Monday, February 18, 2008

Snowflake

Over the weekend I made a pretty snowflake.

It's a dishcloth! You cast on 158 stitches and work from the outside in, then seam up the edges (center of hexagon to center of flat side). It's got nice texture--cables and traveling stitches keep it from being just a hexagon. Of course those are difficult for me to photograph with my middle-of-the-road camera. It's blurry, but the picture I took without the flash gives you a decent idea of the topography.

If I knit this pattern again, I'll be sure to use 14" needles or circs--10" needles were just not designed to hold 158 stitches!


Saturday night I finally cast on my first sweater.

There I go again, using needles that aren't quite long enough! I have no plans to switch needles, though--this isn't as tight a squeeze as the snowflake was, and it turns out I love Crystal Palace bamboo needles, which is what I'm using, so I'm going to keep on using them.

The yarn is Schulana Wolina, in Tuscan Slate. There's a touch of blue in it that doesn't quite come through in the small picture; click to embiggen. I'm making The Perfect Sweater from Mason-Dixon Knitting with the seed stitch hem and neckline. I had been planning to go all fancy and do the folded hem, but two things stopped me: one, I've never used a provisional cast on before and I was feeling too lazy to learn stuff when I cast on, and two, I have a store-bought sweater with that kind of hem and it tends to fold up and annoy me. Plus, she rationalizes, I think that seed stitch is pretty and it will add a small decorative element to what is otherwise a very plain sweater.


I've been missing Stitch 'n' Bitch for a while--second work has been scheduling me for Sundays, and the last few Tuesdays just haven't been in the cards. I'm determined to make it to at least one knit gathering this week. We're doing KnitFlicks again tonight, so I might go to that; otherwise, hopefully there will be a gathering tomorrow night that I can make it to.

4 comments:

Barbara said...

Cool looking dishcloth, Ann! And your sweater looks beautiful. Love the color. I'm a big fan of seed stitch edging; I like its look and feel. Glad you like the Crystal Palace bamboo needles.

Katie said...

Gretchen and I missed you on Sunday...she needed someone's finger to suck!

Ann said...

Katie, I had been planning to be there until this week's schedule came out! It looks like my run of having Sundays off might be over. Grumble grumble.

Knitting Magic Girl said...

There should be some sort of knitting tonight if you didn't make it last night. I just can't motivate myself to do anything on Monday nights, but Tuesdays are always reserved for knitting, even if it's just at Starbucks. Like the snowflake!