A busy holiday ... perfect for procrastination

I ran into a glitch on patch #6, so I picked up a shawl I've been working on. It's from Nancy Bush's book Knitted Lace of Estonia, the lilac leaf shawl.  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lilac-leaf-shawl Here are some pictures of the shawl in progress.

I'm using a skein of Zitron Filisilk that I bought in Charleston, SC at Knit downtown.  The skein has 656 yards (100g ball) so I was looking for a small project.  I'm weighing the yarn as I go.  The first border is 18g. The first repeat 5 grams.  So, 100 grams - 36 grams (two borders) is 64 grams.  If each repeat is 5 grams, then I'll be able to fit in 12 repeats.  The pattern calls for 14, so depending how my gauge actually comes out, my shawl may be a little shorter. I LOVE this yarn. http://www.ravelry.com/yarns/library/zitron-filisilk It's 70% wool and 30% silk. It's shiny and light and lovely.

Patch #4: Single Lily of the Valley (completed with full pattern)

Patch #4 is a Single Lily of the Valley pattern from the book: Bush, Nancy. Knitted Lace of Estonia: Techniques, Patterns, and Traditions. Loveland, CO: Interweave, 2008. Print. Page 132. 
This swatch took 39 grams of worsted weight yarn. 

Here's the pattern for the swatch:
Cast on 41 stitches. 

Rows 1 - 6: K to end

Row 7: K 5 (border), Preparation row from about while decreasing 5 stitches within border. I decrease on every fifth stitch, K5 (border), 

Rows 8 through 49: Follow rows 1 through 14 of pattern above for a total of 3 times. Maintain 5-stitch garter stitch border on each side. 

Rows 50 - 56: K to end

Bind off. 

Here's a close-up:

Tonight I'll search for a pattern for the next patch. 

I re-did Patch #2 Lobed Leaf (blocking)

I decided to re-do Patch #2 Lobed Leaf.  Originally I added two stockinette stitches on each edge of the lace panel to extend it to 31 stitches.  There wasn't room for the lace to open up, so I frogged the swatch, and eliminated the side stitches.

Here's a photo of the swatch blocking. It looks MUCH better.

Patches #1 and #3 are blocking. Full pattern for #3: Alternating Drop Stitch

Patches #1 (Stockinette) and #3 (Alternating Drop Stitch) are blocking. Patch #1 took 40 grams of worsted wool, and Patch #3 took 37 grams of worsted wool. It looks like decreasing the number of stitches within the border allowed Patch #3 to block nicely.  Here are pictures of both patches blocking. Following the pictures you'll find the full pattern for Patch #3.

Patch #1 Blocking

Patch #3 Blocking Close-up

Patch #3 Blocking

Here's the stitch pattern for Patch #3: Alternating Drop Stitch

Alternating Vertical Drop Stitch

Vogue Knitting Stitchionary: The Ultimate Stitch Dictionary from the Editors of Vogue Knitting Magazine, Volume 1. New York: Sixth&Spring, 2005. Print., page 55.

(multiple of 8 sts plus 2)

Preparation row (RS) *P2, k1, yo, k1, p2, k2; rep from *, end p2.

Rows 1, 3, and 5 (WS) *K2, p2, k2, p3; rep from *, end k2.

Rows 2 and 4 *P2, k3, p2, k2; rep from *, end p2.

Row 6 *P2, k1, drop next st off needle and unravel to the yo 6 rows below, k1, p2, k1, yo, k1; rep from *, end p2.

Rows 7, 9, and 11 *K2, p3, k2, p2; rep from *, end k2.

Rows 8 and 10 *P2, k2, p2, k3; rep from *, end p2.

Row 12 *P2, k1, yo, k1, p2, k1, drop next st off needle and unravel 6 rows down, k1; rep from *, end p2.

Rep rows 1-12.

st= stitch

sts = stitches

Here's the pattern for the swatch:
Cast on 41 stitches. 

Rows 1 - 6: K to end

Row 7: K 5 (border), Preparation row from about while decreasing 5 stitches within border. I decrease on every fifth stitch, K5 (border), 

Rows 8 through 37: Follow rows 1 through 12 of pattern above for a total of 5 times. Maintain 5-stitch garter stitch border on each side. 

Rows 38 to 42: Follow rows 1 through 6 above once. Maintain 5-stitch garter stitch border on each side. 

Row 43: K5. Follow row 12 above, however omit yarnovers and increase (kfb) every fifth stitch adding a total of 5 stitches to area between borders, K5. 

Rows 44 - 49: K to end

Bind off. 

Patch #3: Alternating Drop (In Progress)

I started swatch #3, an alternating vertical drop stitch pattern.

For this swatch, I decided to decrease the number of stitches in the lace panel to accommodate the holes.  So, I cast on 41 stitches and worked 6 rows of garter stitch. I then knit the setup row, but every 5 stitches inside the borders I K2tog. Normally the inside panel would be 31 stitches. I reduced it to 26.  As you'll see in this photo, the pattern bows in the borders, but I'm hoping that when I block it, the holes will open up and it will maintain a solid 9-inch square. 

Here's the swatch a little over half-way done. 

The pattern is in the following post. 

Patch #2 Lobed Leaf

I decided to use the stockinette swatch in the overall afghan and to branch out a bit by not having all lace samples but a mixture of different stitch patterns.  It will likely be heavy on lace but will include other stitche patterns as well.  I probably won't do any colorwork and stick with solid colors for each patch.

I redid this swatch to eliminate the side stockinette stitches and to have the lace panel knit in 27 stitches, instead of 31, giving it more room to have the lace open up. See the June 29 post for results. 

So, the stockinette is Patch #1.  Lobed Leaf is Patch #2. I found the pattern in Walker, Barbara G.. Charted knitting designs: a third treasury of knitting patterns. Pittsville, WI: Schoolhouse Press, 1998. Print. Page 174.

I discovered something while making this swatch (which I already knew but was painfully reminded of).

First, because of the yarnovers and holes, the gauge of the lace portion makes it a lot larger than the surrounding garter stitch. When I went to block it, it grew amazingly.  So, I had to kind of squish it into the 9 x 9 square and the lace effect really isn't shown at it's best because the holes can't open freely.  Also, as you'll see in the photo, the pattern bends the borders. Not sure if this will be an issue in the overall construction, but we'll see.

I'm not 100% pleased with it. I might leave it as is, or I might re-do it later after I try some other techniques on other swatches and I figure out how to improve it. In the next post, I'll talk about Patch #3 and changes I made to accommodate the different gauge of a lace swatch. This patch took 44 grams of worsted-weight wool.

Pattern for Patch #1: Lobed Leaf Pattern

Note that the "busy" work is done on the wrong (purl) side of this swatch.  To work a yarnover between two purl stitches, since the yarn is already in the front, you need to loop the yarn completely over the needle and bring it around to the front to complete the yarnover.

Here's the pattern for Patch #2: Lobed Leaf

Cast on 41 stitches.
Rows 1-6: K to end.
Starting at row 7, and maintaining a 5-stitch garter stitch border on each side, complete rows 1-10 of the chart a total of four times.
Last 7 rows: K to end.
Bind off.

(Re)starting lots of things

Starting things up again

Starting up the blog again.  A lot has happened in the last year. I've been getting the house ready to sell (it's on the market) and I've been teaching a bunch of knitting classes at Hillsborough Yarn Shop.  Here's what I'll be covering in the blog: 

• Working on TKGA Master Hand Knitting Level II
• Knitting classes
• A lace patchwork afghan I'm designing
• The move

The Lace Patchwork Afghan

I found out recently that Mission Falls yarn has closed its doors, and so Anne Derby, the owner of Hillsborough Yarn shop, put bunches of Mission Falls yarn up for sale.  I bought 39 balls of 1824 Wool in four different colors, a chocolate brown, a rusty red, a dark green and a light green.  I've decided to create a bunch of 9" x 9" squares with a garter stitch border surrounding a lace pattern.  I'll then sew the squares together.

I've been swatching the last couple of nights.  It looks like using a size 8 needle, I can get a 9"x 9" square with 41 stitches across and 55 rows. I have a six row garter stitch border on the bottom and a seven row garter stitch border on the top (the extra row and the bind off balance the top and bottom) as well as a 5 stitch garter stitch border on each side (one of the five stitches is a stockinette selvedge stitch). It looks like one square will take approximately 40 grams of yarn.  That's about 71 yards. 

The blank chart looks like this: 

Here's a picture of the unblocked blank square. I'm not going to bother to block it because I want to frog this swatch for the yarn.