Wrapping things up

I started a project in February 2013.  I finished it in May.  Now I'm blogging the FO in June.

It was going to be Sonnenblume, which has a beautiful lace motif.   I got it to the part where the lace was ready to start and left it there for like 2 years, waiting for a time when I'd be ready to decipher the chart and just do it.



I got to a point this spring where I was between projects so I picked it up and looked at the chart again.  It has patterning on both sides.  The work, where I left off, had more stitches than I can really count.  OK, technically I can count that high, but I almost never do. So, anyways, I wasn't even sure if the thing was at the exactly right number of stitches for the pattern.

So I did what any sane person would do.  I improvised.

First, I kept knitting with the 4 increases for a while.  Until I couldn't stand it anymore.

Then I swatched a couple of simple lace patterns and looked through Ravelry for something pretty and uber-simple.  I found Eyelet Lace Shawlette and Black Death and maybe a few others.

The initial pattern for the increases is this:
Row 1:  K1 YO K to 1 before center.  YO K1 YO K to 1 before end YO K1.

Row 2:  K1 P to 1 before edge K1  (the edges might have been purled.  Not sure.)


I decided to do:

Row 1:  K1 YO *K5 YO* [repeat til 1 before center, fudging as necessary with remainders] YO K1 YO *K5 YO* YO K1
Row 2:  K1 P to 1 before edge K1.

When I got to a good number of repeats and the rows were getting really long, I used a picot bind off.   The bind off was super tedious.  So I took breaks more than I should have - and it turned into a big mess and I broke the yarn when I was trying to figure out what was going on with it.

Basically, the whole project was fraught with mis-steps and issues all along the way.  But, it is pretty and soft and will be a nice thing to have.  

knitting in India

I had to go to India for work again.  This time, I didn't bring any metal needles with me - I learned my security lesson from the last trip.  Also, I wanted the balance of easy/memorizable and interesting and using stash yarn.  I felt ready for the trip when I found "Neato"  by JumperCablesKnitting.

The stash yarn was Plymouth Boku - a wool/silk blend with long color changes (similarish to Noro, but without flashes of hot pink or chartreuse).

Of course, I was going with my usual mode of not using the recommended yarn, needles, gauge, etc.   I ended up seriously winging it (ending in the middle of a repeat when yarn was running short) and making goofy counting mistakes (after several days of jetlag, apparently counting to three is much more difficult).

The pattern was fun, forgiving, and made something nice.  I gave it  to a co-worker in India and am making another one out of two more skeins of the yarn (but in gray).  

Christmas sock yarn

For Christmas this year, my sister got me two skeins of sock yarn (Berrocco Sox).  They're both really pretty.  I got the first sock of the first skein done.

Lots of short attention span issues with the knitting lately.

 Soon: I finished a sweater for El and started a new project for my India trip.