My current work in progress:

1. Cloisters Socks (my own design), knit from Alchemy Juniper in the "Tea Party" colorway, on 2mm needles.
2. Myriad stealth projects.

Project Scrubbie

Do y’all use a nylon net scrubbie? You know what I mean — one of these:

70gmpouf

Well, yesterday the center cord on mine came undone and I was left holding approximately 4 yards of wet nylon net. I smooshed it back together and tied the cord around it again, but it will never be quite the same again.

Then I remembered something. A few years ago, there was a pattern in Knitty for a bath puff called Bonbon. I bought the yarn called for, Gedifra Clou, and stuck it in my stash room, thinking I’d make a couple. Of course I never did.

Gedifra Clou is a 100% nylon tape yarn — considered super bulky. And now discontinued.

Yesterday I went into the depths of the stash room ISO my Gedifra Clou. and I actually found it in the space of minutes! I was going to knit a Bonbon, but decided, hey, just for fun, I think I’ll winkle something together myself. Why do things the easy way?

Here’s the result:

Scrubbie090209a

I started out with U.S. size 10 needles and woo doggies! Not big enough! I dug out a set of U.S. size 15 needles and cast on again.

By the way, doing a longtail cast on with super bulky nylon tape and size 15 needles is . . . weird.

Just for grins, I wrote up the pattern for this and you can get it (in pdf format) here. It’s also linked to from the free patterns page.

scrubbie090209

Yeah, the yarn is discontinued. But I did a yarn search in Ravelry for bulky and super bulky yarns in nylon and/or cotton and came up with a few alternatives, which are mentioned in the pattern. I also noticed that there are people on Ravelry who have Gedifra Clou that they are willing to destash.

And of course, I have more than one skein. You didn’t really think I had bought just one, did you?

Yarn090309

Want a skein of my Gedrifa Clou yarn? Leave a comment to this blog post by Sunday September 6 at noon Eastern Time, and I will have the random number generator draw four names to receive a skein each of my yarn.

Lucy Sez

Lucy090309

“That doesn’t look like a toy for me.”

New Stuff

My shetland stole is coming along nicely. See?

Stole090209

It is so much fun to knit. Well, I’m still on the first skein of yarn, so we’ll see how I feel about that when I’m on the 4th 400-yard skein. ;-)

Here is where this work-in-progress lives:

bag090209

It’s a custom bag from my buddy Michelle at Three Bags Full. Don’t you love the fabric?

I asked Michelle to do a small-ish tote bag for me specifically for my lace projects. I asked for this specific size (12 x 12″) and shorter handles. Most tote bags come with slightly longer handles, so that the bag can be carried on one shoulder. Well, I’ve stopped carrying any bags on my shoulder. (This came about a year ago when my right hand went numb, courtesy of some cervical disk problems. The neurologist ordered me to cease and desist using shoulder bags. Oh, and my primary doc, who I went to first, told me to stop knitting until they figured out what the problem was.)

Anyway, I wanted a bag with shorter handles so that it wouldn’t drag on the ground when I carried it in my hand. And this is perfect!

More new stuff . . .

Stitchmarkers090209

Stitchmarkers from my BFF Muriel. Aren’t they adorable?

As some of you know, Muriel is Tempted Yarns Stacy’s sister. And more of Muriel’s stitchmarkers are up for sale at the Tempted Yarns etsy shop. Just sayin’ . . .

So, tonight I am going to forgo knitting on the Shetland Stole to whip up a quick necessity. I’ll tell you how that went tomorrow. :-)

Lucy Sez

Lucy090209

“Surely a new toy for me is a necessity?”

Now Hear This

The Faro Easy Shawl pattern is now available for sale in my Ravelry shop, or from the link below, for $5.00 (delivered via pdf download):

Faroeasy083009

An easy Faroese-style shawl knit from the bottom up that takes 600 – 650 yards of dk/light worsted yarn.

Size:
Unblocked: 54” across the top edge (wingspan), 22” down the center back
Lightly Blocked: 72” across the top edge (wingspan), 26” down the center back

On To the Shawl at Hand

lace090109

Actually, I’m cheating. This is a photo from Sunday night. I’ve made a bit more progress since then.

The lace looks a bit dense, but when blocked will open up nicely. It may look complex but is pretty easy to execute — just yarnovers, k2tog, and “sl 1 k2tog psso.” The only tricky bit is that you are sometimes working a decrease into a yarnover from the previous row. If you don’t have pointy needles, it can be a bit tricky. But I am using my nicely pointy Addi Lace needles.

Needle090109

My other project:

SIP090109

A sock from Madeline Tosh sock yarn, in the Malachite colorway. This is my current commuter knitting. I’d have a bit more progress but this morning noticed something boneheaded I had done about 6 rounds down, so spent the morning commute dropping down and fixing it.

New Kitty!

Look at my new kitty!

SnowLeopard090109

I installed Snow Leopard on my iMac yesterday. Installation went without a hitch and took a little under an hour. It’s too early for me to comment on the changes this OS upgrade hath wrought, but everything seems to be working properly, so that’s a good thing. I have noticed that things are faster all-over

Lucy Sez

Lucy090109

“Huh. Some kitty.”

Mighty Shawls From Little Edgings Grow

Because I’m geeky that way, I looked up the origins of the phrase “mighty oaks from little acorns grow.” The earliest similar phrase I could find was from my old buddy Geoffrey Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde (late 1300s):

“as an ook cometh of a litel spyr”

Did I ever tell you I used to be able to read (and to a certain extent speak) Middle English? And no, it wasn’t during the Middle Ages, it was during graduate school. Which was almost as far back as the Middle Ages.

But I digress.

Behold the little edging:

Edging082909

This is the beginning of a shetland-style rectangular shawl. I am knitting it from Jojoland 2-ply cashmere, which is a laceweight with 400 yards per 50-gram skein.

Cashmere083109

I love rectangular shawls, but I hate knitting on the edging afterward. Miles and miles of mind-numbing edging — arrrgh!

So I’m employing a mitered-corner technique here.

You start by knitting the bottom left corner — do a provisional cast on and knit the corner using short rows. Then you knit across the bottom border in as many repeats as you need, and do another short row corner for the bottom right. Turn your work, work across those live stitches, pick up stitches along the straight edge of the border repeats you worked, then undo your provisional cast-on and work across those stitches, and Bob’s your uncle!

Here is the etymology of “Bob’s your uncle.”)

Now you are ready to work back and forth across the shawl, working the border along with the body of your shawl. When you get to the top, you do a similar maneuver — work a short row corner, work a border across the top of the body stitches, attaching the border as you work, then work the last corner.

Easy as pie!

Well, not easy as pie to figure out. At least not for me. It took me a bit of winkling to get the corners to work properly.

The shawl is worked in garter stitch and has lace patterning on both right and wrong sides, so that it is continually entertaining to knit. I’m using a US size 3 (3.25mm) needle, so it is a bit slow going. The unblocked gauge is 6 stitches and 8 rows to the inch.

How long will I make it? I have a total of 1600 yards of the yarn, so I’ll either knit until it looks long enough, or til I run out of yarn.

Lucy is no doubt lost in thought — the coming delights of a cashmere kitty blanket!

Lucy083109

It’s Faro Easy!

In all its blocked glory:

Faroeasy083009

This took approximately 600 yards of dk/light sportweight weight yarn — Lorna’s Laces Pearl, in the “Mineshaft” colorway. I used 3 100-gram skeins (220 yards each) and had 30 grams leftover from the last skein. US 7 (4.5mm) needle.

Faroeasy083009a

The wingspan is about 72″, and it’s about 26″ down the center back.

Faroeasy083009b

The pattern will be available in a couple of days. :-)

We Have a Winner

Congratulations to Emmy Jay who has won my copy of Men’s Knits: 20 New Classics by Erika Knight. Thanks to everyone who left a comment!

Am I Still Knitting Socks?

sock083009

Yes.

Am I Still Knitting Lace?

Lace083009

Yes.

Lucy Sez

Lucy083009

“This is a nice kitty blanket, Momma!”

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