Sasha (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
indeliblesasha) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
knitting2012-01-18 10:33 pm
indeliblesasha) wrote in knitting2012-01-18 10:33 pm
46 stitch kitchener on lace? Deserves a party.
That hold-your-breath moment when you near the end of a 46 stitch kitchener join and aren't sure you left a long enough tail...
I totally did, and the join looks AWESOME, and that calls for hot chocolate:
2 cups whole milk
1 cup half and half
2 ounces 100% cacao chocolate baking bar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 Tbs dark honey (alfalfa instead of clover, I believe it is)
Melt chocolate in double boiler (or a glass or metal bowl on top of a pot of boiling water) while milk, half and half, and vanilla are warming in another pot.
Once chocolate is fully melted, and milk is hot enough it would burn your hand, pour the milk into the pan with the chocolate whisking quickly to keep it from clumping up. If it clumps, just keep whisking. Once it's all combined smoothly, return mix to the milk pan and low heat, to add the honey.
Makes about two mugs full of thick, decadent, insane hot chocolate. You can totally add more milk after the honey to thin it out and tone it down though. :D
So here's the story:
My BFF is a crocheter, one of those insanely talented artistic types who kind of makes you want to give up altogether sometimes, because you'll never be that good. Fortunately, I am actually a pretty decent knitter, so I leave the gorgeous crochet work to her, and she leaves knitting sweaters to me, and we are both happy and never feel competitive. :D
We both have toddlers, but I have two (who entertain each other) and no outside-the-house job, and she has one who wants her to play alllllll the time, and works weekends. When she started expressing an interest in lace, and how she wished she could knit it, I went looking for something I felt confident I could do, but would still be complex enough to make her a decadent garment she could feel cherished in, every time she wore it.
I chose the Seaweed and Shells scarf, because it is a simple and very repetitive pattern, but also it really suits her. I think she'd live on the beaches of San Francisco if she could.
The scarf is supposed to be knit in two pieces as the pattern is directional, and then joined. The instructions call for knitting 12 repeats and then doing a three needle bind off which I think would just be clunky as all get out.
I decided to stop on the last knit row, instead of doing the final purl row, and let the kitchener weaving secure the yarn overs. I was hoping to avoid having a half-inch section of plain stockinette right in the middle. I'm pretty sure I succeeded.
I have been working on this scarf for a few months, it is my first lace of any kind, and I am so insanely excited I can barely breathe over being DONE.
All that's left is blocking and shipping. I just couldn't contain my joy, so I decided to come and ramble a bit to people who I know will totally *get* it. :D
Also, here are some pictures of the unblocked scarf, cause I know it's really all about the pictures ;)
This image is the most representative of the color. I knit it in Cascade Eco +: Olive Heather, on US8 needles.
(The life lines are run in the last purl row of each repeat. I took this picture to compare after blocked.)
This image shows the (bunched) pattern repeats very well, I think.
This picture shows very subtly what happens when you start a project in August, don't touch it for two solid months, and then work on it only sporadically for another two months, and then non-stop for a week to finish it. My tension was much tighter when I started, the bottom left corner. I'm pretty sure it will block out though.
Lined up and ready to be joined. Had I knit the final rows exactly to pattern, there would be four random yo holes clustered right in the middle, I left them out, because I thought it would look sloppy. I am pretty pleased with the open space.
This is a terrible picture, I just took it and my lighting is bad this time of night, but you can see the tighter stitches of the kitchener join (I know from past experience my kitchener weaving loosens a lot when blocked. I erred on the side of caution and pulled it snug, since I was weaving into yarn overs,) and the open space in the middle. I think it would have looked just weird with four random holes in a square in the middle. I'm glad I left them out.
I think once blocked that section is going to look pretty neat.
Thank you for indulging my need to ramble excitedly. :D I am very terribly proud of the project, not the least of which because I made it with so much love for my best friend in the world, and I am looking so forward to her being able to enjoy it.
I totally did, and the join looks AWESOME, and that calls for hot chocolate:
2 cups whole milk
1 cup half and half
2 ounces 100% cacao chocolate baking bar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 Tbs dark honey (alfalfa instead of clover, I believe it is)
Melt chocolate in double boiler (or a glass or metal bowl on top of a pot of boiling water) while milk, half and half, and vanilla are warming in another pot.
Once chocolate is fully melted, and milk is hot enough it would burn your hand, pour the milk into the pan with the chocolate whisking quickly to keep it from clumping up. If it clumps, just keep whisking. Once it's all combined smoothly, return mix to the milk pan and low heat, to add the honey.
Makes about two mugs full of thick, decadent, insane hot chocolate. You can totally add more milk after the honey to thin it out and tone it down though. :D
So here's the story:
My BFF is a crocheter, one of those insanely talented artistic types who kind of makes you want to give up altogether sometimes, because you'll never be that good. Fortunately, I am actually a pretty decent knitter, so I leave the gorgeous crochet work to her, and she leaves knitting sweaters to me, and we are both happy and never feel competitive. :D
We both have toddlers, but I have two (who entertain each other) and no outside-the-house job, and she has one who wants her to play alllllll the time, and works weekends. When she started expressing an interest in lace, and how she wished she could knit it, I went looking for something I felt confident I could do, but would still be complex enough to make her a decadent garment she could feel cherished in, every time she wore it.
I chose the Seaweed and Shells scarf, because it is a simple and very repetitive pattern, but also it really suits her. I think she'd live on the beaches of San Francisco if she could.
The scarf is supposed to be knit in two pieces as the pattern is directional, and then joined. The instructions call for knitting 12 repeats and then doing a three needle bind off which I think would just be clunky as all get out.
I decided to stop on the last knit row, instead of doing the final purl row, and let the kitchener weaving secure the yarn overs. I was hoping to avoid having a half-inch section of plain stockinette right in the middle. I'm pretty sure I succeeded.
I have been working on this scarf for a few months, it is my first lace of any kind, and I am so insanely excited I can barely breathe over being DONE.
All that's left is blocking and shipping. I just couldn't contain my joy, so I decided to come and ramble a bit to people who I know will totally *get* it. :D
Also, here are some pictures of the unblocked scarf, cause I know it's really all about the pictures ;)
This image is the most representative of the color. I knit it in Cascade Eco +: Olive Heather, on US8 needles.
(The life lines are run in the last purl row of each repeat. I took this picture to compare after blocked.)
This image shows the (bunched) pattern repeats very well, I think.
This picture shows very subtly what happens when you start a project in August, don't touch it for two solid months, and then work on it only sporadically for another two months, and then non-stop for a week to finish it. My tension was much tighter when I started, the bottom left corner. I'm pretty sure it will block out though.
Lined up and ready to be joined. Had I knit the final rows exactly to pattern, there would be four random yo holes clustered right in the middle, I left them out, because I thought it would look sloppy. I am pretty pleased with the open space.
This is a terrible picture, I just took it and my lighting is bad this time of night, but you can see the tighter stitches of the kitchener join (I know from past experience my kitchener weaving loosens a lot when blocked. I erred on the side of caution and pulled it snug, since I was weaving into yarn overs,) and the open space in the middle. I think it would have looked just weird with four random holes in a square in the middle. I'm glad I left them out.
I think once blocked that section is going to look pretty neat.
Thank you for indulging my need to ramble excitedly. :D I am very terribly proud of the project, not the least of which because I made it with so much love for my best friend in the world, and I am looking so forward to her being able to enjoy it.
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