Knit Sighting

For this week's Fiber Arts Friday, I'm going to feature some knit sightings of late. To see lots of other interesting fiber arts, be sure to visit Andrea's blog Wisdom Begins in Wonder.

Saw some very neat yarn bombing in downtown San Jose during the long weekend. These were put up during International yarn bombing day on June 14.

On July 4th we went to Marin County Fair where fiber arts were on display with their winnings. This is only a partial sampling of what was there, we have some truly talented people in the area!

Last but not least, a knitter's cake!

Oslo Walk Shawl Finale

Project: Oslo Walk Shawl

Pattern:  Oslo Walk Shawl by Susanna IC, Interweave Knits Winter 2010
Yarn: The Periwinkle Sheep watercolors sock yarn, 75% merino, 25% nylon, 420 yards. I used just about the entire skein.
Needles: US Size 6

Previous entries: planning, lifeline, home stretch

Cast on: May 29, 2011

Cast off: June 25, 2011

Notes: I really enjoyed working with this yarn and pattern. The yarn is so soft, and Karin has a huge range of colors to choose from. She will be at Sock Summit, and her etsy store is always there. Susanna has a few other very pretty small shawls and they will work very well for my other hand dyed sock yarns too.

Oslo Walk Shawl Home Stretch

Only a few short rows away from casting off! This picture shows the center panel of the shawl, the widest part, the short row makes a lovely crescent shape. This shawl has been a quick knit, and I will miss the buttery yarn and easy pattern when I'm done.

On the cheap knitting front, couple of weeks ago we went to Michael's to buy a frame and there was a huge yarn clearance (you know where this is going). I scored eight balls of Paton's Classic Wool, $2.99 each, all same dye lot. That's enough for a sweater for me. Made my day!

Don't forget to visit Andrea's blog where Fiber Arts Friday party is going, lots of cool people and cool projects there.

Lifeline

I have knitted quite a few lace projects in my knitting life, include big shawls like Irish Diamond Shawl and Muir (do click on the links, the shawls are lovely). Luckily, I never messed up too much to use a lifeline. If you are not familiar with it, lifeline is a contrasting thread that you insert in a row, generally below where you want to rip back, so you don't end up dropping massive number of stitches. It's usually used in lace knitting because all the yarn overs and knit togethers make it very hard to pick up the right number of stitches. Some people insert lifeline at regular intervals, I'm much too lazy/dense/ignorant for that.

So guess what I had to do this week? Lifeline threaded through 369 stitches, rip back five rows, pick up 369 stitches (plus or minus a few), add some yarn overs to make the stitch count right, re-insert all the stitch markers. This is an "after" picture, doesn't look too bad, does it? I have only two or three lace rows left, then short row decreases. Easy :-)

New Project: Oslo Walk Shawl

Pattern: Oslo Walk Shawl by Susanna IC, Interweave Knits Winter 2010

Yarn: The Periwinkle Sheep watercolors sock yarn, 75% merino, 25% nylon

Yardage: 420 yards

Color: Avocado (light green)

Needle: US Size 6

Cast on: May 29, 2010

Notes: I received this yarn from my friend Karin (of Periwinkle Sheep's fame) last year, and it really wanted to become a spring shawl. It took me some time to find the best pattern for it. This pattern has the right combination of delicate lace and short row shaping. It's a small shawl or a large scarf, but not a boring triangle or rectangle. So far I'm loving both the yarn and the pattern!

Be sure to visit Andrea's blog Wisdom Begins in Wonder, home of Fiber Art Friday. There is immense talent in the group, I'm surprise every week at what I see on the blogs!

Parker Cardigan Finale

Project: Parker Cardigan

Pattern: Parker Cardigan by Deborah Newton, IK Spring 2009 
Yarn: Garnstudio Drops Alpaca, sports weight, used 7 skeins
Needles: US Size 4

Previous entries: planning, progress1, progress2, progress3

Cast on: February 5, 2011

Cast off: May 28, 2011

Cost: About $52 including buttons

Notes: I wish the stitch patterns were charted. If you've been following the progress, it took me some time to figure out how the ribs in the top portion were stacked. I had to rip out top half of the back so the ribs look right. Lucky this is a very nice yarn and I really enjoy working with it.

Our Trinket left us this time last year. He was our first born and showed us we were good enough for a human child. We miss him very much.

Fibery Update

Last week I got my acts together and was going to do a FAF update, and the helpful Blogger went down before I loaded pictures. oh well. So this picture is a week old. Parker Cardigan is almost done! I'm onto the cap decrease on the second sleeve, then it's the (much dreaded) finishing. I love this yarn (Drops Alpaca), so I'm not complaining.

Remember my Yarn Bombing at Home project? Added couple more pieces on the wall. They look small because of the vast empty blank white walls. They are really good sized pieces, especially when you have to knit them stitch by stitch. 

And who can't use another cute Rascal pictures.

Parker Cardigan Full Body, Fiber Sightings

I ripped the top half of the back and reknitted it in the right stitch pattern. Now it's just the sleeves left. (If you look closely the back of the neck doesn't match the fronts, since I forgot to decrease every row -- darn those "at the same time" patterns! Will just have to do some nip and tuck while I knit the button band.)

Last week we went up to North Bay for a quick get away. When I travel with the guys I don't usually stop at yarn shops since they don't have a whole lot of patience for wool or alpaca or cashmere or plies or gauge. So I squeeze in whatever I can. This time I stopped at Balls and Skeins in Sebastopol and scored some discontinued Noro from their sale bin. Blogger is not cooperating with me with formats, whenever I move the pictures around, everything gets messed up. I loaded tons of pictures on Facebook, so you'd like to see them, just friend me there! This link should take you straight to my profile.

Last night in our knitting meeting, one of the ladies showed us a piece of fabric she bought at a garage sale. It turned out to be part of a Chinese skirt from the 19th century (Qing dynasty). Look at the embroidery details! I learned a little bit of embroidery when I was a little girl, no where near this complicated.

Update to add this link. #12 is the style of skirt we saw. It's called "hundred pleat skirt". In the old days gentle ladies supposed to walk slowly in their bound feet and the skirt was not to move with their steps. 

Fronts (Almost) Done, Rascal One Year Old!

Last week I pondered whether I should rip out the top half of the back since the stitch patter was wrong, and the consensus (from Kathryn and Beth, thank you!) was that I should rip. That's what I will do. In the mean time, the right front is done and the left front is getting smaller every night. Hopefully next week I will have better pictures to show off.

Far more impress than my knitting, my son Henry played his first concert with the school Jazz band on Wednesday night. He has been playing low brass only since the beginning of this school year, and joined the band only two months ago. You can't hear him in this video, but he's the little kid sitting in the middle of the stage with the biggest horn.



Last but not least, our Rascal puppy is turning one year old today! When the rescue people picked him up off the street they estimated him to be eight to ten weeks old, and the vet gave him this birthday. We are happy to stick with it. A birthday bash is planned.

To Rip, Or Not to Rip

Project: Parker Cardigan

Pattern: Parker Cardigan by Deborah Newton, IK Spring 2009 
Yarn: Garnstudio Drops Alpaca
Needles: US Size 4

Previous entries: planning, progress1, progress2

Notes: Three weeks ago I complained about not having charts for the stitch pattern, and not being able to visualize the ribs in the upper body. I finally figured it out from a larger picture in the front part of the magazine. I've since finished the right front, and the ribs are stacked correctly. In this picture it's on the left hand side of the diagonal line - the line is a shadow but it happened to line up perfectly with the front decrease. Now the back, the right hand side in the picture, looks terrible with the mis-stacked the ribs. I'm debating if I should rip the top half. This is the part will be covered under my hair most of the time, and I'll have to redo all the arm hole and neck decreases. But I know it's wrong and it's going to burn my back when I wear it. 

In the non-knitting news, we had record rain fall in March, after years of drought. A creek close to our home overflowed and washed out part of a walking trail. We need the water, but now it's too much water everywhere! No one is in danger, not because of this creek any way, but it'll be weeks before we get our trail back.

Yesterday it started to clear up. Sun is out, flowers are blooming. This little plant survived the winter, outdoors, what a trooper!

Be sure to visit Andrea's blog Wisdom Begins in Wonder, and better yet, join Fiber Arts Friday if you are not already part of the group. This is a wonderful group of women with endless talent.