Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Can you believe September is over?

Despite some of the fantastic weather we’ve been having, my Fall knitting is underway.

I’m finally making the Williamsro Sweater.  Meh..










I’ve also made Lester. Isn’t he cute? Bonnie and I worked this pattern together. He was soooo much fun. Thanks Bonnie for such a great project!












Master's Progress....

Most of the swatches are....done!

The fiber report is..done. What a fascinating subject. I wasn’t really looking forward to this report but, I  learned a tremendous amount about the stuff yarn is made of.

The hat...I made a major revelation while working this exercise: I can’t cable in the round!! The problem is the purl stitches immediately to left of the cables are distorted. Normally I work the purl stitch following the cable by wrapping the yarn clockwise or in reverse, on the following row I untwist the purl (which is now a knit) and work the first stitch of the cable (which is now a purl) in the same way. But in the round the two stitches are always worked in the same order, so for me this solution doesn’t work.

The first hat was the worst. This is an old picture. The hat is actually done but has mysteriously disappeared. I suspect Mr Zip stole it for his submission.















My first attempt to solve the problem was to change yarns and switch the direction of the cables where possible. It helped some. 










So now on to hat #3.

My stranded sweater: I’ve split for the armholes and put the sweater on hold for awhile.
I’ll pick it up after the Williamsro is done.











Mr Zip has completed his sweater and one for his sister.












How did a cat get ahead of me?


Some questions from classes that I’d like to share:


There were some questions about using the decreases SSK (or SKP) and Ktog:

Decrease stitches slant either left or right. Knitting the decrease to slant in the direction of the fabric slopes, blends the decrease; while knitting the decrease to slant in the opposite direction of the fabric slope will cause it to be seen (full fashioned). Try not to decrease in the first or last stitch on a row. Generally it works this way:

Blended: Make a left slanting decrease on the right side of the fabric and a right slanting decrease on the left side of the fabric.
Full fashioned: Make a right slanting decrease on the right side of the fabric and a left slanting decrease on the left side of the fabric.

As with increases it is assumed you will know how to execute common decreases and for the more unusual decreases the pattern will state how to make the decrease. Here are 3 common decreases:

Knit 2 together: K2tog— right slanting—knit 2 stitches together.
Slip 1, knit 1, pass slip stitch over: SKP/SKPSSO—left slanting—slip the next stitch knitwise, knit the second stitch, pass the first (slipped) stitch over the knitted stitch.
Slip, slip, knit: SSK—left slanting—slip 1 stitch knitwise, slip the next stitch knitwise, place the left needle through the fronts of the two slipped stitches and knit through the back loop.

And also a questions about slipping stitches:

How do you know whether to slip a stitch knitwise or purlwise?

The general answer is always slip your stitch purlwise unless the pattern tells you to slip knitwise. The exception to this is when you’re making a left leaning decrease. (slip, slip, knit—ssk, or slip knit pass slip stitch over—skp). For these decreases, slip your stitch knitwise. Slipping your stitch knitwise will twist the stitch which you don’t want when moving stitches and do want when leaning a decrease.


Here are some examples of zig zaggy ribbing. This is a very tricky and advanced technique:
















In answer to the insinuation that I lack a life my answer is this:

Stay tuned we'll see who has and doesn't have a life.


And to conclude............Rocchina smiling:


Thursday, September 11, 2008

Upcoming classes

I've had some requests from students to learn a couple of new techniques.
Next Wed. in both the am and pm classes, we'll learn the tubular cast on.

If you want to try it out, bring  some worsted weight yarn in two colors, Size 6,7,8 or 9 needles (7 or 8 is best), and a crochet hook.
There are several ways to work this cast on and we can explore a couple of them.

GAAA squarers: Keep up the good work on your Ann Strong square.
Remember:
Seed stitch: knit your purls and purl your knits
Reverse stockinette: purl the RS knit the WS
Twisted stitch: Knit through the back loop on the RS and Purl through the back loop on the WS( video here scroll down to k tbl or p tbl)










See you all next week!

Monday, September 1, 2008

Final Days of Summer

July found me at this famous local landmark:





































































I managed to get a lot of level 3 done sitting on the back porch. Level 3 counts as a vacation?

A few of us managed the Cropped Lacy Cardi












The GAAA group worked on the Belenger Square.












I’ve got 6 squares done for the GAAA.

I’ve finished 15 of the 18 swatches for level 3, although I may redo a couple.

I made the proto type for my Level 3 aran hat. And started the actual hat. I’m going with Adrienne Vittadini Lisa, color 1678: 50% wool, 18% Mohair, 18% Alpaca, 14% Polyamide

And I’ve got about 10” on my Level 3 Scandanavian style sweater.

The fiber report is written. Report on 6 knitting fibers.
9 of the 12 questions are answered.

I’ve bought some interesting yarns to stash:
2 skeins of Navajo Churro handspun and dyed
2 skeins of handspun Shetland and Mohair from Feederbrook Farm
1 skein Rio de la Plata multicolored fingering yarn
2 skeins hand spun llama
2 skeins hand dyed wool/angora