Andrea's Christmas Scarf (Part Two)

Note: You can find Part One here.
After I completed 14 repeats, I decided it was done and ready to be blocked. Luckily, I finished knitting just as Christmas Eve turned into Christmas Day. I was definitely down to the wire.

It looked like this before blocking.

I soaked the scarf in a bath of Soak in the bathroom sink. I love Soak!

The wet scarf looked really, really bright. Luckily, the yarn didn't bleed at all. Reds and pinks always make me nervous, especially when the knitted item is a gift.

Then I stretched it out on my blocking boards. This is when I wish I had three blocking boards instead of two. Instead, I used a towel underneath the middle of the scarf.

It turned out really well. I love the waves of the lace pattern. After consideration, I even decided that I even liked the way the colorway pooled.

Andrea's Christmas Scarf (Part One)

I'm extremely happy that Christmas is over. All the last minute knitting, beading, and paper crafting is done! Everyone has their gifts, and they seemed pleased with them.

Now I can reveal what I've been working on for the last two weeks. I made my sister a lace scarf. the Lace Ribbon Scarf by Veronik Avery. I used a yarn I purchased a long time ago, Sweet Feet by Hill Country Yarns. I love this pattern. I endlessly adore it. The repeats are simple and easy to memorize, yet the the finished project is gorgeous. I'm not totally in love with how the decreases were handled, but I don't know of a better alternative.

Although this project is worked up in fingering weight yarn, it seems to knit up very quickly. My perspective may be a bit distorted; the lace chart is addicting and makes time fly by.

I'm not sure how many hours I have spent on this. I always need to have something going on in the background while I knit. With the Kimono Shawl, it was Pride and Prejudice (both audiobook, BBC version, and American movie). With Yggdrasil, I hunted down as many movies I could that I wanted to see. However, I've seen a lot of movies. I own a lot of movies. I am also very picky about the movies I like.

I was running out of things to watch. So I decided to pick up a series I've been avoiding for the last 7 years: LOST. When it first premiered I watched the pilot episode. I wasn't intrigued enough to continue watching. By the second and third season, as it gathered a rather rabid fan base, I wanted to watch it but it's not a show you can just jump into mid season. I didn't have the time to get caught up on the first seasons in order for it to make sense. So I've never seen it.

Enter Andrea's Scarf. I suddenly have this long lace scarf that needs to be done in less than two weeks, and it's made in fingering weight. It was going to take a lot of hours to finish, and I needed something to keep me entertained while I knit. And knit. And knit. I also picked up the first season of Deadwood, which is a great show but when I watched the first episode of Lost Deadwood got relegated to the back corner.

After 13 episodes of Lost, I completed 11 repeats of the scarf. I think I averaged a little over an hour per repeat, (1000 sts). This is a rough estimate as I've never timed a repeat. There's also interruptions like changing to the next episode, marking the completed rows in Photoshop, and recording my rows in Ravelry. If I have time, I'd like to track exactly how long each repeat takes. Then I could geek out a bit.

As it's a lace scarf, several repeats in I put it on my blocking boards and stretched it out so that I could see the lace pattern.

Emily

I've decided this year I'm going to knit some toys for charity. I have not yet found a charity, although my mother has one she likes. She's going to sew some toys and I will be knitting mine. I have a variety of animals and dolls in mind. My first toy is Emily, by Jean Greenhowe.


Please excuse the Ravelry links, I'm too exhausted to take photos. I spent the last three hours going through my craft closet and reorganizing all my yarn, works in progress and needles. Somehow all my knitpicks interchangable needles have gone MIA. The amount of needles MIA has become so drastic that I needed to do an inventory of all the needles I own. They're sitting in a pile on the floor right now, and I don't have the exact numbers yet. The damage is high though, I can tell that already. Not good. Is there a needle monster that eats all my needles?

I worked a bit on Emily today. Her hair is now sewn to her head, complete with part, so it no longer looks like a bowl cut. I finished knitting her second leg, sewed in all the ends, and seamed it together. It just needs to be stuffed, the top stitched together, then stitched onto her body.

Well... that didn't work

I'm working on my mother's Christmas present, getting everything prepped, cut out, etc. She reads this blog, so no specifics on the project until after Christmas. She knows it will be sewn and uses fabric, so I'm safe to post this.

Anyways, so I bought this great green fabric. It has a wonderful pattern, and the color matches the other fabrics perfectly. I was ironing the fabrics when suddenly I realize that the color looks off. I spread it out, and low and behold, the fabric goes from this nice spring kelly green to a very very light icky lime green color. Crap. At first I'm convinced that the color has just washed out. But to wash out in a perfect sequential gradient? Hmm. So off a googling I go. Low and behold, the entire series of fabrics in this line are gradients. How the hell did I not notice this on the bolt? Really, how did I not see this?

So now I have a day off that I won't be able to use working on my mom's present because the green ties this entire project together, and I can't go to the next step until I have the green. I'll have to wait until I get paid on Friday so I can go to Joann's again and find another green. I had a hard enough time finding this green, and now I get to start the process all over again.

Sometimes, I think I am my own worst enemy.