wanted a 3.0 needle or a 3.25, so I changed partway through this.  You can tell I’ve already pulled the needles out.

The light gray yarn reads much more light gray in the ball than in the knitting, doesn’t it?  It’s really full of blue and even some red.Bottom line, I’ve decided to go with the 3.0 mm and have ordered the proper needle from Knit Picks.  I also got the Too Cool Felici Sport sock yarn I missed on my  last order.  And I think I have the YO trick down now, too.

And then, I cast on for a sock. Any guesses what this is?