Yes, it’s that time of year. Tomorrow the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival kicks off. It’s a really wonderful, old-fashioned kind of event with lots of fiber, sheep, sheep dogs, food (including lots of lamb which always makes me feel a bit uneasy for the live sheep roaming around but maybe that’s just me), demonstrations, etc. This is one of the largest fiber festivals in the country, drawing knitters and spinners from all over the mid-Atlantic area. There is no charge for parking or for admission and the weather is supposed to be beautiful tomorrow. If you are near the area, you might want to check out the schedule of events and other information at this link.
Because the yarn store I used to work at is no longer open as a physical store, this would be the first time I’d get to go on opening day. Sadly, I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make it — if I do, it will be a pretty quick fly by. It’s my daughter’s 21st birthday tomorrow, my son’s first prom, a Clay Aiken ticket sale — so many important events crammed into one day.
Oh, who am I kidding? I know I’ll figure out some way to be there for a couple of hours. Note to self: take no $. Do not buy more yarn. Do not buy more yarn. Do not buy more yarn.
FINALLY!! And completely worth the wait. The color is stunning and perfect for the Peacock Shawl — the picture does not do it justice. I start tonight, mes amies!
I am loving this yarn, the color and the knitting. I have 40 rows done — which sounds impressive, doesn’t it? It’s about 4 square inches!Â
PS:
I have not had the bleeding problem yet — bummed to hear about it :(. Is there a way to set the color when you block it, like by adding some vinegar?? Any ideas/experience with this?
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I am wearing the Vittadini Top today underneath a pale green linen shirt. It is quite acceptable! I may need to do more summer knitting — a cotton cardigan or something. It is always air conditioned and it’s nice to wear knitting other than in the dead o’winter.
I really like Japanese short rows!! Like most knitters, I have never been fond of short rows. I think they cause a tear in the space-time continuum that I like to think of as my lovely knitted fabric. However, Japanese short rows do no such thing, when executed correctly. They create a fabric with short row shaping and minimal short row ick (technical term!).Â
We have posted this link before but it bears repeating: Nona Knits Japanese Short Rows. Use it! Good knitters do not let other good knitters do bad short rows ;).
Anyway, jump ahead a couple of days and the top is finshed:
The color in the top picture is much truer — why is it so hard to get good pictures? Why does it look so BEIGE in these pictures?Â
I am not thrilled with the top — it looks like you could buy it in a store for much less money and effort. No one will think it’s silk, and I think the color should be prettier. However, I do recommend the pattern if you are looking for a nice summer top. It calls for 20 sts/4″ gauge which is very common, the pattern can be sized to any figure, and it is easy to do.Â
Those of you who have been paying attention will notice the absence of bobbles (Mary M. will not be surprised!). Yes, I have an active aversion to bobbles. I had already decided to forego the bobbles on the back — I thought they would cause bumps that looked like tumors growing on my back in perfect alignment. I got to the front and actually knitted the bobbles on the first section, but thought they were way too much effort for the result, so I did a bobblectomy. I substituted some textured knitting instead. Again, another reason to like this pattern for its adaptability.
The timing of this FO is great because I got an email today stating that my PEACOCK YARN IS IN THE MAIL AND WILL ARRIVE TOMORROW OR THE NEXT DAY. Do you realize what this means!!?? I am mere hours away from starting the project of my [recent] dreams: many hours of aggravation and love to make a shawl I will never wear. Heaven.
Bless me Father, for…….
Okay, I’m not Catholic, but I have a confession. I have never knit a lace shawl before — not in laceweight anyway. The Peacock Feathers Shawl will be my first foray into the mysterious and scary world of actual laceweight lace knitting! Whew. I feel better clearing my conscience. I did not realize it was my first until I started swatching some lace in preparation for the Peacock’s arrival. It felt unfamiliar. I racked my brains for a memory of knitting a lace shawl. Lots of examples in DK+ came to mind, as well as some failed attempts at laceweight. But no shawl. Ever.Â
So, this should be fun!
I am also slowly knitting along on the Mitered Tote — which is PERFECT mindless take-along knitting. I will be totally content: work on lace at home and tote on the road. My world is in order.
Peggy, one of our readers, has posted this in the comments:
“I’m attempting to finish a Debbie bliss pattern from Junior Knits. It’s the Molly bolero. It needs to be finished by Friday (I’m in big trouble). I can’t get the front edging to come out right, I’ve tried everything, the instructions don’t make sense to me. Has anyone had experience with this pattern. My grandaughter has to wear it on Saturday morning and right now it looks like I should have made her a shawl (or bought one). Thanks for any help. Peggy.”
Ack!
I did a google search and found a photograph at this link.
Can you be a bit more specific about what it is that’s not working? Can you describe what’s going wrong? Does everything else about the bolero seem to work? If you can provide a bit more information, one of us (or one of our other readers) might be able to help. (Note that the person who knitted the one in the photo I linked to did the side seams first so that she could do the ribbing in the round. Would that help you? If nothing else, maybe you can contact that knitter through her blog.)
P.S. I’ve been emailing back and forth with Peggy, as was Susan. We think we’ve figured out the problem she was having with the directions. Thanks to everyone who tried to help.
I won’t steal Susan’s clever “skirt lifting” title, but Lisa asked me to show the inside of Widdicombe Fair. She was also wondering about some of the floats, which she thought looked as if they could be quite long. As a quick refresher, here is what the blanket looks like. (I’ve now finished the third out of five horse repeats.)
Some of the floats are quite long for fair isle. I think the longest is 17 stitches, but there are numerous others in the 10-13 range. My rule of thumb is to do nothing for any float up to 8 stitches. Eight is my cut off. At that point, I will “catch” the other color at some convenient point. For example, if I have a 9-stitch float, I will:
1. Try to convince myself that I should stretch my 8-stitch rule to include 9. I’m never successful.
2. Knit 4 or 5 stitches, catch the unused color, knit the remaining stitches.
What I try to be careful of is where I catch it. I don’t want to “stack up” those catch points on top of one another. So, if in the row below I also had a long float, I try to make sure I catch the next float one or two stitches apart from the first. I also don’t want that caught color to ever peek through, so I try to not catch it right above a color change. I’m probably thinking too much, but that is my nature.
If I have a really long float — such as the 17-stitch one in this blanket — I’ll catch the unused color twice.
Here is the inside of the blanket:
Someone asked about wedding shawls. I’ve been thinking a lot about that question, but I don’t have a great answer. I think it so depends upon what level of difficulty you would want to tackle and what shape shawl you want. For example, the Forest Path Stole that was published in Interweave Knits would make a beautiful wedding shawl if you wanted a rectangle. Heritage Knitting and Fiddlesticks both have some lovely patterns — but there are so many shawl patterns out there. I’m no expert.
What does everyone else think?
Here is the reverse side of the Mitered Tote by request:
I am a bit of a maverick. I do not slip the first sts to make a selvedge to make the pick up easier (I think it makes the edge too loose).  I pick up into the nub at the end of each garter ridge. The fourth square was picked up along the vertical line you see on the lower left. The 4th square is seamed to the first. You could obviously join them as you go but I decided to just follow the directions. Aren’t I being a good little knitter by following the directions ;)?
I have been so torn of late between my knitting projects!  I am trying to be true to my knitting, but it is so hard!Â
Here is my Mitered Felted Tote in progress — I’m rounding the bend:
There is a LOT of knitting to this bag! It takes 6 skeins of yarn (I bought 7 because I added the lighter color). It will take quite a while to get this baby done.
I also finished finishing the baby sweater for my friend:
Other than the sewing in of the sleeves, the major work involved knitting the top part from the green up, including the neckband. That was where the pattern got screwy. They did not have the neck centered on the pattern, so I had to make adjustments.Â
They never show a good picture of how the shoulders are put together so here is a shoulder shot:
The left shoulder is faced and just comes together on the fold line. The right shoulder is finished in the traditional Dale way. I did the neckband a little different: knitting the first row (from the WS so it looks like a purl row) to separate it from the blue stripe on the body and then I did a picot turning row (k1, *YO, k2tog*).Â
Here’s a close up of the button hole loops. Aren’t the lady bug buttons perfect??
Anyway, that’s done!
I have also been working a bit on the silk top — now I’m at 11-12 inches. 15″ gets you to the armhole shaping.Â
On a non-knitting note: Did anyone watch American Idol last night? I have not been following it at all this year but wanted to see Josh Groban. Did any of you see it when Celine Dionne sang with Elvis? It was unbelieveable! It really looked like he was there! I’m not a huge Elvis fan, but I found it thrilling to see him singing like he was alive and young and so talented. Wow, what a show. It was unnerving to see Simon so human, too!
PS from Susan — a couple of you asked about the buttonhole loops. I do use a tapestry needle and buttonhole stitch. I sew on the button first and then wrap the yarn around the button to determine the correct length. I used 3 strands of yarn for the base. I count the number of buttonhole sts I do so they are all the same length. I anchor each end of the loop so that they don’t pull too much when buttoned.
This is a close up of the BH loop I did on my Sunrise Circle:
The difference is that I made a square st by doing the BH sts in 2 parts: the first half is done as above and the second half is done in the opposite direction.
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I’m a procastinator by nature, so it’s gratifying to be this far along on a baby blanket when said baby is not due to appear until sometime in July. I’m not going to have much time to knit for the next few weeks, so I plan to focus on this blanket and therefore not feel panicked and behind when I suddenly realize it’s the end of June. I’ve finished two full pattern repeats (out of five) and have just started on the third.
Here are two photos of the work so far. (Am I the only knitter who doesn’t like to let others see unblocked fair isle?) The first photo is of the side with the steek. I alternate my steek colors in a “speckled” way; I know some knitters alternate them as stripes.
Here’s the non-steek side, which shows a bit more of the pattern.
I don’t repeat myself as a knitter that often, especially with something like fair isle. It is interesting (at least to me) how quickly my brain and fingers remembered this pattern, even though it’s been several years since I knit it. It makes the knitting go fairly quickly; I’m hoping I don’t get bored even more quickly than usual.
I’m knitting this on a 24″ circular needle — a 32″ would definitely be too long. I decided to use my 3.25 mm Addi Lace needles out of curiosity. They work very well; I was afraid the yarn would feel too sticky on the tips but it doesn’t seem to.
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