Aeolian Shawl

Posted on 17 March 2011 by Kris

Somehow, until last July it had never occurred to me to knit a lacy shawl in fingering weight yarn. I’m not entirely sure why – I mean, my very first lacy project was in an even heavier yarn! But then I saw some of the awesome fingering-weight shawls from my knitting group. And, I had more than a bit of a fingering weight yarn in my stash. So I started poking around Ravelry for options.

I ended up going with a pattern that I’d previously marked as a favorite – turns out that a fair number of people had knit it with Malabrigo Sock already. I think mine turned out pretty well, don’t you?

Pattern: Aeolian Shawl by Elizabeth Freeman
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in Cote d’Azure
Needles: US4 Inox Express circulars

I knit the shoulderette version pretty much as written, although I did omit the beads. It was a pretty quick and fun project for me – I’m sure I’ve never knit a shawl so fast in my life. Yay for a fun pattern, and yay for fingering weight yarn!

My only problem was – I ran out of yarn partway through the bindoff! I thought I’d be okay since several people on Ravelry seemed to only need the one skein, but apparently I’m one of the exceptions. Booooo. Luckily, Jess came to my rescue! She had already finished a project using the exact same colorway of Malabrigo Sock, and she gave me the remnants so I could finish my own.

Speaking of the yarn, I really enjoyed working with it and would definitely use it again in the future. Though not for socks, despite the name. Malabrigo Sock is lovely and soft, but it’s not very tightly spun and I doubt it’ll wear particularly well. Luckily, wear isn’t as much of a problem when you’re dealing with a lacy shawl. Good thing, too, since I actually use this quite a bit. Mostly in the office, but still!

Posted in Knitting | Tagged | Leave a comment

Froot Loop socks

Posted on 15 March 2011 by Kris

And back to 2010. Man, I was such a slacker with these socks. It’s not like they were difficult to knit! But… well, I got bored with them about halfway through. Surprise, surprise.

Pattern: Froot Loop by Kristi Geraci
Yarn: Koigu Painter’s Palette Premium Merino in colorway 848
Needles: US0 Inox grey DPNs

The stitch pattern wasn’t too tough, but as you probably gathered from my opening sentences, I found it tedious after awhile. Oh well. At least it looks nice.

Unfortunately, these socks are slightly more snug than I’d like; I probably could have modified them to have more stitches all around. But at least these aren’t so tight as to be unwearable.

Posted in Knitting | Tagged | Leave a comment

On the plain side

Posted on 13 March 2011 by Kris

Just so this blog doesn’t turn into all previous years all the time, I’ll be interspersing the FO catchup posts with newer stuff. Today, let’s talk about one of my current WIPs.

Would you believe that I only own one cardigan? Sad but true. (Although I love that one cardigan to bits!) So I figured it was about time I changed that.

These are the front and back pieces of a plain black cardigan. I’ve been wanting to make one for awhile – I even bought buttons for it over a year ago! But I just got around to starting it last month.

The yarn is Brooks Farm Four Play, which I’d bought at Stitches West back in 2009. I’m loving it so far, except it grows a lot after washing. Which I already knew thanks to my swatches, but the back and fronts grew even more than I’d anticipated. So, what you’re seeing above? That’s actually take two on all three pieces, after ripping back to an inch below the original armholes and reknitting.

Because I’m a little worried about running out of yarn, the plan is to knit the buttonbands next and the sleeves last. Luckily I already planned on a short-sleeved sweater!

Posted in Knitting | Tagged | Leave a comment

Books and a younger me

Posted on 12 March 2011 by Kris

Someone recently commented on how I can completely tune out the world around me when I’m reading, and how amazing he found that. And I guess the ability is kind of amazing, but the reasons I developed it in the first place? Not so much. They’re really more sad than anything.

For example, there was a time when books were my only good friends. Sad, but true.

I was ignored by most of my classmates most of the time during grades 5-8, but I did get picked on pretty heavily by a few of them, and our school’s staff did absolutely nothing to stop the latter. I was fortunate enough to have a couple of friendly classmates, but really, there was only so much they could do to make it better. (Not their fault.)

So, what’s an almost friendless, always picked-on girl to do with her spare time? Read, and read, and read some more. Hell, I read during completely unrelated classes and didn’t even bother hiding it, because it was better than paying attention to my school environment.

Now, a lot of those books weren’t objectively great stuff by any means… I read an awful lot of brain candy in those years. But you know what? There’s really nothing wrong with that. Those books served the purpose of giving me an escape, of letting me for the unpleasantness of my school day for a short time, of entertaining me and giving me something to smile about.

Even when I wasn’t being bullied, I didn’t quite fit in anywhere, or at least I didn’t feel like I fit in. Family, school, wherever – until I moved away for college, I never got the sense that I truly belonged, and my own introversion and awkwardness (not mutually inclusive things, BTW!) didn’t exactly help. I guess books were an escape from that feeling as well. Instead of struggling to get my family to understand me, or trying and failing to understand many of my peers and the high school social world, it was really so much easier for me to pore over a book and immerse myself in a world where I didn’t have to go through all that.

But what about these days? What’s my relationship with books, now that I’ve found people that I actually I fit in with? Well, I still read a bit every day, but I don’t spend every waking hour doing it, and I haven’t in years. Books aren’t my only friends anymore, but they’re still my oldest ones, and I think they’ll always be around, no matter what. Maybe not in the same form, but there nonetheless!

Posted in Books | Leave a comment

Lotus Blossom shawl, take two

Posted on 10 March 2011 by Kris

Remember my old Lotus Blossom shawl?

Nah, I didn’t think so. I have a love/hate relationship with the striping, so I never wear it outside the house. (I do, at least, wear it indoors, which is why I haven’t frogged it yet!)

But I decided to make a prettier version so I’d have something else to wear in public:

Pattern: Lotus Blossom Shawl by Dorothy Siemens
Yarn: Redfish Dyeworks 20/2 silk in color RBL3b
Needles: US2 / 2.75mm Knitpicks nickel-plated circulars

I made a few changes to this one, partly due to necessity and partly because I just can’t leave well enough alone.

First off, the necessary ones: I did two extra stem chart repeats and one extra blossom repeat. My chosen yarn is significantly finer than the DK called for in the pattern, so I needed the extra repeats to get an appropriately sized shawl. (I’d have done even more if I wanted a larger shawl, but I’m on the short side, so…)

Another modification was all the decreases: I started with centered double decreases instead of left-leaning ones, just for kicks. But then in order to keep the flow of those lines, I had to do redo the blossom chart accordingly.

Finally, I honestly tried to do the bobble bindoff this time, but after half a dozen failed attempts, I gave up and just did a k2tog bindoff all the way across.

As for the yarn, this is not the first time I’ve worked with it, and I found it just as lovely this time around. It blocks and drapes beautifully. And it’s a gorgeous color to boot. (And this is coming from someone who doesn’t even really like pink!)

Posted in Knitting | Tagged | 1 Comment