Almost a month ago I posted about some December knitting goals.
Turns out I have had even less time since finishing my assignments and classes for the term on 7 Dec than while I was still attending class. I managed to cram a lot of knitting time in last term. But now that I'm free, so to speak, I've been spending a lot of time running around trying to get miscellaneous things done, like fitting in extra hours at work, wrapping up my practicum, organizing a secret santa gift and assorted clues, and getting enough sleep. So there hasn't been much knitting. I did finish that pair of socks, and one endpaper mitt, but as far as finishing off either of the sweaters I pictured in that Nov goals post, it just hasn't happened. And there's no point in bringing nearly finished projects with me on my train ride, as they're not a good use of space. Hopefully January will be better for doing the finishing on those pieces.
So what am I bringing on the train, then? Well, I'm hopefully going to be ready to work on the lace border of Jared Flood's Bridgewater Shawl. I swatched two lace repeats...
And looked at the oversized garter square I'd come out of the first stages with... and multiplied out the edge lengths and figured I'd better pick up more stitches than the pattern calls for, because the whole thing is coming out so huge. I hope this doesn't come back to bite me, but I know when I knit the Hemlock blanket I couldn't block that thing out to drape as nicely as everyone else's. Frustrating.
Instead of picking up 153 sts per side (my piece isn't even a square, because of my row and st gauge not being equal...), it looked like I'd better pick up 203 per side. The lace patt is a multiple of 10 plus 3. And when I worked around at picking up the sts it worked out more nicely to do 203, 193, 203, 193 - that would be the slightly varying lengths showing their colors. Of course I counted around last night to see if I'd really picked up the numbers I wanted, and they're off a bit on a couple of sides. It's so many ridiculous sts to count that I'm not worried, I'll take it with me to a friend's place this afternoon to work on and see how I get on with the lace chart. I will fudge the sts to make it work, and really hope that I can get the first round going correctly so that it's good train knitting, not too stressful. I have gotten miles better at reading my own lace so that I can tell if I've missed a YO or something and just need to pick it up from the row below rather than backing up 800 sts to fix the problem. Can you imagine?
And I have a backup small project in case the lace becomes too much: a single skein of Malabrigo laceweight in olive that I have been struggling to find a good pattern for, and a copy of a new Knitty shawl pattern, Citron:
I'm not even going to swatch. I'm just going to enjoy the Malabrigo.
Oh, yes, you were wondering about the answer to the riddle I posted before? Think you know the answer?
....
(just giving you the chance to go back to the previous post and see the riddle before you see the answer...)
...
Turns out I have had even less time since finishing my assignments and classes for the term on 7 Dec than while I was still attending class. I managed to cram a lot of knitting time in last term. But now that I'm free, so to speak, I've been spending a lot of time running around trying to get miscellaneous things done, like fitting in extra hours at work, wrapping up my practicum, organizing a secret santa gift and assorted clues, and getting enough sleep. So there hasn't been much knitting. I did finish that pair of socks, and one endpaper mitt, but as far as finishing off either of the sweaters I pictured in that Nov goals post, it just hasn't happened. And there's no point in bringing nearly finished projects with me on my train ride, as they're not a good use of space. Hopefully January will be better for doing the finishing on those pieces.
So what am I bringing on the train, then? Well, I'm hopefully going to be ready to work on the lace border of Jared Flood's Bridgewater Shawl. I swatched two lace repeats...
And looked at the oversized garter square I'd come out of the first stages with... and multiplied out the edge lengths and figured I'd better pick up more stitches than the pattern calls for, because the whole thing is coming out so huge. I hope this doesn't come back to bite me, but I know when I knit the Hemlock blanket I couldn't block that thing out to drape as nicely as everyone else's. Frustrating.
Instead of picking up 153 sts per side (my piece isn't even a square, because of my row and st gauge not being equal...), it looked like I'd better pick up 203 per side. The lace patt is a multiple of 10 plus 3. And when I worked around at picking up the sts it worked out more nicely to do 203, 193, 203, 193 - that would be the slightly varying lengths showing their colors. Of course I counted around last night to see if I'd really picked up the numbers I wanted, and they're off a bit on a couple of sides. It's so many ridiculous sts to count that I'm not worried, I'll take it with me to a friend's place this afternoon to work on and see how I get on with the lace chart. I will fudge the sts to make it work, and really hope that I can get the first round going correctly so that it's good train knitting, not too stressful. I have gotten miles better at reading my own lace so that I can tell if I've missed a YO or something and just need to pick it up from the row below rather than backing up 800 sts to fix the problem. Can you imagine?
And I have a backup small project in case the lace becomes too much: a single skein of Malabrigo laceweight in olive that I have been struggling to find a good pattern for, and a copy of a new Knitty shawl pattern, Citron:
I'm not even going to swatch. I'm just going to enjoy the Malabrigo.
Oh, yes, you were wondering about the answer to the riddle I posted before? Think you know the answer?
....
(just giving you the chance to go back to the previous post and see the riddle before you see the answer...)
...
it was lovely seeing you - and your beautiful shawl-in-progress! looking forward to the next knit-along, hopefully with beige joining us!
ReplyDeletemiss you!