Oh, it's been a while, hasn't it?

Not without good reason, though: I'm 33 weeks pregnant, expecting a girl, and have been working on a few projects for her. I've knit a little cardigan and a smocked dress, and yarn is on the way to knit another cardigan as my project for the Ravellenic Games. I also have a few summer-friendly projects on the needles right now: small shawls and cowls, AKA things that aren't so hot that I'll melt beneath them in this heat wave I'm suffering through.

Back soon, with pictures!

Aestlight Shawl: Block Party!

A beautiful Saturday in August: what a day for a block party! I wove in the ends on my Aestlight shawl this afternoon and blocked it right away.

I've been guilty of failure to block on previous projects, but when it comes to lace, or shawls, and in particular lace shawls, blocking is a must. It evens out those little stitches, allows the shawl to grow a little, and ensures nice, straight edges and perfect points.

My materials:

• large trash bag, seams cut, to make one large rectangle


• stainless steel pins


• large bath towel


• Johnson & Johnson baby shampoo


• my queen-size bed

After weaving in the ends, I submerged my shawl in lukewarm water with about a teaspoon of baby shampoo. One could always use wool wash, like Eucalan or Soak, but when finances are tight and/or there's a little one in the house, why not use baby shampoo? It's mild, it's inexpensive, and if it can get dirt, spaghetti sauce, and goodness knows what else off of a toddler, then why shouldn't it do wonders for yarn?

After rinsing in another bath of lukewarm water, I put the shawl on a large bath towel, then folded the towel over my knitting and walked all over it. This removed a ton of water, and less water in the yarn means shorter drying time.








I would prefer not to block on my bed, (in fact, I usually block on top of my washing machine), but large projects need large spaces to block. The trash bag prevents my bed from getting damp, but I almost always use a trash bag wherever I'm blocking. Unlike towels, the trash bag won't absorb the water from my knitting, and the knitting tends to dry faster this way.

Finally, pins were placed at all points on the border and I used a yardstick to make sure I had a straight edge across the top. I turned the ceiling fan on high, and three hours later I had a dry, blocked shawl.

Steek: Eeek!

Okay, it's been 24 hours since I did my very first steek, so I think I'm ready to talk about it.

For those unfamiliar with the technique, it involves cutting your knitting: like, with scissors. Perhaps you understand why I wasn't ready to post about it yesterday. The adrenaline/fear has finally worn off, and since I have successfully sewn the newly-formed edges down with no major unraveling crisis. . .



I referred to Eunny Jang's steeking tutorial for guidance, but really this was a by-the-seat-of-my-pants effort. I hand stitched up either side of front-center and then carefully - so carefully - used my sharpest, tiniest scissors to snip my way from bottom to top. I then whip stitched the edges down, reinforcing top and bottom.

Had I to do this over again, I would definitely have factored in some waste stitches at front-center to make turning back the facing a little easier. If you read Eunny's tutorial, you'll see the beautiful little facings she knits. So, note to self: do it the "right" way next time.

The Little Lebowski: Stalled

This in-the-round Fair Isle sweater is slated to become a zip-front cardigan for my son, and of course, because it is an original pattern and a stash-busting project, I have run out of yarn. As evidenced by the picture below, I'm roughly 95% done.



I have a handful of decrease rounds left and then the collar. I'm thinking about doing the steek and adding the zipper, then picking up stitches for the collar at the end. Originally I was thinking of a short, simple crew neck, but now that I have to buy another skein of yarn, I might as well try a shawl collar a la the original adult version. Now I just have to convince some of the other ladies from my knitting group to help me reach the $50 free shipping magic total at Knit Picks. . .

Mermaid Sorbet: A Use for Otherwise Unusable Yarn

About a month ago I dyed this yarn with Easter egg dye. The yarn is Knit Picks Bare superwash in fingering (sock) weight, and I used four of the color tablets - red/pink, blue, yellow, and purple - to get a sense of what the colors would look like. The yarn looks gorgeous all wound up like this, but because I didn't make a longer skein for longer color repeats, it will not stripe if I knit it into socks and would probably be a horrible, variegated mess.

My solution: dropped stitches. I'm using the Seafoam pattern from Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book and size 5 circulars (40 inches). I am calling this scarf Mermaid Sorbet because of the colors and the pattern, but I inadvertantly cast on 666 stitches (I needed a multiple of 10 + 6), so I toyed with the idea of calling this project Devilfish.


I've completed two pattern repeats, each repeat being 8 rows, and I think I'll have enough yardage to do two more repeats. As bright and crazy as this yarn is, I really like the longer pieces of color I see because of the multiple yarn overs. In my humble opinion, a dropped-stitch pattern or one with multiple yarn overs seems an ideal way to show off a colorful yarn that doesn't seem suited to many other projects.

The Little Lebowski: Body

After knitting a stockinette version of The Dude's Sweater from The Big Lebowski last year, I was inspired to knit a child-size version for my son with the leftover yarn (Knit Picks Wool of the Andes Bulky in Bare, Caribou, and Coal). I'm also doing this sweater the "right" way, which means the entire garment is worked in 1x1 ribbing.

I toyed with the idea of using a tubular cast on but fear I might be short on yarn. I am, however, using TECHknitting's advice to eliminate the "icky dots" that result from purling in more than one color. Solution: Knit all stitches in the first round or row of a color change.

And speaking of colors, the bulky yarn combined with a pint-sized sweater led me to do away with the more intricate colorwork and use only the repeating "Z" chart (shown below) at the middle of the sweater.



My intent right now is to knit sleeves, then join them to the body and knit around with raglan decreases. Also, I will be doing my first ever steek to turn this into a zip-up cardigan.