Rating the wrap

On my way to writing a felted wrap pattern, I've made a regular wrap. I need to get the shaping and sizing correct so I know what I'm shooting for.

This one will be closed with aplix, with a version to be closed with buttons, so just ignore the pins. I haven't committed myself to this, as you can see I still have the yarn attached (the last loop is not even held by a pin--I like to live dangerously.)


View of the inside:


View of the outside:

If you click on the pics you can get a closeup view.

Here's my questions so far:

1. The border all around is garter stitch. The increases/decreases help the wrap roll in (I didn't position the wrap that way--I had to fight it to stay open.
I figure there will be some stretching going on as it's used, but does anybody have a gut feeling on whether it'll stretch too much?

2. How's the sizing?
End to end (rise): 13"
across the front top: 8"
across the back top: 12"

I was aiming for a small--and looking at the rise, that doesn't look long enough. So I guess I should make the rise 15". Or 16"?

3. Does it wrap around enough in the front? Do you pull the wool rather tightly when you put on a wrap? I guess when I make the rise longer, I can also make the back to wrap around more of the front...

4. Anything else that you notice?

If you leave comments on my blog, know that I do read them all. I just don't know how to respond to them!

New things

I haven't been knitting quite as much lately because I've been painting.

Here's my kitchen before:


Here's proof that the wallpaper was indeed strip-able, even after 15 years:


Here's after:

Lots still to do, but at least the colors are brighter (and I mean BRIGHTER!) and fresh paint makes everything looks so clean!

Sock
I've been working on my Amble sock. In the beginning, I followed the written directions, being slightly panicked at the thought of losing my post-it note (placeholder) and not being able to back it up. Things got easier as the pattern emerged. When I got to the heel, I started following the chart (which I've never done before), and it really was easier to follow.

I was mostly done with the gusset when I discovered that I had dropped a stitch. Instead of frogging 6-7 rows (panic, panic), I decided to try unravelling just those stitches and knit it back up.

Here's pic with the stitches unravelled and on a needle. I took the time to put the rest of the stitches on waste yarn (black, which is why you can't see it.)



Here it is with those stitches re-knit.



Another new thing I've learned to do!

Done!

The Clapotis is done!

Although, I must admit that when I looked at the leftover yarn, I thought, "Hmmm, if I knit tighter, could I get one more repeat?"

I suppressed that thought fortunately, before I made myself crazy.

Here it is with DD#1.

Groundhog's Day

I feel like I'm in the movie "Groundhog's Day". The one where Bill Murray lives Groundhog's Day over and over and over again--each day doing the same thing.

Yep, that's my life. At least, it's my knitting life.

Here's the state of my Clapotis. I've ripped it out TWICE since last posting, each time ripping an additional 12 row section. STILL not enough yarn, and I thought this last time would be sure to reach.

In case you're wondering, I have 28 stitches left. That's all --- 28. I've been debating on just binding off and having one squared off side. Or, ripping apart the other side to make it match. Or....

But since I'm living Groundhog's Day, I suppose I'll rip out an additional section and try again....

95% sure

I'm 95% percent sure that I'm going to run out of yarn.


It's the 5% uncertainty that keeps me going. I think, however, that no matter how fast I knit, the yarn will be finished before I am.

This is my Clapotis, and I'm now on the decrease rows which comes to a point---just knitting an ever decreasing triangle.

Must knit faster.....

Must knit faster.....

Amble socks beginnings

Finally got started on this month's 6SoxKAL. Here's my beginning of Amble using Paton's Kroy Socks yarn in Regatta Blue.

It's going well, although this is now the 3rd WIP that I have that follows a chart. I have no mindless/book-reading knitting. However, I'm not ready to start another project, so maybe I can finish one of these soon.

Here's my finished granny square afghan. (No, I didn't forget to take pictures from before, it really took this long to sew it together.) I used nonaknits idea again--just hold you cursor over the picture to see the finished product.

I managed to invert the whole afghan--the right corner is now the left corner and vice versa. Doesn't really matter, though, on a no-plan afghan.

YO! The Experiment

Or rather, The YO experiment, since this is all about Yarn Over's.

Challenged by Patti (or maybe distracted), I did different sets of yo's to see which looked the best, and here's my results. (Of course, this would be more worthwhile if my pics were better...)

The first set of eyelets were done on stockinette st. The bottom was done on the knit side, and the top was done on the purl side.

In knitter's shorthand, it becomes:

knit side: K1, *yo, K2tog, K2, repeat from *.

purl side: P1, *yo, P2tog, P2, repeat from *.


Here's how it looks from the wrong side:

I like the bottom row better, done on the knit side (which is good, since it's easier). The stitches around the eyelet look much neater.


Next, I did K1, P1 ribbing, with the bottom eyelet row done on the right side, and the top row done on the wrong side.

Bottom row: K1, *yo, K2tog, P1, K1, repeat from *.

Top row: P1, *yo, P2tog, K1, P1, repeat from *.


Pic from the wrong side:

I stretched this out a bit too much to see properly, but again, doing the eyelet row on the right side looks much better.

The last set was done using K2, P2 ribbing.

Bottom row: * K2, yo, P2tog, repeat from *.
Middle row: K2, *P2, yo, k2tog, repeat from *. (done on wrong side.)
Top row: *k2, yo, sl st p, k1, psso* . (this is from the Wooly Wonder forum here ).



View from the wrong side:


None of the methods that I did from the wrong side looked as good as the right side, so that's something to keep in mind for the future.

That's my experiment for the day...(and had the unexpected results of finding my missing needles that were in my "experiment" yarn. :)

CIC package

I finally have a CIC (Children In Comon) package ready to go.


It contains:
1 feather-and-fan shawl
3 toys (2 fish, 1 puppy puppet)
2 orphans-for-orphans sweaters
3 pr. basketweave socks
3 pr. chutes-n-ladders socks
3 pr. easy slippers

These were such fun! I have a couple of more patterns waiting to be tried. Off to knit!

Later that same night...

Here's the balls of yarn that I wound. Only 2 balls to do, so I decided to just hang the yarn over my knees rather than get out the lampshade. Not that that's really a big problem, but I do have to get the lamp from upstairs, unscrew the current lampshade, put on my yarn lampshade, and bring it downstairs.

So, for 2 skeins of yarn I decided that wasn't necessary. Big mistake. On both skeins I lost concentration, the skein fell off my knees and into a big knot. Spent the next hour (not really, but it seemed like it) untangling the mess. Definitely NOT worth skipping the lampshade. Maybe next time I'll remember....

Cookie energy

I"m finally braving the superslow cyberspace to post in my blog today. Between the teenagers who are home over the summer and seem to think they can use the net, summertime activities, and the superslow movement of the computer (did I mention it was superslow?) I haven't been blogging.

However, I've taken a couple of pictures.

Here's one to show my Clapotis. Actually, it's showing the stitch holders that occur every SIX stitches. That might be normal to some, but to me it's an unusual occurance.

If I'm paying attention, it's not too bad, but when I'm cheering at DS#1's baseball game, it's dangerous. I didn't drop a stitch, but by the time the 3rd holder flew off and I had to find it on the bleacher amidst peanut shells, I decided to pack it away.

Here's how the Clapotis looks now. I've started the dropped stitch rows--look at the upper left corner. I think I'm about halfway done, and I have my yarn in a black bag so I can't see if I have enough left. Time to worry about that later.


I also over-dyed some gold yarn. That's the gold showing through, and I overdyed it with burgandy, blue, and green. This is for my first pair of charity longies so I hope it turns out well.


Here's the soakers and longies that I've been working on. Lots of variegated variety. :)


I've also been baking cookies today. This is a yummy peppermint patty.


I was going to call it quits, but I just ate the cookie. Hmmm, I wonder why I have so much energy? Maybe I'll go wind some yarn!