The Knitting Scotsman

Yep, I’ve got the flu.  Not a bad cold, not the kind that makes you live in the bathroom, good old-fashioned influenza.  It sucks, really.  I’m achy, tired, cold, then hot, hacking, coughing, sneezing.  I’m a NyQuil commercial.  I went to the doctor, and he said, “Yep, influenza, here’s a prescription for Tamiflu.”  One stop at the pharmacy later, and I’m once again glad for my medical coverage.  A pack of 10 pills, $113.99!  That’s $11.40 per pill!

Geez.

Well, I’ve just about completed my first sock.  It’s a simple ribbed sock using Aran weight yarn, so it is going super fast.  That’s good, because I don’t have a whole lot of focus right now, and I can’t seem to do more than a couple rows at a time.  I’ll post some pictures when I feel good enough to get the camera, and the card reader, and the laptop, and my sock, all at the same time.

The cable swatch is one complete repeat (24 rows) of the center panel (right side of the photo) and one side panel (left side of the photo).

Starting at the right is a 6 stitch wave cable, then a 4 stitch honeycomb, then a 10 stitch braid, another 4 stitch honeycomb, and another 6 stitch wave. This set of cables represent the side panel. The mirror image of this panel will be repeated on the other side of the center panel.

To the right of the side panel is a 6 stitch braid, then a 23 stitch simple Celtic cable with a 24 row repeat, then another 6 stitch braid.

 Now, I just need to order my yarn!

And it looks GREAT on her!

This is my first “Girl From Auntie” project. I’m truly amazed by the quality of her design on this pattern. Not only is the pattern extremely well written, the charts are easy to follow and the legend is excellent.

Her use decreases to move the cables, and reduce the size of the hat are very creative. All of the decreases are hidden in the knot pattern, there is not one decrease on the vertical cables, at least until the second to last row. The cable pattern goes all the way to the last row, and the symmetry is never lost.

I love this pattern!

This hat was knit using Blue Sky Alpacas Melange, colorway 811 (Bubblegum), which is a deep pink.  This stuff is wonderful to work with.  It’s smooth, even, and very, very, very soft.  I’ll defintely work with it again.

This is could be a challenging project, if you’ve never done cables before, but it is would also be a truly satisfying learning experience.

I haven’t had much time for knitting this week.  I had to go back to work, so I’m getting back on schedule.  Not enough sleep = SleepyScotsman = knitting mistakes = NotKnittingScotsman.

 I did notice a huge mistake on my Celtic Cable Cap about 10 rows down, so I frogged it.  I caught back up last night.  I’m too tired this evening to work on a complicated pattern, and I haven’t found a sock pattern for the aran weight yarn I’ve got earmarked for some wearing around the cold house socks.

I still need to order the yarn for my FLAK sweater.  I did chart out an entire single repeat in Excel.  It’s 121 stitches wide, with a 24 row repeat.  I figure I’ll take it easy on my first big sweater project.  Now I just need to get some legal size paper so I can read it when it is printed.  Next step is to swatch a single repeat of my cables, then I can size the sweater, and I’ll be ready to start knitting. (after I get the yarn of course).

You might notice the nifty progress bars off to the left.  Thanks Ravelry, for providing an project API.  If you are a member of Ravelry, and want to incorporate progress bars on your site, take a look HERE.  If you host your own WordPress, look HERE for a plug in that will make adding the progress bars easier.

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Well, I finally did it, I learned to do cables without a cable needle.  It is so easy, I’m shocked that they even make cable needles!  I’m working on the Celtic Cable Cap, using a cable needle.  Once I get going, I go pretty quickly.  However, everyone on Ravelry (if you aren’t on yet, go get on the waiting list!) keeps raving about how easy it is to cable without a needle, and how the needle only slows you down.  Well, except for the few people who love their U shaped aluminum needles, and say that they are afraid of dropping stitches.

So, given how everyone says it easy and faster, and the fact that there are some who are afraid to do it, I had to try it myself.  I mean, I don’t want to be left behind while “all the cool kids are doing it”.  At the same time, I like a challenge, so if some people are saying it’s hard, or scary, then I’ve got to try it myself, just to see if I can do it.

Guess what…

It is super easy.

I love my Brittnay Birch Cable Needles, and I doubt I’ll be tossing them with my old metal needles and acrylic yarn, but I doubt I’ll be reaching for them unless I get into some crazy hard cabling.

So for all the nay-sayers who are saying, “Nay!”  Here is a great articleon how to cable without a needle.  I saw some other articles explaining it, but they tend to do the complete cross, then knit the whole mess.  That seems complicated, and tight.  Grumperina’s method has you slip the first half that would normally go on the cable needle, then knit (or purl) the second half.  Then you do the cross, and knit (or purl) the rest.  It’s easier to do than describe.  Go have a look at the pictures, you’ll get it.

We were sitting at home last night, daughter in bed, nothing to do.  I didn’t have anything on needles, so I decided to fix my new hat.  It was just too short.  I frogged down to the start of the increases, and added an inch to it.  I was able to get it finished up before bed last night.  I wore it out today, and it’s great.  It probably only needed 3/4 of an inch, but I like a big hat that I can really pull down over my ears.  I’m much happier with it now.

My MIL finished her hat today, just a few minutes ago, while I was casting on the Celtic Cable Cap  I’m quite proud of her.  She spent a lot of time on this hat, and it looks great.  She made a few mistakes.  I frogged it back for her once, I tinked back a row or so twice, then she asked me how to go back herself, so I showed her.  While she was at my sister-in-law’s house, she frogged out about 10 rows on her own.  She did it exactly right, and you can’t tell where any of the issues were.  The entire last part of the hat, she did without any issues.  She even made the transition from circular to DPN without any laddering or other issues.

This is strange, and totally off topic.

We had crazy strong winds yesterday.  One time, I looked out the window, and there was a fresh-cut Christmas tree on my front lawn.  I watched it blow around a bit (yes the winds were that strong). I had to move it off my driveway when we left to do some shopping.  It was still there today when we got up.  The owner never came to fetch it.  So, in helping it fulfill it’s destiny, I decided to put it up and decorate it.  The Griswold’s it is not, but a string of lights, some crepe paper, and viola a happy Christmas tree.

I completed the crochet border on Reid this evening.  I also finished weaving in the 10,000 yarn ends that I had been fighting with.  It’s crazy how many strands of yarn this project generated.

I’m really happy with the results.  I had originally purchased a pink yarn to use as the border.  However the more I knitted in green the more I disliked the combination with pink.  I went back and got a ball of purple and used it instead.  I think it works much better.

Here is the finished product:

I finally got some test yarn for my latest project, FLAK(Follow the Leader Aran Knitting).  I knit the gauge swatch for the filler stitch last night.  I washed and blocked the swatch, can you believe it?  I chose a moss stitch for the filler, instead of the suggested seed stitch.  I got the suggestion from someone’s project on Ravelry, and I like the look of it better.

I’ve decided on Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, in Forest Heater.  I ordered two balls of the yarn, to make sure I liked the color.  I also purchased Claret Heather, but it is way more red than it looks online. 

My gauge is dead on with size 6 (4.0 mm) needles.  I’ve got a little more edging to do on my Reid, which it turns out I should be able to finish as a Christmas gift for my daughter.  So, I won’t be doing much work on the sweater before Christmas.  I might pop into my favorite LYS tomorrow (since they’ll be open) and get one of those fancy rosewood circular needles to work the sweater on.  I’ve been saying all along, that when I do this sweater, I’m going to treat myself to a good set of needles.

It isn’t much yet, but here is my gauge swatch:

I’m thinking of changing out the center cable on the FLAK with something more like this.

I’ll probably have to add a cable on either side, maybe some chevrons.  I’ll keep hunting.  I’m also considering adding a Triquetra to the back, in the middle, between the shoulder blades.  Since the sweater is knit top down, I’ll have to experiment with flipping the chart  over.  I’ll post more on that later.