FO Friday: Wavelength

September 7, 2012September 4, 2012remilyknits 2 Comments

The May 2012 club shipment from BMFA was a gorgeous variegate skein with most (if not all) of my favorite colors. Yay! I chose to do the not-a-sock pattern:

Project: Wavelength

Pattern: Breaking Waves

Designer: Carson Demers

Available: sometime after May 2013

Yarn: BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight in Wavelength (May 2012 Club Colorway)

This pattern began at the neck with stockinette …. that was gathered into three-dimensional waves every so often. It was a cool technique! After a few repeats of that, it transmuted into some fairly standard lace. I heard rumors that many knitters threw in an extra lace repeat without running short, but I chose to knit as-written — I like a small scarf-size shawl, and I wanted to save some yarn for hexipuffs.

FO Friday: Ravellenic Edition (Part II)

August 17, 2012August 12, 2012remilyknits 1 Comment

I finished my other two projects for the Ravellenic Games!

Project: Blue Tiles

Pattern: Parquet Tiles

Designer: Rose Beck

Available: $5 for this pattern alone, or $12.99 for the Archi-textural Collection (on Ravelry, naturally)

Yarn: Knit Picks Capra in Celestial

I love this soft and luscious yarn! The pattern was not my usual “type” — I’m not often drawn to plain-old knit&purl designs. Too many are poorly-rendered, overly-cutesy designs fit only for washcloths. But, Parquet Tiles is elegant and lovely — not washcloth-like at all. Enjoyable knit, reasonably quick, well-written pattern. High marks!

I worked hard throughout the Olympics on my puffs. I’m proud to say I have officially “caught up” to my 366 in 2012 goal, and I’m currently running 4 puffs ahead of schedule! I was helped greatly by a mini-skein swap of 40 gorgeous new STR Lightweight colorways.

Project: 40 STR Puffs

Pattern: the beekeeper’s quilt

Designer: tiny owl knits

Available: $5.50 on Ravelry

Yarn: BMFA Socks That Rock Lightweight

FO Friday: Ravellenic Edition

August 3, 2012August 2, 2012remilyknits 2 Comments

I finished two projects so far for the Ravellenic Games!

Project: Orange Cowl

Pattern: Clewe Cowl

Designer: Rachel Henry

Available: FREE! on Ravelry

Yarn: CEY Duchess

What can I say? I already knew I loved Duchess (plush, cashmere blend, alas — out of print). I have knit a few Clewe Cowls — my own pattern, so of course I think it’s just right. Eli’s cowl was quick — it fits him well, though he does not (as yet) appreciate the wonders of a mobius cowl. He kept trying to flatten it.

Next up: a hat for me!

Project: Blue Beret

Pattern: Greenery Beret

Designer: Melissa LeBarre

Available: in Weekend Hats

Yarn: Mirasol Yarns Nuna

I picked up this yarn as a “courtesy purchase” while checking out a LYS. It is a silk/wool/bamboo blend, so it was lovely to touch and drapes nicely, but still holds a block. The pattern is basically two repeats of a feather-and-fan variation, followed by a decreasing f&f. It works.

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.

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:

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.

FO Friday: AMS 2012 Olive Lace

June 29, 2012June 12, 2012remilyknits 4 Comments

This is my fourth year making the Anniversary Mystery Shawl — a free KAL put out annually by prolific lace designer Renee Leverington.

Project: AMS 2012 Olive Lace

Pattern: Anniversary Mystery Shawl 2012

Designer: Renee Leverington

Available: soon

Yarn: Malabrigo Lace in #56 Olive

I chose Malabrigo Lace as a backup plan, when a skein of lace from my stash turned out to be horribly cut up in many places. (I’m STILL not happy about that!) But, it turned out to be a great excuse to knit with Malabrigo Lace, which is so soft and wonderful. It is a single-ply, which makes it a tad delicate, but definitely worth the extra effort.

After trying several colors, I settled on “Translucent Amber” beads with a “Rainbow” finish. I love the warm neutral brown of the amber, and the translucence allows the bead to blend with the yarn better. Finally, the rainbow finish makes each bead a bit different, again allowing for better blending. At least that’s my theory!

My favorite part of this shawl was the big leaf motif at the top!

This shawl is a 4/6 hexagon. You could block it as a square … but I vastly prefer the 4/6 hex shape.

FO Friday: RedBud Socks That Rock

June 22, 2012June 12, 2012remilyknits 2 Comments

My May 2012 shipment of Socks That Rock arrived as I was speeding down the toe of my 2nd sock from the March 2012 shipment … I did manage to finish one before starting the other!

Project: March 2012 Socks That Rock Socks

Pattern: redbud

Designer: Linda Welch

Available: available after March 2013

Yarn: BMFA Socks That Rock Mediumweight in Budding Twig

Socks are worked cuff-down with a turned hem. I used a provisional cast-on for the hem, to reduce bulk. I love the cuff pattern and the simple lace pattern too. The yarn is lovely and spring-y and was just the thing, back in March! 🙂 My older STR socks have been shrinking a bit over time and many wearings/washings, so I decided to use the recommended needle size (instead of going down a size) and making size M.

FO Friday: Foxglove Cloche

June 15, 2012June 12, 2012remilyknits 2 Comments

Sometimes a knitter needs an instant-gratification kind of project …

Project: Foxglove Cloche

Pattern: Lea Cloche

Designer: Cecily Glowik MacDonald

Available: in Weekend Hats

Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh DK in Foxglove

The hat begins from a circular cast-on at the crown. Increases go along the four purl “seams.” I ended up adding one additional round of increases, because my head is big and my gauge was a tiny bit tight. Other than that, I knit as written! I tried to add some length to the brim, but it curled terribly. I had to rip out my modified brim and go back to the as-written one — which, you can see, worked perfectly.

I’m very pleased with my ribbon and button! Both found at Jo-Anns.

FO Friday: Rodekool de Kool

June 8, 2012May 6, 2012remilyknits 1 Comment

I did it! I made a lace brioche scarf!

Project: Rodekool de Kool

Pattern: Rodekool

Designer: Nancy Marchant

Available: FREE! on Knitty.com

Yarn: Crystal Palace Yarns Mini Mochi in #103

I totally enjoyed the challenge of this pattern! The FO is cozy, pretty, and impressive in a subtle way. I’ve already posted a rodekool video showing how I managed both the lacy and non-lacy rows. As I mentioned before, it took a lot of focus to get through this pattern. I found I couldn’t work on it and chat at the same time. Ultimately it’s a small project though, so despite my need for silence and privacy to work on it, I did get it done.