Finished Projects

Langsjal Jóhönnu

Yarn: Lodband Einband, Icelandic laceweight wool, purchased at Schoolhouse Press. The color number is 9808, and I used all but 1 gram of 5 skeins of yarn (225m each).

Pattern: Langsjal Jóhönnu, from Three Cornered and Long Shawls, by Sigridur Halldórsdóttir. I also purchased this from Schoolhouse Press.

Needles: Knitpicks Options circular, size 3.75mm

For: Me

Started: May 2006, for the Amazing Lace knitalong. It went into an extended timeout in September of that year, when I got sidetracked by other stuff. I did a row here and there just so the poor thing wouldn't feel abandoned, but started back in earnest on it over this winter.

Finished: April 5, 2008

Modifications: None, except for my possibly creative interpretation of the charts. I also used way more yarn than what the pattern called for, which was 500 yards of laceweight. I used 1230 yards of the Lodband Einband. I did use a larger needle than called for in the pattern, as I liked the look of the pattern stitches better at that gauge, so that accounts for some of the difference. The finished shawl measurements given in the book are 25" by 75". Mine is 26" by 84", so that accounts for some of the rest. I think if you only went with the 500 yards, you'd have a really short stole. I wanted something that I can really wrap up in.

What I Learned: Where to start? This is easily the most difficult thing I've finished. The original book is in Icelandic, and the included translation is somewhat terse, at only 15 pages to the original book's 77 pages. This shawl is one of the more challenging in the book, as it is patterned on both sides, meaning no long purled or knitted row on the return row. If you make a mistake, there's no "easy" row to rip back to where you can get your bearings and get the thing back on the needles. I did a lot of painstaking "tinking" to fix mistakes. I used lifelines, and stitch markers to separate the horizontal repeats.

The chart in the book also doesn't have the horizontal repeats marked, so that required a whole lot of fiddling in the beginning that I probably made much more difficult than it really should have been.

There's a really looooong grafting row at the end; 125 stitches to be exact. It's done on a plain knit row, though, so it works just like grafting a really big sock toe, and if you think of it that way it's much less daunting. I also learned the hard way to make my grafting much looser than I would think necessary. A lot of ripping and swearing ensued, then re-grafting.

While I would not necessarily recommend this to a complete beginner, any knitter with patience and an ability to read a chart can do this one. After I first started this, I wasn't thrilled with the yarn, as it's fairly rustic and plain, but it has grown on me. It goes with the pattern perfectly, and will be a warm, yet stylish stole. It also blocked out beautifully.

While this book is fairly expensive at $45, it has several other lovely patterns that I want to make someday.

Here's a close up of the pattern stitch:

John's Big Grey Sweater

Project Specs:

Yarn: Peace Fleece worsted, color Negotiation Grey.
Pattern: Father/Son Pullover, from Peace Fleece
Needles: Knit Picks Options circulars, size 6&7
For: John, my sweetie pie
Started: September 2007
Finished: February 2008
Modifications: None, really. Oh yeah, I picked up fewer stitches around the collar than the pattern recommended.
What I learned: I still like knitting plain stuff. Both of us tend to dress like the Lands End Poster Child, and our wardrobe is, um, rather plain. A plain grey sweater was just what the boy wanted, and it's just what he got. This is one of the few sweater patterns I've seen that actually uses short row shaping for the shoulders, so you don't have to convert it yourself. The neckline also uses short rows, and instead of binding off the neck and then picking up stitches for the collar, it leaves them live. It's a well-written pattern, with no glitches that I discovered.

Sara's Dress Mittens

Project Specs:

Yarn: Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals, color Sara's Dress (I love that name!)
Pattern: Plain mitten, from Ann Budd's Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns.
Needles: Pony Pearl Dpns, size 3.75mm.
For: Me, the one without any mittens.
Started and Finished: in the past 2 weeks, December 2007
Modifications: Pretty much none, but it's one of those generic patterns that you can do a lot of things with. For future reference, I made these using the "6 stitch/inch gauge, 44 stitch around" directions. I could go down a size next time and still be happy.

What I learned: It takes very little time to make mittens. This was my first pair, and for those of you new-ish knitters, I'd rate mittens easier than socks. I just love this yarn. Thumbs are cool to knit. But I don't so much like the spiral decreases at the top of this, finished with pulling the yarn tail through the last four stitches and drawing it closed. Next time I'd try my standard toe finish, which is the paired decreases at either side, then grafting the fingertip end.

Forest Canopy Shawl, v.2.0

Project Specs:

Pattern: Forest Canopy Shoulder Shawl, by Susan Pierce Lawrence. You can buy the pattern here.*
Yarn: JaggerSpun Zephyr laceweight, a 50-50 wool-silk blend. I'm pretty sure the color is Bottle Green. At least I think it is. I bought this before I started my obsessive compulsive Access yarn database file, and there was no label with the yarn.
For: Me me me.
Started: September 2006. I did the first version in the Mountain Colors Weavers Wool that she recommends in the pattern, and liked it so much I immediately started this one in laceweight.
Finished: August 2007.
Needles: Holz & Stein 3.25mm ebony circular.
Modifications: I used laceweight yarn instead of the sportweight yarn called for in the pattern. I just did repeats until I was close to running out, and then did the edging. Otherwise I knit the pattern as written.
What I Learned: I just love knitting lace. The finished project also really impresses people, especially non-knitters. I also love Zephyr yarn. It has a great sheen, and comes in tons of lovely colors. This is a perfect pattern for lace virgins. Trust me, if you can knit and purl, you can do this one.

Eggplant Laurel Hill Sweater

Project Specs:

Pattern: Laurel Hill, affectionately known as the Eggplant sweater around here. It's from Jo Sharp Handknitting Collections, Book Number 1.
Yarn: Jo Sharp DK Wool, in a color remarkably close to eggplant skin. Not too remarkably, it's called "aubergine".
For: Me me me.
Started: Oh, brother. I had to go way back in the archives on this one. I started this in December 2005. You read that right, people, 2005. An explanation follows in the "what I learned from this one" section.
Finished: June, 2007, in Fairmont Hot Springs, BC, on vacation.
Needles: 3.5mm & 3.75mm circs.
What I Learned From This One: Look for pattern corrections before you start knitting. Jo Sharp pattern corrections can be found here. I started this damn thing a couple of times before I got it going. Sometime around late winter 2006, this one went into hibernation because I was sick of it. I pulled it out again this winter and finally finished the thing. I also learned that I don't particularly like doing miles of seed stitch. I don't mind seed stitch, exactly, it just gets boring after about 20 miles of it.
Modifications: I modified the collar a bit. The pattern comes in two versions, one cropped with a snugger fit and a short stand-up collar. The other is looser with a cowl-neck. I did the cropped version, mostly because I was a bit worried about my yarn quantity. I did the collar a bit bigger around than the standard short collar, but not as floppy as the cowl. Otherwise it's pretty much as portrayed in the pattern book.
Verdict: I like this sweater. The yarn is absolutely wonderful, soft enough to wear against bare skin, and I'll get a lot of wear out of it. I had my reservations about the dropped shoulder construction, but it looks better on me than I thought it would.

Bunny Luxury Easter Socks

Project Specs:

Pattern:  My own sock pattern. This one is 56 stitches, with a flap heel, gusset, and the toe grafted on 12 stitches.
Yarn: Joslyn's Fiber Farm Bunny Luxury, in Easter Egg. The yarn is 20% angora, 80% wool, about a sport weight.
For: Me me me (refer back to Random Fact 5)
Started: April 3, 2007
Finished: June 2007
Needles: Lantern Moon ebony, size 2.75.
What I learned: Sport weight socks go fast, provided you actually pick them up and work on them now and then. I also learned to buy yarn when I see it. Joslyn doesn't sell this particular blend anymore. These will make great Birkenstock socks (yes, I wear socks with my Birkenstocks; this is considered fashionable in the Pacific Northwest).

Shedir

Project Specs:

Pattern: Shedir, from the special Knitty breast cancer awareness issue.
Yarn: Rowan Calmer in Flamingo, left over from my Audrey sweater.
Needles: 3.25mm needles, I used a bamboo 16 inch circular (this brand) for most of it, and Ivore double points once I got to the decreased part of the top.
Started: Version 2 was started on March 18th 2007. I really started it about a week before that, but had to rip it all out due to a cable misadventure.
Finished: April 13th 2007.
For: ?? This one's going to Rebekah for her charity chemo hat collection.

What I learned: I'm pretty much done with knitting with Calmer. It's great for chemo hats, as it's very stretchy and soft. But it splits like crazy, and if you drop a stitch, forget about it. The sproinginess of the yarn makes it just disappear down the line of knitting. This pattern, however, is pure joy. Jenna Wilson, the designer, also did Rogue, and she is a genius with cable design. I learned a lot about how cables are built while doing this one.

On the running-out-of-yarn thing. The pattern calls for one ball of Calmer, and I didn't quite make it with one. However, to be fair, Jenna says right in the pattern instructions that one ball cut it pretty close for her. I also didn't bother with measuring gauge, and it's entirely possible that knitting these on a smaller needle would have made a difference for me. I just went with the size needle that the pattern called for, in a let-the-force-be-with-you way.

This is also a very deep hat measured from brim to tip, a good thing if you have no hair and want to cover everything up. If you are making this just for fashionable wearing, you could make it shorter and get it out of one ball of yarn. That central section of cabling is a 8-row pattern, repeated 5 times. You could leave out one, or even two, repeats, and have a plenty big hat.

Riley's Pink Wallaby

Project Specs:

Pattern: Wonderful Wallaby, by Cottage Creations
Yarn: Cotton Ease, in Pepto Pink (not the real color name!)
For: Baby Riley, my new great-niece (or is it grand-niece?)
Started: February 2007
Finished: March 29, 2007
Needles: KnitPicks Options circulars, and Swallow dpns, in size 4mm for the cuffs/bottom rib, and size 5mm for the rest.

Modifications: None. If I make this again, I'd do something differently with the split at the bottom of the v-neck. There's a loose stitch there that gaps, and I think there are ways to knit that stitch so it doesn't do that. I saw a version of this on Brooke's blog with a cable up each side of the pouch and around the hood. That would be fun to do.

Solar Energy Socks

Pattern: My generic, top down, picot hem socks. These have a 72-stitch circumference.
Yarn: Dicentra Designs superwash sock yarn, in the color Solar Energy, purchased from Teyani at Crown Mountain Farms. Don't click that link if you are trying to limit your yarn acquistion. And don't say I didn't warn you.
Needles: Pony Pearl dpns, in size 2.00 mm. Yes, I knit the whole sock with that size.
Started: Remember this post?
Finished: April 2007
For: me!
Modifications: This is one of those logic puzzles, I think. Is it possible to call it a modification if you made up the pattern yourself?

What I learned: I shouldn't try to cast on with size 2.00mm birch needles and drink martinis at the same time.
Seriously? Knitting a whole sock on 2.00 mm needles is not any harder than knitting them on bigger needles. This yarn is a bit thinner than some other sock yarns, but the finished sock at this gauge has a very nice feel to it. I really like this yarn, and will probably buy more of it when my next "free" day rolls around.

Hot Flash Socks

arn: Socks That Rock, lightweight, in Hotflash.
Pattern: basic top down, 2 by 2 ribbed cuff, stocking stitch, heel flap, etc. Nothing fancy, but it works. I use a Twisted German cast on, just because I like how it looks.
Needles: Ivore, 2mm for the cuff, 2.25mm for the rest.
Started: October 2006
Finished: January 2007
What I learned: I'm still not bored by a plain vanilla sock pattern. I have tons of sock patterns, and don't ever use them. Every time I start a new pair of socks, I look through them all, and end up making one just like this. Socks are my carry-around-to-knit-in-public project, and the thing I pick up when I only have time for two stitches and nothing more. You can gauge how busy my life has been by how long it takes me to complete the socks.