Roseraie Shawl and Russian Knitting

I wasn't able to get the big guy to sit on it, if fact he still hasn't since it was finished, but here is what has been keeping me distracted, in a good way, from the Slithering scarf all May.

It's called Roseraie and it was a text knit from a Revelry group. Well, testing is done and the pattern can be purchased here.

This was a great pattern, I think it turned out really well. For the most part it was easy enough to knit at my knitting group where there are some who do more talking than knitting. I also worked on it at home with A, who is now five and very chatty. Everything went fine until I got to the edging. It wasn't exactly difficult, but you can't play dolls and knit this edge, though it is fine to knit while watching TV.

My shawl turned out to be a great size for me. I used size 8 needles and my handspun Jacob and Icelandic yarn from when I first got my wheel. The Jacob was still a bit rough, but I was advised to put some hair conditioner into the water when I washed it, and it did yep to soften it up quite a bit!

I didn't count the gauge since no one will be able to use the yarn again, but the yarn was generally somewhere between DK and worsted. When I blocked it, it spread across most of my queen sized bed. Again, it will make a great shawl for me, and I'm usually a size 8.

Another fun thing about this shawl was that I did the bottom two grey sections with the Russian knitting and purling techniques. I had read about this method a bit on Crafts, and then found these videos on YouTube.

Working this way was interesting, and worked great for the bigger section where it is mostly stockinette. The purling was a bit faster, as advertised, but you have to be aware that using the Russian method will change how your stitches lie on the needles. You have to use the Russian method on a whole project not just on the pure rows, or you'll end up twisting all of your stitches. I think it may have also changed the directions of my decreases, but that will need further trials and inspection with a lighter colored yarn.

It was a great method that I would like to use again for projects with a lot of straight stockinette, like for the Moscow Coat that I will get back to someday, but for projects like this, especially where there are a lot of specific decreases, I think it best to stick to English or Continental, that's how most patterns are written.

Overall, it was a great project. I was happy to use my handspun, work a new pattern that gave me a nice sized shawl and worked fairly quickly, and try a new technique.

Slytherin Strikes Again

Still chugging away at it, but I think I am getting pretty close. I was talking to a friend who has knit some of these huge unending scarves before, hers was Dr. Who, and she said she made a graph of how much she would knit each day.
I have made a goal of 20 rows a day, and since Saturday I've been doing alright with that number, in fact, I've done about 30 each day. By my calculations, with 20 rows a day I should finish in about a week, but clearly if I can do more... but let's not get our hopes up, that's just how hearts get broken. Anyway, my hope is to be done in the next two weeks or so.

 

So here is my first graph of knitting. We'll see if I can make the bars green for next week. 

Because my yarn matches my cat

Here is a shawl I am working on, because when your current projects are taking forever to finish, the logical thing to do is to start something new right? Anyway, I had to take a picture of it on my cat because he matches my yarn. He was not amused by these pictures...

I am making this out of the first yarns I spun on my wheel. Yeah, after some time and more experience, now that I'm working with it again, I realize how bad it was. Oh well, we all have to start somewhere right?

Also, this yarn isn't exactly soft. The grey is Jacob and the white is Icelandic, but the pattern fit my yardage well, and it does look nice together.

Hopefully, I'll be able to persuade the cat to lay on it when it is all done, and we will be able to compare colors once again!

Fiber Club!

This Slytherin scarf is sucking out my will to live knit, spin, or do anything fiber related. Fortunately, I have found a little pick me up: I joined a fiber club! Paradise Fibers has a lovely fiber club, and I just got my first package. It contained 4 ounces of dyed merino/silk, 4 ounces of dyed mixed wool, and 3 ounces of undyed baby alpaca.

The merino/silk is going to be interesting as it plies since it currently looks like my 5 year old's crayon bin, the kind where all the crayons are just thrown together. It's got some really pretty colors, but they are all over the place and there sure are a lot of them.

The dyed  wool is beautifully dyed in shades on pinks, reds, and purples. It's pretty fine top as it is, so I'm planning on just spinning it in one long single and then chain plying it, or maybe even leaving it as a single. I wanted to try to get something a bit thicker, so we'll see. Chain plying will certainly be thicker, but I would like enough yardage to do something with it, and I want thicker singles and don't want to end up with massively thick yarn. I guess it's a decision I will have to make later.

The baby alpaca is, well, baby alpaca. It isn't quite soft enough to not know when you're touching it, but it's pretty close (yes I have felt something that was that soft... it was a rabbit). Actually upon further examination, the loose ends are soft enough to fool the nerve endings at the tips of my fingers. Not sure what is in store for this, maybe some wrist warmers...

 

 

Whatever gets made with these, one thing is clear. That scarf needs to get finished, so I can finish spinning what is currently on my wheel, so I can start these!