Trish Knits.com

Tag: scarf

  • Unfaithful

    Flame Chevron Pattern up close

    Time to ‘fess up! You know how I’ve been going on and on about my rainbow baby blanket for months and months? Well, I’ve been cheating. You see, the blanket is so big now that it’s not really a carry-along project anymore. So I’ve been carrying along the beginnings of a wide lace scarf done in the Flame Chevron stitch pattern by Barbara Walker. I did carry this very same ball of yarn around in Disney in August, and I did start to knit this project then, but I had many false starts before finally getting the hang of it. It’s going well now, except that I am finding knitting on this project to be something of a guilty pleasure. I know I should be finishing the baby blanket, and to be honest I don’t know why it’s not finished yet! I have completely lost my mojo with that blanket and I only have about three rows left. (Oh yeah, it’s the finishing. I almost forgot.)

    The scarf/stole is knit with Lisa Souza’s Sock! Merino in the Emerald City colorway. Have I ever mentioned how much I l-o-o-o-o-v-e this yarn? Berry Pwetty!

    Twisted Sisters

    twistedsisters.jpg

    This week I have received the book, The Twisted Sisters Knit Sweaters: A Knit-to-Fit Workshop, by Lynne Vogel. What a concept! The concept is that with a little figuring and knowing your gauge, you can plan and knit your sweaters so that they always fit. There is a a lengthy section on gauge and measurements, and a worksheet is included where you can copy it, then write down all of the needed measurements and calculations. Then there is a schematic for every design so you really can see how the project comes together as it is knit. It explains various neckline options and sleeve options. It looks like a really cool workshop that can really help one go to the next level of knitting an idea instead of a pattern.

    The only drawback? I find that I don’t really like the designs in this book. But, it is chock full of enough information that I should be able to take the info they give and run with it. Someday, that is, if I ever knit a sweater. I’m still chicken. Wish me luck.

  • My UFO Hall of Shame…


    Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

    These are the ones for which I have evidence, anyway…

    • My first cabled poncho was made from Alafoss Lopi–can you say itchy? I was a young knitter and didn’t know better. Plus I didn’t know yet how to make mirrored increases and so my increases look yucky. Rhoda says I should felt it a little and make it into a bag. Maybe I will… someday.
    • Clapotis #1–I made this with a kettle dyed yarn and even in the same lot the color variance is huge. I should have varied the skeins more as I went but I didn’t and now all I have left is the yarn that doesn’t match. Sigh.
    • Alison’s Poncho–This is my most shameful UFO to date. I am so regretful that I didn’t finish it but I may yet one day. It’s huge, so hard to lug out and work on. Ponchos will be 10 years out of fashion. Worse yet? This was a gift. And the recipient knew about it. And the yarn was expensive. Sigh.
    • Cables and Eyelets Baby Blanket — by Nancy Hearne. I started this one for the baby of a former daycare teacher of my son. Kept losing stitches here and there, and lost my mojo.
    • Clapotis #2– I started this skinnier one a couple of years ago when my dad was dying… knit on it a lot in waiting rooms. Can’t finish it.
    • Latifa — I like this one, I really do. But I made the first ruffle with too small of a needle and it’s too puny for my taste. I just need to take a pair of scissors to the ruffle and well, you know…
    • My son’s “Thomas and James” scarf — Mommy guilt! I’ll finish it this year. I must.
    • Cables and Eyelets Scarf — Too much of a good thing maybe? I fell out of love with this project.

    There are many others started but not completed. Quite a few that for whatever reason, I never photographed. Someday I will dig them out.

    Many of my UFOs are projects that I have no intention of finishing at this point. Do I keep them? Or throw them out? What about the unused yarn that went with each of those projects? What’s a girl to do?

    Sigh…

  • See? My Trip to Disney DOES Have Knitting Content!

    Mr. and Mrs. Incredible admire my knitting

    I just got back from a fabulous vacation to Walt Disney World. I had been in line, like a doting mother, taking a photo of Diana with Mr. and Mrs. Incredible, when the Mr. motioned for me to come over for a photo. Their “handler” chick had been admiring my yarn while we were waiting in line, and as I went up for the photo, she mentioned to Mr. Incredible that I was knitting a scarf! So there he was, guy with big plastic head, trying to look really impressed through his immovable face. Kinda reminded me of the reactions I get when I show my knitting to most of the real people I know! Muggles! All of them. Sigh.

    While on vacation I did get a lot done on my rainbow stripey baby blanket. I will try to take a pic later this week. I’m still too beat! I did all of that knitting in the car plus a little back at the hotel. The little thing I am knitting is my “emergency waiting in line ball of yarn” that I brought with me to get me through the endless amounts of waiting that would inevitably take place over the week of the vacation. It is of course the Lisa Souza yarn in the Emerald City colorway. This was my first time attempting lace at all and I was doing the Flame Chevron lace pattern from Barbara Walker, Volume 2. Of course I had to rip it all out multiple times and at the moment have nothing to show for it. I guess I will be needing lifelines until I get the hang of how not to drop yarn overs and not discover having dropped them until several rows later. Yipe!

    More later about the trip and my knitting adventures, and how, somehow, I managed to knit my way through Disney. Right now, I hear a pillow… softly calling my name… zzzzzzzzzzzz…..

  • She Did It!

    Diana is wearing her completed pink scarf

    Yay, Diana! She finally finished her first-ever scarf the other day and is posing for the camera. She kept asking me, “Do I HAVE to smile?” Though she did actually want to do the photo, even if the photo makes her look like an unwilling participant.

    She used two strands of pink fingering yarn, held together throughout. They were two different shades of pink. I don’t remember what yarn, as she started the project TWO years ago and immediately discarded the ball bands. Oh well. She learned to knit in October of 2005 (I think!) thanks to assistance from Genia. She’s already cast on again for an iPod cozy, made with some balls of KnitPicks Shine Sport that I had laying around. It’s based on the pattern in the Stitch n Bitch book but we’re customizing it to fit her Nano, which is smaller than the case that the original pattern calls for. I can’t help secretly hoping that she is getting the knitting bug, so I won’t be alone in my house anymore, haha! (My five-year-old says he would like to knit too, but I know he’s not patient enough yet, so we’ll see if he wants to in a few years’ time.)


    Meanwhile …

    rainbow stripey blanket in progress again

    I’m still knitting away on my rainbow stripey baby blanket. I’m about to embark on a long road trip so I hope that by the time I return it will be about as big as it’s going to get. I am getting lots of compliments every time I get caught knitting in public with this thing, so I guess that’s a good sign. I’m thinking I should also bring something smaller along to knit on while waiting in lines and such. But then again… that would risk getting distracted by another project at a time when I can’t afford losing interest in this one. Oh, help!