With Ginkgo, Blocking Isn't as Easy as You "Thinkgo"

I remember when I blocked my Fall Colored Ginkgo Leaves last year, I ended up having to run out to my local craft store to pick up another package of rust proof pins to finish the intricate blocking required on this shawlette. So, at least this time, I have a sufficient number of pins on hand. I used two blocking wires along the top of the shawlette and one blocking wire down the center spine.

Using a printed copy of a photo out of the pattern, I pinned out the point of the shawlette.  Then slowly worked up each side of the shawl until I had each leaf blocked. When I was done, I only had 3 pins left!

The shawlette blocked out to a measurement of 45 inches wide by 22 inches high.

The hat, surprisingly, was more difficult to block. Since this is a slouch beret, I couldn't just throw it on my head form as I have for the last few hats. The ribbing on the hat was pretty loose after it was soaked and I needed to stretch out the body of the hat so the lace could be seen without stretching the ribbing.

I stuffed the body of the had with plastic grocery bags an then used the eyelets formed by the increases just over the ribbing through which to run a piece of yarn.

I pulled the yarn snug and tied a bow knot. This helps stretch the body of the hat and eliminates the stretch in the ribbing .

I then place it with a wine bottle going up into the stuffing to support the hat without smashing the ribbing. The ribbing may take a little longer to dry this way, but I am not in any hurry.

I used a fun little online picture editing website, PicMonkey. A lot of the features are free and it is kind of fun to use, however, as you can see, the pictures are not very clear. If you would like to see better pictures of this project as well as notes on how I worked the pattern please go here for the hat and here for the shawl.

Happy Knitting!

Matching Ginkgo Hat

Making a matching lace hat to the Ginkgo Shoulderette Shawl for my darling daughter has been a great learning experience and I am having fun doing it! The lace is coming a long very quickly as I only have to knit instead of purl. I am actually just as fast at purling as I am knitting, but you don't have to think/count as much when you are going one direction. It is also faster because you only have to do the knit increase. I picked the left side of the chart only because that is the side of the chart which has the stitch legend on it. But I don't think I will need it because I am not switching back and forth between 4 different increases.

Happy Knitting!

What Should I do with Left Over Yarn?

I completed the knitting on Jacklyn's Ginkgo yesterday evening. Before blocking it and to get an estimate of the yardage used for the shawlette, I weighed the remaining ball of yarn.and there is 47 of 100 grams left. Nearly an entire ball of yarn for some varieties that are only 50 gram balls. So, what to do with the left overs? I thought about knitting a set of matching lace wrist warmers, but I didn't know if that wide of a lace pattern -- 15 stitches across would look good on such a small object. Also figuring out how to center the lace panel so that it looks good on the back of the hand. . . A HAT! A slouchy-lace-beret-type hat. That was just the ticket.

So, I began researching the construction of slouchy hats by looking at patterns on one of my favorite resources: Ravelry. There, I found a few hundred free patterns using the term "Slouch Hat" and 34 in a fingering weight yarn. So I started reading patterns.

I am such a skeptic and sometimes it is hard to trust what I am reading. The shawlette pattern is a repeat of 15, so I decided to cast on 120 stitches; however, when I got to 120, I looked at it and said to myself, "you'll never get a head in there!" and cast on 30 more. Wrong, wrong, wrong! After 2 inches of a 1 X 1 rib, it was obviously too big for any head and I ripped out and started over with my original 120 stitches. (Lesson Learned.) But this time since 120 was a multiple of 4 I went with a 2 X 2 rib. After 2 inches of ribbing, I can tell you all those people who have written patterns for fingering weight yarn knew what they were doing when they cast on ~120 to 130 stitches.

I have finished the ribbing, knit one row and then increased the stitches to 150 by k4, m1. I will knit about 4 to 6 rows of stocking stitch and then start the lace pattern. Hopefully, this time will be the charm!

I have some knitting to get through.

Happy Knitting.

Progress on Ginkgo

I put this project to the side while I finished a couple of other things (chullo, chullo, cap and scarf, sea anemone) but now I am back to it. I have made pretty good progress and am through the first two sets of leaves. I really like how the leaves are formed.

The lace on this shawlette is created on both sides of the knitting -- no resting on the purl rows. I have already had to "tink" back several times to fix where I have put in the incorrect decrease. This pattern uses four different single decreases: k2tog, skp, p2tog and ssp. (Click on link for videos of each decrease.) There are two knit decreases that slant in different directions and 2 purl decreases that also slant in different directions. If you get them switched up, the lace just doesn't look right.

For as many times as I have had to knit and re-knit some of the rows, the Sakkie yarn that my daughter selected is quite resilient. It is taking the beating well. I might just have to try some for a pair of socks.

So far so good. Only two more sets of leaves to go.

Happy Knitting.

Another Ginkgo -- Custom Ordered

As you may remember, my beautiful daughter came home for Thanksgiving and while she was here we made a trip to my LYS. She picked out yarn for the Chullo that I made for her as well as some yarn for a shawlette. She had seen my Fall Colored Ginkgo that I did knit last year and wanted me to do one for her.

The yarn that she chose is a beautiful, variegated sock weight yarn by Plymouth Yarns: Sakkie. This yarn is a soft, slightly fuzzy and tightly twisted two ply yarn made of 40% Merino, 40% Mohair and 20% Nylon. This yarn is machine washable. The color that Jacklyn selected is the Fiji colorway; it is mostly a medium grey with splashes of magenta, lime and tangerine.

I started knitting yesterday evening and I already like the yarn. Lots of definition in the stitches and the fabric is knitting up very evenly on size US 6 needles. Maggie Magali's design starts out with a very simple stocking stitch triangle. So, for the moment, I am just blasting through the knitting.

Looks like I have lots of knitting left to do, so Happy Knitting!

One Shawlette Done, Another on the Needles.

I finished my Fall Colored Ginkgo shawlette last Monday, but did not have time to block it until today. It is upstairs drying as I write this. I ran by Jo-Ann Fabrics this afternoon and picked up another 50 pins. I am glad I did, because pinning this one out took every pin in the house. I should have put more pins along the straight edge at the top of the shawlette, but I did what I could.

I should have called this the Tiger Eye Shawlette! I like the way the stripes look now that it is stretched out. For awhile I thought that the stripes were too pronounced and too dark, but now that you can see more light coming through, it is much nicer.

I bought yarn on Monday night to start the Alexandra Shawl and the Haruni. The Alexandra is Dee O'Keefe's latest design. It is beautiful -- very geometric. The Haruni is a shawl by Emily Ross. It has a lovely "star" at the center tip of the shawl. Both these shawls will be summer shawls -- light and airy. For both I selected Knit Pick's Shadow Tonal. For the Alexandra I picked Golden Glow and for the Haruni I picked Blue Violet. The golden is a very pale yellow and the blue violet is more lavender than violet.

Since I did not pay for express shipping, I knew that the yarn would not get here until the end of the week. This put me in a dilemma as I knew I wouldn't be able to not knit for four or 5 days. What would I do on my train rides? But if I started a new project, it would not be done before the yarn for the Haruni and the Alexandra arrived. This meant that I either I would have to wait to start the Alexandra or I would have two shawls going at one -- as if that has never happened before.

So, I decided that I would go ahead and start a new project anyway and I would have to have two projects going at once.  I started a small shawlette called Gail or Nightsongs by Jane Araujo. It is a really beautiful with leaves that look more like peacock feathers than leaves. The yarn I selected was some that I bought myself for a birthday present. I was saving it for a very special lace project. It is a lovely blue, green and rust Crazy Zauberball. This yarn is two ply with each ply a different variegated color. Yum. Rich colors with a great effect. The plies do split a bit, but as long as you are careful, it isn't too bad.

The Knit Pick's order arrived yesterday and I spent the whole evening hand winding one of the Golden Glow hanks into a center pull ball using my Nostepinne. This meant that I did not cast the Alexandra on until this morning. I have only gotten about the 1st 30 rows done, but I did want to get started as the designer is hosting a KAL (knit a long) on Knitting Paradise.

Well, I have better things to knit, er, do; so I will close this post.

Happy knitting!

Falling Leaves -- My Fall Colored Ginkgo

This is a new shawlette that I am knitting. The free pattern Ginkgo Shoulderette Shawl is found on Ravelry and is a top down triangular shawl designed by Maggie Magali. I am using the Koigu KPPPM sock yarn that I bought at the big sale in January.

I really like this yarn -- it is soft and has a great deal of spring to it. In fact, I have double checked the label twice to make sure that there is no Lycra in it! I think that as I knit it rather loosely, when blocked there should be nice big lace holes.

I started this project on vacation and the first part went really went fast as it is all stocking stitch. However, I have to admit I am having some trouble now that I am to the charted pattern. It is a mirror image shawl and I keep getting mixed up on which side of the mirror that I am on and forget to switch on the other side of the spine. So I have tinked alot on this project. At this point, I am on the 16th row of the pattern. Only 18 more to go.

Well, I have more work to do, so Happy Knitting!