My Knitting Life

Spring Offering

'Violets By The River' Shawl Kit

Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mills

Spring cleaning continues here.  I need to finish my wintery WIPs first, but look what amazing forgotten treasure I uncovered as I cleaned out the stash.  Even more special because it was gifted to me by a dear friend.  Just for fun, I perused the pattern and wound the skein into this beautiful ball.  I think I will sit it on my knitting table for inspiration.  Wouldn't it be nice to be able to throw this beautiful shawl over my shoulders for the July wedding we have been invited to?

Flower Basket Shawl

Interweave Knits, Fall 2004 Frog Tree Alpaca, Sport Weight, Color #92, 2 balls Size 8 Needles

Sneak Preview

Announcing....Flower Basket Shawl....before and during blocking. Started on Tuesday, 9/7, completed Friday, 9/10. I used a single strand of Frog Tree Alpaca in Color #92 (about 1 1/2 balls), size 8 circular needle for knitting and size 10 1/2 for bind off. I was able to get the full 54" width across the top, but it is an inch or two shy of the full length. Stay tuned for the final unveiling.....

Triumph!

Charlotte's Web
Yarn: Koigu KPM, Berries & Cream, from Rob at Threadbear
Needle : Size 6 Circular
Edge: Scallop Edge Crochet
Started: May 15, 2004
Completed: June 12, 2004

Close-up of the edge to show the lovely Koigu and my first attempt at crochet. Shell or Scallop border, taken from The Encyclopedia of Crochet .

PROGRESS!!

A huge thank you to all who sent kind words yesterday. I took all your advice. I fixed some snacks and washed them down with a few Cosmopolitans. Then I was ready for dinner, which consisted of a glass, no a bottle, of wine and a pint of Coffee Haagen Daz. For dessert, I had lots of chocolate! And look what happened:

Charlotte, unblocked. Measured exactly 24" in length down the center. Really a very unimpressive, shrivelled up looking thing. Oh, and yes, I have NO regrets for all the back-tracking and re-knitting. I am in a good place with the finished product. Thanks for all the encouragement to RIP!

Charlotte blocking. See how lacey and transparent she becomes - I was so surprised! I soaked her for 15 minutes in a tepid bath with wool wash, in a pillow case, and gently spun out the excess water. Then I stretched the dickens out of her to achieve 38" in length and 76" in width. Used tons of pins. I HIGHLY recommend a LOOSE bind-off. I went up two needle sizes for the bind-off, and if it was looser still the stretching would have been easier.

These are my 5 colors in order. Notice anything strange? Why did I almost run out of Color 4, and have enough 5? Did anyone else have this experience? (I have an extra ball of 5 for my edging.) Maybe we should have a left-over exchange. If anyone runs out - post what you need!

I decided to block and then add a border. I really think it is going to be a shell edge, which I found in a crochet book from the library - it looks so similar to Vanessa's lovely edge on her CW. I am going out of town until Wednesday for work, so the edge will have to wait, along with my final photos. I'm going to miss Charlotte and all my blogging pals while I'm gone, not to mention my own little blog!

No Pain No Gain

Hello? Is anybody out there? I'm feeling a little shakey. I just ripped Charlotte from row 152 to 139. Yes, two rows from finishing. I saw one repeat that didn't cross over. It just sort of went wonky. One repeat. Was I nuts to rip? I got it back on the needle (after a purl row) and knit one pattern row. Then I put it down. Because I am so busy, this represents all I did this week. I'm flying solo this weekend so I have a full day of running kids around. Tonight, I plan to plant myself firmly in my chair and recoup the losses...

Web-based Solutions

Two little comments over at Kerstin's today really knocked the wind out of me (ok, I'm being as dramatic as a 5th grade girl). I have been noticing how small Charlotte is, although it is measuring just as it should be in the pattern. Down the center, at row 105, it measures 17 inches, which means I will end up right around 24 inches at completion.

In her comment, Vanessa casually mentioned that she added another repeat! (I don't have her link.) As I recall from the Threadbear site, Vanessa's shawl was one color, so adding more repeats probably just used up the yarn she had, but for those of us knitting multiple colors with names like Coming Snow, Wysteria or Berries and Cream, it changes everything! Which berries should I add? Would you add more snow or more sleet? Is the wysteria just blooming or is it on the wane? I decided that I'm glad I'm short and won't be adding any more repeats.

The second comment was from Anne (again, don't have link). She mentioned blocking first and then adding the crochet edging. I checked the pattern and it doesn't mention anything about this sequence. I am seriously considering a knitted lace edging. While driving around in my car this morning, I let my mind wander as to how I will do this. Of course, I had just come to the conclusion that I should knit the edging and then block, the exact opposite of Anne's advice! My thinking was that the knitted edging will need to be "opened up" just like the shawl. But now I am concerned that the shawl edge won't have enough give if the edging is added before the shawl is blocked. Any thoughts?

I'm celebrating the fact that we have a long weekend coming up and it doesn't involve any gift-giving, card buying or new clothes! Just hang out your flag, throw on some burgers and get in some quality knitting time! Have a great weekend!

Pure Evil

Yup. You're lookin' at it. Color 3. Last night was the first night this week with no outside commitments. So I settled into my chair, and pulled out Charlotte. I'm just adding Color 4, with Color 3 still in action. I wound all the yarn using my ball winder a while back. Color 3 has been giving me trouble all along. Sometimes when I tug, a clump comes out of the center in a mass of tangles. Who knows what multi-tasking thing I was doing while winding it. Last night I decided enough is enough, I'm going to rewind it into a round ball from the outside with the inside strand attached to Charlotte. So I unwound and wrapped and untangled and wrapped and on and on. All through American Idol. And Millionaire. I refused to cut the lovely Koigu. Occasionally I went back to Charlotte, counting repeats to be sure of no mistakes. And I had lots of kid interruptions, but, still, TWO HOURS??

Remember me a few months ago? Wasn't I churning out the FO's? Who was that person? I can't seem to make much headway on anything these days. I'm mid-way with Charlotte and the top-down. I really really really want to start the ChicKami tank for Maddy, and would love to have it done for her birthday next week, but I know it will slow me down with these other projects.

True Confessions: I put extra pressure on myself to work quickly to get things done when I'm in a knit-along. I'm not proud of it. I mean competitive knitting? Isn't that a total OXYMORON? I get so much out of knit-alongs - the pure joy of seeing other variations of the same project, the learning from others, etc. Maybe as a personal challenge, I should commit to being the last person done the Web?

In the Groove

What fun we're all having with Charlotte! Have you seen Sandy's? And Kerstin's? Annie is moving along, even while finishing some other fun projects. Many of us have benefitted from Uli's chart - I have it at my side and use it with a cut-out of the 8 stitch repeat.

After much teeth knashing and brow beating last week, I'm finally on my way. I attribute my slow start to trying to knit while the kids are in da house! Also, I got the 8 stitch concept quickly, but those center stitches threw me off for quite a while - the fact that there is one more stitch than on the sides took such a long time to sink in! I'm solidly in Color 3, a few rows away from adding Color 4. I even took her out to a baseball game and made some progress, although some markers got slightly displaced.

In other news, I am teaching my second knitting class tonight! I haven't really mentioned this, but I did teach a beginner class a few weeks back - 10 students. It is a one time class - just to get your feet wet. Most of the class signed up to come back with a simple project. Tonight should be more relaxed than the first class because all the students know they want to continue. My wonderful neighbor, Mary, came and helped me. She kept me calm and moved about helping people while I was tied up. She got a kick out of the fact that I WAY over-prepared! I'm feeling much more relaxed the second time around.

Click to see Row 83! While knitting, I'm thinking: 1. What am I going to do with the leftovers? A scarf? Any thoughts? 2. Anyone have blocking advice? 3. I really want a crochet or lace edging - must investigate. 4. Must plan a fancy cocktail party on the veranda so I will wear this thing at least once!

Humble

"Charlotte tore quite a section out of her web, leaving an open space in the middle. Then she started weaving something to take the place of the threads she had removed. When Templeton got back from the dump around midnight, the spider was still at work." E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

I could tell you all about Charlotte, but my post would have to still be called "Row 45". Can you believe I made it all the way to Color 3, Row 59? Just as I was caressing my next color, I saw a jog to the left in one of the Knit borders to each pattern repeat. I was going to leave it, but I saw that blocked shawl at Mind of Winter and it inspired me to rip. Of course the jog created a ripple effect in the rest of the row, which compounded the mistake in future rows.

I keep telling myself I'm much farther along than I was even just 24 hours ago. Maybe not in the knitting, but in the learning. Each day since I started, I've figured out something new about how this pattern works and how to approach it. Each learning becomes integrated, and the next new concept builds on the previous one. It's sweating out the early learning stages that are the most challenging - the ripping and re-doing and knowing you have to go through this to get it right.