Falling Leaves are still falling..

I can't believe I last wrote about the Falling Leaves scarf a month ago. The yarn is STILL looped over the corner of my recliner and it hasn't suffered a catastrophe. It almost did the other day when my German Shepherd somehow got her head under the strand going from the chair to the scarf and walked away with an ever-lengthening loop around her neck. She's obedient and came right back when I screamed in terror. I have never been so happy to own point protectors!

There's not much to say about the scarf itself. It's barely long enough to hang around my neck. I added another pattern repeat tonight and promise to faithfully work on it. When I'm not knitting dishcloths, that is. Seriously, I have an addiction to those little squares. Maybe it's because I feel like I'm getting somewhere other than miles of lacy little leaves that look like a wrinkled mess until they're blocked. Actually, they may still look like heck when they're blocked but I won't know until I finish.

Dishcloths on the other hand are nice, well-behaved cotton and they only take a few hours. Squidge-cloths take a little longer because of the knit 4-purl 4 pattern. I made one with a garter stitch border, but the second was a basic pattern repeat. For the first row knit 4, purl 4 all the way across. On the second row, knit the knits and purl the purls. On the third row, switch the pattern for two rows. Repeat until you have a square. I think I used 40 stitches, but it's totally flexible if you want a bigger or smaller cloth. The end result is like basketweave, but only two rows high. I've found it's better with a smaller needle than you'd use for straight garter stitch and works well with solid colored yarn.



My other favorite is an anonymous pattern that seems to be everywhere online. It's so simple! Cast on 4. Knit 4 for the first row. Then, simply knit 2, yarn over and knit to the end of the row on every row until the sides are long enough. It's knit on the bias so you'll be making a triangle with a nice eyelet border all the way around the edges. Once you decide you've made half a dishcloth (45-55-ish stitches on the needle), then you start decreasing. Knit 1, knit 2 together, yarn over, knit two together and then keep knitting to the end of the row. Do this on every row until only four stitches are left on the needle. Bind off and go do some dishes. These things have amazing scrubbing abilities! The garter stitch is smooshy, yet abrasive because of the ridges. It looks beautiful with variegated yarns because the colors change on the diagonal.





Tonight I discovered that I can crochet dish-poufs in about an hour. Talk about instant gratification! I barely have to watch what I'm doing since they're made of chain stitch, single crochet and double crochet and nothing else. One ball of cotton and I have this magical little pouf. I sort of used the pattern from http://hometown.aol.com/lffunt/bath.htm but I didn't have the patience to count stitches in the first ring and I left off the third round entirely. Once I got the gist of it, I started crocheting and stopped when my yarn almost ran out. On a 4mm hook, this is a dense but perfect diameter little wad of cotton.

My love affair with Araucania

I am anxiously awaiting a shipment of yarn from Beaverslide Dry Goods in Montana. I keep drooling over photos of other peoples' stashes on Ravelry until I can get my hands on my own. I have several designs I want to use it for and I'm really excited. I am smitten with wool and after all of this sock yarn, it's a switch to use something so chunky.

I'm working on another lace scarf, this time with Araucania Ranco Multy. I'm using a stitch called "Flame Chevron" from Barbara Walkers "Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns". Right now it looks like a mess, as per usual with lace. I can already tell it is going to be glorious after it's blocked. This yarn feels wonderful and I love it even more than Opal. Every stitch is a different color and photos don't do it justice.

This honestly isn't even close to the colors:



Non-knitting content - my crocuses are finally blooming! Right now they are underwater due to all of the rain, but they were blooming when I took this!

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:

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.

Falling Leaves scarf

I'm still working on the Caterpillar scarf, but I needed something different for a while. I have begun another kitty pi, this time in a super pink. I have also begun a Falling Leaves scarf, using the stitch pattern from the Field Guide to Knitting by Jackie Pawlowski. I've had to frog it twice. The first time, the color pooling was wonderful, but four repetitions was too wide and one skein of yarn wasn't going to make enough length. The second time, three repetitions was working well, although the color was streakier. I miscounted somewhere and threw the whole pattern off. This stitch uses so many yarn overs, slip slip knits and sk2p's (slip a stitch, knit two together and then pass the slipped stitch over) that it is impossible for me to tink. So.. it was unraveled once again. Now I'm working on a two-repetition pattern.

This is my work area:



Yes, that is an unwound skein of yarn draped over my chair. Yes, I am working from it. I read in someone else's journal about a knitter who would loop a skein over her shoulder and knit happily away. I started with it over my knees but it makes it difficult to move. The corner of my recliner is perfect. I haven't had any tangles other than the mess of frogged yarn in my lap. I don't have a ball-winder and I'd rather knit than hand-wind yarn into a ball. Besides, I'd probably tangle it more if I tried.

This is a close-up of the stitch pattern, although this was back in the three-repetition ugly color streaking phase:



The narrower scarf is still 26 stitches. The yarn is so beautiful I don't want to stop knitting. It's Opal Hand-painted "Herbstmelodie" or Fall Melody. The two repetitions are making the colors pool in a most lovely way. I'll get a photo when I have a respectable length.

Caterpillar scarf

Photo of black swallowtail larva courtesy of www.larvalbug.com

I'm making good progress on my caterpillar scarf. It's my first foray into dropped stitches. I have to say, even this far into it, it's still nerve-wracking to INTENTIONALLY drop a stitch. I'm using the Vertical Drop Stitch pattern from Barbara Walker's "Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns". The open spaces are created by using yarn overs and then dropping a stitch several rows above. The stitches unravel down the rows until reaching the yarn over and then they stop. It's magic! It's working to create this lovely serpentine lace that makes me think of caterpillars wriggling along.



As previously mentioned, this is Opal Rainforest "Raupe" (aka "Caterpillar") yarn. I'm using size 2 needles and it's going well. I'm using metal needles, which are slippery as the dickens, but have sharp points that work well for complex stitches. This pattern actually only uses knits, purls and yarn overs, so wood would work if I had the right size.



I can't wait to see what this pattern looks like after blocking!

Daffodil Scarf

My lovely Daffodil scarf is finished. I was able to get 23 repetitions of section two out of the single skein of yarn. I might have been able to get one more but I wanted to leave myself enough to finish the decreases. On size 4 bamboo needles, the scarf pre-blocking is 58 inches long and about three inches wide. The angles are seriously curled, so blocking should help display the stitch pattern.

Details:
Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock "Daffodil" (80% superwash wool, 20% nylon) - 1 skein (215 yards)
Pattern: Argosy Scarf
Needles: Bamboo US size 4

Pre-blocking:







During blocking:




After blocking:

Blocking gave this scarf a whole new feel. The angles are defined and the open weave between the blocks really opened up. Now it drapes around my neck lightly with a slight stretchiness. It's so light, it's like a soft whisper against my skin. The colors in the sock yarn came out so different than I expected, but I love the effect. I plan to make more with this yarn, perhaps in different colors. I know someone who would love the Daffodil, but I'll have to make another because I want one for my very own.

Links galore and daffodils!

I found a yarn shop (LYS in the lingo) tonight while I was on a quest for Opal Hundertwasser "Der Blaue Mond" yarn because I fell in so love with this scarf that I want to learn a bunch of complicated knit stitches, just so I can make one of my own.



I found the yarn, but then I found another one I loved even more. It's Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the color "Daffodil". It has everything I love about the Opal yarn, without the grey and the red. I am going to learn Vyvyan Neel's Argosy scarf pattern if it kills me, just because this yarn is so beautiful, it deserves it.



The Argosy Scarf pattern is fairly complex although Knitty calls it "tangy" - meaning harder than beginner but not described as "hoo boy".



Last but not least, I am thrilled to have a friendly LYS with very helpful people - Monterey Yarn. I am looking forward to a lot of yarn shopping in the future. I was bursting with ideas and I now understand why Crazy Aunt Purl likes to smell yarn. High quality yarn is a work of art, even before you knit something out of it.

Bohemian Scarf

I love this scarf! It's six feet long and three inches wide. I made it with Patons Bohemian "Copper Chaos" on a 6mm J10 hook. It's done entirely in double crochet - chain 7 and keep going until long enough. I made it long enough to double over and loop through itself and it lays flat without rolling. It also feels like I have kittens snuggling my neck.

It's machine washable (delicate) and dryable because the chenille yarn is a polyester/acrylic blend. I'm working on a matching hat, but it's a work in progress. The scarf was frogged multiple times as I worked out how wide I wanted it and which stitch worked best. This is a very dense fabric and any wider would have been difficult to shape around my neck.







I'm toying with the idea of knitting a pillow out of this yarn but I'm afraid I'd never get out of my chair. It's too cuddly to use indiscriminately.

Argh!

I am in love with Patons SWS, but I think I need to frog this scarf I'm working on and try something different. The chevron pattern is gorgeous, but it makes a very heavy fabric. It's beautiful and totally impractical. I had to chain on multiples of 17 stitches, so two multiples is giving me a scarf that is 8 inches wide and only 18 inches long after a skein and a half of yarn. I can't decide if I want to make it wider and crochet a pillow or go narrower and modify the pattern to give me a better scarf. The chevron doesn't show very well with only one repeat. I can't really go to a smaller hook because the yarn is fairly bulky and I'm already undersized. The striping is perfect at the current width which is part of why I wish I didn't have to mess with it.

I'm going to set it aside and let it percolate until I have some inspiration about what to do with it. I may also scowl at it periodically in hopes that it shapes up.

Full view:




Front of pattern showing raised ridges:




Back of pattern showing the chevron on the "smooth" side: