Prime Time Knitter

Summer Wrap Up: Part 2

Although I started Anne Hanson’s Wing of the Moth shawl back in June, it was the second shawl I finished, just a few nights ago.  The main reason is that I used a sport-weight yarn, and when the temperatures became sultry, I found it easier to work on Fiori di Sole.  Also, I’ve worked with sport yarn before, but not true lace weight, and so I was more captivated by the Exquisite merino-silk yarn than by the Fibre Company Canopy Sport.  This is no reflection on the Fibre Company yarn—it is a lovely mix of baby alpaca (50%), merino (20%), and bamboo (20%).  It is just that when it is beastly hot and humid, the thinner yarn doesn’t get stuck in my sweaty hands. 

So here is the finished Wing of the Moth modeled on my bannister, enabling you to have a good look at the border pattern and, I hope, the drape of the yarn. This is an accurate reproduction of the color (rose hips) too.

And here it is on me.

It is a big shawl, but one that I think suits the yarn.  I now have to pull out some Liberty of London challis to make the skirt that is supposed to go with it.  My hope is to have an outfit of that skirt (a circle or half circle—depending on the yardage), a simple scoop-neck top, and the shawl. 

The pattern is an easy and clear one, but it doesn’t give any specific hints on what kind of bind off to use.  I’ve not been terribly happy with the bind off on many of my shawls, and I started searching for a “suspended bind off” that wouldn’t look like a messy chain at the bottom of my work.  I was very pleased with the one I found and chose for this shawl.  The method I used combines the description of the “Icelandic bind off” in Myrna Stahman’s marvelous Shawls and Scarves book (available from Schoolhouse Press) and Lucy Neatby’s Knitting Gems DVD #4.  Myrna Stahman recommends using a larger needle, and to do the bind off I went up from the U.S. 5 (Addi lace) that I used for the shawl to one Brittany Birch U.S. 7.  I think I might have experimented with U.S. 8s, but I was far enough along to not want to start over. (You may even want to go larger--I'm a very loose knitter.)

The Knitting Gems DVDs are wonderful.  After borrowing one Lucy Neatby DVD from the library (and there is just the one in our system, alas), I have slowly acquired most of the others, and I consider them a highlight of my personal knitting library.  If you really want to see how this bind off is demonstrated, I suggest you try to view her video, where it is called the suspended bind off.  Because I didn’t find much description of the technique in my web search, I asked Ed to photograph the process.  Here is how it works (the stitch mounts are shown in Continental or English style):

Step 1: Insert your right needle into the first stitch as if to purl.

Step 2: Continue to keep the needle in the first stitch as you insert the same (right needle) into the second stitch on the left needle, as if to knit.

Step 3: Pull the second stitch through the first and knit it. 

You will be left with one stitch on your right needle.

Step 4: Replace that stitch on the left needle and keep going until you’re done.

This is how my finished border looked, and I will use this bind off for any garter stitch edge that I have in the future.  It just blends in and looks as if the knitting magically ended.

The only difficulty with the method is that it is a pain to rip (ask me how I know), so you may want to practice on a swatch to get the rhythm going before you tackle your edge.

Now that summer is officially over for me, it is on to sweaters, socks, and hats.  I hope Mother Nature and the knitting gods cooperate and give me an extra month next spring so I can knit my winter projects into June.

Note that Lucy Neatby’s DVDs are available from many sources, but if you want to see an example of her videos, check this link.

 

Where the Sun Don't Shine

For the last week or so, we’ve had gloomy days with rainfall ranging from torrential to misty and annoying. There’s been about 20 minutes of sunshine. This has been good and bad for my garden.

My lettuce, broccoli, and onions look as if they’re truly enjoying themselves. But for the first time in a couple of growing seasons, slugs are invading en masse. I will have to break out the beer and tuna cans this week, so I can trap them. Usually I get my thrills by smashing slugs with my trowel, but for now they are so small I can find only a handful (well, not exactly a “hand” full because I avoid touching them). Their nocturnal munchings give them away. 

The good news for me is that I haven’t had to water, but the wet weather has made it hard for Ed to put down the soaker hoses, and so that is a WIP for him. And it has kept me from making any new plantings, so lots of veggies and flowers are still growing on my deck.

In addition to the tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, and basil, I’m growing sunflowers for the first time. I really wanted them in the garden by now to start attracting beneficial insects.  At least my thyme plants are blooming (not to mention taking over the herb row, back left) to give the bees and beneficial wasps a reason to visit.

But unlike most people who are griping about our weather and the cool temperatures we’ve had throughout May, I’m rejoicing because it is giving me a chance to finish Sirdal.  And, Sleeve #1 is progressing extremely well—I’m up to my elbow.  There are just a few days in the next couple of weeks when we’ll flirt with the 80s, but the evenings are still forecast as being cool.  I really could love a summer like this, even if it meant few tomatoes.

The weather has made it hard for me to get serious about summer knitting, something I really don’t enjoy that much.  I’m a wool knitter, and summers require me to lose my rhythm and switch to other things.  One hot summer a few years ago, my brain got so fried I actually knitted with fun fur. And it is the reason that Sirdal was put out to pasture in 2010. 

In my heart of hearts, I’d like to proceed with stranded projects, and I balled up the yarn for Alice Starmore’s Oregon cardigan.  I’ll consider swatching for it if the weather remains cool, once Sirdal’s sleeves are done and I have to work on the steeks (something best left for a weekend morning, when I’m relaxed and presumably clear-headed).  But to be on the safe side, should warm weather finally arrive, I started dragging out my lace-weight yarn, and I cast on for Anne Hanson’s Wing of the Moth shawl.  In truth, the yarn I picked isn’t lace weight, but fingering weight.  It is the Fibre Company’s Canopy Sport:

It is mix of alpaca, merino, and bamboo, and so it is smooth to work with and not sticky as most wools would be in heat and humidity. (Needless to say, outdoor picture taking is not possible--this is a light mauve.)  It took a few starts and stops to get the set-up rows done, but until I reach the border, it uses an easy pattern of 8-row repeats (four of which are just purling back rows).  So there may be yet another shawl on the horizon, in true lace-weight yarn, for later.