Knitting

Suddenly I have several finished objects!

The Shaelyn shawl (in Creatively Dyed Yarn, Beaches, Miami color).....and the October Leaves fingerless mitts (in Plymouth Yarn Alpaca Prima, color 401).

And Susan B. Anthony's Flap Happy Hat (in Cascade 220)!

I have the pom poms and tassels left to make for the second hat and then that will be finished.

The fingerless mitts and the shawl have yet to be blocked, although I see no reason to block the mitts, and I only want to slightly block the shawl.

I Am the Boss of My Knitting!

said Elizabeth Zimmerman in her book Knitting Without Tears, and I, too, am the boss of my knitting! Yesssss.................I couldn't find anything on the internet or in my books to tell me how to fix the twisted stitches I caused when I joined the cast on row on circular needles. So I decided not to cry and start over yet again --- not that knitting can cause me tears, (well, there was that mohair sweater )--- and instead I made up my own solution.

I worked over to the first joined stitch and then used a crochet hook to take that one stitch back to the beginning of the piece. I flipped the knitting on the left-hand needle, switching the yarn strands to the side I needed them to be on (in front of or behind the needle; I can't remember) and remade the stitches with the crochet hook.

It worked!!! Can you see the repair? If you can, shh..................

I doubt that this would work on yarn finer than worsted weight and on smaller needles, but it has worked here, and if it doesn't spontaneously unravel, I call it a success. Fingers crossed, though.

And on the next hat, I'm following Sigrun's advice and knitting a row or two before trying to join the ends. It should be easier to make sure the work is not twisted with a few rows on the needle first.

Thanks, Sigrun!

The Knitter Doth Whine Too Much

Yes, I admit it. I did whine more than a little about knitting all the loops that Shaun required. I tried to get older daughter to knit the loops for me, but she apparently:

a. is not easily fooled

b. remembers Tom Sawyer

But once I stopped whining about all the loops and started knitting all the loops, the project didn't really take very long. I sort of got the knack of making the loops more and more quickly.

So now Shaun is finished and perched over my only teapot. I usually make tea with teabags, but maybe I will have to become more traditional.......

Two Finished Projects

This hat is proof that you can really screw up a pattern and still end up with a hat. The pattern was given to me verbally, and I scribbled the directions down when I got home from knitting. It calls for 112 stitches, knit on size 7 circular (and then dps) needles, five inches of 4 x 4 ribbing, then 2 1/2 to 3 inches of stockinette, and then: knit 8, knit 2 together on round one, knit round two, repeat. What is considered known (but not by me) is that on each subsequent decrease row, you knit one less stitch, then knit two together. (i.e. k8, k2tog/k7, k2tog/k6, k2tog, etc.)

Fortunately, I was at knit night, held yesterday afternoon at a knitter friend's house since the LYS was closed, and mentioned that it was taking a long time to decrease enough to need dp needles. That is when I learned my mistake. My friends told me to just jump to k4, k2tog and go from there rather than frogging the whole top of the hat. Whew. ... I finished it up and it looks like a hat!

This is the mystery knitting I did for younger daughter, whose taste is always a guessing game for me. It's a loopy scarf, made with Twinkle extra chunky yarn, on size 17 and 19 needles. The red is gorgeous but doesn't show up well in this photo. Unfortunately for me, she loved it, so I didn't get to keep it. But fortunately, she loved it, so I get to knit another one! Now I have to decide what color.

SCORE!

This past Sunday, my LYS had its yearly open house which included a great sale. I picked up what cannot technically be called stash, since I purchased it all for specific projects. (I have borrowed that idea of stash from another knitter and I LIKE it. BTW, stash also does not consist of any yarn that is bought to make something for someone other than the knitter. Yay!)

I am making a second two-stripe Noro scarf because the first one was so much fun to knit. The pink Cascade 220 is for a sweater for Elizabeth Anne, since I stole her Araucania yarn to make socks for myself. (Shamelessly promoting my own posts here)

AND, I am throwing caution to the wind and knitting something for younger daughter, whose tastes are a mystery to me. She may or may not like this something, but since I am copying it from a knitter friend's completed project, I know what it looks like and I know I will like it and it will find a home with me if necessary.

The shop was so crowded (great for the new owner)that four of us went across the street to a small diner to drink tea, talk knitting, AND knit. It was a great afternoon, in spite of the fact that I still can't duplicate stitch (more shameless promotion) decently. Poor Elizabeth Anne....