A few finished projects

Finally, the Araucania scarf is finished. The colors are even more beautiful in person. Although this took two months to finish, I think this was my favorite yarn to work with because every stitch is a new and interesting color. This was knitted on US2's and it's really long. Draped around my neck, it comes almost to my knees! I had a wad of yarn the size of a peach pit left over when I finished.







The Alita blanket outdoors in the sunshine. It's really a lovely solid blanket and the texture is fascinating. I'm really happy with how this one turned out.



My first Baby Surprise Jacket, complete with buttons. The pale green was a perfect match, especially against the cobalt blue button band.





Coming soon, the second Baby Surprise Jacket!

Interim Photo Op!

First, the Baby Surprise Jacket. It's still waiting for buttons, but it's been seamed. This was knit all in one piece of flat knitting on a long circular needle. It was knit with four colors of Cascade 220 Superwash, alternating on every row. The dark blue band is the bind off edge.



Start folding. The start of the dark blue band comes up to form the top edge of the button band. The actual corner on the flat knitting is the lower corner of the button band. The cast on edge is actually the cuffs, the back half of the tops of the sleeves and the back of the neck.



Fold the other side and it looks like a jacket! The only seams in this little miracle are along the tops of the sleeves.



I did my seams in crochet, using the green. I also did a slip stitch crochet edge around the neckline to neaten the edge, but I used the blue to tie in with the button band.



And voila!



My other big completed project was an Alita blanket. (http://www.yarnover.net/patterns/doilies/kunststrik/alita.html) I knit it on US10's in Cascade 220 held double and it used about six skeins to make a 48" blanket. I stopped on row 99, added three rows of plain knit and then used the crochet bind off. I was out of yarn and couldn't knit the entire 130 rows of the pattern. I think it would have covered a king-sized bed if I tried! This has a lot of stockinette in it so it didn't stretch very far with blocking. I really love this texture with the dark green heathered yarn. This was a very methodical pattern to knit and went quickly.







I have yarn for another two Baby Surprise Jackets and I'm starting another blanket. I just can't get enough of both of these projects!

Sprechen Sie Deutsches?

I have a bunch of things in progress, but no good finished photos yet. My Egeblad blanket has been keeping me warm, but I need to get some good photos in sunlight to really show it off. It's very lightweight and full of lacy holes, but it's SO warm. I can feel it heating up on my legs like something alive.

I have nearly finished my first Baby Surprise Jacket (http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baby-surprise-jacket on Ravelry) from Elizabeth Zimmerman's "Knitting Workshop". It's a crazy garter stitch jacket that has two seams, one on the top of each arm. It's only missing buttons because I am still hunting for the perfect set.

I'm busily knitting Alita http://www.yarnover.net/patterns/doilies/kunststrik/alita.html in dark green heather Cascade 220.



I am the happy owner of all three volumes of Christine Duchrow's Knitted Lace Patterns. Volume III contains the pattern for Egeblad, although it isn't called that in the book. I originally found the pattern I used on Ravelry and it linked to a free download online. That was a happy accident because her books are all in German. I just spent part of the evening printing German-English knitting vocabulary lists and using Babelfish to translate the pattern from her book. Let's just say Babelfish isn't really designed to translate knitting terminology. The term for scalloped border came out as "the serrated conclusion."

Once I could figure out her instructions, I converted her early 20th century charts into modern symbols. Then I compared my translated chart to the chart for my Egeblad blanket and noted only one error and one change. The modern version had single yarn overs instead of doubles, which is good for a blanket because the holes are smaller.

It was a great learning exercise and it helped to do a translation where I was able to check my work. I'm not used to working from charts and her books are reprints of pamphlets. The pamphlets show a handful of similar doilies that can be knitted from a single chart, or by mixing, matching or omitting parts of charts to make them smaller or larger. Each whole "pamphlet" is maybe five pages with minimal notes and no line-by-line instructions at all. It's good practice for when I try knitting a Niebling pattern, because those are all German and charted too.

Last but not least, I have new yarn! Mom and I went to my first Shepherd's Market yesterday. I was well behaved and managed to get out with one hank of hand-dyed sport weight and some soap. We watched a very educational felting demonstration and I plan to try that sometime soon. I need to be frugal for a little while, but I think I found a good source of colored merino roving samplers for future use.

So this yarn.. it's destined to be another Baby Surprise Jacket. I wanted something unisex and slightly lighter than worsted, with enough colors to be interesting, but not overwhelming. Look how beautiful!