Tuesday, January 31st, 2006...10:46 am
Knitting soap
So. There has been knitting in these here parts.
My wish to learn a new technique, and the need to keep my heard warm, met happily and prompted me to tackle knitting in the round using circular needles (I have only done circular knitting using dpns). I wanted a day-to-day beanie and, having found suitable yarn, set to it.
Knitting with circulars is great! You just keep going round and round (without worrying about poking yourself in the eye with an unruly dpn). I whizzed through the bulk of the hat and swapped over to dpns for the decreases (which is where I have got to in the pic below). Unfortunately, I have now encountered problems. I bought new dpns for the job, and they’re very heavy which is affecting my gauge, especially at the point where I switch between purl and knit stitches. So I keep ripping back and trying again. It seems to be going a little better now, but we will see.
I have also promised myself that in order to have some craftiness to bestow on friends and family come Christmas 2006, I had better start work now! So, I am going to try and alternate between non-Christmas and Christmas projects all year. The first thing for the Christmas basket is a simple ribbed scarf in Colinette Skye.
Regrettably, even my “simple” scarf is creating issues. Do you see the pink crosses and the blue zig-zag? Well they criss-cross and zig-zag their way up the whole of the scarf in a fetching manner. I am now fretting that skein no. 2 will not produce the same effect. I will try and start the skein off at the same point in the colour changes and see what happens. I guess I should have alternated every couple of rows between the skeins, but that requires fore-thought, and I am rubbish at that.
Will the hat be holey and amateurish?
Will the scarf end up looking a bit of a mess?
Tune in soon for the next episode and see how these cliff-hangers end!
6 Comments
January 31st, 2006 at 11:47 am
Wow…starting Christmas presents in January. Now that’s ambitious. I, meanwhile, am still finishing Christmas 2005 presents.
But you’ve inspired me. Maybe, once I finish last year’s Christmas gifts, I’ll start on this year’s.
Your scarf is gorgeous, BTW. You couldn’t have planned the perfect pooling if you’d tried! If your second skein is from the same lot — and you start at the right place — I don’t think you’ll have a problem continuing the pattern… Can’t wait to see how it turns out!
January 31st, 2006 at 12:17 pm
ooo those criss-crosses and zig-zaging is awfully fetching
I do hope the other half of the yarn does the same.
February 1st, 2006 at 2:31 am
Great idea to make a few Xmas present all through the year between other projects. You’ll avoid the mad rush and end of year stress. For the Colinette yarn, they do recommend indeed that you alternate different skeins throughout the knitting to avoid differences in colour dyes. That’s the theory, I know, but who really follow it ???
February 3rd, 2006 at 9:43 am
beeeautiful how the yarn is making that tartan effect on the scarf. good luck with skein 2.
April 10th, 2006 at 3:42 am
[...] (1) Clapotis (2) Mock-argyle Skye scarf (3) Butterfly braid lace scarf (4) Biased sari silk bag (5) Jaywalker sock (6) My so called scarf in Spunky Eclectic yarn [...]
April 23rd, 2006 at 3:27 pm
[...] My first inspiration for this project was a scarf of the same name over on Fig and Plum’s blog (get well soon Catty, BTW). At the time I was looking for a straightforward pattern to show off the lovely Colinette Skye yarn. The rib worked perfectly. I had a few issues, as the yarn pooled in a very symmetric argyle fashion (you can see a close up here) – a reminder to alternate skeins. I managed to start the second skein so that the arglye pooling continued in the second half. [...]