Fluff!

Well, I knitted (knit?) 2 more rows today. OMG the chart is freaking hard!!! I can do all of the stitches, but it's difficult to do them neatly/well/quickly when I'm working on DPNs... other needles keep getting in the way! It doesn't help that my stitches are really tight in that section, either. Oh well...

I FINALLY uploaded pictures so that this post can at least have a semblance of substance to it. First, pictures of the two swatches that I did for the gauntlets:




And here's a closeup of the stitch pattern from the chart swatch... it's hard to see, though. (It's tricky to see in person, too... I'm hoping that it comes out better in the actual gauntlets.)




I took a picture of the gauntlets in process (all ten rows of the left one), but for some reason it didn't upload. Maybe next week.


Also, here's a couple of pictures of the yarn that my summer roomate gave me. Isn't it purty? It's an acrylic/wool blend. I'm going to make a scarf for my grandma, and maybe the DNA Scarf for one of my parents if I have enough left over (who am I kidding, it's a HUGE amount of wool!).




...and that be all for this week. Hopefully in the coming days I'll start to knit again... I have a lecture class that I don't know if I'll need to take notes in, and a looong boring lecture thingie on NCAA eligibility to attend Tuesday that I'll DEFINITELY be taking the knitting to...

NO TIME NO TIME NO TIME!!!

Two rows in the past week. I'm off the ribbing and into chart repeat #1. But very little knitting time, as I'm sure you can guess.

Bought a pair of #9 Clover straights from Michael's because I had a 50% off coupon. Was hoping to score a set of interchangeables, but they didn't have any.

That's about all I've got to say for this week.

Slow going.

So people on Livejournal said that different row gauges shouldn't make a huge issue. If they do, I can always do short rows. (Wheee. *rolls eyes*) Cast on on the plane home on Tuesday. DPNs are MAJORLY fiddly. Eek. Now that I'm about five rows in (still doing ribbing) it's a little better. My first couple of rows look like the stitches are very loose at the join. I'll probably try to sew it up with the tail during finishing rather than frogging it.

No pictures of swatches or new yarn yet. Too busy. ;)

I'm itching to get to a consignment shop and buy a sweater to unravel for yarn. Call it my new mini-obsession. I was going to use a sweater that I have, but it looks like the seams are heavily overstitched, and my reference says that that could mean that the stitches were cut at the ends -- therefore no good for unraveling. I'm not sure whether I'll be able to tell whether the seams on a given sweater are good or not... perhaps it'll just have to be trial and error.

BYARGH.

So remember how I said that my gauge for the ribbing swatch was off, but I think I could finagle it?

Row gauge for ribbing swatch: 6.4 rows/inch
Row gauge for chart swatch, which I just finished tonight: 7.4 rows/inch

This would make a 2" difference in the lengths of a 96-row tube. I'm worried that
the gauntlets would therefore pucker or otherwise look weird if I tried to knit them with these gauges... *sigh*... Posted on the knitting lj community, hoping for help soon.

I got the awesome pretty yarn from my roomie. Took pictures, but everything's packed up to go cross-country right now so I can't get them onto my computer. Will post next week, methinks. Thinking that the Irish Hiking Scarf (posting from my boyfriend's computer so no access to that link right now, sorry) might be a good pattern for it, since I'd like to make something to give to my grandmother AND it would give me the chance to learn to make cables.

But that's for future. Right now I just need to focus on getting these darn gauntlets to WORK. Here's hoping that I'll be able to get some knitting done on the plane, if I so desire...

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.

DONE!

I finished my 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:

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:





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.

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)

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.

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:

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:

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?