Lace, Lace, Lace

Once again it has been a good long time since I last posted here. I've still been doing plenty of knitting in the mean time. Nothing that involved whipping up my own patterns, just playing with some made by others.

I took a break from more complicated patterns and made a drop stitch scarf with the new Simply Soft Paints. I absolutely love the Oceana colorway. I have another skein of it and I'm not sure what I'm going to make with it yet. The scarf still needs blocked, but I love it already. There are so many colors, it will go with everything.

I've gone back to the Old Shale scarf I started a while back. It took a while to get into the rhythm of the pattern, but I think I have it down now. I'm going a lot longer between putting in lifelines. At my own risk. I hope to have the scarf done here in the next week.

Then it will be on to some of my "pay it forward" projects. I'm going to be making two shawls which will use the feather and fan pattern as well. It is going to be quite an undertaking. Good thing I have all year, even if I'd like to get them done before June. I still haven't decided whether I want to make them both with horizontal stripes or make one with vertical stripes.

I am definitely going to make the one using Simply Soft first. It will go faster and give me a break from using tiny, splitty yarn. The Addi Lace Turbos cut down on the splitting a lot, but it still happens on occasion.

Projects, Patterns, and Sales

Whew, the holidays have finally settled themselves down and I have a few minutes to blog here.

I did a ton (for me) of knitting for Christmas; four scarfs and two ear bands. Plus an ear band for me after some particularly cold nights at work, with a scarf in progress. They can all be seen in my projects on http://www.ravelry.com/, username RenaissanceKnits. Everyone really liked their stuff, and I'm glad. I also really wish I would have known about the curling of stockinette stitch so that I could have put some proper borders on the scarves, but I suppose it gives me an excuse to make more!

In making the ear bands--the pattern is called Calorimetry--I had my first foray into short rows. I was a bit intimidated at the thought at first but they weren't really a problem at all! I'm really pleased with how they came out with my modifications to incorporate the cable patterns from the scarves.

I'm also making my first forays into lace with a feather and fan scarf I started and a feather and fan shawl that is in the queue. It's a really simple pattern and I love the way it looks. I just need to pay a little bit more attention so I can stop ripping it out back to the lifelines I put in. I might not ever get it done at this rate!

So much yarn is on sale right now that it's really hard not to keep buying more. I had planned on doing the feather and fan shawl with some Simply Soft that I already had in my stash. Then, while I was out today, NaturallyCaron.com Country was on sale for half off today at Michaels. So, of course, I had to buy it and I'm going to use it for the shawl now.

There are so many patterns and techniques I want to try and not enough people to pawn the projects off on!

Cabled Diamond Scarf

This scarf is 36 stitches wide with a 4 stitch border on all sides. I originally did this pattern with a 3 knit stitch border before I knew that stockinette curled.

Only the odd rows of the pattern are listed, for the even rows simply do your garter stitch border and knit the knits and purl the purls.

Cast on 36 stitches

Knit four rows of garter stitch
1. K4, P12, K4, P12, K4
3. K4, P11, LC, RC, P11, K4
5. K4, P10, LC, P2, RC, P10, K4
7. K4, P9, LC, P4, RC, P9, K4
9. K4, P8, LC, P6, RC, P8, K4
11. K4, P7, LC, P8, RC, P7, K4
13. K4, P6, LC, P10, RC, P6, K4
15. K4, P5, LC, P12, RC, P5, K4
17. K4, P4, LC, P14, RC, P4, K4
19. K4, P3, LC, P16, RC, P3, K4
21. K4, P2, LC, P18, RC, P2, K4
23. K4, P3, RC, P16, LC, P3, K4
25. K4, P4, RC, P14, LC, P4, K4
27. K4, P5, RC, P12, LC, P5, K4
29. K4, P6, RC, P10, LC, P6, K4
31. K4, P7, RC, P8, LC, P7, K4
33. K4, P8, RC, P6, LC, P8, K4
35. K4, P9, RC, P4, LC, P9, K4
37. K4, P10, RC, P2, LC, P10, K4
39, K4, P11, RC, LC, P11, K4
41. K4, P12, slide 2 to cable needle and hold to front, K2, K2 from cable needle, P12, K4
Repeat pattern from row 3 to desired length. On the final diamond, omit row 41.
To finish knit 4 rows of garter stitch and bind off.

LC = Left Cable: slide 1 to cable needle, hold to back, knit 2, purl 1 from cable needle
RC = Right Cable: slide 2 to cable, hold to front, purl 1, knit 2 from cable needle

This pattern looks very confusing, but once you understand the flow it is simple. For each (odd) row that your diamond is widening you are moving one purled stitch from the outside of the right of the diamond and one purled stitch from the outside of the left of the diamond to the inside. This is what makes it widen. For each (odd) row that your diamond is narrowing you are moving one purled stitch from the inside right of the diamond and one purled stitched from the inside left of your diamond to the outside. This is what makes it narrow.

The purled stitch that is getting moved always goes under or behind the two knitted stitches during the move. (Another way to say this is that the two knitted stitches always go over or in front of the purled stitch.) The act of moving the knitted stitches over the purled stitch (or the purled stitch under the knitted stitches) is what makes the diamonds stand up off of the fabric.

I did not use a cable needle for crossing my stitches over each other. The less time-consuming method I used can be found in the "Crossing Cables without a cable needle" video on this site: http://www.knittinghelp.com/videos/advanced-techniques For a left cable I slid my right hand needle into the front of the two knitted stitches (in front of the purled stitch) and slipped them over, reinserted the left hand needle into the purled stitch, and slipped the knitted stitches back onto the left hand needle. For a right cable I slid my right hand needle into the back of the purled stitch (behind the knitted stitches) and slipped it over, reinserted the left hand needle into the knitted stitches, and slipped the purled stitch back onto the left hand needle. For me it was helpful to gently pinch beneath the stitches before slipping so that the stitch or stitches being moved didn't drop.

Note: I have not tested this pattern to make sure the garter stitch border is enough to make it lay flat. I also wrote up this pattern after making the scarf, rather than before, so if you find any errors, please leave a comment. Also, I am half self-taught when it comes to knitting and for several of my first projects I knit into the back of the loop rather than the front. At least one diamond cable pattern I looked at before designing this scarf specified to do so, so it my help the diamonds to stand up off the fabric more.

Horseshoe Cable Scarf

This scarf is 36 stitches wide with a 4 stitch border on all sides. The horseshoe is twelve stitches wide. I originally did this pattern with a 3 knit stitch border before I knew that stockinette curled.

Cast on 36 stitches

Knit four rows of garter stitch
1. K4, P8, K12, P8, K4
2. K12, P12, K12
3. K4, P8, K12, P8, K4
4. K12, P12, K12
5. K4, P8, RC, LC, P8, K4
6. K12, P12, K12
7. K4, P8, K12, P8, K4
Repeat 2-7
To finish add rows 2 and 3, knit four rows of garter stitch, and bind off.

RC = Right Cable: Slide 3 to cable needle and hold in back, K3, K3 from cable needle
LC = Left Cable: Slide 3 to cable needle and hold in front, K3, K3 from cable needle

Note: I have not tested this pattern to make sure the garter stitch border is enough to make it lay flat.

Simple Cable Scarf

This is a simple cable knit scarf. I designed the pattern as a Christmas present for a male friend, not wanting to make something too intricate and "girly." The cable is six stitches wide. I originally did this pattern with a 3 knit stitch border before I knew that stockinette stitch curled.

Cast on 36 stitches

Knit six rows of garter stitch
1. K5, P10, K6, P10, K5
2. K15, P6, K15
3. K5, P10, K6, P10, K5
4. K15, P6, K15
5. K5, P10, SL 3 to CN and hold to front, K3, K3 from CN, P10, K5
6. K15, P6, K15
Repeat 1-6
To finish add rows 6 and 1-3, knit six rows of garter stitch, and bind off.

Note: I have not tested this pattern to make sure the garter stitch border is enough to make it lay flat.

Twin Cable Scarf

This scarf is 36 stitches wide with a 4 stitch border on all sides. The cables are 4 stitches wide and twist toward the center of the scarf. The pattern is very easy to get down when you are familiar with the cable stitch. I originally did this pattern with a 3 knit stitch border before I knew that stockinette curled.

Cast on 36 stitches

Knit four rows of garter stitch for the border
1. K4, P7, K4, P6, K4, P7, K4
2. K11, P4, K6, P4, K11
3. K4, P7, K4, P6, K4, P7, K4
4. K11, P4, K6, P4, K11
5. K4, P7, LC, P6, RC, P7, K4
Repeat rows 2-5
To finish, add rows 2-4, knit four rows of garter stitch, and bind off.

LC = Left Cable: slide 2 to cable needle and hold in front, K2, K2 from cable needle
RC = Right Cable: slide 2 to cable needle and hold in back, K2, K2 from cable needle

Note: I have not tested this pattern to make sure the garter stitch border is enough to make it lay flat.