Huh?

I am working on the Sutter's Mill Throw even though I am supposed to be knitting a Christmas gift. When I have a deadline, even a self-imposed one, the You Are Not the Boss of Me part of my brain interrupts, and off I go in a different direction. Makes no sense since this means that my brain is arguing with itself, and I can't figure out how to bring in a third part of my brain to argue logic with the other two parts.

This is an EASY project, with super bulky yarn (Cascade Lana Grande, color 6024) and it's just too tempting to pick up and work on mindlessly. Only one row of each 18 in the pattern repeat is different so no reading or charting is required.

Isn't it bee-yu-ti-ful???!!!

And it is so soft. This is the same yarn that I used for THREE Umaro throws, and I hope the part of my brain that thought that making THREE of anything was a good idea keeps quiet. What WAS I thinking? The third one is as beautiful as the first two, but knitting it got really old really fast.

I will go back to the Christmas gift....I will go back to the Christmas gift....

probably not today, though.

Two Projects Finished in Four Days!

Well, finished as in I had been working on them for months and just coincidentally finished them within four days. 

First off, Vogue Knit's Purple and Pink Extra Long Cowl:

I THOUGHT that I had joined it in the round with no twists.  hahahaha... When I tried to pin it out to block it, I couldn't even figure out how many twists were in it. When I wrap it around my neck a couple of times it won't matter that I messed it up added a design feature of my own.  

AND, I finished my THIRD Umaro.  Whew....

This one seemed to take forever, but I think it's because it was my third---and last---for now. And thank goodness for fellow knitters. Somehow I ran out of just enough yarn, about two yards, to cast off. Another knitter was knitting a different blanket with the same yarn and gave me the two yards to finish it. 

Yay Knitters!

Lessons Learned

I hope.

I am currently working on three, no, four projects at once.  And I have messed up two---so far.

I am making my third Umaro, this time with a lavender Cascade Lana Grande, and so far, so good. No mistakes.

And I am working on the Shelby Stole, with a lovely 100% silk yarn. So far so good on that too.

AND I am working on the Purple and Pink Extra Long Cowl

in the same colors shown in the designer's photo. Yum. However, after I finished the first 8 rows of the pattern, it was only an inch wide which meant that the whole thing (24 rows) would only be 4 inches wide. Turns out that is how wide it is supposed to be, but according to Kitterly, I could just go ahead and use all of the yarn in each of the four skeins provided.(There are no knitting police.) So that is what I am doing, and this is it now that I am into my third skein/colorway:

I think it will be about 8 inches wide, and that is fine.  However, and this is a BIG however, the 351 stitches on a circular needle are joined so that I am knitting in the round, and I thought that I had joined the cast on row so that there were no twists in it. But I just needed to count the stitches and in the process I noticed that it is twisted---three times! Yikes. I am not ripping out 351 stitches x 45 rows and starting over, so it will be a mobius, mobius, mobius cowl. Weird possibly, but I am hoping that the fact that it can be wound around my neck a couple of times, and the fact that it is very colorful, will be a distraction from the possible weirdness. It's a "design element" y'all, not a mistake.  

Now the fourth project. I am going on vacation and I want to take a small project with me: hence, socks. I pulled out the socks that I have been ignoring for a month or so because I hate knitting on size 1 needles. I want to put them on my Knit Picks wooden needles rather than keep them on my Signature Needles, which I treasure and adore above all other needles. They are metal and really pointy and I think they could do some damage to someone if that's what I intended to do, which I don't, but the authorities might not believe me on that.

See my beautiful, precious, pointy, potentially dangerous needles!

When I took a look at the sock in progress (Gale's Art Wonder Sock Yarn, graffiti and asphalt colorway), I noticed that because it's been rattling around in the project bag for a month, maybe longer, a lot of stitches had fallen off the needles. If there is anything less fun than retrieving dropped stitches, several rows down, on size one needles, I hope not to find out what it is. 

Anyway, I have rescued the stitches and now I will put them on the wooden needles. TSA or its equivalent in the UK can have my Signature Needles when they pry them from my cold, dead hands. Which they won't be able to do because I am leaving them behind. sniff...

One Day Short of A Month!

I did it!  I finished my Umaro and I love it. It took a day less than a month, and according to my Knit Companion app, it also took 48 hours and 18 seconds of knitting. I am not so OCD or whatever that I would normally even know this, but the app tracks the time that the app is open, which it always was while I was working on this because the pattern was charted.

Before soaking.

Based on a conversation another knitter had with the owner of Apple Yarns, who recommended wet-blocking the blanket, I soaked this:

Heavy, sodden blanket

Heavy, sodden towels

What happens when a knitted wool blanket gets soaked?  It GROWS! It is now 46" x 77".

I didn't think to measure it before soaking, but it wasn't nearly this large. It grew about a foot in width and more than that in length.

I have the ceiling fan going overhead and I hope that will help it dry before the Rapture. I'd like to have a chance to gift it or use it.

Internet!

Make up your mind. You put these on the same page. What's a reader, looking for non-professional advice, to do???

Completely unrelated:

Umaro by Brooklyn Tweed, knit from Cascade Yarns Lana Grande 6043

I have finished five of six repeats on this blanket and I am now officially tired of knitting it. I WILL finish it this week so that I can STOP working on it.

I do love it though.

Umaro

Knitting this goes pretty quickly until my thumb starts to hurt from the super bulky yarn and the size 15 needles. I think they are the largest I have ever used but in spite of them, I am really enjoying this project. Good thing since the yarn I ordered to make a second one arrived the other day.

Nail polish bottle for scale, 'cause I'm a pro!

I have now finished three of the six repeats.

Yay me!!!

It's All About that Math, 'Bout that Math

Knitting involves quite a bit of math, which can come as a surprise to new knitters.

Knit Companion solves a lot of math-related problems by allowing me to color code and enlarge what I want to work on and I used it this morning when I ripped back a couple of rows and re-knit them. Somehow I had the wrong number of stitches in some sections, but it's all straightened out now. Then I found two stitches that I hadn't even worked---how on earth does THAT happen?! Also, I do think there are some purls where there should be knits, or vice versa, but I'm not sure. This pattern is...quirky. That's the word.

This is part of the screen of KC that I am using for this project:

I colored the repeat section yellow, and then I enlarge the page so that I only see the parts I am working on. I count the stitches necessary for each section from the chart, and then count what I actually have. Ideally they match. But today, they didn't. YO's and SSKs and K2TOG mess up the count if I'm not careful. YOs right before or after a marker can really mess up the count. They get caught on the marker, and then...which side do they belong on? 

The turquoise (my signature color!) line shows that the row I am working on is on the back of the fabric. A yellow line shows up when I am on the front of the fabric. I can see the symbols and their meanings if I want; otherwise I just lower that part of the page so they aren't in my way. There are counters on the right and I can set them to indicate what I want them to count.  

KC gets way more complicated if I need it to to be, but I actually haven't learned how to do anything more complicated yet. First, I just need to conquer the math.

Mistakes Were Made

I think.

I'm not sure.

I am working on Umaro by Brooklyn Tweed, and it doesn't look right. I'm not blaming myself (yet) because lots of other knitters on Ravelry have commented on the confusing charts. 

There are several places where the pattern just doesn't work out right, but I think I will need to knit on and then see if I should just trust the pattern (and myself) to get it right. 

The last time I made a blanket, a small baby blanket, I said Never again! and I did mean it at the time, but I love this one; it's huge but worth the time (if I get it right).  I hope.