Whoosh!
Pattern: 22 Little Clouds, by Martina Behm
Yarn: Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Fingering, in Blue Ridge
Needles: 5 mm / US 8
I gave my sister this yarn as her birthday present in 2011 - good thing I made a note of that in my Rav stash-minder, I didn't actually remember the circumstances under which the yarn was presented to her. In any event, I usually give her yarn as her gift nowadays, with the promise to actually convert the yarn into some item for her, since she doesn't knit. (I have just taken a moment to go into the stash minder and add little notes to the entries of other things I've got squirreled away for future gifts, and to update the notes on ones I've already given.) There's a slight hiccup in our system, though, in that it usually takes some doing to settle on a pattern for the yarn - I browse pattern offerings online with some regularity, but she really doesn't, and I don't always remember to sit her down and show her whatever I've found that seems interesting at a given point in time. Consequently, we end up with a bit of backlog of sister gift yarn here - skeins waiting to be knit up into something.
This was the case with this yarn.
I stumbled upon this pattern, and thought it would play nicely with the variegation in this yarn - I was actually looking to see if I could find some pattern recommendations for the yarn I gave her for Christmas 2012, which is still sitting out on a table here, but when I saw the plain stockinette, my mind snapped back to this variegated colourway. (The Christmas 2013 yarn is a semi-solid tonal sort of skein.) I showed my sister the sample photos in the pattern, and she agreed that it was a nice shawlette, and I was off and running.
Well, winding.
This may have been the fastest scarf/shawlette I've ever cranked out. It was six days from cast on to bind off, and that's not six days of nonstop knitting - an hour here, maybe two hours there, forty-five minutes here, twenty there, the way it usually goes. I sort of wish I had timed this one - I would estimate that it took me less than ten hours to knit the shawlette. Very simple, straightforward knitting - once you get the hang of the increase rates, the stitches just fly onto the needles. Also, getting the increase rates into your head is not terribly challenging - one set goes every row, the other set goes every third row. Being able to read your knitting is a huge help in keeping track of the every-third-row increase set. I also used the pattern's 25% rule in order to maximize the available yardage - I knit the main body of the shawlette until I had about 25% of my yarn remaining - I weighed the skein(s) to figure that out - and then started on the ruffled edging. When all was said and done I was left with 1.5 g of remnants.
Sister is pleased, and so I am pleased as well. I presented this to her along with her actual birthday gifts this year - it was the one bonus item that made it into the bag.
If I make this one again? I might try yarnover increases instead of the lifted-bar increases given in the pattern. It might be visually interesting to have some negative space detail added. Or it might be a hot mess. Won't know till I try.
Pattern: 22 Little Clouds, by Martina Behm
Yarn: Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Fingering, in Blue Ridge
Needles: 5 mm / US 8
I gave my sister this yarn as her birthday present in 2011 - good thing I made a note of that in my Rav stash-minder, I didn't actually remember the circumstances under which the yarn was presented to her. In any event, I usually give her yarn as her gift nowadays, with the promise to actually convert the yarn into some item for her, since she doesn't knit. (I have just taken a moment to go into the stash minder and add little notes to the entries of other things I've got squirreled away for future gifts, and to update the notes on ones I've already given.) There's a slight hiccup in our system, though, in that it usually takes some doing to settle on a pattern for the yarn - I browse pattern offerings online with some regularity, but she really doesn't, and I don't always remember to sit her down and show her whatever I've found that seems interesting at a given point in time. Consequently, we end up with a bit of backlog of sister gift yarn here - skeins waiting to be knit up into something.
This was the case with this yarn.
I stumbled upon this pattern, and thought it would play nicely with the variegation in this yarn - I was actually looking to see if I could find some pattern recommendations for the yarn I gave her for Christmas 2012, which is still sitting out on a table here, but when I saw the plain stockinette, my mind snapped back to this variegated colourway. (The Christmas 2013 yarn is a semi-solid tonal sort of skein.) I showed my sister the sample photos in the pattern, and she agreed that it was a nice shawlette, and I was off and running.
Well, winding.
This may have been the fastest scarf/shawlette I've ever cranked out. It was six days from cast on to bind off, and that's not six days of nonstop knitting - an hour here, maybe two hours there, forty-five minutes here, twenty there, the way it usually goes. I sort of wish I had timed this one - I would estimate that it took me less than ten hours to knit the shawlette. Very simple, straightforward knitting - once you get the hang of the increase rates, the stitches just fly onto the needles. Also, getting the increase rates into your head is not terribly challenging - one set goes every row, the other set goes every third row. Being able to read your knitting is a huge help in keeping track of the every-third-row increase set. I also used the pattern's 25% rule in order to maximize the available yardage - I knit the main body of the shawlette until I had about 25% of my yarn remaining - I weighed the skein(s) to figure that out - and then started on the ruffled edging. When all was said and done I was left with 1.5 g of remnants.
Sister is pleased, and so I am pleased as well. I presented this to her along with her actual birthday gifts this year - it was the one bonus item that made it into the bag.
If I make this one again? I might try yarnover increases instead of the lifted-bar increases given in the pattern. It might be visually interesting to have some negative space detail added. Or it might be a hot mess. Won't know till I try.
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