Thursday, February 23, 2006

Reading week and Olympic knitting


Nordic Lights capelet on
Originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.
The second half of the Winter 06 Olympics coincided with university reading week, a long weekend followed by teacher's convention in Alberta. That, coupled by a few family members with colds, meant a lot of time indoors, a lot of time watching Olympic events on TV, and the space to be surrounded by multiple balls of yarn.

I got a good enough start on Lady Eleanor last week to be confident about ordering more Noro, but needed something to work on while waiting for that. In the meantime, Wrap Style arrived and I had gobs of Paton's Classic Merino in my stash. So I hauled out the colours that most closely matched the Cascade called for in the pattern, and cast on.

I've had mixed results in my earlier experience with colorwork this year (witness Road to Oslo and the Stocking that mistook itself for a Hat), so this was a great opportunity to practice getting something close to even tension. I'm now confident enough to try tackling a sweater with fair isle bands. Because there were few floats over 3 stitches long, I didn't do a whole lot of "trapping" the yarn in between. In the blue and white section, there were a few 5-6 long floats and I did practice there.
I also found that I really really hate purling with two colours, which only happens once in this wrap, in the shoulder section. I didn't like it at all, and that one row was the most challenging in terms of carrying the yarn and keeping even-ish tension.
pattern: Nordic Lights, from Wrap Style
size 7 Boye needlemaster
Paton's Classic Merino
knit Feb 19-22 through a whole lot of Olympic figure skating and hockey
Nordic Lights capelet, inside

I also finally finished Samus! Almost! I am having a hard time finding grosgrain and a seperating zipper that doesn't clash, but otherwise, it's knit, blocked, and so darn close to done I'm calling it a near FO.

Samus on
I was a little concerned about reports that Paton's Classic Merino grew when washing and blocking, but I really didn't have too much trouble. With a bit of pushing, prodding and massaging it came out to almost perfect dimensions. This thing will fit perfectly, once I have the zipper in.


Samus blocking

Pattern: Knitty's Samus
size 7 Boye for cable, size 8 aeros for body
Paton's Classic Merino
Modifications: added waist shaping from Knitty's Rosedale

4 comments:

Knittypants said...

The wrap looks really, really good! So does Samus, I love the color you chose. I just ordered the yarn to make one for myself and I am going to do waist shaping, too. I love how yours turned out.

Pyewacket said...

Oh, I love the shaping you did with Samus! I dismissed it when I saw it on Knitty, thinking that it wouldn't flatter a woman with curves. Boy, was I wrong! Brava.

Miri Mack said...

Holy Canoli, Limesally! You're certainly a prolific knitter. I swear, everytime I have visited your blog you've always finished something really cool.

Let me just say that Your fair isle capelet is awesome! And your lady eleanor is looking gorgeous. I can't wait to see your finished Rib and Cable sock.

Cheers!

Holly said...

Hi! I found your blog when I did a search for Cat Bordhi.
Your Samus is fantastic! I'm using that yarn in an aran right now-hope my sweater turns out as well.