Monday, November 05, 2007

finito

I hooked like a fiend on Friday and I'm happy to report that I finished the runner (and had it pressed) before bedtime. I am still trying to decide on what to use for whipping....and have almost convinced myself that I should dye a hank of wool with various reds and greens - trying to not have too much overlap of colours (avoiding too much browny-grey). I'm thinking that I will just cook off the skein in the microwave. Does anyone have any experience with this? In any case, here is the runner B4 whipping....

Dimensions: 17.25" by 39.5"

I've now turned my attention to knitting scarves. Unfortunately I've been coming up against numerous obstacles along the way. Here is what I accomplished last night - and haven't already decided to abandon... (two other projects didn't make the cut)

I over-dyed some kid mohair on Saturday morning to use together with the Colinette yarn I splurged on this Spring to knit this. The mohair is actually more of a navy colour than it appears in the photo above. I'm happy with the way it's turning out but unfortunately there isn't anywhere near enough yardage to finish the scarf. Once I finally admitted this out loud, I set the knitting aside until I can dye some more - and see if it matches. (Dyeing without a recipe is not always a good thing ;-) )

For someone who doesn't really call herself a knitter, I seem to have a lot of yarn. I bought this stuff several years ago, and I'm finally putting it to work. I like the little shiny bits peeking through - I just hope there's enough wool to make it a decent length (hence the shiny stuff every 3rd row!)

Several years ago I was at Shelburne at the same time as Heather Ritchie. One of the many cool things she had in her classroom was a mat she was knitting using very wide strips on very large needles. I haven't forgotten about that, and when sitting right beside the piles of leftover strips (from the runner), I procrastinated away by knitting some up. The strips are #8 cut on 12mm needles. There are only 7 stitches on the needles, and I've pulled all the knots to one side as I knit. The scarf is a bit heavy - if I had larger needles, I'd try those....or maybe a #6 would work on the same needles. It works up quickly and is quite addictive...