My first shawl – Spindrift

Posted on November 8, 2017 by Patti_is_knittinginflashes

I have tried to get up the courage to knit a shawl. One to wrap around my shoulders when a sweater is too warm. Or around my neck under a coat when a heavy scarf is too bulky.

The Spindrift Shawl by Helen Stewart is the perfect fit. (Her website is here.) Crescent shape, a little bit of lace, one skein…what’s not to love? I bought some Zauberball sock yarn earlier in the summer so I cast on for this project sometime in the middle of October.

The pattern is great and includes stitch counts at the end of each row. After starting, ripping, and restarting several times, I added a lifeline as I kept losing or dropping a stitch. You can see those in the picture below. They will be removed once the knitting is completed and before blocking.

The first 4-10 stitches at the beginning and end of each row requires a bit of concentration but after a while it’s easy enough for TV knitting.

I thought this colorway, Bunte Gasse 2310, was mostly blues, greens and a bit of yellow but it’s got some red in there as well. It will do but was not what I expected.

It’s taking me about 20 minutes to knit one row as the rows get longer the more stitches I have to knit. Mr. Aitch and I have a few trips planned and if I can get him to drive, I can knit!

I’ve lost that lovin’ feeling…

Posted on September 1, 2017 by Patti_is_knittinginflashes

Not yet tired of sock knitting, I decided to try another sock pattern I’ve had for many years. Color work knitting and socks were new for me way back then so why not combine the two?

Enter Tongue River Farm Sock Collection …and a time to knit stockings publication by Katherine Misegades.

Buds and Blossoms caught my eye. Substituting Knit Picks Fingering weight Stroll for the recommended Tongue River Sport weight yarn seemed doable to use up some of my yarn stash. Black for the main color and red for the accent.

Everything was working out fairly well until I really looked at my progress.

I used my chart keeper and still missed a part of the color work.

A section with three red stitches should be there.

How could this happen? Well, Mr. Aitch and I don’t have regular TV but we do stream old shows and movies through our TV. I have a very hard time sitting with idle hands so I knit.

Obviously paying more attention to what was on the screen than what my hands were doing got me in this mess.

Working from a chart using more than one color of yarn requires more concentration than a two-row pattern using one color per row.

I’ve lost that loving feeling with this project. It’s hibernating until I decide whether to fix it or start over.

Digging into my stash

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Patti_is_knittinginflashes

After my SSSK socks, I needed something else fun and colorful to knit. So I dug into my stash and came up with this fun yarn by Berroco.

This cotton/acrylic/nylon blend yarn, an Aran weight, is Calico in color 1829. Unfortunately it’s discontinued now but I checked on Ravelry and several people still have some in their stash, too. I know I bought it on sale years ago with no idea of a project what-so-ever. I just liked it. Eight balls of 90 yards isn’t enough to make much but that’s all that was available. The matte red and coral colors are on one side of the strand and the shiny blue, green, gold and orange colors run down the other side so when it’s knitted up, the yarn twists and makes an interesting fabric.

I searched through Ravelry for patterns as well as magazines, old books and booklets and found nothing I loved in that yarn weight and yardage. So after swatching, I took elements from two patterns to make my own. Lace Hem Topping and Drops 90-18.

The back is finished. No color pooling, just fun.

Above is one side using the stockinette stitch and below is the reverse.

Don’t tread on me?

Posted on March 1, 2017 by Patti_is_knittinginflashes

Finally finished last week! And I L.O.V.E. it!

The zigzags remind me of tire treads so I decided to name my purse “Don’t Tread on Me.”

The treads felted flat into the knitted body but are slightly visible in the lower section in certain lighting. Perhaps less felting would have retained the raised texture.