Well folks, I frogged the wrap! Yup, the WHOLE WRAP! I gave up on re-doing the sleeve, I decided I didn’t like the way the yarn looked with the pattern. Not that Calmer isn’t a great yarn, and not that it wasn’t a great pattern, but I made the mistake of combining a very structured yarn with a flowy pattern. When I put the wrap on, instead of falling down my shoulders the sleeves stuck straight out. I looked like the flying nun! NOT COOL.
So istead I picked a different pattern out of the same book, this time I used the right yarn! I made it on the knitting machine (to make up for all that lost time knitting the wrap) and it’s currently pictured on Shiela on the main page of the website. I’m mostly happy with it, though I think the sleeves chould have been shaped better - but that was the pattern, not me.
Now I’ve got 3 projects going. One on the machin, one by hand, and a pair of socks. I think its always good to have a pair of socks and a bigger project on the needles at the same time. That way when you get bored with one you can switch to the other. Socks are great because they fit in my purse fairly easily! The bigger project sits in the basket next to my couch.
My current machine knitting project is out of Rowan Magazine 43 and I’m doing it out of a hand-dyed bamboo, dyed a couple towns away from my dad’s house in CT! Yes, that’s one of my kitties in the picture.
My latest socks are coming along much faster than I thought they would. They are done out of a hand-dye bamboo blend I got in Richland, WA when I was visiting my mom last Christmas. The pattern is a common falling leaves lace design and I’m using Cat Bordhi’s Riverbed Architecture.
The third project is a tank top I’m designing. It will be ribbed with a pretty knot cable in the front across the boob area (when you don’t have any you’ll take all the attention you can get!). I’m only about 5 inches into it and there isn’t much to see, I’ll post a picture when it get’s a little more interesting!
Pictured below is a little wrap I’m working on, made out of Rowan Calmer. I love the yarn, I love the pattern, but there’s something VERY wrong with how it’s turning out. I am going to have to frog part of it and re-do it, however I am MORE than tired of working on it. I am READY TO BE DONE, but I can’t because I have to fix my mistake. Can you see it?
What if I did this?
AAARRRRGGGGHHHH! Can you guess why this happened? Well I’ll tell you exactly why this happened. I had been using a size 6 circular for the whole project, until I got to that sleeve cuff on the left side, my last cuff. It was a little unruly knitting the skinny bands on the circs, so I switched to some size 6 dpns (the ones Julia got for, like, $0.50 at an estate sale). Well, unbeknown to me, those size 6 dpns were EVER SO SLIGHTLY larger than the size 6 cirs.
But it’s the little things that can make a big difference, and so that extra fraction of a millimeter was enough to throw the gauge off on the second cuff and make it come out 1 inch taller from top to bottom (2 inches all around)! I should have known, I should have double checked, now I have to re-do the cuff. I know, it’s really not a big deal and not very much knitting, but did I mention that when I started the first cuff I ripped it out and started over 6 times before it looked the way I wanted it to look? I just want to be done so I can wear it already!
So you see… you aren’t the only one that makes mistakes. Even the “pros” make boo-boos, though I have to laugh when someone calls me a pro. If they only knew how often I botched things up! This is merely one example. I know it’s not the shrugs fault, but I’m still mad at it. For now it will sit in the basket until my blood stops boiling at the sight of it.
Well folks, its about that time again… time for more pictures of yarn! Some of you may remember I had an informal survey in my shop about some yarn swatches I had knitted. The winner was Panda Silk, a bamboo, silk, merino sock yarn that is super soft and silky. Luxury for your feet!
In addition to the Panda Silk, we have Panda Cotton - back by popular demand. This is a wool-free blend of bamboo, cotton, and elastic and it comes in several fun colors!
Last, but certainly not least, I managed to get my hands on some Kureyon Sock yarn! I have 2 balls of 9 different colorways. It is the same wool as the standard Kureyon, so it is not machine washable, but the colors are just as amazing!
