What I'm Working On

As you can tell from the pictures, there has been a lot of knitting going on around here.  Charting and writing too!

The pink gradient yarn grew up to be something special...more on that coming your way over the next couple of weeks.

I have also spent quite a bit of time the past couple of weeks looking at different ways of doing things. 

One of the best parts of knitting, for me at least, is that if one way of doing things doesn't work out for you really well, a quick internet search and you can usually find at least a couple of different ways of achieving the same end results.

A while back I did an entire series of tutorials for Knotions about short rows....and at the time I thought I had done them all, but I forgot one...and if you are a sock knitter you use it already when you are turning a heel.  A no wrap, no hole, short row that has just one limitation to it's ease of working and finished appearance...it changes the stitch count. Hopefully soon (in designer lingo as I am still working on the pattern soon could be several months) you will get to see why that was actually a helpful thing for the grey and pink muddle of knitting above!

That same muddle of knitting had me looking for different ways of working an I-cord Cast On....I found three, which I suspect I will be making tutorials for because they all seem to work really well (or really badly) for different people.  The one I decided, for me, looked the best is fiddly to work, so I think it will be best to give knitters an option in the pattern for which look and feel the best for them to use..

But more on all of that...another day.

I have some knitting to get done!

What are you working on?

~M

What's on My Needles Sunday

I don't know if you heard, but Andrea of Bad Cat Designs has another knit along that is "officially" starting tomorrow.  I say Officially in quotes because the pattern is already available and there is nothing to stop you from starting early, it is one of those "come as you are, easy going" type knit alongs.

The pattern is Annapurna and it has been available through Jade Sapphire for a little while now, but is finally available to purchase as a download through Ravelry which is very convenient as then the pattern is stored in your online library and can't get lost!

Here is what Andrea has to say about the pattern :

"Annapurna I is one of the 8,000-meter (26,200 ft) peaks of the Himalayas. In 1978, the American Women’s Himalayan Expedition became the first United States team to climb Annapurna I. The first summit team successfully reached the top at 3:30 p.m. on October 15, 1978. The second summit team followed shortly after, and two women in that team lost their lives. To this day, it is one of the most dangerous mountains to climb. There is a wonderful book called Annapura: A Woman’s Place, by Arlene Blum. I read it 20 years ago and it left quite an impression on me. I would recommend it to everyone.
Annapurna, or Goddess of the Harvest, is one of a series of shawls I designed, based on mountains. She was the first in the series, and another seven are included in my upcoming book, New Heights in Lace Knitting (Interweave 2016.) If you enjoy this project please check out the book, which is scheduled to hit book stores in June, 2016!
This pattern was originally published as a printed pattern in 2014 by Jade Sapphire yarn company. The 2016 download includes the original pattern plus two alternate versions of the chart. The alternate charts take up more space but are larger. The knitter should look through the additional charts (beyond pattern page 4) and decide which they prefer to work from, and then just print those."

I test knit this pattern for Andrea way back then, and nearly decided against knitting along with the group as there were (and are) some other projects on my needles.....

but.....

You knew that but was coming, didn't you?

But.....My first Annapurna in ColourMart 2/28 has had a lot of use!  I have worn it to work, while teaching financial literacy in a basement that could never be depended on to be climate controlled to any climate you would want to be in, with jeans, dress slacks or a skirt, so I decided that maybe, just maybe I would play a little game of sizing experimentation and knit it again.

Maybe just a bit bigger this time around?  In say a fingering weight, I have plenty of Land O Lace ShaSha left over from my Winter Wheat? And by some I mean over 1200 yards.

Or maybe in a cobweb yarn and go for a very delicate look?  I have a lot of Love Potion  #3 left over from Persian Princess. Probably about 1500 yards of this one!

Only one thing to do....swatch

Yeah, I know, those look like the starts of shawls, but they are swatches I tell you!

Along with the usual stealth projects I am plugging away on my Chevron Cardigan, that pattern is also available on Ravelry! 

Funny how the knits that are designated just for me to wear get pushed to the side!  (TDQ will steal at least one of those shawls I started, we picked colors based on a dress that she really likes to wear but is a bit chilly in an"climate controlled" room!)

I did get a couple of pictures of the stash dragons, I mean yarn chickens, together.  Here you can see that the second one is quite a bit bigger than the first.  I tried getting some outside shots, but let me tell you, with a little bit of a breeze those wings work!  I was picking dragons up from all over my yard!

TDQ says I almost have a perfect Fire Lizard from Pern!

What's on your needles this week?

Quiet

I suppose I have been a little quiet recently.

Mostly I think it has been a case of somebody (and I will be bold and name names here, Lara) allowed me to obtain some of the knitters equivalent to crack cocaine (she conned me into it, I tell you!) and then somebody else (again naming names, Andrea of Bad Cat Designs) showed me a way of using that drug, a way that used all but the barest fraction of a gram of the crack, and told me to go play with my new toys!

So that is exactly what I did.

I sat in the corner (well not really, my knitting station is pretty central to the rest of the house) and got out some pointy sticks, and tubs of beads, and a teeny, tiny little crochet hook, and I stayed quiet for simply ages!

But, not being the monogamous type with my knitting, there was more that one thing going on in  my corner, and before I knew it nearly a month had slipped by and a parade of finished objects had been put on wires and molded into shape.  (But not all of them will be shared today).

First up we have the crack cocaine project.....aka Martinique.

In my rush to put this one on the needles, I actually grabbed the needles I had out for another project, which were bigger than what the pattern called for, so this version is just a little longer and drapes a little more than the original version
 
 that I knit using some cheapo lace yarn from Joannes Fabric and Crafts (Patons Lace for those that are interested.)

Of the two, obviously my Crack Infinity (the greeny-to-teelish) one was my favorite to knit,
 
 even with the rows of beading which really slow me down...first you have to catch the pesky bead with the crochet hook, then put it on the stitch, yarn over, purl two together and start bead wrangling again.....but the yarn itself more than made up for those slow going rows by being such a joy to knit with.


If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend the yarn, not to mention the dye job, that Lara sells on Etsy.  The base for this one, Soft n Single is exactly what it claims to be, very soft, single ply lace yarn with just a little bit of grab to it, which helps stop things from sliding too quickly off the needles!  I center wound my hank and, against all advice, worked from the center of my ball without any problems.  If singles aren't your style, check out some of her other yarns, I haven't met one yet that I didn't fall in love with at first touch.

Once the Martiniques were off the needles I was a bit at loose ends for what to knit next.

There are always test knits waiting in the wings, but nothing that had to be knit "right now, the deadline is looming".  And test knitting doesn't give me a lot to put up on the blog to show I am still alive and kicking for those that keep track.

So I decided to Fracture the Fractal Blanket and turn it into another Baby Blanket for my stash o baby blankets that grows and dwindles through the year.

Now I have Fractal Blanket Version Two ready for it's border.....


While I had the camera out I also took a better  (comparatively) picture of my fractal blanket,

which got a lot of use over Spring Break as the weather was not very springlike (cue really bad picture of spring break snow when it was just getting started, we ended up with a light covering of snow over ice pellets on everything!)
 
and we had a movie binge.  Which just goes to show, that being quiet is contagious!  We all were quiet and still for the break.

In other Knitting News, the look inside feature has been enabled for Andrea's book.  I can tell you that the patterns in there are gorgeous and her explanations about how things work in knitting lace and deciphering older lace doily patterns will be well worth the price of admission!

Maybe I will be back sooner than a month from now......we'll see!

~M

Goofy things to do with a strip of lace

Remember that strip of lace ? (Don't remember? click on experiments on the side bar then scroll down.) Well, these are some of the things you can do with it. :)

~m

Knitting and Reading

There would be more to show if I hadn't taken nearly a whole day off to clean house and read.

Here we have an experiment in lace, more on that to come later once I have finished figuring out what it will ultimately be.

Casablanca Clue 7

Summer Sampler Pattern 10. I will be able to get Pattern 11 for that done soon as Andrea of Bat Cat Designs uploaded two patterns on Friday instead of one. She is out of computer range for two weeks. One more pattern section, border and edging to go on this. Can't wait to actually wet block it and see what it looks like.

~m