Finished object: Windermere

It's been a fairly busy summer. As I've learned, we have winter for a solid 6 months of the year, so summer is a time for doing as much as possible outside the house. J and I went to see Daniel Tosh in Great Falls, and we also saw Kenny Rogers--THE GAMBLER himself--last weekend. We've also been making good use of the fire pit I got J for his birthday, and have had several nights of sitting in the backyard with marshmallows, beer, and fire.

In the middle of my summer activities, I finished my Windermere scarf.


The pattern is from Sweet Paprika, and is a design I've loved since I first saw it in the Ravelry Obscuriosity group's past knitalongs. I got this fabulous hand-dyed yarn from The Yarn Stash in Minot, and it turned out to be a great match for the pattern.



I made the stockinette sections smaller because I wanted the finished scarf to be a bit narrower than the design called for, especially since I was using a fingering weight yarn rather than laceweight. Beyond that, I did the pattern pretty much as written--even the grafting! I had to undo some of my grafting when I got about halfway through the center lace pattern and noticed that my stitches weren't lining up AT ALL, but it was smooth sailing once that error was fixed (I'd completely skipped grafting some of the YOs).

When it starts to cool off in another month or so, I have another scarf for my arsenal!

Laceweight alpaca, yum

It occurred to me that I have a WIP that I haven't shown here yet:


The day I got my Fall 08 IK, I grabbed some Misti Alpaca laceweight from my stash and cast on for Eunny's Biased Eyelet Stole. I figured this would be a good anti-project for the Kilt Hose That Won't Just Knit Themselves. Something soft and lacy and lightweight for the time when I need something other than heavy black wool. Alpaca makes me swoon. :)

Anyway, about a week in I got a message from someone on Ravelry asking where I'm weaving in all the ends. See, the lace rows are done with one strand, but those garter ridges are done with three strands. Carrying them along the edge presumably gives too much bulk there, as the pattern specifically instructs to join two strands for the garter rows and then cut off two strands. That's 4 ends to weave in every 16 rows.

My solution:


The two ends from joining are knit along with the first 3-strand garter row. The two ends when I'm cutting off the extra yarn are being woven into the second 3-strand row (the one that I've just finished knitting). Short of leaving all of the ends as-is and declaring it all to be fringe, that's the best solution I can come up with. You can see the ends on the most recently-worked garter ridge in the picture here.

Anyway, send good vibes to me and my extended network of coworkers over the next couple of days. They're deploying a big software upgrade today which goes live tomorrow. We said our goodbyes to our old circ software last night; one coworker took pictures of a couple of the icons (we all agree that we'll miss the Angry Claims Returned Guy icon, who is being replaced by Even Angrier Claims Returned Guy)

A little bit of Christmas knitting

Think I can have this done by Christmas?



It's the start of a Clapotis scarf for my grandmother, which I started over the weekend. I'm into the straight row repeats now, so this is the part that can just go on cruise control. It's narrow enough that I can get a row done whenever I have a spare minute. I even had it with me at 'Legal Issues for Supervisors' training and worked on it during our "Go get water or go to the restroom" break (today, volunteer supervision; tomorrow, world conquest. One step at a time, people.) I think I can get this scarf done if I make a conscious push to do so.



The yarn is nice stuff. It's RYC Luxury Cotton, which is 2 plies of cotton and 2 plies of viscose/silk. It's a little splitty, but show me a cotton that isn't. The viscose/silk plies give it some sheen without being gaudy, and it feels like it will have a good drape once it's finished and blocked. Hopefully in 13 days. :)

Bejeweled Scarf

So, here's the danger of having a scarf as purse knitting:


That's a yooge scarf there, folks.

I made this my purse knitting after I finished my GWTF socks. A row here, a row there, a whole mess of rows while I was trying to tune out the guy at the tire place telling me in graphic detail about his rectal cancer... I pulled the scarf out last night to see how much longer it would have to be; it was already at 72", and I still had to do the snappy little point. Surprise!

This has long been the ignored middle child of my WIPs, so I'm glad that I can stop feeling bad about neglecting it. It's done just in time for the lovely humid days of August.


That look on my face says, "I am wearing a scarf, and it is 95 degrees out. Perhaps this knitting thing has gone too far."





Bejeweled scarf, by Lisa Shobhana Mason
Started January 07, finished July 07
Yarn: Rowan All-Seasons Cotton, limedrop, 2 skeins
Needles: US size 8.
Mods: Bigger gauge, thicker yarn, fewer stitches. Slipped stitch edges.