A Little Diversion from the Birthday Shawl

Yesterday I got a bit distracted while looking at sock patterns on Ravelry. I decided I need a nice pair of socks to wear and, of course, I found the perfect pair.

The pattern is available from 17th Century Suds. The company focuses on creating and selling organic soap and skin products. They actually create the soaps in their own factory and sell them! I, however, was on a mission to find socks. And I did. When I imagine these socks on my feet I smile:) So, it must be the right pattern.


The name of this pattern is "Stephanie's Socks Gerbera Daisy Argyle". Wendy, the owner of the company, made these for her massage therapist Stephanie.  I love them because the Gerber Daisy is one of my favorite flowers, and it is time for new socks. I think there is some logic in there somewhere! And Stephanie must be very special. Not everyone has a great pair of socks named after them.


OK, now I am faced with another rainy day. To wet for me to plant tomatoes, so I might as well knit.

Adding ball number 2

When I thought about adding the new ball I wanted to do it nicely. So, I consulted You Tube. I found a great video about joining a new ball into my knitting. This is by Judy from Knitting Tips by Judy.

How to Add a New Ball of Yarn

It has many steps, but worked great! My usual mode of operand i is to leave a tail, start up a new ball, leaving a tail and then weave in the two tails. This time I followed Judy's tips from the video. I am very please with the results.

Here is a view of the progress I have made so far...

 Here is a view of the back before I snipped the ends off.

And here is a view of the front.

 

I am sure the next 8 times I add in a new ball of yarn will look even better!

One Down Nine to Go!!

I did it!!!! I finished one skein. (OK, I have to research this...is it a skein if it is yarn wrapped around cardboard?)

I have gain a lot of confidence since I started. And have learned a few new stitches.

Here is where I started...

And now...

Next is learning the nicest way to attach the second ball/skein.

A more sophisticated stitch marker

I am making slow, but steady progress on my Birthday shawl. In the last post I showed my "brilliant" discovery of a technique to slow me down.

Because my pattern repeats every nine stitches I was marking my starting spot with a scrap of yarn. This worked well, however it wasn't.....very sturdy.

So, I am now using strips of silk ribbon to mark my pattern as I go. It is much prettier and easier to see. Here I have placed the ribbon just before the first stitch of my nine stitch pattern.

 Here is where I stopped knitting my nine stitch pattern. Now I count the stitches to be sure I have created nine new stitches. Yes! This set has nine stitches.

Now I do it all again, all the way across the row:)

Making Progress by following my advice!

This has been really hard for me, but quite rewarding. I did it! I actually slowed down and have maintained the 130 stitches each row should have:)

Here is what I did. First I analyzed the pattern. It has a 4 stitch border at each end. Then all along the row it is a repeating 9 stitch pattern. So, I thought if I can check myself 9 stitches at a time I should end up with the right number of stitches at the end.

Before the 9 stitch pattern begins I place a piece of scrap yarn between my needles, like this... Look for the pink strand placed between the needles.

Then I knit the 9 stitch pattern and stopped to count.

Yes, I have 9 stitches! Then I moved the pink strand to my current place and knit the 9 stitch pattern again, counted the stitches, and moved the strand again. I continued like this all the way across the row and ended up with 130 stitches.

This was a bit painful for me. Going so slowly! However,the results were great, and no more ripping out:)

The Birthday Shawl Starts Again

I have decided to take my advise from a previous post and slow down!!

I ripped out the shawl and have started again at a slower pace.

First I did the provisional cast on...

At this point I have 130 stitches.

Next I stitched the first row with my sunny yellow.

I put row markers at every 20 stitches. So, it will be easier to track any missing stitches. Row one complete with 130 stitches

Row 2

Row 2 complete with 130 stitches.

Next row 3.

Still going strong with 130 stitches.

So far so good, I made it through the first 5 rows with all 130 stitches intact:)

The next challenge is starting the lacing pattern. Once the kids are in bed and all is quiet I will try it!

Ready to quit...but I WON'T

I guess I became a bit of a knitting snob after completing my Latvian Mittens. After all I did knit them all by myself! I followed the directions in the book and ended up with a nice pair of mittens. OK, so I had to rip them out and restart them once, but overall it was a pretty low stress affair. 

Now enter the "birthday shawl". It is making me crazy!!!  First I spent a very long time deciphering the pattern. It was labeled for "Advanced Beginners". After the mittens I thought I could at least do an "advanced beginner" project. Well, apparently not!

As you can see there is purple yarn attached to my lovely yellow shawl yarn. Well, the pattern starts off with a provisional cast on. Since I had never heard of a provisional cast on I had to do a bit of research, and call my mom. I love my mom, but now that I am in my 40's do I really need to call her for knitting help again?? Yes. "Thanks Mom!"

But the provisional cast on is for another day. Back to the Birthday Shawl.

I am not sure it will ever turn into a shawl. I am looking at it right now. I am so dismayed that I don't even want to take a picture to show you. So, close your eyes and imagine the picture above with about 10 more beautiful yellow rows. However, they are deceiving because now I only have 125 stitches instead of the 130 I started with. I feel like I am out of my league on this one.

I already got this far once and ripped it out. And now it's decision time again. Do I rip it all out and start "fresh", or do I keep going and just add in a few stitches back in? The later choice sounds good, however, trying to do this along with YO's and SSK's all over the place is quite a challenge.

I think a glass of wine and early to bed can help to solve just about any knitting problem. I'm sure it will not look so daunting in the morning:)