I’m Knitting As Fast As I Can

OK, I’ve come to a decision about the scarf. I’m frogging. I can’t stand scarves that curl in at the edges and this is clearly going to curl even with a good blocking.

But, I really like the stitch pattern, especially the strong lines of decreases which you can see really clearly in Rebekkah’s Scroll Lace socks. So I set about figuring out how to keep those lines while working in garter stitch.

Here’s the result:

It’s difficult to see in the crappy, pre-dawn photo but basically, I worked the selvage stitches and the decreases in stockinette stitch and kept everything else in garter stitch.

Compared to the portion knit wholly in stockinette stitch, the garter version is obviously much flatter:

Thumbs up or down?? I’m thinking thumbs down. I’m just not feeling the love for the garter stitch. It really ruins the charm of the stitch pattern.

But, wait! There’s “Plan C.” What about a cowl?? I can stop the bottom and top edges from rolling with garter stitch or moss stitch and the rest of the piece can’t curl ’cause it will be a tube.

Something to think about.

As you’ve probably noticed, I love to knit. However, I’m not particularly enamored with the finishing that usually accompanies the knitting. And the finishing technique I despise most of all is blocking.

Some people love it; I find it stressful. Mostly because I’m paranoid one side of my finished piece will be a fraction longer than the other side.

Need proof of my aversion to blocking?

Yup, I have no fewer than 5 completed projects that just need blocking. And they’re not all lace projects, either. Scoop du Jour can’t be assembled and finished until the knitted pieces are blocked.

At least I’ve made a start on that:

I also have two scarves I knit up this week which both need a nice wet block.

And while I was searching for my blocking wires and forked pins, I uncovered a Grinda scarf and a rather large shawl (of my own design), both of which I barely recall knitting but both of which also just need blocking.

So what’s a grrl to do while Scoop du Jour hogs the blocking board?

Why, knit a neck warmer and a pair of baby socks, of course:

Pattern: Chevron Neck Warmer by Veronik Avery
Yarn: Kathmandu Aran (color 153)

Time to Knit: one night (fast and easy)

Pattern: Pieces of Eight Baby Socks

Yarn: Crystal Palace Maizy (a blend of corn fiber and elastic)

Time to Knit: an evening

FYI–The Maizy yarn was nice to knit with and the finished socks are soft and stretchy. But the dye from the yarn bled all over my fingers.

I got a nice email from Crystal Palace saying they’ve had trouble with the darker colors crocking. Just a heads up.

My Rhinebeck Not-Sweater caused me quite a scare this morning.

Tuesday night at Stitch ‘N Bitch it dawned on me that I might run out of yarn. So this morning I decided to calculate my progress by using the mathematical process I blogged about a while ago. You can see my instructions here. Or you can check out Dorothy’s post on calculating the progress on a top-down triangular shawl. Her formula is more tidy than mine but it’s basically the same.

Anyway, to make a long story short, by my calculation I have completed approximately 77% of the shawl (36,284 stitches so far). When I weighed the remaining yarn and realized there are only 31 grams left, I went into full panic mode. Why? Because I suck so much at arithmetic that I thought I had 33% remaining to knit. 77 from 100 is 33, right? Well, no, of course not.

After contemplating all the possible ways to alter the design so I could squeeze the shawl out of the one, 875-yard skein of Alpaca With a Twist Fino, it finally hit me that I only had 23% left to knit, not 33%, and I would have plenty of yarn. Doh!

A word of warning to all you first graders out there . . . pay attention when your teacher instructs you in basic subtraction.

Well, I know I have enough yarn but it’s looking like the shawl will be huge on me. Right now I have about 400 stitches on the needle and I still have 26 rows to go. I’m just about to start the trees in the lower border.

Will the shawl be finished in time for Rhinebeck? Maybe. Maybe not. One thing’s for sure, I could probably make better progress on the shawl if I put down this mitten I started on Sunday.