Exceeds expectations

You may need to click on the picture to enlarge it so you can see the  motif but I'm pleased beyond all measure.  That center diamond just looked naked without this little bit in the middle.

My original idea was to knit this medallion in which I could have done had I had the patience to find the pattern and if I had been a little more confident of how this center diamond would work up.  But having it done and attached afterwards gives it a nice textural feel, I think.  The downside is that you have to sew it on.  Actually, I have to sew it on and that bothers me more than you having to sew it on, sad to say.

And next?  This little tea cozy:

Big, big news

I have big news.  Perhaps even big, big news.  The Amish Center Diamond Afghan is finished!  Well, finished for all intents and purposes.  The afghan part is finished and the center diamond motif is finished and blocking but it still needs to be sewn on to be final finished.  I'm counting it.

This is a motif from the Elsebeth Lavold book one - The Viking Knits Collection and it was the perfect size for what I wanted and it worked up quickly.  I'll get a good photo of the whole thing later once this is dry and attached.  I've been using the afghan on my bed the last few days and, boy, is it warm and light.  Who'd've known?

And I got highjacked with my latest newest project.  I was straightening up my books the other night which, of course, led to looking at some old Spin Off magazines.  I don't know if this happens to you but I can read some of these articles but if I don't have any context for what they're talking about, I don't really take much of it in.  So, since I'm starting to learn more about spinning, I like to have a look back from time to time.

So there I was quietly thumbing through the magazine, sipping a cup of tea (because I am a tea drinker) when I got hit with this:

Have you ever seen anything quite so cute?

This is from the Fall 2006 issue.  Carol spun this yarn out of silk and cotton.  I didn't want to spin something new to make it but I just happened to have some silk that I'd spun up and had no idea what I would do with it.  Ha!  And it was just the right weight.  I'd love to have a real t-shirt made out of this.  Wish you could touch it and feel how gorgeous spun silk is.  This silk roving (which I'd had for donkey's years) was spun on my Kromski Minstrel using the 12:1 ratio in a 2-ply.  I didn't check the wraps per inch but the pattern called for 17 wpi and this is knitting up to the gauge so I'm guessing it's about that.  I started it last night and just have the last part of the back, the sleeves, the pocket and the neckband to go.  I'll be sure to get a photo once I've finished.  I've got a white teapot that will go great with this!

Spindle Spinning

When I started spinning, I started with an Ashford top-whorl drop spindle.  I learned with it and all the early stuff was done on it.  In fact it was about a year before I moved on to a spinning wheel but I've always kept my love for the drop spindle. 

Recently the spindle has come up again and I decided to spin some dark blue fiber I got on one of my trips.  I'm amazed at how quickly the first skein worked up.  Have a look:

It's not a hugely soft fiber, more along the lines of Border Leicester, but it's a pretty color.  This skein is a little over 200 yards for 2 ounces.  I have to admit that it took me a little while to get the rhythm again for the spindle but it was a lot of fun.  I still have a couple more ounces to go then I'll need to do some white because my thought is to do a pair of fulled blue/white fair isle mittens.  There was a pattern in a recent PieceWork that I would love to try.

In other news, I've hit a milestone with the Amish Center Diamond afghan.  I've finished the 3rd side!  Whoohoo!  Now I'm in the process of picking up the 252 stitches for the final side.  I have to admit, it's a little daunting, knowing how long the 3rd side took.  But it is cozy and I love it so I guess I'll just pull up my thick, felted socks (did I mention it's been cold here?) and get on with it.

I've also got a progress pic of the beaded purse.  Not much to say at this point except that this is it.

Progress

I'm in one of those phases where I've got lots of large projects on the go and it's hard to see any progress on anything.  Usually I have a smaller project that I can finish quickly and have some sense of accomplishment but not right now.  So, it's slowly as we go.

Amish Center Diamond Afghan - I'm almost finished with the 3rd side.  After the 4th side I will still need to make a diamond motif for the very center.

1923 Lily Pond Breakfast cloth - I'm almost finished with the 3rd motif (some sort of pattern happening here).  There's supposed to be 6 of them but I'm going to see if it will work with 4.  I'll still need to make the placemat sections to go with it so I've got quite a way to go before finishing this one.

Colorful lace - I'm spinning this merino, trying to do some true laceweight yarn.  These are 1 ounce batches that I got in a sampler package several years ago.  Once I've got the colored singles done, the plan is to do a singles of black then ply the 2 together.  I have no earthly idea what I would do with it but it's a dream to spin.

Pima cotton - I got this cotton still on the seed a couple of months ago and I've been wanting to get at it ever since.  I've interrupted the colorful lace which, although it's a dream to spin, takes forever to spin.  I've taken the unprocessed cotton still, as I said, on the seed and combed it out with a little doggy comb to get it ready to spin.  I know there are cotton combs but I've found these work just as well and cost about $6 each. 

I've done a little bit of cotton spinning but never enough to really think I know what I'm doing from one time to the other.  So it's taken me a little bit to get up to speed and it's not very regular but it's okay for me for the present.  It's more about experimenting (playing) and getting a better idea of how cotton works.  I'm hoping to get a bobbin full. I'm certainly not a third of the way through this one!

Back to Socks

Like most knitters, I usually have a pair of socks on the needle.  Easy to carry around, you can work them whenever you find yourself waiting around.  For the most part, I knit to my basic sock pattern but after having knit the 1900 sock pattern I wanted to knit something patterned.

Somewhere in my travels I picked up a skein of Berroco Ultra Alpaca Fine in a pretty oatmeal color called "Steel Cut Oats."  This yarn is 50% wool, 30% alpaca & 20% nylon so I thought it might be a very nice sock yarn.  I've used the Ultra Alpaca yarn, which was very nice to knit with, but this is a bit splitty.

Here's the pattern I've used:

With size 1 needles, I cast on 64 stitches.  I knit about 2 inches of knit 2/purl 2 and then started the pattern.  The pattern is 4 stitches of a traveling yarn over, purl 1, cable 2, purl 1.  The traveling yarn over pattern is pretty basic: 
Row 1: Yarn over, knit 2 together, knit 2
Every other row is knit plain.
Row 3: Knit 1, yarn over, knit 2 together, knit 1
Row 5: Knit 2, yarn over, knit 2 together

The cuff is worked for about 7 inches before starting the heel.

I should be able to get a pair out of 1 skein (433 yards).

I like the texture of the 2-stitch cable and it's very easy to work without having to use a cable needle.

Center Diamond Afghan progress:
I don't have a new picture yet but I've finished the 2 short sides of the afghan and have finally picked up for the first long side - 254 stitches.

Amish Afghan Progress

The Amish Center Diamond Quilt afghan is really starting to come to life.  It's amazing how color combinations bring out a design.  Here's a photo of it with the first short border of chocolate brown garter stitch.

The darker color is going to frame this nicely, I think.  There will also be a small diamond-shaped motif that will be added to the middle of the white diamond.  It's certainly going to be big enough!

Perfect time for an afghan

I'm not sure why it is but don't you find that you usually work on something like an afghan in the heat of summer?  Maybe you started it when it was cool but somehow they always seem to end up being finished in the summer and the whole big fat hot pile of wool is plopped right in your lap.

Well, not this time.  It's been freezing and raining and snowing for several days now and I've started my full-size version of the Amish Center Diamond afghan.  Here's what I've got so far:

The center panel is done in seed stitch, from corner to corner.  It's 144 stitches at the widest point which is a whole lotta seed stitch, I can tell you.  The corners are working up much more quickly (108 stitches picked up along the side) in stockinette stitch and the borders will be in a chocolate brown garter stitch.  The 108 stitches, if you saw the previous post, is because you pick up the number of stitches equaling 75% of the number of stitches at the widest point of the diamond.

Yarn?  It's Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool, thanks for asking.  I know I've said this before but I LOVE this yarn.  I've used it for a number of projects and always have a supply of it on hand.  I love how easy it is to knit with and how it softens more and more as it's washed and how economical it is.  465 yards for $9.  Can't beat that with a big ole stick.

Amish Diamond Quilt (afghan)

A few weeks ago I went to Pennsylvania and had a side trip to Lancaster.  While I was wandering around, I came across the Lancaster Quilt and Textile Museum.  If you're ever in the area, I would really recommend stopping by.  I'm not a huge quilt fan but I did see a quilt that fascinated me.  It was one of the earliest of the Amish patterns, from what I understand, called the Center Diamond Quilt and all I could see was how easy it would be to knit.

This is a (poorly blocked) sampler I did just to work out the dimensions and to show the basic elements.  The center diamond is knitted from tip to tip, casting on 2 stitches and increasing each side every other row until you have the desired number of stitches (in this case 20).  Then you simply decrease each side every other row until you have 2 stitches left.  Bind off. 

The brown sections were picked up from each side of the diamond.  I wasn't too sure about how many stitches to pick up since geometry has never been my strong suit but I discovered that I needed to pick up 75% of the width of the diamond (plus one to make an even number).  In this case, the widest part of the diamond was 20 stitches so I picked up 16 stitches along each side.  I decreased stitches on each side every other row to finish up the square.

With the square finished, I picked up 24 stitches across the top (12 for each triangle - 75 % of  the 16 stitches I picked up for the section).  I knitted in garter stitch until I had 5 ridges and then did a stretchy bind off.  I did the same for the bottom then basically the same thing for each side except the pick of stitches included picking up stitches across the blue bar of the top and bottom.  And, as they say, whala.

The theory is that you could use the formula above to make it any size you want.  As you can see from the link above, there's all sorts of variations that can happen within this basic recipe.  I think what I would do for my large version is to make the center diamond and brown sections a seed stitch and then garter for the outside borders.  That way it could easily be reversible.  One thing I like about having the center diamond in stockinette is that it kind of pops out but I don't know that it would have the same effect in real size.  You could include some sort of motif in the middle of the diamond and on each of the diamond corners.  That could be cool.  I think I would like this sample more if I'd had a 3rd color for the outside border.