Knitty Gritty Thoughts

Print o' the Wave

Print o' the Wave Stole by Eunny Jang
Knit time: 5 weeks
Final Size: 27"wide x 74" long (19 x 51 unblocked)
Needles: US 6, Knit Picks Option circulars and Brittany DPN
Yarn: Custom Hand-Dyed Spritely Goods yarn by Stephanie, in colorway "Virga," made just for me, 1 mega skein.  The yarn was just gorgeous to work with, and the variegation so subtle it gives the waves movement.  You'll have to peek closely at the photos to see it.
Interested in more info?  All posts about Print o the Wave stole here
Final Note: I love it!  This is my favorite thing I've knit so far.

Thanks to Angelika for being my "photo-stylist" =) and taking some of the pics.

Print o' the Wave Project Notes

The 'wave' is blocking quietely now as I sit and type this.  Earlier today was not so quiet as I sat attempting to knit faster than the yarn as I was about to run out.  Ran out I did, with only 1.5 repeats to go! =(  I did a little finagling, ssk-ing ferociously to rework the corner to make it work.  I ended up with a .25in left, just ends really.  I stole a little from the cast-on end to kitchener the two sides of the edging together, fudging the 2 extra stitches I had from not completing the repeat.  It looks ok, not fab but not noticeable to anyone probably unless I pointed it out to them and handed them a microscope. =)

Prior to blocking I was feeling 'eh about the project.  The yarn running out, fudging the corner...I just wasn't sold.

Then I blocked.
And it was magic!

I know I've said this and everyone else says it too, blocking is magic.  Blocking this stole was amazing, the little waves running along, the egding unfurled is gorgeous.  Just gorgeous.  I was so tickled about it, that once I finished pinning out a zillion edges I just sat on the floor for awhile, quietly enjoying it.

Now that I'm finished I wanted to put up a few of my print o' the wave pattern notes that would have made my life easier had I known about it beforehand...so here we go!

First off, whenever I start a new project, I gather my information of course -
There's a knitalong here, and a knitter's review thread here you may find helful.

Note #1 - General
I knit the stole in one piece, to avoid the line across the center by grafting, but it's really a personal choice.  Erica and Angelika who I'm knitting together with did this also.

Note #2 - Edging Prep
Under the eyelet round I had difficulty understanding what was going on at the corners (my first mitered edge) and I think this bit of clarification helps:

Rnd 1: *YO, k2, [YO, k2tog] to marker, YO (Slip Marker) k2(Slip Marker) repeat from *

Same thing goes for the miter increase rounds:

Rnd 1: YO, *knit to next marker, YO(Slip Marker) k2(Slip Marker) YO, repeat from *

Note #3 - Picking up the edges
First off, if you choose to knit the stole in one piece and you follow the directions in picking up the stitches you'll end up knitting across the bottom edge twice.  It's a minor point and not very noticeable but if I did it again I would break yarn, pick up one side of the edging, the far end, and the other edge, and then break the yarn again.  I think it causes a subtle break in the patterning from the border if you just knit across but it's really up to you.

Secondly, picking up that many stitches is crazy.  Grab lots of safety pins or those stitch markers you can slip on/off by clover and fold the stole in half.  Start by marking the middle point, then half in half again until it's marked in quarters.  Do this for both sides and you'll find it's a whole lot easier to worry about 60 stitches at a time.

Note #4 - Knitting the border
The border was a little tricky to get started.  If you chose to knit it in one piece, in order to start on a long end you will have to slip the short side/corner stitches to get to the long side to attach to it wrongside from where you ended previously.  That probably sounds confusing but once you're there you'll see.

I recommend knitting the border with a short circ or dpn (I chose the dpn) with a needle cap on one end to hold the stitches.  Grab a stitch marker and place it on the shawl side so you can mark your place.

Many people get confused by this so I'll try to explain and see if it helps.  At any given time you are knitting the edging stitches, plus on the wrong side rows, you ssk one edging stitch with one stitch from the stole.  This means you are casting off one stole stitch.  Therefore for 16 rows of border you really are only casting off 8 stole stitches.

The right side looks like this- Note the white needle is the DPN and metal is the circular from the body of the stole.

I knit across the right side patterning of the border and end up like this-

I then turn the stole to knit the wrong side row and end up knitting to one stitch before the marker

I then slip that stitch, remove the marker and ssk with one stitch from the stole.  Replace the marker, turn the work and do it all over again.  Repeat oh, 80 times or so and you're done! =)

Easy peasy right?  Note there are many alternatives to using a stitch marker, if you were so inclined you could do a lifeline around the outer edge of the stole and you could use that edge as a marker to let you know when you reach it.  There's all sorts of options it's really up to you.

I hope this helps a bit, I'm off to check on the stole.  Pics to follow soon! =)

Drumroll Please...

And the winners are....

#1 Fleece Artist - Gretchen of Knit2tog
#2 Trekking Sock yarn #100 (the ubiquitous yet hard to find color) - Jennifer of It is Rocket Science
 

Congratulations Ladies!!  You'll be getting an email shortly from me to ask for your address, and Gretchen I'll ask you what color fleece artist you'd like and order it today.

This was really fun for me, it was soo enjoyable reading what other people enjoy about blogging. I think overall the sense of community and support was a major theme.  What a great little knitblog world we have going on, knitters really are the most generous people I know.

Moving onward...thank you all for your votes on the socks.  Apparently you get what you pay for ie: free because sometime over the weekend the poll just disappeared and took my votes with it!  However, at last check there, SandRidge as the MC and denim as the contrasting color were the big leaders, at about 24 votes over Denim as MC and SR as CC with 10 or so and the solids falling in about last at a few votes each.  I think Katie of Straying Power is right though, I may have to deal with it and buy more yarn.  I really like what people were saying about doing the knee socks in adjusting rounds of color, one with the denim and one with the sandridge, although I don't know if I'll lose my sanity with them tangling =).  I ordered a pair of those "stretchy circs" to knit them with.  I like the idea of trying something new, and not dealing with extra needles or cables for that long of legs...just knitting around and around and around.  I found mine at Cheryl's shop, she has great customer service, discounts if you're a new customer and free shipping on the circs so it would be hard to find a better deal.  They are t-iinnny though.  Check out the pic and notice the bobby pin for scale.

I've also been working on P'oTR like Katie calls it, or Print o' the Wave as I've been calling it.  I like P'oTR better =).  Almost down one long side of the edging and fading fast.  I was hoping to make it in time for a wedding this coming weekend to wear it, but it ain't happening. =(  Ah well, maybe I'll wear Mystery Stole 2 instead.

Happy Monday!

Too Many to Title

I'm working this weekend.  There, I've said it.

It's a bummer really but it is the biggest weekend of the year for working, we're doing a major server move/integration this weekend.  I hate sitting around the house waiting for people to call or IM questions.  As I'm waiting I've been joining as well.  I've been on a joining spree lately, after not joining knitalongs for a while now.  Over the course of the weekend I joined: Zimmermania, Grey's Anatomy Knitalong, Twist & Knit AND Socktoberfest, wow!  Of course I couldn't resist joining Socktoberfest, I did it last year and my birthday is in October as well and it's really a lot of fun.  I honestly don't know what my bday in October has to do with the greatness of Socktoberfest but it really does make it more fun!

In the meantime I finished up the Bea Ellis' hat that I was knitting along with Cath and Jenn.  It turned out pretty good and amazingly it fits.  It was knit on size US3/5 needles.  The only change I would make to the instructions is making sure you do a provisional cast-on for the liner to knit up later, sewing it on afterwards was just wonky and that is exactly what I did for my next one.  Yep, I ordered the Venten hat kit in gray and black.  Only a little bit knitted up so not much to show.

I also am "waving along" on the print o the wave stole I'm knitting with Erica and Angelika.  Just made it to repeat 24 as of last night and now to 26 and am starting to freak out about yarn.  Does anyone know a rule of thumb of how much yarn the edging should take on a stole that goes all the way around.  Wouldn't it be approx equal to the total amount used for the body of the stole???

I'm curious because I'm fearful of running out.  According to my calculations I have 8oz of yarn that equals 1120 yards of fine fingering weight.  8oz converted to grams is equal to 227grams.  According to my handy dandy scale I have 150 grams of yarn LEFT so far.  Soooo 227-150 = 77grams I've used for 24 repeats.  Therefore 77/24 = ~3.21grams a repeat.  Soo if I wanted to knit to 100 grams I would get 7 more repeats out of it.  (well to be exact 7.165) therefore I should make it to my new goal of 30 repeats and have plenty of yarn.  Right?  Does that make sense to anyone besides me? =)

I also ordered a cute little knowknits pouch in camo that just arrived that I'm using for the stole.  I really like it, it's quite handy.  Well I guess that's it for now, I just got my tea swap pal and said hi and had my pal said hi as well.  Hi Pal!  Happy knitting!

Just waving along

I'm sensing a grey-theme here, don't you think?  That's the Bea Ellis hat I'm working on and I also cast-on for Eunny's Print o' the Wave stole.  Stephanie did a custom-dyeing job for me on some lovely sock weight yarn in a colorway she calls Virga.  The yarn is amazingly soft and a joy to work on US6 needles. 

Angelika is knitting together with me on the stole, and will be providing moral support when I reach the edging, which is going to be a pain to recalculate since I plan to do less repeats. =) My overwhelming thought is: to graft or not to graft that is the question?  If you're not sure what I'm talking about, check out Ann's post here and you can see here lovely stole in progress and she has lots of great links to other finished ones.

It's funny how my knitting reflects my mood, do you ever see that happening?  I've been feeling a little grey and down this week, mostly due to work.  I have a lot of projects but one is a major CMS implementation involving custom development/database work via a team that I am leading.  I'll try to leave out all the techy details, but basically, there's this software, that we are customizing majorily and I'm running the project.  It's not stressful for me to be put in that position, but my team is really bugging me.  I'm the only woman, per usual, running a team of men.  To try and give you an example, they will ask me if they can release a portion of the project and I will say NO, we need management approval and it has not been fully tested.  Then I'll be checking an hour later and they will have pushed it anyway, at the detriment of the software not working correctly, lots of things messed up, and my sanity! =)

I don't know what to do, if I call them on it they just pull it back down.  I feel like I'm talking and nobody is hearing my words.  I'm a quiet person overall but when it comes to projects I take stands, I will always say YES or NO and why.  Why doesn't no really mean no?? =)