scarf

Sorry about the glare, but above is a picture of the finished scarf after blocking!

I'm really happy with how it turned out. Now, I just need to decide if I would actually wear it or if I should give it to someone. I have enough yarn to make a second one. This was a fun project.

Here's a slightly better picture of the ends of the scarf:
You can see that the blocking didn't hold too well on the end; it's pulling up again instead of staying square. But, at least the lace is staying open.

Finally, here is a nice close-up picture of the lace pattern:
I love the colors in this yarn! And it is sooooo soft!! Panda Cotton rules!

Blocking and Socking

I finally blocked my lace Panda Cotton scarf today! This was the "Branching Out" pattern from knitty.com.

I decided to put a white towel down on the floor and just pin the scarf to the floor to block it. It seemed to work well. First, I folded the scarf up (just in half, and again in half, several times until it was a small bundle) and then ran it under running water in the sink for a little bit, squeezing it gently until it was completely wet. Then I gently squeezed the excess water out and brought it over to where I had put the towel on the floor. I used some brass sewing pins that I had on hand and just pinned every inch or so. I started by pinning one of the short ends so that it was straight and then just worked my way down the sides, putting a couple pins on each side working back and forth. The last thing I did was pin the other short side.

This was my first real blocking of a project and it seemed to go pretty smoothly! I hope it looks good once it is dry.

The three pictures below are of the scarf pre-blocking. It was hard to focus on the lace so they're not really sharp pictures. Sorry!Here is a picture of the scarf during the blocking process:
As you can see, the left side has been pinned and you can see the lace pattern start to open up. The right side is wet and has not been pinned yet.

Here is the scarf completely pinned and blocking. Now I just need to wait for it to dry.
I will be sure to post pictures of the scarf once it is dry!

In other knitting news, I am moving along nicely on the Sable Panda Cotton socks. All I have to finish on the first sock is the toe!
This is the Twisted Rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks. It was a very easy pattern to remember and I did choose to work the pattern on top of the foot down to the toes (sometimes I decide to just knit the foot in plain stockinette). I have been wearing my blue Panda Cotton socks a lot and I knit the ribbing down the foot on those and I like the way it looks.

Here is a close-up picture of the sock:
That's all for now! My big decision now is if I should start the 2nd Sable sock as soon as I'm done with this one or start the periwinkle socks because I already know what pattern I want to try for those and I'm anxious to see how it knits up! I will probably be good and finish the pair of Sable socks just so I can wear them soon! They are knitting up pretty fast so hopefully I can start the periwinkle socks in a couple weeks anyway!

Misc. Saturday update

I went to two yarn shops this weekend and didn't buy any yarn. If I would have seen Panda Cotton or Wick I would have scooped it up in a heartbeat, but I didn't.

I did see this though:
It's blue (of course, that got my attention right away), it's fabric, it's in a yarn shop...
It organizes my double-pointed sock knitting needles perfectly!! Just the right number of needle pouches. (That is until I buy MORE dpns but I'll worry about that when the time comes. And it even has a little zippered pouch on the side to hold my cable needles, darning needles, scissors and other misc. stuff I always need when I'm knitting.

I bought it at Purl One, Sit Too in Strasburg, PA. It is made by Lantern Moon.

Also, I wanted to post a picture of the progress on my Branching Out scarf:
Wow, not a very great picture, but you can see I have been working on it! I promise to take a more "in focus" picture once it is done.

And last, but not least, (well, maybe it should be least) remember the yellow "beginner's bear" that I mentioned in my first bears post? Yes, my sad, pathetic first attempt at a knit bear with yellow and white dishcloth cotton. Well, here it is:
Notice the yellow yarn hanging down from his one arm. I really didn't follow the directions when attaching his arms. So sad...

I've come a long way. I'll leave you with a picture of one of my better knit bears, "Sleepy Sam", also from Sandra Polley's The Knitted Teddy Bear:

Welcome!

Well, here it is, my first blog post!

I have been thinking about starting a knitting blog for awhile and finally decided to try it out.

I am currently knitting a lace scarf using Panda Cotton and I am really enjoying this project! The colorway is "Seascape". Isn't it pretty? The pattern is "Branching Out" from knitty.com.














I also recently finished knitting a pair of socks using Sockina Cotton. The striping color changes of that yarn were a lot of fun and made the project go really fast.














I think I'll keep this first post short as I am still trying to figure out how to do this!