Bridgewater "should" have been done three days ago. After having flown through the horseshoe lace section, which I completed Sunday night, and based upon my round speed at the largest perimeter, I figured I'd just need two days to crank out that cute little 13-stitch edging.
Right.
I'm five solid, heavy-knitting days (4+ hours each, with one double) into it.
It's kicking my butt.
Each side has 188 live stitches by the end of the horseshoe lace section. The edging section incorporates 1 edge stitch for every 2 rows knit. That means 376 rows per side. And taking into consideration the 16 rows at each corner, this "cute little edging" adds up to 1,568 rows... knit flat.
20,384 stitches in short little burst of rows. Very challenging to create the momentum that fosters stitch rhythm.
flip flop flip flop flip flop
It'll be beautiful when finished, but the way things look now -- at just one-third of the way through the third side -- I've got another three or four days to go. (If I can carve enough knitting time.)
Showing posts with label shawl. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shawl. Show all posts
2.19.2011
2.11.2011
Fast And Loose (or) How I Escaped The Inferno By Free-Skeining
Back in early March I decided to give Brooklyn Tweed Jared Flood's Bridgewater Shawl (from the pamphlet Classic Elite #9108, Made in Brooklyn) a go. The biggest obstacle to my committing to this project was the laceweight yarn -- not because I don't like it or don't like knitting it but because skeining that much fine yarn into a center-pull ball is the quickest way to what surely must have appeared in Dante's in early drafts of The Inferno as the tenth circle of hell.
Visions of a center-pull ball collapsing in upon itself over time and my gorgeous, vintage Jaggerspun Seafoam Zephyr 50/50 wool/silk (2/18) turning into a hopeless, #%*@&!-ish pile of knots, never to be saved from the tangled abyss, all but paralyzed me.
But desperate times call for desperate measures. I turned to free-skeining. Before you accuse me of having gone over the edge with this one, it's not a drug-induced state! It's this:
I'm more than 3/4 done with my Bridgewater, so that gorgeous round of fiber draped over the arm of the chair doesn't look nearly as daunting as it used to. What you see is about 350 wraps of yarn wound on my 1-1/2 yard niddy noddy. Back when I started, the hank consisted of 921 wraps (1,387 yards)!
To prepare the fiber, I segmented the skein into 9 sections of 100 wraps each and 1 section of 21 wraps. Ties were placed at each of the compass points, and then a larger tie bundled all the segments together at each of the compass points. Here's what it looks like with the few segments remaining:
That unbound bit at the top of the image is the segment I'm currently knitting from.
So how does it work in practice? I drape the ring over the arm of a chair or just put my arm through it and wear it draped over my elbow if there aren't any good arms on my seat. I untie the segment I'm currently knitting from, allowing the yarn to flow off the ring as I work. (Some people advocate wearing the yarn across the body like a pageant sash, but that just didn't do it for me.) If I'm knitting while mostly reclined -- like sitting up in bed or laying on the couch -- I'll bend my right leg and pop the ring over my knee.
I discovered an inexpensive little tool to keep it all straight: a pipe cleaner!
The pipe cleaner lets me easily see my beginning of ring area, wrap up the segments not currently in use, and partition off the segment in use for easy release. Here it's wrapped for storage:
Here it's unwrapped for knitting:
The pipe cleaner is also a good anchor for winding the ring back into a neatly twisted hank at the end of the day. I just hold the pipe cleaner end in one hand, twist into a hank, and insert the other end back through the pipe cleaner end. (Sorry there's no picture of that, but I bet you can figure it out just fine.)
Free-skeining has worked brilliantly for me. Consider me your free-skeining pusher for projects when center-pull balls just won't cut it. I would totally do this again and can't think of anything I'd do to improve upon my system. If you're considering this technique, just know that the careful and methodical tie-up really is key to its success -- and to keeping you from panicking yourself into wearing a funky fiber pageant sash just to be doubly certain you avoid catastrophe.
In fast, after having worked on my free-skeining project this long, I've become so comfortable and casual about it all that on occasion I don't do due diligence in twisting my yarn back up at the end of the night and leave it looking like a spaghetti jumble on the side table!
I have absolute faith that all is well -- and I haven't been wrong yet.
The shawl is coming along nicely, too! I completed the garter square center and am halfway through the horseshoe lace. I'm gunning to finish in the next five days.
Visions of a center-pull ball collapsing in upon itself over time and my gorgeous, vintage Jaggerspun Seafoam Zephyr 50/50 wool/silk (2/18) turning into a hopeless, #%*@&!-ish pile of knots, never to be saved from the tangled abyss, all but paralyzed me.
But desperate times call for desperate measures. I turned to free-skeining. Before you accuse me of having gone over the edge with this one, it's not a drug-induced state! It's this:
I'm more than 3/4 done with my Bridgewater, so that gorgeous round of fiber draped over the arm of the chair doesn't look nearly as daunting as it used to. What you see is about 350 wraps of yarn wound on my 1-1/2 yard niddy noddy. Back when I started, the hank consisted of 921 wraps (1,387 yards)!
To prepare the fiber, I segmented the skein into 9 sections of 100 wraps each and 1 section of 21 wraps. Ties were placed at each of the compass points, and then a larger tie bundled all the segments together at each of the compass points. Here's what it looks like with the few segments remaining:
That unbound bit at the top of the image is the segment I'm currently knitting from.
So how does it work in practice? I drape the ring over the arm of a chair or just put my arm through it and wear it draped over my elbow if there aren't any good arms on my seat. I untie the segment I'm currently knitting from, allowing the yarn to flow off the ring as I work. (Some people advocate wearing the yarn across the body like a pageant sash, but that just didn't do it for me.) If I'm knitting while mostly reclined -- like sitting up in bed or laying on the couch -- I'll bend my right leg and pop the ring over my knee.
I discovered an inexpensive little tool to keep it all straight: a pipe cleaner!
The pipe cleaner lets me easily see my beginning of ring area, wrap up the segments not currently in use, and partition off the segment in use for easy release. Here it's wrapped for storage:
Here it's unwrapped for knitting:
The pipe cleaner is also a good anchor for winding the ring back into a neatly twisted hank at the end of the day. I just hold the pipe cleaner end in one hand, twist into a hank, and insert the other end back through the pipe cleaner end. (Sorry there's no picture of that, but I bet you can figure it out just fine.)
Free-skeining has worked brilliantly for me. Consider me your free-skeining pusher for projects when center-pull balls just won't cut it. I would totally do this again and can't think of anything I'd do to improve upon my system. If you're considering this technique, just know that the careful and methodical tie-up really is key to its success -- and to keeping you from panicking yourself into wearing a funky fiber pageant sash just to be doubly certain you avoid catastrophe.
In fast, after having worked on my free-skeining project this long, I've become so comfortable and casual about it all that on occasion I don't do due diligence in twisting my yarn back up at the end of the night and leave it looking like a spaghetti jumble on the side table!
I have absolute faith that all is well -- and I haven't been wrong yet.
The shawl is coming along nicely, too! I completed the garter square center and am halfway through the horseshoe lace. I'm gunning to finish in the next five days.
2.02.2011
Pattern Now Available: Basic Instincts Shawl
The Basic Instincts Shawl pattern is now available as a free download!
You can download a PDF via Ravelry or get it on Flickr by clicking the photo above.
NOTE: The pattern is 4 pages long. The Ravelry link is to a single, comprehensive document, but if you get it through Flickr you will need to download 4 separate pages.
More updates on all my various aesthetic entanglements to come soon -- including a big confession!
1.24.2011
Basic Instincts Shawl
This is a story about yarn and instinct.
When I bought two 50-gram skeins of Cherry Tree Hill's Fingering Alpaca in the Spring Frost colorway in Spring 2008, I had every intention of knitting them up into a cozy pair of socks.
Then I lost my interest in the yarn, and it sat in my stash until January 2010, when I wound it into cakes and took it with me to Orcas Island -- again, intending to make socks.
While on the island, I knit up a gauge swatch. A pretty little thing: so light and delicate and beautiful. I caressed it. Showed it to my mom. Caressed it some more. But I couldn't bring myself to cast on. The swatch was beautiful, yes... but there wasn't a chance I was going to use this yarn for socks. Despite CTH's recommendation that it would make a fine choice for socks because of the 1% nylon binder, I didn't trust it would wear well enough for socks for me.
Rather than end up with the heartbreak of discovering such an error only after having spent precious knitting time completing an ill-fated pair, I left the yarn to linger for yet another year -- this time in the bottom of my wip knitting bag. From there it would needle me with constant reminders that I needed to find it a suitable project.
This January 1, I threw caution to the wind and with little more than a vague idea of what I was doing, I cast on and just started knitting. The result is my Basic Instinct Shawl:
With just two 50-gram yarn cakes and a desire to make them go as far as possible, I decided on a basic triangle construction, knit side-to-side. (Truth be told, another reason I took this approach rather than starting from the bottom, center-back and working my way up is because I can't stomach knitting those interminable long edges along the tops of shawls in one go.)
Starting at one side corner, I knit with increases every second row until my first yarn cake ran out; then I used the second skein to decrease every second row until I reached the far corner. This way I could use every last bit of yarn and trust I would have enough to get me through both sides. Thoroughly stressless!
One important criteria for me was that the finished shawl be fully reversible. Nothing's worse than fiddling with a shawl or scarf to keep the right side facing out on a non-reversible piece!
I had no desire to either make or wear a skimpy little bandana-sized shawlette, as I've seen done with so many sock yarns on Ravelry. To maximize my 100 grams, I found myself drawn to one of the most basic of stitches -- an airy faggot stitch turned almost into a whisper by using a larger needle than normally called for with fingering-weight yarn.
Please forgive the less-than-aesthetic background on the image below, but my strategy worked so well that I had difficulty finding a well-lit space in my house large enough to spread out the finished piece for a picture!
To avoid creating a shawl with just a big sea of unbounded openwork, I inserted five garter-stitch dividers along the way: one at center back, one at each shoulder, and one to be visible in each corner of the front. Because the shawl is knit sideways, these bands of garter form pretty vertical lines and add textural and visual interest.
The garter bands have more density than the faggot stitch, but they are bordered on each side by slightly larger eyelets formed by the yarn over that is, otherwise, drawn into decrease through the faggot stitch. I find this very pleasing.
A four-stitch garter edging on all sides completes the piece.
It was a relatively quick knit, taking just about 10 days of actual knitting, done mostly in couple-hour-increments after the kids went to bed at night. I also took a break from this project to knit up the fingerless mitts for my mom before she left.
I simply adore the way this shawl turned out! The fabric is warm around my shoulders, but it's also so light and airy that it can be folded and bunched without creating bulk.
This gives the piece wonderful flexibility because I can also wear it around my neck as a cozy cowl...
... if I can pry it away from my daughter!
Pattern: Basic Instincts Shawl (designed by me, pattern to come)
Started: January 2, 2011
Completed: January 17, 2011
Materials: Cherry Tree Hill's Fingering Alpaca, 2 skeins, 100 total grams, Spring Frost colorway
Needles: US 6 - 4.0 mm
5.29.2008
Helluva Gal
Despite a tenuous start, the Bad Woman Wrap and I are getting along famously!
It seems I was a little more uptight than she preferred when I first cast-on, so after knitting about 8 inches I frogged her (sounds naughty!) and started over again. Second time around I found my loosey-goosey groove casting on over two needles, and she's been a happy gal ever since.
I even took her with me to the Northwest Folklife Festival on Memorial Day. No pictures to corroborate the occasion, but I introduced her (i.e. knit publicly while I listened) to Jim Page (topical and politically astute folksinger and raconteur who changed Seattle's street-performance laws in 1974 and is largely responsible for our robust busking culture) and Artis the Spoonman (if you're not a Seattlite, you know him as the subject of that Soundgarden song). Here's a sampling of what I saw at Folklife — the video's not mine, but it was shot by someone who might as well have been sitting in my spot! And for those interested, here's another recent video of them at the venue where I first encountered them 9 years ago, the sidewalk outside the Original Starbucks at Pike Place Market, where they still busk. You may not always agree with the politics, but you have to admire the spirit, tenacity, and talent!
Also at Folklife, I introduced the Bad Woman Wrap to Ockham's Razor, a young group of truly remarkable musicians playing hard-driving, foot-stompin', beer-drinkin', get-up-on-your-feet-dancing, punk-rockin' contemporary and classic Irish folk music. Simply amazing. (And yes, I included punk-rockin' as one of the descriptors for their Irish music. You should hear them Celt-out The Ramone's "I Wanna Be Sedated"!) Their fiddle player, Katie Corcoran, is astounding. Sorry I don't see any recent, good-quality videos to link to, but their website has a multimedia section where you can check out a studio version of their work—doesn't quite compare to catching them live at Kells but gives you a sense of what they do.
The Bad Woman Wrap likes the musicians, as evidenced by the fact that I completed nearly 30 percent of the project at Folklife. The Ultra Alpaca practically dances off my fingers. I had to switch from nickel-plated to bamboo needles to get more grip.
In other news, I'm preparing to teach a sock class at A New Yarn this summer. I want to teach basic magic loop, toe-up, two-at-once, with heel flap and gusset. Haven't found a good, ready-made generic pattern that gives me absolutely everything I want, so I'm putting together my own. It's what I do when I knit them for myself, I just never bothered to write up formal instructions. I'll post the pattern here eventually!
It seems I was a little more uptight than she preferred when I first cast-on, so after knitting about 8 inches I frogged her (sounds naughty!) and started over again. Second time around I found my loosey-goosey groove casting on over two needles, and she's been a happy gal ever since.
I even took her with me to the Northwest Folklife Festival on Memorial Day. No pictures to corroborate the occasion, but I introduced her (i.e. knit publicly while I listened) to Jim Page (topical and politically astute folksinger and raconteur who changed Seattle's street-performance laws in 1974 and is largely responsible for our robust busking culture) and Artis the Spoonman (if you're not a Seattlite, you know him as the subject of that Soundgarden song). Here's a sampling of what I saw at Folklife — the video's not mine, but it was shot by someone who might as well have been sitting in my spot! And for those interested, here's another recent video of them at the venue where I first encountered them 9 years ago, the sidewalk outside the Original Starbucks at Pike Place Market, where they still busk. You may not always agree with the politics, but you have to admire the spirit, tenacity, and talent!
Also at Folklife, I introduced the Bad Woman Wrap to Ockham's Razor, a young group of truly remarkable musicians playing hard-driving, foot-stompin', beer-drinkin', get-up-on-your-feet-dancing, punk-rockin' contemporary and classic Irish folk music. Simply amazing. (And yes, I included punk-rockin' as one of the descriptors for their Irish music. You should hear them Celt-out The Ramone's "I Wanna Be Sedated"!) Their fiddle player, Katie Corcoran, is astounding. Sorry I don't see any recent, good-quality videos to link to, but their website has a multimedia section where you can check out a studio version of their work—doesn't quite compare to catching them live at Kells but gives you a sense of what they do.
The Bad Woman Wrap likes the musicians, as evidenced by the fact that I completed nearly 30 percent of the project at Folklife. The Ultra Alpaca practically dances off my fingers. I had to switch from nickel-plated to bamboo needles to get more grip.
In other news, I'm preparing to teach a sock class at A New Yarn this summer. I want to teach basic magic loop, toe-up, two-at-once, with heel flap and gusset. Haven't found a good, ready-made generic pattern that gives me absolutely everything I want, so I'm putting together my own. It's what I do when I knit them for myself, I just never bothered to write up formal instructions. I'll post the pattern here eventually!
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