FO: The Cap Shawl

Its finally done! After 7 weeks, and one big frogging incident, I am finally finished with the Cap Shawl.

With the magic of Blocking, the shawl went from this: To this:
Pattern: The Cap Shawl from Victorian Lace Today

Yarn: Misti Alpaca Lace, three balls

Needles: Knit Picks Options size 4, the two standard size cords that came with the pack, plus 4 size 4 Susan Bates DPN's.

Size: Blocked out to 5 feet, which is smaller than the one in the book, but since I downsized both the yarn and needles, I'm happy with the size.

Time: A little over 7 weeks.

What I learned: Circular cast on and circular shawl construction. I loved working on this shawl, since it was (mostly) comprised of knit stitches. There were a few rows of purl stitches on the outer edge that drove me crazy, and I did leave one row off completely.

Pinning it out was less of a hassle than I expected it to be. One of my tape measures had a hole at the start that I was able to pin in the center and I used that to get all my points to the same length

Just a few more pictures before I close.

(Pardon the bad hair and the big gut)

Which will be done first?

The endless edging of the Cap Shawl, or my ball of yarn.

This edging is taking forever. Besides the mass frogging incident of last Friday, I lost an entire nights knitting on Tuesday due to the massive storms that hit Denton, leaving us without power when we got home from work, and later when the thunder kept waking C up, and I curled up with him so he wouldn't be scared.
I was sure I would be done last night, but no, I have two repeats of the edging left. Uggg. If I didn't know better, I'd think malicious elves or gnomes were coming into our house at night to frog this piece, and put everything back on the needles.
I have very little yarn left in this ball of yarn, but I think it might be enough to get through the shawl. If not, I still have the fourth ball of yarn.
Barring an act of God, the knitting of the shawl will be done tonight, but I might hold off on the grafting and blocking until tomorrow when C is at his grandparents.

Knitty Surprises are up. I think I really like Leaf, and might have to cast on for it tonight. I think I have yarn that will work, even if I have to knit a smaller size for someone else.
I also like Airetta, but is it wrong of me to wish they had fair-isle instructions as well? Mosaic knitting just looks to fussy for me. I can't see myself knitting the other two patterns, so they won't be mentioned.

Out of Time Out...

Saturday morning I left the Cap Shawl sitting in DS's time out spot to remind me that I was taking a break from it. I forgot to move the shawl before DH's buddies came over Saturday night for gaming, and B** went and sat on the cushion, on the shawl, and started eating a sub there, getting lettuce all over my alpaca softness.

He couldn't understand WHY I was telling him to get up, I guess he didn't see the pale pink fluff before he sat down on the black seat, but still..

**Grr**

There was no further harm done to the cap shawl with his actions.

I spent most of the weekend working on Venezia, and have managed to get quiet a bit done on here. I am on the second repeat of the chart, and it is taking me less than half an hour to do each 300 stitch row (again, why can't I stick to a diet long enough to be able to knit a smaller size?). I did give the Cap shawl some attention yesterday, and have 4 more repeats done. I think if I can keep up with doing 4 repeats a day (don't know about tonight, I have WW WI), then I should have it done by Thursday.

Thursday seems to be a milestone day with this shawl. I started on a Thursday, began chart 2 on a Thursday, and started the edging on a Thursday, so I guess its right that I finish and cast on on Thursday. She will be blocked on Saturday one way or another. C is spending the night/weekend with my parents, so I can devote all my attention to the shawl, and take over his bedroom floor for blocking.

DISASTER!!!!!

I was closing in on the home stretch of the Cap Shawl last night, when I spread it out to get an idea of how big it was(n't) going to be.

And then I noticed...

8 edging repeats back, over 240 rows, and 4 hours of knitting ago...

I had missed one of the stitches where you attached the edging to the shawl...

and there was a huge hole.

AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH

I called DH in from the other room to bring me my tiny crochet hook, and to hold my hand and wind the yarn as I began to frog back.

Progress was slow since I had to recapture the live stitches of the shawl. Some of them laddered back one row, ok most of them, but I didn't care at the time. I had to get to the hole before it became unfixable.

Rip-it
rip-it
rip-it

With an occasional pause to put the live stitches back on the needle so I wouldn't have a bigger disaster.
I got to the end and found only one stitch had laddered back, but since it started at an eyelet, I was able to fix it with the hook. I'm going to have to fix the ladders as I work on the shawl, but for now, all is fixed.

In the light of day, it sunk in. I was almost done with the edging, I could have finished it today or tomorrow, instead, I had to rip out two days worth of work.

The Cap Shawl has been flung aside in disgust for now....



I will come back to her soon, but right now the pain is too fresh.
I will spend the rest of the weekend working on Venezia.

This edging is going slower than I thought...

For some silly reason, I thought that it would be no problem to get through at least 7 repeats of the edging each day, which would mean having a FO in a week.

WRONG!

Each repeat is taking a little over 30 minutes (I must be a slow knitter if it takes me a minute to do a 17 stitch or less row), most of it comes from the rows that get smaller. In desperation last night, I hunted up the knitty tutorial and taught myself to knit backwards.

While it was a bit awkward at first, and takes about the same time to do a row as purling would, I am saving time by not flipping the shawl every minute.

I should reach the half way point this weekend, and unless my parents kidnap C this weekend, have a FO early next week.

Venezia is currently lunch knitting only, a row a day, and super slow progress.

Living on the Edge

* Grrr Some days I hate blogger, and the lack of copy/paste*


















I have made it to the edge of Venezia! There are 49 repeats of the edging, and so far I have 8 done. The chart is really easy, and I don't have to look at the chart any more.

Right now I am thinking I might have a FO by the end of next weekend...

That is, if I don't get too distracted by Venezia.



















I think I'm addicted to two color knitting! Since we got in on Sunday night, the only thing I have wanted to work on was Venezia. Don't let the picture use fool you, I am only using two colors of yarn, but the Yarntree house Melody has a slow variegation to it which makes me think it is perfect for my "fake-isle" sweater. It took a few tries to get a photo that was clear enough to show everything, but I'm more than happy with how this is turning out so far.


Tomorrow the weather is supposed to warm up, and DH, C and I are going to get dress up, head out, and meet my family at Scarbrough Faire. Turkey legs and fried ice cream, here I come.

Testing

I've been messing around with the template and commits section for a while, and I'm just testing things out right now.

I've upgrade to HeloScan, and can't read any of my old commits, but should be able to respond to newer commits now.

*sigh*

ok.

Still Sick

Have spent the last two days sitting on the couch going "Shoot Me" and knitting in a sleepless haze. I got through a lot of the plain purl rows on the Cap Shawl, I have 2 1/2 rows left of purl, one row of knit (738 stitches per row) and then the edging that will never end. Actually, looking at the edging, it looks like each repeat is longer than the Print O the Wave Stole, but each row is shorter, so it should only take two weeks if I push myself.

I'm about six rows into the color work of Venezia, and right now it looks like the 46' size is going to be too big. I want to finish a few more rows an try it on again to see if it tightened up after I switched to color work. I don't want to have the same problem that SuperStitch had with hers, so if I catch it now, I can fix/modify it before I want to pull my hair out.

Photos soon. DH still has the camera in his backpack at work.

"I don't need to pack another ball of yarn"

The cap shawl has been growing by leaps and bounds. The second chart has been so much more interesting than the first part of the shawl, and the fact I didn't have anything else on the needles helped me get through the long, long rows in 10 days. That and a 6 hour long car trip each way, where DH drove half and I drove the second half, to go visit MIL for Easter. I don't know what I was thinking while I was packing my bag, because normally I am overly obsessive about bringing extra yarn, books, hobby of the month stuff to keep me busy in the boondocks of the Texas Panhandle. I don't know what I was thinking this time. Probably that the first ball of yarn took me over 3 weeks to knit up, and I had just started the second ball of yarn last Sunday, but sure enough, we get halfway down the road and I realise that I have about 1/2 of a ball (about 100 yards or so) left. The delima was to knit to my hearts content to drown out the boredom of the Panhandle, or to knit conservatively so I would have yarn for the drive home. Knitting to my hearts content won out, and the knitting bag was packed away in my suitcase for the drive home. Thank goodness I had a book that I am only halfway interested in thrown in my bag as an afterthought. I have finished the pattern part of chart 2 for the cap shawl. Now I have 9 rows of either pure knit or pure purl left, with 738 stitches per row. Slow going for now. After that, I have the border left. 49 repeats of a 30 row border. I need to learn how to knit backwards fast.
I did have my shipment from Knit Picks waiting for me when we got back last night. It was hard to decide between knitting the long plain rows of the Cap Shawl or casting on for Venezia. Venezia won out, but I plan to be done with the body of the Cap Shawl before the end of next weekend. I am almost done with the facing on the hem, and will take some pictures after I start the color work.
C and I were both feeling down this morning, so we stayed home. He was down all morning, but after a long (3 hour +) nap this afternoon, he was his normal Toddler of Terror self. Me, my head is still killing me, and I am having drainage from heck, but back to work tomorrow. Have to pay for the yarn habit and the house.

FO: Deep V Argyle Vest

Pattern: Deep V Argyle Vest by Eunny Jang
Yarn: Knit Picks Merino Style in Honey and Storm, about 10 balls total
Needles: Knit Picks Options, size 5
Size: 44inch bust
Start to Finish: About 3 weeks.
New Techniques learned: Stranded knitting on a larger scale, Steaks.

The top of the vest turned out way to big for me. I probably should have switched to a smaller size after the end of the waist decreases. I don't know if I will wear it much, but I think I am pleased with it.

I do plan to do another Fair Isle type project soon.

What was I thinking?

When I cast on for a summery, short sleeved tank top in wool yarn?

Isabella has been frogged.

I really want to knit this pattern, but it will have to wait until I finish the Cap shawl or after I get tired of working on Venezia. This time, however, I will buy the proper cotton yarn to knit with.

*Shakes head*

Crazy.

I finally blocked the Deep V Argyle vest, and with all the rain and humidity, she should be dry later this week, and ready for her close-up.