Anyway, on to the knitting content, which there has been a relative amount of lately.
As you know, the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics started on Friday! On Ravelry, the Ravelympics started as well. I didn't join up on a team, but I'd had a blast doing the 2008 Summer Ravelympics, so I figured I would use the Olympics to at least start a project I'd been wanting to work on for a while. I had narrowed it down to three choices: The February Lady Sweater (Ravelry link), Bella's Mittens, and the CashSilk Fern Scarf (Ravelry link). As you may remember, I attempted the CashSilk Fern Scarf last week without success. That was mostly because the only size 3 needle I had was not pointy enough, and the cable was too thick, so even once I got the stitches off the actual needle, there wasn't a ton of room on the cable...so back to the drawing board. At the beginning of the year, I blogged about staying on a yarn diet. I am ashamed to confess that I broke my yarn diet again, but this time it was so I could order from KnitPicks in order to get the size 3 needles I need. I picked up some skeins of Wool of the Andes too since those are a- inexpensive and b- good workhorse yarns. I'm developing a bit of a yarn snob complex and I like worsted weight wool a lot better than worsted weight acrylic...but I digress. In addition to the Wool of the Andes, I bought a two 40" size 3 fixed circular needles, one Nickel Plated and one Harmony Wood. And who could resist this???
Now I promise that aside from that Magenta Red Heart SuperSaver I need for another project, I really am sticking with my yarn diet for a while. Because now I really am broke...that KnitPicks order ate up my Christmas money. :)
Anyway, back to the CashSilk Fern Scarf (I have now named mine the AlpacaSilk Fern Scarf, because I am using KnitPicks Shimmer yarn which is 70% Baby Alpaca and 30% Silk. Mmmm....
More yarn p0rn:
So I cast on to the 40" Harmony Circular needle. It was rough going at first. I have never used a yarn even remotely this small, and I think the smallest size needle I've ever used was a size 5 and that was almost 3 years ago. After about the 4th row of the pattern I was about ready to frog already! But I persisted, and gradually it got easier. Hooray! I made it through one pattern repeat (12 rows, and half of those were purl rows).
I am feeling very good about this project so far! I love the color, and working with the tiny tiny tiny tiny tiny yarn is not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be! I am not sure that I will be done with this by the closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics however. I am thinking a more realistic goal will be to have this done by the end of Lent so that I can wear said lace scarf to church on Easter. :)
Anyway...before I decided on the AlpacaSilk Fern Scarf as my Olympics project, I was also contemplating the February Lady Sweater. However, the gull lace pattern on that sweater involved lots and lots of slip-slip-knits (SSKs). I was very fearful of the SSK, so I decided that before I could even contemplate doing the February Lady Sweater, I would need to master the SSK. A quick trip to my Cloth of the Week Yahoo Group helped solve that problem! In the December 2009 COTW, there is a pattern called Amelia that calls for SSKs everywhere. If you are not a member of COTW, I can not say enough good things about it. As the group name indicates, there is a new dishcloth pattern every week with a variety of techniques. I have knit a number of the COTW patterns and while I have not loved all of them, I have learned a lot of new techniques I might not have otherwise attempted. Plus, a dishcloth is useful way to learn a technique, in my opinion. :) So after I found the Amelia pattern, I went to KnittingHelp and found a quick video tutorial on SSK. After watching the video once through, I realized why I had been so afraid of the SSK...I had gotten very poor instructions on it initially! Live and learn...after I knitted the entire Amelia cloth, I am now a master at SSK. :)
I picked the Mocha Swirls colorway in the Peaches & Creme Article 930 Worsted Weight Cotton. I adore this colorway, but now I have this weird craving for Neapolitan Ice Cream....
Please excuse the fact that I have not yet woven the ends in yet. :)
Finally, I finished this scarf a while ago but hadn't gotten around to photographing it yet. I bought some Malabrigo Chunky Yarn in Brilliante a while ago at Iris Fine Yarns in Appleton, but never found a pattern that claimed the yarn.
At the end of fall, I realized I wanted to make a scarf of this, so I dug through Ravelry in search of the perfect pattern for this yarn. I stumbled across the Scrunchable Scarf pattern and decided that this WAS the pattern for the yarn. It didn't take long using size 11 needles and both skeins of yarn. Soft, cuddly and warm.
Well that's all for now. Hopefully I will make some more progress with my lace scarf this week and I will try to post another project picture at the end of the week.
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