knitty patterns – Behind the Smile

June 11, 2010June 24, 2010

Hey Look At That

I was whining yesterday on Twitter about being bored, so when my longtime pal Sam from New Zealand called me on it and instructed me to “knit something” I did what anyone else in my position would do:

I took a nap.

And then I finished a project that had been slightly languishing on the needles with only a few more rows to go.

I took this picture earlier this week.

I started this project about a week ago. It’s Annis from the new Knitty “surprises”. It’s an interesting shawl construction that has you knit the bottom edge and then using a series of short rows, much like the bottom of a sock heel, you shape the rest of the shawl. This causes it to curve and ultimately you have a shawl! I’d like to use the technique again with a different edging.

I soaked and blocked it last night:

And it was already dry this morning.

I used Knitpicks Gloss Lace in the (discontinued) Mermaid color. I still have quite a bit left of the skein and another whole skein, which can be used for another shawl of some sort. I’ve never used lace weight before and let me tell you: This shawl weighs approximately nothing. It’s fascinating.

So, yay, I finished something. This year hasn’t been much in the way of FOs, though I did knit two sweaters, so that has surely got to count for something.

Also considering my current lack-of-employment I really don’t have much in the way of excuses at this point! Hah.

September 9, 2009June 24, 2010

Hatapalooza 2009

I must be out of my mind. I haven’t whipped out this many hats in years, since I first started knitting. I got SO tired of them. And yet, in five days, here we are:

From left to right we have Swell, #14 Blossom Hat, and Koolhaas.

I started off with the Blossom Hat, which can be found in the latest issue of Vogue Knitting (Fall 2009). It’s a Norah Gaughan design, and it is great. The only things I changed about were that I knit it in the round, and the ribbing is 3 inches, not 4.

It’s knit from the top down and hides these fun bobbles at the top. I like the structure of it a lot.

Next up is Koolhaas, which according to Ravelry has been knit approximately 3500 times. I can see why: it’s awesome.

The texture is just fabulous. I should have knitted it a smidge longer, though. As it is, I knit it to exact specs for the ladies version. Probably should have fudged it a bit between the ladies and mens version, ie about half a pattern repeat longer. However, no big deal as it is totally wearable, and I probably can block it to the size I want.

Then, I had a ton of the yarn left over (Dream in Color Classy in Blue Lagoon and Spring Tickle) so I went wild and knit the following in a single day because I AM CRAZY:

Swell, from Knitty. It’s a good little pattern that I didn’t follow exactly to specs. Left off the purled peace signs on the earflaps (ugh, I hate peace signs), knit the whole thing a bit longer before decreasing, and did two rows of single crochet around the edge to help flatten everything out.

Anyway, I had never used the Classy before, but I had used Smooshy for various things. LOVE IT. LOVE IT MORE THAN SMOOSHY. I got three hats out of 2 skeins, and STILL have more – could probably get another hat out of what’s left, though to be honest, I am sick of the colors at this point! hahaha. Still, I think it will become my go-to hat yarn, because it is THAT AWESOME. As soon as I have more money (as if) I am going to get another skein in a pink or red for something else.

The other thing that is crazy is that there is almost another done hat to behold. Needs earflap ties and a healthy blocking, then will be done. It’s a Malabrigo cabled hat. SORRY MALABRIGO WORSTED, YOU HAVE BEEN SUPPLANTED BY DiC CLASSY IN MY HEART. I know, right? Who woulda thunk. I still have a bunch of Malabrigo to knit up too. I think I will be knitting a Zimmermann Ganomy hat out of some Mal in that awesome red candle wax color. I have one going in a purple/green colorway, but I can’t friggin find it – looked everywhere, but it seems to be a casualty of the move. It’ll turn up, I know it will, but MAN, that’s annoying.

I still love Malabrigo sock the most.

July 12, 2009June 24, 2010

Cranking Out Shawls

So, having pretty much lost the sock mojo currently (except for a single sock swap I’m doing with a pal back east – no pics till we swap, though!) I am fully invested in shawls, shawls all the time. Except for the one sock. Heh.

And so I present the Aeolian Shawl:

Some closeups:

It’s pretty much the best thing I’ve ever made, really.

Stats:
Pattern: Aeolian Shawl from Knitty
Needle: US 6 Addi Turbo 40″ lace needle
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in two different dye lots of Solis
Beads: Lots

So, major props and a huge thank you to my friend Malvina who I asked if she could maybe get me some more beads at the bead store in her city, where I do not live and couldn’t get to when I needed them. If she couldn’t, I would have totally understood but no. She went to the bead store WITH A FEVER and got me my beads and handed them off at the reunion.

I have the best friends, you guys.
*tears up a little*

ANYWAY:

The pattern uses way more beads than you might think. I used almost three whole tubes of Size 6 glass Czech beads in a fabulous turquoise color. (Hence the needing 2 more tubes from U Bead It in Sacramento!) As a result, when I make my sister’s version, I will be a little more prepared. Hers I will make a little differently so they aren’t completely identical.

The pattern is Estonian Lace which is so pretty. It’s constructed in an interesting way in that there is the first lace pattern, Yucca, which can be knit as many times as you want as long as it’s an even number of repeats. I had decided to knit the shoulderette version which has 4 repeats, and then I decided that I wanted it a little bigger so I decided to knit 6 repeats. But then I noticed how the beads were getting eaten up just by the first lace pattern, so I went back to 4.

The shoulderette version calls for 4 repeats of the Yucca pattern and NO repeats of the Agave pattern, which comes in between the Transition chart and the Final Agave Chart. You can actually knit as many Agave patterns as you want, though they are not technically part of the smaller pattern. Since I had decided on sticking with the 4 Yucca repeats but I wanted a longer shawl, I added an Agave repeat.

By the way, I LOVE nupps, so I totally used them. Some people replace nupps with beads, but not I!

Anyway, so last weekend was my birthday and I got a bunch of yarn – my mom ordered a bunch of stuff from Knitpicks for me, including some awesome Gloss lace yarn, which is a merino/silk blend. She also got the blocking blocks (there has to be a better name for that!) and blocking wires that I used to block the shawl. I liked using the blocks a lot, and lord knows that block wires negate having to use so many pins.

Up next is the leaf lace shawl from Evelyn Clark’s Knitting Lace Triangles. I’m knitting that out of Rio de la Plata Merino Sock in “dusky green” which is kind of a bright (almost neon) green mixed with turquoisey bits, really fab. I’ve had it in my stash for awhile.

So, summer of shawls continues! Plus, there’s still enough left of the second skein of the Malabrigo sock used in the Aeolian shawl to use for another Ishbel I think.

Mostly I need to finish the swap sock because I’m going on vacation in two weeks to Las Vegas and also my sister and I are going to see King Tut’s treasure at the De Young that week.

Fun times ahead!