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Knitting Friday
Can you believe it? I have sworn to behave myself and not buy any yarn until I create a serious dent in my stash but then Knit Picks has a new yarn sale and I'm over at the site looking for just that perfect yarn within my price point. I didn't find it but you can't say I didn't try. I have no shame!
Discussing my diet would be appropriate today because unless I "stay the course", the 5 skeins of 181 yards each of Patons True North DK I'm using for this:
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| #1 Will I have enough yarn? |
will not be enough. You're looking at 1 skein used and two more partial skeins being used for the body and one sleeve; I have two full skeins left. I stopped knitting the body and worked the sleeve just be to sure that I could make sleeves with 1 skein each. The sleeve shown reaches my elbow so I can stop there if I have to though I may be able to make it longer. That is, unless I have to use that sleeve skein for the body since, while it looks like I've worked the body to a few inches below the underarm, when I tried it on it was barely below the underarm.
Which is where the diet comes in. I need to lose another inch around my chest. Well, I have started to use the treadmill for 40 minutes a day and added an incline. Let's hope that helps. This is going to be very tight yarn-wise (size-wise, however, it seems OK.) I have two bearish alternatives if I don't have enough yarn. 1: Begin again from the bottom up where I would go from knitting 112 stitches for the body to less then 100 for the yoke, as opposed to the 140 sts in the yoke and 112 sts in the body now. Just the few extra rows I get that way may do the trick, or 2: I could just eliminate the sleeves and make a vest pullover. However, making either change would be the pits.
I did have good intentions when I pulled out this yarn (at least it's 50% wool so it splices) because I'm using my entire stash of it; no partial skeins left only good for a variegated blanket I don't need.
The pattern comes from the knit-in-the-round The Enchanted Pullover:
I just used the toke stitch lace, not the pattern. I was looking for a lace stitch which was not my usual lace. I really like how it's working up but it is a very non-ergonomic pattern. That is, the third row is a *P1, (K and P in one stitch), bring the P1 over these 2 stitches.* This may work more smoothly with continental knitting but it's a lot of wrist, hand movement the way I knit. The only good thing is if you forget to do the P stitch pass over on Round 3, on Round 4 you're looking at a clump of 3 stitches (there should be a clump of 2) and you can do the pass over from Round 3 there just before you work those 2 stitches for Round 4 (a P1, K1).
I'm using the hole in my KP needle to make lifelines as I go along.
Starting this pattern brought to mind a tip: Don't waste your swatch stitches, make them into a scarf.
I got this idea because while I don't swatch for size (I know, me bad), I do swatch for patterns. That is, if I read an interesting pattern stitch, I'll cast on about 20+ stitches and work about 10 rows.
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| #2 A swatch scarf? |
That's how I got picture #2 which consists of a lot of stitches I considered for the yellow top. I think the toke stitch is the third pattern up but I just kept adding patterns until I realized I might have an idea here.
The Swatch Scarf (or if you're adventurous, The Swatch Shawl)
Equipment: US 10 needles, sport weight or light DK yarn, a counter
Note: It would be nice to use the same number of stitches for each pattern but unless you're using all patterns which are multiples of 2, that won't happen. You can move between patterns differing in one or two stitches without worrying. However, if you go from a 28 stitch pattern to a 22 stitch pattern you have to "flesh out" the 22 stitch pattern or your scarf width will look wonky. You do this by adding an interior border on each side of the pattern of:
*K1 back loop (bl), P1*
or
*K1bl, P1, K1bl*
or even just:
*K1bl*
which would give you 6, 4 or 2 extra stitches.
So a 22 stitch pattern would become a 28 stitch row this way:
K1bl, P1, K1bl - 22 stitch pattern - K1bl, P1, K1bl - for 28 stitches
To start: Gather about 2 to 3 pattern stitches to begin and decide on your number of cast on stitches. (see Note). Add 10 stitches to this number for 5 seed stitch border each side.
1. Cast on X stitches. Within 1 to 2 stitches, this number doesn't change.
2. Work 5 rows in seed stitch.
3. Start your first pattern row working: 5 sts seed - pattern - 5 sts seed
4. At the end of your first pattern (work as many repeats as you like), end on the right side and work 4 rows of seed before the next pattern. (Always do this after each pattern.)
5. If the next pattern differs by more than 2 stitches, work an interior border mentioned in the Note this way: 5 sts seed - interior border - pattern - interior border - 5 sts seed.
Final Note: This pattern is really just a template. You can change the number of border stitches, the seed stitch rows between patterns in number or even use another pattern stitch, etc. You could work knit and crochet patterns throughout the scarf. Let your imagination fly.
This can be a "back burner" project which you add to periodically or you can assemble patterns from the get-go and finish it quickly. One thing I can promise, you won't be bored with making this scarf.
Next week: I'll post a picture of my Advent Mystery Sampler Lace Shawl where the assigned cast on was 96 stitches and I wanted to reduce that to 56 stitches. That's how this interior border idea was started. We were given 24 patterns and I think I was only unable to modify one of them. Happy knitting!
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