By: pamgrushkin
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Splitting hairs (plies) and why everyone needs a little fairy dust now and then.

Trammi finishing first sleeve of Essence Pullover in Tahoe (Aran: 32% Nylon, 27% Wool, 25% Alpaca, 16% Yak.  She tried it on to see how the sleeve length was.  Then she marked down the exact rows (to the best of her knowledge) and measurements. We chose centimeters instead of inches because it was a more exact measurement. Time to begin the twisted ribbing. One sleeve done, one to go.

Cornelia has been working on her Customfit sweater. Originally she chose a seed stitch border, however, over the weekend she decided she didn’t like how it looked.  Taking matters into her own hands, she decided she was the boss of her yarn. She ripped it out, cast on and did ribbing in k2p2. When she came in she asked if I had my fairy dust ready to fix two mistakes.  One was an unknit stitch.  The other was a confluence of factors: knot in the yarn, dropped stitch, and made a stitch.  There was a lot of slack to account for too.  I tied it all up in a nice, neat bow.  Well, not really.  I undid the knot, fixed the stitches and pulled the knot snug (to be woven in during finishing). The yarn is Artyarns Ensemble Light (DK: 50% Cashmere, 50% Silk, 400 yards).

She is definitely feeling the difference of knitting with super bulky yarn, it is like “changing from tree limbs to tooth picks”. It’s a real adjustment. She finds she is splitting the plies and has to be more careful. The knitting will be more time consuming and worth it in the long run.

Calann also needed some fairy dust for the sock she was knitting. She picked up a stitch and dropped a stitch leaving a hole. She had to take back a few rows with decreases which was a little more difficult. It made for good practice though!

She brought in her swatch for her Customfit cardigan.  After months of watching Allison and Eleanor work on theirs – then seeing the gorgeous finished sweaters, she had to make one for herself. I won’t be far behind her.

 

Calann finished the One & Only Morehouse Alligator Scarf for her granddaughter.  Too cute.

 

Carol continues to work on the squares for her Anthology Cuffed Shawl Sweater from Knitting Block by Block by Nicky Epstein. We were both loving this cabled block.The pattern calls for slipping the first stitch of each row.  We discussed what reason the designer might have for putting it in.  I thought to give the blocks a neater edge.

She finished her Enchanted Forest Cardigan from Vogue Knitting Fall ’92. Or her ghost sweater as we have come to call it.  Actually I said it was a haunted forest cardigan because it was giving her grief. She is happily giving it to the finisher.

Cindy finished binding off the blanket she’s been knitting.  She’s read to cast on for the head.

Mallory brought in the first five stockings she has knit on our stocking journey.  The first on on the left is the (sixth) one she is currently working on.

She finished the rest of the foot, adorned the stocking with notions to decorate the tree and packages, and was ready to sew it closed.

Mallory picked the colors for the next stocking, an angel, for her granddaughter.  It’s hard to see in the picture, the color above the pink is a wonderful evergreen color.  The wings will be white with a sparkly yarn held with it.

The stocking starts out with the challenge of the picot edge. She was finding it difficult to match up the stitches on the needle with the cast on stitches to work the picot row.  I suggested she take a contrast color and thread it through her cast on stitches.  That worked pretty well, although she relegated herself to a corner to concentrate under a good light.

Allison made a lot of progress on her Burrow shawl/scarf in North Star (Bulky: 92% Alpaca, 8% Nylon, 109 yards).

She also finished the Age of Brass and Steam.  The is a really rich color green.
Eleanor was working on her Cocoon sweater also in North Star.
She wore her Customfit sweater in Kid Pailettes and Allison (knowing I wanted a photo opp) brought in hers.  They look lovely (the ladies) in their sparkling sweaters.

Rosie had an unfortunate incident with her skein of yarn, Michelle was there to help her with it.


Once sorted, she began knitting my Add Yarn & Knit pattern in Malabrigo Rasta (Super Bulky: 100% Merino, 90 yards).  She was having trouble with the pattern stitch because it was a broken rib, and didn’t feel logical.  I showed her a way to read the stitches and look for the ‘knit 3’ which centers around a knit st in middle and then work backwards for where the slip stitch goes. That probably sounds really convoluted and it made sense to her.

She needed help rescuing a couple of stitches in a hat that is a gift to a friend in Ireland, Last week Rosie learned how to pickup a single dropped stitch.  This was an opportunity to learn how to fix several dropped stitches in a row.  Same method, you have to secure the latter dropped stitches with either a locking stitch marker or a safety pin.  Either way, crisis averted.