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Knitting Friday
There are pictures today. Not very good ones, but pictures. Early this a.m., I was cruising to find a winter scarf to knit or crochet. Surprisingly, a Ravelry pattern search of "winter scarf" produced a lot of lacy ones. I did bookmark a lace sampler scarf for future use and I'll probably modify an all-cable, reversible scarf since the cables look "tight" and I want loose and cuddly.
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| #1 Bowtie Pi |
Most of my projects, except for my always unfinished crochet thread lace shawls, are winding down and I think I'm getting "itchy" for more work.
This finished shawl, left, has quite a history. It's made with 2 regular skeins of No. 10 crochet thread but the picture shows its second life. Originally, it was a variation of my "work to length, then just work without increases" shawl but, with that, I didn't have enough thread left to work an edging along the top and sides. Without edging in that shape, the shawl looked wonky. I was very, very lucky that the whole thing was willing to be frogged easily (just frogged a wool lace shawl where I had a lot of splicing areas since the lace snapped.) With its second life as a Bowtie Pi shawl, above, it really doesn't need an edging, though one always adds some splash. With the BP, I had enough thread to work an edging around the sides and top of the shawl: In every chain space around, using an F hook: *Ch 5, sc in next sp.* I did the edging after the picture above was taken but it's a defined edging; that is, you can see it, it doesn't bunch into the shawl stitch. That's one project done.
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| #2 Shawl w/rat |
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| #3 After blocking |
Pic #2 shows a shawl with a rat though I have no idea why DH thought a rat should pose with it. I adore this shawl and I'm thinking it may become that mythical shawl which is a shawl, a scarf, a blanket, a pillow. You're looking at the pre-blocked picture (#2) and you can see from the next picture #(3) that blocking grew the shawl. It went from fitting easily on the dining room table to extending way over both ends (100" x 23"). Here's a picture of the stitch definition before blocking (#4):
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| # 4 Shawl stitch |
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sherbet-wrap
I think it's probably the only pattern in the history of the world where I made no modifications. That's high praise!
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| #5 Tranquil Shawl |
In picture #5, you see a swatch I'm fooling with now. It's Lion Brand's crocheted Tranquil Wrap:
It's an easy crochet and this one I am modifying. I end and begin each row with a ch 4 (not at ch 3) or a TRC (not at DC.) I think this helps give stretchiness to the edges. Plus you can see in #5, in the row just up from the bottom, there's a row of TRC. The pattern calls for DC but I like the TRC and I'm thinking about doing repeats of that row in HDC, perhaps extended DC. Who knows.
And finally, in the variegated shawl in pic #1, I finished my first ball of thread in the middle of a row and with thread, there is no good way to hide joining in the middle of an open work row. Then I remembered a discussion on Ravelry of the magic knot. Here's the video link:
This is an amazing method for joining yarn. I have yet to read a negative comment on it. She has to tugging the knot hard before you restart your work so you'll know right away if there's a mistake. It's a boon for crochet since those stitches hide a lot of "mistakes" normally and joining in the middle of a row always saves on yardage. With knitting, I would think long and hard before I used this in the middle of a row in plain stockinette since that stitch loves to show all imperfections. But do learn the magic knot. I think you'll be as happy as I was.
That's it for today. See you next week. Happy knitting.
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