Cast-On Monday: Ravellenic Games 2012

July 30, 2012July 25, 2012remilyknits 1 Comment

On Friday, millions of people worldwide watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games. Some small but significant subset of these people were mad knitters, competitors in the 2012 Ravellenic Games. From July 27th until August 12th, knitters will strive to embody Citius, Altius, Fortius in their knitting projects. I am a member of two different teams: Team Knitting Dead (from a Walking Dead fan forum on Ravelry) and Team MallRats (from the Minimall skein-swapping group on Ravelry).

In a nutshell, there are 32 different events to compete in, and most involve starting and finishing a project during the Olympics. I chose three projects from my queue for which I already had yarn, plus I set aside a bag of 40 minis (all glorious Socks That Rock Lightweight):

For Team MallRats, I’m competing in the Modular event. My goal is to complete 40 puffs during the Olympics. This works out to a little more than two a day. Not coincidentally, this will catch me up to where I’m “supposed” to be in terms of completely 366 puffs this year. Check out my pretty minis!

For Team Knitting Dead, I’m competing in the Cowl, Hat, and Shawl events. (It’s conceivable that I might finish all three, in which case I will consider adding one of my many (many, many) other queued-with-yarn-assigned projects.) For the Cowl event, I’m making Eli a bright orange Clewe cowl to match his sweater. With bulky weight Duchess, this project should be quickly completed. The to-be-matched sweater:

For the Hat event, I pulled out yarn I bought for a Greenery Beret while checking out a LYS. It’s very pretty and very soft:

Finally, for the Shawl event, I brought out my DK Capra and the pattern I bought to go with it: Parquet Tiles.

FO Friday: Wavelength

July 27, 2012February 5, 2013remilyknits 1 Comment

This year, I am 3/3 for finishing sock-club projects for the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Notorious Sock Knitters club! 🙂 This is the not-sock pattern from March:

Project: Wavelength

Pattern: Breaking Waves

Designer: Carson Demers

Available: sometime after March 2013

Yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight in “Wavelength”

I am always interested to see how variegated yarn knits up. Check out this comparison of the skeined yarn …

…with the full shawlette:

This pattern used an interesting technique to warp and ruffle the top part of the shawl. The ripples are achieved by working stockinette stitch for a spell, then on a “pickup” row you knit the stitch on the needle together with a stitch from a previous row. Very cool textural and 3-D effect!

Although many club members chose to knit an additional repeat of the feather-and-fan bottom edging, I decided to knit the pattern as written — I like this compact scarf/shawlette size.

New Pattern Release: Canobie Cable Socks

July 25, 2012July 20, 2012remilyknits 3 Comments

Introducing my latest pattern: Canobie Cable Socks!

Pattern: Canobie Cable Socks

Designer: Rachel Henry (that’s me!)

Available: $2.99 at Knit Picks / $3.50 on Ravelry

Yarn: Knit Picks Stroll Tonal in Springtime

Design/Skills Needed: The sinuous twisted-stitch cables that undulate around the leg and instep of these socks evoke the roller coasters at my favorite family amusement park: Canobie Lake Park. They are top-down socks with a traditional heel-flap and gusset. The cable pattern is unbroken around the leg and continues seamlessly into a ribbed heel and twines over the instep to the toe.

Because of the complex cables, this sock is not easily re-sized by changing the stitch count. Rather, the knitter is advised to go up or down a needle size to achieve a different leg circumference.

The cable pattern is charted, but full written directions are also provided for the knitter who prefers to knit from words. The pattern is technique-neutral — I hold no religious preference regarding DPNs, two circs, Magic Loop, tiny circs, etc. when I write patterns.

Many thanks to my friend’s little girl, Sara, who modeled the socks for me. I have extra-large, square-toed feet (thank you, Dutch ancestors) — not exactly the prettiest things to be shoving into socks for show. She had the perfect shoes to go with them, and as soon as the sample socks are back from Knit Picks, they will go home with Sara.

Inspiration: An age and an eon ago, I spotted a cool sweater while standing in line at Canobie Lake Park. I took a surreptitious photo of the woman’s sweater … I hope she didn’t think I was stalking her. But the cables were neat! 🙂 They reminded me of the roller coasters. I swatched and swatched and eventually tamed the pattern to the much-smaller canvas of socks.

Here is my first draft:

I think the final version is more refined and lively! 🙂

Cast On Monday: Dancing Fringe

July 23, 2012August 25, 2012remilyknits 1 Comment

See my pretty purple sock yarn? It’s Mad Tosh Sock in “Flashdance” — yum!

This week I cast on for a pair of Fringe Socks from California Revival Knits (Stephannie Tallent).

I’m using some ancient stash (Reynold’s Wash Day Wool in Cream) for the contrast color. I’m about to do the the fringe bit — very cool!

FO Friday: Purple Endgame

July 20, 2012July 19, 2012remilyknits 1 Comment

I finished (another) Endgame! This one is a shop sample for the Hub Mills Store

Project: Purple Endgame

Pattern: Endgame

Designer: Rachel Henry

Available: in booklet #9207 (“Checkmate”) (single-pattern download may be available in the future)

Yarn: Wool Bam Boo

Closeup of the faux-woven (and fully reversible!) pattern:

Amazing drape!

Please ignore the author’s wrinkled and inappropriately-bright-red shirt:

Hexipuff Update

July 18, 2012July 14, 2012remilyknits 6 Comments

Back in February, I decided to enter the madness that is the Beekeeper’s Quilt. Beginning with my own sock-yarn leftovers, I began making hexipuffs … which quickly led to swapping with other puff-ers (and blankie-makers, et al.). From there my decent into madness was swift and irreversible. I developed a daily puff habit, and some days puffed more than once. I’m going for 366 in 2012, and as of today I have 169 puffs completed. Given my late start, I’m actually keeping up and even catching up — I’m only 27 puffs “behind” where I ought to be today (196 puffs).

Weirdly, my puffs-to-date make a perfect hexagon of puffery, with eight puffs per side:

Lucky for me, I have lots (and LOTS) of mini skeins still to go — I’ve slowed down a bit on swapping for myself, but I’ve also become a mod in the Minimall group on Ravelry. Minis for one, Minis for all!

Cast-on Monday: Pacific Marigold

July 16, 2012July 15, 2012remilyknits 2 Comments

As a reward for finishing my design project on time, I bought beads to match my Stroll Tonal (in Pacific) and cast on Marigold by Susanna IC (published in the Sock Report).

FO Friday: My Blithe Heaven

July 13, 2012July 9, 2012remilyknits 2 Comments

Presenting … 100% camel in a gorgeous lace pattern!

Project: My Blithe Heaven

Pattern: My Heaven

Designer: Patusha

Available: FREE! on Ravelry

Yarn: 100% baby camel — off label fingering-weight yarn from the back wall at Hub Mills Store

This is a free pattern, designed for lace-weight yarn. The edging is knit sideways, then the body is worked bottom-up from picked-up stitches. The lace edging and main body pattern are both worked with lace every row, in garter stitch — no resting purl-back rows. I love how “every row” holes alternate with “every other row” holes in the edging, and I also love the undulating circles/waves in the main body pattern.

Modifications:

Because I was working with fingering-weight yarn, and I wanted to replicate the VERY open lace of the sample photos, I used #7 needles — in other words, big! With such large needles, I worked only 11 edging repeats per side, and picked up a mere 149 stitches. Since this was a perfect number for starting the main body pattern, I worked one wrong-side row and dove into the lace. I did two full repeats plus two extra rows, and then finished up with garter stitch as the pattern describes.

I will say, the charts for this pattern are provided in “as knit” form — meaning that the chart does NOT show the “right side” appearance. This is, shall we say, my less-preferred mode of charting. I knit a few repeats of the edging on size #6 needles, decided to move up a size, and ripped out. As long as I was starting over, I decided to re-write the edging chart in my preferred mode — as viewed from the RS. In the process, I discovered a few irregularities that I hadn’t noticed before. I decided to change them in my version of the charts, because I obsessively want things symmetrical and consistent. I’m still not 100% sure which way the designer wanted things to be, so I’m not ready to call them “mistakes” per se — but here are my changes to the edging (affects both A and B chart):

Row 1: yo, k2tog, k2, k2tog, yo, (then the rest of the row)

Row 3: yo, k2tog twice, yo, k3, yo, ssk, k3, yo, ssk, k2tog, yo, ssk, (then the rest of the row)

Future knitters of My Heaven can decide for themselves which way they prefer these two rows to be worked.

New Pattern Release: Endgame Stole

July 11, 2012July 10, 2012remilyknits 6 Comments

Introducing my latest pattern: Endgame!

Pattern: Endgame

Designer: Rachel Henry (that’s me!)

Available: Booklet #9207 from Classic Elite

Yarn: Classic Elite Yarns Wool Bam Boo in Garnet (4 balls)

This is my first pattern published in the CEY booklets — I’m so pleased to be included! Check out the drape of this stole in the modeled photo:

Design/Skills Needed: This fully-reversible stole is worked flat. The woven pattern is achieved with increases/decreases and dropped stitches. I added a lacy edge with a full column of dropped stitches. Twisted stitches on either side of each dropped-stitch panel keeps the look sharp and the dropped-stitches open. The overall effect is stunning, and the Wool Bam Boo is silky-soft to touch. I love, love, love this yarn.

I used my “interchangeable cable ” trick to block this stole. Before washing, I threaded a long cable through each loop on both edges. I screwed on the end caps to make sure the cables didn’t fall out, and put the stole in for a good long soak. After squeezing out the water, I stretched out the stole on my blocking board (aka, old alphabet letter foam squares). I put pins in every two inches or so, pulling against the cable — not the individual stitches. Using the cables meant a lot fewer pins to get the “fully stretched” effect, and also gave a more even blocking overall.

Cast-On Monday: My Blithe Heaven

July 9, 2012July 8, 2012remilyknits 2 Comments

I spent most of the week working hard on design samples, but I did reward myself at milestones by working on another project — a little like a palette cleanser between courses of sleeves, bands, bodies, etc. I was EXTRA good and worked only on two projects that I owe to the shop — I cast on for a lacy sample in some off-label 100% camel yarn. I don’t know the whole story, but my understanding is that it was meant to be one yarn, but came in off from the standard. It’s simply lovely — just not what it was supposed to be, so it’s being sold as itself instead. It’s a three-ply, loosely spun — blocks like a dream!

I used “My Heaven” for this project, but I used #7 needles (better for making fingering-weight lace) and scaled down the number of repeats. I actually finished (yay!) during the car trip home, and the shawl is blocking as I type. It will feel great to turn in this project — I’ve been feeling guilty about not getting it done sooner.

The other project I owe the shop is a store sample of my very own pattern, soon to be released in the Fall 2012 booklets from CEY. I’m now done with 13 of the 15 pattern repeats, so the finish line is well within sight. I think the booklets will be out soonish, so this is another project that I’ll be glad to have done and turned in.

Remily Knits

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