gallery

River

  

Oh yeah, she's done!

The results, though, I'm quite happy with.

Specs

Pattern River by Sharon Miller in Rowan 38
Yarn KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud 100% Baby Alpaca in Tidepool. Approx 350 yards.
Needles 5mm (US 8) Bryspun circs
Mods & Thoughts

• The needles -- I wanted to like them, I really did. The cord is amazing. I could sit and play with the cord, bending it this way and that. It's a great tactile experience. I even really like the way the needles feel in my hand. Their points are nice -- not too sharp, not too dull. But, I don't like their lack of weight. Would I use them again? Probably not.
• Number of repeats I did 14 or 15 repeats instead of 11. I could have done 1 or 2 more but I just wanted this thing to be over!
• Yarn This is very nice yarn, and for the price this is amazing yarn. It gets a tad fuzzy -- sorta like a mohair halo -- and is wonderfully soft.
• Blocking This was so quick to block! It went from a big puddle of yarn (pic on the left) to a lovely undulating lacy thing (pic on the right) in just a couple hours. The hardest part was finding a place to pin it out that had a fan and could be Isabella-free until it dried. In the end a spray bottle of water ensured the latter. poor Isabella

I sub'd a non-mohair yarn because I wanted to make something that I could wear everyday. I think I succeeded. In the pic above I'm wearing it with my denim jacket. I know you don't see the intricacies of the lace but I'm OK with that. I'm not a traditional lace-wearing sorta girl. I like knitting lace though, so this is a perfect compromise. I get to knit it and wear it.

I could have picked a color with more contrast (maybe one of the light blue shades?) but green is my favorite color.

I finished this thing just in time. This weekend is was windy and in the 30s, and my lacy alpaca scarf was just the ticket to keeping me warm without feeling like a bundled up kid during the first snow
storm of the season.

Read the full archives on this project

Jaywalker Socks

      

Specs

Pattern Jaywalker. 84 stitch sock at 9 spi (pattern recommended just under 8 spi but I liked the yarn better at 9).
Yarn Tess Super Socks in an unknown coloway (if I had to guess I'd say Confetti). Is it just me or does Tess not mark the hanks with the colorway?
Yardage I used 80 grams which translates to approximately 360 yards.
Needles 2-2.5mm/US 1 Addi Turbos

Mods

I made several small mods to the pattern.

• I used a tubular cast-on and did a 1x1 rib instead of a 2x2 rib at the top.
• I used 2 circs instead of DPNs. The pattern adjusted to the circs just fine, but you did need to think about where to split between the 2 circs. Because of the way the pattern increases and decreases you need to split the circs right where 2 increases occur. In order to do this and still have the pattern look right you also need to do the first increase at the end of needle 2 (so the increases are right next to each other). I don't know if I'm explaining this well, but leave a comment if this doesn't make sense. It's not critical that you split the needles this way, but if you don't you'll have to reshuffle stitches every 7 or 8 rows.
• Garter stitch short row heel. I didn't follow any pattern for this so I'm not sure I did this correctly. I wrapped all but 9 sts for the 84 stitch sock. When going to pickup the wraps I had to pickup the WS wraps differently. This surprised me at first since it's garter st. On the WS rows I lifted the wraps off of the stitch that it wrapped. So from right to left my left-hand needle had 2 wraps and then the stitch itself. Then I did a sssk (knitted all 3 together). This formed the best-looking RS. If anyone knows of a better way to pickup wraps on the WS of garter stitch please let me know!
• Once I finished the heel I needed to decrease a bit. So I added in a 3-stitch gusset. The first 3 rows after I finished the heel included the double decreases at the sides. After that I did a SSK or K2tog just like the pattern says.

Thoughts on the yarn

This yarn is a dream to knit with! I can't believe I've had Tess sock yarn in my stash for a year! It is very stretchy and with 20% nylon I expect it will hold up well. There was a considerable difference in softness once I washed them. I washed the first sock as soon as I was done and you could really tell which one had been washed. The yarn did lose some magenta color when washing but I only knew that because of the color of the water. The yarn itself remained vivid.

Mistake Rib Scarf

Pattern Mistake Rib: CO 23. Every Row: *K2 P2* to last 3 sts, K2 P1. Slip first stitch of each row knitwise.

Yarn Knit Picks Decadence 100% Superfine Alpaca in Winter Berry. 2 full hanks (242 yards) for scarf and approx 30 yards for fringe.

Needles 6mm/US 10. I started with my Boyes because I love knitting narrow items on my straights. But, the point of the needle combined with the loose spin of the yarn caused extra splitting. I switched out to Addi circs and it was better. Even still, the US 10s killed my hands and I took several days off before knitting the last portion of this scarf.

Size 71 inches long without fringe and 6 inches wide. In my opinion this is a perfect length for a scarf. It's longer than I usually do and I love it. The width will probably decrease 1-1.5 inches with wear if it's anything like my mistake rib scarf.