Knit Happens

And so it begins again. Once a project is bound off, blocked and ready to wear, I’m on a quest to start something new. Wait, you say I’ve already got projects on the needles? Well, of course I do!

Actually, after finishing my Featherweight Cardi (I’m so glad that my idea of a knitalong is taking on a life of its own… but I digress), I immediately got back to work on a Green Gable (Rav link) that I’d started ages ago in the Classic Elite Premiere – and finished it. Which left me floundering for another project… and I pulled one out of my UFO pile, but the Cotton Bamboo I was using was not being kind to my hands, so down it goes for a bit.

Again, that left me floundering for a project. Until I was reading blogs and saw Elspeth’s latest post and saw this beauty. (The shawl, although the model is gorgeous, too.) Lavalette (Rav link), by Through the Loops!’s Kirsten Kapur. A quick dive in my sock yarn stash, provided the ideal yarn (a recent acquisition from another shop, sorry! However, I might just make another one… or two…)

Lavalette is proving to be just what I’m looking for in a project right now: quick and easy. I cast on late this morning at the shop and that picture was taken after just a couple hours of knitting! (I’m actually much farther along than that, that’s how quick this knits!) Worked up on US7s, it has a great drapey feel that’s going to grow effortlessly when I block it out. So, as I’m knitting on this, I start to think about how the Featherweight Cardi became an informal knitalong (and is going really well – I can’t wait to see some of those finished!) and thought that for those who just need a quick and dirty project or want to give some easy lace a try, this would fit the bill perfectly!

Pattern available from Kirsten’s site. Go download it and join me!

P.S. The photo was totally bogarted from Elspeth’s site – go visit her and tell her how much you love the shawl. Just sayin’.

Now onto the technology portion of this post. Recently, I gave up my Blackberry for an iPhone again and have been having fun relearning the phone. I had forgotten how many ways that this simple phone can make my knitting life easier – there are row counter apps galore, knitting needle/project organizers (and hopefully there will be a Rav app sometime in the future)… But what I hadn’t anticipated was that iBooks would also be a HUGE help to the knitting life! No, I haven’t gone on there to see if there are knitting books available, however, I discovered that you can store PDFs on there. What does that mean? Well, if you have a PDF of a project (that you own legally, natch), you can email yourself a copy of it and open it using iBooks, keeping a copy with you on your phone (or iPod, or iPad), lessening the need to have a printed copy with you. I may have gotten a bit excited over discovering that – and I think that I’ll be emailing tons of my PDFs to myself just to have them in iBooks. 

I was going through my blog reader tonight and saw a post on one of them that said that the new Knitty was up!  Of course, I immediately went over there and took a look… and now my queue is overflowing – again.  Oops.  I just may have added Torreyana, Inamorata (designed by my friend Mercedes!), Tappan Zee, and Tribute (you know I had to add a sock pattern in) to my queue.  This may just be the best Spring Knitty in a while – thanks Amy!

What are you thinking about knitting from this latest Knitty?  Post your answers in the comments – also, what yarns are you thinking of using with them?

So, you’ve been by the shop and looked at the luscious Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn and wondered what you could do with it, other than making socks (why, I don’t know, but go with me here). How about this idea – use one skein to make a gorgeous, lacy scarf that’s easy and quick to knit?

Well, that’s what we thought too, but no one had enough time to sit down with it and play around to find a lace pattern that wasn’t obscured by the striping, which is where our lovely 4-Ply Katie comes in and saves us! Katie just got back from her honeymoon and is spending lots of time in the DC area before she has to go back to the Sudan and has been acquiring yarn to add to her stash. Well, when she picked up a skein of the Silk Garden Sock, she had the same thought as we did – only she actually came up with a pattern! And what a cute pattern it is… Thanks Katie!

4-Ply Katie’s Simple Chevron Scarf

Materials

1 skein Silk Garden Sock yarn (approx. 320 yds)
1 set US5 needles

Notes

• Scarf will have a three stitch garter stitch border.

• Scarf is approximately 80” long and 5” wide if entire ball is used.

Pattern

Row 1: k3, *yo, k1, sl1, k2tog, psso, k1, yo, k1; repeat from * to last two sts, k2

Row 2: k3, purl to last 3 sts, k3

Scarf

CO 29 sts
Knit 6 rows
Repeat the two rows of the pattern until the scarf is the desired length.
Knit 6 rows.
BO all sts.

Block scarf firmly to achieve openness and end points.