Rework of Estonian Garden Wrap and before/after photos

(To see "After", go to the end of this post.)

Before: Picture at about 170 rows before deciding I would run out of yarn. This is what it looked like about 1/2 way through the Little Flowers Pattern on the first side. Plus there are two more patterns to work on each side -- the Lilies of the Valley pattern and the Scalloped Trellis edging pattern.



Here's how much yarn was left on the ball. It was actually pretty empty, but hard to photograph it because it was falling in on itself. Since one whole side should only have taken 1 ball or maybe a little more, I could only use 1.5 balls for this side. There was no way 3 balls of yarn would be enough for this side plus a complete repeat of the other side.



After: Here's what the re-work looked like while I was lightly blocking it on Sunday. I'd frogged all but the two set-up rows and first 4 rows of the first 8-row repeat of Little Flowers pattern. I'd then knit about 90 rows, and found a problem halfway back and frogged back to about row 44 (46 if you count setup rows). At the point I took this picture, I had maybe 128 pattern rows. About 45 of them had been reworked three times, all but 6 of them reworked twice. I may let future mistakes just stand. (NOT! I just can't stand it!)



I really liked the way the colors got concentrated in sections at first on this rework, and don't know what I've done differently after that section, because now it's more or less striping again. The concentrated sections of color show the flowers better. The flowers show up pretty well on the yellow sections, too, but the contrast with the beige floor doesn't show it off.

Oh, well, it is what it is.

Since taking this photo, I've made a bit more progress. As of last night, I finished 19 pattern repeats (I think) which would be 152 rows - so the picture above must have been only 128 rows or so, maybe 16 pattern repeats.

Progress Notes - Estonian Garden Wrap

Last week, I had worked back up to Row 90 (not counting the two set-up non-pattern rows) when I realized that about halfway back, I had erroneously added two extra purl rows in addition to the one called for in the pattern. So the flowers there were all wrong. So last Wednesday, I frogged back to Row 44.

As of last night, I was at Row 96 of the pattern. So I'm back on track. I had decided I was using too much yarn at about Row 170 of the pattern, so I'm still not caught up to the point where I almost totally visited the Frog Pond.

I almost started over.

OK, so I went home on Wednesday 7/2 with the determination to start over, and didn't even think twice about it. I just had to. I almost completely frogged the progress on the Estonian Garden Wrap. I had put one lifeline right in the cast-on row, because I had trouble picking up the stitches the previous time I'd done a provisional cast-on. And I had left a lifeline that was just after Row 4 of the first Little Flowers pattern, just in case.

Since there were two set-up rows, and 8 rows for each repeat of Little Flowers, that means I left in 6 rows, half of a Little Flowers repeat. I removed about 20-21 repeats of Little Flowers, and didn't even think about it. That is, I removed about 160 or more rows.

So, I almost completely started over - I'm not going to worry about the few rows I left being too loose, they'll look fine when blocked, I'm sure.

As of last night, 7/6, I finished Row 60 of Little Flowers. So I've knit 54 rows since Wednesday, or almost 7 repeats of the pattern.

Estonian Garden Wrap

My sister Carol and I planned about last February to work on the same shawl pattern with essentially the same yarn, just in different colorways. We each bought the Knitpicks Shimmer yarn on clearance. I bought "Happy Dance", a variegated laceweight yarn (60% baby alpaca, 30% silk) with red-pink-yellow. Carol bought "Flower Garden", a darker colorway with pinks and purples, it looks like.

We weren't sure that a lace pattern would look wonderful in variegated yarn, but
1.) I had bought that yarn just for this project
2.) It feels wonderful
3.) It is laceweight, so I have to make something lacy from it
4.) The colors seem appropriate for a flower garden
So -- even if this pattern might turn out better in a solid color, I am just going to make this pattern with this yarn any way!

The yardage required about 2 skeins of Shimmer, so I bought 3 to be safe.


Here's me winding my first ball using the brand-new swift I bought on eBay - someone has a home craft he's using to make money, it seems. It was very reasonably priced, about $25 with shipping, as I recall.


Here is a finished ball on my winder.


Here are the finished balls with the swift folded up.


I couldn't let myself start this project until I finished the "utility shawl", the scarf for Mom, and the baby afghan. I finally finished the latter on 6/5/08, and the baby shower was on 6/6/08, so on the evening of Friday, 6/6, I started this project, using size 5 needles, and working loosely.

The pattern starts from the middle (on a provisional cast-on) and works out, and appears to be about 3 or 4 different patterns, with the vast majority being this main beginning pattern of little flowers, bordered with Lily of the Valley and edged in a scalloped trellis.

I've done a bit more knitting since this picture was taken on 6/20/08 -- but lace knitting really needs a bit of blocking before photography. So, here's the picture after lightly blocking overnight of my progress as of about a week and a half ago.




This Little Flowers pattern is very simple -- worked in eight rows pattern, with an 8-stitch repeat. I've had it memorized since about the 10th pattern repeat. The wrong-side rows are just purls with 3 stitches of knit for ribbing at the edges. I need to make almost 42 rows. The picture I'm not showing with current progress is almost 20 rows of the repeats of this stitch (for this side) done.

Unfortunately, Carol is taking computer classes in her free time, and hasn't started yet. I was thinking that I might put this down at some point soon, to resume when she's cast on and started.

But, further unfortunately -- as of 7/1 evening, I was only about halfway through the Little Flowers pattern for the first half of the wrap -- and I'm almost finished using up one ball. I really should only use a ball and a little extra for the entire first half. So there's no way I'm going to have enough yarn at this rate. So I decided that I have to frog the whole thing and start over on size 4 needles.

Catching up my not-so-active blog!

I have several projects I've completed since last posting, so here are the first two.

This one is what I call my "utility" scarf. I wanted something that I could leave on my computer chair, to wrap around myself when I get a chill while at the computer or in the kitchen. It's from yarn I bought on a whim from eBay, on a large cone. It's called "cotton flake" yarn, and the colorway is "Tropical Nights". I worked on this a lot when I was on jury duty in January. It is a thick-and-thin yarn, and the first couple of lacy patterns that I tried with it didn't work out, so I settled for a non-lacy pattern instead. I used sort of a basketweave stitch to keep it flat, without being something that required a lot of concentration. I think I finished this in March.











The second project I completed in April, just before leaving for Turkey. I had planned to give it to Mom for her birthday, but didn't finish it in time to block it and wrap and send it, so I'll give it to her for Christmas. It's made from Jaggerspun Zephyr laceweight yarn (50% silk, 50% merino wool) in Sage, which should help bring out the green in her eyes. I used the KnitPicks Candleflame pattern. Remember that you can click an image to see a larger version of the picture.

Pictures of Mystery Stole 3 at last!

I may have to take another picture of the finished stole, after blocking -- but here at last are pictures of the stole while being blocked. (Click a picture to see larger version.)

First, the beginning part of the stole.











Next, the wing part of the stole.














Finally, two pictures of the entire stole as being blocked (I couldn't get quite high enough to get the far edges completely in the photos).

Starting last clue of Mystery Stole 3 - and Barbara has a job!

Last night I finished all but the last wrong-side row of Clue 6. I didn't work on it over the weekend because Steve and I took a long weekend up to Lake Tahoe, and I don't chance this project in the car nor in less than ideal lighting-and-setup conditions. I hope I'll post a few pictures later of the trip -- although I forgot my good digital camera. All we had was the cheapie emergency digital camera in Steve's car -- for example, to take a picture of a fender-bender if that were to happen.

My eyes felt sunburned all day, despite wearing sunglasses and a visor all weekend. So I didn't even feel like starting knitting until now. Maybe I'll get a few rows done before turning in to bed.

The best thing that happened yesterday, however, was that Barbara was offered a one-year contract to teach a first grade class in the Union school district in San Jose at Lietz School. Here's a map.

Whew! That was a close one. She rushed over after her part-time hotel job in Santa Cruz to sign the contract and pick up paperwork. The district had new-teacher orientation today and tomorrow, and starts with an in-service day on Thursday. Classes start next Tuesday. She's been assigned a room in a modular (lots of the schools have these, because school districts sold off property during a drop in enrollments in the 70s/80s, and had to expand on existing properties this way when enrollments zoomed again). The room has desks, chairs and textbooks. Barbara was stressing out today about what to do to get the room ready -- hopefully, some of the other teachers and staff will help her get set up!

She needs to give notice at the hotel, although she feels obligated to work for them on weekends through September, since she had told them that's what she would do when she got the job in June. But she's not teaching in Santa Cruz -- and as a first-time teacher, I think she's going to need her weekends. But since she lost out on some income earlier, and is motivated to pay off her student loan from grad school -- maybe she has an extra agenda she's not sharing. I just hope she'll handle the workload with grace. I hope they'll tell her she doesn't need to work every weekend through September when she gives notice.

Mystery Stole 3 - Clue 6 progress report

Each row gets slower and slower as stitches get added. I managed to get 18 rows done this weekend, meaning I have 118 rows of the "wing" done. The last row had 121 "active" stitches, and about 37 stitches left unworked from Clue 4.

I seem to be getting additionally slower on each row due to my row markers. I separate each 10 stitches to assist in counting and debugging problems, and move them on the purl row if needed, which is most rows. This and the previous clue use "repeat" blocks of 20 stitches to repeat 4 times rather than charting the whole row. There are actually two repeats of the pattern in each charted "repeat" -- so each row is very symmetrical as you work it, except for the ends.

And I seem to make one or two mistakes on every row, so as I'm doing the purl row, I'm able to detect the problems and correct them. It's usually a missed or dropped yarn-over, which is easy to fix -- I just have to be sure I'm counting out the pattern in reverse as I work. It's getting boring.

Mystery Stole 3 - Clue 5 done

Here's what the stole looks like in its entirety, just smoothed out, not blocked. The tails of where I added the second skein are still loose on the upper right, and I have 2 lifelines at the end of Clue 4 -- as well as a few lifelines in Clue 5, the wing. I've put a yardstick beside the stole on the left to give a sense of dimension.

It'll be bigger once I block it, but it's not going to reach the 6-ft-plus length of last year's stole, unless a future clue somehow makes it longer, which I doubt.

Here's a slightly more close-up picture of the end of Clue 4 and all of Clue 5. Remember that you can click a picture to see if in a larger size.

This is the wing as of Clue 5. It will be bigger and lacier once I block it. I finished it last night, and have marked up Clue 6 -- and am getting ready to start!

Mystery Stole 3 - Clue 6 came out today -- but I'm still piddling along on Clue 5. I did 10 more rows last night, so I've done 87 of the 100. Each row gets longer -- but maybe I'll have a better block of time tonight and actually get Clue 5 done tonight. If not, then tomorrow.

Some of the KAL (Knit-A-Long) folk must have the day off -- if you want to see what the "wing" looks like after Clue 6 -- here's someone else's picture:
http://upload2.postimage.org/209486/photo_hosting.html

Mystery Stole 3 -- Swan Lake -- in the "Wing"

Clue 5 also has two charts. The 50 rows of Chart G went pretty fast, since it starts by working just a few stitches of the left-hand part of Clue 4. You add two stitches every 2 Right-Side rows, and decrease one of the leftover-stitches from Clue 4 every Wrong-Side row.

Here's progress after three evenings, more or less pinned out to see the curving "wing" halfway into Chart H, with 77 rows completed after Clue 4. There are still 58 stitches fom Clue 4 unworked, and all bunched up on the needle -- and 80 stitches on the "working" part of the needle for Clue 5. Melanie has us doing a different combo stitch where three stitches become one that is supposed to produce a better "line" -- and is, I think, supposed to be the spines on the feathers of the wing.

I think it's a little funny how the "Wings of the Swan" lace pattern which was on the outside edges of Clues 1 through 4 just suddenly end, but maybe there will be something in Clue 6 or Clue 7 which makes it make sense. That lace pattern was supposedly also used in MS1 "Leda's Dream", which I haven't made yet.

The floral-looking design in the main body (which was easier to see in the previous posts' pictures) is the traditional Shetland lace design "Cat's Paw". Melanie explained that in Swan Lake, one of the dances done by 4 "swan maidens" is the "Pas de Chat" step, which means "step of the cat", so she thought it made sense to include that in this pattern.

Mystery Stole - Clue 4 (both charts E & F) done as of late Sunday night. 335 Rows completed as of that point!

I didn't block it, just smoothed it out on the floor. It was funny, right before the infamous Row 287, where we had to put the lifeline (which was for frogging back, if you didn't want an asymmetrical stole) -- that's where it was obvious that I finally needed to start the new skein of yarn. (It's better on lace knitting to have your yarn change at an edge).

I did start Clue 5 on Monday night. Row numbering started over -- it started with very short rows. The first Right-Side (RS) row worked over just a few of the leftmost stitches. You do extra yarn-overs, so you're always increasing a couple of stitches -- and on the Wrong-Side (WS) rows, you end by purling the last stitch with one of the hold-over stitches from Clue 4. Each RS row is 2 stitches wider than the previous RS row, if you don't count the hold-over stitches that aren't "active" for now.

I've done 59 rows of Clue 5 so far. I have "worked off" less than half of the 99 stitches that were on the stole before, and have well over 60 stitches in the currently-active row. The net effect is that the stole is poufing into an arc around where Clue 4 ended. I meant to take a picture -- maybe I'll get it when I finish tonight.

Mystery Stole 3 -- Clue 5 came out today, and the theme is "Swan Lake". Swan Lake on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Lake

If you made the stole white, it represents the "good" woman-parttime-swan-whos-under-evil-spell Odette. If you made the stole black, it represents the imposter-woman-who-prevents-the-prince-from-breaking-the-spell Odile. If you switch colors so it's both black and white -- you've got both Odette and Odile.

And the stole is asymmetrical -- here's a schematic of what it will look like when finished. Although the Designer says that if you're not willing to proceed, you can frog back to row 287 in Clue 4 -- then remake Clues 1 through row 287 of 4 a second time, and join them with the Kitchener Stitch to make yourself a symmetrical stole.

This isn't the first asymmetrical stole that Melanie's designed. See her Hanami Stole: http://pinklemontwist.blogspot.com/2007/02/hanami.html (You can click her picture to see a closeup.)

When I had previously seen that pattern, I thought it was pretty enough, but I didn't think I wanted to pay $6 for it. I'd have wanted a symmetrical pattern.

But since I'm already at Row 304 or Row 306 of Clue 4 (only 31/29 more rows in the clue), I don't think I want to frog back to Row 287, nor have to join two separate pieces together to make a symmetrical stole. I think I'm going to follow through and complete the stole as planned.

Mystery Stole 3 -- half of Clue 4 done.

Clue 1, which started with the point (2 stitches) had 2 charts (A & B) for a total of 100 rows.

Clue 2 (Chart C) had 50 rows. Clue 3 (Chart D) had 50 rows.

Clue 4 has two charts (E & F) -- the first is 70 rows (to row 270) the second is 65 rows (to row 335, an unusual odd-side end). I've now completed Chart E -- and only have 4 more nights to do Chart F if I don't want to be" behind", like I usually am. This is spread across two cushions of our sofa -- the dip between cushions creates the "line" that seems to be in the middle. (Remember, you can click the picture to get it full-sized.)

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I'm amazed that I'm still on the first skein. You can see what's left of the ball on the upper right. I have 3, and thought I'd use them all up on this stole -- but I think I'll have a lot left over.

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http://www.knitpicks.com/Alpaca+Cloud_YD5420108.html is my yarn -- at $4.29/50 gram hank = 440 yards -- you get a lot of knitting from a hank/ball!

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So -- I'll probably end up using $10-$12 worth of yarn. But the stole will still be priceless when completed. I figure that it takes on the average 15 minutes for me to do 2 rows. My time is worth a lot more than minimum wage. I probably have well over 34 hours in this section so far, since I frogged and started over. At even $10/hr, this much knitting would be worth $340 at cheapy rates!

Mystery Stole 3 -- through Clue 3

I've completed Clue 3 -- 200 rows. After blocking and measuring, it was about 26.5 inches long. Melanie's is 25" long at that point -- it's about 1/3 of the total length of the stole. So I'm glad, mine will be about the right length without having to change/repeat-in Clue 4 to add 11" or subtract 11".

The first picture is while the stole was being blocked. What looks like a big black splotch in the middle is the print on the blocking board showing through -- that helps you perceive how transparent the stole is.

(Do you know that you can click these pictures to see them in a bigger size?)

The second picture shows a close-up of the knitting that has some of the beads on it. I can tell that there's a glint on at least one of the beads -- but you might have trouble seeing it. (If you click the picture, though - you might be able to see a couple of the beads.) The way you add beads to the knitting is that, when you get to the stitch that needs a bead added, you use a size 13 (very very fine) steel crochet hook to slide a bead onto the stitch before knitting it. There's a tutorial here: http://fluffyknitterdeb.blogspot.com/2005/08/by-special-request-beading-made-easy.html

Then I unpinned it after blocking, and took a picture of the just-over-2-feet-long section (and almost 2-feet wide) on our off-white sofa, so that you can see the pattern without blocking-board-print interference.

Mystery Stole - Clue 2


Clue 2 consisted of 50 rows (ending at Row 150), worked on 99 stitches across.
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I didn't block this section -- I just spread it with my fingers. This picture doesn't really show you how loose the stockinette stitch is.

I'm going to lightly block after finishing Clue 3 -- because that will help me decide whether or not I need to lengthen the stole. Clue 3 will take me to about 1/3 of the total length. If I want to lengthen it, I repeat a section of Clue 4 rows which will add 11 inches to the stole.
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I actually wonder whether it will only add 1/2 of the 11 inches on this side -- and whether one then repeats on the opposite side, when one gets to it. I may have to do the addition.
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I think for Clue 3's picture, I'll take an entire-section shot followed by a closeup to show how very open my stockinette is. I stopped at Row 190 last night, which means I'm just 10 rows from finishing Clue 3 at Row 200, blocking, measuring, and then starting Clue 4 (which came out last Friday).
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Clue 3 has 2 sets of charts (like Clue 1 did). It goes to Row 335 -- not to Row 336. We usually end on a wrong-side even row. So there's a great mystery about why we're stopping at Row 335. .
Also, we are supposed to put a special lifeline in Row 287 (or if you lengthen it, in the second instance of 287). She suggests using a different color -- or somehow marking it, like tying lots of knots into the ends. This is also a mystery, because it's usually easier to put a lifeline in after an even-side perled row, rather than a lace-knit right-side row. There's a big discussion about why.
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I bet she's going to have us come back and pick up stitches for some sort of frill there.

Mystery Stole 3 through Clue 1

OK. I had to do some catch-up on pictures before I could let myself post the Mystery Stole progress. I'm actually working Clue 3 now -- but only one clue per posting until I catch up!

Clue 1 consisted of 100 rows -- to make the starting triangle. Row 1 had 2 stitches, the last few rows had 99.


1.) Here's what the beads look like close to the yarn. I did not end up using the Original Balene circular size 5's. I changed and started the test swatch with an Original Balene circular size 4's. I didn't like using the circulars. Especially with lace, I like being able to prop long single-needles to one side of my hip or the other when doing something tricky. So I finished the test swatch with straight Original Balene size 4's.



2.) Here's a somewhat blurry closeup of the beads -- I was trying to show the iridescence and color highlights.











3.) Here's the test swatch after blocking. Even though the stockinette section was very airy, I thought it would be OK. When I got to working on the real thing, and after looking at Cathy's pictures, I decided to frog and start over on size 3's. I didn't have Original Balene size 3's -- but I did have Balene II size 3's -- which are working well for me. The yarn isn't too slippery on the Balene II plastic.


4.) I wasn't liking the way Clue 1 was turning out even on the size 3's. I was pinning it out to take a picture to send to Carol at Row 90 -- and saw an error at Row 82 (I think). I must have accidentally dropped a stitch and picked up a different stitch somewhere, causing a cascading error. I decided it didn't look too, too bad when pinned out, so I tinked back to Row 83 or 82 (I forget) because I couldn't figure out how to fix it and all subsequent rows. I worked a little past Clue 1, then pinned this to my ironing board and spritzed it, so I could see what it would look like lightly-blocked. I decided to stick with it, even though it's still somewhat airy, because size 2's would be way too small.

Mystery Stole 3 Knit-A-Long!

The Mystery Stole 3 Knit-A-Long by Melanie http://pinklemontwist.blogspot.com/ was closed to new subscribers in early July. She's going to be featured in a USA Today article because almost 7,000 folks around the world have joined in. The first year's membership (the one I missed), there were about 760 members. Last year, I think there less than 2,000.

I had a couple of bumps along the way. I did my test swatch on size 4 needles, and near the end of Clue 1 decided the real thing was too loose. I frogged-it and started over on size 3's. I'll post some pictures of progress later. But this post has the yarn. Recommended colors were black or white. The stole also incorporates beads. For a while, I thought I might completely start over with different yarn -- but when I rough-blocked Clue 1, I decided it was going to be OK. This baby alpaca yarn is finer than the laceweight yarn I used last year. I do like its texture. It is soft -- and even if the finished shawl turns out small-ish, it will be nice to wear when you don't want something too, too warm. I think it will feel like wearing a (nice, not nasty) spider web. It is extremely light.


1.) The Alpaca Cloud "Midnight" baby alpaca knitweight yarn that I got from KnitPicks is black with dark blue / dark green highlights. I'm using hexagonal seed beads that are iridescent black.
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2.) I used my ball-winder to take the old-fashioned skeins and make pull-out skeins. I was afraid that, with the yarn so thin, I might break it. But I didn't. These skeins are coming apart on the outside a little too easily as I work with them -- but the pull-out skein is still easier to wind and use than a hand-rolled ball.

Catch-Up Time Part 2

3.) So, the missing baby afghan probably really belongs here. Too bad Betsey and Rich didn't send me a picture of it with the baby -- I could have a really nice posting then!

4.) After finishing that, I began a shell-in-the-round pattern crocheted afghan for Mark. It was one of his graduation presents, and he can take it off to college in the fall to keep warm, and to have a little bit of Mom/home with him.

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5.) I had made a scarf from two skeins of black eyelash yarn. It left a nubby texture that reminded me of the way Russian hats look. I thought maybe it was a kind of fur -- bear fur? -- but someone tells me that it's a particular kind of wool. At any rate, I bought two more skeins and was hoping to find a good hat pattern.

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My colleague then bought some Bernat eyelash yarn, and a hat pattern was printed inside her label, but was made for single-pointed needles -- and you then sewed the hat up.

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I figured out the changes to work it in-the-round, and knit it on 16" circular needles up until the last couple of rows (then I had to switch to double-pointed needles. That way, when I was finished knitting, it was done! Kathy then modeled the finished products for me, even though she didn't want to. She took my picture, too -- but she looks better in it than I do!

Catch-up Time.

OK, I'm missing a picture, but I'd made a crocheted baby afghan for Rich and Betsey. Darn! How could I send it off without having taken a picture?!?! I don't know what I was thinking.


So, here are the other items I've made in the interim.


1.) Fingerless crocheted gloves, because the modular we work in has so little insulation, and we had a severe cold spell... (I also made a hat with the leftover yarn, which was a tad too small, so I didn't take a picture...).

These gloves aren't quite as warm as knitted ones. I may use some leftover laceweight yarn to make knitted ones from a pattern I've recently found. But that won't be for a while.




2.) My first socks. I used KnitPicks self-striping sock yarn.

This first picture shows what they look like looking towards the inside toe. I knit on 4 needles, and needed a fifth. Working on 4 makes it much easier to follow the instructions, since there's a top and a bottom when you work the toe and the heel -- so the stitches are evenly divided.




-- a picture taken at the same time as above, showing progress from the outside. These were toe-up socks.











And the two pictures below show the finished socks!