Saturday, March 22, 2008

Finally ready to wear

Falling Leaves is blocked! Final dimensions are 6" wide by 82" long. It is light as a feather since it was made with about 80g of yarn.

Pre-blocking mess:



Post-blocking bliss:











Friday, March 21, 2008

Falling Leaves have fallen

This scarf is FINALLY off the needles. I actually bound off two days ago, but added a crocheted border to stabilize it.



Note how even with two rows of single crochet, the lace wants to roll:



It isn't blocked yet, but the border gives nice definition to the pattern. I can't wait to see the completed fabric. If all goes well, I'll block and pin the dickens out of this tomorrow. I block on my bed and I don't much feel like sleeping on damp wool and a zillion stick pins.



Pre-blocking the scarf is roughly 7"x75". I knitted 27 pattern repeats and then went around in crochet to finish. Don't ask me how, but the crocheted border "added" 2.5 inches to the width. I think because this rolled so much without the border but, even without blocking, the scarf wants to stay open with the border.

This has been a lot of fun now that St. Patrick's day is over. My mom and I managed to knit 15 dishcloths and donated six pairs to the church door prizes. We ate corned beef and cabbage and watched as they all found happy new homes. I was especially happy to see one woman pick up a pair and show them to all of her tablemates. When her friend won a door prize, she also picked a pair of dishcloths.

We knitted those like the wind and even took them on the plane with us on vacation. We had two different people in two airports come up to us and ask us how TSA let us bring those "weapons" (size 5 and 6 aluminum needles) on the plane when they couldn't even wear their shoes through the checkpoint. Our knitting started some very funny conversations and we were recognized as those two women who knit.

While I was on vacation, my grandmother taught me how to use dpn's and I knitted a baby hat. I don't wear hats, so I doubt I'll knit many of them, but it will be useful if I try socks and I can use the skills to work on sweaters on circular needles. I'm trying to get my mom and grandmother on Ravelry so they can experience the bliss.

I think next I'll finish the Caterpillar scarf. I am resisting temptation to make something with this Araucania Ranco Multy wool (color 309). It's so beautiful that I want to find the right design for it. I'm thinking something with cables, but we'll see. It has such rapid color transitions that I need a denser fabric.



I had the hank wound into a ball at the store so I didn't get a picture of it, but the photo below is another one that sort of looks like mine. It's hand-dyed in Chile, so no two hanks are alike. It changes color depending on what light it is in too. It almost glows in sunlight. The hanks are works of art in and of themselves. I seriously cannot get over how beautiful it is. I keep taking it out and holding it and looking at it and sighing wistfully. It feels like something Monet would have painted.

http://www.yarn4socks.com/servlet/Categories?category=SOCK+WEIGHT%3AAraucania+Multy.