I didn’t have a model, but it looks lovely on the grass. I love blocking lace, its like magic what a difference it can make.
Upcoming projects:
Austrian Patterned knee socks (cast on, waiting for better needles)
Somewhat Cowl (with long sleeves and a long cowl, the sewn cowl looks strange I think)
Hourglass pullover (knitpicks andean silk in lettuce)
Russell’s DNA Aran sweater (my longest work in progress)
Brocade (in the round instead of flat, with waist shaping and raglan sleeves)
It needs a good blocking, but its allll finished. Too bad its 90 degrees out or I’d wear it right now.
Knitting machine needles do not work like hand knitting needles. Lets say for example that you want to knit fair isle. Normally fair isle is done with a needle one size down so the other color can’t be seen through the stitches. My machine knits worsted up at a strange gauge (16 sts to 4″ instead of 18-20) so I thought “hey I’ll use the DK weight keyplate and get the same effect.” Well… it was a disaster. The machine jammed several times, and each time I would yell at the machine “WHY? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?” It of course did not answer because its a bastard. So after the 5th time of fixing the stitches by hand after it jammed I decided to pull the work off the needles (rather violently) and I ended up sending needles flying everywhere. I carefully put all the needles back in their slots and the piece of plastic fit right back into place. Its like they made this machine easy to fix on purpose because they knew people would get angry at it and flip out.
So tomorrow I may attempt another fair isle pillow cover. I’ll use the worsted keyplate and my damn gauge will be loose, and the pillow form may or may not show through the stitches. I think I’ll just have to deal with it.
In other news my argyle vest is really close to being done. I have 4 rows left on the last armhole ribbing, yet I have no motivation at all. At least that damn v-neck ribbing is done. I tried it on and it looks so much better with the ribbing. I was quite worried my vest would be really stupid looking. I haven’t had very much knitting motivation in general. My mom’s river shawl is dangerously close to finishing… yet I just cast on a new lace shawl 20 minutes ago. Really I just want finished lace. I would love someone to knit lace for me so I could block it, cuz really that’s the part I love best.
Most of the patterns are written for a size 38″ bust, which is 4 inches smaller than mine. I loved all the patterns, but my favorite was this really cute vest:
Theres another photo of it paired with a blazer, knee high brown boots, and a khaki skirt. So cute! It seems like my perfect fall outfit (yes I am aware that it is not fall, but I want to knit it now dammit.) So then the dillema: It’s written for one size, which is too small. The gauge it called for was 26 stitches by 28 rows. So I thought I would be very clever and did some math. Let me just say that I would have never bitched so much about cross multiplying in school if I knew I’d be using it on a daily basis.
Somehow in the course of events, I got a smaller gauge than it called for. I used worsted yarn instead of dk, and 1 needle size up. I’m not sure how I got 1.5 more stitches to the inch, but instead of being disappointed I refigured the cast on amount, and cast on. The whole vest is charted in the book but I was going to modify it and put shaping in it anyway. Besides, its a vest, I’ve done that, it cant turn out that bad.
Oh I almost entirely forgot. Once I got back from the mall I had a lovely package from amazon.com waiting for me.
I plan on making the Norwegian stockings from Folk Socks (after I saw the awesome ones on Eunny’s blog) and the Austrian patterned knee socks from Sock Socks Socks.
Knitting machines are great for some things. One of those things is long stockinette pieces that are later seamed into tubes. I’m now the proud owner of a slytherin scarf and a dark blue / purple chenille scarf. Both of which took about 2 hours after seaming and tassels!
I’m using the living room chair as a model because I am currently a dirty morning beast.
The chenille scarf took 3 balls of Lion Chenille that was on clearance, the slytherin scarf took EXACTLY 2 balls grey and 2 and a half of green. So that’s around 8 balls from my stash GONE!
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