Monday 17 March 2008

Another convert

I took The Book into my local knitting store yesterday (Stitch Therapy in Park Slope, Brooklyn) and the owner was so excited about it! She's ordering it for the store and can't wait to get started on her own scarves. She was really impressed with the quality of the patterns and the unusual techniques.

I, meanwhile, am working on Cocoons, but it's not easy. The linen yarn doesn't stretch at all, so it's tough to do the knitting around on 2 needles. I think I'm going to try making the cocoons on smaller needles and see if that makes it any easier.

Saturday 15 March 2008

Finished!


Here's my Tilted Blocks. What a fun and easy project - I feel very accomplished. The yarn is Lanas Stop Maxi Stop, acrylic and wool. I wanted something really chunky, but also want to make this scarf again with something more delicate.

I went to Purl yesterday and bought some linen for the Cocoons scarf. Since it's been stuck in my head that it's called Clouds, I'm making it in a lovely sky blue. If it goes well, pics will follow.

Thursday 13 March 2008

Chickens and roosters and hens, oh my

> Hi Little Red Hen. I think I’m seeing a poultry theme here! I’d never heard of Rooster Almerino Aran, so I googled and found it at Laughing Hens. Is it your yarn?

That's a pretty funny coincidence! No, not my yarn -- I spin a little but nothing so soft and nice as this yarn. Rooster is a UK brand.

And while I will be more than happy to post some piccys of my Drifting Pleats when I've progressed a little, we're having a pretty awful heatwave here and it's beginning to feel like someone's cancelled autumn! I am working on finishing a light lace shawl rather than this thicker scarf.

Tuesday 11 March 2008

Habu Textiles/Substitution

I went to the Habu Textiles showroom today (some days living in New York is a good thing!). They have discontinued the cotton linen cord used for the Cocoons scarf. I could order it from Japan, but only in huge quantities.

I like the texture of that blend for that scarf - does anyone have another yarn like it that they'd recommend?

Sunday 9 March 2008

Tilted Blocks Finished


Two balls of Silk Garden, 5mm needles, February 15th to March 1st. It came out at 75" (I just knitted until I didn't have enough yarn left for another complete block). This was perfect television/travelling knitting - enough interest to keep me going and prevent me from making silly mistakes out of boredom, but simple and very portable.

Wednesday 5 March 2008

Drifting pleats

I'm on a bit of a yarn diet this year, but I have four balls of Rooster Almerino Aran in the stash that I thought would be perfect for a soft, drapey scarf. So last night I cast on for Drifting Pleats.

It's tricky, but it had me sitting there in awe of Lynne, for thinking the whole scheme up, and also of her tech editor! I can imagine it might have made mere mortals rip their hair out -- it would have been difficult to test and hard to get the pattern into a form that wasn't too prescriptive and yet conveyed the necessary technical information to create the pleats.

I'm interested in the fact that every time I pause and think, 'Could this possibly be the right way to do this?' I can trust the pattern (and my intuition) and it works!

Many hourglasses!

Hi everyone,

I was planning to knit the Black Pearls next, but I knitted the Hourglass instead.
The book said Koigu Kersti, but I used 3 hanks of Koigu KPM (grayish purple) for MC and 1 hank of Koigu KPPPM (yellow mix) for CC.
It was my first knitting with Koigu yarn, and I liked their delicate colors.

I made a modification from the book, which is repeat the pattern all the way to the end instead of work K2, P2 rib for 15” in the middle part. Many hourglasses!

I didn’t notice using 2 strands of yarns held together until start reading the pattern… which I don’t like doing it! But I like the finished scarf, it made all the effort of untangling two strands of yarn worthwhile.
Seems like winter is already over in L.A., but I want to wear the scarves I knitted from this book until I get sweaty!

Sunny

Book errata?

Forgive me if this has already been covered here:

Is there any book errata? I looked on Melanie Falick's site and there was nothing under this book's title.

Thanks!

Tuesday 4 March 2008

Choosing a yarn

i was in a yarn store today and almost bought the blue sky alpaca cotton for the shawl collar scarf, but i held off because i have another project promised first. but i wonder - could i use that cotton worsted for the black pearls scarf, which i'm dying to make for myself? the pattern calls for peace fleece worsted, so the weight ought to be about the same.

i know this is kind of a dopey question, but i'm always nervous about deviating from patterns, but since i can't wear wool, i often have to.

tomorrow i buy yarn for my first scarf, tilted squares!

Monday 3 March 2008

Greetings

Just got the book and found this group, and was happy to see someone has already worked on what I want my first project to be: the Shawl collar. And I optimistically want to work about 80% of the patterns!

I first found out about the book from Jean's Knitting blog where she did the Linked Ribs (November 17, 2007 posting) and I was already thinking of what I would be doing with leftover mohair from the Rowan Earth Stripe Wrap (that I'm still slowly working on, of course). I'm MaryjoO on Ravelry and Flickr.

How did everyone else find out about the book?