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.

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.

Swachity

The Camera has been found!
As previously mentioned, I did a test swatch for Veniza using yarn from my stash. I had this wonderful multicolor yarn, Yarntreehouse Melody 2, that C gave me for Christmas. I was swaching for another project when I realized that the yarn was the right gauge and stickiness for a color work fingerling weight project. I grabbed some grey palette, leftover from my Endpaper Mitts and used the computer to make the charts easier to read in two colors. I like how the two yarns work up together, but I am going to go with a different color for the actual sweater. I ordered 5 skeins of the Palette bare (2200 yards) and a set of size 2 circular needles this afternoon, and I should get the package in the next week or so, and then I will cast on.

I've also swached and cast on for Knitty's Isabella in some green sports weight wool from the stash. I don't know if this is going to work out to a wearable item for summer in Texas, but it gives me a shawl break until the other yarn shows up. I did alter the directions a bit and did a provisional cast on using Knit and Tonic's tutorial posted earlier this week. However, apparently in the YoK2tog row, I dropped a stitch. At first, I paniced, raced to find a crochet hook to fix the damage, and then realized that this is going to be on the inside of the back of the sweater. No one will ever see it.
Picking up the stitches was a bit time consuming. and my spar size 2 needle is bent, so that made for an awkward lying project prior to knitting the rows together. But the actual knitting two together didn't take that long.







And in the end, I had a nice, scallopy finished edge... Except for where I forgot a YO on the turning row.







I've still been plunging away on the Cap Shawl, or the Cotton Candy Shawl, since the posters on the Victorian Lace Along have said it reminds them of the sticky sweet fluff. I am on chart two, about 103 rows in, and have 70 rows plus the edging left to go. I am still on the first ball of yarn, and I'm quiet certain that I will have more than enough yarn to finish her. I did have a moment of panic with her this evening as I was switching over to a longer circular needle. I stretched her out to see her full size... without putting protection on the needle ends, and had 10 stitches fall off the needle. Visions of the Peacock Feather Shawl falling of the needle, and the resulting Frog of 3 weeks worth of work flashed through my mind as I bent over to examine the damage. Everything that fell off was a section of YoK2tog's, and I lost the yo's (no biggie) and one K2tog dropped back one row. I think I did an ok job of picking up the stitches, re-knitting the stitches with a crochet hook, and when this baby is blocked out, I don't think anyone will be the wiser.
*Phew*

I've been swatching...

I have been making some progress on the Cap Shawl. I am on the last row before I start Chart 2, which the first few rows will be more of the same. I am maybe 1/4 of the way done with the body and starting to get a little bored with this. While the Cap Shawl has been the only official WIP since Sunday, I have been working on doing some swatching for future projects:

While swatching again to Knit Lucie with the YarnTreehouse Melody that C gave me for Christmas, I realized that it was a fingerling weight yarn, that was sticking to itself rather well. So I had the idea grab a ball of leftover Palette and do a quick swatch for Venezia... They worked well together, and as soon as payday hits, I'm going to order 6 balls of KP Fingerling Bear to pair with it.
What, you want to see a picture... um, DS hid the camera on Sunday, and as soon as I find it...

I also did a swatch for Isabella using left over Brown Sheep Natura Sport from Cromarity. I got gague on size 2, and cast on last night. I am modifying the pattern a bit. How it is written, you knit the hem, and later go back and sew it down. I had the bright idea to knit the hem down (like in the Venezia pattern), and cast on with a provincial cast on. I am one row past the turning row, and it looks like instead of doing k2tog's for the hem, I'll have to p2tog across 141 stitches. Oh Joy.

My parents are taking C all this weekend for my Dad's birthday present, so aside from the normal house and yard work, I should have plenty of knitting time.

I need a Vacation after my Vacation!

Its been a super busy week. Last weekend DH and I did yard work, and ripped out our old shrubbery and their root systems, on Monday, we planted nine new rosemary plants in their place. They don't look like much now, but they should fill out later this year and be a nice, pleasant smelling hedge by fall.







Tuesday and Wednesday were spent painting and re-arranging C's room. We went from boring white to brilliant blue, with a wall of sunny yellow. We also finally moved his crib out of our room, and into his room. We are working on sleeping in his room, C will spend half the night there, but will come looking for us around midnight. Where his crib was in our room is now a sitting/reading/knitting nook that is too far from the bedroom TV to be of much use.

Friday we took C to the Dallas Zoo. While it is much nicer than I remember it being from 15 years ago, it is still a crappy zoo. But I have been spoiled by the Ft. Worth Zoo,which is one of the top zoo's in the south, and by seeing the Singapore Zoo last March, which is one of the top 5 zoos in the world.

I also finished knitting the neck and sleeve bands of the Deep V. Jenny Raye asked where and why the green yarn shown in my last photo of it came from, and while I could try to explain it, Eunny did a great job on explaining the use of the crocheted steek here. In fact, that article was written while she was designing the Deep V.
All that left is to wash and block her, but since we are going to be wet and muggy here for the next few days, I'm going to hold off a bit.


I've also made progress on the pink blob that shall transform to the Cap Shawl. It is so hard to photograph the details of this shawl, but the yok2g pattern spirals from the center like a flower. I love working with the Misti Alpaca so much, I hope that in the end she blocks out close to the original measurements in the book. This is currently my only WIP, and I will probably work on this solo for the next week or so, but plans might change.

Ahhh... Vacation

DH and I start a week of Spring Break this week, but I have been productive during the last work week. I finished seaming and blocking the PBSJ: But since I have been unable to get a half way decent mirror shot, the final photos of it will have to wait until DH is back from his D&D game.

I am now 78 rows into the Deep V Argyle Vest, and almost to the arm steaks:

See, I figured out how to rotate photos

I hope to get almost done with the vest this week. I am still having fun doing the stranded color work, and I think I am ready to progress to a "real" Fair Isle sweater done at a smaller gauge. The diamond pattern is much easier to see onscreen than in person. I wonder why that is.

I also started the Cap shawl no 4 DPN's, and just today had enough stitches to transfer to a circular needle I love how the center of this looks like a flower. You can see where the DPN's put extra stress on the stitches (marked by the yellow and green stitch markers), but I have hopes that this will block out. I am almost done with the first chart, and to the "uncharted" area where you add a Yo, K2tog every 4 rows.

In addition to all the knitting I have planned for this week, we are also going to buy and plant new shrubbery, take the lawn mower in to be fixed, paint C's room and bathroom, and take C to the zoo.

Have a good knitting week!

March Madness has struck...

Go Mean Green!

UNT has made it into the NCAA playoffs!

DH took care of bath and putting C to bed last night, so I had real knitting time. I got a few more rows done on the Deep V, I started the neck steak, and am on the first row of decreases/increase after that. I'm probably 1/2 way done with the sweater, considering that after this the rows get smaller and will go much faster, and I am at a point where I need to move to smaller needles already.

I also cast on for the Cap Shawl. After quiet a few mistakes with the cast on instructions in the book, I googled for better instructions, and found Eunny's tutorial. I am about 12 rows in, not much, but it is addictive, and I hope to get much more of this shawl done over the next week while DH and I are off for spring break.

What do

A knitting project your only "ho hum" about,

A huge mistake a few rows back

and a case PMS from hell

have in common?

The Alpine Knit Scarf taking a trip to the frog pond. Of course this happened before I remembered to get any photos of it.

I will re-knit it, but on size 2 needles instead of my 4's. Straights it is.

But first, I think I will give the Cap Shawl from VLT a shot.