Is it done, or is it not?

What is it? So, I ran out of lavender yarn on Saturday, and ran out of energy (my shot got me badly enough that I actually passed up a ride to the yarn store!), so I cast off my little entrelac thing, and now I have to decide what to do with it. For this, I need your help.


Is it a headscarf?

A bandeau top?

A cute handbag (fold in half to see)?

A wrap skirt for a large-ish doll?

Or is it really just half a blanket, and I need to find more yarn and finish it up?

Fiber O.W.L.s!!!

Under the heading of "OMG SQUEE!!!", whilst poking about Ravelry, I noticed that some people had really super-cool-looking O.W.L. Ravatars. This lead me to hunt down all the O.W.L. badges I could find, and via doing *that*, I was led to the Harry Potter Knit & Crochet Cup group on Ravelry (thanks, K!) and *WOW* there are some stunningly lovely projects that have been awarded O.W.L.s thus far. I believe all these amazing badges were designed by Michelle (aka Fruitloops). The requirements for each O.W.L. are here in spreadsheet form. O.W.L.s are in addition to monthly coursework. And Quidditch. If you'd like to play along, you can sign up on the appropriate thread in the Ravelry group & get sorted until April 28; classes begin May 1. (I got my Hogwarts Admission Letter on Monday - squeeee!!) Also, there's a blog for it all here with lots of information. (And you can just lurk, too, if you wish.)


I wish to state clearly that I have not earned any fiber O.W.L.s, and the lovely little pics above are purely for illustrative purposes and the sheer cuteness of it all. I am, however, going to have a lot of fun over the next few years (well, the next seven, assuming I graduate with the rest of the crop of First Years starting this May). There are monthly classes (projects) for House Points (take up to six per month), the Cup is awarded regularly, and, when all is said and done, I'll (hopefully!) get a few O.W.L.s in the process. Someone asked recently what I'd do if I won the lottery, not silly-huge amounts, but enough so I didn't have to work for a decade or so... and I think you can guess the answer: get my Hand Knitting Level I, II & III TKGA mastery, and all of my Hogwarts O.W.L.s!!!

Masters Monday...

Ye gods & leetle fishes - it's week 47. WEEK 47. There are only 52 weeks in a year - this is Not Good! Luckily, actual progress has been made. First, I re-knit swatches 1 & 2 so the ribbing would be long enough. I have to say, all the entrelac I've been doing has really helped neaten up the edges of my knitting!


Before


After
I decided to keep the "your choice of cable" swatch that I've done, since it looks Very Very Pretty, and I have the pattern written. If it isn't approved, I have a Celtic something in reserve. So, all my swatches are done. I unpinned them one at a time and wove in their ends, then put them in their binder sleeves (quickly, with temporary tags, so I wouldn't get them mixed up!). Can I just say there is a LOT of end-weaving over sixteen swatches - and lots and LOTS in the two-color swatch (ten, to be precise)?

After careful consideration, I decided the following:

1. I have to re-knit swatch #2 AGAIN. I know it doesn't have to be "perfect" - but I'd really like the SIMPLE STOCKINETTE swatch to look as flawless as possible. At least I know how many rows I need to knit for the 2.5" (18) k1p1, and how many for the 4" stockinette (32).
2. Once trimmed and fluffed, the hat pom pom looks very pretty:
3. Writing out lots of little green index cards takes forever, especially when concerned about "legibility" and "accuracy". Since I don't actually have most of my references tablulated yet, I'm just writing out the card framework.
   
   
4. Given how much of the middle room of my house, and how much of the weekend, I had set up for this project, it's amazing how little I actually got tone.

But it's progress, and I actually have Swatches In A Binder. Now, if I can just get everything ELSE in the binder, I'll be all set!!

TI-neee BLANK-ets, Iiiiin the Aiiiirrrr...

Got a bit bored with all the lavender (well, I've already done an entire project in it, at this point!), so added some blue that wandered into my stash. It's a bit heavier weight than the lavender, so while the doll blanket can take a square or two in it, I can't just switch colors entirely. Because it's just a wee bit bigger, I can get away with some. As of this morning, I have five blue diamonds, and will probably throw in one more just for show. This little critter is almost done. I figure if I can make it the rest of the way across with diamonds (and one blue diamond), then I'll do the foundation triangles coming back, and will hopefully have enough yarn for the eight rows of seed stitch at the bottom. I've also discovered that, much to my surprise, I'm knitting this blanket sideways - the way it would sit on a doll bed is 90degrees from the direction I'm knitting. Which means I'm knitting it width-wise, rather than length-wise. I think. The caffeine hasn't hit yet this morning.


Knitting slowly on it - trying to keep ahead of my YoT:SE knitting and finish up on TKGA Level 1 Submission - Take 1. This weekend is, in theory, somewhat quiet (b-day party for a friend Saturday, which I'll probably be asleep for, thanks to my shot, but I'll try showing up anyway). Should be lots of tiny blanket knitting time in there somewhere, and maybe, just maybe, I'll finally get my darned binder together once and for all!

Yarn on Thursday: Stitch Edition - Triangles!

The project: Knitting all the stitches in KnittingOnTheNet.com's Stitch Directory.
The yarn: Anything you want. I'm using a Phentex "Monster Ball of Yarn" (32 oz. 100% acrylic), which won't block, but will give good stitch definition.
The needles: Again, whatever you want that goes with your yarn. I'm using my beloved Lantern Moon size 7s, because they're pretty.
Why this is happening: Because lots of people want to learn new stitches this year!

This week's stitches: #41 - Thermal Underwear Stitch, #42 - Triangle Ribs, #43 - Triangle Squares and #44 - Triangles. Hopefully, I'll have four stitches this week and next so I can "catch up" to where I think I'm supposed to be!

Okay, first, Thermal Underwear Stitch. It's a (multiple of four) + one, so I kept four seed stitches at the beginning of the RS row, did 21 pattern stitches, and had five seed stitches at the end. It's a four row pattern that was giving me fits, but I did five repeats just to make sure it was right!


What I noticed about this pattern: I have to tell you - this one was probably more confusing to me than it should have been... or was it? The antihistamines can only be blamed for so much, but knitting this stitch, it kept feeling like something was wrong, or off. I checked the swatch photo on line, and nope, that's how it's supposed to look. I'm pretty sure this is the only time I'll ever be using this stitch, antihistamines or no! It is, however, the same, front and back, so if you need something 100% reversible, you can consider it. I probably won't, but you can, especially if you have a high-histamine, high-confusion threshold.

Now, on to stitches that start with the word "Triangle". Triangle Ribs is squares made by triangles. Not, in any way, to be confused with Triangle Squares, below. It's a multiple of 8 stitch, so I did 7 seed stitches, 16 (2 repeats) pattern stitches, 7 seed stitches. With a 12-row repeat, I repeated twice. Six rows of seed stitch separate this swatch from the next.


What I noticed about this pattern: Needs blocking, as it tends to curl in both directions.

Triangle Squares are little squares, diagonally bisected into triangles! It's a five-stitch pattern, so I did four horizontal repeats with five seed stitches before and after the 20 pattern stitches. It's a four-row repeat, but I really need more swatches that are 20 rows, so I did five repeats. (I was originally doing all 20-rows, but some stuff is either two or three rows - gets boring pretty quickly.) Again, six rows of seed stitch separate this swatch from the next.


What I noticed about this pattern: There's just so much you can do with triangles. This one, at least, wouldn't necessarily need blocking, and it is completely reversible. Definitely something to do in a solid--color yarn, or the pattern would disappear entirely. Nice, small texture. Blocking would straighten out the rows of vertical knit stitch.

Last up, Triangles is, well, triangles. Again. A multiple of 10 stitches in the pattern means five seed stitches, 20 pattern stitches, then 5 seed stitches. It starts out strongly (k5,p5), os after two repeats (20 rows again!), I repeated Row 1 to punch up the pattern. This time, five rows of seed stitch separate this swatch from the next.


What I noticed about this pattern: Is it just me, or does it look a lot like Triangle Rib, just smaller? Of the triangle stitches, this is my favorite. It's a nice size, visually, and I prefer the back-to-back triangles here to the offset triangles of Triangle Rib. I expected it to pull in on itself, but it didn't!

A note on the whole project: Since there are 139 stitch patterns (some are listed under multiple headings), plus 7 different edgings in KnittingOnTheNet.com's Stitch Directory, I'll be trying to do two to three stitches a week, minimum. This should get everyone a goodly number of new stitches by the end of the year, and hopefully get me a blanket. No worries if you "fall behind" or "start late" - this is for fun & education, there isn't *really* a time limit of any sort on it. If you're just discovering this project, this link will take you to the beginning, and this link will pull up all the related entries. Just knit on, and have fun!