Knitting with Lace Weight Yarn and Having the Right Needles

I began knitting another lace shawl. This is the lovely Haruni by Emily Ross. This is one of the first lace patterns that I fell in love with, but have put it off as I thought it was too hard. I even posted about the yarn I bought to do this project over 6 months ago. However, things change and I am doing this project with a completely different yarn than planned. I decided to use the Cascade Alpaca Lace in Garnet that I bought on a lark a couple of months later.

This yarn is 100% baby alpaca and is the finest yarn that I have ever tried to knit. This was the crux of my problem. Through knitting about 32 rows, I was repeatedly tinking back to redo stitches that I picked up under the row beneath that which I was knitting. This error basically un-knits the stitch and creates a slip stitch of the row beneath and a long loose yarn over in the same place. Of course, if not caught, the pattern is  ruined. I was also struggling with trying to SSK (slip slip knit) -- my Addi Turbos just did not have enough of a point.

I had "graduated" myself to Addi Turbos over a year ago when I got a great recommendation from my knitting sister who convinced me to try them. I have been a rabid convert ever since. Today, I am trying the Addi Turbo Lace. So far this has turned out to be a good decision. I have knitted only a couple of additional rows and it has made a huge difference. SSK's are much easier and I am not slipping under the stitch.

In the picture on the left, I think you can see that the points on the Addi Turbo Lace (the gold needle) has a longer and sharper point than the regular Addi Turbos have. In addition, the Addi Turbo Lace needles seem to be slightly less slick than the regular Turbos. This might be a benefit as the only drawback to the Addi Turbos have been that they are almost too slick for lace. It is true that the right tool for the job makes all the difference.

As long as I am talking about the baby alpaca yarn being the finest that I have ever knit, I thought I would give you a visual on different yarn weights.  Here is a graduation of different yarn weight of yarn that I have in my stash. On the left is the lace weight yarn in question, Cascade Alpaca Lace. It is followed by a fingering weight yarn, sock weight, sport weight, DK (double knit) weight, worsted weight and bulky weight. Of course all of these yarns are different manufacturers and fibers, but I think that you can see the differences between most. Prior to the Cascade Alpaca Lace, the finest lace I had used was the fingering weight yarn which I used for my Alexandra Gold.

Well, I have some knitting to get through, so I will sign off. Happy Knitting!

Knitting for my baby boy!

OK, he isn't such a baby, but I love to knit for my VERY LOVED ones. My handsome son is in the Navy and after two years of not getting to see him, he surprised me with a trip home for Christmas! So, since I had not anticipated seeing him, I had not bought him any gifts. But he wanted me to knit him a hat and scarf. Easy peasy!!!

I spent the entire week knitting for my boy. The first day he was here, I took him to my LYS and let him pick out the yarn. He had already picked the hat pattern, David's Hat, off of Ravelry and knew that he wanted lime green and black. However, he settled on a bright (not quite lime) green and charcoal. I bought two skeins in each color of Plymouth Yarn's Galway and one skein of Cascade Yarn Highland Duo in a marine blue.

I enjoyed working with the Galway. It has great stitch definition and seemingly was made for Fair Isle work. This will not be the last time I will knit with it. The Highland Duo is very soft which was the point as it is the liner on the hat, but it is very splitty and requires care to not knit only half a stitch. I have used Cascade yarns in the past with great appreciation, but I was not as happy with this one.

My boy wanted a very long scarf. I didn't bother looking for a pattern as I thought it would be best to knit a classic look. I knit a 2 X 2 rib in an uneven stripe. The charcoal stripe was 15 rows and the lime was 21 rows. The total length was 93 inches with a width of 6 1/2 inches.

What a great Christmas!

Happy knitting!

Buying yarn is one of my favorite things.

Two trips to the yarn store netted me some yummy yarn.

Two weekends ago, I bought three skeins of Silky Alpaca Lace by Classic Elite Yarn in Pixie Pink. I have already picked out the pattern to knit with it. As I posted a couple of weeks ago, I bought the book Wendy Knits Lace, by Wendy D. Johnson and I have decided to knit the True Love Stole. I can't wait to get started. This yarn is really soft and smooth with a 30% silk / 70% alpaca blend.

Lucky for me, when I bought the Silky Alpaca Lace, I crossed the points threshold necessary at my LYS, Wool and Company, to get a gift certificate worth $15.00! Of course, almost immediately, this small piece of paper began burning a whole in my wallet. So when my knitting sister came for the weekend (see previous post), we HAD to run by the LYS to spend it.

Look what I got!!! YUM! Cascade Yarns Alpaca Lace in colorway Garnet. It is 100% baby alpaca. I got two hanks with 437 yards each, so that should be plenty for an average shawl or stole. I haven't got a project picked out for this yarn yet, so it will go in my stash for future use.

Knitting Sister bought some yarn, too. It isn't what I would have picked out, but I took pictures so you could see how bright it is. She plans to use it to make a long shawl made with a wrap stitch pattern. The yarn is called Peace Fleece and is a worsted weight 70% Merino / 30% Mohair blend from Casa de Karma Yarns.

Buttons for her almost finished sweater was the last purchase of the day.

Happy Knitting (and yarn shopping!)

Cabled Convertible Mitten

The cable begins

There is something about cables that just speaks to me. If you remember, my last socks were cabled, but that did not get the cabling out of my system. A friend asked me to make her a pair of convertible mittens a few weeks ago, and since it was finally time to start them, I thought about doing cables, but I couldn't find a pattern that I liked. I began looking at the convertible mitten patterns that were out there and it occurred to me that perhaps I could use any mitten pattern that I wanted and just use waste yarn to create the flap.

Fortunately for me, one of the knitting blogs that I follow, ChemKnits, put out a post on just the very idea that I had! In her video, she shows a regular mitten pattern on which she is using a waste yarn method to change to convertible. My plan is to take her idea one step further and add a convertible thumb for texting since I know my friend likes to text.

Here is one of the mittens in progress. I chose a plait instead of a two strand cable. I love the color of this Cascade 220 worsted weight -- it is called dark chocolate. Well, yeah, what else would you call it! The yarn has beautiful stitch definition with what is for me, the perfect amount of stretch in the fibers. It has a firm texture which holds up and does not leave spaces where the cables pull the stitches over.

I decided to knit the mitten from the fingertips to the cuff. Since I have done several socks lately, I realized the toe of a sock closely resembles the fingertip of a mitten. I haven't ever done a pair like that, but hey, why not. Of course, that would make it more difficult to work a mitten with a gusset thumb, so I will use the waste yarn again to work a peasant thumb.
I do have two lessons already learned. For the first, I forgot how a cable pulls the stitches in. That wouldn't be a problem normally because you wouldn't worry if the palm got pulled around a little, but the white waste yarn highlights the fact that the opening and the ribbing that will be knit along the edge will be visible from the back of the hand. So when I make another pair, I will make two more increases (four extra stitches) on the back/braid side of the mitten. This will give enough width across the back of the hand that the opening will not be pulled around.

The waste yarn

The second lesson learned is similar to the first. The mitten turned out pointier than than I care for because the cable is pulling it inward. I think that I would modify the figure 8 cast on and add four extra stitches at the tip so that the end is wider. This would also require fewer increase rows and that would give a rounder look to the top of the mitten.

Until next time, "Happy Knitting!"

Making progress

I love vacation if for no other reason than I am able to make some real progress with my knitting. As you can see I have gotten quite a bit accomplished even with time out to prepare a thanksgiving dinner for eight. It has been especially enjoyable as my knitting sister has been staying at my house for the holiday weekend.

As I did with my textured sweater vest, I am knitting both the front and the back simultaneously. For me this proves to be the best option as I would hate to become bored with the pattern and never finish the front of the sweater after I complete the back. What a waste of good yarn.

But knitting the two sides together adds a small problem, if I get interrupted for any reason when I am between the two sides, I sometimes turn the work too soon and have more rows completed on one side versus the other. I solved this problem by connecting the two sides with stitch markers. I then treat this as if it is one piece switching the yarn ball in the middle.

The pattern is fairly easy to do. I say only fairly easy as it is fairly easy to get the count off and put a purl where a knit should be. So I have tried to get in the habit of checking my work after I have completed every row. When I find that I have made a mistake in the pattern, I mark the stitch with a stitch marker and use a crochet hook to fix it when I come to that stitch on the next pass.

I like the Wool of the Andes Bulky that I am using. The stitch definition is pretty good, and the yarn is not so thick that the sweater will be too hot when worn indoors. I wish my camera was better so that I could show what the true color is. But I work with the tools I have.

My knitting sister has been working on a pair of socks. At the present time, she is using Cascade 220 in Lime Heather to knit a pair of socks from The Big Book of Socks by Kathleen Taylor. She is on her 4th pair of adult socks out of this book. She likes this book because most of the sock patterns use the same size needle, so she has not had to go out and purchase a bunch of Addi turbos in various sizes. (Being on a limited budget is really hard on a rabid knitter.) I spent some time sharing the Silver's Sock Class website with her last night as she is interested in trying toe up socks.

Well, I am itching to get back to knitting, so Happy Knitting!

DH Left His Heart In San Francisco

Ever since the DH was a little boy, his favorite baseball team has always been the Giants and that was his father's favorite team. We have a subscription to MLB TV and get to watch every one of their games, so I figure it is time that the DH wears his devotion -- not on his sleeve -- but on his head. I am going to use the same pattern that I used for a hat for my son. This pattern is really easy to modify the fair isle band which I have done with an eleven stitch pattern of the SF logo. The pattern is 110 stitches wide so there will be 10 instances of the pattern.

According to the actual pattern, there is supposed to be a silk blend yarn as a liner around the ears in part to hide the mess that occurs as a result of the two color work. But I am just going to start out with the burnt orange color. The yarn that I am using, Cascade Yarns Cash Vero DK is a Merino, Microfiber, Cashmere blend which will be plenty soft against the DH's ears.

The lime green that you see in the picture, isn't one of the official colors of the San Francisco Giants. But don't worry, Dear Husband, it is only the yarn used for the provisional cast on and will be removed soon. I have used a crocheted chain for my cast on. If you are unfamiliar with this technique, there are several tutorials out on the internet -- I like this one from The Purl Bee!

Happy Knitting! (Boy, it has been awhile - it feels good to say that again!)