Week 9 of 2007 in Review

On Knitting....

Knit, knit…frog. Knit, knit…frog. That’s been the theme for the past couple of weeks. Luckily it’s been more knitting than frogging and a little bit of dyeing as a bonus.

Let me start with my WIP. The Dayflower Shawl has progressed in baby steps since I first started. There have been a few little bumps along the road but nothing to justify frogging more than a few stitches back. I’ve been lucky to catch my errors sooner than later and the ease of the pattern really helps with that. At this point I am 2/3’s done with the second repeat and am truly enjoying the pattern.

Here are some things I’ve learned along the way:

My stitching became very loose at one point after moving on to circulars. I just couldn't control the silk’s tension since it is so slippery. As it is, I am a very loose knitter and have to go down at least two needle sizes to get the correct gauge. I hadn’t tried wrapping the yarn twice around my finger because past experience proved useless, not only did the yarn not move, I’d end up with a blue finger. In an act of desperation I tried the double wrap with the silk. OMG, it actually worked!! The silk’s slipperiness helped it flow even with the tighter tension caused by the two wraps around my finger. After knitting a couple of rounds this way, the pattern is looking so much better and I am more excited and motivated than ever to keep on knitting this baby.

Stitch markers are really needed for this pattern and believe me, I gave in and place one after every repeat. Now I can tell where I’m at and what I should be knitting; plus, if I make a mistake, I can easily locate the error and fix it. Stitch markers quickly become a necessity when you knit in the round and have a lot of repeats present.

Socktopia’s February theme is almost due and I got into gear only two weeks ago. I dyed 2 hanks KnitPicks Bare. Once hank I wanted pink and purplish in honor of Valentine’s Day and the other one I planned for shades of green and some blue for March’s “It Ain’t Easy Being Green” theme. Well I got the results I planned for pink/purple hank. The green/blue was turning out nice until I got a pack of Kool-Aid I thought was blue. I froze when I dumped some of the contents into the pot where my green/blue masterpiece was soaking. OMG!!! The water was turning red. OMG, the yarn was soaking that red like it was starving for color. OMG, my green socks weren’t meant to be. Oh well, “Life is like a box of chocolates…”

Waiting patiently for the yarn to dry and be run through the winder.

Closeup of my little cakes ready to be knit into some toasty socks. Notice how sparse the green became after that little hank decided it loved red Kool-Aid.

While my yarn dried and waited to be wound, I selected IK’s Winter ‘05 Embossed Leaves Socks for my “Short and Sweet” Socktopia submission. I modified the pattern to make ankle socks. Unfortunately, once again, my loooooose knitting was an obstacle. I was able to finally get the correct tension halfway through the sock but at that point I did not feel like frogging and starting the same pattern over again. Instead I opted for something different even though I loved knitting the pattern.



I got my to be green/blue yarn and decided to knit some booties instead using the basics in the Embossed Leaves. I was sticking to the “short and sweet” theme. As I knitted up the bootie, I liked the mistake yarn more and more. I couldn’t wait to see what the next color effect would be produced and the little hint of green was a lovely touch IMO. A “Bed of Roses” comes to mind when I see the yarn knitted up. I’m ready to start the gusset and hope to be finish with the second bootie by the end of this week.



On Stash Building….

I couldn’t resist discontinuedbrandnameyarn.com offer of 100% Bamboo at the price they had so I broke down and ordered the lilac. All I have to say is that the color is exquisite. I hope everyone took advantage of this offer and has some of this pretty yarn in their stash.

Until next time. Happy Knitting and Stash Building to all!!