Direction of Least Resistance

This afghan has been more interesting than I expected, which means that there have been more decisions to make.

Here is the current progress -- I've finally defined the length.

The bottom row of half chevrons is in the lighter colorway. The next row, the one in progress, is in the darker colorway, as will be the next one above it to complete dark chevrons. The next two rows will be the lighter colorway, and the final top row will be the dark colorway.

Here are close-ups of the corners. On the left, once I decided it was wide enough, I simply picked up 30 stitches, and then decreased at the beginning of each row on each side (so that each side decreases). I did that for 10 ridges (20 rows -- I know it looks a little wider, but it isn't, and this will come out with the final blocking), and then changed colors and knitted until it was decreased away.

On the right edge, after the last full piece, I decreased at the bottom instead of increasing, which made the turn, and continued in the same way, changing colors after 10 ridges.

Doing the edges was interesting, especially the right side, because I wasn't sure going in what I'd have to do until I saw it. Starting the next row of half chevrons was even more fun.

I wanted to figure out the easiest way to knit these segments, the way which made the best sense when knitting. This would mean making it so that when I had to pick up stitches, it would be on the 'right' side of the piece, and that I would pick up, instead of trying to do a double cast off and decreasing

I turned the strip I had and turned it, trying to decide what to do, and actually picked up on the left side before quickly deciding that wouldn't work how I wanted.

I finally realized that I needed to start on the right, and that I would be reversing every element from how I knitted the bottom row of segments.

To knit a segment on this row, I've put in figures for the hot pink one. I had 30 stitches on the needle, and picked up 10 (the pink 10) to make 40 on the needles. Each row is knitted down from A, starting by knitting 2 together, and at the other end of the row, the last stitch is knitted together with one of the stitches along the 'green 10' edge. Since a stitch is decreased on each ridge, by the end there are 30 stitches, which starts the next segment by picking up 10 more.

To turn the B corner, I had picked up for the small black segment and increased one on each ridge at the right edge, and then when I added the variegated yarn, I increased until I had enough stitches over 30 on the needle to decrease away by the end of the 10 ridges in that color, so I would end up with 30 stitches on the needle before picking up the next 10 for the hot pink segment. Simply by changing from increasing to decreasing created the top right corner.

I hope that makes some sense. So far, this has been a lot of fun.

Progress

 

It grows.

Meanwhile, here's my sister-in-law's work.

 

The colors and textures are great. She's loving the idea of letting it evolve, and right now she's thinking of making two other similar pieces and lining them up in an afghan. Or maybe doing 4 in a big square. Or turning them like diamonds. Who knows? It's a new world for her.

I've corrupted her.

She asked me to put in details of how I'm doing mine, so here goes.

I start at the 30 stitch side, increasing one stitch each time I turn the corner at A. I make 10 ridges (20 rows), which gives me 40 stitches, and on the final return, I cast off 10 and knit the last 30. I change yarns at that point and start again.

I'm still figuring out how large it will be.

Swirls and Chevrons

First of all, the hat turned out well.

 

It even fits!

But after those smaller things, I was ready for something larger, so I've started an afghan with an interlocking chevron design, along the lines of this or this.

Here's the beginning.

 

There will be two sets of colors, one darker and one lighter.

My sister-in-law is visiting, and here's what she's working on: a log cabin type of pattern.

 

Here's her yarn.

I love her sense of color.

Scribble and Swirl

I finished the scribble scarf, and made a hat.

Here is a close-up of the scarf. It came out nice and frothy.

I tried the 3-swirl hat, starting with 40 stitches, but it was still too big, so I pulled it out after a couple of rows into the body. One problem was that this magic ball only had two strands instead of three, unlike the magic ball I used for the first swirl hat, so the combination yarn was too thin for the larger needles. So I went down to size 10 1/2 and started the same pattern. That was much better, so I finished it, but it is actually a little small for an adult (although I do have a larger head than many people, and go ahead, use that straight line!). However, someone will be able to use it. It did turn out pretty.

I wasn't sure how the color changes would look, if maybe it would look too much like leftovers, but because of how I transitioned colors in the magic ball, it looks like the colors were chosen. I'm pleased with it.

However, I still want to make a swirl hat that fits, so I'm going to try again with a 3-strand magic ball, the 45 stitch version mentioned in the last post, but the 10 1/2 needles.

Scribbling a Diversion

I took a little time from shawl/afghan knitting to make a couple of hats for my mother, by request. I made them in two days and sent them off without photographing them, which was silly of me -- I'll ask my father to take photos.

Anyway, while picking out greens for my mother's hat, I came across a combination that I really liked, a very thin slightly fuzzy strand and some crazy yarn. So after the hats were sent off, I started on a Debbie New scribble lace scarf. (This explains scribble lace, and has a pattern, but I just improvised.)

I'm using size 13 needles, so it is going quick, although the thin yarn loops sometimes overlap and I have to make sure I'm knitting the correct stitch.

I once had the idea of knitting a plain triangular shawl, but then picking up and knitting embellishments. somewhat like what I did here:

(Can you see the knobby row?) But the idea of knitting the plain foundation triangle was so boring!

The scribble lace makes me wonder if I could do the foundation triangle in this fine yarn on size 13, to make it go so much faster, or would that provide too flimsy of a foundation, and just result in disaster when I tried to knit heavier yarns on it? I'll have to think on that. It might make a good side project during a more intense knit.

In the meantime, I knit an Elizabeth Zimmermann spiral hat for my mother out of one of my magic balls, and it looked very colorful but I used the 13s, and it came out a little too large and puffy. I saved it with some elastic, but now I'm thinking of trying again.

(Here are some pictures of the spiral hat from other Flickr people. The pattern is available in Spun-Out #9, but I used her book, The Opinionated Knitter. It might be other of her books, too, but they are lent out right now.)

Anyway, I was thinking of reducing the bottom to 45 stitches, and then increasing in one out of three, which would give me 4 spirals going up. But the 3-spiral version on the very next page starts with only 40 stitches! Hmmm, maybe I'll just try that version instead, and just keep an eye on the size.

Here is the magic ball I'm thinking of using.

Second 2010 One Done

Finally finished this one.

It turned out very large -- see the yardstick. I like it, but I wish I'd put some solid colors near the edge, just to echo the crispness of the center. Oh, well, lesson learned.

Here are some details.

 

It was so large, I didn't block it with blocking wires. This may have affected the last motif before the edge, which I meant to look like lace-edged squares, to echo the central entrelac. Therefore, the lace didn't show up very well.

Here are where the squares are supposed to be.

The final shawl looks very gypsy-like.

Numbers Are My Friends

Today, at least.

Here's the current progress.

 Here's some detail.

Yes, pretty colorful.

I'm doing some modular squares along the edge, trying to echo the entrelac square shapes. As I mentioned in the last post, I wasn't at all sure of my math, so I plunged in -- and it worked! Frankly, I was amazed.

Here's what happened.

The 'A' sides are where I picked up 10 stitches on each side to start the modular square. However, since this is stockinette, I did double decreases on each side of the center on 2 out of every 3 rows. That means that the 'B' sides are 17 stitches high (17 rows). When I have the last stitch after the last decrease, I then pick up 9 more stitches down the side, put a marker, knit 10 stitches from the side of the shawl, and start the next modular bit.

When I pick up from this entire strip of squares to continue the shawl, I will again pick up 10 stitches in each square. It took me a while to figure out how many to put at the top corner (the beginning of the modular part), and I ended up with a triangle with 6 stitches at the bottom. I now see that it was wrong -- it should have looked like the top diagonal half of one of these modular squares.

Well, poop. I guess numbers are more like acquaintances. Easy to fix, though, so I'll take it.

By the way, the purple ball-edging looking area was made with this yarn.

I knitted two stitches between each bobble. Frankly, it was not fun at all to keep the bobbles in front and then knit around them. Cool effect, but I won't be looking for more of this!

First Question Point

Here is the current progress, although because it is on the needles, it looks all scrunched up.

The entrelac is the middle top, just to remind you. I've been adding various rows on two sides, in different designs and textures.

Here's a sort of arty-looking detailed look.

My next rows will be modular blocks pointing towards the middle, to echo the entrelac. I'm not sure exactly if it will work in stockinette -- it should still create squares, or will it be distorted? The decrease should be like the regular right-angled decrease, 2 out of 3 rows. And I've just discovered the trap even as I write this. I want the modules to be 10 stitches by 10 stitches, which means to decrease them away, it is about 13 rows, but there are only 10 on the side. Hmmmm.

I'm going to try it and see, instead of puzzling it out. Wish me luck!