Nearly There

I've been working on these for months. It's one of the legacy projects, and matching one mitten to an existing mitten was a wild ride. More about that when they're finished. I am So.Close. to being done.

Souvenir Scarf

The yarn that I bought by mistake made a really lovely scarf for KD. I searched on the yarn and yardage in Ravelry and came upon a scarf pattern that was awesome. The original scarf pattern was clever, but didn't appeal to me. However, the someone who worked it in the yarn I had on hand had converted the pattern to brioche, and it was awesome!

I taught myself the Italian cast on, a brioche selvedge stitch, and tubular bind off. And wound up working the woven part twice because I made the strips too long, which made the weave too loose. But now it's done, and pretty as a picture!

Needles: US 8 (5.00 mm)
Yarn: Cascade 220 Heather in Tangerine Heather
Pattern: Patricia Everett's Celtic Knot Looped Scarf
Mods: Worked the scarf in brioche stitch

A Little Something

Many, many years ago, while visiting the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival, my daughter and I discovered the most delightful little project on the front counter of a vendor's booth. We'd never seen the stitch before and couldn't imagine how the thing was made. The vendor helpfully supplied us with a photocopy of the handwritten pattern, and sold my daughter a little yarn to make it with.

Fast forward to the present. I've just come across this pattern while sorting through paperwork. Nowadays I'm completely familiar with the stitch pattern that is linen stitch, but it happens I've still never made this project. I'm charmed by the idea of something small and neat. I have a vision of making it in Koigu's Painter's Palette Premium Merino, in part because in those bygone years I used to pour over the wall of KPPPM in another vendor's booth, and treat myself to a skein or two. And in part because I want the quick color shifts and tight twist to play with.

I dug into my stash and discovered I have a colorway left, and enough that I can borrow what I need and still have plenty left for a pair of socks.

I wound up the skein

and cast on (and re-cast on, because my gauge was wider than I wanted)

and plunged in.

I never saw that vendor again, and these days there aren't even vendors in that back corner of the Exhibition Hall*. It's also been years since I saw that wall of Koigu. They still make KPPPM - I checked their site - and I see it's $14 these days instead of the $11 I used to spend. The pattern is attributed to Mary Hal Cochran Davis, who the internet informs me died almost a year ago at the age of 90. I can't find her or the pattern on Ravelry, so I'm really glad I kept this bit of paper for all these years.

I have plenty of unfinished objects. But this one is giving me joy right now.

*Because there will be no festival this year, I should mention that when I drove by last month, they were constructing an addition to the Main Exhibition Hall that would about double its space. Something to look forward to!

I Got Nuthin'

You would think - certainly I thought - that all this staying home would result in increased knitting time. The trouble is, everyone else is home with me! There are constantly things to arrange, questions to answer... I can only imagine how much busier my friends with small children must be!

There is knitting getting done, of course, around the edges, but there is no visible progress on anything today. So let us look forward to next week's post!

Beta Testing

I just finished beta-testing a knitting pattern for KD. I'm an excellent beta-tester: if there is a mistake to be made, an instruction that could possibly be misunderstood, I'm here for you. Sadly, this doesn't seem to endear me to most designers in search of beta-testers. But KD was appreciative.

So many new tricks in these simple slippers! A new-to-me cast on, stitch pattern, design element, AND heel. And I did just about every one of them wrong the first time through. As a result, the second slipper flew by - I cast on and bound off the same day.

Legacy Project: Detective Work

Here we have a lovely sweater, roughly 39" chest, 25" length. Missing sleeves. No pattern. I searched hard, and came up with something close, but not close enough.

I do have the yarn, and it's one of my favorites to work with, Berocco Vintage! Fortunately a label was inserted in the middle of one of the skeins.

So what have we got? A rolled neck...

A lovely 2-color ribbing at the bottom, along with a 1-inch hem facing in the process of being sewn down - 3-needle bind off, I think, but I need to get on this first because those stitches are live!

A beautiful 2-color woven yoke that extends through the sleeve caps, both of which are made, but only one attached. That'll be the second step.

Then I'll pick up the stitches for the sleeves. How many? Who knows! One-for-one at the underarm gusset - more live stitches - and 2-out-of-3 or 4-out-of 5 for the rest. As long as it's the same number for both sleeves with no puckering, I should be fine. Length? Decreases? I'll find a similar shape/size and look at their numbers.

And I think probably the same 2-color ribbing on the sleeve cuffs.

And, done!

Green clogs, for DH.

Needles: US 13 (9.00 mm)
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool in Pine, just shy of 4 skeins
Pattern: Bev Galeskas' Felted Clogs

Looking forward to felting them in a few months!

Mysterious Ways

I’ve been teaching a friend to knit. I’ve never tried to count how many people I’ve taught to knit, but I do know that the majority of them have been children (I find 4 to be the perfect age). But I have taught adults, and in these days of free, online, instructional videos, I find teaching to be more of a coaching or mentoring gig.

But this time was different. For one thing, he wasn’t sure which craft he wanted to learn, so we started with crochet. After a little while it wasn’t going well: the yarn was dark and fuzzy, making it difficult to see the loops. I switched him out to a different yarn, and while I was at it, to knitting. I cast on, knit a few rows, then showed him the basic moves and handed it over. He caught on, and after a few rows I taught him to purl, and the difference between garter stitch and stockinette, and sent him home to practice. Today he was back to learn casting on and ribbing. Next time, increases and decreases.

So what’s different? When he took the knitting from me the first time, despite my demonstrating throwing, he started right in picking. He held the working yarn in his left hand, instinctively tensioned it, and went to town. A few rows in, out of curiosity, I explained the difference between continental knitting and whatever we call throwing, and had him try knitting with the yarn in his right hand.

It was like someone trying to teach me to write with my right hand. I could *see* it hurting his brain. So I switched him back, and he went on his merry way.

I’m left to wonder how many people who just don’t take to knitting would have caught on if we tried switching which hand they hold the yarn in.

Two Down, One To Go

Blue clogs, for NKD:

Needles: US 13 (9.00 mm)
Yarn: Patons Classic Wool in New Denim, just over 2.5 skeins
Pattern: Bev Galeskas' Felted Clogs