In case you're interested, I'm knitting the doily with DMC Baroque crochet cotton which I love and have used extensively.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
The Doily
Just a quick post to show how the doily is working up. I’m loving this pattern out of the “First Book of Modern Lace Knitting” by Marianne Kinzel. It just keeps branching out to more leaves and more leaves. I have 20 rows to go but it has knitted up so quickly. Can't believe it's actually pulled me away from my sleeve but I was always a sucker for a pretty doily. Got about 8 more rows done on the sleeve so I only have 3 more pattern repeats to go! (That sounds better than 48 rounds!!)
Monday, March 17, 2008
Life after sweater
I wasn’t feeling too well this weekend so the whole long list of things I needed to get done, needless to say, didn’t get done – except cleaning the kitchen. I did do that. And I cooked a chicken/rice/mushroom casserole. That was pretty good and I happened to get mushrooms at the store before I decided I was going to do the dish. Those made it all the more yummy.
But I did finish the neck of my sweater and started the second sleeve which is almost halfway done. Now I’m just obsessed, no other word for it. I’m so ready to have it done and move on to the next thing(s).
Speaking of next things, as we were, I have been getting such a yin for doily work and was planning to get some crochet time in. But I got some books from Schoolhouse Press the other day with old lacy knitting including said doilies and I got hooked on one. It has whipped up really fast. It’s one of those that you can make as a centerpiece, a place setting, a plate setting or a glass setting. I think it’s going to be very pretty but I’m going to have to add some needles to the process. There are 6 sections around and since it called for a UK size 13 needle, my handy-dandy needle size converter tells me this is a US size 1. Sound familiar? Yes, well, in this case, it was supposed to be a 2.25mm US size 1, not a 2.5mm US size 1. Now, I could transfer it to a circular needle except that they’re working on a sleeve at the moment and can’t be interrupted and they are 2.5mm, not 2.25 as called for. Sigh… At the moment, I have 76 stitches on each of 3 needles. But I know that I have 2 sets of 2.25mm double points so I’m just going to draft in 3 more needles (making 6 – 1 for each section) and keep going, being very careful not to let stitches jump off the end of the needle (as they tried to do yesterday). If I need more needles, I’ll just use more needles. I don’t remember anyone saying the knitting police will do me for having too many needles.
If you see me by the side of the road begging, don’t throw money. Just throw US size 1 needles.
But I did finish the neck of my sweater and started the second sleeve which is almost halfway done. Now I’m just obsessed, no other word for it. I’m so ready to have it done and move on to the next thing(s).
Speaking of next things, as we were, I have been getting such a yin for doily work and was planning to get some crochet time in. But I got some books from Schoolhouse Press the other day with old lacy knitting including said doilies and I got hooked on one. It has whipped up really fast. It’s one of those that you can make as a centerpiece, a place setting, a plate setting or a glass setting. I think it’s going to be very pretty but I’m going to have to add some needles to the process. There are 6 sections around and since it called for a UK size 13 needle, my handy-dandy needle size converter tells me this is a US size 1. Sound familiar? Yes, well, in this case, it was supposed to be a 2.25mm US size 1, not a 2.5mm US size 1. Now, I could transfer it to a circular needle except that they’re working on a sleeve at the moment and can’t be interrupted and they are 2.5mm, not 2.25 as called for. Sigh… At the moment, I have 76 stitches on each of 3 needles. But I know that I have 2 sets of 2.25mm double points so I’m just going to draft in 3 more needles (making 6 – 1 for each section) and keep going, being very careful not to let stitches jump off the end of the needle (as they tried to do yesterday). If I need more needles, I’ll just use more needles. I don’t remember anyone saying the knitting police will do me for having too many needles.
If you see me by the side of the road begging, don’t throw money. Just throw US size 1 needles.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Almost there
Only 2 milestones left to go on the old Skrå-trøyer sweater! Yeah, baby!!
I’ve finished one sleeve and finished the neck facing. All I have left is to do the other sleeve and finish the neck with the twinned knitting and I will have an official replica of the sweater living in the Kalundborg Museum in Denmark. For the cuff of the sleeve I used a Colinette fingering weight yarn in a soft variegated colorway. It worked great for this as it’s very tightly spun and very rounded. Sorry, I lost the tag with the name of the colorway on it but I’m definitely digging the way it sort of grays up next to the black and white. That’s really what I wanted much more than a punch of color on the cuffs and collar.
This was the second go at a sleeve. The sleeve I previously wrote about, alas, didn’t make the grade in the end. I told the ladies at knit night that I wasn’t going to rip it out so when I showed up at Guild with the new sleeve one of them said, “I thought you said you weren’t going to rip it out.” I didn’t rip it out, I started over!
But now I’m happy with the sleeve and how it worked. I wasn’t sure exactly how many stitches I needed to end up with for the sleeve to fit the hole (see previous entries about math) but I ended up with it being exactly the perfect size. Don’t you love it when that happens?!
Here are some pics. Yes, that’s a long ruler shoved through the back so I could show the details of the sleeve. I did manage to tack the right side sleeve to the left side of the sweater but it didn’t really matter for the purposes of these pictures and it is just tacked, after all, so nothing to worry about. I also have the seam section placed too high on the armhole but that will all be fixed when I get the sleeve sewn in at the end.
Since I’m a woman of hope, I’m going to say that the second sleeve is going to look exactly like the first except the overlap is going to be reversed as it should be. Ha! We’ll see when we get there. I’m also going to try to get the finished pieces blocked this weekend because that will make a lot of difference to how it looks and how it drapes. I will have to face the facts, however, that material this dense is not going to be doing a whole heck of a lot of draping. But blocking will make a difference.
I have loved this process but I have to admit I’m getting a little tired of it. I can, at least, however, see the end of the tunnel…and there’s a Danish rainbow at the end!!
I’ve finished one sleeve and finished the neck facing. All I have left is to do the other sleeve and finish the neck with the twinned knitting and I will have an official replica of the sweater living in the Kalundborg Museum in Denmark. For the cuff of the sleeve I used a Colinette fingering weight yarn in a soft variegated colorway. It worked great for this as it’s very tightly spun and very rounded. Sorry, I lost the tag with the name of the colorway on it but I’m definitely digging the way it sort of grays up next to the black and white. That’s really what I wanted much more than a punch of color on the cuffs and collar.
This was the second go at a sleeve. The sleeve I previously wrote about, alas, didn’t make the grade in the end. I told the ladies at knit night that I wasn’t going to rip it out so when I showed up at Guild with the new sleeve one of them said, “I thought you said you weren’t going to rip it out.” I didn’t rip it out, I started over!
But now I’m happy with the sleeve and how it worked. I wasn’t sure exactly how many stitches I needed to end up with for the sleeve to fit the hole (see previous entries about math) but I ended up with it being exactly the perfect size. Don’t you love it when that happens?!
Here are some pics. Yes, that’s a long ruler shoved through the back so I could show the details of the sleeve. I did manage to tack the right side sleeve to the left side of the sweater but it didn’t really matter for the purposes of these pictures and it is just tacked, after all, so nothing to worry about. I also have the seam section placed too high on the armhole but that will all be fixed when I get the sleeve sewn in at the end.
Since I’m a woman of hope, I’m going to say that the second sleeve is going to look exactly like the first except the overlap is going to be reversed as it should be. Ha! We’ll see when we get there. I’m also going to try to get the finished pieces blocked this weekend because that will make a lot of difference to how it looks and how it drapes. I will have to face the facts, however, that material this dense is not going to be doing a whole heck of a lot of draping. But blocking will make a difference.
I have loved this process but I have to admit I’m getting a little tired of it. I can, at least, however, see the end of the tunnel…and there’s a Danish rainbow at the end!!