Shawl 6, vine and leaf take two

I know I haven't updated the blog with these shawls as much as I should have.  I was waiting to see the outcome of the poll about whether it was cheating to do multiple versions of my patterns, or if it needed to be 200 distinct patterns.  The consensus is that multiple knitted versions of my patterns is acceptable, so I'm catching up the blog with the latest knits.

Since this is the 6th shawl to be finished, it is dubbed number 6!  Here are some blog posts, reminding you of the knitting that went on.

Let's start with another detail shot, those are always fun.

The ends of the vine pattern wave gently, this shot shows the color of the yarn well.

This is a shot you won't have seen any approximation of previously:

Color is crap, but this is the way the blocked triangle points look.

This may be patting myself on the back, but I really enjoy this pattern.  I have knit this 3 times for 2 shawls thanks to the first one being too tight, and not a good enough knit for me to put my name on.  Happens.  I'm actually plugging away on a final one of these in silk.  The yarn for this is Manos Del Uruguay silk and wool.  I used a little over 4 skeins of yarn, thanks to one of them having 11 knots in it.  Despite that, I love this shawl.  I love the color, I love the knitting of it, and I love the weight.  DK weight shawls feel so solid, almost like a hug.

Mmmm, hug.

This is a pretty good representation of how large this ended up being.

This comes down almost to my knees in back.

And although this isn't a fabulous picture, I love the silhouette.

hmm, maybe a bolero out of this pattern...

So, here is the evergreen vine and leaf.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the knitting.

FO, pine stole

As a memory jog, here are some posts that reference the stole I'm putting up as a finished object.  If I had more energy, I'd be ashamed that it was finished on October 8, but not FO blogged here until... well today.

This is the pine glow stole, a companion piece to the autumn glow triangle shawl.  I think I'll start with a detail shot.

as threatened, the detail shot

Here's a detail of the drape

60% alpaca, 30% merino, 10% cashmere, 800 Meters

As an alpaca yarn, it is a bit hairy.  But I think there is no nicer combination than alpaca and cashmere (unless you throw silk in.... that's always nice too).  Light, silky, warm, and soft. 

Here's how it looks in my library, as the weather and other things going on make taking pictures outside dubious at best.

back shot

And here's the drape/side shot.  I'll be posting all of these finished shawls on Artfire shortly, but I wanted to get them uploaded here first of all. 

Since this is the 5th shawl to be finished, blocked, and posted, I hereby declare it shawl number 5, the pine stole.  I did love this yarn, and the pattern is very calming to knit.  It doesn't take a bunch of brain power, and it's easy to memorize after a couple of repeats.  All in all, a fun, soft knit.

Friday Quickie

Tally Ho!  This will be a picture-less post, as my husband is working and I have the day off.... as does our littlest, who wants 100% mama-time (now, darn it!).

You all need to know that Deb is having her Anniversary Sale today and tomorrow.  All yarn and books are 15% off.  I might have accidentally showed up there at opening time to get a copy of Margaret Stove's new book (and a bit of yarn that accidentally threw itself at me.  Don't look for Plymouth Dye For Me, I might have cleaned her out). 

The boy  may have repaid me by vomiting the entire hour and 15 minute drive back home, so if my nerves seem a bit shot that could be a contributing factor.  Luckily, I travel with plastic bags, a plastic basin, bottled water, and towels.  The yarn was safely and lovingly packed in the back where no harm or stink could come to it, and the car, myself, and the boy all got home clean.

I'm going to go entertain captain upchuck.  Hope your weekend goes better than mine has started :)

and another world is heard from

Sorry about disappearing for so long.  This weekend, my family and I put up the outside walls on the "let's not freeze our pipes" project.  It was long and grueling work, and I literally just fell into bed once we got done.  Saturday, my Dad, my brother and I cut, sawed, and hammered until just past dark.  I cursed my lack of height again.  If I were even 4 inches taller I would have been more helpful.  As it was, I wasn't tall enough to do as much as I wanted to (even with the ladder I was standing on).  Curse you, barely average height.  Curse you.

Anyway, Sunday I went outside with my husband and the littlest beast and we tyvek'd the outside of the porch.  We're now at a point to do flashing and then windows.  And then we get to do the short wall.  The end is in sight.

I haven't taken pictures of the project this time.  A giant square of tyvek didn't strike me as particularly moving progress, so I'm going to wait until the windows are in.  Instead, I'm posting the pattern for the first Serious Scarf for everyone to enjoy (hopefully:).

Without further ado, here's the basic pattern

Charts are read from bottom to top, right to left (and then left to right).  Rows are numbered.

Here is the key so you can translate.

Key!  Feel free to print both.

So.  The edging of this scarf is simple seed/moss stitch (depending on locale).  There are 5 border stitches on each side, and the main pattern is 22 stitches wide.  You can make a scarf of pretty much any size just by multiplying 22x number of repeats and adding the border stitches.  There is one caveat.  In order for the textured part on the sizes to match, you will want to add an extra stitch to whatever count you come up with for your pattern.

What does this mean?  In the case of my Dad's scarf, I wanted 4 repeats.  So 22x4=88 stitches.  88 + 10 (border texture)= 98 stitches.  98+1=99 stitches to cast on.


After casting on 99 stitches (I used knitted cast on, but pretty  much any cast on you are comfortable with will work), I knit 7 rows in seed stitch (*(k1, p1)  *repeat (  ) to end).  The great thing about this texture stitch is it does not matter what row you're on, you'll always start with a knit stitch.  Front/back, they are the same.

After 7 rows, you will begin your right side pattern row;  however you have an extra stitch that will need to be removed in order for the borders to match.  What I did, is on row 7 I began the right side with k1, p1, k1, p1, K2TOG, and then began the center pattern.  This brought my stitch count back to 98, and made the borders match in a k1, p1, k1, p1, k1 pattern.

From here, I basically knit following the pattern until I was almost out of yarn.  I used roughly 1060 yards out of 1072 yards available;  8 skeins of Lark yarn from Quince and Co on size 6 needles.  I got 12 pattern repeats knit before I was close on yarn and needed to start the end border.  My finished dimensions were 92 inches x 32 inches wide, but you can change your dimensions by doing more or less repeats.

To finish the pattern, make sure you end your repeat on the row 30 of the chart.  You will be increasing one stitch across the top in order to bring you knitted width back to the odd number of stitches you started with (in my example that would be 99).  Personally, I just stuck an extra m1 in across the top of the right side row when I started across.  The picked up stitch is not visible, and it made the borders match.  Then I just knit 7 rows of seed stitch, and used a loose knitted bind off.  Et Voilla!  Block to desired measurements and give to someone you care for.

someone I care for

For those who aren't familiar with charts, here are the written instructions as well.  Please use the CO information from above to determine what size you want to make and the number of motif repeats you will be using.  Please be kind, I did this on the fly.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask :)  I know I can be a bit stream of consciousness.



Row 1 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *yo, ssk, k17, k2tog, yo, k1*   Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Even Rows 2 -30 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, p to last 5 stitches,  k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 3 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *yo, ssk, k17, k2tog, yo, k1,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 5 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k1, yo, ssk, k15, k2tog, yo, k2,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1,p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 7 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k11, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k1,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 9 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1 *k2, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k7, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k3,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 11 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k4, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k3, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k5,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 13 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k6, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, k3tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k7,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 15 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k8, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k9,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 17 k1, p1, k1, p1,k1,  *k9, k2tog, yo, k11,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 19 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k8, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k9,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 21 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k6, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, k3tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k7,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 23 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k4, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k3, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k5,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired , k1p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 25 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1,  *k2, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k7, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k3,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired  ,k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 27 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k11, k2tog, yo, k1, yo, ssk, k1,*  Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired,k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Row 29 k1, p1, k1, p1, k1, *k1, yo, ssk, k15, k2tog, yo, k2tog, yo,* Repeat instructions between * for number of motifs desired, k1, p1, k1, p1, k1

Whee!

Guess who is in the mail??

Little Bundles of Joy!

I wasn't able to get them out yesteday as planned, work interfered.  But they are in the mail as of 10 minutes ago, and on their way!  Graywolfie and TuttleDB, I have packages for you too.  Please let me know where I can send them :)

So, now what?  I've just finished binding off the Mary Mary Quite Contrary Shawl.  It's unblocked and... lovely. 

Bleah.  Man they look ugly before they block.

Here's a closeup of the unblocked edging

Poor ugly duckling.

If you can stand to stare at a pile of noodles, you can just see the lines it will take on once it's blocked.  Tomorrow, I'll block it and you'll see a difference.

Speaking of blocking, remember this guy?

Manos del Uruguay

Well, he's blocking out on the bed as I type.  I think he looks quite well, but I may be something of a biased observer.

See, cute?  Cute!  (knitter=biased)

I do have a secret project that I can't post here.  It's a gift, and I don't want to spoil the recipient's surprise.

I'm considering this as my next project

Mini Maiden in Ocean.  Not enough blue on this blog.

No matter what this skein turns into, it'll be gorgeous.  Can't beat Fleece Artist for beauty and fantastic fibers.

Based on the comments and feedback from our giveaway post, I've decided to coalate and put together my shawl patterns.  The comments were unanimous in favor of it, and I think it will be a fun thing to do.  So I'll be translating my notes, which look something like this (for the most part)

I'm sure there's math there somewhere

Into something readable by people who have better ordered minds.  Truthfully, not all of my patterns are that messy.  But this is the middle lace bit and side increases of Joie, as I used it.  Chilling, isn't it?  That other in pencil is the edging I put on Mary Mary.  I hope that folks will enjoy the patterns as much as I've been enjoying writing and knitting them.  I actually have a copy of Intwined Studio, so writing up the charts and written instructions will be much simpler than trying to get my graph paper scrawls into good order.

I'm going to be writing up the pattern for the Serious Scarf.  I'm thinking of offering that as a free pattern on the site to go with the triangle shawl.  A rectangle and a triangle, sounds good to me.

Anyway, thank you for reading and happy knitting!

The post you've been waiting for (me too)!

So here we are, and I'm all a-twitter.  First I want to thank the lovely folks who commented & gave me some direction.  I really appreciate the feedback, it helps me to not be a ruthless tyrant concerned with ruling the world.  You know, on a knitting scale.

Since we had 5 total comments, I didn't use the random number generator (random.org).  I used the time-tested child labor.

So we started like this:

All of our lovely commenters!

Which were separated, and put into this:

My black sheep mug.

Then I demanded help from the most random person in the house

He puts his hands in that mug all the time, this time he just had permission to do it.

At which point, the hand of fate chose names

So we made a list of the names pulled out in order as so

Read like knitting chart, bottom up.

If we recall from the original post, each name was entered to win one of the prizes being offered.  In that post there were only 3 prizes, so you  may be wondering why we pulled all 5 names.  Before I get into the next bit, let me explain.  I decided that the pool of candidates was not so large to choose from that everyone couldn't be a winner in our first giveaway.  So I set up a bag of goodies, and let little man pull the yarn for the names.  Because the 2 additional prizes are (in my opinion) just as fabulous as the originals, they were put in there for everyone to benefit from as well.

The yarn bag

So, as it stands we have 5 winners, yaaaaaaaaay!

First name pulled was One Sheep.  Little man pulled this from the yarn bag first.  He says it is very soft.

He's right, this is sooo soft to knit with.  Hope you love it!!

The next name pulled was Graywolfie.  And from the bag o goodies, our little man snagged one of our surprise goodies.  You get one of my favorite colorways in one of my favorite blends!

300 yards silk/wool blend in colorway indecita

Next up is Kitten with Whiplash!  Little man pulled out this prize for you from the bag of yarn.

You grabbed the cashmere/mink!

My cats love my cashmere/mink shawl, so I hope you'll love your cashmere mink yarn!

Next, the small hand of fate chose TuttleDB.  And for your prize, he pulled a fun one.

Fleece Artist!!

I was surprised that the Fleece Artist yarns made it until last, but the boy is completely random.  He declairs this yarn to be soft and woolie.

Last, but not least, the boy pulled DMPattersall.  The last yarn to be pulled was waiting for you, but I hope you won't be disappointed!

fleece artist blue faced leicester

Be aware, this contains higher lanolin content, and so smells a little closer to the sheep.  It is soft, the nature of the wool is to have a natural sheen, and it feels divine to knit.  550 fingering weight yards of one of my favorite Fleece Artist Colorways in one of my new favorite fibers!

Congrats to all of you!!  And thank you all for your feedback and encouragement.  Please email me privately where you want your prizes sent!!  Email to marveloustoy @ yahoo . com (remove the spaces, and it will get to me) and I'll pop your loot in the mail!  I've taken the liberty of emailing the folks whose emails addresses I can access.  But Graywolfie and TuttleDB, I need to hear from both of you as I haven't been able to snag your mail addresses (possibly due to being blind or crazy).

Edited to add:  If you like someone else's prize better, feel free to haggle.  Just let me know what you decide amongst yourselves :)

Okay, thank you all for reading this far, and happy knitting.

better late than under the weather

Today, I had the distinct pleasure of giving my Dad his first Serious Scarf.  It ended up being a little bit bigger than he had asked for, but he was pleased enough with it to offer to model it outright.  I didn't even have to ask.

The photos are going to be a little off because I was on uneven ground, as was he, and the background is misleading due to the interesting architeture of the backyard vs the house there.  Plus it was waaaay too cold for me to want him outside long, even with the wool to wrap in.

This photo is a fair idea of how the simple pattern repeat looks overall

A little more red than real life, but not too bad color wise.

This shows the length.  It was way too cold to have him out without a jacket... or cardigan maybe....

But I think that this photo pretty well sums it up

In his chair in front of the bookshelf, menaced by my youngest.

My Mom calls it a half an afghan, and it is actually not a bad description.  It's for those times when you don't want a whole cover up, but you want a bit of extra snuggly warmth.  He seemed really pleased, and I'm already contemplating his next one in peacoat blue.

This would be the other thing that made taking pictures difficult.

I'd be mad, but he's cute.  He gets away with a lot for that grin.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow!  Tonight is the last night to enter the giveaway.  I unfortunately found out that I am stuck in training all morning every morning this week so the winners will be posted after I get home (around 3PM Eastern).  I apologize for the lag, but I know there's no way I can possibly get the post done before I drive to work, attend the training, and then drive back.  I work out of a home office right now, and sometime later I'll get into what I had to do in order to get the ability to do that.  But at the moment, I'm just sadly contemplating the lost knitting time.

Until tomorrow!

It's Enormous

So, last night I finished the knitting on my Father's Serious Scarf.  This morning, I measured it before soaking it... and it was 72 inches unblocked.   Aha, hahaha.  Perhaps 7 skeins would have been enough.

Anyway, it's currently blocking across my oldest's bed.

It reminds me of chain link fence.

Here, you can see the edging.  Simple seed stitch, but I think it works with the scarf well.

simple, sturdy

Apparently, my husband is contemplating how to get one of his own.  I am reserving judgement until I see my Dad with it, but as far as the spousal unit is concerned this is a success. 

So, it started out 72 inches long... and it's so long it is about 2 feet longer than the king sized bed as it blocks.  No wonder this sucker was so heavy when I bound off the edge.  I hope to get a picture when I give it to Dad, but we'll see what he's willing to put up with.

I am not as good with worsted and heavier yarns.  I have chronic arthritis in my wrists and recurrant tendonitis from my teenage years, so when my knits get to be more than about a pound the knitting is actually painful.  It may be part of why I enjoy lace knitting so well.  I get a lot of mileage out of very little weight.

If you're looking for a fun read, check out this comment!  I giggle and nod every time I read it, and I suspect every knitter goes through something similar while designing. 

This weekend, I'll only be able to post on Sunday.  Saturday, I have a standing engagement (which is surprisingly not knit related).  So I'll catch everyone Sunday afternoon!  Speaking of Sunday, you have until Sunday night at midnight to comment on this post and be entered in the giveaway.  Winners will be announced Monday sometime after 7AM Eastern.

Have fun and knit on!

happy days!

Worsted Weight Serious Scarf, knitting DONE!!!

Status of hands:  sore but operable.

Blocking and end weaving begins tomorrow.

10 days, 2 lost to construction, 2 lost to child stuff.  So roughly 130x8= 1040 yards in 6 days.

Acceptable!

Rejoicing will begin after napping, and pictures will be taken tomorrow.

yarn review: Quince & Co

For me, this is a truly local yarn.  I can drive to the shop that carries their yarn in a couple of hours.  This isn't such a big deal, as there are more than a handful of yarn shops within easier travel.  What is such a big deal is that this yarn is milled here in New England, and it uses yarn that is sourced in our country.

Don't get me wrong, I love a good yarn no matter it's provenance.  But I get a lot of satisfaction knowing that this yarn has a smaller carbon footprint.  Plus, the yarn itself is gorgeous.  As a refresher, here's how they ship the yarn to you:

Little Bundles o Joy!

Every batch of yarn comes discreetly wrapped in white paper, and closed with a Quince & co sticker.  They have, so far, put each colorway ordered into its own bundle to keep them together.  Opening the box is like a little shot of excitement.  The wrapping is simple, but it makes me feel like they value their product highly enough to give it special treatment;  which makes it feel more special when you do open them.

Opened, the bundles look something like this:

picture is dark, but color of yarn is spot on

Isn't it cute??  I will say this for them, every color I've tried has been luscious.  Even their brown shades, which I usually don't enjoy knitting as much, have been fabulous.  They have a number of colors, and all are dyed consistently.  I found no dye problems across any of the yarn lines I've knit.  The deeply saturated colors do bleed when you wet-block the item;  however I didn't run into any issues where my needles or hands are stained and I worked with a deep emerald green and royal purple.

A word of caution:  If you want to order from them, get a shade card.  My photos don't do the yarn justice as an amateur, but even a professional photographer can't capture the depth of some of the shades they offer.  The pictures on their site aren't bad, but they haven't been as accurate as some. 

The three lines I've tried so far are the Tern, the Chickadee, and the Lark.

Let's start with their Lark line:

This is the yarn I'm using for the Serious Scarves.  It is recommended that this be knit on a 6-8 US needle.  I'm knitting the chain-link scarf on a 6, and find it to be a comfortable size.  I tend to knit a little loosely, so it's possible that a tight knitter would find the larger side of the spectrum more comfortable to get the same results knit-wise.

If you recall, this is what the scarf looks like:

color, still off.

The color that I'm using is Frank's Plum.  I don't know who Frank is, but he has fabulous taste.  I also have their Lark in peacoat.  What I've noticed with the Lark is it feels more velvety than the other two lines.  It has a tiny bloom, even in the package.  Personally, I love it.  It's tightly twisted, and the yarn feels springy and lucious between my fingers while I knit.  I've lost a lot of time knitting this scarf due to fondling the finished fabric.  As this is the heaviest yarn that I've tested, I did find more vegetable matter in it.  I expect that in a heavier weight yarn, though, and in 6 skeins I've only found 3 pieces of VM.  This was the first batch of yarn that I found a knot in.  But I can say that in over 20 skeins one knot is really good quality control.  I will be knitting with this yarn a lot more (but not often for the blog, as it's a bit heavy for some of the patterns I'm writing).

This is a good spot to put up my comparison shot of Lark and Chickadee:

colors off, but shows the composition of the yarn well

Lark on the right, Chickadee on the left.  Which brings us to my review of their Chickadee line.

I unfortunately don't have much of a sample to show you for this line.  I knit a super sekrit present for fabulous lady Deb as a thank-you for being so encouraging and generally fabulous.  As it wasn't meant as a bump for the blog, it's not getting time here.  BUT it did give me experience with this yummy yarn.

Chickadee does not have the velvety finish that Lark does.  And it doesn't matter a whit.  I've knit roughly 15 skeins of Chickadee since the first package showed up, and it has a lovely springy feel to it.  It's soft without losing definition, strong without losing its silkiness, and all around fabulous to knit.  I loved every moment of knitting the projects I knit in it.  One of my next shawl patterns will be knit in the lovely peacock color shown in the open bundles, and I'm itching to knit it.  Any yarn that makes me wish I could knit more of it is a keeper.  This yarn is recommended for 3-5 US needles, and I knit the present shawl on size 4, which made for lovely openwork.  It comes in a 181 yard put-up, but as it's 100% wool, splicing for larger projects isn't an issue.

Boo, short little review.  I should have done a sample for photos, but oh well.  I can always link to the finished peacock shawl after it's done.

Finally, the Tern yarn line.
This is a departure from their first lines, something new they've been working on.  Tern is a 75% wool, 25% tussah silk yarn.  It has occasional slubs in it due to the nature of tussah.  They can easily be separated from the twist of the yarn if you don't like them, or left in for a more textured feel.

These beauties are Tern:

Again, dark picture but pretty spot on for the color.

This is their fingering/sock yarn, and they recommend it be knit on size 1-3 US needles.  I split the difference and knit the below on size 2 needles.

Not at ALL blocked, look at the stitch definition.

I LOVE this yarn.  Love it!  It comes in a 221 yard put-up, which is enough for a sock for most people.  It would take 2 skeins to do a pair.  Personally, I would love to see this sold in a larger put-up, but I understand that it was created to be their sock line and the yardage reflects the purpose it was made for.  There are fewer colors of this yarn, but it is a new line.  I suspect they will be making more as they guage what knitters want.

What else can I say without sounding like a gushing fool?  I started knitting Quince & Co during the 10+ knot debacle, so my love of their consistency and quality might be slightly tempered by that.  But I will say this:  of the three lines I've tried so far, all of them are drool-worthy.  There wasn't a single stinker in any of the batches of yarn I bought from them, and the yarn itself is a joy to work with.  When you add in the very reasonable price, this yarn is a solid offering at a fantastic price point.  Try some, and see if you don't love it too!