Dance of the Butterflies

A few weeks ago, someone bought a Butterfly Pi shawl pattern and asked me if I could convert it into a scarf pattern. I said I'd give it a go, so that's what I've been working on for the past few weeks. I had to do a lot more recharting than I thought, but I really like the design and have started knitting a couple to see what it looks like. I bought a skein of Dream in Color Baby in the color Some Summer Sky for one of them, and a cone of lilac South West Trading Company Infinity for the other.

The Dream in Color is a bit on the heavy side for laceweight, but it knits up really nicely. I'm using size 5 needles and knitting this scarf from the handwritten charts. So far I've knitted through chart 2. It'll be a nice warm scarf when it's done.


The Infinity soysilk is much thinner, so I'm knitting it on size 2 needles. It'll be better suited to a warm climate or indoor wear, and I can tell already that it'll drape beautifully. I'm proofing the spreadsheet chart with this one, to make sure everything got entered correctly. I finished the edging chart a few days ago.

Japanese Mystery Scarf

I cast on another Japanese Mystery Scarf this weekend. This fulfills 2 goals: I need to knit more things for the HGB Sale, and I needed something I could knit and not pay much attention to. I bought a couple more skeins of Mini Mochi and cast on Saturday. I love the autumn colors!

When it's done, it should look something like this:

If you'd like a copy of the pattern to make your own scarf, use the PayPal button at right and I'll email you a copy.

Community Knitting Score!

I went to Community Knitting yesterday morning at Mew Mew's Yarn Shop for the first time. In the bin of donated yarn was a gorgeous skein of hand spun yarn, hand dyed with Kool-Aid. Sue, the shop owner, spun and dyed it herself. I know I don't get to keep it, but I do get to play with it for a while. ;) I love the colors! Just the thing to cheer someone up on the dead of winter.

I cast on 31 stitches on size 10.5 needles for a domino scarf. I'll just keep making squares until I run out of yarn.

Snowflake Doily

This weekend I decided to take a break from "should" knitting and do some "want to" knitting. Yay! I needed a break. On Friday night I cast on the lovely Niebling doily from the spring issue of Anna magazine. It isn't named, but it reminds me of a snowflake. I'm using the leftover thread from the Piecework doily and size 0 needles. I made it to round 50 last night. About 20 rounds to go, give or take. This one has pattern on almost every round, making stitch markers and counting very important. It's been challenging so far, but it makes sense the way the pattern emerges. No chart errors so far!

For those of you who don't knit much lace, this is the "before" picture. It's lumpy and weird looking now, but when it's been cast off and blocked it'll be magically transformed. Just wait a few days and you'll see.

Finn's Birthday Boxers

Finn turned 10 last Thursday, so I made him some boxers, too. I used a plain old Simplicity pattern (9958) because I couldn't find a kids pattern without a seam up the back. He picked out this fabric last spring, but he doesn't remember that and was, frankly, underwhelmed. I like 'em, but they won't fit me. He did like the Crobots book, though, and has asked for a crochet lesson so he can crochet some robots.

This weekend we danced a lot! Friday night at Jane's, Tommy practice on Saturday morning, dancing out with Maroon Bells and Breathless at the Westminster Rec Center and Promenade all afternoon, medieval dance practice last night. Now it's Monday morning and I feel great! No more dancing until Thursday, though.

Playing with a Straight Threading

In the Handweaver's Guild of Boulder, there is a Complex Weavers interest group. I decided to join when it started up even though I was a pretty new weaver. Nothing wrong with having the most to learn, especially when many of the others have been weaving for decades.

These ladies are amazing! They know their way around rules I haven't even learned yet.

Anyway, we've been working our way through Bonnie Inouye's book Exploring Multishaft Design this year. The first 6 chapters deal with what you can do design wise on a straight threading. So I put on a long warp and made mugrugs for chapter 1, twills. Some of the liftplans I made looked pretty good, so I wound a 7 yard warp pf 6/2 cotton and wove some towels. The fringe turned out to be a bad idea with that particular yarn, but overall I'm quite pleased. I got to play with pattern, and color too. I'm still figuring out how color works in weaving, mostly by imitation and my own trial and error.

I wove these in the spring but didn't get them out of the camera until last week.

Morgana Fingerless Gloves Knitting Pattern

Here's my latest, hot off the presses:

Morgana Fingerless Gloves Knitting Pattern

Cascade Fixation Solids #6388

For the past couple of years I’ve been trying to come up with a glove pattern that will fit both my teenage daughters and myself. These fit the bill. Because the yarn had elastic spun into it, I can knit a glove small enough for my petite younger daughter (Morgana is her middle name) that still fit me without being too tight. The cuff is knitted sideways, back and forth on 2 needles and grafted into a tube. Then the hand stitches are picked up and knitted on the round. While you may decide to knit the hand on shorter dpns, the cuff needs to knitted on long ones or circular needles. These gloves use either one ball of Cascade Fixation (98.3% cotton/ 1.7% elastic, 50g) or one ball of K1C2 Soxx Appeal (96% super- wash merino wool, 3%nylon, 1% elastic, 50g)

Finished size: hand circumference 6” (easily stretches to 8.5”). Total length 7”

Soxx Appeal #9627

Some folks have been asking if this would work with yarns that aren't so stretchy. I think it would work without alteration if you have small hands. If your hands are significantly larger around than the gloves, you would need to alter the gauge or add cuff repeats and hand stitches. Both could be done without much fuss. I would encourage you, however, to try one of these soft, wonderful yarns.

Cascade Fixation Effect #9967

I've used the Fixation for socks before, they are very comfortable and never sag. I really like the way the colors stripe and pool with the effects and spray dyed colors. After wearing the gloves for a few days, I can tell you they are nice for cool weather knitting and driving (thought I wouldn't recommend doing them at the same time!) No trouble getting things out of my pockets, and there was no gap between my gloves and my sleeves.

Cascade Fixation Spray Dyed #9816

Soxx Appeal is a new yarn for me, and I like it a lot! It is softer than it looks, very supple and, since it is mostly wool, toasty warm and soft. The colors pool more than stripe because the color changes every inch or so. I already bought a ball of solid navy to make myself another pair.