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.

Funny and Fancy Socks

I did finish the Funny and Fancy socks, just not until 11pm on November 1st. So I only missed the deadline I set for myself by 23 hours, not even an entire day. Not bad for a month with so many things going on, really. Here they are, in all their splendor:

 

Although the start was a little fiddly with 10 separate yarn balls to juggle, it was a very enjoyable knit. I'm not usually that crazy about doing intarsia, but since I just had to knit strips and remember whether to connect them or not it wasn't bad. I wasn't tied to a chart, so it was relatively simple to knit in public (so long as I was in a place where I could count to 8 reliably). There was a mistake in the instructions, but it was minor and any experienced knitter would be able to spot it without a problem. On page 119, line 2, it reads "Next round knit". What it should say is something like "Next Round knit needles one and three, work needle 2 in rib"

I gave them to Devi tonight, and someday I'll get a picture of them on her. If we're both home. At the same time. During daylight hours. And one of us thinks of it. When the other on isn't on their way out the door. And we can find the camera.

Eco Vest

Red Eco Vest

Sometime in July, I lost my mind and decided that the blistering heat would end sooner if I cast on a sweater, so I cast on 3 in 2 weeks. In all fairness one was this vest and one was a baby sweater so I didn't totally lose it.

I finished the Eco Vest from Knitting Green last week. It was a fun knit, even if I did have a scare during the mid-construction blocking. The whole idea of mid-construction blocking is alien to me, but I figured there might be a reason for it so I played along. Anyway, I think the person who entered the measurements into the schematic mixed things up so that a 6-repeat section should be 7.5" across when the gauge specs say 2 repeats should equal 7". It also indicated that the whole piece should be 21" wide. After my initial heart attack I realized that someone put a number in the wrong spot and did the math on my own. I blocked it to 21" across the back, 34.5" wide in total.

The back and part of the fronts are knitted in one piece from the bottom up, then you pick up stitches and knit the fronts/shawl collar in one piece towards the center front. Easy peasy! Both sections have nice, rhythmic stitch patterns that are easy to memorize. This one got knitted in many places, mostly out and about.

With worsted weight and fairly large needles, it looks boxy on the blocking board but nice and curvy on me. I put the button a little higher than pattern says so it looks more like an empire waist. It drapes nicely and I think I'll be wearing it a lot once the weather cools down.

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.

Blocked Veronika

I forgot the one thing I did get done this week. I finished knitting Veronika last weekend and got it blocked last night. Ta da!

 There are some errata and clarifications, plus I made a change to the design. Elizabeth from the NieblingLaceKnitters yahoo group was kind enough to share what the blurry symbols are, as well as the "move marker" symbols seem to go the wrong way. She figured it out from trial and error, saving the rest of us some time and effort. Thanks, Elizabeth! Here are her clarifications and corrections:

Round 1- (one) make 4 from 1
R13- (one) k4tog
R15- move marker forward 1 stitch
R35- (six) make 3 from 1
R37- move marker backwards one stitch
R45- (two) k9tog
R47- (six) make 3 from 1
R57- (three) make 3 from 1, (two) k9tog, (three) make 3 from 1
R67- (two) k9tog.

For the Make 4 from 1's  I decided to do (k1, yo)2x instead of alternating knits and purls. It made the start MUCH faster and easier. Did the Make 3 from 1's as k1, yo, k1. Don't think it made much difference visually, but the ease of it sure helped my attitude, especially since I had to start over after 60-someodd rounds the first time. I decided to do all the k9tog's as slip 6 individually, k3tog, pass slipped stitches over. Very do-able.

The other change I made was in the number of repeats for rounds 77 through the end. The pattern calls for 20 repeats of a 16 stitch sequence. Since there are 8 repeats in the rest of the pattern, I changed it to 16 repeats of a 20 stitch sequence. To do that, I added one unit of hex mesh (k2tog, yo, yo, ssk) to the repeat. I wound up knitting 2 extra rounds, but I really prefer the look of it. Cleaner and more intentional, I think.

Blocked out to 20" in circumference, and it looks smashing on the dark wood table. Victory!

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.

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.

Miniature Lace Tablecloth

I've been knitting this little gem lately, A Miniature Lace Tablecloth to Knit for Titania's Tea Table by Mary Francis Wogec, It's in the September/October issue of Piecework magazine. I'm knitting it with size 1 needles and size 10 dmc cebelia in a lovely spring green (wondering what it is about green lately), but anyway.....

There was an error in the pattern, but Mary Francis came to the rescue! Here's the errata, straight off the presses for anyone else working on this one:

"Here is the correct correction (with profuse apologies):

Row 39 is correct as published.

Row 41 needs 2 added knit stitches in the second to last cluster. This means that row 41, reading from left to right, should look like this:
O | | \ O | O | | | | | | | O | O / | | O / O / O | | /|\ | | O \ O \

(I've just proof knitted the piece, and this works out the way it should.)

Row 43 is correct as published."

I have a few epsides of Farscape on DVD and some free time, so I hope to finish it tonight.