Continental and the Norwegian Purl

So remember my comments in my last post about wanting to switch to Continental knitting? Well, I realized that I do actually have a project on the needles amenable to a switch partway through. A very basic shawl. Gauge is not so crucial on this shawl, so I figured why not and I changed it up partway through. I quickly learned, though, that purling in the Continental style is a finicky endevour at best.

Enter the Norwegian Purl. In researching the best ways to purl with the yarn in my left hand, I came across this nifty little way of purling that may have just changed my whole knitting world. Purling with the yarn held in back instead of the front? Yes, please. The Norwegian Purl is easier to do and less tricky than a traditional Continental purl. I am already having visions of all the seed stitch projects I am going to do now that I don't have to bring the yarn back and forth between my needles each stitch.

Here is a video from Knitting Traditions demonstrating.

My knitting mind is blown! How has it taken me so long to discover this method?

You can also see my abacus stitch marker and row counter in the photo. Picked this nifty and pretty little tool at Etsy. I actually found many unique stitch markers on Etsy and am enjoying using them much more than the generic ones you can get anywhere. Jewelry for my knitting. And who doesn't love a little jewelry?

 

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Left Foot, Left Foot

Can you tell I have been reading Dr. Seuss's The Foot Book a lot lately? My kids adore it. I have finally finished one of the two Herringbone Rib Socks. I love this pattern, but I will say that the herringbone pattern does not have much give to it, which makes the sock a bit challenging to get on and off, but once on it fits perfectly. I am hoping some blocking will make this a bit easier. The foot area is much more forgiving than the leg, because the bottom of the sock is stockinette instead of herringbone.

On a side note, I have really been wanting to switch to Continental Style knitting to gain some speed and in hopes that I will increase the evenness of my knit and purl stitches. I taught myself how to knit using the English (yarn in the right hand) method, but I often get hand cramping, my stitches are tight, and my knit stitches are much tighter than my purl stitches resulting in an uneven fabric when knitting flat stockinette stitch. Nothing majorly noticable on the finished fabric, but enough that I notice the difference in tension while knitting. I am hoping that "picking" rather than "throwing" will fix this and in the long run give me speed.

I have knit Continental before, on my Snowflake fair isle socks I actually used a two handed method with one color in my right hand and the other in my left, but have never made the switch. Most of this has to do with the fact that I have never wanted to start mid project and affect my gauge midway through and partly because I am faster at English style right now, and so I always go to it. I am sure with practice though, my speed and ability will grow. I may just bite the bullet and start an easy new project and do it all holding the yarn in the left. By the end of the project I am sure to be a pro!

Has anyone else ever made this switch?

 

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Variegation on a Shawl

This week, I started a project that satisfies my need to have an easy project on my needles that allows me to read or watch TV while knitting (I think the break in the middle of the last season of Mad Men will nearly kill me). As an added bonus, the large amounts of stockinette stitch in this shawl happens to show off hand painted or variegated yarns beautifully.

I love to buy beautiful yarns that have lots of interesting color variation, but struggle to find patterns that show off the beauty of the yarn, and don't have so much patterning in them that either the color or the pattern get lost.

This is the Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief, and it is a free pattern on Ravelry. The yarn is Schaefer Yarn Company's Anne, which has been discontinued, in a color way called Mr. Green jeans.

 

I can see already that this pattern will be a quick knit, and the pattern can easily be modified to do more or less repeats to make a bigger or smaller shawl to utilize maximize yardage. It's amazing how addicting plain old stockinette can be.

 

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To Knit or Not to Knit

The last year has been busy. I had twins. And life with twins is crazy. And if you think trying knit with one baby is hard, try having both hands full at all times. I took a one year hiatus from knitting. The twins are now 15 months old and a little ray of sunshine has emerged. I am running more. I lost all my baby weight. And I am knitting. Mostly after bedtime, but I am back. Little pieces of the things I enjoy are back in my life and it's wonderful.

These are the socks that I picked up to get me back in the swing of things.

Herringbone Rib Socks in St. Elias from Pagewood Farms

It's amazing how quickly obsession returns once you pick it back up again. I am loving the subtle color changes of the Pagewood Farms yarn.

 

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In the Zone and Even Seasoned Knitters Make Mistakes

I am officially in baby knitting zone. Here is a new project I started. The pattern is Pembroke and it is a vest I am knitting in Knit Picks Comfy. I love the deep blue color and Comfy is so soft!

I think little boys in vests have an irresistible preppy adorable look and therefore it is only fitting that I should make a vest for my son.

I cast on this project after I realized I couldn't begin a Fruit Cap I was planning to match one I already knit for baby girl. I ordered the color yarn I wanted from Webs, but when it arrived I realized instead of Tahki Cotton Classic, I ordered Tahki Cotton Classic Lite which is actually a sport weight and not the DK weight of the contrasting yarn I already had in my stash. Doh! Rookie mistake, but new yarn is now ordered and while I await its arrival I needed a new project, and cast on the vest.

Here is the infamous yarn.  It will go in my stash for another project down the road.

Cozy Movie Knits

On Friday, I started a new project.  The pattern is Laurel Love Cocoon and I am using a yummy Alpaca that has been in my stash for awhile.  And who says you can't teach an old knitter new tricks?  I am using Magic Loop, a technique I have never tried before for this project.

This is quick and easy, which is good, as I will be knitting two of them!  These would also make great gifts for friends having babies, without investing a lot of time to an involved project.

Sidetracked

Just a quick one today. Those of you who are EZ fans should recognize this one.

And yes, this means the baby Mary Janes are on hold for a bit. I just couldn't get excited about them with those Size 0 needles and K1 P1 ribbing. This new project was a welcome diversion and I have already made quite a bit of progress in just one day.

Kool Socks

A quick one today. My fruit loop socks have been in hibernation for a bit but were pulled back out and I completed the first sock and cast on for the second sock today.

I am actively trying complete all my UFOs.

I Dream in Green

After a relatively unproductive summer of knitting, the cool weather has me in a fiber-friendly mood. I have been working on Lotus Blossom Tank over the last few weeks.

Too bad this is a summer top. I always seem to be a season off when finishing projects!

I am hoping to have this completed by the end of the weekend.

The Neverending Story

I have had my eye on a pattern for awhile that is perfect for sock yarn scraps. I cast on for it last night, although I forsee this being a long-haul type of project that is pieced together a little at a time as I acquire more sock yarn scraps.

The pattern is Bobby's Garden, which is available for sale on Ravelry. I changed to size 2 needles due the lighter weight of the yarn.

Likely will be a baby blanket size, as I think any larger in fingering weight yarn might be maddening, or I might still be working on it when I am old and gray!

In preparation for summer....

I have started Lotus Blossom Tank, a pattern from The Best of Interweave Knits: Our Favorite Designs from the First Ten Years .

I am using yarn I bought from my LYS, Slip Knot that I got on sale and couldn't pass up. It is Cliche by Artful Yarns.

I only have 7 skeins of the yarn, and after completing almost 1 repeat, I am a little worried it may not be enough. A Ravelry search for yardage used by other knitters put me at ease a bit, but I am also planning to do the modifications described by Licketyknit, which includes adding lace repeats and length to the stockinette portion.

We will see. I am hoping the switch after Row 9 to smaller needles will eat up less yarn.

Ravelympics!

Did anyone else notice the lovely hats and sweaters Team USA had on last night?

In the spirit of the Olympics I am participating in Ravelympics this year and have chosen a Mobius Cowl as my project in this lovely yarn that I picked up on my honeymoon in Alaska.

The colors remind me of the rainforest of Alaska and the Canadian coast of British Columbia, so I thought it a fitting choice given the Olympics location in Vancouver.

I have already made significant progress on this, and I think I will be done with it long before the Olympics are over.

I thought the mobius cast on would give me a bit more trouble than it did, but a great video here demonstrates it beautifully.

On making progress

Remember this? 

I am on the collar of Bell Sleeve Jacket, and have been making steady progress while enjoying the HBO series Rome over the last few weeks.  I love Netflix.

I am hopeful that this sweater will be done in time to get some use out of it while it is still cold.   Almost there!

Its cold outside, but in here it's electric!

Here is a peak at one of my projects on the needles that I haven't shown off yet.

These are the Fruit Loop Socks from Knitty, Spring 2008.

They are being knit with my Kool-Aid dyed yarn in a colorway that I call
It's Electric.

Go to my instructional post to learn how I dyed the yarn.

Sneak Peak

Here is a sneak peak at a secret project....

I love working with this soft cotton yarn.

Something's Blocking

Haven't had a finished object in awhile but......something's blocking!



And tommorrow onto seaming. This is my least favorite part of a project, but I do find it satisfying to watch the crude panels of a project seam up into a beautiful finished item.....

Slowly but surely....

Baby Smock Jacket is coming along and the first front panel is going much quicker than the back. Perhaps because I have master the art of knitting and reading at the same time, which means I can work on this and read Eclipse at the same time!

This only works for ribbing, stockinette, or seed stitch, anything more complicated requires full knitting attention.

Tangled Basket

In taking of stock of where I am with finishing the projects on my needles:
a) Secret Gift Project AKA Hemlock Ring Blanket Finished
b) Snowflake Socks Finished (pictures to follow soon)
c) Bell Sleeved Jacket (65% complete)
d) Flower Basket Shawl (45% complete)
e) Baby Mary Janes (10% complete)
f) Smock Jacket (30% complete)

I have been making a serious commitment to FBS over the last few weeks and am up to 275 stitches. Unfortunately when I started the first row of the next repeat I noticed that one of my flower baskets from the previous round was not quite right. Feeling supremely confident in my lace knitting abilities, I decided that instead of ripping out the whole last round back to my lifeline (and then re-knitting all those stitches), surely I could just drop the affected section and knit it back up again on double points, leaving the rest of my perfectly correct flower baskets intact?



Alas, after 5 attempts last night, my malformed flower basket is still in disarray. It was not as easy as it might seem. I finally walked away from it and into the warm comfort of some Twilight reading. Once my mind is rested I will return to the basket and perhaps be able to do what I set out to do. But for now, it is only vampires for me.

Progress

No pictures to show, but my weekend was filled with a fair amount of knitting due to my husband being in Annapolis this weekend for a tux fitting/ghost pub crawl, and the fact that I wasn't feeling all that well, so I didn't push myself to do my usual weekend workouts.

I worked on three different projects: I did a few repeats of my Flower Basket Shawl, for some lighter knitting during movie watching I worked on the Smock Jacket with some easy moss stitch. Today I worked a bit on my Snowflake socks and am now through the heel and into the gusset. I need to free up my size 2 circulars for later in the Smock Jacket.

My husband has charged himself to help me in my resolution to finish what is on my needles by discouraging me from starting any new projects. Except, or course baby gifts for some upcoming little ones on the way. For this he will whole-heartedly encourage me to cast-on.

Lucky

This is how much yarn I had left over at the end of my secret project. The ball was looking like I had a lot to go, but about halfway through the castoff row, I started to worry. That skein was looking awfully small. Would I make it of have to rip back? With 600 stitches in the last round, this would be no small feat. And with the 600 stitches translating into 3600 bind-off stitches, I had no way to accurately judge if I had enough yarn or not....Luckily I made it, with 6 inches of yarn to spare.

It is blocking now and is lovely.

In other news, I went into Joanne Fabrics to buy blocking pins on Saturday and walked out having ordered a sewing machine. I couldn't help myself, I found fabric that would make the perfect drapes to match my new bedding, and I have been unable to find the perfect drapes anywhere. But not owning a sewing machine presents a problem. I could do the project on my mother's machine, but she doesn't live here, and our visits are usually too short to accomplish such a project. So I meandered to the sewing machine section intending just to look....I should have known I would buy one as soon as I saw that just too perfect fabric.