Another Experiment -- hand warmers

That title makes me sound like a mad scientist, doesn't it?!  No test tubes or bunsen burners or toxic chemicals, but lots and lots of testing and trying and searching for answers.  Mad?  You decide.

Those fingerless gloves (aka hand warmers) were shouting my name and begging me to cast them onto needles so they could come alive.  Picked Andean Silk from Knitpicks, soft and warm, worsted weight, alpaca, silk and merino wool.  Just plain yummy!

I finally got to this point -- but only after several different approaches.  Like wandering around a new city as a tourist: you get to see a lot, but your feet can get tired and you may get lost.  Still . . .

Didn't get 'here' without some detours.  Finally decided to use
the double pointed needles (DPN).
Can you see "the wave" in the ribbing pattern?
This is another from One Skein Wonders.

First I decided to teach myself another new technique.  Great idea -- put two socks or two hand-warmers (anything that requires a pair to be knitted) onto two needles and knit both of them at once.  This is supposed to guarantee against the insidious and cruel "one sock syndrome."  Yes, I have one sock sitting in some UFO box somewhere.  Sounds like a good idea -- knit both of the pair at one time.

Two at a time technique from this book by Antje Gillingham.
The explanations are fabulous; the diagrams are clear and real pictures.
I was able to use each step to get both hand warmers onto
two needles.

But I lost patience quickly.  Each hand warmer has only 30 stitches and using this new technique I felt like I spent more time moving yarn around and untangling.  Just not worth it for this item.  I can, however, definitely see the advantage for socks with finer yarn and more stitches.  I will try it again.

Converted both hand warmers to one long circular needle and tried that.  If you wanna learn more, go to YouTube and search for Magic Loop Method.  Lots of folks can show you.  Here's what they look like on the one long needle.

Even that drove me crazy.  Dividing the 30 stitchesmeans 15 on each side.  And still, I'm managing two balls of yarn and turning the needles back and forth and sliding stitches.  Groan.  Reminded me of the afghan squares I finished several years ago.  32 squares sat dormant for at least 10 years (now THAT is a UFO, readers!).  When I realized I needed only four, yes 4, squares I took four balls of yarn and cast on stitches for each of the remaining squares.  Had to sit quietly on the couch with two balls of yarn on each side of my feet and be very, very careful every time I finished one row to turn around and go back.  The afghan is wonderful but that 4-at-a-time was just painful.

Converted again, this time to DPN -- and will do one hand warmer at a time.  It's much more satisfying.  The project is now portable -- just one ball of yarn and 4 DPN's.  The pattern can be memorized after just a row or two.  Knitting around means I only turn the entire thing about 1/3 the way counterclockwise as I finish the 10 stitches on one needle and begin the next set.

This is 30 stitches in total, with 10 on each DPN.
The needle on the right is beginning to knit off the stitches from
the needle just below.  Needles are about the size of a pencil.
US8, worsted weight yarn

I'm finally enjoying this and expect to finish both hand warmers within a few days.  The wool will make them warm and the silk and alpaca will make them soft.

The wavy pattern is visible.  You can compare the pencil
to the needles and the yarn to get an idea of the size of each.

Mad or not, this knitting geek found a way to make the project work.  This time the yarn is right for the project.  This time I learned a new technique to try again later.  

Sometimes it's valuable to be a bit mad -- pick up your sticks and try something new.  You'll surely find some sanity in the process.  Life lesson again?  Gotta take a few detours to discover your true path.

Wrong combination

Sometimes I look at the large stash of yarn and see a sweater or scarf or vest.  So I pull out a skein or too, do a swatch (maybe), and proceed.  If it's a scarf, I do a lot of guessing -- which needles, how many stitches (after I figure the repeats as in yesterday's post.)

And sometimes it just doesn't work.  My local library had a copy of Knitted Lace from Interweave.  Put it on order and after picking it up from the branch near my home, I discovered -- no surprises here! -- at least 5 things I really like.  One of those is a scarf, in two sizes.

Lovely Andean Silk yarn (worsted weight) and a size US7 needle and I'm knitting.  This pattern follows a different approach:  first you knit the border sideways, starting on one edge you knit a few repeats that make points.  Then you pickup stitches along the edge of the border and knit the length of the scarf.

Words don't work.

The empty needle shows the direction of the knitting
for the points that make the border.
The needle with stitches shows the first bit of
stitches picked up from along the edge

But it's awful -- not the pattern -- but the yarn just isn't right for the pattern.  I considered changing to a larger needle but that would just make things sloppy, even after blocking.  Lace knitting should result in an item that's has nice drape but isn't sloppy like a handful of wet noodles.

Here's the book.  I still love the scarf and may check the stash for some lace weight yarn or even a DK weight, just not this worsted.  Really is a fairly easy pattern.  Would be fun, I think.

Bookmarks and yellow sticks mark the other patterns
I wanna try.  I may have to check Abe Books to see
about buying a used copy.

Still cannot find the small ruler with the needle sizer holes in it.  Tore out all the cushions from couch and favorite chair.  Cleaned out the basket of knitting notions thinking i'd tossed it in there.  Next will have to rummage thru the pattern books I've been reading -- probably used it as a bookmark.

Thought I lost my Brittany US7 needles and that would have really hurt.  They are my needle of choice for the TKGA work.  Plus they are just getting broken in nicely.  Found em in the small brown shopping bag with the three balls of yarn for all TKGA swatches.  Whew!

Still looking for that ruler.  And still looking for the right combination of pattern and needles for the Andean Silk from Knitpicks.  Maybe the fingerless gloves I wanna knit for myself?

One is Done -- Mohair Lace Scarf

I am, proudly, a knitter.  I choose yarn and pattern, I cast on stitches, I knit and knit and knit and sometimes I take it apart and start over.  And now and then I get to celebrate:  One is Done.

Finished one of the four scarves from yesterday's post.  It's on the blocking board, sprayed gently with water and then steamed.  Being careful with the mohair.  I love the fuzzy, soft feel and look and don't want to ruin it by letting the water tie it in knots or -- horror -- having the steam melt the bits of nylon.

Here's a bit of the color wave as it appears on the blocking board.

Wonderful wine then teal and moving off to the left
it morphs into olive.

Olive, gold, dark mustard.  Choose your own word for
this collection of colors.  You could say this was
the color of a swamp -- doesn't matter.  Tis gorgeous.

The pattern is from One Skein Wonders.  This is a great book for gift knitting.  The items are for babies, adults (both men and women).  The suggested yarns run the gamut from bulky to fine lace.  There's whimsical and practical, and yet none of the items is taxing.  Yarn shop owners from all over the US submitted their designs for hats, gloves, mittens, shawls, scarves, bags, sox, and more.  If you really feel the need to provide warmth for a cell phone, see page 66.

This pattern is called Gossamer Lace Scarf, from Clickity Sticks in Minneapolis.  From the picture below you can see the instructions plus a drawing of the finished item.  Color pictures are in a folio in the center of the book.

Pencil markings indicate the date of my knitting and
the recipient.  The yellow stickies mark other patterns
on my wish-to-knit list.

After casting on the suggested 40 stitches and knitting till the scarf was 5 inches, at least, I was at DP (decision point.)  Clearly not enough yarn from the one skein I found in the yarn stash.  And it really was too too wide for a scarf.  More like a sort-of shawl, but not.  So, off come the stitches and winding, winding I go, wrapping the long end around the ball of yarn from whence it came.

Now, how many stitches will make it come right?  The answer lies in some doodling and thinking and a bit of adding and subtracting.  It's a great way to begin the process of understanding lace while adjusting it to fit the size you want the item to be.  Here's my notebook and pen, showing the quick chart (vertical hash marks and "O's" for yarn-overs, with slash marks representing Knit 2 Together.)

When I'm done with this doodling, I have discovered
a) how many stitches repeat themselves across (12 in this case)
and b) how many extra stitches are at each end to finish off the design
(16 in this case.)

And finally I discover that if I use any multiple of 12 stitches (like 12, or 24, or 36, etc.) PLUS the 16 edge stitches, I will have exactly what i need to make the pattern work out properly.  I already know that 24+16 = 40 is tooooo many stitches -- that's the number called for in the original directions.  So I 'jump down' to 12 + 16 = 28 and that's what I used.

Worked out perfectly.  Scarf is on the blocking board.  Design is wonderful with the yarn I selected (which sometimes doesn't happen -- an example later.)  I'm moving on to the next scarf.

BTW:  I added another one to the list.  This is like the game with team hands slapping one on top of the other in the center of the huddle.  It can go on forever unless, and until, someone older and wiser calls a halt to the silliness.

Just had a birthday, so I reckon I'm 'older' now, but can't seem to get with the 'wise' part.  I just keep buying yarn, choosing patterns, adding a new book to the shelf, dreaming about another pattern, . . . 

and . . . casting on more stitches to yet another set of needles.  According to her comment, Ludmilla does the same thing.  Projects, projects and more projects.  

I am, proudly, a knitter.  Join me in the obsession

NAS! Not Another Scarf!

Officially speaking I now have at least 4 scarves on needles or hooks -- with me on 'pins and needles' hoping to finish each one in time for Christmas gift-giving.  Every year a vow not to do this -- it's not that I don't love knitting for others; it's that I always get the "just right for this person" idea with too few days left to knit.

I'm not the only knitter that does this.  If you are a knitter or read about other knitters, you will have heard or read the story of "up til 3 am to finish that one."

Inventory --

This one is crochet.  The pencil is added to give you a sense of the size of the hook.  It's a B US, for those who also crochet.  The yarn is lace weight, meaning tiny and fine.  It's also variegated.

Crochet.  Lace weight yarn.  Hook size B.  Pattern from
Interweave

This one is heavier yarn, called worsted weight.  The needles are from my special set of Brittany wood needles; they are warm to the hands and smooth so the wool slides.

Needles about the size of the pencil, size 8US.
Wool yarn from Rowan.  Pattern from a new book
Textured Stitches.

Next is a progress shot of the mohair lace scarf.  When I first showed this one it was wider.  I knitted until it was about 5 inches long and decided two things:  1) not enough yarn; and 2) too wide for the type of scarf (as in, "it's not a shawl.")

This time the needles are actually a bit larger than
the pencil, in diameter.  10 1/2 US.
Pattern is from One Skein Wonders.

And finally (as a reminder to me that I really must go knit), another showing of the Checkerboard Lace scarf using the Darliss Yarn, with pattern from Purl Bee.  No pencil in this picture.  Needles are smaller than the pencil.

Just gorgeous, that pattern at  Purl Bee

Back to projects.  Each one offers something different and I like knowing that my mood and my projects can be coordinated.

• Checkerboard Lace -- when I'm feeling sassy and ready to take on the world; no pattern is too tough
• Burgundy Cables -- when I need a reminder that I know how to do cables and a project that's working up quickly
• Mohair Lace -- when I just need to knit.  There's only one pattern row and then three rows of just knit knit knit
• Crochet scarf -- when I want to rest the knitting brain and work on a delicate difference

How wonderful that I can review the inventory, pick up a project and put it down for another.  Oh, that life allowed us to do more matching mood with to-do's.  Not always easy to be enthused about some tasks, but even mundane 'chores' like unloading the dishwasher can be a reminder that we are blessed with abundance.  Lots of women have to haul water just to quench their children's thirst.

If you're looking for a place / way to help, check out World Vision.

It's a wrap -- blue lace shawl

Last stitches, last weaving-in-ends, last bit of trim.  The blue lace shawl is fini.

Wrapping the wreath and celebrating completion

I wanted to record the last bit of knitting, those last 6 stitches that mean the knitting needles can be put away and I can begin the finishing process.  

Those last bits of knitting are a time for celebrations

  -- the yarn lasted til the end, yeah!

  -- my patience lasted ti the end, yeah!

  -- another finished project, yeah!

Knitting celebrations -- knitters knit because joy is so ever-present.

The shawl measures about 35" from bottom center point to top of the long part that wraps the shoulders.  Here's what it looks like on the blocking board.

And for those who relish the details (and lace knitting has lots of details) here are some interesting geeky facts:

 -- 21 rows of leaves, with each new leaf nesting between two leaves from the previous row.  

 -- If you're doing the math, that's a total of 230 leaves. 

 -- Shawl began with only 3 stitches at the point.  Lots of practice on the add-a-stitch-on-purpose stuff

 -- Last row of knitting, all across the top was 279 stitches.

 -- Those border points?  There are 61 of those, each created from an 8 row pattern, so that's 488 rows to knit.  It felt like 488,888 while I was doing it.  First row has 6 stitches, 8th row has 13.  You do the math, but by any reckoning that's a bunch of stitches.

The last row of leaves, where their nesting shows clearly.
Also the last 14 rows of just plain knitting, knitting
every row for 14 rows.  Makes a nice edge at the top, to match
the sides.  And then finally, a row of picot crochet.

The points on the diagonal edges.  The knitted borders around
the leaves.  A bit of the top crochet picots.

Lace has all the elements of a good movie, though you couldn't sell any of these plots in the 10 minute elevator speech.  

• Lace knitting requires close attention. Often the pattern requires different actions each and every row.  On the plus side, the patterns sometimes only ask for this furious activity on the right side of the knitting and you can 'take a break' on your way back (called a rest row for good reason!) 
• Lace knitting has those moments of sheer terror when you recognize on row 83 that you made a mistake and now have to correct it without ripping out thousands of stitches.  (Yes, there are ways to do this, but it's still a heart-stopping moment, albeit brief.)  
• Lace knitting can also be mind-numbingly boring.  Row after row after row and in most cases each row adds stitches.  So as you slog thru yet another repeat of the pattern you also realize you're facing even more stitches, the same technique, and more stitches.  Over and over and over and over . . . 
• Lace knitting is so satisfying.  It's always interesting, always complex though in varying degrees, always a challenge.

Lace knitting is gorgeous, always.  Full stop. 

I hope you'll find yourself taking on a bit of lace for the next project, perhaps a scarf.  And if you've been a lace knitter for some time, good on ya! 

This is the kind of knitting you do for a treasured friend or special family member.  Lace knitting keeps you focused on the project for an intense time, and while you are knitting you can recall fun times with the recipient.  You can remember the tears you cried together and the laughs that kept you going.  You'll remember the chat-chat and the share-share.  You'll remember that friends are the gifts God gives us to remind us that we are also treasured -- in His eyes and in the eyes of our friends.  Lace knitting gives us the memory time and the finished garment to tell our friend they are a treasure in our life.

Yarn over, knit 2 together -- stay in touch and keep friendships at the top of your list.

Hat City -- ta dah!

Hat!  Hat!  Hat!

I like the striping and I like the colors and I'm glad it's finished.  Though it's not quite done yet.  Still have to weave in all the loose ends I tucked inside before I took the picture.  Then I have to steam it a bit and get it into shape.  All the steaming may help even out some of the irregularities in knitting, which is one of the purposes of blocking (shaping into the final shape and size.)  

Final step will be to stuff it into a zip-lock and cram it into a notebook so it can be squashed by its cousins, the swatches, and sent off for 6 Master Knitters to pick over.  Being me, I've already identified some things they'll find -- the ribbing at the bottom may be inside out (explanation too long and not worth belaboring); those color transitions are sloppy; I didn't strictly follow their pattern (10 rows of each color and make sure there's contrast.)

As for the pattern, you can't count the rows using my amateur photo but I actually did 2 rows of cream in between each color change, with 8 rows of dark pink each repeat.  Last time I checked 8 + 2 = 10.  And they did say I could use other colors.

We'll see.

The hat is knit in cylinder shape until it's time to close the crown.  Here are two pix to give you an idea.

Big hole.  Big hole to let in the cold air.  Big hole that defeats
the purpose off the hat.  After several rounds of one of those
get-rid-of-stitches techniques I'm left with only 11 stitches
and a tail of yarn.

Enter the darning needle.  Big eye to accommodate yarn.
Thread the needle and weave the yarn back through each stitch
left on the needle.  Slip the needle out of the stitches and
using the thread tail like a drawstring, gather
all the stitches into a closed star of sorts.

One more swatch -- still avoiding it just because I can.  Right now I'm back to the mohair scarf and the blue shawl.  Both are close to the end so look for pictures soon.

I mentioned the quilt that is making its way to Heather Spence Designs.  One close-up -- this blog is about knitting, not quilting, but I decided to share.

Tonight we will attend the Christmas Concert by the  Choir of the West Pacific Lutheran University.  Always a wonderful musical and seasonal experience.  Finely trained and exquisitely disciplined in their delivery.  Every song, every voice, every note, reminds us that this is the season when we await the greatest gift of all.

Fun hat!

It's no longer driving me crazy.  I think I've conquered the new color transition technique.  The striping is working out nicely.  I'm almost to the crown where I will get rid of stitches on purpose to slowly close the cylinder.  If you get rid of stitches too quickly the crown of the hat looks like the ones worn by garden gnomes.  Cute on a baby, but not for this RP.

The cream stripes show off the darker pink.
TKGA was explicit in asking that contrast be strong.
I think that's a definite and noticeable contrast.

Remember that cream yarn I un-knit?  Soaked it in cold water yesterday and hung it to dry.  Still a bit damp but here's what it looks like after treatment to restore it to original condition -- no squiggles from previously knit stitches and the soft loft of the yarn is preserved.  Will need this for that last swatch I'm avoiding.

I'm really liking the striping -- and the inside shows off the two colors, as well as the mess of loose ends that will have to disappear into the other stitches.

This close-up actually shows a neat backside.
Trust me, there's lots and lots of loose ends.
I hate loose ends.  They mean I'm not done
when I finish knitting.

Meanwhile, despite a promise to myself not to take on impossible-to-finish-without-going-crazy knitted Christmas gifts, I have this one on the needles.  It's from "One Skein Wonders" edited by Judith Durant.  Great book. LYS's from all over the US submitted designs for scarves, shawls, baby things, mittens, bags, etc.  Each one takes one skein/ball of the suggested yarn.  This one is page 55:  Gossamer Shell Scarf.

The yarn has some mohair.  It's variegated so you should
see several colors -- burgundy and blue on the needle and
olive on the ball of yarn.  

I re-discovered the top of the bed in the spare room.  Put several things into UFO boxes, organized needles and other accessories, cleared the top of the sewing machine so I can finish the borders on the latest Mystery Quilt from Heather Spence Designs.  We'll be doing another for spring.  

If you enjoy quilting AND want to help cancer patients cover their always present and always skyrocketing cancer treatment expenses, join Heather's spring MQ.  It's 10 USD and funds go to help offset treatment expenses not covered by insurance.

Heather Spence Designs