Wholehearted

Up until now I've only knit triangle shawls and I was ready to try a  heart shaped one. Fortunately, for a brief period of time during the holidays, the designer of the Wholehearted shawl, Erika Flory, offered her version for free over at Ravelry. I downloaded the pattern and dumped all my fingering weight yarn onto the floor hoping I could find something from my stash that would work . Since I'm awful knowing what colors combinations work together I asked my husband to help me. David's first response when he saw the yarn pile was "This isn't all your yarn?" Hmmmm, I guess he may have an idea after all how big my stash is! I reassured him that this wasn't all my yarn it was just the yarn that could be used for this project. I'm so impressed (and a little jealous) that he came up with the winning combination in a matter of minutes. The self striping yarn was a gift from a friend and had been sitting in the stash waiting for just the right project and the black had been bought for another project that I haven't gotten to. Together they were perfect.

The details:
Needle size: 6
Yarn: Regia Hand-dye Effect (Pink, Purple, Blue, Yellow) & Knit Picks Gloss (black)

This pattern is easy knitting but there were a few problems with the written pattern. A couple of the errors are corrected on the Ravelry information page but as of this blog post they are not updated on the written instructions. In addition, my stitch count didn't match the pattern. At the end of the shawl body I had 303 stitches rather than 305. I did a row by row stitch count in order to check the math and it still came out 303.   At the end of the edging I had a stitch count of 351 rather than 349, now I was plus 2 stitches rather than 2 stitches short!  For the picot bind off I switched to color B and worked two more rows, as expected, I ended with 357 stitches rather than 355.  I double and triple checked the math (the pattern has 4 increases on the the right side rows and 2 increases on the wrong side rows) and I still haven't been able to reconcile the difference.  No one on Ravelry has noted this same problem so it might be me but, if so, I don't know what it is!

One of the design details that makes this shawl interesting is the picot bind off. I had never worked the picot bind off before but I had seen it demonstrated in a video and saved it with a pin to my Knitting Techniques & Tutorials Pinterest board.

I love this shawl and I'm keeping it for me!  I'm sure I'll be making more because this would make a great gift.

Felted Soap - Valentines 2013

Every once in a while the pieces needed for a project just come together with no effort. It doesn't happen very often. In fact, it's very rare! This years valentines project was one of them.

I don't remember how felted soap came onto my radar of interesting projects to try.  I can't even remember where I first saw them (the mall? Pinterest?) but the idea was floating around in the back of my head patiently waiting for its turn. I was out shopping for yarn when I found a bag of roving with subtle shades of pinks and streaks of light lilac (on sale no less!) and I immediately knew exactly what I was making for valentines this year.

I made glycerin heart shaped soaps and got ready to felt. Mostly I followed the directions at Mielke's Fiber Arts and this video from Neauveau Fiber Arts. I did not use a felting board but did cover and felt the soap using a nylon. It took a number of practice soaps to get the technique right but soon I was felting away.  There were two major adjustments that had to be made for felting a heart shape.  Bare spots tended to develop at the bottom point of the heart so extra roving was needed there.  The soap mold I used didn't have a pronounced V shape at the top of the heart so I  had to shave away soap at the "valley"  in order to retained a heart shape after it was felted.

Any claims that you will “save soap” aren't really true. The amount of soap saved by being able to use the last bits are wasted in the beginning when you felt the soap. Plus there is a fair amount of water used in the process of felting. So I figure the whole thing is a "wash"!  However, I wasn't really looking for a eco-friendly project, I was just looking for a cool and different one.

I found a great font called "Words of Love" and printed a band with these instructions:

Made with wool which has natural anti-fungal properties and unscented glycerin it's your soap and washcloth all in onrbe! When the soap is no longer, the casing can be reused by drying the pouf and making a slit to insert a new bar of soap or your favorite scented potpourri to use as a sachet!

Use a slotted soap dish to allow air flow and help the soap dry on all sides.

Felting soap was a lot of fun and I love the result.  I've even been using one in the shower and can testify to it's usefulness! I have yet to verify the validity of reusing the pouf after the soap is gone, either with more soap or as a sachet, but I'll update this post when I do.

Lace Weight Scarf

I've done a ton of crocheting with thread but fingering weight was the smallest weight of yarn I had knit with. It was time to give lace weight yarn a try. So I bought a skein of Classic Elite's Silky Alpaca Lace in the Turquoise Shadow colorway which is a terrific combination of turquoise, purple, beige and tan. I found plenty of patterns that used only a skein but I started (and frogged) three times before I found one that worked well with the color repeats. In the end, it was the Forest Canopy Shawl (which I had done a number of times with fingering weight yarn) that worked well and knit into a perfect scarf size. Next up is a bigger more complicated lace pattern!
This knit project was the first time that I used my new blocking wires. Sooooooooo much easier to block with wires! I wish I hadn't waited so long before I invested in them. Here's a couple of links that I found useful:

• Using Blocking Wires To Block A Lace Shawl
• Knitter's Review : Tools of the Trade

Also, I recently found Eucalan, a no rinse delicate wash. It's a little pricey ($5.00 for 3.3 oz) but for those really delicate things you don't want to handle a lot when wet, it's perfect.

Here are the details:
Yarn: One skein Silky Alpaca Lace (Turquoise Shadow) by Classic Elite color:
Pattern: Forest Canopy Shawl
Needle Sizes: #4 switched to #6 for binding off.
Finished Size: 44"x 21½"
Notes: I knit to 291 stitches for the main pattern before working the border. I added two additional rows of border (for a total of 18 border rows before working the bind-off).

Homespun Stripes Afghan

I've made dozens of afghans and all but two of them have been crocheted. My first knit blanket was the Diagonal Garter Afghan and now this, the Homespun Stripes Afghan.

A long time ago (before my blogging days) I crocheted Sarah an afghan to take when she went to college. I used Lion Brand's Homespun, Montana Sky and most of the skeins had a problem where glue from the wrapper dripped onto the yarn and ruined the last 5-10 yards of each skein. I wrote to Lion Brand to let them know of the issue and received a package of replacement yarn! The yarn stayed in the stash for years until I found this pattern.

It's a quick knit on size 13 needles with only a two row repeat. I like my afghans wider than patterns are generally written so I increased the number of stitches from 135 to 153. However, the afghan is VERY stretchy and I didn't need to increase the width. In fact, the width (58") is bigger than the length (53") so the blanket gets turned around when used. Homespun is a bulky yarn but this afghan is remarkably lightweight and makes a fantastic all purpose throw.

The skill level for this pattern is listed as intermediate but that's just plain silly. It's a simple and easy beginner pattern. The only problem/warning is to be very careful casting off in order to get an edge that's the same tension as the cast on. I used the general cast off but it's tighter than the cast on. To the casual eye, it's not a glaring inconsistency but it could have been executed better.

My family has more blankets than we can use so it will be a while before I do another one but this is a nice addition to the collection!

The New Adventure of Mini-Me

Mini-Me makes an appearance in the This Knitted Life video!

Remember Mini-Me? A few years ago I participated in the Stitched Selves exhibit for the London Science Museum. The exhibit was coordinated and produced by the knitting group Stitch London and additional adventures were promised. Last summer the Stitched Selves participated in Stitched Science and this summer they are featured in a video!

The video presents the stages of a knitting project, from "birth" to cast off, with artsy visual blasts of knitted objects and was produced by the Craft Council to promote knitting.

Mini-Me appears at 5:53 for her two seconds of fame. You can email me for autograph requests ;)

This Knitted Life from Crafts Council on Vimeo.

Valentines 2012

I love Pinterest. I now have more things to make than I'll ever manage and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. I found this Snappy Coin Purse Tutorial by Rashida Coleman-Hale and immediately knew that I wanted to make them for this years valentines.

Fabric Place Basement recently re-opened in Natick so I went to explore and look for heart/valentine fabric. After a couple of hours (the amount of cotton fabric they carry is extensive!) I finally found 4 prints that worked together. Voilà! A darling valentine.

The tutorial was excellent but I do provide one correction. When working Step 7 you should notch the curves not clip them. The Hows and Whys of Clips and Notches are excellently explained at the "Sew, Mama, Sew!" blog.

The best thing about my visit to Fabric Basement was finding that they carry great yarn - Cascade and Classic Elite to name just two. I wonder if I should tell my husband that the new store in town stocks both fabric and yarn? Maybe not, he already has too many grey hairs.

A Skein of Silk Garden Sock by Noro

A while ago, I picked up a skein of Silk Garden Sock (color #268 - Green, Aqua, Brown) by Noro at The Black Sheep Knitting Co. in Needham, Massachusetts. At the time, I was knitting a lot of socks and I bought the yarn with the intention of making a pair from this skein. However, this stuff is pretty scratchy (I suspect it's the 10% mohair!) and I decided that I was never going to wear or gift a pair of socks knit from it. So I went in search of a free one skein pattern and found the Loopy Lace Scarf.

The pattern is a reversible lace honeycomb rib scarf with a keyhole. I'm not sure why this pattern was written with a pull-through on both ends but I worked only the first one and then knit until the scarf's total length was 36". The yarn is too itchy to put against bare skin so I only use it with a turtleneck but at least I can wear it.

There was enough yarn left over to make this cute Pinwheel Purse. It's based on an origami design that opens up when you pull the top apart and then snaps back closed when you let it go. It's a perfect project to carry around because of the small amounts of yarn used. I'm saving it to use as a gift "box" for just the right present or possibly a knitting or craft exchange. I'll be making more of these.