Yes your Plaidness

I have a new pattern coming out. Again, I am deeply in love with slipped stitch patterns. There may be something wrong with me, but I am not about to admit it. I just have to make sure to enough other things that I don't get bored.

But, for now, I'll keep going in this vein.

As I was knitting this pattern up, I decided to call it Plaidness so I can make jokes. And because, deep down, I really love plaid. Plaidness is inspired by my love of slip stitch patterns and a need to keep my ears warm in the winter. I really like shaped headbands and Finnish Pantas for this purpose, so I combined the two. My ears will be happy this winter.

The other thing I enjoy about this pattern is the chance to use up leftovers! I have soooo many leftovers, particularly out of sock yarn. A hazard of working for a magazine called "The Sock Report," I guess.

And closeups of knitting! Because macro settings on cameras are amazing inventions. We see here details of the stitch pattern and the button! I was lucky enough to find the perfect button in my stash to accentuate the delicate pink/of the contrast yarn. Well, if this has tickled your fancy, here is the pattern information. The pattern is available through ravelry for $3.

Pattern: Plaidness 

Yarn: Less than 100 yds of two colors in fingering weight

Needles: US 2

Size: Adult S (M, L) and easy to customize!

A belated project post

While taking photos the other day, I realized I had a shawl I had never posted on Ravelry. Probably because I never took pictures. So I took this shawl along so it could have a moment in the limelight too. Otherwise it would be a sad, lonely, neglected project, and we can't have that.

This is a pattern that caught my eye as soon as I saw it. The Eliina Shawl is elegant and has enough interest in the body (eyelet rows thrown in) to be a tempting project. It calls for 760 yards of lace, easily doable with one skein of many lace weights. So I pared it with yarn I got from my wonderful Dad for Christmas a couple of years ago.

The yarn is Lacey Lamb, from Jade Sapphire. I love the color, love the feel, but am just not in love with this yarn. It is very springy (to the point that it jumps, nay, dives off your needles) and doesn't hold blocking. Meaning I felt I needed to block the shawl again as soon as I pulled it off the blocking wires.

Eliina, on the other hand, is a lovely pattern and easy to modify. For one thing, I decided to add beads to my project. As I didn't want beads only in the edging, I decided to add them throughout. Which meant adding them to the eyelet rows in the body. In a fit on pure insanity, I decided to add them to every single k2tog and  ssk on the eyelet rows...I'm better now.

I realized several eyelet rows in that my plan was insanity, but I was committed, and there was no ripping out of those rows already done. So I persevered.

I also decided that I wanted a more shaped shawl, so I started added yos on both sides about halfway through the body of the shawl. That meant doing math at the edging to make sure I had the right number of stitches, and I think I had to do one or two more plain rows before I reached the edging, but I got there.

In the edging I worked beads down the center spine of the motif, but no more. I was a bit beaded out by the time I reached the edge. In the final cast off I worked a crochet cast off, adding beads every time the chain attached to the body. I had apparently forgotten that I was going to put no more beads on this shawl by the time I bound off.

So, a lovely shawl, nice weight, but one I rarely wear. I guess there are too many beads (if possibly) for everyday wear.

You can find the project page here.