Back to that lacy sunflower bit
Girasole
Knitting together was fun last night, with the usual mix of fine folks, humor, impressive projects, impressive mistakes. I was in a mistake-knitting groove, stupid stuff with just myself to blame, when Shirley suggested I switch to something else. (Offending project- blue sock with brown heel, can be seen in time out in the photo above.) I switched to the sunflower.
It’s been four months since I worked on Jared Flood’s Girasole. The time away was due to a mistake that, given four months, I decided I could live with. Here’s the mistake. See in the picture? Double click on the photo to enlarge.
I missed one of the b-o-r shifts, and have the last two lace motifs off-center by one stitch. I see it clearly. But really, on 640 stitches, if I am off by one stitch, it’s not even one degree off. So there. I talked myself into that decision and am so glad to have it in hand again. It’s a great pattern, clearly written with nice transitions to each new section- so pretty. It won’t be long until the final bit is worked.
There are a couple things I did differently that I’d like to share with you. Personal choices are allowed, so I worked a centered double decrease. (sl 2 sts tog kwise, k1, psso; instead of sl 1, k2tog, psso) No big deal. But the following I think is pretty clever:
In this and many lace patterns there are rounds with ssk’s, yo’s and k2tog’s alternating with knit regular rounds. On the knit regular rounds, I would identify the two stitches that were to be ssk-ed on the next round. When I got to those two stitches, I’d knit them but wrap them the wrong way. Why?
Two reasons. First, I could use the rhythm of the knit regular round to check my count. For instance by repeating knitting some, then knitting 2 with a wrong-wrap, and by keeping my eye out for this to be happening in the right place, I could be alerted to mistakes like missed yarnovers on previous rounds. Second, by wrapping those two stitches backassward, it changed their seating on the needle. See the photo where I am trying to point with two needles.
Then, on the action row, when I came to those obviously backward stitches, instead of ssk-ing them, now I could just shoot through the back loops of both of those, as in k2togtbl, because they were already reoriented in the previous round. I hope this makes some sense to you. It really helped me a lot in terms of speed and keeping track of where I was.
Good News out of Haiti
Caroline and family are rejoicing in the news that Lourdie survived the quakes in Haiti. They are hoping to be united with her soon. I’ll keep you posted.
Four-Five-Fo(u)r-YARN; 616-454-9276
The former City Knitting phone number is now my personal cell phone number. It’s alive. I thought it would be handy to keep it. Thanks, Liesl, for pointing out that it’s more like four-five-forNOMOREYARN. Sorry.
Help and lessons
Lessons at my home have been going along nicely. People are making appointments with their help cards, and this week I had two brand new knitters join the local yarnie force. Use the number above for a private appointment. I like being your knitting doctor-on-call.
Choosing wisely
This is just a little lesson about working with yarn you love. For this simple project I chose a very showy yarn. Pricey, but lovely. It’s Rowan ‘Colourscape Chunky’ used to work Zimmerman’s ‘Mystery Blanket’, the April project from her Knitter’s Almanac. I got a compliment this week from someone whose opinion matters to me, making the blanket warm me in a new way.
Edited to add:
Smurf Boots
Head over to ravelry.com to see what clever knitter “Nanook” did with the Felted Loafer Slipper pattern. She made herself some bright blue smurf boots. I like them a lot. Some of you may want to give them a try. (My always-cold-without-slippers feet are 9.5 inches long.)
Happy Knitting.