Under the Sea

I've started the new one.

Not greatly happy with the fish -- the orange is the eye. I used a chart from this site, since I couldn't find a knitting one I liked, but the problem is mine: as usual, I didn't choose colors that contrasted greatly enough. It shows up a bit better in real life. I may just try to color the entire thing with markers or something, to make it more clear.

Here is a closer look.

I've just started on the entrelac around the center portion.

For the beginning triangles, I used a very textured yarn, to provide a bit of a frame (a lesson learned from my mirror afghan). For this first row of squares, I'm holding two yarns together, a Noro and a Colinette. How luxurious is that?

It looks almost glowing in the actual light.

Oh, and I finished the scarf.

I think I won't edge it, to keep the sort of homespun look. I liked how it turned out.

Back to fishing.

Scarf Break

Before I put the greens away, I'm taking a scarf break.

Just for fun, and changing colors once in each segment.

Easy and fun.

In the meantime, I'm mulling the next one, which will have blues, purples and some bright greens -- deep sea colors.

I got a couple of quilt books which inspired knitting thoughts. I hadn't heard of these types of designs before.

The first was on French Braid Quilts. It made me think of my Comet afghan -- one could do the french braid parts the same way as the comet's tail.

The book wasn't as wonderful as I'd hoped, but note that I was looking for knitting inspiration, not quilting instructions, so a quilter may have been happier. It only had a few designs in it, but still, it's enough to make me think about comet tail-french braid designs. One could have a lot of color fun.

The other book was more satisfying to my non-quilting needs. It was on Bargello quilts.  And I immediately thought of shaped entrelac. Again, this echoes back to a previously afghan, but one from years and years ago.

This bargello technique will be my starting point for the next one. I'll start with some kind of fish motif in the middle, and then try to make waves of entrelac, and see where it goes from there.

I like this stage, everything immanent, and the promise of problems to solve!

Eleventh 2010 One Done

Going Green.

Here are some more detailed looks.

The closer looks do a good job of displaying the differences in textures of both yarn and stitches. Here is the edging:

All in all, I'd call it a success.

However, having more finished products than there have been months in this year is a bit overwhelming. What will I do with them all?

The quick solution? Stop counting! Ignorance is bliss, isn't that correct?

Maybe next year.

All But There

I've done everything but the edging along the top.

See? I promised you something better than a shoe to show the size. I'm so reliable.

This, of course, is still unblocked. It should be larger and lacier after blocking.

Here are a couple of closer looks.

I crocheted the bind-off, using a green and and beige fuzzy yarn held together. Here are the yarns.

Now to do the top, and then the fun of blocking.

(That was sarcastic, actually -- I hate blocking, all that crawling around and trying to get it to look symmetrical. But it makes enough of a difference that I do it anyway. But when I win the lottery...)

Close to Goal

The shawl is scrunched up on the needles at this stage, but here's a look.

(When I finish, I'll use a better indication of size than me shoe, I promise.)

Here are some closer looks.

(Did that make you feel like you were falling forward?)

Each row takes a long time now, which is an indication that it is nearing the end, not because of the time, but as a measure of how wide it is growing.

I haven't yet decided how to end it, but I'll include more garter rows so it lays flat.

In the meantime, I've ordered a couple of quilt books from Amazon, so just about the time I'm blocking this one, new ideas should be springing up.

Having the promise of ideas for the future makes me feel peaceful.

Touch A Heart

I like to look at new shawls for a while, to try to understand what worked and what didn't, so I usually drape the latest one over the sofa, and, when they fit the space, I'll hang them over my desk at my office.

The current one at the office is my Darker Shade of Pale shawl.

Two separate people whom I work with have come in and stared at the shawl, and then they told me it might be the best one I've ever done. They've had a catch in their throats when they said this. Something about this shawl has really moved them.

The last thing I remember knitting which did this was a hat, child-sized and mossy-colored in fine yarn, and with a motif from Bohus knitting on the side. I think it looked like a vintage hat, because several older women, including my mother, got that same sound in their voice as they turned it around in their hands.

Neither of these objects moved me the same way. Some of my shawls delight me more than others, usually because of some juxtaposition of color. The latest one was Mirror.

I just really enjoy how some of the colors seem almost wrong, and yet not quite wrong. It makes my brain feel intrigued.

Anyway, the difference in how we all encounter the same objects is fascinating.

As long as we're at my office, here are a few other knitted items I have there.

This is Robirda.

Here is a cat showing off one of the scarves.

And here is my computer cover.

That is more than simply decorative: it hides the label we are required to have to have on our equipment, and which I hated looking at all the time.

There is one more place I'm thinking of adding some knitting: my windowsill.

At first I thought I'd have to knit something special, like I did for the computer, but now I think maybe a scarf would work fine.

Hmmm. I could make one to go with the shawl, and then every time I brought in a new shawl to hang, I could coordinate it with the scarf.....

Or is that too Martha Stewart?

Even Greener

Here is the progress.

The shoe is just to give an indication of size -- and I have a large foot!

This one has been a lot of fun. It has kept me interested in what to do next, and allowed me to play with combinations of colors and designs.

Here are some closer looks.

The shawl will look lacier when it is finally blocked. I'm now getting to the part where the rows are l-o-o-o-n-g. And just my luck, I'm interested in adding some 3-D textures, just when there will have to a a lot of them.

That's my knitting life.

Just as the cherry on top, here is a picture of the sunrise out our window, taken by my husband.

Wouldn't that be something to knit!

Going Green

New one is a collection of greens and beiges, sort of like my all beige one a while back, playtime with shading.

Here is the collection of yarns.

I'm using the Revontuli (Northern Lights) shawl pattern, one of my go-to patterns, as the basis. However, I'm playing around with adding garter and yarn-over rows to give it a less uniform look.

The pattern uses a notation system which I'm less familiar with, and every single time I start it, I get it wrong. However, I'm used to that by now, and it is easily discovered early on, so I just expect some kind of initial mistake anymore. 

Here's the start (after figuring the correct version out). One of the gratifying features of this pattern is that one makes progress at the beginning very quickly.

Here are some closer looks.

Here is how I like to do this pattern, to minimize the counting.

The red arrows point to my ring markers, red for decrease and blue for increase. (I use a mnemonic of the red being hot enough to melt the stitches together. Oddly enough, this works for me.) I put the red just before the middle stitch of the double decrease, and then move it each time. However, the blue is just before the middle stitch, and I increase on the stitch before the marker, then on the one past the middle stitch, so this marker just needs to be slipped each time.

The yellow shows the yarn tails woven in and out of the rows, to keep the markers from jumping off the needle.

I also use a marker between the first and second stitch of the right side row, and then weave the tail in on the increase row, and out on the two maintain rows. Then I can always look here to know if I'm supposed to increase or not.

So....no counting needed.

In theory, at least. Every once in a while I count between the markers just to make sure I didn't forget something somewhere. I usually have....so I just compensate in that row. This pattern doesn't need elaborate fixes, which is another wonderful feature of it.

Tenth 2010 One Done

Behold.....the Comet!

 Here are some closer looks.

I like it, but I wish that I had put some more rows of the dark red ribbon at the back. I was balancing that color all around, so there are 5 ridges in front of the tip of the comet, and 5 ridges at the back, but the triangles around the tip gave the front a more roomy look, which I hadn't anticipated.

Here is the edging. As I was making it, it became clear that the red ridges already were acting as a sort of edging, so the edging didn't have to be especially wide. I tried to echo the star pattern in a mild way.

The outer edge is shiny, not metallic, but like clear colored plastic, almost like Easter grass, as a final nod to shiny comets. (Those are blocking wires you see running through it in the bottom picture.)

Maybe I should send it to Phil Plait in honor of his book, Death From The Skies!