One Day

One day that's all it took to knit up a very quick project...Ribs & Ruffles Scarf. I don't usually knit scarves using bulky yarns, but what do you knit when you only have one ball of bulky. The yarn was Katia Studio that I received in a goody bag over 2 years ago. I don't have any good things to say about this yarn...not soft, only 106 yards, variegated both in colors & dimensions. The only good was I didn't pay any $$ for the ball...

I do like the pattern though and would happily knit it again in something softer & possibly variegated. Simple to memorize & mindless to knit which is the perfect combo for TV knitting while watching Hokie Football...

Details:
Pattern: Ribs & Ruffles by Nancy Kleiber (Ravelry Link), quite popular have been knit to date.

Yarn: Katia Studio (42% nylon, 30% wool, 22% acrylic, 6% viscose), made in Spain, 106 yards/3.5 oz, variegated.

Needles: hand crafted straight oak needles, size 13

Size: 4.5 " wide and 45" length unblocked

No modifications to the pattern.

Eco Urban

Another project starting up on the needles is an exciting & exhilarating moment...usually. There have been times that I've been rather nervous about a project...Mermaid would fall into that category. Thankfully I'm usually happy to cast on new projects and prefer to have a few on the needles at the same time. For my next "big" project I decided that I must have yet another cabled sweater. Funny after I just finished one, but I do love cables. It doesn't hurt that my DH also likes my latest cabled sweater so it wasn't too hard to choose my next project...the Urban Aran from Paton's Street Smart that Jared Flood modified as a cardigan.

I'm also changing it to a zippered cardigan rather than the designed pullover. No surprise there since I really prefer something I can button/unbutton or zip/unzip as needed. Slow going at the moment due to a few other distractions...blocking Miss BB which will then need to be seamed together, casting on a new hat, & doing the last triangle of a multidiagnoal scarf for my mom who had some trouble with the last set of directions.

I'm sure I could think up a few more things to cast on...should be thinking about Christmas knitting which I have decided that I'll be doing very little. More about that later.

Uh Oh...

Oops, I only have ONE thing on needles. How on Earth did that happen? Suddenly I realized as I finished the collar on Miss BB that I don't have anything on the needles except for a Zauberball Baktus Lacy Scarf...mmm.

Must get cracking & come up with something before tonight. I cannot watch the Hokies calmly without the needles in my hands.

Read & Remember

It pays to read the pattern doesn't it? Well that's not quite right because I did read the pattern just the entire sentence didn't stick in my brain while I was knitting the pattern. In other words there I go again getting excited to be almost done to find that I really messed up...way back over 15 inches to be precise.

I have been knitting the sleeves on my Miss BB. I was done with the increases and about to start to decrease for the sleeve caps...so close. At that moment I looked at my knitting and it certainly didn't appear that I had the required 60+ stitches that the pattern stated I should have at that point. I counted my increases on the needles and in my notes...match. At first I didn't know what was wrong...slowly it dawned on me that while knitting the increase section I left out the right side increases. All of them.

I pulled out my needles & frogged back to the 16th row of my knitting. Now I'm back on track & thankful I discovered this before I had reach the end of the sleeves and would be wondering why they were not fitting.

Old Skill is New Again

I have actually been forced to learn one of the oldest sewing/knitting skills...darning. One of my hand knit socks (Retro Ribs) finally developed the "dreaded hole in the heel". Funny how it wasn't even one of my oldest pairs...according to my Ravelry project page it was finished in February of 2008. Anyway I decided that since the hole was pretty small I should try fixing it. How hard could darning really be for goodness sake...turns out not too hard at all. It took me less than 30 minutes to repair the damage. If I do say so myself it looks pretty darn good.

Supplies
--blunt needle,
--yarn of the same thickness...I even had some Jitterbug left
--something hard & round (wooden egg) to weave against and that's it.

I turned the sock inside out, but it really doesn't matter too much although the "neater side" is away from you on. I just thought I'd prefer the neater appearance on the outside of the sock.

What I did:

1. Thread the needle with a fairly long piece of yarn...~2 yards so there's no break in the yarn.
2. Pick a starting point a few good stitches down & away from the hole & use a running stitch up to a few good stitches past the hole. You continue weaving the needle & yarn up & down the heel...over the hole the yarn should not be tight. Once you run all the way across and continue past the hole until you've reached good stitches.
3. Turn the sock 90 degrees and weave the needle & yarn over & under your previous work. Continue until the entire hole area has been filled with the patchwork.

Cut both ends of yarn which should felt into place with wearing. Turn the sock right side out and there you have it a patch where a hole used to be...it's not perfect, but it's wearable.




Of course there's always videos of darning socks on the Internet...what I thought would be difficult really wasn't bad at all & I still have a pair of socks that I'll still be able to wear.

Another Knit from Chick

I have yet another of Ms. Bonnie Marie Burns's Chicknit Patterns on the needles. How many have I started? Well if you include the Mystery Hat KAL this would be number 3 in the last couple of months that I have cast on. My first was Cassidy, followed by that little side trip to knit up a Mondo Cable Cap then two weeks ago I cast on for Miss BB. I still have Twist & Mondo Cable Shell/Vest to go...I may have a problem.

Ravelry's Chicknit group has a KAL going on for Miss BB so I thought I'd go ahead and join in the fun...so far have been started. It's been going very quickly...the back's done as are both fronts. I've started knitting the sleeves. I'm doing both at once so that I have the increases/decreases & length all in the same place. Let's hope it ends up as planned...I keep getting tangled up in the many balls of yarn I have going. Why so many? Unfortunately the Classic Elite's Waterlily I'm using was bought 3-4 years ago for another project, Nicole...which ended up being knitted out of something else. Waterlily has since sat in the stash waiting to be something. I kept looking at patterns & tossing the Waterlily aside & hanging on to it until the "perfect pattern" could be found.

About a year or so ago I was afraid that the original 12 balls wouldn't be quite enough for anything else so I bought 4 more balls..."just in case". I always figured that I could use the off lot for the sleeves...so now I have multiple balls being knitted in order to keep the differences minimal. I have not noticed any garish differences & the "watercolor" effect of Waterlily is beautiful. The yarn has great stitch definition, a very soft touch & the 'watercolor effect' is making Miss BB look terrific...one draw back is the occasional yarn splitting, but it hasn't been affecting my enjoyment in the least.

I guess I don't have to say that I really enjoy knitting Chicknit patterns. I have knit quite a few (Ribby Shell, Cassidy, Mondo Cable Cap, Miss BB)...all have been well designed, the designer is very willing to address problems or questions along the way and so far everything I've knitted looks very sharp & stylish. What's not to like.

My Cassidy

I adore this sweater. Absolutely loved knitting it, especially the yarn chosen which I wrote about a few days ago. My only 'uh oooh' moments were with those darn button bands. I knitted them at least 4 times...may have been more 'cause I've blocked the number of times at this point. On my first attempt I picked up way more stitches than I really should have and paid the price. A really wonky looking button band that puckered & waved...so it was frogged.

The second time I attempted to use a little math to figure out how many stitches to pick up. The method was based on one of Knitty's articles about picking up stitches which I found very helpful. Funny that it worked out okay even though I didn't have enough info from the pattern to calculate it out perfectly. Not the fault of the designer it was all due to the changes I made to the pattern...not fond of hoods on my sweaters so I changed the designed hood to a cabled collar.

I had no idea how many stitches were to be be picked up for doing just the button bands. I decided to take the numbers provided for picking up for the hood and down each front & subtract out the stitches for the hood. This left me with a number I could use to plug into the formula. I played around with my stitch markers, measured the fronts & put all the info into Knitty's formula. All of this left me with a number to pick up...97 stitches.

Finally, I was back on track...well almost anyway. I had a small problem with the edge curving out at the buttons. I'd knit the band, but when I added the buttons I'd get a fairly dramatic curving outward, but only at the buttons & especially noticeable when buttoned. First I thought the problem had to do with how I knit the button holes so I frogged it & re-knit the button holes on the wrong side...still had a problem although it was somewhat better. At this point I was stymied as to what I need to do...started thinking about ditching my buttons for a zipper.

Since I was due for a trip to Blacksburg for a meeting with my Unraveled group I held off the decision so I could get their advice...everyone basically said I was nuts (no news there) to be worrying about the band. It made me feel better, but I was still not pleased that it wasn't looking the way I wanted. I must thank Sandy from Mosaic for bailing me out once again with another one of her tricks. She said that "there's always a way to fix it"...thank goodness she was willing to show me what I needed to do. All it involved was a crochet hook, a little yarn and a few minutes to add a slipped stitch edge to both bands. A perfect fix. The ends have now been woven in and Cassidy has been out & about in the cool weather...I'll say it again I love this sweater and the yarn's not half bad either.

Details:
Pattern: Cassidy by Bonnie Marie Burns (Chicknits). Ravelry has knit.

Yarn: 100% Montana grown Cormo Wool by Elsa Wool Company, spinning system: woolen, 2 ply, worsted, 237 yds/4 oz in a light gray. I used 5 skeins plus 2 3/4 oz of another skein.

Needles: Addi Turbo, 40" circular, sizes US 6 and US 7

Gauge: 19 stitches per 4 inches

Size: chest 40"

Modifications: Rather than do the shoulder shaping as designed I decided to rework the pattern to include short row shaping. It worked out well and did not disrupt the cable patterns as much as I feared. Three needle bind off at the shoulders in my opinion goes together so much smoother & easier than the 'stair step' results of binding off the fronts & backs.

Buttons: 7 mother of pearl "smoke" buttons, size 3/4" from The Yarn Lounge

**pics to follow once my camera returns**