Here’s the April recap.
- Bound a quilt for a friend
- Started a hexie project
- Made significant progress on Jared Takes A Wife
- Knit 2 rows on the shawl
- Hemmed a prom press
- Completed the embroidery for the baby quilt and finished the top
Category Archives: Knitting
April’s Recap
On The Needles
Currently on the needles is Easy as Pie by Marisa Hernandez downloaded from Ravelry. At last count I’ve got 139 stitches on the needles. The pattern calls for 203 before starting the border, but I’ll have to do more than that to get the shawl anywhere near big enough for me. At least this time I won’t run out of yarn.
See what others are working on over at Patchwork Times.
On the Needles
Saturday night I started Easy as Pie by Marisa Hernandez downloaded from Ravelry. My yarn is that gorgeous Admiral Jaggerspun 2/18 wool/silk that I won all those years ago at a knitting retreat. I’m having much better luck with this yarn than I did a month ago. The primary difference is the needles.
I’m using Square Needles by Kollage. These are a size 6. Surprising, even though they are metal, my hands don’t hurt knitting with them – probably because I’m not holding them as tightly. I don’t think I’m knitting as tightly, my stitches aren’t falling off the needles and the points are sharp enough to get under the stitches. So far I’m very happy with the needles.
To see what other’s have on their needles, check out the links over at Patchwork Times.
On the Needles
This is Easy as Pie, the first knitting project I’ve done in about 10 years. It really was pretty simple and would be gorgeous in the Jaggerspun that I have, but I couldn’t get it started, so pulled yarn that I could find from my stash — Plymouth Encore in Gray.
Since the gauge was off, I thought I’d knit a few extra repeats to make it bigger. That was a great plan, but after the 2nd skein I realized I couldn’t do many repeats and the shawl would be small.
Lack of yarn also meant that I didn’t make the border as wide as designed.
Bottom line, it’s too small for me, but that’s OK. It was fun to make and now I really want to make it from my Jaggerspun 18/20 wool/silk.
See what others are knitting on by following the links over at Patchwork Times.
On the Needles
It seems like I’ve knit the same 2 or 3 rows 4 or 5 times now.
I’ve started the border. If I had another skein of the yarn, I’d make this shawl a bit bigger. Worked from the top down, I marked the end of the skein with the red thread. The second skein didn’t go near as far as the third skein was started a couple of rows before the border.
I’m in the process of ripping out row 6 of the border and I suspect I’ll have to rip out row 5 again. Maybe next week I’ll get past row 7.
Check out the links over at Patchwork Times to see what others are working on.
On the Needles
This is the what — the 4th or 5th knitting post with very little quilting posts this week? I promise I really am quilting — but it’s on a mystery quilt to be published this fall so I can’t show the quilt.
This is my Easy as Pie Shawl. Last night I think I ripped out the last 4 row repeat 4 times. I’m not sure why I kept dropping a stitch. Perhaps it was because I was actually watching the TV instead of simply listening to it.
By my calculations I’m 4300 stitches into the body of the shawl which puts me right at 40% of the body as written.
To see what others have on their needles, hop over to Patchwork Times.
Easy As Pie – Shawl
Well, I’m well under way to having a knitted project for the first time in years. I’m using the pattern Easy As Pie by Marisa Hernandez, which I downloaded off of Ravelry. Actually, I downloaded several shawl patterns but settled on this one.
I started numerous times with my Admiral Jaggerspun and #3 bamboo needles, but the thread yarn kept hanging up on the needles and I’d lose my place in the pattern. Determined to knit, I grabbed the first skein of yarn I found in the basement – well, actually there were two skeins — a light blue and this gray. I’m not sure what I was thinking. If I had walked wound my way to the other side of the basement I could have had several choices in color of this Plymouth Encore DK yarn. BTW, the pattern calls for fingering weight yarn which I believe would fall somewhere between my Jaggerspun Lace and the Encore. Oh, well. I can’t remember what size needles I’m using — 5 or 6 I think.
Anyway, after 3 or 4 attempts, I finally got the first repeat knitted. Then somewhere I must have lost my place in the pattern and knitted when I should have purled. I’m leaving it and calling it a design element.
I’m a tad over 1/3 of the body of the shawl as written. But since I can’t follow a pattern as written (it’s not just in quilting) I plan on adding additional rows — if I can figure out the repeat on the edging. But before I do that, I’ve got to frog at least 6 rows, maybe 8. I lost two stitches and it will make a difference. Just need to find a good needle to run through the stitches to catch them.
But there is binding to do first. I quilted Deadline III this morning.
First Decision Made
Well, I’ve made the first decision regarding the knitting. I’m starting over – or at least not finishing the original shawl.
Last night I counted my stitches and had an odd #. There should have been an even number of stitches. Did I miscount? I don’t think so, as this jives with what I remember when I put the shawl down all those years ago. I seem to remember discovering I had lost at least one stitch somewhere along the way and the house being too noisy to concentrate to figure out how to fix it.
As it turns out, it was a good decision.
I hated to throw all that knitting away, so I decided to just bind off. Well over 200 hundred stitches into the bind off I found that the yarn had broken and I simply couldn’t catch it to attempt a repair. So, into the trash it went after all.
I still have a huge cone of the Jaggerspun. Lots of choices. Last night I spent hours looking at patterns on-line. Even printed one out. But I’m not sure it’s the right pattern.
But, I can’t start knitting yet. Between Flappy Bird, the weekend hand quilting and the binding off, I’ve aggravated my tennis elbow. I sure hope ripping out quilting doesn’t do the same. That’s today’s project as I finished my book.
I’m Not Blaming Her Yet
No, I’m not blaming one of my favorite bloggers yet, as I haven’t picked up the needles to start knitting yet. Yet, I’m sure you are looking at the picture saying to yourself “What do you mean you haven’t picked up the needles?”
Yes, not only do I have numerous quilt UFOs, there are a few yarn UFOs lurking around — although I’ve done my best to lock them away in the basement. This one — I think it’s called Shaped Triangle from A Gathering of Lace by Meg Swansen – sat on my nightstand untouched for years before I finally got it to the basement (when working on it I checked the book out from the library.) It stayed there for a while before calling out to me to bring it to the light of day.
How many years? Well, my niece 20-year-old niece was in 1st grade. She, her brothers and mother were living with us when I set it aside. I simply couldn’t knit this pattern with 4 grade school kids in the house.
So, now the questions:
- Can I figure out where I am in the pattern?
- If not, do I just break the yarn off and start over?
- And if I do, do I use this pattern or something else?
The yarn is Jaggerspun Wool/Silk 2/18 in Admiral.
Perhaps with all these questions, I should either put the binding on the baby quilt or rip out the quilting on the large quilt. (I have a new quilting time — next Wednesday).
Maybe I’ll go read some more of James Rollins’ Subterranean.
