First business: there’s a new shawl in town, if by ”new shawl” you mean ”downloadable .PDF of the shawl design written as a pattern so you can make your own,” and by “town” you mean ”on my Ravelry page.”
It’s called Iteration. It ends up being a pretty rewarding project; I think the unique shape makes it very wearable. It can be folded in half to wear like a triangle-ish shawl, over the shoulders, but it expands into a hexagon.
Second order of business is increased cost of living and how it is starting to be felt, oh no!
I have revamped the website! It looks super cool, like a blog from 2008.
MEANWHILE, I’ve also been working on some sweater ideas. Sweater design feels like a bit of a luxury compared to cowls or hats, even though it’s often what I’d like to be doing—it takes so much more time, and so much more yarn, and that’s just to knit a sample to get the idea down. And you have to know how arms work. Like. How they usually attach to the body. Where they come out. Etc.
Starling Sweater. The photo shows a half-view of a half-finished cardigan. The yarn is grey wool, a little rustic. Bamboo double-pointed knitting needles stick out of the fabric of a sleeve in progress.
It’s about as slow as fashion can be, short of owning the sheep and starting from there.
ANYWAY, in the meantime, while I hope to have 2+ larger designs ready to finish out the year, there will be a few new smaller projects during the holidays! I’ll be wrapping up a cowl and a possible hat in the next few days. (I have finished the cowl, and you can knit your own (link goes to Ravelry design page). The hat is under review. I am not certain about it.)
I feel like I’ve been getting nothing done lately, but wait! Behold!
The thing on the left is done. It’s off the needles. It’s even been finished, completely—in this case, felted/fulled.* I’m pretty excited about the result. As I come back to this post in drafts, not only is the first sample finished—but there’s also a second sample done, and the pattern is available.
There’s also a new shawl pattern out! It’s a circle, and it ended up being pretty interesting. The stitches are simple, and showcase yarns with long color transitions. Good as a fairly big shawl; I think it would also work as a baby blanket. (I may end up sending off my latest shawl and blanket samples to babies in the extended family; I am not sure.)
So, I have two entire wether fleeces from my favorite Shetland farm, the year I completely overbought fleeces.* They were packed up in a box and the bags and tissue they shipped in. They are pristine. Despite my neglect, I’ve got pounds and pounds of usable wool to process this summer.
They are also disgusting. I cannot believe that I opened this up and felt huge relief there was no evident damage (we’re supposed to be out of range for moths, but there are carpet-beetles who eat stuff at the local museum to make a point about not storing animal fiber museum pieces properly I guess), and thought, “How beautiful,” because it’s gross and dirty and smells (although not as badly as I remembered).
*At the time, I really did buy slightly too many fleeces. Even so, I used all of it but these. Weirdly, happily, they’ll probably end up being what I had originally planned. I’ve been pretty lazy about spinning (it’s not really my thing, or rather it’s sometimes my thing but not really my thing reliably for more than a couple of months at a time), so I am not super looking forward to the washing/processing/spinning this time, but I am pretty excited about not having to spend $80 on eco-friendly low-processing-impact yarn. I like one-sheep sweaters.
I finally finished the .PDF pattern for the design that preceded the 14-square scarf! It’s called Window Greens, because the original used green yarn and I was thinking about arugula. But the final version had some substantial changes—it calls for soft DK yarn instead of fingering-weight, and the button configuration is less straightforward (but not too convoluted) and a lot more functional.
There are two* ways to finish the Stay-at-Home Auxiliary Scarf: with a knitted border, which was the original idea but will definitely take some stitch management, or with i-cord, which might be easier, given the length of the edges of the 14-square scarf.
For the knitted border, you’ll need the longest circular needle available (I used a 48”/120cm needle, and it was tough going); for the i-cord, two DPNs are recommended.
*Or two ways I am going into, I guess.
I-Cord.
I-cord worked over 5 sts.
The I-cord border can be worked over 3 or 5 sts, depending on your preference. Two double pointed needles (in size used for overall gauge) will make it easier, but this can also be done with a circular, if you can’t find your DPNs and are only doing a few rounds to show how the technique should work. This is a weird, unlikely scenario, though, in no way related to the photos. (The sentence preceding this one is not sincere. I could not find my DPNs. I did the thing I am talking about.)
When finishing the 14th square, do not bind off. This will leave you with 3 live sts.
Switch to DPNs.
(For the 5 st version only: flip to the WS, and, using the cable cast-on method, add 2 sts.)
Adding 2 sts. Please forgive the sand; I was photographing soft wool on soft sandstone, and it gets everywhere.
Work attached I-cord border: k3(5) *slide sts to working end of the needle. k2(4), slip last st as if to knit, pick up 1 st from next selvedge. k last st tog with picked-up st, as if working a ssk.*
Repeat ** until i-cord edging has been applied all the way around. On the corners, you can pick up 2 sts in the same selvedge or cast-on bump, but other than that, pick up 1 st per selvedge.
Attached I-cord, worked over 3 sts, illustrating slip last st as if to knit, pick up 1 st from next selvedge, k last st to get with new st, as if working ssk.
Finish i-cord by weaving the live sts together with the first sts, as if working Kitchener st.
Weave in ends, block, and you’re done!
Knit Border. (This version was the original, but it can be genuinely tricky to keep >902 sts on a long circular needle. Putting the project down can result in mild heartbreak and dozens of stitches popping off; there is a palpable risk of breaking a wooden needle. Mine held up, but it was a close thing for a while.)
Finish the 14th square according to the line instructions. You’ll be left with 1 live stitch on the needle.
Pick Up Sts. With the RS facing up, working right to left, pick up 30 sts per each mitered square, for a total of about 420 sts. (See Note, below.) Turn work 90 degrees. Pick up ~31 sts along this side. Place a removable marker on the first and 31st sts. Turn work 90 degrees. Pick up ~420 sts along the side. Turn work 90 degrees. Pick up ~30 sts along this side. Place a removable marker on the first st, and on the live stitch from the bindoff.
There will be about 902 sts.
Note: the exact number of stitches, especially on the long edges, isn’t too important; the instructions that follow will still be functional if the stitch counts are slightly off.
Work continues from here in the round.
Begin Work. Round 1. [k1, p to next marked st] around. Round 2. [k1, m1l, k to next marked st, m1r] around (8 sts inc) 910 sts total.
Repeat Rounds 1 & 2 two more times. (926 sts total) End with a repeat of Round 2. Bind off using the basic method. Break yarn, weave in ends, and block!
Mine isn’t blocked yet. It turned out way better than I’d hoped, though, and I hate to admit it, but 14 squares looks about ideal for a scarf.
There are going to two ways to work the finishing/border on the Stay-at-Home Auxiliary Scarf, because if you do all 14 squares and pick up stitches to knit the border the way I had planned it, you are going to have something like 902 sts crammed on a 48”-60” needle, and that is not the most fun knitting I have ever done. (I’m doing it, because it is wrong to tell people it could be done without trying it and finding out how potentially frustrating it really is, but I think the alternate method also looks nice, and you probably don’t have to be painstakingly careful about how you set the knitting down to keep 20+ sts from coming off the needle just because there is No Room.)
The first step for this project went out on April 2, so the official end date, if you’ve been doing a square a day, would be April 15th or 16th, depending on how you approach it (is the border part of Day 14, or something you do the day after?). The finishing step should be live within the next couple of days, so please watch this space. Take care!
Day ??? for me—but a good square, with some handspun merino/grey alpaca/sari silk, Malabrigo Yarn Rastita in Glitter, and Arroyo in some sort of blue. If you’re knitting along, and you’d like to share your squares, feel free to leave a link to your instagram, blog post(s), or link your project page on Ravelry.
The Mouse Army Knitting Co. 