Dug in Shadow

I finished a Sonja Esbensen shawl on Monday night, the dug from this free pattern. Instead of cotton and size 1 or 2 needles, I used Knit Picks Shadow in the color Sunset. Kevin bought this yarn for me a year or two ago for my birthday. Knitted on size 9 needles and cast off with size I crochet hook, it is very open and lace, measuring 60 inches across pinned out on the bed. It'll relax to probably 56 or 58 when it's completely dry.

This is a 102 round pattern. If it were any smaller, it wouldn't work well for a shawl unless you used heavier yarn and even larger needles. I love how open it is, and it'll still be warm on my shoulders. Next time you see a doily pattern you like, take a chance and knit it large. You won't be disappointed.

 There was only one error in this pattern, a missing yarnover in round 81. There are 3 sets of what should be “yo, twisted stitch, yo”, but the center set omits the second yarn over and if you don't catch it, you'll find you are one stitch short on round 83.

So, round 81 should read:

(ssk, yo)3x, ssk, k5, k2tog, yo, (k2tog, yo)5x, ssk, k1, yo, k1twisted, yo, k1, k2tog, yo, k2, yo, k1twisted, yo, k2, yo, ssk, k1, yo, k1twisted, yo, k1, k2tog, yo, (ssk, yo)2x.

I'll take some more drapey pics when it's dry and unpinned.

Lots of knitting!

This past week I got a lot of knitting done, as well as a little weaving. First, I cast on the larger Sonja Esbensen doily from this free pattern as a shawl. I'm knitting it with Knit Picks Shadow and size 9 needles. It's just over 100 rounds, so it aught to be plenty big enough when it's done.

I also worked a lot on my Kureyon zigzag scarf. It's coming right along and I can make a lot of progress when I pay attention to which side I'm knitting so I don't miss the decreases. ;)

Skew is coming right along. Although it is easy to knit, it's a truly bizarre sock. Here's the foot, about halfway I think:

This is what it looks like once you start the heel shaping:

 I'm nearly done with the first one, just started the ribbing this morning. I tried it on last night and it's very comfy. In fact, all the kids tried it on, too, just because it looks so funky. They all like how it fit, so there may be more of these in my future.

New Year's Lace

On Thursday I realized I hadn't knitted any "lace" lace in a while and I really missed it. A few days before I came across a free Sonja Esbensen design I hadn't seen before, so I cast on the smaller piece, as "instant gratification" lace. I cast off and blocked it this afternoon. It's just what the doctor ordered!

The color in the top pic is accurate, but the design show up better against the wood table.


I also got a decent pic of my Fairies and Flowers scarf.

This one drove me a little nuts on the second half, so it sat in time out for a while. There are wrong-side decreases on the flower half that I was sometimes, and sometimes not, in the mood for. The finished product thrills me. Just the right length, lacy and beady all over, soft and warm. It's more teal-ish than the photo shows, though.


Also started my January socks today, Skew.

Chris

I started Chris by Sonja Esbensen way back in March and finished it about 2 weeks ago. I blocked it out to 74" diameter and it relaxed down to 68" diameter, just right for my 5'8" frame.;) I had to block it folded in half so it would fit on the bed. I have never done that before, but it worked out well and wasn't as much of a pain as I thought it might be.

I LOVE the yarn, Dream in Color Baby, and I LOVE the color, Black Parade. It's mostly black with bits of blueish green here and there to jazz it up a bit. Not enough value contrast to make the pattern look funny, but enough to give it richness and depth.
 

 Errata- The only problem I found with this chart is that they do not list rounds 105-110, which normally means you should knit that round. In this case, the photo makes it obvious that this is not the case. Purl rounds 100-104 then proceed diractly to round 111 (do not pass go, do not collect $200).

I cast on for Bent 1 last week. Ellen gave away a bunch of fine alpaca yarn last year at the HGB knitters group, and I snagged a cone of chocolate brown. It's knitting up a little skimpy on size 2 needles, but I'm hoping it will bloom nicely when it's washed and blocked.

Bertel

 

This one was a joy to knit! Very regular, no weird increases or decreases. If it was larger than it was, I would no doubt have gotten bored, but this was fine. I like how it looks, too.

There was one mistake in the chart. On round 59, you need to slip 2 stitches from the left needle to the right needle in order for everything to line up.

Pumpernickel

 

Here's the second loaf of pumpernickel from the current batch of dough. It's a little on the light side color-wise because I didn't have the caramel color called for in the recipe. I really like this toasted with butter, but cold and plain it doesn't quite do it for me. Still, time well spent. 

I cast on Bertel from Kunststrik 2 last week, knitted through round 52 last night. This one is a cutie!

Bent 2

 

This is Bent 2 by Sonja Esbensen. I used size 10 DMC cebelia and size 1 needles. It's about 12" across. There was an error in round 43. The last knit 3 in the repeat should be a double decrease. So, it should read: (yo, double decrease, yo, knit 1, double decrease, knit 1)3x,  yo, double decrease, yo, double decrease.

The sequence for grouping stitches didn't make sense, and didn't match up to the repeat length at all, corrected or not. This is what I did- knit 2 stitches, then group stitches as follows: 4-3-3-3-4-5 with 7 chain stitches between them.

Stefan, bread

Here's the second Esbensen doily, Stefan. No trouble with the charts, a nice quick knit!

I picked up a great book at the library over the holidays, Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. Lots of great reciped for bread that doesn't require kneading or living by a lengthy schedule dictated by rising times. It's nice to have fresh, real bread every day. We've had a different type of bread every week since Christmas and there are plenty more recipes left to try.

Veronika Ripped, Lars

I had a streak of bad luck once I got around 62+ rounds in on this one. I dropped a stitch that ran down about 4 rounds, started tinking back and  dropped another one after about a round and half, then dropped a third one right over (and down into) one of the k9togethers. So I ripped it! I'll probably start again sometime soon, but for now I need to work on something simpler with larger thread.

I started knitting a few of the doilies from Sonja Esbensen's book Kunststrik 2. Lars had a couple of errors, but it was easy to spot them and easy to fix them.

Corrections:
The cast on instructions tell you to cast on 12 and knit 1 round. To get the look in the picture, though you need to knit 3 rounds before you start the chart.

In round 36, omit the last yarn over to get the correct stitch count and maintain the pattern lines. It should read “yo, knit 1, yo, double decrease, yo, knit 4, yo, double decrease, yo, knit 1, yo, knit 1, double decrease, knit 1”