Field Report

Hey, blog.

No pictures today, just a brief update on the swallowtail. Had a bit of trouble with the end of chart 2, I missed the yarn over before the center stitch and had to rip back two rows, not once, but twice. Meh, I should learn not to knit at 1 AM. Anyway, I'm on chart 3A now, and something doesn't seem right. It's not lining up, and I don't even know if it's supposed to or not, just that it isn't and I'm uber paranoid. Anyway I've been avoiding kitting it trying to think what to do and working on the cursed scarf in the meantime. But I've decided to finish the row, and if I'm up or down a stitch I'll rip back and try to work out what's wrong, but if I finish the row even I'll take that for a sign that everything is going as it should.

Summer reading & some lace

Hello blog, how are you?

Allow me to indulge in a few short off-topic musings. I really love summer. I love the warm air, I love the bright sunshine, I love complaining about air-conditioning (it's too cold), and I love summer reading. I haven't been doing much 'pleasure' reading lately because college kind of sucks all the fun out of books for me, but I do love reading non-sense and children's books during summer. Dropped by the library yesterday and picked up a stack.

My method for picking these books was meticulous. I typed up a list of books that I wanted to read, then I printed it and took it to the library where I quickly found out that none of them were available. Not daunted, I spent 20-30 minutes in my favorite sections picking out books with interesting-looking covers and reading the flaps. When I'd got as many books as I could carry, I checked out. Impressed? I thought so. This method is so perfect for finding good books in libraries, that I even managed to check out a book that I've already read before : When you catch an adjective, kill it. by Ben Yagoda. I can't wait to re-read it!

Anyway. Back to knitting.

You might remember that I cast on for the popular swallowtail shawl awhile back, in January '09, but quickly dropped it for other projects. Not because I didn't like swallowtail, but for various reasons, the other projects seemed more urgent or appealing at the time. Since my knitting style has changed so drastically in the past year - learning to do YO's correctly and switching from english to continental style knitting - I decided to frog the progress I'd already made, and start over from scratch. Same yarn, same needles. Anyway, I did this on the 15th and have already caught up to and surpassed where I was before ^^;; I'm enjoying this so much that I've barely even thought about casting on for my magic 3rd project, although I've decided what it's going to be. (koolhaas in a barely bearable green acrylic.)

I'm supposed to be doing a bit of hiking today so, I'm going to go eat & change now. lolz.

'cheers

Theo

FO : Laurel

Hello blog,

I'm very tired today and the sky is rather dark and dreary. The majority of my family has left on vacation and I'm here in the house all alone, with nothing but job applications, knitting, and Rob Inglis for company. (He's the reader for the fellowship of the ring audio book that recently came into my possession.)

Anyway, it sounds crazy to say but all this quiet is making me feel rather listless and dull. I'm glad I've been able to visit with my girlfriends this week, otherwise I might be bouncing off the walls by friday!

But enough about me! Today is an FO post. Finished the Laurel hat, and glad to say it fits perfectly and is so lovely that I'm wearing it around the house, despite the heat.

Pattern : Laurel

Yarn : Cascade 220 superwash

Needles : US3, US7

Cast on : May 26

Cast off : June 14

Some notes about this pattern...

Knitting this was a joy, really. The chart is just a pleasure to knit off of, and the cables are so charming and clever, not only did I never get bored knitting this hat, but I also never felt bogged down, even while knitting the fiddly bits. The bobbles, specifically, weren't nearly as horrible as I had anticipated and I actually quiet enjoyed them!

My only complaint is the special rows where your supposed to move the stitch marker. The directions for them didn't make much sense, especially rows 32 & 34, and the errata page didn't really help either. I'm not convinced that it's actually a mistake in the pattern, but *I* couldn't figure out what was meant by them and I ended up completely ignoring the written instructions and just shifting the stitches around until they lined up the way the chart said, and that worked well enough. It didn't turn out to be that big a deal, in the end, but it was a bit confusing/frustrating at first.

Anyway, look forward to another post from me rather soonish as I've already cast on for another project. That's 2 projects on the needles and I generally like to have 3 going at all times, so I'll have to look into making that happen today ^^;;

Cheer's

Theo

P.S

P.S didn't realize, but isn't June 12th knit in public day? (Apparently the event is a whole week long according to this site )

Looks like some knitters are going to meet up for it at a mall not five minutes from my house. Maybe I should go?

Pool side knitting

Dear blog,

Today I'm writing to you from a blissful dreamy fog, after a wonderful day that consisted of the best things summer and life can offer; Sunshine, fresh air, good company, and poolside knitting. A friend who has recently started knitting invited me to come knit with her by the pool, an idea that in my opinion, was clearly inspired.

Here I am working on my hat

I'm still not sure if this hat is 'too big' or 'just about right for my big hair' yet. News bulletins will update as new information comes in.

Garter Stitch Scarf and Laurel. Just two BFF's chill'in in the sun.

This could easily become a habit. Summer is AWESOME.

Exorcism of a Cursed Scarf

I'd like to start today's post with a FO from last summer; my Dark Mark Scarf which I knit in a month to wear to the midnight showing of Harry Potter Movie the 6th. I love that scarf, I wore that scarf all winter and I have fond memories of knitting it. It was such an easy, pleasant, mistake-free project that this January I decided it was time to knit another one, this time for my brother.

I've been promising my brother, among other family members, their own dark mark scarves, so I went out and bought the yarn during winter break and cast on, only to discover that I had completely forgotten how to use the double knitting technique. What I failed to realize then was that the whole project had been seriously cursed, and what followed was not really my fault at all.

After frogging several times I hid the yarn in utter embarrassment. When school started up again I made several more attempts to start this project, I obsessively watched the double knitting tutorial at knittinghelp.com trying to spot what I was doing wrong, but without results. The scarf was cursed. Deeply, deeply, cursed.

I took some pictures to prove it.

Here after successfully casting on and starting the pattern (not as easy as it should have been ) I managed to switch the main color halfway through the row.

And here, you can see that what was supposed to be the start of the nose has become more of a staircase.

Today I finally wrangled the beast into submission, and have managed to get a whole 47 rows in without any major disasters, so whatever hex was on the scarf must finally have been lifted. Whew! To avoid ever experiencing this amount of pain again, here, for future reference, are the things that went wrong:

Gauge: Apparently, too tight a gauge is not good for double knitting, I went up from a US 6 to US 8

Stitch count : The original pattern says to cast on 31 stitches, since you're basically knitting two scarfs at the same time with double knitting, that number needs to change to 62. In addition, you'll be slipping the first stitch and purling the last stitch with both colors, so you need to add extra stitches. Final CO number should be 64.

Slipping the first stitch: It clearly says this in the instructions, but you need to slip the first stitch and then start the pattern beginning with a knit stitch. If you count the slipped stitch as your first knit stitch you will encounter serious problems. (Duh.)

Basic knitting/purling : When you knit, hold both colors in the back. When you purl, hold both colors in the front. Sounds simple in principle, doesn't it?

Now that that's been dealt with, I feel much more at piece with my Knitting.

Until next time,

Cheers!

FO: Olympic Diagonale

Hello blog!

Today is such a lovely day. Yesterday was way too hot (and our aircon is broken right now) but it's cooler this morning and there's a nice breeze coming through my window. Perfect for a lace FO!

This project was origonally my entry for the knitting olympics this year, but I dropped out because I just had too much course work. Meh. Still, it's finished now and it's lovely!

Probably my favorite project ever to date.

I'd like to thank the lovely Sixer for doing the photographs!

And finally, stats:

Pattern: Diagonale

Yarn: Knit picks gloss (2 skeins)

Needles : US 7

Cast on: Feb 12th 2010

Cast off: May 29th 2010