Snuggly soft

The above, a Pinwheel Baby Blanket made from Berroco Plush Colors, is currently on hold until my two extra 21" Boye Needlemaster cords arrive. It's presently on two of the shorter cords and it barely fits, so I must wait to finish it. Hopefully they will get here soon because this blanket is so soft and squishy and snuggly that I want to work on it every chance I get.

The yarn for it was just some of the 42 skeins/balls my sister bought at a LYS closing sale on Long Island, and it's the first of those yarns that I've started to use for the future nephew. There are 6 balls of this yarn total, and I am currently working on #5. I think the blanket will end up somewhere around 34-36" in diameter based on my rough calculations. I am tempted to try to find one ball of this in the solid pale blue to use for a border to make it a bit bigger and a bit more masculine, but I don't know if any local stores carry it. Might have to look into it though, I think it would give it a nice touch.

Rogue progress... the photographic version!

Taken this morning, just after completing the first of five hood increase sections. And because I know I mentioned the use of different yarn for the hem, but never posted a photo of it...



And before I forget, to expand on the mention of my gauge changing in actual knitting, the stitch gauge is still spot on, the row gauge grew a bit, from 6 rows/inch to 5.75 rows/inch (see, not much, but enough when you consider inches and inches of knitting). If I were to change needle sizes, my stitch gauge would change, which would be a bad, bad thing. So I will instead futz with the pattern a little, because I haven't already modified it any. ;)

More Rogue progress/new camera

It seems a post with a mention of a new camera in it's title would have photos from said new camera. Alas, it's been dreary and raining here for the last three days and so photographic evidence of said new camera shall wait.

With the dreary rain and much cooler weather (which is already changing and the next few days will be back to their summery normal temperatures), I've managed to get a lot of Rogue done. A lot. Finished chart A last week, finished the back and a good portion of the front yesterday, and finished the front a few minutes ago. Next on the agenda - the hood. Once the hood is done, I will be working both sleeves at the same time to keep them nice and even.

I do have a minor problem with my Rogue - my gauge swatch was dead on for both circular and flat knitting (size US8 for the circular part, and a US8 and US7 combo for the flat because I purl looser than I knit), but apparently that changed a bit in actual sweater knitting, so the flat part is a bit longer than it should be, but not much thanks to some minor adjustments and removal of a few rows on both the back and the front. I will figure out something for the sleeves, because while I like longer sleeves, I fear that if I don't adjust the pattern slightly, they will be far, far too long due to the gauge shift.

Hopefully I will have photos of the progress soon. I do love my new camera and want to use it every chance I get. It's a Nikon D40x, because I couldn't justify the additional $200+ for the D80 when they are almost identical. Well, that, and the D40x fits better in my hands.

Rowan Kidsilk Haze beaded scarf!

This is a repost from a different blog, the original post date was July 7, 2006.

It's done! I've bitched and whined about it for the last what... two? three? weeks, I wanted to kill this yarn several times in the beginning as well, but it's done and only a wee bit of the ball remains (and will remain for ages because I refuse to touch it again for a very, very long time).

Anyway...







Rowan Kidsilk Haze (duh), color is Liqueur (god could I use some right now too), beads are a variety of sizes, from 11/0 silver lined ruby colored seed beads to assorted colors/finishes of 8/0 seed beeds (my favorites were the black lined, followed by the pearlescent, though all were ruby/red base) and a handful of approx. 5mm long red glass beads and one little red glass heart bead (these last ones I dug out of a huge container of assorted glass beads I've had for years).

Pattern - CO 30 stitches on US 10's. K 3 rows, then repeat the following until you are sick of the damned thing:

row 1 - K2, *YO, K2TOG* (repeat between * until 2 stitched remain) K2
rows 2 & 3 - K all

Mind you, there are also the beads - I put between 3-4 on each of the row 1 repeats, spaced randomly on the YO's.

When it was long enough for my liking (which happened to be 80 pattern repeats), I did one more knit row, then my bind off. Blocking could have been better, even with the string blocking I still had to pin (using roughly 80-100 pins)... would have taken more had I not used the string, but still my fingers hate me now.

I am glad it's done, I am happy with the end result, but getting there was a royal pain in the ass.

Hogwarts Sock Swap - Design Contest!

I almost don't want to post this because my pal will know at least part of her gift, but I can't refuse a chance to score points for my Slytherin classmates. I have never written a sock pattern before, so it's rudimentary, and it assumes that you know how to knit a toe-up sock, if you need assistance with the toes or heels I suggest checking out the Universal toe-up sock formula on Knitty.



Dobby Style House SockMark

Materials:

fingering weight in your choice of two colors (Elann Peruvian Baby Silk in Cornflower and Mocha Cream pictured)
set of 5 size 0 DPNs (or one circular for magic loop or two circulars)

Gauge doesn't matter too much since it's not going on a foot, but mine is 11 stitches and 14 rows in a one inch square.

Finished size is just over 1" wide on the leg portion and 13.25" long from toe to toe.

There was an error in the second toe's decrease rounds, the correction is in bright red. Whoops!

Directions:

My preferred toe-up sock method may vary from what you use, so the first part can be changed to suit your needs.

Provisionally cast on (I use a long-tail provisional cast on, you can use a crochet chain if desired) 6 stitches with color 1 onto one of your DPNs. Since the provisional long tail creates your first knit row, purl the next row, then knit the following row. Pick up the stitches from the cast on edge onto another DPN (making sure you have 6 stitches on each needle), removing waste yarn, and continue to knit around the picked-up stitches. You can continue to work with your stitches on only 2 DPNs if desired, or you can divide them onto 4 DPNS. I divided mine after completing the toe.

Next round, K1, M1L, knit 4, M1R, K2, M1L, knit 4, M1R, K1
K one round
Repeat above two rounds, knitting 6, then 8 stitches in place of the knit 4, for a total of 24 stitches.

Switch to color 2 and knit 20 rounds.
Switch to color 1 and add your heel - mine is a short row one, with 3 wraps per side.
Switch to color 2 and knit 30 rounds.
Switch to color 1 and knit one round.
Switch to color 2 and knit 11 rounds.
Switch to color 1 and knit 2 rounds.
Switch to color 2 and knit 9 rounds.
Switch to color 1 and knit 3 rounds.
Switch to color 2 and knit 7 rounds.
Switch to color 1 and knit 4 rounds.
Switch to color 2 and knit 5 rounds.
Here is your center point, now the rounds reverse.
Switch to color 1 and knit 5 rounds.
Switch to color 2 and knit 4 rounds.
Switch to color 1 and knit 7 rounds.
Switch to color 2 and knit 3 rounds.
Switch to color 1 and knit 9 rounds.
Switch to color 2 and knit 2 rounds.
Switch to color 1 and knit 11 rounds.
Switch to color 2 and knit one round.
Switch to color 1 and knit 30 rounds.
Switch to color 2 and add another heel, making sure it's on the same side as the first.
Switch to color 1 and knit 20 rounds.

Switch to color two and work your second toe:

K one round
Next round, SSK, knit 8, k2tog, SSK, knit 8, k2tog
Repeat above two rounds, knitting 6, then 4 stitches in place of the knit 8, and kitchener your remaining toe stitches closed.



As with all patterns, this is for personal use only. Please respect my creative copywright, ok?

Rogue progress...

Currently at the beginning of the third ball of yarn, ball #2 covered all of the main narrow cable repeats (5 in my case since I am making the 48" size), and the increases for the top part of chart A are started.

Also been working on the log cabin, which needs more blue and less pink. I've not officially been told yet by my sister, but my mom was never able to keep secrets, and already I am planning other boy knits for the future nephew. I don't intend to start over in order to omit the pink, but I will be trying to downplay it a bit. Regardless, the blanket is soft and squishy and getting too big for 14" straights and my Boye Needlemaster points of the (supposed) same size as the Susan Bates straights are bigger than the straights by a rather good amount, so I think I will see if JoAnn's has a SB circular in a US6 that is the same size as the straights so I don't screw up the gauge when I switch over.