Sun 28 Jul 2013
I haven’t posted in a while, but I have been knitting away. The garter stripes circular scarf quickly outgrew my commute knitting bag, and then became evening knitting instead. I threw in a few stockinette sections, and some beads for texture, but mostly stuck with the garter stitch because I liked the color blending.
The scarf is a roughly 5-foot loop, just the right length to wrap twice around my shoulders like a shrug. I haven’t quite figured out the most graceful way to wear it yet (draping is not something that comes naturally to me), but it is very warm. It’s long enough that there are about a thousand different ways to wear it, but I haven’t quite settled on the best one.
When the garter stitch scarf grew too big for my knitting bag, I looked around for something else to cast on, and hit on this handspun, which is a mix of one ply of fiber optic BFL-silk, and one ply of my own semisolid brown rambouillet.
I also had a couple of 1-oz braids of pure silk top that I’d picked up at Rhinebeck in 2011 that I’ve had my eye on as a match for this yarn. I spun up a little sample to try it out.
I had expected to like the singles better, but I ended up preferring the 2-ply. I spun up about 30 yards of each, as an accent to go with the moebius scarf/cowl that I’m knitting from the base yarn. I’ve never knit a moebius before, but I really liked knitting the garter scarf in the round, and so thought I’d give the moebius a try.
The yarn itself is a fine laceweight, and is knitting into a very loose, stretchy stockinette on size 1 needles. The cowl will be another long one for doubling up, and will probably be about 5′ in length. I didn’t want a split at the cast on line with knits above and purls below, so I switch from knit to purl halfway through each row of the moebius. That does give me a join where the “right side” fabric switches from knit to purl, but I’ve decided that I’m ok with that. If I had to do it again I might design in a knit/purl block pattern to minimize the effect of the join, but I don’t think it will be very noticeable in the final garment, especially if that’s where I choose to locate the moebius twist. Each row is 800 stitches, but it’s moving along very quickly (that’s 2 weeks of train knitting), and I love the fabric that’s coming out. The accent yarns will be just a few rows near the outside edge of the cowl, enough to emphasize the handspun colors without dominating the piece.
I’ve also made it through the body of the to-be embroidered sweater, which I have taken to calling Daisy. Not sure why, but that’s the name that popped into my head first, and it has refused to leave. The flowers don’t look much like daisies to me, but sometimes there’s no arguing with these things.
In any case, the sweater body is complete, and the shoulder seams are sewn. I picked up and knit one of the sleevecaps, and have now switched to dpns for the rest. The upper body and sleevecap is usually the part that goes the slowest for me, so I should be zipping along on those sleeves soon.
Such a lot of very fine stockinette doesn’t make for very exciting blogging, but I have been enjoying the mindless and meditative rhythm of it. The circular and moebius scarves especially let me just sink into the knitting while my thoughts go elsewhere.
Looking at how quickly these projects are going, I suppose I should start sending my thoughts out to figure out what’s next…I have two trips coming up in August, and wouldn’t want to run out of knitting on the road!
Loving the handspun moebius, and yes, the 2-ply is my favorite, too.
And the way of warm scarves, like your wonderful circular garter piece, is that they wait to tell you how to wear them once you need the warmth. No way you’ll figure it out in July!
Yes, Twinset Ellen is right!! When it’s hovering around 90 who cares about how to wear a wool scarf!!??
Your fine knitting continues to amaze me. #4 needle is about it for me.
There is a trick for a “real” Mobius that doesn’t involve any tricky turns or switches stitches. If you’d like it, let me know. There is absolutely no seam and the fiddly stuff is right up your alley!! I’ve made several and actually enjoy it (on bigger needles, of course).
Oh, your knitting is coming right along. It makes my fingers itch to pull out the needles…maybe later, after I get some things done. I really like the colors of the silk, that should make a nice accent. I hope you’ve found your next project(s)!