I am in the Knitting Olympics!

I signed up for the Yarn Harlot’s knitting olympics.

I don’t know what I will be knitting yet, but have a number of projects lined up, including at least 2 ponchos, and a sweater already on the needles, which disqualifies it for the Olympics.

I will figger it out later.

My version of the ubiquitous poncho….

Okay, I love ponchos. No better garment can be found….it can be worn anywhere, just change the fabric. It suits everyone, just change the proportion a bit, from babies to old ladies, and it’s easy to make. After seeing them and trying those two piece ponchos where you sew the short ends of two rectanlges to the long ends of the rectangles and not being happy with the results, I came up with this pattern:

Ceallach’s Poncho
Yarn requirements vary somewhat as we all know based on the weight and needles, but here goes. The best thing about this pattern is that it is knit from the top down, which means that you just knit till you run out of yarn.

Take a length of yarn long enough to drape around your neck the way you would like it to. Now draw out three times that measurement and cast on using long tail until the end on circular needles making sure that you have an even number of stitches. Join the round careful not to twist the cast on, you can knit even for a row if that is easier before joining.

Now, place two markers at the beginning of the round and the halfway mark, i.e before stitch 1 and before stitch 20 if you have 40 stitches total.

Knit continuously as follows:

Round 1: PM K1 YO K TO 1 ST BEFORE NEXT MARKER YO K1 PM K1 YO K TO 1 ST REMAINS IN ROUND YO K1.
Round 2: Knit Even.

Repeat these rounds until you have only enough yarn to bind off and do so.

The poncho will have two points, with a two columns of eyelets running down the center back and front.

I know that these directions are a bit vague, since the gauge, needle, and yarn weight are missing, but I am assuming that if you knit this that you can figure this out. I tend to knit this poncho on a somewhat looser gauge than others would, so use a larger needle than normal so that the fabric drapes nicely. If you are more methodical in terms of gauge, check it after a few rows, and multiply your stitches per inch by the number of inches that you would like the neck to be as a check. Row gauge is irrelevant for this pattern as there is no additional shaping.

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I am a….

You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting
and do it all the time. While finishing a
piece is the plan, you still love the
process, and can’t imagine a day going by
without giving some time to your yarn.
Packing for vacation involves leaving ample
space for the stash and supplies. It can be
hard to tell where the yarn ends and you
begin.http://marniemaclean.com/

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Price of Prism

Okay, you know that yarn by Prism called Wild Stuff or Cool Stuff that is like 95$ a skein? The price is outrageous right?

Ah, but that may not be the case. I have always thought that too, even as I lusted after it for years, until Left Coast Knitter turned me onto a sale of the stuff wherein it was only 68$ a skein.

I bought two.

So now I am knitting a lovely poncho out of it and as I got ready to wind the second skein, noticed the label. (Yes, it is sad that I noticed the label 300 yards into the project. )

It said roughly:

WildStuff
Wool, Mohair, et al.
300 yards
Approx 6-8 ounces.

Yes, that is right, 6-8 ounces.

Which means that it is like 4-6 skeins of almost any other yarn. With that in mind, I present you the following:

1 full skein of Prism at 300 yards = 4 skeins of a yarn with 75 yards at $25 a skein
1 full skein of Prism at 300 yards = 6 skeins of a yarn with 50 yards at $16.30 a skein

How many of us would buy a ball of yarn at those prices?

Okay, now….

Prism is basically a whole bunch of yarns tied together into a cohesive whole. In my skeins, there are at least 12-15 different yarns together. Now if you buy 12-15 skeins of yarn, the price adds up:

12-15 skeins of various novelties (and we will go with the cheaper ones) is going to cost you between 5 and 10 dollars a skein. We will split the difference, and call it $7.50. You are looking at between 90 and a 118 dollars total for those novelties. And the 12-15 different yarns is probably underestimating the actual different yarns in Stuff!

Prism is looking cheaper by the moment! How else will you get constant entertainment for your knitting, by changing yarn at every row.

Now I don’t feel so guilty about my purchase. In fact I got a great deal!

Anyone have a hairpin?

I have finally figured out how to make hairpin lace! Its a bit tricky and fumbly at first but it works! I don’t know what I plan to do with it, but figured it out, that’s the important thing. Maybe I will try to make a scarf with it, to see how that works out.

Onward!

PS. That is the baby’s butt in the picture. She had woken up and Daddy brought her out. A little milkee, and then she was out again, but we were too lazy to put her back in bed.

Feather and Fan Dance….

Here is are the feather and fan socks, after at least one full rip on the first one, not to mention that I bound off the full sock once and then ripped out the bindoff down to the dropped stitch.

So gentle readers, look ye upon the Prince of Frogs.

Oh by the way, I am knitting toe up, that is the second toe on the dpn’s there, and note the heel is not done on the full sock there, although I do have a piece of waste yarn marking the heel position.

Needles on Wheels!

Okay, I have not posted in a while, but everyone should know that the main reason is that I have been too busy knitting.

And I am Knitting up a storm. For no reason at all.

I have knitting with me at the office. When I get home, I eat and then sit down and knit while the rugrats roll around on the floor (baby girl) and bounce off the walls (not so baby boy) around me. They seem to be happy with that, since I am there, and I am happy because I have knitting in my hands.

The only way that this could be better would be if I could sleep til noon and then knit til midnight.

On the needles right now is a feather and fan sock, knit toe up of course, and Saturday I cast on, knit a bit, and now I have passed the heel, and am 4 inches into the cuff. Another couple of inches and it is done. This is the fastest that I have ever knit a sock. At this rate, I will be through the sock yarn in the house very quickly indeed.

Off to socknit….