Scallop Blanket

I finished my Scallop Blanket. This was another shining example of my inability to plan yarn requirements. I ran out three rounds from the end and had to order a single skein to finish. The kicker? I extended the pattern because I didn't think it would be big enough. Well, thanks to my extensions, it ended at 62"! I added 12 rounds, so it would have been about 55" if I had left it alone and four skeins would have been plenty.

I knitted most of this blanket while I was waiting for the yarn to finish Kometenstern. Then I finished Kometenstern while I was waiting for the yarn for this. Both were knit with Beaverslide Dry Goods McTaggart Tweeds, so I'm now on quite friendly terms with the owner, Leann. I think I've mentioned once or twice how much I love her yarn, so I'm happy to contribute to the care and feeding of her sheep.

The color is "Snowberry", which looks like old fashioned strawberry ice cream. It's pale pink, with darker strawberry flecks and it looks good enough to eat. I used 4.25 skeins (900 yards) for 98 rounds on US 9 needles. The pattern is from Burda lace special #554, which is almost impossible to find due to the fact that it's chock full of Niebling designs. This isn't one of his, but it's listed as nice beginner lace. It's simple and repetitive, but I love the finished effect as a blanket. It's warm where it needs to be, looks dainty and is perfect for this yarn.

As usual, I'm so excited to be done, that my photos are all taken during blocking. It's still damp on my bed, so I'll have to wait for action shots. Maybe I'll get it out with Kometenstern one of these days and play Glamour Shots with both of them.

As always, click the pictures, and then click them again to see them larger.

Kometenstern blanket

I finished Kometenstern, which is my first Herbert Niebling pattern. It was quite challenging to interpret the German instructions and to learn a new charting system. I had to stop in the middle because I ran out of yarn. Fortunately, I ordered two more skeins. I used both of them, even though I stopped a few rounds early. The original has a very pointy border that I didn't like for a blanket. It's still sort of pointy, but it works.

Kometenstern translates to "comet star". When I first saw the pattern, I saw a swirling pattern of ferns. The other name for it, "Schleuderblatt" means "centrifuge doily". No matter what you call it, it's a fascinating spiral embedded in mesh. The mesh seems to flow around the central motif and is surprisingly thick due to the stitches that are passed over to make it. It has a nice raised texture.



I knit this with about 1000 yards of Beaverslide McTaggart Tweeds "Wild Myrtle" on US10's. It's a delicious deep blue-purple with lighter flecks. After my usual blocking bath in Eucalan, it's very soft and fluffy. Once it dries, it will be a lightweight but very warm lap blanket.

I'm really loving this and can't wait to see how it looks unpinned. For now though, here's a preview (click the pictures, and then click them again in the preview window to see them larger):

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!

Blood, Sweat and Tears - Blocking Egeblad

I knitted another doily blanket - Egeblad by Christine Duchrow (http://www.yarnover.net/patterns/doilies/kunststrik/egeblad.html). It is a fantastic pattern with a swirling flower in the center and concentric, yet slightly offset, radiating leaves. I knit this one with Beaverslide McTaggart Tweeds in the color "Prairie Sandreed" on US10's.

This was interesting to block, so I decided to document my way of doing it, from start to finish.

Since I fell in love with knitting doily blankets, I wanted a good way to wash them. I went out and shopped in the home storage section of a local store. I found two plastic totes - one clear one and one white one with holes like you'd use to store kid's toys or cleaning supplies. The one with holes fits nicely inside the clear one. I chose clear so I could see if dye was leaching out of yarn as I washed it.

I filled the clear one half-full with tepid water and a squirt of Ivory soap. Then I put my blanket it the white one and submerged it. With a little swishing, I saturated the blanket and left it to soak for a little while. Beaverslide is great yarn, but it has the occasional piece of Montana prairie in it and it still has some lanolin. This yarn wasn't as greasy as the Prairie Aster Fisherman Weight, but it was still sheepy enough to want a good soak.



Next, the white tote lifted right out and let the blanket drain while I refilled the clear tote with fresh tepid water. This is where the totes pay for themselves because wet wool should never be lifted without supporting its weight. I can squeeze the fabric against one side to get excess water out, but mostly gravity does its thing. You also never want to run water directly on wool because that can contribute to felting.



I repeated this until the water was clear and the soap suds were gone. Prairie Aster made the water fairly purple, but this Prairie Sandreed really held the dye well through washing. The last soak was tepid water with Eucalan. Eucalan is great stuff because it smells really good and it protects the yarn from moths. There is no need to rinse and the wool comes out deliciously soft.

I block on my bed and wet, soggy wool would be an unmitigated disaster. My washing machine does not have an easily programmed spin cycle, so I use towels to get the wool mostly dry. I grabbed three or four thirsty towels in colors that wouldn't show any last dye residue. I spread one out flat on the bathroom floor, carefully spread the wet blanket in as near to a single layer as possible and rolled it up like a jelly roll.



Next, I stomped all over the roll in my bare feet. This really gets the water out of the blanket and into the towels. Your socks will get soaked if you don't take them off. This is the therapeutic part of blocking. Stomp. Stomp.



Now comes the blood, sweat and tears part of blocking. I laid the blanket out on my bed, using a spare comforter to protect the mattress.

1. Pin the center.
2. Pin the tips of all of the flower petals. Stretch the fabric out so they lay flat. I pin through the decreases because the stitches are thicker and hold the pins better. If the fabric is puckering or looking stressed, use more pins. Any stressed areas will show in your finished blanket, but you want to stretch this enough to make it lay flat and open the stitch patterns. The whole thing needs to spread out, but don't put all of that work on one poor little stitch.

See how the two petals look different before and after pinning?



3. Move out to the next layer and pin the tips of those points too.




4. Now work systematically around the blanket, stretching it and pinning the points of the leaves. Grab big handfuls of fabric and hold it down with the flat of your hand. Again, don't stress individual stitches here. Pull out and sideways to make the pattern open up. Use LOTS of pins.



5. When you get to the border, pin the stitches at the very tips of the leaves to anchor the edges.



6. Evenly spread out the scallops and pin through the stitches. Egeblad blocks into a perfect circle, without the ruffled edges of the Hemlock Ring. If you try to do this step first, it's really difficult to get the middle to open up. Point of note, I crocheted five chains on these scallops instead of eight per the pattern. They're still quite open so I possibly could have done three.



At this point, my back and neck are aching, I've poked myself with a multitude of pins and I think it's never going to end. Remember when I said use a lot of pins? I started with 500 and ended with..



After 45 minutes or so, I was done pinning. It was so worth it though. Look at this:

Getting intimate with blocking

A few months ago, I barely knew what blocking was. Now I am becoming very familiar because of the Hemlock Ring Blankets. They won't lay flat without it, but how do I do it?

The first one was easy. Cascade 220 is very clean, fluffy, well-groomed wool. It has nice stitch definition and feels lofty without a lot of messing about. I steam-blocked to get my stitches to relax and take on the shape of a finished blanket.

The second is not so easy. Beaverslide already smells a little sheepy, which I personally like. I will not like it so much if it is hot and damp all over my bed. Even Cascade gets a little sheepy when steamed but this would be intense. Also, it has a lot of lanolin that seems to be holding the fibers together like.. pomade. I can't describe it properly, but it feels a little crisp and a little greasy, although the yarn is lofty and looks good. Lanolin keeps the sheep warm and dry and they don't look unkempt in their natural state, but it does do something to the yarn. In a blanket that will hopefully be cuddled, I'd like to reduce the waterproofing and increase the smooshy love.

So, before throwing my hard work into a tub of water and ruining it somehow, I swatched. I made a nice rectangle and soaked it in tepid water with a little Ivory soap. I thought this might help break up the fatty lanolin and help remove vegetable matter. I rinsed and rinsed until it was clear and then soaked it again in a tepid bath of Eucalan. Then I gently squeezed it out, rolled it in a towel and pinned it overnight.

The results are amazing. Photos don't capture it as well as I'd like, but it bloomed. The left half of the photo is the washed swatch. It's soft, supple, fluffy and smooth. The right side is the unblocked blanket. It has very crisp stitch definition, but it's almost too crisp. With this tweedy wool, I think a smoother finish will actually show the texture better because the bloom plumps up the stitches and fills in the gaps.



And now for something completely different..

With all of this rain, we have some unusual first-time visitors to the yard. Two days in a row, they've been hanging out in the lawn.

A new decrease for the Hemlock

After the first Hemlock Ring, I wanted to try a different double decrease for the flower petals. The original pattern calls for sl 1, k2tog, psso. This leaves a definite slant for the decrease, even though it's removing two stitches from the pattern. It also creates a looser stitch across the front of the fabric. The slanted stitches look good, but I wanted something different the next time around.



I'm working on another one and this time I'm using a double decrease. It still removes two stitches but it's balanced. To do it, slip 2 together as if to knit (like the beginning of a k2tog), k1, pass the two slipped stitches over. The two slipped stitches twist and stay together, so slipping them is easy. It leaves a nice raised ridge that is centered between the decreased stitches. The tips of the petals don't stand out quite as much because the stitches are smaller and blend in. It's a different look than the first.



I have to say, I love the Beaverslide yarn. It's like the granola of the yarn world - minimally processed and contains fiber. It still has lanolin so my hands feel soft and it has a gentle whiff of sheep about it. I come across the occasional bit of grass or leaf but they pick out easily. Some people may prefer a cleaner yarn, but I feel connected to those sheep in Montana and it reminds me that this isn't some mass-produced acrylic. It's such a joy to knit. I can't wait to get this off the needles and block it. So far the stitch definition is lovely.

(http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hemlock-ring-blanket)

Hemlock Ring Blanket Pattern

As already mentioned, the original pattern is here: http://www.angelfire.com/folk/celtwich/KnitHemlockRing.html or on Ravelry at http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hemlock-ring-blanket.

I've rewritten it for myself below to replace the sl 1, k1, psso's (also known as skp's) with ssk's. I also changed the repeat bracketing so that each round lists one repeat. The original was harder for me to read and this makes sense. Each round repeats the pattern eight times.

Hemlock Ring Blanket Pattern

(Original from Crocheted and Knitted Doilies, Book 184, Canadian Spool Cotton Company, 1942)

If using Cascade 220 held double, use US10 needles.

Cast on 8 sts and spread around three double-pointed needles. Suggest Emily Ocker cast on (http://www.spellingtuesday.com/circular_co.html) using a loose loop around one finger and a crochet hook to form the cast on stitches.

Change to circular needles when dpn’s become unwieldy – easiest on a knit row between rows 15 and 24.

Ssk – slip two stitches individually as if to knit, then insert left needle through front loops and knit them together.
R = Round

** Alternate double decrease: Instead of sl1, k2tog, psso, a double decrease can be used. To do, slip 2 together as if to knit (like a k2tog), k1, pass the two slipped stitches over. This makes a centered decrease instead of a slanting one. See http://minou14.livejournal.com/9139.html for photos.

All pattern rows repeat 8 times unless otherwise noted.

R 1: knit
R 2: knit
R 3: (yo, k1)
R 4, 5, 6: knit
R 7: (yo, k1) – 16 times
R 8, 9, 10, 11, 12: knit
R 13: (k2tog, 2yo, ssk)
R 14: (k1, drop 1 yo, work 9 stitches in next yo [to do - (k1, p1) 4 times, k1], k1)
R 15 – 24: knit
R 25: (yo, k11)
R 26 and all even Rs: knit
R 27: (yo, k1, yo, k11)
R 29: (yo, k3, yo, k4, (sl 1, k2tog, psso), k4)
R 31: (yo, k1, yo, (sl 1, k2tog, psso) yo, k1, yo, k3, (sl 1, k2tog, psso), k3)
R 33: (yo, k3, yo, p and k in next stitch, yo, k3, yo, k2, (sl 1, k2tog, psso), k2)
R 35: (yo, k1, yo, (sl 1, k2tog, psso), yo, k4, yo, (sl 1, k2tog, psso), (yo, k1 – twice), (sl 1, k2tog, psso), k1)
R 37: (yo, k3, yo, k2, ssk, k2tog, k2, yo, k3, yo, (sl 1, k2tog, psso))
R 39: (yo, k1, yo, (sl 1, k2 tog, psso), yo, k2, ssk, k2tog, k2, yo, (sl 1, k2tog, psso), (yo, k1 - twice))
R 41: ((yo, k3 – twice), ssk, k2tog, (k3, yo- twice), k1)
R 43: (yo, k1, yo, (sl 1, k2tog, psso), yo, k3, ssk, k2tog, k3, yo, (sl 1, k2tog, psso), (yo, k1 - twice))
R 44, 45, 46: knit
R 47: (yo, k1 – twice), yo, k3, ssk twice, k2tog twice, k3, (yo, k1 – 3 times))
R 48, 49, 50, 51: knit
R 52: ((yo, k1 – 4 times), ssk 3 times, k2tog 3 times, k1, (yo, k1 – 4 times)
R 53, 54, 55, 56: knit
R 57: ((yo, k1 – 5 times), ssk 3 times, k2tog 3 times, k1, (yo, k1 – 5 times))
R 58, 59, 60, 61 – knit
R 62: ((yo, k1 – 5 times), yo, ssk 4 times, k2tog 4 times, (yo, k1 – 6 times))
R 63, 64, 65, 66: knit
R 67: ((yo, k1 – 6 times), k1, ssk 4 times, k2tog 4 times, k2, (yo, k1 – 6 times))
R 68, 69, 70, 71: knit
R 72: ((yo, k1 – 7 times), ssk 5 times, k2tog 5 times, k1, (yo, k1 – 7 times))
R 73, 74, 75, 76: knit
R 77: ((yo, k1 – 7 times), yo, ssk 6 times, k2tog 6 times, (yo, k1 – 8 times))
R 78, 79, 80, 81: knit
R 82: ((yo, k1 – 8 times), k1, ssk 6 times, k2tog 6 times, k2, (yo, k1 – 8 times)
R 83, 84, 85, 86: knit

(Updated 4/21/08) The pattern originally binds off on row 87. Additional rounds below were originally written by Mary White from the Yahoo KAL. I rewrote them in the format above and changed the skp's to ssk's.

R 87: ((yo, k1 – 9 times), ssk 7 times, k2tog 7 times, k1, (yo, k1 – 9 times)) [408 sts]
R 88, 89, 90, 91: knit
R 92: ((yo, k1 – 9 times), yo, ssk 8 times, k2tog 8 times, (yo, k1 – 10 times)) [440 sts]
R 93, 94, 95, 96: knit
R 97: ((yo, k1 – 10 times), k1, ssk 8 times, k2tog 8 times, k2, (yo, k1 – 10 times)) [472 sts]
R 98, 99, 100, 101: knit
R 102: ((yo, k1 – 11 times), ssk 9 times, k2tog 9 times, k1, (yo, k1 – 11 times)) [504 sts]
R 103, 104, 105, 106: knit
R 107: ((yo, k1 – 11 times), yo, ssk 10 times, k2tog 10 times, (yo, k1 – 12 times)) [536 sts]
R 108, 109, 110, 111: knit
R 112: ((yo, k1 – 12 times), k1, ssk 10 times, k2tog 10 times, k2, (yo, k1 – 12 times)) [568 sts]
R 113, 114, 115, 116: knit
R 117: ((yo, k1 – 13 times), ssk 11 times, k2tog 11 times, k1, (yo, k1 – 13 times)) [600 sts]
R 118, 119, 120, 121: knit
R 122: ((yo, k1 – 13 times), yo, ssk 12 times, k2tog 12 times, (yo, k1 – 14 times)) [632 sts]
R 123, 124, 125, 126: knit
R 127: ((yo, k1 – 14 times), k1, ssk 12 times, k2tog 12 times, k2, (yo, k1 – 14 times)) [664 sts]
R 128, 129, 130, 131: knit
R 132: ((yo, k1 – 15 times), ssk 13 times, k2tog 13 times, k1 (yo, k1 – 15 times)) [696 sts]
R 133, 134, 135, 136: knit
R 137: ((yo, k1 - 15 times), yo, ssk 14 times, k2tog 14 times, (yo, k1 - 16 times)) [728 sts]
R 138, 139, 140, 141: knit
R 142: ((yo, k1 - 16 times), k1, ssk 14 times, k2tog 14 times, k2, (yo, k1 - 16 times)) [760 sts]
R 143, 144, 145, 146: knit
R 147: ((yo, k1 - 17 times), ssk 15 times, k2tog 15 times, k1, (yo, k1 - 17 times) [792 sts]
R 148, 149, 150, 151: knit

Bind Off Round: (originally Round 87 but can be substituted on any pattern round (92, 97, 102, etc) if larger diameter is desired) k1, [k2tog, yo, k2tog, TURN, p1, work 5 st in yo stitch (k1, p1 – twice, k1), p1, sl 1, TURN, bind off 7 stitches (k1, k1, pass first knit stitch over)]. One stitch will remain on right needle. Repeat in [] around.

** To make it easier to work bind-off, cap right hand circular needle. Use the left circular needle with a dpn of the same size as the right hand needle.

** If knitting with Cascade 220 held double, work bind-off row with only one strand.

The secret's out!

I had to be all hush-hush about it because it was a gift, but I finally knitted a Hemlock Ring! It took me five evenings to finish and another afternoon to block.

My friend likes pink but Cascade Eco+ didn't come in any nice pinks. I found a lovely pink (listed as "Tutu" on Webs) in Cascade 220, but it's worsted weight. My LYS suggested knitting held double. Well, there's an idea.. knitting a lace blanket with two strands of yarn at once? I've never done that before and wasn't sure how well it would work. It could have been a straight road to insanity. I also needed to order the yarn since they didn't have enough. I had to go home to figure out how much I would need so the LYS loaned me a partial ball of Cascade 220 to play with.

Get this, I actually swatched. I hauled out my needles and swatched it held single and double to figure out what I liked best. I knew the original was done in Eco+, which is rated at 4/inch on 9's or 3.5/inch on 10's. I swatched to get the same gauge with Cascade 220. My results were 3.5/in on 9's or 3/in on 10's. It ended up being a decision between held double on 9's or 10's. The 9's made a squishier fabric, but if I do it again, I'll use 10's, mostly because a tight fabric made with two strands is a little resistant to blocking.

Holding it double was no problem at all. I used a center-pull ball, but pulled from the inside and outside at the same time. The yarn twisted around itself as it came off the outside and other than having twice as many loops on the needle, I couldn't tell. It also blocked very tightly, although I was worried the yarn overs might pull apart a little.

So, for those new to the joys of a Hemlock Ring, the original inspiration was Jared Flood's blog: http://brooklyntweed.blogspot.com/2007/08/hemlock-ring-blanket.html. I want to make almost everything he has knitted because he does such gorgeous work. The blanket it based on a doily pattern by the Canadian Spool Cotton Company found here: http://www.angelfire.com/folk/celtwich/KnitHemlockRing.html and on Ravelry at http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hemlock-ring-blanket. I changed the slip 1, knit 1, psso's to ssk's because I get loose loops over the front of my knitting when I do psso's. I really like how they turned out.

Needles: I started on size 9 dpn's. I stayed with them until about round 16. Then I switched to a US9 24" circulars. On round 38, I changed to a 40" cable and then on round 59, I changed to a 60" cable. KnitPicks Options don't let you connect cables and 60" is the longest they make. If I had done many more rounds, I would have had to get really creative with the needles. This wouldn't be a problem with a different yarn, but the 220 held double really filled my needles.

Yarn: Cascade 220 color 9477. I bought nine skeins based on yardage, but only used four and a half. I changed yarn at rounds 42, 62, 75, and 84.

Bind-off: Round 87 on the original pattern is the bind-off round. Those who do additional pattern repeats to make a wider blanket will have to work this row later on. It's a trip. For every four stitches "bound off" on the round below, you need to knit 18 stitches. It makes a lovely scalloped edge, but it requires knitting a few, turning the work, knitting back over what you just did, turning back and then binding off all the stitches you just made. Turning a blanket on 60" needles is a lot different than turning a little doily that is supposed to measure 15" in diameter when complete. Someone on the Yahoo KAL group suggested using a dpn, and that probably saved my sanity. I capped off the right end of my circular needle and kept the left needle active. Then I brought in a dpn to work the bind off. At worst, I had about eight stitches on my dpn at any time. It became my new right needle and was a lot easier to support since it didn't have half a blanket hanging off of it. Since I worked round 87 as it was, it only took a few hours. Someone knitting this with a lot of pattern repeats (I've seen them out to round 120) would take so much longer because there will be more stitches to bind off. This is another point where Cascade 220 held double scored big points with me. Most of the ones I've seen using 220 were knit single with more pattern repeats.

I worked the bind off itself with a single strand of 220. It uses a lot of yarn because of the number of stitches and I didn't want a big bulky scallop. I think it turned out perfectly and matches the texture of the blanket so much better than it would have held double. To do this, I cut the outer strand of yarn on the ball before I started the bind off and left enough to weave in. I knit the bind-off with the center strand of yarn.

Final dimensions:
Pre-blocking - 32" diameter
Blocking 1 - 39" diameter
Blocking 2 - 42" diameter

I pinned and steam blocked once to get the wad of bubble-gum that came off my needles to lay flat. I let it rest a while, took all the pins out and fired up the steamer again. While it heated, I pulled and stretched the blanket in all directions to relax the stitches a little. Then I steam blocked it again with a vengeance. I pulled and pinned it with no mercy and ended up with lovely stitch definition and a nice shape. I think it's always going to need a little rough treatment after it gets washed to get it back into shape. Cascade 220 isn't superwash though, so the washing itself has to be gentle or it will felt into a bath mat. That's why I chose steam for this first time.

This was such a fun project! I had to use my new dpn skills and learn how to use circs for the first time. I actually ordered circs just so I could make this. I learned to knit holding double and that Cascade 220 is squishy and lovely. Also, I learned some new circular lace stitches like the scallops that could come in handy on other projects. Two thumbs up!

Photos!

The wad of bubble-gum before blocking:





Pinned and steamed:







Ready to snuggle: