Your greatness is not what you have, it's what you give.

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Back in the saddle again!

The afternoon ladies had conflicts today so I met with my evening Chicks only this week. We had news to catch up from over the holidays and then we got down to the business of knitting. Our first pet peeve of the evening was about pattern designers who give instructions, vaguely at best, and then say something like, "just continue to follow the pattern while increasing/decreasing (whatever applies)". We all agreed that is the lazy way to go and causes much confusion to those knitters who might not feel as confident in their skills as they should. I've seen many a competent knitter crumble before such flimsy instructions. 

Our first project up is one from Carole's needles which she brought to show us. It's a double knitted, fully reversible hat she is making for herself called Rectangly. It is knitted with contrasting colored yarns and the patterns are mirror images in opposing colors on each side. It seems a bit of magic and there is a ton of chart following, if you like that sort of thing. And it brings up the second pet peeve of the evening, you have to pull the stitches tightly with every knit so the tension is equal on both sides. Carole said after a while she has to rest her hands because they fatigue quickly from all that tugging. But it seems worth it to me as she is making a beautiful hat!
 My personal pet peeve, number 3, I guess, is I don't like to knit from a chart. I saw this pattern for free on Ravelry and thought it's a smallish hat, how hard could it be? I've done Fair Isle knitting before but I designed it myself and made the pattern up as I went along. I wasn't following a chart, at least not on paper.
This pattern is kicking my butt! I can knit only a row at a time and then I need to take a rest. I know, what a wimp! But I just don't like charts! I'm going to finish this hat, take a photo for posterity, say "Been there, done that!" and never knit it again! LOL!
Dorah didn't want me to take another photo of her never-ending scarf but look! It's nearing the end!
Maureen started a 2X2 ribbed hat that works up very quickly. Our donation inventory seems to be overwhelmingly stocked in pretty feminine knits so we have to force ourselves to make good, basic, manly stuff. This pattern easily fits the bill.
Do you remember Carole's cowl that had the one stitch out of place on the right side? Well, she ran a lifeline a row behind the mistake and frogged the whole thing down to the last good row, picked up the stitches, and finished knitting away until it was perfect again. Good job Carole!
This scarf was knitted using Cascade Tangier. The pattern is ZickZack Scarf and is free on Ravelry. The original pattern called for fingering weight yarn and small needles but when I saw this Silk and Cotton blend, worsted weight yarn in the sale bin at the store it screamed at me to use it for the ZickZack. The colors make waves of dark and light and interplay with each other so it looks like the scarf is moving. I called it Peas and Carrots for obvious reasons. That shading is not a photography trick, that is how it really looks in person. The lights lined up perfectly in both skeins as did the darks.
Every now and then I get really lucky with how my plans work!

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