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Knitting Friday

#1 Just sittin'

O. A. Bear just sat around this week since I had not modelling jobs for her.  I knitted but no finished projects to show this week.

For anyone who's following; my diet still progresses. 50 minutes of tread milling at least four times a week and no "bad" foods. Wow! you're thinking, The pounds must be melting away. Not so. As so many of you know, it's a struggle. I'd like to say I do it to stay healthy; and, for the most part, I do. But in the US, the mantra is: You must be slim. You must be slim. Unfortunately, added to this is: By the way, doesn't that ad for pizza look tempting?

#2 LB Summer Mesh

I want to revisit this shawl (#2) from last week, because whenever I work on it, it brings me such such contentment and I think we all can use that in our lives. I don't know why this project makes me "happy" since I work a lot of lace, but it does. The link is below and it's a simple lace (the instructions for the bag with it look much trickier) with picots along each row.
  

http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/L10288.html?noImages=;utm_source=20111216_Dec16_Split2;utm_medium=Emails;utm_campaign=Weeklynewsletter;utm_content=P-rochetShimmerMeshShawlBag 

Working on it yesterday, I decided to give more details on some tips I learned. These tips are probably essential if you're working in crochet thread as I was. The trickiest parts of this project are the row ends for the two row pattern.

1. Mark the Row 2 side of your work so you don't have to guess what row you're working. (Coral colored blob of yarn in #2)
2. At the beginning of your first Row 1 (you only work this row once), you will make at single crochet. Mark this single crochet. 
3. At the beginning of your first Row 2, you'll chain 5. Mark the 3rd chain of this ch-5. (You will keep marking this chain stitch on every Row 2 throughout the project.) Work Row 2 as instructed and:
4. At the end of your first Row 2, you will approach your marked sc (3). Work a double crochet in it as instructed.
6. At the beginning of Row 3, you will ch 1 and work a sc in the dc from Row 2. Mark this single crochet. (For the rest of your shawl, you will continue to mark this sc on every Row 3.)

That's it really. At the end of every Row 2, you'll work in a  marked single crochet. At the end of every Row 3, you'll work in the third chain of a chain 5. Of course, with heavier yarn this marking is  over-kill. But with crochet thread, the stitch definition gets lost quickly.

One other quick tip: You work a picot in the middle chain of a chain-5. Just count two chains over from the left of the ch-5 and work the picot in the next chain. For some reason, this was so much easier than counting from the right.

And now, something completely different  in pic #4. For some reason, when I bought this fabric (which was not that long ago), it seemed like a good choice. At least, about half this fabric is now a skirt and it's got a lot of black in it so I can see its wear-ability in the spring and fall.

#4 A skirt

 

#5 Black, wool top

Which brings me to this black, wool top. It's from the generic shell pattern I posted some time ago. You can see strands of yarn on the right and left armholes. That's because I first decided to make this a long sleeved top until, at 3 a.m. yesterday morning, I thought: Am I nuts! Knitting with black is a bitch and I want to work long sleeves? So I bound off, cut the yarn at both sleeves (it's wool so I'll splice to crochet on the crab stitch) and probably promptly fell into a peaceful sleep. The lace pattern is very open on US 10 needles and consists of Row 1: *YO, K2tog; Row 2 - 4: K.

 

And finally, blue alpaca which has been around the block way too many times.

#6 Well-used alpaca

  I have no idea where I got this alpaca but I seem to remember that it began life as a sweater for the girl. Then she grew and it visited the frog pond because alpaca is a wool which lives forever it seems. This is the fourth variation of a shawl for this yarn. All the others were too shallow with very, very long tails. The pattern used in #6 is my own creation of CO 5 and 4 increases at the beginning and end of every row (as yarn overs) until you get to your length. (Note: Wanting to be sure this shawl didn't "grow" long tails, I ended my length before the stitches filled the 32" US 13 needles above. However, even though I'm now knitting with no increases, you can see that the stitches are bunched up. Beats me why this happens.) Once you reach your length, work straight but with a YO, K2tog or SSK at each end to keep the lace look without increasing.

I have high hopes for this project. More next week. And also next week: remember the ruffled yarn which is so hot? I was working out a pattern to make it into a shawl (no success) and I think I've discovered an oh-so-easy way to work it into a scarf - no counting, or measuring inches. More on this next week also.

See you then. Happy knitting.