Thursday 29 November 2007

Drifting Pleats - first, but not the last!

I just finished knitting my very first scarf from Lynne Barr's book - Drifting Pleats - and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience! The end product is not too shabby, either!


I used a wonderful handspun single-ply wool/silk - Single-Dyed Phat Silk Phat from La Lana Wools. I knit the scarf using Bryspun plastic needles.

There are more details on my blog, including more photos!

Needles to say, I'm already scheming my next project from this book :). Did you know that Melanie Falick has a gallery of "New Scarves" on her blog? All 27 scarves in a convenient layout, so we can see them side by side instead of flipping back and forth in the book!

Friday 23 November 2007

Getting Started

Hello all. I've been happily browsing the book since it arrive a few days ago, trying to decide where to start. I decided to ease myself in gently with 'Shag', using a very nearly complete ball of left over Debbie Bliss 'Maya' (since it worked so well for Helen). Apologies for the poor photo - dark green is never easy to photograph well, and artificial light really doesn't help. This is my second attempt, the first having been ripped out late at night because it didn't look right, and I was too tired to work out why. So far this time it's going smoothly, although it's mystifying my husband.

I have also set myself the challenge of seeing how many scarves I can knit from the book without buying new yarn. I'm afraid the answer may well be "most of them".

Aria

I've been looking for a yarn to use for a scarf for my god-daughter for a while, with Christmas in mind. She's allergic to all the animal fibres and I knitted her a cotton one with some lovely Interlacements yarn a while ago, but I wanted something softer and more eveningy.

An lys was having a splendid clearout of Rowan yarn and I came across vast supplies of Natural Silk Aran, which is silk, linen and viscose. I'd used it once before and loved it, but hadn't been able to justify buying it again. When I found it at half-price, I scooped up a supply of black to make something for myself and then went back a couple of days later and got a supply of shade 461, which is called Flax and is a silvery pale blue. My god-daughter, being a sensible girl, is very fond of blue.

I swatched a couple of other scarves in the book first: Shag, which I'd already made and wanted to do again, but the yarn was too fine and floppy; and Twisted, for which I found this crisp yarn a bit too unforgiving and thought would be better done in something with a bit of stretch.

On looking through the book again, I came across Aria, which I had mentally allocated to some variegated blue-faced leicester but which I now re-examined. I cast on and whizzed off, and haven't looked back.

This yarn is put up in 50g balls, which only contain 71 yards and I get about nine inches of scarf to one ball of yarn. I'm sure it will stretch in wear. I want to make it long enough to wrap round and round.

As you can see in the second picture, the texture is very floppy and the scarf can be folded in half lengthwise, doubling the frill. I hadn't expected the yarn to be this drapey, and it's perfect.
That's the fifth ball you can see sitting on the top. I usually start to get bored with a scarf some time after I pass the half-way point: I keep holding it up and looking at it, and sighing. I start wondering if it would be all right a little bit shorter. Or quite a lot shorter. But I'm not doing that this time. I think one of the reasons is that I finish a ball of yarn often enough to feel a real sense of progress, and another is the little sense of achievement after each triangle that forms the frill.

I often watch films while I'm knitting and my projects fall into those I can do while reading subtitles, and those which require greater concentration. This one can be done while reading subtitles, laughing and talking, but doesn't get boring.

Wednesday 21 November 2007

Wobbly scarf

Hey all, I started the 'stacked wedges' the other day and it seems to be looking good so far!


Yarn details:
  • 'Salima' from On Line yarns
  • Colour #3 (colour chart here)
  • 60% cotton/20% acrylic/15% linen/5% polyamid
  • 80metres=50 grams.

I'm using 5mm needles and it measures 13.5cm across. I have five balls of this yarn, so I think I might just keep going until it's all gone, because I can say very honestly that I'm bad at using scraps!

From the pictures in the book, the short rows and garter ridges show up very clearly, but due to the nature of the yarn I'm using, those details are a bit lost in the texture that the yarn creates, but hey, this book teaches us that not everything is 'right' or 'wrong', doesn't it? I've found that not hiding the wraps creates a smoother line that I prefer.

This one is set to become a chrissie pressie for a mate of mine here who definitely doesn't read this blog and so the secret is safe!

Tuesday 20 November 2007

Finished Stacked Wedges



I finished the Stacked Wedges scarf a couple of days ago. I'm pleased with it and plan on using it as one of my holiday gifts.



And I've started the Parallelograms scarf. I love the yarn I'm using, Tahki's Chelsea Silk. I think the tweedy look works really well with the two color pattern. I'd like to get this one done this week so I can move on to Aria or maybe Striped Wedges. I did start Striped Wedges but my gauge was way off so I'm looking through stash to find a more appropriate yarn.

Sunday 18 November 2007

Linked Rib and a bit of a Round Up.

I thought I would do a post about the Linked Rib I started the other night. I didn't intend to knit the whole scarf but a friend who had started it said she was having a problem, so I decided to cast on and see how I got on.
I had a bit of a struggle with the needles for the first round, because what I was doing was so unfamiliar. But I just followed the instructions and it all went well, in spite of the large glass of wine you can just see in the photograph. You can read more here.

I went round to see my friend Jean the next day, and found that, far from needing any advice from me, she was sailing on regardless. She's using Noro Silk Garden Lite, and the colours are fitting in with the pattern very neatly. Do go and have a look.

Here is another blogger who is working on knitting new scarves, and another. Jen is making another Linked Rib in variegated yarn, and advocates keeping your eye on the instructions.

I'm not going to pursue my Linked Rib; as soon as I finish the other little bits and pieces I've been distracted by, I will return to Aria, which I haven't shown here yet. I am itching to get back to it.

Saturday 17 November 2007

Easy Wave


Here is my in-progress Easy Wave Scarf. True to its name, this scarf is an easy knit. It's also pretty quick, though I haven't had much time to work on it. For anyone starting it, here are two ideas I found helpful:

-When I am working the four rows of Stockinette stitch on the stitches on the front double-pointed needle, I put point protectors on the stitches on the back double-pointed needle so that those stitches don't fall off.

-When I'm ready to stop knitting, I am sure to finish a full repeat (ending with 2 rows of knit 1, purl 1 ribbing), so that when I start next time, I know exactly where I am (at the start of a repeat).

Thursday 15 November 2007

A Glass of wine and Tricorner...

Helen, I just read the post on your blog about starting Tricorner... you crack me up!

I'm not sure how 3-dimensional my brain is - I was the only person in an organic chemistry class who sat there playing with little wooden models trying to understand what the teacher was talking about. Maybe a glass of wine would have helped.

Wednesday 14 November 2007

Knitalong Button

We now have a button for the Knitalong, which you can copy and paste to the sidebar of your blog.

Tweedy Tilted Blocks

The second scarf I knitted from KNS was Tilting Blocks. I used a dark bluish green shade of Rowan Yorkshire Tweed, in either Aran or DK weight, which is lighter than the intended yarn but still worked very well.
It's such an easy design; I mean, I could work out from the picture how it was done, but I would never have had the idea in a million years - does that make it a simple idea or not? I don't think so.

I wish I could photograph tweed yarn like Jared does. The dark green has flecks of blue and light olive.

I think I may have miscounted and have an extra ridge on one or two of the blocks, but I decided it wasn't critical.I wanted to make it longer than prescribed so that it can be wrapped around like a skinny scarf so when I ran out of yarn I dug around in my stash to see if I had more. I found part of a ball of the same yarn in a dark greenish blue.
They look very good together (better than in the photos), close enough that one wonders if they're really two shades or if it's just the light.
If you wrap it around twice it forms elegant vandyking around your throat.

I'm very pleased with the end result. At the moment it's intended as a Christmas present for someone who loves dark green, but who knows?

I may just hang on to it (I have scarves the way some women have shoes). Or I could knit another one.

Tuesday 13 November 2007

Stacked Wedges

Here's the current scarf project, Stacked Wedges. I'm using only one color since that's more appealing to me than multiple colors. I may try using more colors another time. I don't know where that blue light is coming from. The scarf is really just plain gray tweed.

It's really an enjoyable knit. Easy but not boring. I'm rediscovering how much fun garter stitch can be.

Monday 12 November 2007

My "Leafy Shag" scarf and a Linked Rib

Leafy Shag scarf

Hi, all. I recently finished a Shag scarf, using the new Debbie Mumm Traditions yarn. It's annoying yarn, but the results are pretty. I really like how the pattern looks with variegated yarn. It was a very easy knit. Mine is pretty short, but I think it would also look great if it was extra long.



In Progress: Linked Rib scarf

I'm currently working on the Linked Rib scarf and I am liking that pattern a lot! I'm 18" into it so far, doing one pattern repeat each day, so I should be done in a couple of weeks at that rate.



The only problem with it is that I seem to be going through yarn faster than expected, so it might be shorter than I'd hoped. But we will see.

Shag Scarf

The first scarf I made from the book was the Shag Scarf. I started it rather carelessly and didn't count my rows properly, so it formed a curve and I had to go back to the beginning and concentrate properly. Once I'd made a row counter and paid attention to what I was doing, it was a fast and satisfying knit.

I often get a bit bored with garter stitch, and resentful of how much yarn it eats up, but I was so absorbed in picking up the stitches and forming the flaps that it flew by.

The yarn is Debbie Bliss's Maya (Soho in the U.S.). The colours are very subtle and are really shown off well because the scarf has so many edges. It's heavier than the prescribed yarn, so the scarf is wider and altogether more solid than anticipated but it still looks good, not out of scale. I made it a bit longer too.

I would like to make it in a very bright yarn next time and am mentally thumbing through my stash for the right yarn. I'm really looking forward to finding out what it looks like in other yarns from the other members of this knitalong.

This is a view of the back. More, and more pictures, on my blog.

Just joined

I'm new to this blog, the kns.kal. I've already completed the Tilting Squares scarf and am moving along on the Stacked Wedges. I'm doing that one in a single color. I'll try a multi-color sometime soon. I just have to find the right yarns, either in my stash or at my LYS. Photos to come.

Sunday 11 November 2007

Knitalong

This is a knitalong for Lynne Barr's exciting book, Knitting New Scarves. It complements the Flickr group, and provides a place for bloggers to provide additional information in a relatively structured way, and to drop in and post from their own blogs.

To join, email kns DOT kal AT gmail DOT com, and you will be sent an invitation. Or if that doesn't work, please leave a comment and I'll try to rescue you.