FO: Centipede Scarf

I've been trying to finish more of my UFOs, so tonight I have yet another FO to share. And I'm just now realizing that I haven't blogged about it yet.


Way back in 2009 I took a break from my blog, and life in general, due to illness. This included a hiatus from work.

At that point the Photogenic Scarf was my main project. It was simple but not too simple and I loved the yarn. It felt good to knit. And I left it in my desk at work before I took time off.


So I decided to start knit the Malabrigo Waffles Scarf by Sarah Florent. I used Malabrigo Merino Worsted in "Curacao" from Gauge. I used one and a half skeins, just like Sarah did with the original scarf.


I had trouble choosing a gauge for this project. I ended up using the pair of US Size 8 wooden knitting needles that I won at The Knitting Nest's Ravelry Weekend. The nice needles enhanced the knitting experience.


This picture shows both sides of the scarf. It's reversible, but both the sides look different. However, I think the mostly stockinette side of the scarf looks sort of like the "right side."

The whole pattern is only a four row repeat. This would be a good pattern for beginners.


I stalled on this project a long time ago because I couldn't decide on the length of the scarf. It was getting pretty long, but I wanted to keep knitting. I finally cut it off at about five feet or so. Some people have suggested that a scarf should be about as long as the person is tall. I usually "measure" scarves by holding them up to the top of my head and seeing if they hit the ground. Most people are taller than I am, but 60 inches seems like a nice length for most people.

Besides, the Photogenic Scarf was already really long. How many really long scarves do I need?


This is a stockinette based stitch, so it tends to curl. I gave it a light blocking. I used my usual blocking technique. I washed it in Eucalan (with minimal bleeding), pinned it and let it dry. I tried not to worry to much about getting the edges perfectly pinned. It's not perfectly flat, but it's good enough.


I'll leave you with this picture so you can see where the name of this particular scarf came from. Jules named this one. He said it looked like a game of Centipede. Of course, most Atari games from the era looked like this. But I can see the resemblance.

You can see all of my pictures of the Centipede Scarf are here.

yarn pr0n: Picks from the Knitting Nest

Last Saturday they had a sale at The Knitting Nest, and I forgot my camera.

D'oh!

Fortunately, I didn't forget to buy yarn.


This is Cascade Alpaca Lace in Garnet.

If you're really on the ball, you may have noticed that I bought almost 3,500 yards of lace weight, enough for 2 or 3 shawls. That's a lot of yarn, especially for someone who usually dabbles in single skeins.

I took a big risk here. I was flipping through Maggie Righetti's Sweater Design in Plain English this evening, and I happened to turn to the page where she recommends buying a single skein before investing in a sweater's worth of anything. It was almost as if she knew. But she didn't say anything about Easter Eggs promising big savings. (My Easter Egg gave me 15% off.)

I have big audacious plans for this yarn. Big, audacious, secret plans. But perhaps I've already said too much...


I also came home with our good friend Malabrigo. The top skein is "Cuarenta" and the bottom skein is "Strawberry Fields." I like these colors because they go together without being too "matchy matchy."

I have design plans for the Malabrigo as well, but they are not-so-secret and not-so-audacious.

I also hung out with Emily, Ana, Ceci and Gigi while I was there. Emily said someone saw the picture of her combs that I had posted online, and purchased them from her. Whoever you are, mystery purchaser, I'm glad I could help.

I also talked about formats for patterns. I realized publishing patterns on Ravelry was a lot easier than I was making it seem. So thanks to them, I posted this on my blog and on Ravelry this week. The pattern brought record traffic to my blog from the Ravelry page.

Yay for Ravelry!

FO and Pattern: Broken Scarf

Remember the Broken Scarf? I actually finished it last summer, and I've been wearing it this winter. But I never did an official FO post because I wanted to write up a pattern. I finally realized that:

1) The scarf doesn't need a new name.
2) Writing up the pattern (especially a one-row pattern like this one) isn't as hard as it seems.

So I now present to you, the official pattern and FO entry for the Broken Scarf:


I was so excited that I managed to snag the last two skeins of this particular colorway of Malabrigo Silky Merino. I knew I had to do something special that would allow the colors to shine.

Broken Garter Stitch is a great way to show of variegated yarn. It adds some depth without getting in the way of the colors. And it’s super simple. This scarf uses the same pattern row knit over and over again. It makes for great knitting while watching television, and it’s a good choice for beginning knitters.

Many hand dyed and hand painted yarns, such as the Malabrigo used here, will vary a lot from skein to skein, even within the same dye lot. I alternated two skeins every two rows to hide inconsistencies in the two skeins. It’s also a good way to avoid pooling.

If you alternate skeins, you will be switching on the same side of the scarf. Be sure to not to pull too tightly when you switch yarns. This will help keep the sides even.

Yarn: 2 skeins of Malabrigo Silky Merino (shown in Bahia) – 300 yards/274.3 meters

Needles: US Size 5/3.75 mm
(Always use the needle size that will give you proper gauge. My gauge tends to be looser than most, so most knitters will need larger needles.)

Notions: Tapestry Needle for weaving in ends.

Gauge: 20 stitches/32 rows per 4 inches/10 cm

Pattern:
Cast on 23 stitches.

Row 1: Knit 3, Purl 2 across, ending with Knit 3

Repeat this Row until the scarf reaches the desired length. Mine is a little over five feet long (or about 1.5 meters.)

Alternate yarn every two rows if you wish.

Bind Off. Weave in the ends with a tapestry needle.




Broken Scarf by Sally Villarreal is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Special thanks to The Knitting Nest in Austin, Texas for letting me take pictures at the shop.
http://www.theknittingnestaustin.com/

Ravelry Link

Ravelry Weekend Awesomeness

Valentine's Day is tough when your significant other is in another state. So I was lucky that I had something to distract me. On Saturday, The Knitting Nest hosted the Ravelry crew, and people came in from all over to celebrate.


Here I am with Jess (left) and Casey (right). They were pretty cool. You can read the story about how they started Ravelry here.


And here I am with Mary-Heather, who is the third member of the Ravelry team, and Jess.


Former Austinite Caro of splityarn came back into town for the event.


The guests of honor (and Jess and Casey's dog, Bob) had Valentine's Day Stockings filled with goodies...


...a banner that everyone signed...


...and official status as Honorary Texans. (Sorry for the blurry picture.)


One group (from out of town, I think) brought special gifts for the guests of honor. A scarf for Casey and pasties for the ladies. This was the best shot I got of all four of them. They were surrounded by people taking pictures. (There's a better picture of Casey's scarf here.)


Of course, there was plenty of stuff for the customers. They gave out door prizes every 15 minutes, and I won the very first one! I got a Cascade beanie bear, a set of US size 8 needles in a very nice wood, and a skein of Cascade Lana D' Oro.


This was my first trip to The Knitting Nest since right before I went to the hospital, so I saw all sorts of new yarn that I hadn't seen there before. The Malabrigo Sock Yarn was the most popular by far. They had it right at the entrance, so everyone saw it when they came in. Some of the other highlights included Cascade Alpaca Lace, Queensland Collection Haze and Cascade Soft Spun.


They also had lots of Malabrigo Worsted in "Ravelry Red."


I finally got my mojo back with Double Knitting. I got going on my Tapestry Cowl again while I was hanging out.


Here's the yarn I bought. Jess helped me pick out the Cascade 128 on top. I'm considering it for the Montera coat. I had a hard time deciding which color. I had it down to the purple and an apple green. I asked several people, and Jess said she thought the purple was better.

I also got some Malabrigo Sock in "Impressionist Sky" and a skein of yarn to finish Jules' Gloves.

It was an awesome day.

You can see all of my pictures from the day here. Also, everybody's pictures from the event are on Flickr with the tag "ravelryweekend."

Roc Day Party

(Gigi has good taste. She likes wool and wrapping paper.)

I hadn't even heard of Roc Day until a couple of days ago. It's on January 7, right after the twelve days of Christmas. It's day the spinners got to work. (It's also known as Distaff Day.)


Emily (above) decided to have a party to celebrate Roc Day on Sunday. (Sunday wasn't technically Roc Day, but close enough.) She invited a bunch of knitters from Gauge. The party included a ham dinner, champagne, gelato and a White Elephant stash swap.


We spend the first hour or so knitting and talking. There's Ceci with Gigi, and Ana knitting a Bumble Bee Baby Surprise Jacket.

(As I mentioned yesterday, I ran out of yarn for Jules' Gloves during the party. Luckily I had a back up project.)

After we chowed down, it was time for the white elephant swap. The Baby Surprise Jacket showed up again.


Jane got an abandoned Baby Surprise Jacket. It was hilarious when she opened. Everyone oohed and ahhed over the yarn, then cracked up when the UFO came out of the bag.

Actually, Jane didn't end up with it in the end. Faye was the final person to steal it. It was some nice yarn, and came with the needles, so it was in demand. I think the person who started it was relieved to see it go.


Ana got ended up with a skein of my Kool Aid yarn from ages ago. I decided I didn't need all four skeins. I think she appreciated it.



I opened a nostepinne from Craftiness. It was promptly stolen from me.


I ended up with a notion kit from Ana. It included Ana's stitch markers, a holder for the stitch markers and a nifty gauge.

We haven't had OPP in a while. (Other People's Projects) You saw the Bumble Bee Baby Surprise above. Here's some of the other projects I saw at the party.


Robin wore her Klaralund sweater (Ravelry link) made from super soft Malabrigo Worsted in Dusty Olive.


Faye wore her hat. I think (but I'm not positive) that it's the Virtue hat (Ravelry link) knit in Malabrigo.


Finally, Emily still had her tree up, adorned with the rings we helped her knit in November.

I like Roc Day. I think we should celebrate it again next year.

You can see all my Roc Day pictures here.

FO: Wrist Pillow for Dad

Cross posted at Sally Comes Unraveled and Year Long Gift-A-Long.


A couple of years ago I made several of the "Earthy Computer Mouse Pad Wrist Pillows created by Jennifer Tallapaneni, and I gave them as gifts. But I didn't give one to my Dad. (At least, I don't *think* I did. If I did, oops.)

I know Mom was asking a while back if I could make one for the computer she shares with Dad. I figured Dad would like that as a gift. He spends the most time there.


Even if I have given one to him before, this one is nicer. I used some of the leftover Malabrigo Worsted in "Red Java" that I used for the Malabrigo Mini Mitts. I probably used less than a quarter of a skein. I still have plenty leftover for another project.

I also used my US Size 5 Brittany Needles.

I think I didn't cut the cardboard perfectly, so the bottom is a little wonky. But it does the job.

When I visit my parents, I'll have to see if this is getting used.

FO: Foliage: Purple, Version One

Cross posted at Sally Comes Unraveled and Year Long Gift-A-Long.


It's revenge of the chunky Foliage hats!

Remember last year I made three of these? One in red, one in Emerald and one in lime alpaca.

This one was made with Malabrigo Chunky, like two of the other three, This color is "Purple Mystery." Like the other hats, I used US size 10.5 dpns for the main hat, and US size 9 dpns for the ribbing. I'm pretty sure I used bamboo needles.

I actually made this one in one sitting for last year, but it never made it to the recipient until this Christmas. It's been on my coffee table ever since.

This one turned out like the rest. I'm pretty happy with it.

FO: Malabrigo Mini Mitts - Man Size

Cross posted at Sally Comes Unraveled and Year Long Gift-A-Long.


I managed to finish my Malabrigo Mini Mitts (Ravelry Link) on time. The last time we saw them, I was frantically trying to finish them before a get together the next day.

To recap, these were knit with US Size US and about half a ball of Malabrigo Worsted in "Red Java."


They seem to fit the recipient pretty well. Here is what I did to "man size" the mitts from the original size (to the best of my recollection.)

I cast on 40 stitches, not 32.

I think I may have worked a little farther than 2 and a half inches before making the the gusset, 20 rounds.

Then I added an two additional increase rounds for the gusset.

I cast three stitches across the gap for thumb, not two.

Then I knit for 20 sounds before binding off. The whole mitt was 8 inches in length, not 6 inches

I did 7 rounds for the thumb

The thumb was where I messed up the most. The ribbing was screwed up, and one thumb had less stitches than the other. But for the most part, I think my conversion was successful.

I can haz Jules? Take Two

I should be going to the airport to get Jules right now, but Jules is still on the ground in Phoenix. Right now, his ETA is 2:30 a.m. At least he made it through the first leg. The last time I spoke to him, he was walking around the Phoenix airport and reading National Geographic.

I've been working on the Malabrigo Mini Mitts. (Ravelry Link.)


These need to go to their recipient tomorrow, so I need to get moving. This also has to go to a recipient tomorrow.


Remember my Chevron Scarf? (The pattern is in Last-Minute Knitted Gifts.) I soaked it in some Grapefruit Eucalan. It didn't bleed. All it needs now is some blocking.


This isn't a very good blocking job, but it will do. If it isn't fully dried by tomorrow night, I'll put it in a bag rather than wrapping it.

I'm going to wrap a couple of gifts, take a shower and take a nap. Hopefully we'll see Jules soon.