The Black Beast

Posted on 25 October 2004 by zardra

Here it is… Le Bete Noir…

I’ve only got a couple more inches before I can begin the armseye shaping.

I got a few more rows on the shawl done at my LYS on Saturday. So, I’ve got 44 done so far… about 100 left to go and then the edging.

I think I need to start alternating which project I work on each night. Le Bete Noir is nice to do while watching TV since it’s knit plain. The Sister Shawl requires more attention, but I need to get it done (I’ve got about 2 months left to finish it and I need time to block it properly)… it’s just not conducive to paying attention to the lastest episode of CSI. Maybe that’s the problem… I watch too many shows that make me think and want to pay attention… I need to watch more stupid shows.

The Softness

Posted on 22 October 2004 by zardra

Have I mentioned how soft the Bouton D’or Ksar is? Mmmmmm… nice to work with… occasionally has ply spliting problems if I’m trying to knit to quickly… but overall very nice to the fingers. I’ve almost got 10″ done of the back. I hope to take a picture of it tonight, and get it up in my sidebar so everyone can try to discern the beginnings of a sweater.

Unfortunately, I have not worked on the Sister Shawl since last Saturday. I hope to take it with me tomorrow when I go to my LYS after my preservation class.

I need to practice reading and knitting. Both my library classes are reading intensive… I don’t like doing it cause I’d rather be knitting. Just need to practice at combining the two, then I could feel productive.

Wandering off the path

Posted on 19 October 2004 by zardra

I have refrained from purchasing anything what so ever from my LYS because “I have a shawl to knit.” I have to say this out load whenever I pick up some soft, tasty looking yarn in the store… like that alpaca/silk slightly thick and thin that would make a nice shawl for myself… or a throw…. um, yeah. But, on Saturday, I could not let pass up getting some Bouton D’or Ksar in black… 15 balls, in fact… at half off cause the shop owner was sick and tired of looking at dangling ends (the balls fall apart really easily). So, $180 of gorgeous 50% wool, 50% camel yarn became mine for $90 (I’m very proud of myself if you can’t tell). I found myself casting on a swatch at around midnight… have to see how it knits up, right? Once I had a swatch I found myself wondering what I could knit with it… 15 balls should be enough for a sweater… although black isn’t exactly the best color for me… makes me look more than a bit pale. I could, however, knit a sweater for my husband, who does look good in black.

Due to some confusion on the yarn tag… it says the gauge is 17 sts/4 inches on US size 10.5 or 5 mm… I swatched with both my size 10s and my size 8s. For both I got 4 sts to the inch with the fabric created on the 8s a bit tighter… I thought the 10s made it too holey looking.

I am now about 4 inches into Le Bete Noir (as it had been christened)… and am wondering if I am still knitting at the gauge I swatched at. If I just measure the guage as the kntting sits on the needles I get 5 sts/inch, which would make this 5 inches shorter in width than it should be. If I try to make the knitting looking like it might when not bunched up on knitting needles I get 4 sts/in… 4.5 sts/in.

Le Bete Noir is beginning to look like a very appropriate name…

Itchy fingers

Posted on 14 October 2004 by zardra

Last night I finally made it into the repeat section of the shawl chart. And there was much rejoicing. I’ve got about 40 rows completed thus far… and each row is beginning to take a bit extra time to get through. I knew it would happen, but I was hoping I’d get a bit further before it began. On the other hand, it’s still really enjoyable to knit… the JaggerSpun Zephyr is quite soft; a big improvement over the laceweight yarn I had initially picked out. I sit at work and wish I could be at home knitting on the shawl even though I know I need to work on the paper I have due on Saturday. Unfortunately, my job involves a lot of typing and mousing… both hands constantly occupied… so no real way to get knitting in at the same time. *sigh*

Lace Shawl, Part the Second

Posted on 12 October 2004 by zardra

After taking that wonderful picture showing everything right again in my lace shawl knitting world, I ran a lifeline through my active stitches and continued onward… only to realize that I was missing a stitch somewhere. Thankfully, it was relatively easy to find and fix, but I had to pull out the lifeline to do it. *sigh*

After another purl row, the lifeline was put back in and I have been able to continue work without difficulty… so far. I’ve gotten a total of 30 lace rows done so far… it seems like so much… it seems as if this pattern works up quickly if I just sit down and work on it. Then, I remember that each row will only get longer and longer as I go on… and soon I will be cursing the shawl for not growing quickly enough.*

Soon to come: Pictures of the Needle-Eating Socks… and how they got that name.

*Knitting this shawl is beginning to resemble my relationship with my sister…. Thus, I dub this The Sister Shawl.

Two Days of Tinking Later

Posted on 10 October 2004 by zardra

Before:

Back to where I was:

It only took me 2 days to tink back 4 rows, reknit everything, realize that the dropped stitches were fortuitous because there was a mistake 2 rows below where I had tinked back to…. so back I went again, this time a little further… and back up. Now I will put in a lifeline before I do any more knitting.

This is the way we tink the shawl….

Posted on 8 October 2004 by zardra

I tried to fix the hole three times, but after awhile I wasn’t sure which thread was from which row (it had dropped down 3-4 rows)… which stitch was supposed to be twisted or ssk or how many yarn overs I was missing. The stitches I was remaking were awfully tight making me think I had created a few stitches that weren’t meant to be there. I had a vague idea of where I was and what needed to be done… but I was missing a couple of stitches… I think.

This morning I just decided that I would actually be getting somewhere round about now if I had just started tinking instead of trying to reconstruct. There would probably be less frustration as well. Knitting has certainly taught me that mistakes are fixable… some just take more time than others. The lesson learned this week: When I think that perhaps I should stop and put in a lifeline, I should stop and put in a lifeline. Being able to just take this off my needles and rip back to a lifeline would be so much easier than slowly… painstakingly picking each stitch out. Sure, the purled rows are a breeze, but I’m not looking forward to taking out the three-stitches-to-one decreases in the next row.

Tomorrow, if all goes well with the tinking, I will post before and after pics.

Dropped stitches can be picked up, just like buildings rebuilt after an earthquake*.

*I’ve had earthquakes on the brain lately… having several will do that I guess.

In the Face of Disaster

Posted on 7 October 2004 by zardra

Knitting away on the shawl the other night (within rows of getting to the repeat section) I dropped a couple stitches on a purling row*… and of course, in lace, dropping a couple of stitches turns into dropping several stitches. Thankfully, I am beginning to get a feel for the design** and believe I can fix it without too much difficultiy… just need to find a time when my patience is at an all time high.

*I was tired and should have known better than keep knitting on a lace pattern… but it was so close… I was almost there… *sigh*

**I have only just realized that I have to mention what design I am using for my sister’s shawl… it’s the Anne shawl out of Stahlman’s Shawls and Scarves.

Lace Shawl, Part 1

Posted on 3 October 2004 by zardra

I, unfortuantely, did not get anywhere near where I wanted to be the other night because I had to tink out a couple of rows. I think when I get to the repeat section I’ll put in a lifeline… it would be so much easier to be able to rip back to a place I knew was right rather than trying to figure out where one mistake might be and slowly, stitch by stitch, work back to it…. especially as the shawl grows in size.

I need to clean all my knitting stuff off the spare bed sometime this afternoon. My sister is flying out to Florida to see her fiancee and needs to be at the airport at 5:30 Wednesday morning, so she’ll be staying with us Tuesday night. Haven’t had to use the guest bed in some time, and it had thus become a wonderful place to stack all sorts of spinning and knitting related items. Now I need to find homes for all of them… fun fun.

I think I will try to work on the shawl some more after I clean off the bed.

Lace Shawl: The Beginning

Posted on 1 October 2004 by zardra

I thought I was getting off to a good start casting on my sister’s wedding shawl a week and a half ago. I have even gotten into the lace pattern, but I haven’t yet reached the repeat section. I figure I ‘ve got about 2 and a half months to finish it and still have time to block it… I just need to sit down and do it. If it weren’t white I’d feel more comfortable taking it places, but I’m terrified of getting it dirty.

I will try to at least get to the repeat section tonight, and then, the shawl will go with me to the LYS tomorrow for several hours of knitting.

I should take a picture of it before I start working on it tonight so that I can really see the progress as I go.

Knitting from Outer Space

My adventures in knitting, spinning, and life

Tag Archives: wool