Daffodil Design- Totally done.

You may remember this post. It was almost a year ago, and I had to use someone else's picture to illustrate what I was going to under take. My sister was pregnant with twins, and I wanted to make something really special for their baptism. We have a heirloom gown that is passed down through the family- but only one. I wanted to do something that would be heirloom quality for the other twin, that could be passed down with the baptismal gown.

Awhile ago, I finished my biggest knitting undertaking ever. I did the crochet bind off and got this. This alone, I think was pretty impressive.
But today, today I took the next step. First, I got 26 pins and pinned out each scallop section.

Then, each of those 26 sections got 10 more pins to complete the scallop, and really stretch the whole blanket.

Isn't it just gorgeous.

I don't think you can even see the mistakes that were completely clear while knitting. (I did find a few of them while blocking. No one will ever see them, I'm sure. And in 100 years a knitting historian should know this is handmade. LOL)

So what's the finished project.

THIS:

I don't think I will ever top this.

Now Presenting....

Daffodil Design!

It still needs to be blocked, but it will be awhile until I get to that. I hate blocking. The baptism is going to be around August, so I've got time.

I also finished my Tiger knee highs (love them- pictures soon) and one Glynis sock (hate it, not sure if I will make the other.)

Today I'm weaving.

Perhaps a better post later, I'm not sure.

Knitting Round Up

Flat Stanley came to visit me. He picked some yarn out of the stash and made a scarf!

Pictures of projects I've talked about but never posted. Ravelry can be viewed by the public now! Hopefully these links work.

Spring Forward

Cauchy

Seascape Shawl (the Olympic project)

Where's Daffodil Design? Yeah... it's going to be awhile. The crochet edge is horribly hard. It might take me as long as the shawl did. I have to do 23 repeats of the crochet pattern, I did 2 yesterday and wanted to drive the #5 steel crochet hook through my skull. I'm going to try to do 2 more today.

A momentus occasion

Tonight I finished the knitting on the Daffodil Design.

But it's still on the needles, because I have to crochet the border- this is going to be a huge hurdle.

But the knitting. The knitting is FINALLY done.

A day of finishing...

Today was supposed to be a day of cleaning. That didn't happen. (Though yesterday it did, so I made some progress on the house this weekend. Instead, I finished up a few things.

First- the dishcloths I started not too long after Christmas. These are all folded in quarters, each has 2 stripes and is about 25" long, though they aren't all exact, and the yellow is shorter than the rest. The single yellow cloth is because I had yellow left on my shuttle from a practice project and wanted to empty it off. I actually had warp left to make it longer, but didn't want to reload the shuttle. These were taken before they were washed, so the fringe hasn't been cut yet- it's about 1/2" long now. I love them so much- so soft and really thin. I've never thought of knitted fabric as excessively thick, but this makes it seem so.

A close up of the yellow, before washing. During the wash it shrinks a bit and becomes tighter, though it didn't shrink as much as I expected. The stripe is done with the warp- which means that it is put onto the loom when I start, and not "woven" in using the weft.

Then, I finishd some stitch markers I started around Thanksgiving. I needed a second plier to do them. Sadly, I broke my favorite one by squishing a bead, it just exploded everywhere. Oops. Small problem- what do I do with all the stitch markers? Need some?

A friend recently asked if I finished the Daffodil design yet. Nope, I haven't, even though the babies are here, and out of the NICU!!! I'm so excited for my sister that they are home.

But there was a milestone- I finished off a spool of thread! Here's the new one that I started (I will not need all of it, thank goodness) and the empty one. I am on row 152 of row 168. This sounds almost done, but I have about 20% left... The rows are all getting smaller, but only by a little, they are all massive. I did 4 rows today, and it took me about 8 hours, including time to fold laundry and play on the internet a bit. My goal is half a row a night on worknights.

I also started 2 new pairs of socks- one for me out of gorgeous Dibadu yarn in Feuerwerk colorway (fireworks), and a pair out of Knitpicks Essential for my Dad. I've never made yarn for anyone else.

The last thing that happened this weekend- US Nationals part 1: Men's and Pairs. It was a thrilling weekend, I am so excited about the upcoming olympics, and even Four Continents (where some of my favorites are heading...)

Making Progress

So far, I have knit 50,166 stitches. I have 42,648 left to go. That's right. I'm over halfway there.


It's 54% done. (I cried a little when I figured that out. I'm on row 122, it seems like I should be almost done.) Plus the crocheted edge. That's going to be hard.

I switched to a 40" needle, so I took a picture. This is about 18" across and is on a 32" and 40" needle- and the stitches are still a bit bunched. How big is this going to be when I block it?

A close up:

Yesterday....

I finished this!

This is the "mystery sock" i've been talking about. It was designed for the solid sock group on ravelry and released in a series of 3 "clues"- hence the mystery. But it wasn't a mystery to me.

It's a little too big for me because I wanted to finish the design on the foot panel. It will still fit, but not as well as I'd like. The heel flap (which is shorter than normal) also seems a bit big. It's just an odd fit, i guess. I love the sock and the color is just brilliant. This sock weighs more than any sock I've knit - 51 grams. Thank goodness Wollmeise has super sized skein. I've never gone over 100 grams for a pair before. (I'm not sure I've gone over 80, actually).

I'm also back and working on the daffodil design. My goodness what was I thinking starting that? The rounds are never ending now. I did 1.5 last night. I hope to do at least 2 today.

So much knitting, so little time

I need to sleep less so I have time to knit more.
I am still working on the "Mockery Socks" at lunch- and am midway through the cuff of the second sock. I have restarted (in the blue sport weight yarn) the "Marlene" socks- a gorgeous Cookie A pattern for a knit a long, so in theory those need to be done this month.

I am still enjoying the Daffodil Design and still in awe that I'm able to knit this. It isn't hard- just do what the directions say, but it is SO complicated LOOKING, and it seems like the pattern will never end. (This picture is row 97 of 168- just over 35% done). I changed from 24" to 32" needles, so while I was switching over I took a picture of it spread out- much prettier than when it is bunched up, but I realized just how small it is, and how much more knitting I have to do!

I also need to start a colorwork hat project (a secret, though the gift recipient surely doesn't read this blog), and I also want to make a pair of "Endpaper Mitts" a colorwork fingerless mittens project.

Thank goodness for 3 day weekends. I had friends over yesterday (knitting lessons) so I didn't do any of my own knitting, but it sure was fun to teach the gospel of yarn!

Whatcha knitting that for?

Daffodil Design is coming along faster than I imagined- I just finished Part D which means I have knit 17,718 total stitches and 8,148 of those in Part D. (Though the stitch counts at the end are killer- over 1,000 per round!). I'm very happy with the way it is looking, and feeling optimistic enough that I may may another of the Kinzel designs immediate following. (We'll see how I feel about that on those last rounds.)

This was mostly knit over the weekend, because I had a good amount of time to sit down. Yesterday I did 20 stitches before I realized I was way too tired to do lace, and today I'm feeling about the same way, though I did 3 rows.

The pictures will be a bit blob like from now on. My circular needle is only 24" and the blanket is bigger than that now. I also tried to take a bit of a close up so you can see the new progress on the design. I need to decide when to buy larger needles. The blanket will definitely need them, but I'm hoping I can skip a size and just get real long ones that will finish it off. I have to order them from knitpicks (my local yarn store doesn't even carry the size) and that is always a temptation of tons of other stuff.

So why the break from socks? Well 1) I love lace and 2) I found out my sister is pregnant. Isn't it a knitters reaction to make something? For her son Cole and my SIL's son Conor I quilted blankets.

So why is this kiddo getting an heirloom lace blanket? Well, my sister is pregnant with twins!

Our family has an heirloom baptismal gown that the majority of the family has worn. (We even had to cut the neck opening a bit wider for Cole since he wasn't baptised as a newborn, and at 9 months had a bigger head than the gown allowed for.) With twins, they will likely get baptised at the same time, so only one can wear it. I wanted something just as special for the other baby. So I decided I would make something that can be passed down in the family, and will hopefully be just as special generations from now. So this blanket (which is actually meant to be a tea cloth...) is meant to be a christening gown, not just for this baby, but hopefully for all the babies yet to come through the generations.

Now, I'm not sure my knitting is quite good enough for that (there is already a minor mistake), but I'm certainly putting forth my best effort. If it's not heirloom quality, well the baby can use it, and then I can have a tea cloth :)

Progress...

I thought I should show a picture of Daffodil Design before it gets larger than the gap in the needles (these are 24" circs, I'm hoping I can use them for most of the project, but by the end it will be a very very tight squeeze, so I will probably have to buy another set of needles. That will cost a ton of money, because you know I'm gonna end up getting other stuff too...)

Anyhow this is Daffodil Design. I've made a huge step forward in my knitting with this. Each round has the same pattern repeated 6 times, but I wouldn't call it a simple pattern (you know k3, yo, k3, yo sort of thing)- however- I have found that once I do one repeat I am able to do the other 5 without refering to the pattern. I was actually doing well not refering to the pattern with the next repeat, but then it turned out the motif changed and I had to unknit quite a bit, so I am no longer trying to be psychic. However, the ability to memorize a complicated pattern has eluded me until now, and I am very proud of myself.





This is the "yarn" I am using for the project. It is crochet cotton, so I think it might actually be considered thread.






This is yarn I dyed for Marlene socks. I am really excited to knit Marlene, and now I have sport weight yarn so they should go over my heel! This yarn is a semi-solid blue, the first yarn I've done using Jacquard dyes instead of food dye like Wiltons and Kool-Aid. I'm not sure I love it. It took a few trys to get all the white spots out, and the subtle color differences I put in don't seem to show. However, I never know until I knit it up...

I had previously shown you Marlene in the yarn that I am now using for the Mockery socks, which by the way were not ripped out after all. They are my work socks, which means they get 30 minutes of kniting at lunch. They are ready for heel #1 and I am trying to decide between short row and heel flap, guess it will be whichever the wind guides me to tomorrow at lunch, likely a short row, as those take way less time. I am completly loving them, the subtle pattern, the shine of the silk in the yarn, the GORGEOUS accidental color. It's perhaps the best yarn I've ever dyed, and I'm happy about the pattern I chose. Sorry, no pictures of those yet.

Daffodil Design

On the 5th I cast on for what is probably my most ambitious project ever- Marianne Kinzel's Daffodil Design. I haven't done lace knitting for awhile, but not matter how complicated the final product gets it's all just combinations of knit and purl stitches. (Of course, occasionally there are things like purl a huge number together, or "Knit forward/back to MAKE EIGHT" in one stitch, which does up the difficulty factor- I've never seen M8 before this one, but still, its all knit/purl/yarnover)

This is what the finished lace will look like. I am pretty sure this is unblocked.You can see (if you are on ravelry) the blocked version and a few other pictures on Emmybess's Ravelry profile or her project page. She was nice enough to let me use her photo to show you all what this will look like when I am done. There is no project photo online, since it is from an old book, the only completed pictures are other people's projects. The blocked photo is even more lovely, but the edges are curled over a clothesline, so it's tough to see the "whole picture" of it.

So far I have gotten section A and B done. There are 7 sections, but since this is a circle that starts in the middle, 2/7 means I actually haven't gotten much done at all. I am currently at the part of the middle flower right before the petals start curving off. Barely ANY of it is done!

I'm still not sure if I can tell you WHY i'm making this, but it is for someone very special in my family. I'm super excited and hope to make a gorgeous piece of lace. I don't have my camera right now, but will post progress pictures soon.