christmas knits, finit

Tis the season of shopping and merriment and gift-giving to keep the winter dark at bay. And thus, there was hand knitting.

Icarus

Icarus was actually finished Wednesday December 6. There was only about 4 yards left by the time I was done.




I blocked the hell out of this thing to bring out the edge pattern.

No modeling shot, since I was in a hurry to get my gifts packed and in the mail before leaving for a business trip last Sunday.


Maybe Ivanova would be willing to get a photo of Mom wearing it? I'd be ever so grateful.

Pattern

Icarus shawl by Miriam Felton, originally published in Interweave Knits, Summer 2006.

Yarn

Two skeins KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud on US 3 (3.25 mm) needles.

Mods

None, however I did follow the updated directions for the final chart and edging provided by the designer.

Trellis scarf

I finished the Trellis scarf while traveling last week. Since 3 out of 4 of my flights were late (stupid winter weather!), I was glad to have knitting.

Lace in Gloss blocks nicely. Sorry about the horrible colour contrast, the red beach towel was the only big towel available.


Here I am wearing the scarf.

I really like the way this turned out, especially with the fingering weight yarn. For the record, the 7 into 5 cluster between the trellis framing the diamonds is easy to do if you follow the designer's instructions to knit the stitches from the previous row more loosely than usual.

Gloss was pretty nice to work with (I have enough left to swatch at a gauge appropriate for socks, so you might be seeing this yarn again), except for the colour rubbing off on my needles. Since I was using my Denise needles, a little rubbing alcohol took most of the stain off. There was only a little bleeding when I washed the scarf, so I don't think it's going to be a problem.


Like all merino wool containing yarns, Gloss will fuzz with handling and wear but it's not very noticeable (so far). For socks, I'll probably have to get some reinforcement thread.

Pattern

Trellis scarf by Evelyn Clark, from Interweave Knits, Spring 2006.

Yarn

Two skeins KnitPicks Gloss on US 7 (4.5 mm) needles.

Mods

I used fingering weight yarn instead of the lace weight yarn called for in the pattern. Finished dimensions were approximately 65 x 11 in(165 x 28 cm).

Almost there

Now that I'm done the lacy ribs part I think Icarus has reached the knitting rate limiting steps. It seems like each row takes forever to finish now that there are more than 450 stitches on the needles.

I was able to make some progress over Thanksgiving (yay 4 day weekends!) while we camped in southern Utah near St. George.


As of last night, I'm at the end of the third chart with about 28 rows left:

Fall knitting

Happy blog-versary everyone (a bit late, I know)! I've been busy preparing demo material for this. We also went on vacation at the end of September and saw some amazing sights.



While driving around BC and Washington state, I took the opportunity to start gift knitting for the Moms. The photo has other WIPs that may look familiar. Click on the photo for annotations (I've been playing around with the Gimp for Windows).



The Trellis scarf is being knit in KnitPicks Gloss Woodland Sage (for the Mom who prefers heavier-than-laceweight gifts): I've used an entire skein of Gloss so far. The pattern calls for Alpaca Cloud, but I think it looks great in fingering weight yarn. I haven't tried washing Gloss yet, I'll post comments on how well the scarf blocks when it's done.

Icarus is being knit in KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud Tide Pool. The first part of the shawl with all that stockinette makes for a great roadtrip project.

The hat is my backpacking project since 50g + 1 needle isn't much to take in my pack. I've been motivated to work on it more since it got cold last week.