Stylin'

Ruggles Original Reversible Scarf

Yarn: Knit Picks Elegance (70% baby alpaca, 30% silk; DK weight)
Color: Cornflower
Needles: US 6s
Stitches: 40

I started this scarf a month ago and really wanted to finish it today. The weather has slowly warmed here, but it is still cool enough at times that wearing a scarf can be merited. Who knows how many days remain before the scarves must be put away for months. The opportunity to wear my own handiwork provided enough motivation to spend a few hours knitting the last several inches.

March has been a busy month, so I thought it might be nice to have a quiet afternoon with no TV or music, just me and my knitting. It didn't last long. Perhaps I couldn't stand listening to my brain spin, or I was bored with the ten row repeat. Whatever the case, I had to turn on the television as accompaniment.

I found inspiration in a cinematography documentary and a photography special on Ovation TV. I would hate to think that I can longer just be but must have some other distraction in the background.

While I did stitch after I gained greater appreciation for the knitting flurry I had as soon as I learned. I know that those were mostly garter stitch scarves on larger needles, thus meaning they didn't require as much time as my latest FO, but wow, I must have been a man possessed to knit as much as I did in that period of time.

I tried to use as much of the yarn as possible before binding off. In the end the scarf measures approximately 78 inches long and 4 inches wide. I've been in the habit of employing the long-tail cast on and used it for this scarf even though a stretchy edge isn't necessary for this item. Because I am fond of symmetry, I wanted to find an equivalent bind off. The best I could find was Elizabeth Zimmerman's sewn bind off. It seemed like an easy method and a familiar one from sewing the toes for socks, so I gave it a shot. I still ended up with something of a bell-shaped end, but the same is true for the cast on end. It's just how I do it, I guess. The edges match more or less, though, which makes me happy.

I'm really pleased with how the scarf looks, especially against my dark blue overcoat. It's striking, not to mention luxurious to wear because of the baby alpaca and silk yarn. Chic is hardly a word I would use to describe myself, but I feel like it applies when wearing this scarf. I'm also proud of the time and hard work I put into making it. And isn't that what we seek to get out of knitting?

Back to basics

Thanks for the advice and encouragement on the socks. I wrote about my sock knitting frustration in the heat of the moment. It gave me energy to burn, that's for sure. Bristling with the aggravation of an afternoon's knitting, I went out and ran a mile and a half around my new neighborhood before needing to head inside to avoid the rain.

I have not attempted to pick up stitches today, and I can safely say that it won't happen until tomorrow at the earliest. I've been biding my time doing other things: a late afternoon nap, a haircut, finally getting some food to put in the refrigerator, trying to write movie reviews. I've been slowly tapping out my reviews for tomorrow's show, so the knitting has had to go on the back burner.

I have taken one break to knit, and I started--what else--a dishcloth. I decided that I might as well see if I remembered how to do the long-tail cast on. It went smoother than my first successful attempt, but I need to be careful at doing it too tightly. Getting the needle through to knit was something of a challenge. Silly question: is there an equivalent bind off?

I finished a dishcloth last night--well, save for weaving in the ends--but amid my other activities, I failed to take pictures today. It's probably best to save that for tomorrow's entry in the event that my sock knitting puts me in a surly mood again.

The long road to the long tail

Up, over, through, tighten. That's it!

I'm not joking when I say that I pored over this video and tried to emulate the long-tail cast on technique for an hour and a half. I had no trouble with "up" and "over", but I wasn't exactly sure where "through" was. There was nothing to "tighten". I was ready to say, "That's it!" It wasn't going well. I made one stitch by accident, and I couldn't duplicate it.

I checked The Knitting Answer Book to see if it might provide the answer. As it turns out, it does have the pertinent information I needed; it just didn't sink in. (There isn't a diagram of the step where I was having problems, which didn't help either.) So I must say a big thank you to Miss Ewe for her comment the other day that directed me to the tutorial that made it click.

The critical instruction I wasn't getting elsewhere was in step 4: "Remove your thumb from the loop and pull on tail to tighten stitch (avoid making too tight!)." The book says, "4. Let the loop slide off your thumb. 5. Put your thumb behind the long tail and use it to tighten the loop." It seems obvious now, but I didn't know what loop the book meant. Surely I didn't want to let go of the loop that was keeping the tension. Of course, that's exactly what I needed to do, but I wasn't getting it. Everything is there in the video, but I was so focused on watching the needle that I didn't notice that the loop came off her thumb.

After a lot of sweat and swears, I finally got it.

Having conquered this, working in k1p1 should have been cake, right?

On my second round I noticed that I was off by one stitch. Ugh! How in the world did I drop a stitch?! I unknitted back to the problem spot--at least I found it--and then had to figure out how to fix it. The crochet hook I have is too big, but I remembered that my mom had found a small one in my grandma's possessions and given it to me. I rooted through my tub of yarn and needles and eventually found it. I hadn't needed it before, but it saved me tonight. I picked up the stitch and returned to knitting in rib. Also, I accidentally knit the tail into a stitch, but I caught it early enough that I was able to pull it out.

There haven't been any other problems...yet. I've finished the ribbing for the leg and am ready to embark on knitting the heel. I suspect more problems await, so I'm going to call it a night on the sock. Here's it's current status.

I know a couple who will be having a baby girl any day now. The practice socks will go to them.

In other knitting news, I salvaged the dishcloth that I threatened to frog entirely. I needed a break from the aggravation. I undid the stitches in pattern, something that I didn't think I could do, and moved along. I probably have about half of it done. I went out to by some other US 7s for starting a second dishcloth in the event that sock knitting was a disaster again. They'll be useful to have, but for now, everything is back on track.