Lace

Don't quite know why I chose to do a lace scarf but here we are. I'm just casting on for the third time, and this time I've read up about lifelines and have started to use them. Frogging the first 32 rows of Take Two (when I thought I'd got the hang of it) was dispiriting, but there wasn't really any other alternative. Let's hope this time is better. Here's Take Two after the first 20 rows. It looked so promising... Actually I made a mistake early on in the second repeat which I covered by sneakily avoiding a decrease but it's probably good for my soul that I've started again to get it right. Practice makes perfect, apparently.

New toys at Christmas

= getting to grips with blogging from an iPhone. Let's see if this works.

ISE7

Can't believe I haven't put anything on here since the summer, but I also haven't had time for any real knitting, apart from a hurried and thus oversized laptop case in October. But I've just received the details of my ISE7 recipient and so I need to start thinking about what I'm going to do for them. Their preferences are some way from what I would normally be knitting, so I need to look on this as a challenge :-S I'll update again when I've worked out what to do: I'm off to Sheffield tomorrow and so will have some time on my hands for buying yarn (yes, my stash doesn't contain anything that remotely matches my knittee's desires) and getting going. Must remember to pack Denise.

Grand designs

The Oxford Bluestockings KIP yesterday was great on a number of counts. I got to meet some other Oxford knitters for the first time, who were really welcoming, and I also started the swatching for the yet-to-be-designed reversible hoodie. For some reason I then frogged the second swatch before doing any kind of tension measurement which means I'm swatching again today, but at least I'm on the way. Then today I finished off the .pdf charts for the Stranded Sampler Scarf and put them up on Ravelry - and they've already had 44 downloads. Very gratifying.

It's spring!

And I'm just back from the first tandem ride of the year. Short and sweet, 18km to Stanton St John, out through Elsfield, back through Barton. I just wish I could relax a bit more when I'm on the back...

So near... but so far!

Some quick pics of the ISE scarf. As you can see, it's gone really quickly (obsessive knitting on buses, anyone?) and is 80% of the way there. But I'm out of wool and will need to get some more of the same from the French supplier. I've put out a call for help on the ISE6 blog - hopefully someone can give me a bit of advice on the right way to do the negotiation.

ISE scarf update

Wednesday was great, I had a day off work and my Denise needles arrived, so the time was right to start on my ISE6 scarf. I've decided to do a striped lengthways seed stitch scarf, knit on a partial bias so that the stripes gradually move across the scarf without actually being diagonal. I'm not sure that the short edge is completely perpendicular to the sides of the scarf but that could be (a) a design feature or (b) disguised with a fringe... My main concern now is the amount of wool that I need, because my knittee lives in a cold climate and has a preference for longer, broader scarves. I'm going to weigh the scarf so far and the amount of wool remaining, to see if I need to try to get hold of some more from the supplier.

The yarn for my scarf

I've just found the yarn for my knittee's scarf, but I now don't know what pattern to knit. Any suggestions, anyone?

Mistake rib scarf

Not sure that this needs a pattern, but just for the record. Cast on a multiple of 4 stitches + 3 Work each row in k2, p2 rib to the end (you will finish with an odd purl, which is fine). Bind off in rib I worked in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Chunky on 8mm needles (slightly larger than recommended for the yarn to give a looser rib), cast on 31 stitches and worked till the scarf was around 230cm long. It required 3 skeins.

Reversible plait scarf

Here's the pattern for the reversible plait scarf. I made two versions, one in Rowan Plaid and another in Rowan Polar, both now sadly discontinued. You can use any chunky weight yarn. I used 8mm needles and the scarf took just under 3 skeins = 300 metres. It's long and narrow and is designed to be worn "both ends fed through the loop", if you know what I mean. Finished length: 230cm Finished width: 15cm at ends, around 12cm through plaited section PATTERN NOTES 2x2 rib [k2,p2] to end of row C16F Slip 8 stitches onto cable needle and hold to front of work [k2, p2] twice [k2, p2] twice from cable needle C16B Slip 8 stitches onto cable needle and hold to back of work [k2, p2] twice [k2, p2] twice from cable needle Cable plait Row 1: C16F, [k2,p2] twice Rows 2-8: 2x2 rib Row 9: [k2,p2] twice, C16B Rows 10-16: 2x2 rib PATTERN CO 24st First 16 rows: 2x2 rib Repeat Cable plait 14 times Last 8 rows: 2x2 rib BO in rib Weave in loose ends That's it.