Friday, July 29, 2011

Progress on new project


I completed making the first 2 triangles. I ended up using a sz 8 needle. Now I am beginning to worry that I may run out of yarn. I have 400 yds each .

STEP 2:
I opted to knit out from the center. Once I put the 2 triangles together at start of step 2 I knit 4 rows of each yarn then switch to other side. I did not break the yarns as instructed. It is very curious how this construction is setting up. Allmy LM line up so I must be on right track..

On the bad side I came upon a knot in the rayon yarn and shortly thereafter a frayed section. I will see how I can hide it but now worry about the "strength" of my finished project. It was such a long time ago that I wound this into balls I have no idea what is to come. The first knot I tried to do a type of braided join . The damaged section I may hide a knot edge. Rayon is a slippy bugger.

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

New Project


Well, the Tour de france is over. I had so much fun knitting quick projects and my one white jersey project that I realized its good to step outside the box and challenge yourself.

SO with stash I have had for about 10 years. I am embarking on Iris SChreiners's Tamarah.

I will be using Wool in the woods capri and double kiss which I must have for at least 10 years. The LYS is long closed. They are 2 of the very few summer yarns I have. While not the Artyarns brand of Iris I will see what I can get from this.

The yarns are dk so I started with needles suggested in pattern, size 7. Difficult to do gauge swatch giving nature of modular piece.
After first triangle I thought it looked small etc so knit up one in sz 8 needles and I like what I see. Its rather interesting how the shape develops into a semi circle.. So I will continue on to 2nd first triangle...( but with no TDF to watch

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Tour de France Knit a long: Choices – to frog or not

My TDF KAL project Lisa’s periwinkle got off to a great start and within 2 days I was halfway through the published stated length or about 22 inches. Unfortunately, the combo of yarns was not saying to me, this is great. Instead it was saying to me, this looks like the afghan you made last year and I dont want to wear an afghan. I decided to put the project aside for a day or two hoping that some time away would enhance its love to me.

image

I quicky cast on project 2 for tdfkal raspberry ribbon scarf. Again this is another quick knit and one that I had the exact yarn(imagine that) in my stash. k1c2 Tartelette.

I first used this yarn about 10 years ago to make a self fringing shawl; I loved it and quickly searched out 7 more colorways from an online seller. I still have some of 2 colorways. As this project is knitting up I like it; I guess it looks like the picture which was a look I liked. I can see this pattern in other yarns as it is a one skeiner. I think as soon as i finish I will choose another stash yarn and make again to see if I can deviate from the pattern ie be a little creative.

Through all my years of knitting choosing the right yarn for the pattern has always been a struggle. Ravelry is a great source to see what others have done I see many beautiful patterns but yarn availalbility is limited even with the internet. I even see that in different countries brand availability changes. Sometimes yarns are dsicontinued by the time the book is published(saw this last night when researching yarn for Plum Perfect Swirl design. I have often thought it would be a great idea of kitting up yarns for patterns and selling them like that , especially for magazine designs.

Eventually I will need to decide what to do with the periwinkle. I am not a fan of ripping but nor do I want a finished item I will never use. I will most likely have to trash the frogged yarn as lengths are short. This was one of 2 major knits in my dead heat dash project as well so will have to use my get out of jail free pass and do some substituting.

Frog or knit on….

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Tour de france knit along: Choices


Just a few days before the start of the 2011 Tour de France(TDF) I found a Ravelry group dedicated to knitters and tour watchers. I joined in and immediately began thinking which category competition I might enter, yellow, green white, polka dot or domestique.While 3 of 4 projects I have planned in my July August Dead heat basket could fall in one of these categories, in the end I decided to stick with my pre TDFKAL group project and call myself a domestique(takes the pressure ff too). It was periwinkle by Louisa Harding. It has been a pattern I saw many( 5+ years ago) and even bought the button for it. Alas though Louisa harding yarns are not plentiful in the states so as part of my cold sheeping I decided I could put together some yarns that would work.

The concept behind this LH design is a tried and true feather and fan stole approximately 8 inches by 40 long.The yarns are 4 different weights of ribbon ranging from bulky to dk weight. WIth a stash of 150 plus yarns I thought pulling together 4 yarns like this would be simple. In the end I did not have 4 different ribbon weight yarns and decided to go outside the concept of all ribbons. and use yarns I like. I pulled 6 different yarns, 1 dk, 2 worsted , 3 bulky. My color choices are not monochromatic either. I picked 2 yarns as my focus yarns and built around that.

So I did a trial start last nite and realized that with more bulky weight yarn the FF would not show so I moved up to a sz 13 needles as well as condensed the pattern to 24 plus 4 border stitches.

I am curious to see how this works out. IF I am going for the look in the pattern picture I may be disappointed. If I am trying to be creative with yarn I have , it may work. So the Tour has begun and so will I…