Upstairs

My dd is planning on attending a Homecoming dance. She has had her dress for a few months and we thought a nice warm wrap would look pretty and functional for a cool October evening. She decided on the Upstairs Shawl (it is rectangular) after looking through the millions of choices on Ravelry.

We then had to find the perfect yarn. Of course I had procrastinated on picking out the yarn so time started to become an issue. We ordered some pink lace weight online. It looked the perfect color on the monitor but was too purple of a pink in real life. Then we tried Cascade Sock yarn. It is so very soft but after knitting up a swatch it was just too brown of a pink. Our last attempt was successful. It is Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in the Peppermint colorway. It is very, very soft and a pleasure to knit!

The pattern is knitting up fairly fast. Although I am working hard to get it done by Sept 21st to make the Seasons of Lace deadline. Plus the dance is early October so I want it done soon anyway. I am almost halfway done and I started it Sept 3rd.

The original pattern is in German. There is a Free Ravelry download of the pattern in English.

I decided to start the pattern with a Provisional Crocheted Cast-on so that each end would look the same for the bind off. I may also decide to add a small knit on border on the short edges. Then I wouldn't have to think about the bind off not being stretchy enough when it comes time to block it.

I can't wait to see it blocked! I wasn't enjoying this pattern when I did the swatch. It just didn't look right. We even decided to start looking for a different pattern. Then I blocked the swatch! Wow! That changed our minds completely!

Black Olives

Finished and blocked!

Size: 20" x 69"

The yarn is one cone of Rayon Petalspun (Art. 2025) from Pisgah Yarn & Dyeing Co. in black. This yarn is very soft. I just weighed what is left of my one pound cone. It is about 8oz. So I used about 1/2 of the cone.

It was knit on size 5 bamboo needles. I used circulars because that is what I had available at the time I started this project.

The pattern is one I was writing up to be a cloth pattern but upon knitting the cloth it cried out to be a stole. I thought it would look nice with a knit on border that complemented the diagonal main body. I plan to write up the pattern and make it available on Ravelry.

I chose this yarn because I wanted this stole to be able to be used with my swimsuit at the pool on those cool days. I didn't want to worry it would lose its blocking if it got wet. The pool closed before I finished but I did get to throw it over my shoulders once while I knit on the first border. I also wanted the yarn to have a bit of a sheen to it so it would go nicely with some of my outfits. (Not this particular outfit! I wore this so the lace would show up nicely in the photos.)

Summer goes way too fast!

NOTE: You can see photos of the projects in progress down the right hand side of my blog. And if you click on the picture it will take you to Flickr to see a bigger picture. And Ravelry members can click on the name of the project in the side bar to go to the project pages for the details...like yarn, needles and notes. There is no cost to be a Ravelry member and the wait to get in is about a day or so. (I waited months!) Ravelry is still in it's Beta stage which is why they are still using the invitation method.

Update on the Pi Cloth...since that was pretty much my last blog entry. The pattern is almost completed. I will be teaching a class in October for this cloth at my LYS. First class. I'm nervous and excited at the same time.

Black Olives...That is the summer stole I've been concentrating on the last couple weeks since summer is escaping so fast. I'm very close to finishing it. Just one short edge and about 4 pattern repeats left of the edge I'm working on. And then blocking.

Nephew's socks...That was another project I worked hard at this summer (although my knitting attention has been spread among a host of projects). I got one sock up past the heel with multiple fittings taken before my nephew leaves again for college. I've even got the second sock started and am past the toe. I'm knitting them toe to cuff.

Goddess Knits Anniversary Mystery shawl is taking a back seat at the moment while I concentrate on these more time sensitive projects. But I can't wait to pick that up again. I've seen so many finished ones and they are all beautiful and different. (rav link)

Summer Siesta is taking a siesta. I'm not happy with the bottom. But I like the lacy part. Hate to frog the lacy part to get to the bottom but that is what needs to be done. The lacy part would make a great light weight produce bag.

Here's a finished item.....


I cast on, knit, did a crochet bind off and blocked all in one day! This is Snowflake Star by Judy Gibson. My Rav project page entry.

So you are thinking (and so am I) that some of these projects should be further along or finished by now. We've had some non knitting projects going this summer as well. Besides plenty of swimming, a multitude of sleepovers (more rightly dubbed awakeovers) and being "helpers" at Vacation Bible School we also painted the girls new bedroom. We had some water leakage and this is what resulted...


The room was previously all car-siding like you see in the left side of the picture. Now it is drywall and BRIGHT! Even the car-siding you see in that picture is now painted blue and the closet door painted green (you can see the door laying in front of the bedding in the next picture.)

Here's a picture of the bedding we found at Target AFTER the room was painted. It matches so well it almost looks like we had the bedding first and chose the room colors from that.



And for those of you not familiar with the power of Kahlua. Let me show you what it can do:



That is the back right burner. A crack also runs through the front right burner and the front left burner. The back left burner escaped the powers of Kahlua and remains the sole non-cracked burner.

Why did the Kahlua bottle want to jump off the refrigerator to fight the stove? Well, he was dragged into the fight by the strap of the water bottle bag. Or more correctly....I apparently placed the Kahlua bottle on the strap of the water bag the night before when I "drizzled" Kahlua over my ice cream and smashed up Oreos. What an expensive sundae (or Sunday...since it happened at 7:15am Sunday morning on our way out to early church.)

The stove is/was over 10 years old so we can't just replace the top. Looks like we'll be getting a coil stove again. Good thing I still have all my cast iron pans...right mom!?!

On the bright side...the Kahlua bottle didn't break and I have since "drizzled" more Kahlua over smashed up oreos and ice cream. It has been relocated to the counter top until a more permanent place of residence can be found or I run out of oreos and ice cream. (Like that might happen!)

Pi Cloth Experimentation

It was time for a circular cloth knit in the round.

This is a great way to practice the Lighter Circular Beginning (second half of that video) Or if you don't like youtube here it is in still pictures: last entry here

This is also a great way to get your mind wrapped around a knit on border. It is easier to knit a knit on border than it is to figure out how to knit a knit on border. In other words once you have the start of it figured out the rest is a snap to knit.


For the doubling rounds I used the knit in the front and back of each stitch so I wouldn’t have the YO holes. The pattern on the main part of the cloth was not from a stitch dictionary. I drew it in Excel. The knit on border is from a stitch dictionary.









Unblocked (smoothed flat) it is about 10” in diameter.










Blocked it measures 10.5 inches.

The yarn is Pisgah Yarn & Dyeing Co., Inc America's Best Article 960, Perle Cotton (Size 5, mercerized). Color: Lime #56.

I used size 2 double pointed bamboo needles (8" long) for the whole thing.

The pattern is still in handwritten notes but I do have plans on writing it up with links and details for the tricky parts.

Ravelry link to project.

Seasons of Lace

The other "big" start on the 21st was for the Seasons of Lace (Rav link) and the Goddess Knits Anniversary Mystery Shawl. This is a Pi Shawl. You can still sign up for this KAL (knit along) until the 30th of June!

Goddess Knits site to sign up for this free pattern
Yahoo Group link ...where the pattern is uploaded so you can download.
Group on Ravelry

Clue 1 was fast. Completed it June 21st. This is Chart A. You had to pick one of the four charts.



Clue 2 was released on the 21st. I finished on the 23rd. This is the shawl so far. I didn't stretch it out completely.



For Clue 2 I used Chart B....again four different charts to chose from. As of this moment there is the possibility of 16 different shawls. If Clue 3 has four chart choices again then we're up to a possible 64 different shawls. Then Clue 4...256 different possibilities. Then there will be one more choice at the end to make it bigger if desired....if I'm remembering correctly.

The yarn is from Handpaintedyarn.com
I chose this yarn for the color and the price. The color is Mares Profundos. It is a very deep dark blue - semisolid. As I hand wound one of the two hanks I noticed that it isn’t consistent in its width. Some areas are a little thicker and some a little thinner. There were some kinks too. I’m not a spinner but those little kinks look like some spots may be over spun???? No clue if that is the case though. Some spots don’t look spun at all. So I have no idea. Anyway…I love the color. I hope it blocks ok...and keeps the block! Most of the items I've blocked tend to shrink up again...sometimes on the first wearing.

I'm using size 5 needles. I moved it to 24" circular needles as soon as possible. The bamboo dpns tips were a bit too rounded for long term lace knitting. They did work to get it started though.