Practicing finishing techniques

Last month, I had the pleasure of taking a couple of knitting classes. One dealt with finishing techniques and a second taught different ways of binding on.

What I have here is some practice. Both have the same pattern, knit with the leftover Seahawks yarn.

The Dragon Scale Pattern

CO multiple of 4 sts.

R1: K across

R2: (K1, P3) across

R3: (K2, P2) across

R4: (K3, P1) across

This was the first one, on size 6 needles, 24 stitches. Bind on was the Twisted German cast on, bind off was the super stretchy elastic bind off, and I tried slipping the first stitch of each row.

Attempt two was 24 stitches on size 7 needles. Bind on was the twisted German cast on again, bind off was the sewn bind off, and I successfully slipped most first stitches on this piece.

Take away: the twisted German cast on is stretchier than the traditional long tail cast on, the elastic bind off is far too stretchy, and the sewn cast off is nice. I'll be using it again soon.

Slipping the stitches made the sides look nice, but I was too loose in the final stitches on each row to make it look good. Still, it's a good skill to know and it'll look better next time.

The Snowflake Headband

When I saw a friend knitting this stranded headband, I knew I needed to make one myself. Luckily, I still had leftover yarn from the Seahawks hats to use up.

The results were disappointing. I enjoyed the colorwork but the band was too big for my head. If I made it again, I'd shrink the pattern and cut back on the ribbing. And the bind off wouldn't use the super stretchy bind off, which caused the ripples on the bottom here.

Maybe next time will be better.

The Isaac Mizrahi prayer shawl

Look at this little beauty. Three skeins of Isaac Mizrahi craft yarn produced this fuzzy prayer shawl. My friends keep telling me how pettable it is.

It was a fun side project and never got boring. Surprising, given that the entire thing was worked in seed stitch. I liked watching the colors change as I knit.

The pattern couldn't be easier.

Cast on 60 stitches on size 10 circular needles (Gauge is not important).
(k1, p1) util the end of the row.
Repeat until you run out of yarn.
Bind off.

The Lace Edged Prayer Shawl - Part 2

Done! Finally done.

And I still have half a pound of white yarn to use up. What was the point of this shawl again?

Go 'Hawks, Take 2

Guess who has two thumbs and a second Seahawks hat? This girl!

This time I tried giving more slack to the color I was stringing behind, to stop the wrinkling. That turned out pretty well.

I had just enough blue yarn left to knit the hat again. Literally, I had five inches left after binding off.

To top it off, the Seahawks shut out the Bears earlier today. It looks like I've found my lucky 'Hawks hat.

The Lace Edged Prayer Shawl - Part 1

I'll admit, not actually lace edged. 

This shawl was meant to use up the leftover One Pound Carron. That... didn't turn out the way I thought. Halfway through I ran out of yarn so I had to join another pound of yarn. You should never have to join pounds of yarn together. And how will I use up the rest of this yarn? This was not a well thought out plan.

I wanted to do something like the yarn overs from the triangular prayer shawl but with a rectangle. Have to say, it's really boring. At least I'm mostly done.

Seahawks Hat - Part 2

Done after five minutes on the DPN. And of course I'm making another one with the leftover yarn.

Materials used:
Main color: 220 Superwash Aran, Blue Velvet
Secondary color: 220 Superwash Aran, Green Apple
Tertiary color: 220 Superwash Aran, White
Size 7 16"circular needles, Size 7 DPN
Based on http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hawks-hat

Seahawks Hat, Part 1

Do you know what's great? Fair Isle Knitting. If I had known how much I love this, I'd have picked it  up years ago. 

See this? This is the beginning of a Seahawks hat, knitted in about 4 hours. There's the complexity of cabling with the color variation of intarsia without the hassle of a cable needle and bobbins.

Even using a color chart for the first time was simple - read right to left and knit the right color. Much easier than I thought possible.

The only reason this hat wasn't done in a week is because I'm missing size 7 DPN and my local yarn store was out of stock. Once those get ordered, I'm finishing this hat and making another copy.

The Stockinette Prayer Shawl

 I realized recently that I still have a ton of the one pound Carron yarn. And since I didn't want to count the rows of a baptismal blanket, I went with the standard prayer shawl. Well, not exactly standard: the body of the shawl is stockinette, not garter stitch.

The stockinette isn't curling because I added a border of garter stitch around it. Each row begins with three knit stitches, a yarn over, and three knit stitches, and ends with six knit stitches.

The edging here is far nicer and cleaner than when the shawl is knit with Homespun yarn.

Here's the pattern, knit with Carron One Pound yarn on size 8 circular needles:

Cast on 1 stitch.
Row 1: KF&B
Rows 2-5: KF&B, K to the end of the row
Rows 6-13: K3, YO, K to the end of the row
Row 14: K3, YO, P* to the last six stitches, K 6
Repeat rows 13-14 until the shawl measures about 30" long. End on a knit row.
For 4 rows: K3, YO, K* to the end of the row

Finish the shawl as in the original instructions:
Row 1: K3, (YO, K2TOG)* to the last three stitches, YO, K3
For 4 rows, KF&B, K* to the end of the row
Bind off

The Pendleton Crocheted Woolen Rug

Ever wondered what six pounds of woolen blanket selvedge look like? 

It looks like a huge mess.

This wonderful stuff comes courtesy of Pendleton Woolen Mills where, for the low, low price of $3/lb, you can buy blanket selvage for crafts. Six pounds plus shipping came to around $32. 

What did I want with all of this selvage? To make a rug, of course! This stuff is so thick, it makes a great woolen base.  

I started with one ball of scrap, 10 chain stitches and a size S hook. If you've never seen a size S hook before, it has the diameter of a shower curtain rod. Given that my normal size G hook is narrower than a chopstick, it took a while to get used to. But single crocheting in the round couldn't be easier. It's not like the stitches need to be perfect.

This is about 2/3 done. Each scrap ball can be crocheted in about 30 minutes, which goes by really quickly while watching TV. I got this far in five days.

When one ball was finished, I pulled some of the frilly bits from the end of the scrap and the beginning of the next scrap to tie them together.

No added bulk.

I chained one whenever I thought the rug was curling inward. Towards the end I added a few too many stitches which lead to some ripples. Luckily, those could be stamped out.  

The end product was mostly round. Instead of single crocheting the last ball as I did for the rest of the rug, I simply did slip stitches around the border. 

This was much easier than I had imagined, though crocheting wool in 90 degree heat was not my smartest idea. 10/10, would crochet again.