Update on Alexandra Gold -- and a Humble Stitch

I have just started the 19th row of the 5th chart of Dee O'Keefe's Alexandra. Now that I have hit this mark, the  number of stitches in each row is well over 300 -- and growing with every row. Some of the rows seem to go much faster than others. I don't know if it is the specific pattern of stitches or my frame of mind that makes some rows so much more difficult than others. But the process is definitely educational as I have learned a lot about how to fix errors as many as eight rows below.

Now I know you must ask "Ledra, how do you get eight rows before discovering an error?"

"Well, I have to tell you that some errors are easier to find than others."

Specifically, errors which are not missing stitches, but misplaced stitches. Take the above picture. Until I mentioned error, did you see the one in this picture? It is there, I noticed it after I took this picture and I am not going down after it at this point. I will just consider it my "humble stitch" and move on.

What is a humble stitch, it is a stitch that keeps you humble. In quilting there is a myth that Amish women purposely made a mistake in one of the blocks of every quilt that they do because only God is perfect. I know quite well that I am far from perfect as I have never had to intentionally make a humble stitch or a humble block -- they are naturally in every knit piece and quilt that I make.

Happy knitting!

2 Corinthians 12:9

WIN FREE YARN

OK, I am a yarnaholic and I will do ANYTHING for free yarn. . .even advertise for someone else's contest if it means one extra chance at winning!!

According to the contest http://www.allfreeknitting.com/Knitting-Reviews/Alp-Natural-Yarn-from-Feza-Yarns


Alp Natural Yarn
Gifted by Feza Yarns
www.fezayarns.com

Reviewed by Caitlin Eaton, Editor of AllFreeKnitting

When I first received a couple of hanks of Alp Natural yarn by Feza Yarns for review, I was extremely excited to finally get my hands on high quality, novelty yarn. What is novelty yarn, you ask? It’s usually handspun yarn that features unique fiber composition: the wool might be a little thicker in certain areas, there may be a sudden flash of metallic thread in other parts of the skein, two colors might be woven together as one strand, or the yarn could feature unusual materials like silk or ribbon. But no matter what the yarn is composed of, novelty yarns all promise this: you’ll be able to make a beautiful garment that will be different from anything your friends create!


Novelty yarns, like Alp Natural, allow the creative knitter to express him or herself in a way that many store-bought yarns don’t provide outlets for. Because the Alp Natural yarn is composed of 10% linen, 10% silk, 40% cotton and 40% viscose, the end result is bound to spark your imagination and creativity. There are so many gorgeous textures in this yarn, that the possibilities for creation are truly endless. While you’ll probably feel inspired to make up your own luxurious pattern once you see and feel this yarn for yourself, Feza Yarns also offers a few free ones on their Ravelry page.


And just in time for spring and summer, Feza has introduced new bold colors into the Alp Natural line, including pink, yellow, orange, cranberry and purple. Visit Fezayarns.com to find out where you can purchase some of this gorgeous yarn near you!

You Can't Read Just One. . . .

I know. . .another book! Don't I have enough patterns? When am I ever going to find time to do all of them? Isn't that just an extravagance? Well, yeah, I do have enough patterns. No, I may never find time to knit all the patterns. Maybe it is extravagant, but when you buy one book on line, you might as well buy a second or third so that save on postage and handling overall. (OK, that is a reach, but let's not get distracted.)

One + One Scarves, Shawls & Shrugs edited by Iris Schreier is full of beautiful neck and shoulder wear. Lately, I have been looking for knitted items to wear all year which will dress up a plain blouse at work and this book fits the bill. With seven scarves, 9 cowls and capelets, 8 shawls and wraps, and 5 shrugs there is something for everyone in this book. But these patterns are not for the faint of heart -- there are only three "beginner patterns" and 2 "easy patterns" in the collection. The techniques offered in the book include provisional and mobius cast-ons, carrying yarns (as many of the patterns alternates between two yarns), short rows (for those sock enthusiasts among us) and adding beads to your knitting. There is little boring about this book!

For me, some of these patterns such as the Cashmere Bolero or the Peekaboo Shrug would end up being gifts for my daughter as they seem to be too youthful for my own taste. But I can easily see myself wearing the Striped Mobius, the Asymmetric Shawlette or the Lacy Textured Cowl.

Half the enjoyment of owning a book like this is reading the patterns. I once knew someone who liked to read recipe books but never really cooked. At least I knit once in a while.

Happy knitting!

Buying books . . . again.

I did some on line shopping! Since I am currently into lace projects, I did a little shopping and found this excellent book, Wendy Knits Lace, by Wendy D. Johnson. Some books that you look at (buy) may only have one pattern that you would be interested in doing. Out of the 20 patterns in this book, I can honestly say that I could see myself knitting at least 12 of them.

The patterns range from the very simple "Light as a Feather Smoke Ring" Cowl which looks like a fast knitter could do this easily in an after noon, to a pair of lace knee-high socks, "Vintage Kneesocks". One of my favorite patterns is the "True Love (Scarf or) Stole". I think that this will definitely be on my to do list. However, I have to say that this is not a beginner project. This beautiful stole combines lace and short rows to make mitered corners. It took 4 reads of the directions before I started to grasp the way this pattern works. This project can be worked as a narrower scarf or a wider stole.

There are a total of 8 lace neckware items to be made. With my new found love of knitting lace, I'm going to be a very busy girl.

Stay tuned for information on the other two books I bought. (Who can read just one?)

Happy knitting!!!

Progress for Alexandra Gold

I have made some progress since the last time I posted about my Alexandra Gold shawl. I am currently on the second repeat of Chart 3 -- row 7. I really like this pattern. Like Dee O'Keefe's Ashton, the Alexandra is really fun to do and much easier than Summer Nightsong or Fall Colored Ginkgo. I highly recommend this as a first lace shawl. That is not to say that I have not had to "tink" any rows. I have -- several. But it is more due to trying to knit the lace while too tired or too distracted.




The color on the above photo is washed out. The actual yarn is much richer in color, but I have the old style iPhone camera without the flash. The yarn that I am using, Knit Picks Shadow, is a nice yarn, but it has its problems. It tends to be really sticky. Even tinking only a couple of rows back, I found that the fibers had already started to bond to each other which makes me think that this might be a good yarn for felting, but not for a heavily used item that you don't want to felt. I have read a few on line reviews of this yarn by knitters who sat that this yarn pills, but I have not had the same experience. I did buy 1000 yards of the lavender tonal at the same time to do another shawl, so I will have plenty of work with it to be able to form a solid opinion myself!




Happy Knitting!!

Another lace shawlette finished -- Summer Nightsongs

Wow, I thought that I would never finish another project. Summer Nightsongs just seemed to take forever. Yes, I was sick; yes, I had a baby quilt to finish; yes, I was trying to work on two projects at the same time. But regardless of everything that was going on, this project seemed to take longer than sweaters I have made. For some reason, I had a really difficult time with this pattern. There were a couple of rows -- 9 and 11 -- of the edge chart that just about finished me!

But that does not mean I am finished with lace knitting. No! Actually, I would try THIS pattern again! And I would make it much larger for a full sized shawl. Besides a change in the size, I would also knit it in a solid color or tonal so that the pattern stands out more than the yarn. As you can see from the picture below, the pattern is lost a little in the stripes.

By the end of the project, I was much happier with the Crazy Zauberball yarn than I thought I might be. While I loved the softness of the yarn right from the moment that I picked it up, I was afraid that it would split a lot as it was knit. But the yarn held up surprisingly well considering how many times I ended up knitting some of the rows.

I made fewer repeats than called for in the pattern. Using a spreadsheet, I calculated out how many stitches were in each row, then, being the accountant (read: "nerd") that I am, calculated out what percentage of the pattern that I had completed for each row. As I finished every couple of rows, I weighed the remaining ball of yarn and it seemed as though I was completing a smaller portion of the pattern than I was using up the yarn. So, when I was at the point where I would have had to make another repeat, I started the edge row. I did end up with 28 grams of 100 left over. I might have had another repeat worth of yarn left -- but I might not have either!

The author of this pattern, Jane Araujo, links to some good tips from other knitter from the pattern's Ravelry page. You will do well to read them too. I ended up following the pattern modifications suggested by fascine.

Well, I am on to finish the Alexandra that I tried to do simultaneously to this shawl. We all have to learn from our mistakes!

Happy Knitting!

Quilt top finished -- Guilt Eased

My twin sister came to my house for the weekend. While the last few times she has come, we have been knitting fools, this time I told her that I HAD to FINISH the baby quilts. So instead of pulling out the needles, she bought her sewing machine and it was a quilting weekend.

When I last posted about "A is for AUTUMN", I had gotten the letters placed and the machine blanket stitching around them done. I had finished the little pictures and fused them together, but there was still a lot of work to be done on the quilt. So, I finished all the stitching around the pictures on Saturday and this afternoon after church, I put the top and bottom boarders on the quilt and added all the fallen leaves.

My original plan was to place the leaves around the edge at regular intervals (that is the accountant in me) then my artsy-fartsy twin suggested that I put the majority of the leaves along the bottom of the boarder of the quilt with a few still "falling down". Thank goodness for a smart twin sister who made me think outside the box because the results are much better than I had planned. (She was always my favorite womb mate!) I sent the quilt home with her as she will give it to another of my sisters to quilt up on her long arm quilting machine.

We had just a few minutes left before she started her drive home and she helped me square up the other baby quilt that I have yet to finish, Heartfelt. It won't take me long to work up the binding and get that applied to the quilt. That is something that I can carry back and forth on the train and have it done in no time.

Well should be back to knitting in a couple of days. I was sick all last week and knitting was a chore as I could not see the stitch and my dizziness and headache caused me so many mistakes that I tinked everything that I knitted.

Happy quilting (or knitting if you aren't much of a quilter)!