Sunday, August 27, 2006

Swatching... swatching... swatching...

Finished the first swatch for the Dragon Scale Gauntlets, 24 st/32 rows of p2k2 ribbing.

Gauge stated by the pattern: 6 sts and 8 rows per inch.

Gauge I got: 8 sts and 6 rows per inch.

Head, meet desk.

Hopefully I can finagle it -- just add some more stitches in the ribbing for the gauntlets. I need to take my arm measurements and see. I may also skip a repeat of the chart; we'll see.

I am doing two chart repeats, bordered by 4 sts garter stitch, for my second swatch. I've completed one repeat. It was a little tricky at first to do the decreases/increases, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. SSK, in particular, is a breeze most of the time now. My only real concern is whether I'm doing the m1s so that they slant the right way... I don't think that I am. I can't really tell, though, because I've got 34 sts squooshed together on a short needle so I can't get a good look at the fabric I'm producing. I'll see how it looks when it comes off of the needles.

Well, that's basically it... I'll try to have swatch pictures next week (hopefully I'll have finished swatch #2 by then), but that's a little iffy since I will be packing up to go home for two weeks. We'll see.

Sunday, August 20, 2006

DONE!

I finished my scarf!



Scarf!



Me wearing finished scarf


(no, I don't know what I'm doing with my hand in that picture...)


Here's a closeup of the stitch pattern, and of the interesting stuff that happened at the color changes:




scarf stitch pattern



Pattern: Seven rows of garter stitch on either end; four sts garter on either side (slipping the first stitch of each row purlwise), with three repeats of this stitch pattern in the middle.

Yarn: Caron Simply Soft in Autumn Red and... umm... blue. (Can't find the ballband...) The better part of 2 skeins.

Time: Slightly over a month. Probably about 20-25 hours (hey, I'm a beginner, so I'm slow. ;) )

Notes: This came out to be about 3 1/2' long and about 8 1/2" wide. It's a little on the short side, but not terribly so.

After the first couple of repeats, I noticed that the previous color was creeping up along the edge into the new color on one side of the scarf:



scarf edge color changes -- messy


I didn't appreciate that, so instead of slipping the first stitch of the first WS row after the color change, I knitted it. That fixed the problem.



scarf edge color changes -- fixed!


All of my pictures relating to this project can be found here.

This was a good first pattern for me. It was simple enough (only 4 repeating rows) that I had it pretty much memorized by the end, but complex enough that I didn't get remotely bored until I was just eager to finish because I'd bought the yarn for my next project.


Speaking of that next project...

I am swatching. (Oh, the p2k2 ribbing, will it never end?!) Gauge seems wonky... I might be making gauge in terms of sts/in (hard to tell until I get it off the needles), but I definitely am way off in terms of rows/in -- it's supposed to be 32 rows = 4", and I think I've just hit 4" with 8 rows left to go! *sigh* Oh well... Actually, since it's really horizontal, not vertical gauge that matters here -- I can always take out a pattern repeat, or just have long armwarmers -- as long as my horizontal gauge is basically okay, I'll be happy.



(crossposted, sans babbling about swatches, to the knitting LJ community)

Sunday, August 13, 2006

Soooooo clooooooose...

Five rows of garter stitch and weaving in of ends, and I'm done with the scarf. Well, maybe I'll have to do a quick wash before I count it really finished... it kind of smells.

So close to the end of this project, I am of course looking forward to the next (Dragon Scale Gauntlets). Swatching will be fun... 24 sts/32 rows p2k2 ribbing = 4" for this, supposedly, so I guess I get to do a 34x40 swatch. In p2k2 ribbing. With tiny (to me, at least, though I know that I could go much tinier) needles and yarn. (I'm not even sure I can fit 34 sts on one of my DPNs...) And I also need to swatch a chart repeat, but that should be fun for real. Hopefully I'll be done with the swatching pronto, and then somehow I'll find time to knit the actual gauntlets (next week is the last week of class, so my 1 hour per day of knitting time will be disappearing). I'm sure that it will be an adventure. Maybe I'll do a couple of chart repeats in my chart swatch, just to get the hang of it before I'm working on the actual garments.

I made my very first post on the knitting LJ community! It was to ask for help with some parts of the gauntlet pattern that were unclear to me, and I quickly got an extremely clear, useful answer. It was great. :)

I've got nothing else.

Sunday, August 06, 2006

Almost done!

Missed my weekly post last Sunday because I was in Maine for a wedding. Not much knitting done on the plane there or back, but I did get some done in the car (I flew in and out of Boston and drove up to and back from Maine) and while chatting with people when hanging out the morning before the wedding. And, of course, there's been two whole weeks of stats class since I wrote last.

To make up for missing last week, I bring you PICTURE:


2006.08.05 knitting


This is the scarf as it looks now. It is currently 2'6" long, and I'm thinking it'll end up being about 3' -- I'm starting to run out of yarn, and hoping I can eke another six inches from what I have left. Once that's done, I'll be moving on to a pair of Dragon Scale Gauntlets.

...which brings me to my next bit of news.

While in Belfast, I visited the yarn shop there (the name escapes me, but there's only one -- it's right in the center of town) to pick up some yarn for a future project. (I chose the gauntlets mostly because I happened to find and like some yarn in the weight for which that pattern calls.) I also got size 6 DPNs, which (oh joy) means that I get to learn to knit on DPNs. (Also, I picked up some point protectors, but that's unexciting.) I guess that I need to learn to swatch on DPNs before I can knit on them, though... I have my theories about how to do it (based on how one swatches when using circular needles to knit in the round), but I'd like to have said theories confirmed. I'll poke around and see what I can find out.

Anywho, as further compensation for missing a post last week, I bring you yarn porn:


Gauntlet yarn


It's the yarn that I plan to use for the gauntlets, of course. The color is rather a darker blue than in the photo. I bought it for that lovely blue-black variegation -- it should look lovely in the gauntlets' scaly pattern. I should only need two skeins, but I bought three because it was fairly cheap and I wanted to be absolutely sure that I have enough. (Anyway, you can never have enough yarn, right? ;) ) I didn't check the dye lots before I bought -- lucky for me that they all match!

In further knitting news, my roomate has a HUGE cone of wool/acrylic blend that she is planning to just give me, only barely used, when she finishes making a felted purse out of it. (She says she'll be sick of it by the time she finishes.) It's a wonderful cream color, with some brownish bits, and it knits up beautifully. I can't wait to get my hands on it. Can you say scarves?