There are many benefits to working with what you have on hand - saving money or yielding additional storage space. This past spring and summer had me working exclusively from stash because I had no time to shop new yarn.
One thing my search yielded was 7 balls of Sublime Kid Mohair - bought on sale at Passionknit June '09. My dream at the time was a mohair shawl but never having attempted one before I didn't realize how little yarn I was picking up so every time I tried to sort out what to do with the stuff I'd hit a wall and give up.
As I prepared for the cottage this summer I madly cast about for "Sublime" patterns on Ravelry, only confirming 850 yards wasn't enough to make what I had in my mind`s eye. In the end I took a copy of Muse but ultimately the prospect of the super simple pattern seemed depressing. That`s when I headed off to flip through my, by now, dog eared copy of Knitting 24/7 by Veronique Avery.
In it, there's a little scarf, knit in two mirrored halves in 2 ply lace yarn on 2.75mm needles (finished width 9"). I'd looked at it before but never with the Sublime in mind yet suddenly it occurred to me it might work as a shawl if I used 6mm needles and so knit at a bigger gauge.
But how how to manage my quantity of yarn yet end up with something whose size and shape would be functional and make visual sense. I didn't want a Mohair scarf around my neck - talk about itchy! - this needed to fit around my shoulders.
So after swatching with something less"catchy" than the mohair to avoid having to rip back with the Sublime I knit up one ball in the smocked lace pattern that makes up each end of the scarf, and using simple ratios sorted out how long to made my centre portion so as to maintain the relative shape of Veronique's design in my gauge.
To accomplish that I used used 1.5 balls for each half of the Sawtooth Lace centre portion.
So now, with two balls still in reserve I'm going to decide whether the overall length I've got so far is sufficiently generous to accomplish the wrapping affect I'm after.
My plan is to baste the two pieces together, wrap up in the thing and then decide. If its too short I'll just add a few more rows to the end of each then do the decorative bind off the pattern recommends.
So this piece is very close to done, the yarn all but used up. Without being forced to do so, with sufficient time to shop I would have started something else. I'm so glad I didn't have that option - stash busting payed off big time with this!
The shawl project isn't very portable though and we were headed for the cottage last weekend so I cast on some remnant worsted for the Tvaandsstickning Sampler Mittens from the class I took last spring at the DKC Frolic. I fiddled and ripped and diddled and ripped three times before I had gauge and had executed the cuff correctly but finally I'm on to the hand portion of the knit.
This photo is a few rows short of where I am now but I'm afraid I left my knitting behind at Number One Son's dentist's office yesterday. That meant last night I was without a project - EZ's Knitter's Almanac to the rescue - 'amazing how satisfying vicarious knitting can be. And its got my mind spinning off in all kinds of fanciful directions!
I hope you're feeling the knitting love as much as I am today. Thanks for dropping by!
As I prepared for the cottage this summer I madly cast about for "Sublime" patterns on Ravelry, only confirming 850 yards wasn't enough to make what I had in my mind`s eye. In the end I took a copy of Muse but ultimately the prospect of the super simple pattern seemed depressing. That`s when I headed off to flip through my, by now, dog eared copy of Knitting 24/7 by Veronique Avery.
In it, there's a little scarf, knit in two mirrored halves in 2 ply lace yarn on 2.75mm needles (finished width 9"). I'd looked at it before but never with the Sublime in mind yet suddenly it occurred to me it might work as a shawl if I used 6mm needles and so knit at a bigger gauge.
But how how to manage my quantity of yarn yet end up with something whose size and shape would be functional and make visual sense. I didn't want a Mohair scarf around my neck - talk about itchy! - this needed to fit around my shoulders.
So after swatching with something less"catchy" than the mohair to avoid having to rip back with the Sublime I knit up one ball in the smocked lace pattern that makes up each end of the scarf, and using simple ratios sorted out how long to made my centre portion so as to maintain the relative shape of Veronique's design in my gauge.
To accomplish that I used used 1.5 balls for each half of the Sawtooth Lace centre portion.
My plan is to baste the two pieces together, wrap up in the thing and then decide. If its too short I'll just add a few more rows to the end of each then do the decorative bind off the pattern recommends.
So this piece is very close to done, the yarn all but used up. Without being forced to do so, with sufficient time to shop I would have started something else. I'm so glad I didn't have that option - stash busting payed off big time with this!
The shawl project isn't very portable though and we were headed for the cottage last weekend so I cast on some remnant worsted for the Tvaandsstickning Sampler Mittens from the class I took last spring at the DKC Frolic. I fiddled and ripped and diddled and ripped three times before I had gauge and had executed the cuff correctly but finally I'm on to the hand portion of the knit.
This photo is a few rows short of where I am now but I'm afraid I left my knitting behind at Number One Son's dentist's office yesterday. That meant last night I was without a project - EZ's Knitter's Almanac to the rescue - 'amazing how satisfying vicarious knitting can be. And its got my mind spinning off in all kinds of fanciful directions!
I hope you're feeling the knitting love as much as I am today. Thanks for dropping by!
2 comments:
Don't you just love it when stash yarn and a pattern come together so perfectly?! The scarf is gorgeous! :-)
Perfect pattern for that yarn! I love how crisp the stitches look -a lovely contrast with the gorgeous mohair halo.
EZ is a pleasure to read every time, isn't she?
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