test knit | Through The Yarny Curtain

Grisou Scarf

This is the third test knit that I finished in June.

Official Stats

Date Started: June 17, 2015
Date Finished: June 24, 2015
Pattern: Grisou Scarf by Solène La Roux (website, Ravelry)
Yarn: 181 yards Gynx Yarns (website, Ravelry) Gynx Aran in Ocean
Needles: US 10.5 / 6.5 mm
Finished Dimensions: 13″ x 19″
Made for: test knit
Ravelry Project Page

About this Project

This is a quick little project. It’s called a scarf, but it’s intended to be worn like a neckerchief. The designer used Cascade Eco yarn when designing. I used yarn from my stash. I had a hard time matching gauge. I actually knit 3 swatches — something I never do, and probably wouldn’t have done if this wasn’t a test knit — and chose the largest of the three sizes as that was the closest to the designer’s gauge.

I ended up cannibalizing all three swatches to finish the scarf; I used every inch of the skein. Despite using all the yarn I had in the skein and pinning the scarf out to the designer’s intended dimensions of 14″ x 22″, my scarf was too short. When I unpinned it, it shrank down to 13″ by 19″. This proved to be too small for me to wear. In order to take pictures wearing the scarf, I pinned it with one of the shawl pins I got at the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival. It is really tight on my neck! Since it doesn’t fit me well, I’ll gift it to someone else, but I’m not sure who yet.

It’s a well-written pattern. The cables look fancy, as they always do, but they are very straightforward cables. This pattern is a good choice for someone new to cables. I worked from the written instructions, as I always do for cables, but the pattern also includes charts.

As I mentioned in the Sand Tracks Scarf post, I almost always form cables without using a cable needle. I use a cable needle if the yarn is very slippery, e.g. the Cascade Pinwheel I used for the Palindrome Scarf, Palindrome Hat, and Irish Hiking Mittens last year. I might use a cable needle for something like the Sand Tracks Scarf, which had purl stitches in the cable, since it’s easier to drop those stitches.

Before the Grisou Scarf, I had formed 2-stitch, 3-stitch, and 4-stitch cables without a cable needle. The Grisou Scarf cables are 6-stitch cables. I decided to knit the Grisou Scarf without a cable needle, just to see if I could. For the first 3 pattern repeats, it did not go well. I dropped stitches on every cable row. I still don’t know how I was dropping them. I was carefully counting to make sure that I got them all back on the needles, only to find that I was missing a stitch. The scarf took many hours longer to knit than usual as a result of my stubborn refusal to use a cable needle and the resulting need to rip back to fix stitches dropped from the middle of cables. Finally, I decided to record a video demonstrating cables without a cable needle. Miraculously, I didn’t drop any stitches in the making of the video, or in any of the cable rows after that! I’m not sure what made the difference.

The video is 18 minutes long because I recorded two full rows of cabling, one with stitches held to the front and one with stitches held to the back. I planned to edit it down to just a couple of examples, but decided to leave the entire thing so that if you are watching the video while working cables, you don’t have to stop and rewind to watch the demonstration again. The video starts with stitches held to the back. After two examples, I added a note in the video telling you the time stamp where stitches held to the front starts, so you can fast forward if you are ready to do so! I hope you find the video helpful, and I’m happy to answer any questions you have.

Raindrops on Roses Shawlette

I’m going to start with this: I love this shawl. The pattern is beautiful. The yarn is beautiful. This pattern and this yarn were a perfect combination, and the results are spectacular.

Official Stats

Date Started: June 3, 2015
Date Finished: June 27, 2015
Pattern: Raindrops on Roses Shawlette by Assorted Musings (Ravelry, blog)
Yarn: 495 yards Nice & Knit Fingering in Peony
Needles: U.S. 5 / 3.75 millimeters
Finished Dimensions: For blocking, I pinned it out to 19.25” deep at the center and 47” wide at the widest point. When I took the pins out after it dried, it shrank a little to about 17.5″ deep and 45″ wide.
Made for: Test knit; I think I’m going to keep this one 🙂
Ravelry Project Page

About This Project

In early May, I flew from Orlando to Hartford, Connecticut. From there, I was driving to Vermont to attend my cousin’s college graduation. This is the cousin for whom I wove the Dr. Who Scarf. My father also flew into Hartford from Ohio. His flight didn’t arrive until four hours after mine, so I googled yarn shops near the airport and found Creative Fibers (website, Ravelry). This is a great yarn shop, located only 10 minutes from the Hartford airport. If you ever find yourself needing to kill time waiting for a delayed flight, I highly recommend visiting this shop. When I went into the shop, I asked if they had any local yarns. The woman working that day directed me to this yarn from Nice & Knit.

Nice & Knit (website, Ravelry) is yarn hand-dyed by two sisters, not far from the Creative Fibers shop. They have four yarn weights — fingering, sport, DK, and worsted — all in 100% superwash merino. The yarn was a dream to knit. It’s so soft and smooth, with no hint of splitting. Their colors are amazing. In addition to the skein of Peony that I used for this project, I bought a skein of fingering in Seagrass, a stunning bright yellow-green. I haven’t knit anything with that skein yet, but after knitting up the Peony I’m dying to find the right pattern for the Seagrass. The label says the skein is 490 yards / 100 grams. My skein of Peony was a little overweight, at 103. 8 grams, and that turned out to be a good thing because I added 1.5 lace repeats to the border. I used 100.3 grams (495 yards) of yarn. If my skein had been right on the nose or a little under, I wouldn’t have had enough yarn to make the shawl larger!

The pattern was well-written and a fun knit. I followed the charted directions, as I always do with lace, but I did read through the written instructions and found them easy to understand. I think it would be a great first lace project. If you look closely at the picture above, you may be able to see that a 2-stitch garter column separates each repeat of the lace pattern. This feature is helpful in keeping track of the repeat, even if you aren’t using stitch markers. There’s no lace work on the back, but it’s also not a straight purl across because you knit the stitches for the garter stitch columns. I found myself automatically counting stitches between the garter stitches as I worked across the back, and this helped me as find any yarn overs I accidentally omitted in the preceding row. The pattern calls for 3 repeats of the lace. I wanted to use as much of my skein as I could, so I asked Assorted Musings if it was okay with her if I made the shawl bigger. She said yes. I was able to get 1.5 more repeats out of my skein. It’s a fun pattern, and a relatively quick knit; I knit it in about 30 hours, including the extra lace repeats. Assorted Musings plans to release the pattern on July 15. You should get it and knit the shawl!

WIP Wednesday: June 10, 2015

For the last week, I’ve spent my crafting time working on the two test knits that I cast on last Wednesday. Both projects traveled to Indiana and back. On the way there, I knit on the shawl. On the way home, I knit on the scarf. I worked on them while I sat in Stacy’s office on Friday. I worked on them as we drove to and from the Hoosier Hills Fiber Festival. I’ve made great progress on both projects, and hope to finish both this weekend.

Sand Tracks Scarf

I love this project. I love the yarn. I love the pattern. All the love! I’m about 1/3 of the way into the second ball.

Raindrops on Roses Shawl

I’ve finished the first of three lace repeats. I’m probably halfway through the shawl at this point.

WIP Wednesday: June 3, 2015

I’ve gotten a lot of crafting done this week!

Cormo

Last Friday, I spent several hours spinning the Cormo while at a demo. I started a new bobbin at the beginning of the event. Here’s how it looked at the end of the event:

Heart Illusion Dishcloths

I’ve knit four more dishcloths this week.

Raindrops on Roses Shawl

I joined the Testing Pool group on Ravelry and signed up to do two test knits. This is one of them. It’s a top down shawl, stockinette with a lace border. I’ve finished perhaps 1/4 of the stockinette section.

Sand Tracks Scarf

This is the second test knit. It is a cabled scarf on a seed stitch background. I’ve finished the garter stitch border and the first pattern repeat. I think I’m really going to love this project.