ShihKnits » scarf

Swiss Cheese Scarf

winnie — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 21:09:00 +0000

I’ve had a few inquiries in regards to the Swiss Cheese Scarf over the last few weeks and figured maybe others in blogland may be interested in making one for themselves. This is mindless knitting to the nth degree, but the results are beautiful (if I may say so) and a staple to anyone’s wardrobe.

The general idea is simple: Knit a few rows, bind of a few stitches, cast on the sts that you bound off the previous row, and knit some more. Rinse and Repeat. Pattern: Swiss Cheese Scarf, my own.
Materials: Sz 3 needles, about 800-1000 yds of laceweight yarn
Gauge: not important, but my scarf is about 10-12″ wide after blocking.
Recipe as follows:

CO 110 sts

Rows 1-6: Knit
Row 7: K5 (BO10, K8) 5 times, BO 10, K5
Row 8: K5 (CO10, K8) 5 times, CO 10, K5
Rows 9-14: Knit
Row 15: BO6, K8, (BO10, K8) 5 times, K6
Row 16: BO6, K8, (CO10, K8) 5 times, CO6
Row 17: Knit to end, CO6

Repeat Rows 2-17 until desired length, then BO all sts.

All rights reserved by me. Please use this pattern for your own enjoyment ONLY. Not for resale or distribution unless authorized by me.

I wanted an airy feel to this scarf, and just happened to have a bunch of laceweight yarn sitting in my stash. The same idea can be applied to any weight yarn, but you’d have to cast on fewer number of sts and play with the CO/BO number.

Edit: I’ve received a number of emails due to the holes not lining up properly. Apologies for those who have experienced frustration with this pattern, and special thanks to my readers for spotting the error. Thanks!

The scarf pattern in a downloadable pdf file is now available in the “Patterns” page.

Enjoy!

Inching Forward

winnie — Sat, 03 Feb 2007 02:26:00 +0000

It’s been, hm, over a year. While I haven’t stopped knitting, it’s safe to say that I’ve slowed down significantly. Why? Life. It gets in the way of knitting sometimes. One day I may eventually write about the things that have transpired, but suffice to say that for now, I’m getting the knitting mojo back again and that I hope to have more FO’s for the year ahead.

This blog is meant to document the projects that I have made over the last year – pitifully few, but nonetheless let’s get to it. (Let’s face it, it’s more for me now anyways. I probably lost all my readers a long long time ago).

Ah yes, the Pomatomus socks. I knew from the get-go that the perfect st count for socks for my feet would be way less than the 72 sts that the pattern states to CO. So modifications galore and voila. Perfect fit.
Needles used: Sz 1 addi’s (2.5mm), magic loop, 60 sts leg to 64 sts foot
Materials: Koigu KPPPM (p219), 2 skeins
Next, the ball-band dish cloth that everyone and their mothers have made. I’ve made a few, and this is just one of many. I think we have seen enough of them around the blogland to get into the details.

And last, my Swiss Cheese Scarf. Appropriate name, non? This is probably the easiest scarf that one can make and I chose to knit from stash. I wanted a light and airy scarf that has enough texture to stand out, yet be simple enough that I can just sit down and knit without having to worry about patterns. Light and airy? Check. I will use laceweight merino. Simple? Check. Nothing complicating about binding off certain number of stitches and casting back on. Results? Mighty long to make, but mighty pleased.

Materials: School Products Lace-weight Merino. Color 7. Gifted by Joy.
Needles: Sz 3.

And there you have it. I’m in the process of knitting a Komi Hat right now too.. so expect an FO soon. The next time I blog won’t be a year from now, that’s for sure.

And oh, happy new year. It’s been so long.

Clapotis : Take 2

winnie — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 10:58:00 +0000

Pattern: Clapotis from Knitty
Materials: Handpainted Merino from Uruguay, 3.5 balls (supposedly 218 yds per skein. I still feel I was shorted), Sz 7 circular needles (Gotta love Denise Interchangeables)
Notes: Soft, warm and non-itchy. Forgot how many repeats I did on this one, just kept knitting until I felt it was the right length.
Update: Thank you all for your lovely compliments! I’ve received a few questions in regards to where I purchased my yarn. It’s from an ebay seller under the name 100purewool. Just make sure you got more yarn than what you THINK you actually need. And while you’re at it, if you have a yarn meter, please check whether or not they really come in 218 yd hanks. Don’t want you to run into yarn shortage problems like I did.

Short

winnie — Mon, 29 Aug 2005 07:28:00 +0000

Moments after winding up that handpainted merino from Uruguay, I started knitting Clapo2 right away. 650yds of yummy goodness. I’ve often wondered what other knitters meant when they described their yarn as being sproingy, and now I know. Boing! boing! Now you if remembered my Clapo1, you would know that I used less than 600 yds of the Lorna’s Laces goodness and still ended up with more yarn to knit an extra straight repeat ( I did 14 repeats, btw, using sz 7 needles). So I figured, ooh.. I can totally bump this baby up to 15-16 repeats no problem and wrap myself in this divine sproinginess.

NO. SUCH. LUCK.
I think I’ve been short-changed on the yarn. At first, I thought maybe it’s the difference between knitting with sport-weight and worsted weight yarn, but then again, I am using the exact same needles and I am supposed to have more yarn than the last time, so what’s the deal yo? I’m already into the third ball of yarn and if I were to use it up, I’d only have 11 straight repeats instead of the original 13 in the pattern. WTF? Another giant dishcloth? It would take about a month just to order another ball of yarn and wait for it to fly from Uruguay to Los Angeles. The more I think about it, the more angered I am because I’ve worked on it ALL WEEKEND LONG and I really wanted to have it done by next week.
Yes, I could probably rip it all out and make a narrower Clapo2. But I like the width, I like the parts that are already knitted up, and I want it to wrap around me, not just my neck. No siree, there will be no ripping the Clapo2. Why? Because the yarn sticks and dropping those stitches was no fun feat. I can hardly conjur up the courage to rip. Damn it. I sent an email to the lady who sold me this yarn.. so we’ll see if she will respond to me. And it better be soon, cuz patience is not my virtue. I feel cheated. yuck.

The East Side / West Side Union

winnie — Sat, 23 Jul 2005 05:59:00 +0000

Remember my nervousness and excitement over meeting up with Joy and Andrea? It was supposed to happen at 2pm, but the greyhound didn’t cooperate. Andrea and I had big plans to truck Joy around the LYS in LA, spanning from Universal City to Santa Monica and possibly even Hollywood. Unfortunately, Andrea had a class to attend and by the time I met up with Joy, it was too late to hit any yarn stores. But boy did Joy make up for lost time! The little lady brought us goody bags with sample yarns from Artfiber, munchies, and get this, a whole cake of cashmere yarn!! Speaking of which, Andrea, you and I need to meet up at UCLA some time next week so you can pick up your package. Any later, and I’ll hoard your share too. Hee hee.

Before meeting Joy, I was a bundle of nerves. Will she be as cool as she seems on her blog? Will it be awkward? Maybe I should bring my knitting so if it gets awkward then I’ll just knit? What if I clam up and bore her to death? Oh my god I’m actually meeting up with ppl from the internet? Oh my god I sound like such a loser… you get the point. Well, the moment we met, we gave each other a big hug and surprisingly, my nervousness kinda melted away. I guess Joy has that effect on people. I didn’t bring my camera, so y’all will have to wait to see our pic together on Joy’s website at a later date. It was a hot humid night, so don’t be surprised if we look a little frazzled with shiny foreheads. You’ve been warned. I had a really great time hanging out with Joy and her friends – Thomas the Ultimate Karaoke Machine, Sarah the Crafty Crochet Queen, and Eric the Fabu Decorator. Okay, I am just making up titles for them now, but that’s my impression in a nutshell – all very cool people.
Joy wanted to know what I was working on right now, and it’s Backyard Leaves from scarf style for my mom. I’m using sportweight yarn.. so hopefully it won’t be too holey after blocking. Here’s my progress so far..

Enjoy your weekend y’all. I’m camping out at my bf’s air-conditioned house.
*Edit: Here’s the sweaty pic that I stole off Joy’s blog. Har har.. I brightened it so you can see us a little better, although probably shinier too now that I look at it.

Scarf-O-Mania

winnie — Wed, 20 Jul 2005 18:51:00 +0000

I’ve been slacking on Phildar Stripey….the endless stockinette is boring me to death..argh.. I am so not in the mood for big projects recently, so I’ve resorted to making scarves. Here is Leaf Cravat by Teva Durham, using sz 5 needles and a sport weight Baruffa Aerobic Yarn.
Let me tell ya, this sucker is LONG. I just kept knitting and knitting, and before you know it, it’s 10 ft long! Ha ha.. Good thing it’s uber-skinny, so I can just wrap and wrap and wrap. I’m also working on another scarf for my mom, but no pictures yet.
So remembered how I tried to steer my sister away from black, gray and white? She still wants gray. I’ve managed to talk her into adding another color, and guess what she wanted? Dark Olive Green. *shakes head* I give up. Here’s her cabled armwarmer, using sz 7 circs and Cascade 220 yarn.
Since I’m in the mood for scarves and little pick-me-ups lately, I’ve signed on to Stitch Ya Neck Out. Check it out, we’ve got some awesome knitters in the swap. I’ve never knit for another fellow knitter before, so I’m a little nervous about having my knitting scrutinized. What if my swap pal thinks I am a horrible knitter? What if she thinks her scarf looks like crap? yea, self-doubts can be nerve-wrecking. Hopefully it will work out. The kick-off is early August. Go sign up like I did (at 3am in the freakin’ morning when I was semi-delusional).
Supposed to be meeting Joy and Andrea in the afternoon. A little anxious, but a little excited nonetheless.

Memoirs of a Geisha (Sock)

winnie — Sat, 09 Jul 2005 09:02:00 +0000

Armed with a wealth of information from the Internets and support from my powerful allies – the sock knitters, I present my first sock. Not first pair of socks, just the first sock. Like all newbie sock knitters, I am now prancing around my apt at 2:00am no less, wearing one sock. And hot damn, taking pictures of your own foot without trembling like jello is hard work. Let me provide you with a verbal description – I’ll spare you the visual on this one.

****Now.. imagine a dog pissing. Got it? Okay, now imagine the dog pissing, in the same position, but lying down (belly-up)on the floor. *****
That was the pose I had to take in order to provide my geisha sock for your viewing pleasure. You may now laugh….(30 secs later)… okay, that’s enough laughing. Moving on..
Another mindless knitting project is a 7 ft monster that is the love-child of Crazy Aunt Purl. BF is moving to Canada and he needs a warm alpaca scarf around his neck soon, and a warm alpaca scarf he shall receive.

Okay, I shall now go to bed with one sock on foot, and an empty glass of wine. Happy weekend everyone!
Edit: The Geisha Sock has a fraternal twin!

Don’t mind me, I’m just showing off

winnie — Mon, 11 Apr 2005 06:50:00 +0000