ShihKnits » swap

SYNO – Turtleneck Shrug

winnie — Sat, 22 Oct 2005 23:38:00 +0000

My SYNO package is here! Heidi did such a wonderful job with it. Her expert finishing touches are so perfect that even after staring at it for a long time, I still couldn’t figure out how she managed to hide all the yarn ends. I’ve never seen such mad skills! Without further ado, here’s her FO on me – as a shrug, as a long scarf, AND as a keyhole scarf.
Heidi also included a pack of Halloween candies and a bar of lavender oatmeal soap in her package. She didn’t have to, but I’m so thankful she did. Thank you so much, Heidi. I love them all!A big thank-you also goes out to Jac and Kris for organizing this wonderful swap. This was a first for me and I had a wonderful experience. Yay!

Double Happiness

winnie — Fri, 30 Sep 2005 03:50:00 +0000

Now I am slower than most when it comes to finding good patterns, but ever since I saw this little number on Elann I’ve been very tempted by it. But to order all those yarn just to have a peek at the pattern? I think not. To my knowledge, this pattern book has sold out and is out of print. The last glimpse I had of it was on Ebay and sold for 20 buckaroos (not including shipping.. which was.. like.. another 6 bucks). Undaunted, I googled the internets and found one knitter who referenced this pattern book. Lucky for me, Kim of http://curliegirl.blogspot.com/ is kind enough to send me her copy in exchange for the Japanese wool yarn that I used to knit Stephanie’s Spring Grass Socks. Whew, that was a long sentence. In addition to the lovely bomber on your left, I also fell in love with this cala-lily sweater here.
Guess I have to re-evaluate my opinion on sweaters knit w/ chunky yarn huh? And wait, there’s more. How about this sweater that is on every knitting magazine this fall? So there is another point to this story here. After I sent my first email to Kim about this pattern book, I also emailed Schoeller-Stahl to see if they have copies of the bomber and the cala-lily sweater that I can perhaps purchase – cuz I thought my chances of Kim parting with this pattern book would be slim. Turned out that Skacel Collection is the US distributor of Schoeller-Stahl, and one of their representatives emailed me back saying that though the pattern is out of print, he could make photocopies of the 2 patterns that I like for me. Yipee! Instead what I found on my doorstep today was THE WHOLE PATTERN BOOK with a note that said: (note the pink pen)And then there were two….
Update: So Andrea brought up a question. “Will I be willing to part with one?” The answer is Yes. I received the pattern book from Kim as a trade – my sock yarns for her pattern. The second one was just by sheer dumb luck. If you love the patterns as much as I do, we could always do a My Duplicates for Your Duplicates trade. No duplicates? Make an offer – Cream Puffs sound good to me. Ha ha. Try me – I’m easy (in a good way.. tsk tsk tsk)

For Anna

winnie — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 19:27:00 +0000

Well lookie here, what’s that? Oh a finished Backyard Leaves Scarf for Anna!

Pattern: Backyard Leaves (Scarf Style)
Materials: 3.25 balls of Knitpicks Merino Style (DK weight) in Petal (123 yds/ 50gms), Sz 5 needles
Notes: I’ve always wondered about Knitpicks’ 100% merino yarn and lucky for me, Anna happened to choose this yarn for her SYNO scarf. This yarn is soft, albeit a bit halo-ish when knit up, but is delightful to work with. The original pattern used a worsted weight yarn and Sz 7 needles, and since my original attempts with sz 6 seemed a bit holey, I dropped down to sz 5′s. The resulting scarf is drapey and soft, and I hope Anna likes it. It’s my first attempt at knitting for another fellow knitter, so I hope the results are up to par.
The book does not tell you how to graft the two halves together other than telling you to match the leaf veins — which I found impossible to do. The 10 CO sts in the beginning were done provisionally, so in the end I just put those 10 sts back on the needle and picked up the 5 additional sts from the 3rd row and kitchener stitched it. Since I have no shame, here’s the grafted portion. Before blocking, the scarf looked very 3D. I kinda liked it the way it was, but that would be a pain to wear. So in the end, it became the 2D version after blocking.
Anna, I hope you like it. If not, let me know what I could have done better to improve it so my next participation in swapping knitted items with other knitters will be better!

SYNO progress + Sock

winnie — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 11:04:00 +0000

This is what I have on the Backyard Leaves for Anna so far. I’m knitting both halves at once, so I can avoid the 2nd half syndrome. Merino Style is wonderfully soft for this scarf, and I’m knitting the scarf on Sz 5 needles as opposed to the sz 7′z mentioned in the pattern. Then again, the pattern called for a heavy worsted weight yarn while I’m knitting with a DK weight. I hope to get this done soon and send it off so Anna won’t be cold and scarf-less in Canada. I hear Ottawa is an icebox in the winter. Just to prove to y’all that I do knit with colors other than pink, here’s my progress on Stephanie’s Spring Grass socks. I have some fingering weight 100% wool Japanese yarn in my stash and it wants to be these socks. I charted out the lace pattern in Excel so it’s easier for me to follow and so far, knitting these have been a breeze. They want to be knee-length socks. Psst.. I forgot to mention that I used Purly White’s tips on YO Short Row toes for these babies. Much much better than the wrap short rows. She posted an awesome demo and you should all check it out!

At long last…

winnie — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 00:02:00 +0000

The yarn for my SYNO swap has finally decided to appear at my doorsteps, on my birthday too! Funny how that turned out. Took the US postal service long enough. I will be knitting Backyard Leaves for Anna. It’s interesting too, since I have been dying to try out Knitpick’s Merino Style, and that’s exactly what she sent. In pink nonetheless. I predict it’s going to be an enjoyable knit.And on top of that, she sent a pack of Canadian delicacy – Smarties! Wow the last time I had those was.. um.. when I was still in college. Brings back some fond memories. And the packages didn’t stop there. My 1 skein of yarn from Uruguay arrived today too – I guess that means finishing the Clapo2 won’t be too far ahead. Perfect for fall.
Oh, I’ve been tagged by Miss McSpazzitron. It’s one I did in July, so here’s the link to it.

Giant Dish Cloth!

winnie — Wed, 27 Jul 2005 08:25:00 +0000

First of all, stripe knitting SUCKS ASS. *inhale… exhale*… May I present to you, TWO giant dish cloths. Yea, this is how far along I am on the Phildar sweater. And it has no shaping whatsoever. Do not be fooled by the slender edges of the pieces, it’s just the yarn curling. And short rows on top with stripe sequence? Har har har… bazillion loose end hell. What have I gotten myself into? That’s right, winnie, how very smart of you to do short rows AND switch yarns at the same time? *snicker snicker* I wanted to begin the sleeve knitting with tubular cast on, but at this point, screw it. Knitting 160 sts per row on sz 1 is just too, um, lovely, for words.

So, I’ve picked out my yarn for the Stitch Ya Neck Out scarf swap. And don’t worry, yet-to-be-determined-SYNO-pal, it ain’t black yarn. It’s a most lovely maroon-brown 100% superfine merino yarn. Wanna know what they’re destined to be? Click Here. Yup. I’ve wanted it since the first time I laid eyes on it, but the endless ribbing has kept me far far away. Oh don’t get me wrong, I have no qualms about ribbing, but 100% ribbing? *ponders* hm, I’d take lace knitting any day over ribbing. I am looking forward to knitting some Backyard Leaves, or Ruffles, or even Branching Out from Knitty. I understand that the first two are very popular picks.. so fear not, cuz here’s one happy volunteer who’s dying to knit them for ya.