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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

WIP: Magrathea

I received the pattern for Magrathea in a swap last summer. Many months later, I have finally started it.

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Aside from its awesome, inspired name, it's a lovely shawl/scarf with an interesting construction. I debated with myself over using this particular yarn - a BFL / Cashmere / Silk blend - on a piece with so much garter stitch, wondering if it would be better suited for something with more smooth areas of knitting to bring out the lustre. I think it is a good fit so far, though. Squooshy squooshy. The subtle colour changes that are almost entirely not visible in my photos are really pretty. (Lovely blues and greens. You'll just have to take my word for it, for now).

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See more WIPS at Tami's blog.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

FO: Pomatomus

My Pomatomus socks are finally finished! They have been on the needles since April last year, and I'm so pleased to be done with them. I love them. They are my most impressive socks - as in, the ones I'm most impressed with myself for knitting.

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The pattern, of course, is Pomatomus by Cookie A. The yarn is Project B from the now-defunct Ariadne Knits in Montreal. It's 80% wool, 20% nylon, and rather smooshy. I bought it on a visit soon before moving to Edinburgh, and it was one of the lucky stashed items that made it into my one suitcase. The colour is golden yellow-orange and fabulous. (And more luminous than my camera could handle). In the skein it shone like its own light source even buried in my stash box. Heh.

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As for the pattern, it's not that difficult. It just takes persistence. They took me so long to complete because of the concentration required. Whenever I thought I had internalised the pattern enough to be able to read my knitting, I'd mess it up. I learned that I had to keep a careful eye on the chart at all times, and that really slowed me down. I also put the knitting aside for long stretches while I worked on other more immediately satisfying things.

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But I do love them now that they are finished. The yarn and pattern are a perfect match - if I could only knit with semi-solids I'd been a contented knitter. The only real mod I made was to end the toes and graft them together having only decreased to 20 stitches, rather than 12. They would have been far too pointy for my feet otherwise.

Finishing these is extremely satisfying. Now I can start something new, guilt-free!

Sunday, February 03, 2013

WIP: noro scarf

I'm not the first to do a stripy Noro scarf, and probably not the last. The ubiquity of this scarf suggests that sometimes simple is best. I am kind of addicted to watching the colours change, so it will probably be finished soon.

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I started out using Brooklyn Tweed's recipe, but it was turning out too wide, so I ripped it out and started again with 29 stitches instead of 39. I only have 3 skeins of Noro, so hopefully the reduction in CO stitches will yield a long enough scarf.

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I had two skeins of similar but different bluey-green-purple Noro Kureyon that I bought on impulse years ago, and I've added the spring-coloured Noro I got for Christmas. It has worked out really well so far, since the Christmas yarn has lots of light colour - it contrasts really well with the deeper / darker shades in the other skeins. I have done some strategic cutting in places when things got a little muddy and low-contrast, but mostly I'm letting it do what it will.

Noro divides opinions. I love it, but I wouldn't use it for many types of projects; however, it really lives up to its potential in simple things like this.