Days of Wine and, er, Wine

As I look over my knitting for 2010, I'm struck by a couple of major color themes that emerged.

First was the blue theme, with Milkshake and Carefree both in shades of blue. Then there was the Bluebell scarf in deep silver-shot blue, Swallowtail shawl in lovely azure. Added the Undulating Rib socks to the mix of azures. Seguéed to the teal of Twist, and the marine blue plus ivory that is the Toggle Knot Cable sweater. Which led to an ivory Wilson hat, tied to the pale beige of a Shetland shawl and the cream of a kitchen towel. Oh sure I got side-tracked along the way, with a pink Shetland Triangle shawl and a bunch of colorful baby accessories, not to mention a blanket for DD#2.

But the days of wine and wine are upon us. Perhaps they started with Evenstar and the Hugs & Kisses scarf, both in the same deep shade of burgundy wine. Now here's Peggy, in a claret color I could drink.

The recipient is happy with Peggy's fit and claims it is her warmest sweater (no doubt the alpaca in the yarn is part of the reason):

I'm still plodding away on wine-dark Maidenhair. Making this is an odyssey in itself: 55 repeats of 55 rows of 235 stitches. No wonder I feel inebriated when I work on it. To finish off the year, how about Norah Gaughan's Silures in port-red yarn?

The yarn is Rowan Magpie Aran, color, Ruby. The vest is DH's belated birthday gift (hey, I can only knit so quickly). If we were to sample wines to match these yarns, we'd have port, claret, Burgundy, Zinfandel, maybe even Beaujolais or Côtes du Provence. I could drink to that!

Speaking of DH, he will have his hernia repair done one week from tomorrow. It will be same-day surgery but not laparoscopic surgery (hernia too big for that procedure). All positive prayers, thoughts, and wishes greatly appreciated.

Scotch on the Rocks with a Twist

That's Twist, completed and modeled by DD#1 (still in her scrubs, she's so excited to finally get it).

But wait... what's that sneaking in for a petting?

Why, it's Auchentoshan on the Rocks, CGC, aka Rocky. Not one to be left out of the action, the Twist photo shoot turned into this:

and then this:


and finally this:

(he wouldn't sit still for a nice pose).

Do you detect a theme?

Do you detect a theme in some of my recent posts? I don't mean to throw a riddle at you, but perhaps you've noticed that I've fallen a bit for the Feather and Fan or Old Shale (pace E. Lovick) lace stitch. In its simplest form, it's suitable for a beginning knitter to learn the joys of lace knitting. It's repetitive enough for a traveling project yet not boring like, say, stockinette or garter stitch. It creates its own scalloped edges. If you want both edges to be completely alike, you can always knit to the middle of your piece, leave it on a long bit of yarn, knit a second half, and graft them together.

Now let's explore this stitch a bit in the round. It actually was easy to convert; all I had to do was eliminate the garter stitches at the edges, change rows 1 and 3 to make them RS rows (or rounds I guess, if you're a stickler for that), there you go.
And what do you do with feather and fan knit in the round? Make the border for a bath mitt I'm designing. Sort of a thumbless mitten or heel-less sock, knitted in a firm gauge with "kitchen" cotton. Because the lace is knitted on a large needle to show it off, I added some ribbing to the cuff, so the mitt doesn't fly off the hand in the shower (I hate when that happens; don't you?). I'll put a gusset for the heel of the palm and thumb (but there won't be a separate thumb, just a gusset). And I finished it off like the toe of a sock with double sets of decreases, then grafted the 2 parts together. I plan to make a spa set with matching fingertip towel. It'll be nice to have lace trim that's an integral part of the items, so no worries about the lace ripping off in the washer or dryer. This is version 1 of the bath mitt; I want to make the lace nicer, the thumb gusset better, and possibly add a loop for hanging with the next one. Fingertip towel is on the needles.


The rainbow blanket, as it turns out, must have had a big boo-boo in the pattern that I did not catch (I am ashamed to admit). Casting on the 180 sts called for in the pattern yields an item that's over 4 feet across. Pretty big for a baby blanket I thought. So since DD#2 covets it so much, she gets it.


And since my Peaches & Creme came, I modified the baby blanket pattern, including the FnF stitch pattern. Yarn total is not finalized yet since the blanket is in progress.

Improved Baby Blanket
Materials: 2 cones Peaches & Creme (estimated)
Needles: Circular size 7 (4.5 mm), at least 24" long
Directions:
CO 102 sts loosely. Knit in garter stitch for 6 rows. Begin Feather and Fan as follows:
Row 1: K6, *(K2 tog) 3 times, (YO, P1) 6 times, (K2 tog) 3 times*; repeat between *s, end K6.
Rows 2 and 4: Knit.
Row 3: K6, purl to last 6 sts, K6.
Continue in feather and fan pattern stitch until 1" less than desired length, then garter stitch 6 rows, Bind off loosely using the K2 tog bind-off.

You get a few more scallops by changing the repeat sequence this way, another fun feature of the FnF stitch. And this blanket is just about 30" wide, a better width for a baby blanket. I'll probably make it 36" long. Unless I get tired of it and make it square. We'll see.

Yes, You Can Knit Lace!

If you can make a yarn-over (YO) and knit 2 stitches together (K2tog), you can knit lace.

In fact, you can knit this lace scarf in a weekend while watching TV or listening to an audiobook, once you get into the pattern. The pattern stitch is an old Shetland pattern often called Feather and Fan, but sometimes called Old Shale, although Elizabeth Lovick writes they are different pattern stitches here, and that "shale" is Shetland pronunciation for "shell." A neat thing about it is that it forms its own scalloped border at cast-on and bound-off edges, so all you have to do is knit the thing. Four rows make up the pattern, and it can be modified to suit your taste for more or fewer scallops, or to make a stole or blanket, or to use any weight yarn you have in your stash. For learning this pattern and making the scarf, you'll need about 350 yards of fingering weight yarn (sample shown is a 75% wool/25% nylon blend from Southern Girl Knits and size 7 needles. Gauge is not terribly important; mine was 5 stitches and 8 rows (4 ridges) to the inch in garter stitch (I didn't want the ends to curl), unblocked.

Two important things to know:
1) You must cast on loosely so the edge will scallop. I used a long-tail cast-on, and casted on over 2 needles. Use whatever cast on method you like, but make it loose.
2) You'll be binding off loosely as well, so I advise using the bind off method in the instructions. It'll help the bound off edge to scallop nicely.

You'll see, the scarf will have a pretty scallop at each end even before blocking. The top photo in fact is of the cast on edge before blocking.

Feather and Fan Pattern Scarf

Cast on 52 stitches loosely. Knit 2 rows.

Begin Feather and Fan:
Row 1 (wrong side): K2; *K2tog 4 times, YO P1 8, K2tog 4 times,* repeat between *'s; K2.
Row 2 (right side): K across.
Row 3: K2, P to last 2 sts, K2.
Row 4: K across.
Cont in Feather and Fan stitch until scarf measures 44" or desired length from beginning (blocking it will stretch it about 25% percent in length). End row 4. K 2 rows and bind off loosely as follows: K2, then stick left needle into fronts of 2 sts just knitted and K2 tog through back loop; K1, then stick left needle into fronts of 2 sts on R needle and K2 tog through back loop. Continue to BO sts in manner described until all stitches have been bound off. Block, pinning out scallops. Weave in ends.

That's it. You have now knitted a lace scarf. Congratulations and wear it well!
(PS: There's a link to the pdf version of this pattern on the side bar at left).

Lace Knitting? Knitted Lace? Who Cares??

On Ravelry, Knitter's Review, and Knitty the subject of lace knitting vs knitted lace sometimes comes up. "Purists" maintain that knitted lace is patterned every row, while lace knitting (sniff here to signal contempt of this lesser art form) has resting rows of all-knit or all-purl stitches.

So what do you call this pattern?

It's patterned on every row, yessirree Bob, it is- but it doesn't have lace stitches (YOs and decreases) on the wrong side rows. Hence I say, who cares? Many knitting designers don't make a distinction, and absolutely drop-dead gorgeous Shetland and Estonian lace patterns have resting rows. Who cares, indeed.

Some more info on the little blue piece I'm showing you: the lace pattern is from Margaret Stove's book Creating Original Hand-Knitted Lace. She used it as a border pattern for a baby's outfit. I've had the book for years, and for years this border pattern of bluebells has intrigued me about its possibilities as an all-over lace pattern. At first I thought I'd design a sock using it, but the swatch shows me it doesn't have enough lateral stretch (it has a nice vertical stretch though). I'm using it to design a symmetrical scarf that will have an Estonian lace border knitted on to each end. Having just received Nancy Bush's definitive book, Knitted Lace in Estonia, what can I say except that the breathtaking designs beg to be used. If all goes as planned, I'll write this up and post it on Ravelry and the sidebar as a free pattern. Oh and the yarn is Dream in Color Starry, color is Midnight Derby. And the finished product, if it turns out as I hope, will be gift number 4 for my 5 friends.

On Blocking Shawls

(Pasteur's Laboratory circa 1885, Musée Ville de Paris)

Interesting what one can find in a laboratory. In my case, knitting supplies.
See this tube of surgical stainless steel rods? Once they'd have been packaged individually and autoclaved by a scrub nurse for repairing bad fractures, fixing the pieces of bone together (something I unfortunately know about first-hand, now having a cyber-ankle due to a bad fall. But I digress). These days they come more specialized, individually wrapped, already sterile and ready to use.
When my lab moved from floor A to floor B, we found all kinds of odds and ends (I'm in a surgery department). Odds and ends come in handy I've found, since I've had to build some of my own apparatus over the years, so I collect them just in case. The other day I came across this tube of rods and thought, Blocking Wires. With 3 lace shawls on the needles at the time, you can see how blocking might possibly be on my mind.

So these appear at a fortuitous time. I finished the pink Shetland Triangles lace shawl for my little niece the other night. It'll be a slightly late birthday present. Let's try these rods as blocking wires. (Soaks shawl, prepares foam blocks, pins, wires, and towel).
Verdict: Bit thin and bendy for a fingering-weight shawl but could be perfect for laceweight and lighter shawls. Fortunately, I also have a blocking wire kit, so out came that.



Much better. These are stiff enough not to be distorted by the shawl so it can dry straight. Seriously, for knitting lace especially, blocking wires cannot be beat. When I blocked sister-in-law's shawl, I was too lazy to dig my set out of the very back of the closet. Lazy is relative, as it turns out, since the time spent pinning and repinning was more than the time I would have spent rummaging in the closet, zipping a wire along the back and another down the center. The steel wires I found should work for pinning out the points of Evenstar. Maybe not all the points, but enough of them to get the shape and dimensions right.
I've never knit a circular shawl before Evenstar, so naturally I've never blocked a circular shawl before. Now that the final clue is here, I need to plan blocking it being it will be 5 feet across when completed and DH, despite being a doll about most things, doesn't think our bed is a good place to block it. He's willing to help me block it on the floor, but my back has other ideas. We shall see when the time comes.
Happy Mother's Day to all.

When Non-Knitters Get Knitted Gifts

A good friend of mine is bald and always complaining of feeling cold. So last year I knitted him a brioche stitch watch cap out of Bartlett Yarn fisherman weight in a nice heathery brown color that I think is no longer around. He loves it. So much that he was wearing it every day after moving to Boston this fall. Yesterday I received this message from him: "I just did a stupid thing to the hat you made for me... I washed and dried it, of course it shrank. So, I tried to stretch it and made a hole. I have been wearing this forever (literally everyday)and I was so disappointed. It's been protecting me from chilly Boston weather."
Of course today I am running out to my LYS to pick up some thick wool (Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride bulky for fast knitting) to whip up a hat as fast as I can. And I'll have to knit in a warning system that reminds him how to wash it! Has this happened to any of you? How do you tell non-knitting recipients to wash the gifts you've made for them?