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I’ve made a separate page for my notes for my crocheted version of the BSJ. You can find my notes here. (Also listed in sidebar).
There’s a lot of loose ends to tie up. Well, not exactly, but my mind is all scattered in the past few days. I’ll tell you all about it, but let’s get the knitting out of the way first, shall we?
Me and bags…
I stole some yarn from Jaishree to make this bag. It’s now living with its owner in Australia happily, so I can blog about it now.
In the usual fashion:
Yarn: Common-or-garden acrylic, pinched from Jaishree’s stash. The recipient said she liked blue and this was what I found. I used two strands held together. I’m happy to report that despite being acrylic, the yarn shows off the cables quite nicely. Perhaps the tight gauge helped. This is light-worsted weight, the usual size.
Needles: 4mm, 6mm and 6.5mm
Pattern: The Lambe bag from Berroco. This came in a newsletter with four cabled bag patterns and I had in fact queued one of them when I read in the Rav RAK group that someone wanted this one, so it sounded ideal. The other one’s still on my queue, but will probably be made later. My project page on Rav is here.
Time: This took a while to make, because after starting it and finishing a repeat or so I realised that I’d miscrossed a cable, and had to rip. That kind of put me off a bit, but this was the only knitting project I took with me to Hyderabad, to ensure I would finish it. And I did.
Size: 9″ x 13″ across at the widest point, going down to 11″ across at the top.
Extra #1 I was glad to have the bamboo handles, which were almost identical to the ones the pattern called for. I bought them right here in Cochin.
#2 I like cables and bags. What can I say?
#3 I didn’t line this bag, because I felt the fabric was dense enough…Should I have?
#4 I had yarn left over and couldn’t resist the temptation to begin another pattern on my queue. I cast on almost immediately I got back and even finished part of it, and then found myself wondering if I had enough yarn. So of course I demanded that Jaishree send me more, which she has, the poor thing. So keep your eyes peeled for yet another blue thing in the future, ok? I know you can’t wait.
………………
Other stuff. Warning: will be hodge-podge-y
- There’s this new job I’m doing (job? contract? assignment? whatever) and I have a couple of files to attend to.
- Yesterday we had two separate meals out at the hospital, one a traditional Onasadya (Onam meal) for lunch served on a banana leaf, and the other a dinner in the evening to dine one of the doctors out. I got told off after the first one by the male in-law for waving my hands about when I talk. It isn’t ladylike, apparently. Not if I’m dressed in a sari. I wonder if I have a banner on my head that says, “Yes, I’m 34 years old, but I need to be told how to behave.” In a suitably tasteful font, of course. Needless to say, I tried to be very demure at dinner and did not go over to talk to the men which I normally do. Mustn’t blot my escutcheon further.
- We are hoping to go to the UK/Ireland/Italy in a few weeks time, and now that The Man has been given approval from his headquarters, the visa process has begun. Last year I thought getting a visa to one country was bad enough. I don’t know what made me think trying for 3 at a time would be any better! If they had all been within the Schengen zone, it would have been nice, but alas, no! All three countries have minds of their own, so we need a UK visa, an Irish one and a Schengen one from Italy. Just the UK form has 21 pages.
Of course, a lot of it we don’t have to fill, because it’s full of sections for all categories of visitors, but the bulk is still intimidating. Also, finding answers to questions like “How much money will you need for your accommodation and food while visiting the UK?”, “Have you ever done anything which might make you not a person of good character? If yes, please give details.” is quite exhausting (I wonder if waving my hands about would qualify). And so much of it is plain terrifying. The Italy visa requires a long list of “mandatory documents” including a confirmed air ticket…what if we don’t get one? Then we’d have to add the visa fees to the cancellation charges as lost money.
- Bright spot? I posted for advice on the Rav forums and found a great new friend who’s promised to put us up in Rome. Best of all, she has 3 cats!!! No wonder she’s so kind as to offer a bed to almost-total strangers.
- Italy sounds more and more like India every time I go to a different website or source of information. The potholes, the pickpockets, the 60-day train bookings, the refusal to accept credit cards…But the men should be handsomer, no? 😉 And I always have been drawn to Rome and Egypt…Perhaps Rome because my parents and sister went there as part of their farewell tour (actually they were relocating from Canada for good and decided to cover Europe on the way back, touching London, Rome, Venice, Paris, Amsterdam, Belgrade and Egypt in 1972). Anyway, they had a photo-rich book on Rome I still have memories of.
- Another India-like feature? The Consulate site tells me the VFS (Visa Facilitation Service) has a centre in Cochin, but the VFS-Italy site says there isn’t. This sort of confusion feels so Indian! I’ve sent a mail asking for information. I’m hoping not to have to travel to Chennai or Mumbai for the visa, sigh. Anyway, we need to get the visas in order, so nothing to be done until the other two come through.
- Looking once again for help/advice on accommodation in London. And do any of my mostly silent readers live in any of these places and could we meet? It would be so much fun! This would be in late October, early November. Last time I didn’t actually get to go to a knit/crochet meetup. Or a real yarn store. Though I’m thinking that would be too tempting/depressing/dangerous for my credit card. So, anyone out there in London/Manchester/Belfast/Dublin/Rome/Venice-or-Florence?
- Another example of the unexpected kindness of people: I saw someone queuing or faving the Ten Stitch Blanket (Ravelry link) on Rav and discovered the UK’s Knitting and Crochet Guild were selling copies of the past issue of Slipknot which had the pattern. I wrote to them to enquire whether they’d send a copy to India and the lady was sweet enough to send me a copy free! Gives you a nice warm feeling inside. The pattern itself is written in Elizabeth Zimmermann’s chatty style, not the row-by-row detailed style.
Thanks for listening! My mind is flitting from one topic to another these days, and the table at which I work is in a royal mess. Which is reflecting the other I am not sure, but the likeness is astounding.
Don’t mind me, I’m just a sloth.
I promise my next blog post will be different! It’s just that once I actually finished making something with the Russian cotton, it was like I found it eminently suitable to lots of things. Actually, having spent a small fortune on having it imported, I thought I had to make a wearable out of it and was not willing to admit that I didn’t like the non-glazed, non-mercerised look of it when worked up. Now I’ve decided that since the ice is broken, I can use the yarn for whatever I want, just so my stash is reduced. So here’s another thing I made out of it.
Yarn: Kamteks Khlopok from Russia (Khlopok = cotton), just over half a skein. (Each skein had 250m yarn). Held two strands together.
Needles: Size 3.50mm (US 4)
Pattern: Modern Cabled Baby Bib (it’s a free Ravelry download) by Andrea Pomerantz (gibsongirl on Ravelry). I can’t see if it is available outside of Ravelry, though. Here’s my Ravelry project page.
Time: Overnight. I had to make a gift in a hurry for a colleague/neighbour’s baby (I thought the mom had left with the baby for a vacation, then discovered she hadn’t just two days before I left for Bangalore, so I needed to whip this up in a hurry. I had been considering a bib anyway and found this on Ravelry.)
Size: 7″ x 7″ not including the strap, of course.
Extra #1 Nothing much to say. Nice easy and elegant pattern. Suitable for either gender, perhaps slightly masculine. That’s good, though, because so many patterns tend to be suited for girls.
#2 I wanted to put a much larger wooden button, and even sewed it in, but then I found it was too large for the buttonhole. Duh. So I unsewed it and sewed on a slightly smaller one. (I’m calling the buttons wooden, but I think they might be coconut shell.)
I must warn you that I have (had) a total of 1500m of this yarn in my stash.
Here’s my Ravelry project page.
Yarn: Generic scratchy acrylic. (Don’t ask me why). It’s about DK weight, and I worked this sweater with two strands held together.
Needles: Size 6.00mm (US 10)
Pattern: Riverstone. It isn’t up yet on Ravelry (but you can see the designer’s Ravelry page for it here). I tested this pattern for Justine. I made the 12 mths size and really enjoyed the unusual construction. I wish I’d used better materials, though. Next time perhaps. Increases and decreases keep your interest going in the yoke area, while the body went pretty fast because I wanted to put on the buttons :p
Time: About ten days, but only because I got into a funk midway thinking I wouldn’t have enough yarn to finish. In the end I had enough to finish, plus a good amount left over.
Size: 20″in the chest x 12″long unstretched. The ribs provide a lot of room for growth, although mine are possibly worked at too dense a gauge.
Extra #1 What is it about baby sweaters? I prefer them to babies, actually :p No feeding/cleaning.
#2 I’m very happy with the buttons, which I bought here in Cochin. I think they are coconut shell or wood.
#3 One more baby sweater and not an infant in sight.
Thank you everyone for the warm messages assuring me I am not boring you to death. I hadn’t meant my last post as a call for reassurance (more like an observation), actually, but you still made my day 🙂 You must really love me 😀
Well, not really (more like a run-of-the-mill show and tell), but this one is a Debbie Bliss pattern, which I had an urge to make and providentially a CAT PAC arrived with some suitable yarn in it. I cast on almost as soon as I opened the package.
Here’s my Ravelry project page.
Yarn: Lion Brand Vanna’s Choice. Another Red Heart Supersaver clone. Nothing to recommend it especially. I used about a skein and a half for this project.
Needles: Size 4.00mm (US 6) for the ribbed button band and 6.00mm (US 10) for the body of the sweater.
Pattern: Ribbed Baby Jacket by Debbie Bliss. (Ravelry link here). It is also available free here.
Time: Over two weeks. I think I took a while to weave in ends (so what else is new?), but otherwise it is a simple enough knit.
Size: 26″in the chest x 10.5″long
Extra #1 The stockinette does make it curve in at the bottom and cuffs, but I’m letting it be.
#2 Another reckless and pointless knit for me, no babies targetted, but I was compelled to make this one. I don’t know what it is about baby sweaters and me, but they draw me like a moth to the flame. You can learn new techniques without having to spend the rest of your life knitting on something. Also, they have no shaping, usually, and will fit some baby at some point. Now all I have to do is find some babies. (I’m happy to say I gave away my February sweater to my maid, who wanted it for her great-nephew. What use they will find for it in tropical Kerala, I do not know. But it lessens my baby sweater inventory by one).
#3 I’m happiest about the way I picked up stitches for the button band. Rather than picking them up in the last stitch of the exposed rows, I went behind them and picked up the stitches from the inner column. It made for a very neat finish, especially because I had a chain selvage (slip the first stitch of every row knitwise, knit the last stitch). So that was the learning from this thing. I wasn’t very happy about the picking up around the neck (instead of binding off as the pattern advised, I held the stitches on a spare circular). The whole “pick up evenly” thing continues to baffle me and reduce me to scrambling for closure. Otherwise the whole thing is an average project, nothing to write home about.
So why blog about it? Partly because my other projects are test ones which I cannot yet blog about. And partly to squeeze in another post before the end of this month.
I realise my blog has become rather dull and monotonous. Where’s the wit and variety gone, you must be wondering. Perhaps it’s just old age. Or something.
I stopped blogging about books, because I realised no one appears to share my taste in them/find anything new in what I say. And I really don’t feel the need to journal all the books I read. Which pretty much leaves me with only craft to write about. And since I usually don’t like showing works in progress, all you get nowadays are staccato essays following a rigid and predictable structure.
Which makes me grateful for the people who do continue to read. Thank you! I can’t describe the thrill I get out of seeing comments from you. Please continue to visit 🙂
I’ve never added beads to a knit project before, and definitely not without pre-stringing them. Plus for some reason I really liked this scarf as soon as I saw it, so I volunteered to test the pattern for Wendi when she posted about it on Ravelry. I had a really fun time knitting it. The pattern repeat is about 40 rows long, but the wrong side rows are all purl rows, besides which the scarf is only 29 stitches wide. I’m afraid the photos don’t do it justice, but I tried, my friends, I tried.
Here’s my Ravelry project page.
Yarn: Patons Kroy Sock, just over a 192 yard skein in Chelsea Tweed. I don’t know how, but the other sock yarn I have is also a similar dark colourway. Never seen any of those fancy handpainted/hand-dyed ones. But then always with variegated yarns, I’m often more enamoured of the yarn/thread in the skein rather than in a project worked up. I’d probably croon over the multi-hued sock yarn and then relegate it to the back of my stash, where I can no longer hear its jeers.
Andrea had suggested I could use sock yarns for scarves, and I’d forgotten that I’d indeed done so, for my Boteh (also Patons Kroy, but in a livelier colour). Plus there’s a UFO somewhere in the depths of my cupboards, started with Wildfoote Luxury. So now I can potentially make 3 scarves and free myself from the guilt of trying to make socks and failing miserably. Yay!
Needles: Size 4.00mm (US 6). That was the recommended size, I think.
Pattern: Melusine by Wendi Dunlap. (Ravelry link here).
Time: 6 days or less. I treated myself to one pattern repeat every evening and finished off with 2 and the ends on the final day.
Size: 6″ x 84″
Extra #1 I really enjoyed using a crochet hook to put on the beads while knitting, and not having to worry about stringing all of them beforehand and then getting the yarn all tangled up. Wendi suggested a tutorial found here for the technique.
#2 I’m wondering if there’s much point in becoming addicted to knitting scarves when (a) I don’t know if I can bear to give them away and (b) whether I know enough people who’d wear them. Would you, Dear Reader? More specifically, would you wear this scarf? (I mean this version, knit by me).
Yes, my dears. That up there, looking so familiar, is the crocheted version of the Baby Surprise Jacket. I did it. The entire credit goes to James G Davis (Pandaman) who worked out a stockinette version, upon which mine is totally based. The stockinette gauge is closer to the sc gauge than garter, so Mr Davis’ version was perfect for this. I don’t know why I didn’t do it this way the first time. All I had to do was use sc for every stitch and decide how I wanted to make my increases and decreases. I chose to increase by doing 2 sc in two stitches (an increase of 2), and my decreases by sc3tog (hook through next stitch, yo, pull loop through 3 times, yo and pull loop through all 4 loops on hook). Next time I might change my increases to 3 sc in one stitch. And use some interesting colours instead of this pale pink.
I don’t know why, but I always seem to gravitate towards the same colours for babies. Sigh. It could also be that these are the only colours there are, so it’s not as if I’m faced with a wide choice, not if I don’t want to produce glow-in-the-dark baby clothes. Which I don’t.
Here are the particulars (here’s my Ravelry page):
Yarn: Standard issue baby acrylic, about 150gm or so.
Hook: Size 5.00mm (US H). I went up a size or two from my first attempt, in order to conquer the obvious gauge problem. I made a conscious effort to make the starting chain loose (mine usually tends to be tight) and was immediately rewarded by a gratifyingly right-angled beginning.
Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Baby Surprise Jacket (link to knitwiki article), aided and abetted by Pandaman’s Stockinette modifications.
Time: I began my first attempt a while ago, as you will remember, and actually started this one a few days ago. Then I got caught up in testing a couple of patterns, doing some work (my job) and distracted by other things, so the project languished a bit. I finally told myself off and picked it up again and resolved not to be distracted this time. The endless rows of sc do begin to pall after a while, which sort of explains why I’d like to do it in a different sort of yarn the next time. And when I grow up, I’d like to try manipulating the gauge for other stitches, starting with dc perhaps. A couple of evenings to finish this normally.
Size: 22″ around.
Extra #1 What can I say? It’s a bit anti-climactic, realising the solution was easy after all, I just had been overthinking things a bit.
#2 I must have counted every stitch on every inc/dec row. I didn’t use markers (because I find stitch markers in crochet to be tedious) and spreading the increases out over 2 stitches made it a bit more tiresome than it needed to be. I don’t know why, when I’d been sc3tog-ing for a decrease, it didn’t occur to me to do 3sc in 1 for an increase! I was fooled by the knitting, where it’s usual to only increase one stitch at a time (unless you’re yo-ing or casting on, and end up with holes). Took me until I was writing down my notes to realise it doesn’t have to be that way, crochet is so much more flexible in that sense.
#3 I added some length to the sleeves after finishing the main part, because they were looking really stubby. I went to the edges and did a few rows of sc on the other side of the starting chain, then decreased stitches twice before ending off.
#4 Not entirely happy with the collar (it could still be added to, but I don’t think I will).
#5 There isn’t a girl baby in sight who’d require warm clothing, but I do have one earlier victim who’s a bit small despite being a year old. She’ll do.
I’m not resting on my laurels, having begun two other projects-one of them is yet again a baby sweater, and the other a dishcloth. And yes, I’ll name them among my FOs. That’s for Sara. If I didn’t count my small projects, I’d have no projects at all.
Since Ravelry, I am not being strictly chronological with my posts of FOs, or even complete, sometimes. I just blog about whichever project takes my fancy, when I have the time and the inclination. This one happens to be my latest finished thing and I really am proud of it, so here it is.
I caught this on the patterns page at Ravelry (I look through the latest projects added every now and then) and saw it was a free pattern, and was in fact currently running as a KAL, with the designer posting installments on her blog. In browsing through my stash I’d turned up this yarn which I didn’t know what it was when I got it from Celtic Coyote in a Knitty swap many months ago. She didn’t remember either, but then Sara was working on a BSJ with similar yarn some time ago and I discovered it is actually Plymouth Encore Colorspun Worsted, plus I was able to find some colourway names on Yarndex as well. I had 6 half skeins or so, and for this project I used up about 3.5.
(Looking through the photos, I just realised I didn’t take a picture of the back, but seriously, I don’t think it matters. It matches the front up to the armholes, and then it’s mostly similar.)
Here are the particulars (here’s my Ravelry page):
Yarn: Plymouth Encore Colorspun Worsted in several colours and half skeins. It feels a bit dry and rough and I don’t know how it will feel in a colder climate or next to the skin. Perhaps it softens with washing? I liked watching the striping, mostly because the pattern is stockinette-dominated. Besides, each colour runs for a fairly long length. I usually love variegated yarn in the skein and despise it worked up. But this worked for a small diameter project. Having so many different colours also meant I could use different colourways without too much weirdness. (The sleeves don’t fully match, but I can live with that).
Needles: I used about 3-4 US #10 (6.00mm) circulars, and one US #8 (5.00mm). That was because I was too lazy to hunt up a stitch holder for the body. For the sleeves, I did both at the same time from different ends of the same ball, because I wanted them to largely match, which they wouldn’t if I had used two different balls. So that required two circulars at the same time, but not with both on one, if you see what I mean. I used one circular for one sleeve. I could possibly have simplified matters with only one circular to work both, but somehow that didn’t occur to me :-p Luckily I seem to have a surfeit of the 6.00 mm and nearby sizes.
Pattern: Waffles for Brunch by Jean Gifford. Here’s the Ravelry page. I probably might make this again.
Time: Over a week, but that was only because I took a break to (a) edit 15 files and (b) test 6 patterns (5 of which were small thread motifs). I got in on the KAL about halfway, but I was able to finish more or less quite quickly after the last instructions were posted. As I indicated, it’s a quick and easy knit.
Uh-oh. Thunder in the background. Hopefully the electricity won’t go.
Size: 19″at the chest, unstretched, 12″ long. As the designer says, it’ll fit some kid somewhere.
Extra #1 I loved doing this! Even loved the extra effort needed to match the stripes (or at least ensure they weren’t too odd/off). As usual, it a bit of on-the-edge knitting whether I’d have enough yarn (the other two half-skeins are pale pink and yellow, while these ones can still be useful for a boy, right?), but that was okay in the end.
#2 I’m very kicked with myself…I did a tubular cast on for this and even though that is usually recommended for 1×1 ribbing, it was okay for this one. It would be a problem with a more monochromatic yarn, though. I found this tutorial via Ravelry and it made the process very clear. I did try to match it with a tubular cast-off at the end of the sleeves, but couldn’t quite grasp it, besides which it involves grafting, which I’m not very good at. Also, the instructions were again for ribbing, not this 4×2 pattern.
#3 Very happy :-D. I don’t exactly know who is going to be favoured with this, as most of my friends have young boys, but I don’t think this is too girly. Do you?
#4 I really am very happy with how the collar worked out, too. The designer (and/or the pattern) made it easy when it came to picking up stitches (none of the “pick up eleventy stitches evenly around the neck” business). It’s the first time I’ve worked a collar like this and I really am pleased with the outcome.
It’s raining now. I’ll leave you with a picture of the cast-on to admire. (There isn’t a particular reason i’m not replying individually to comments, just plain laziness. I might just go to my inbox and catch up now, so don’t be puzzled by any replies you get to comments you made when you were a good deal younger ;-))
and so was the predictable pun, sorry!
It is of course, the February Baby Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmermann from her Knitter’s Almanac. I found the book available on an Indian website and so I ordered it. I wasn’t sure I would get it, because some crochet book I ordered on a site once never got to me. The order was simply cancelled, because the book was out of stock. I don’t remember what it was. But after waiting for 6 weeks (and periodically checking the status of my order), I finally got it last Monday. I had to cast on immediately, of course because it was for this pattern I ordered the book in the first place! I had yarn left over from my Waffle Vest. Now that yarn is greyish blue while this pattern is a lace pattern, but I wasn’t too concerned about gender correctness. Nor do I have a target/victim in mind for it.
I was finished knitting by Friday although I must confess I still haven’t sewn on the buttons…they were a present from Cordi (hi, how’s the hibernation?), but did not photograph well. They are small bunnies (pinkish, but again, no gender concerns Chez Fife).
Here are the specs in the time-honoured format.
Yarn: The same acrylic that I used for my Waffle Vest. Regular baby yarn. About sport weight, I should think.
Needles: Unknown silvery circulars in 4mm (US 6). I think Heide gave me these. I really like them and they’re probably my most-used size/pair. The only issue is that the cable tends to curve in on itself, but that is manageable. Perhaps a spot of hot water treatment is called for?
Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmermann’s February Baby Sweater on Two Needles (Ravelry link) from her Knitter’s Almanac (scroll down).
Time: 5 days (I dithered about sewing the seams and did a bad job anyway at the end)
Size: 21″ at the chest, 10.5″ long
Extra #1 I was surprised at the slimness of the book. I suppose I should have expected it from my copy of Knitting Without Tears (an amazing book sale find).
#2 The instructions for the sleeves puzzled me. I was first confused whether to cast on the extra 7 stitches on either side or not, but realised I should. Then when it came to picking up stitches to continue for the body, I confused myself about how to pick them up! I got the cast on stitches twisted, before realising that the extreme ends should be together, therefore you start picking up from the side of the cast on which is closer to the older stitches. Does that make any sense at all? It would probably help if you seamed the sleeves first, or if you did them in the round, thus eliminating the beginning of cast-on/end of cast-on confusion altogether
#3 My finishing as usual is horrendous, although I have improved the area under the armpits somewhat from how it looks in the picture. My picking up stitches for the body under the sleeves was also pretty bad.
#4 The lace pattern was extremely easy to memorise. Perhaps next time I shall actually challenge myself (imagine!) and choose another 7-stitch lace pattern. If there is a next time.
#5 I think this is the most beautiful thing I have ever knit for a baby. (In the intent, if not in the execution).
______
Thank you everyone for the encouragement on my attempts at crochetising the BSJ. I have sent the project into temporary hibernation prior to what I realise must be inevitable ripping. Sigh. A friend is working with me on it and seems to be making better progress. I am wondering if I should perhaps use Pandaman’s stockinette adaptation instead of the original as a base, because the primary problem with the current oeuvre is the row gauge of sc rows versus garter rows. As far as I can understand it, of course. We shall have to see.
Or first cousins perhaps. There is a Doilie-along over at Ravelry for the Doilie Heads group, and I decided to join because I’ve never knit a doily before. I’m happy to say it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be! Here are my results. First, the crochet version (although I did it second).
And the details:
Thread: Aunt Lydia’s Classic Crochet (size 10) in Victory Red. The colour’s much richer in real life, not the washed-out version of my camera. I’ve never felt constrained to use only white for doilies, I don’t know why. It seems limiting somehow, my skills, resources and abilities are limited enough already without adding colour restrictions to the constraints. Here is my Ravelry page for the project.
I quite liked the feel of the thread, although it isn’t shiny like the Anchor and Red Heart we get here, it’s soft. Slightly fuzzy though, and might not stand up to rough use (will pill).
Hook: Pony handled steel hook 1.75mm
Pattern: Antlia from Patrizia Pisani (CrochetPatty of Patty’s Filet and Crocheting Page). She has lovely patterns, I don’t know why I haven’t done more of them. Although I suspect I might have done the odd one before my blogging days. Alas, no photographic evidence exists. I wrote too soon. There is one other project I have evidence of. I think I made it while we were living in Bombay, so it’s at least 4 years old. I might have given it away too.
Time: Two days
Size: 12″
Extra #1 Compared to the knit version, this isn’t as elegant and delicate as I’d like, but then I suppose that’s what you get with size 10 thread. Makes the point that with the same fibre, knit is always finer (unless you want to make holey and too-loose crochet). Quick and easy, though. Badly blocked as usual.
#2 There is what appears to be one error in the instructions. Replace the ‘dc’ in the final row with ‘sc’ and it works.
#3 No specific picot version is given in the pattern, so I did a ch 3, slip st in first ch.
Now for the knit version.
Thread: Same as above. I wanted to make the material same, to emphasise the difference between the two techniques. Point made, I think.
Someone suggested I should use wool, but the thread gave me some familiarity. I do have some laceweight wool, but it terrifies me.
Needles: Unknown metal US 1/2.25mm needles (my only set of 5 given to me by Heide). I was afraid I didn’t have the right size of needles for this project, and would have much preferred using a circular, perhaps, but I found these worked quite nicely for me. Although perhaps I was wrong to apply my crochet logic (use the size that minimises gaping), but should have instead gone up a size or two. Might have made the knitting lacier. Don’t know if I’d have liked it, though. This one, I’m quite happy with.
The beginning was quite fiddly. I wasn’t sure I hadn’t twisted the stitches, not in joining, but in knitting the rounds. In such fine thread, it’s difficult to make out what you’ve done or which side you’re on. On the group the advice (after I’d finished) was to use a pillow to support the needles until you stabilise. Might try that the next time. Yes, I do hope there will be a next time! Knitting lace with yarn is frightening, but not so much with thread. Itty-bitty thread, I’m used to.
Pattern: Flacon from Yarnover.net. Here is my Ravelry project page.
Time: Two days
Size: 8″
Extra #1 Finished with crochet loops, and I wasn’t too sure I was doing the binding off (between the knit and the crochet rounds) correctly, but it doesn’t look odd. The pattern doesn’t specify how you insert your needle when you are crocheting three knit stitches together, so I just did what was convenient. I suppose I could have looked it up, but I wanted to finish. 🙂
#2 The knit fabric doesn’t give much opportunity for hiding ends, unlike crochet. I had to think a bit for this.
#3 I broke a personal barrier with this one!
#4 The knit band was unusual for me because unlike in a crochet doily where you have to increase the number of stitches each round to prevent puckering, these 6 rounds had the same number of stitches throughout. Apparently because of the height of knit stitches is much less than that of crochet ones.
swakrta.com 