Rainbow's end

Today I decided to do a small, fun, relaxing project, using techniques I'm already familiar with so there would be more making to be had. In complete contrast to the last few days of fine wire and jewellery, I opted for a bit of rainbows, sunshine and comfy knitting.

There's a pattern I've been saving on Ravelry, a lovely rainbow bag made with simple short row shaping that's been calling my name for ages, so today I decided that this was the day! Yarn - check, needles -check, pattern -  ah, you have to buy it, but it's not a lot. Do I want to buy a pattern when I could probably work it out? Now, after learning from the wire bracelet project that sometimes it's ok not to reinvent the wheel every day, I decided, yes, why not? Have a day off from the working out and just enjoy the knit. So I did. :)

A lovely rainbow of colours to work with, perfect. The rainbow bag dimensions were 30x45cm and I thought, that's a two day project for sure. Maybe I can make a mini one? So, sure enough, I could halve all the calculations for the mini rainbow bag and we were off. I was thinking by then that this mini rainbow bag would be just perfect for my 2 year old niece - or a big kid like me :)

After knitting faithfully to the pattern for a while, I began to notice some things didn't seem right. The overall shaping with increases didn't seem to be logically placed and my lovely oval short row coloured panels were shifting off to the left alarmingly. I re-read the pattern to make sure I'd not made a blundering mistake. Nope. No mistake. Somehow the increases needed to make the bag bigger at the middle weren't staying in a straight line up the centre of the bag - major problem. I'd already knitted 3/4 of the bag by then and I was not a happy bunny:(

So what to do now? Maybe a fresh look at it tomorrow will help me work out whether it's just me or the pattern that's the issue. Or, dump the pattern!! Oh, the irony though - if I'd just written a basic pattern out I'd have been fine, lol! I might just do that anyway and brush up my pattern writing skills:) So, today's lesson has been sometimes you should trust your instincts when you know your knitting is going squiffy. And maybe the pattern isn't always right.

Well, the big kid or the little kid will have to wait just a bit longer for their bag full of rainbows but it will happen I'm sure. There's always a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow now, isn't there? :)

Waves and ladders

Summit shawl sample

Day 2 of the creative challenge. And what have I been up to today? Well, a little bit of experimenting with knit as you can see! This beautiful pattern is where I have happily lost most of today. I was racing the light for last minute photos, I got so involved!

Ok, so knitting a shawl in a day is a bit much, but I have made a decent sample to explore the pattern construction. This lovely pattern Summit shawl by Mandi Harrington has been sitting in my Ravelry to-do list ever since it came out - March 2010 to be exact - so quite a wee while. In fact, all the bigger projects seem to gather dust there so I thought, wouldn't it be nice to just allow myself to do a little bit, as a tester, to see if I like it enough to make it. I love working out the construction of complex knits but kind of lose interest if I have to knit metres of the stuff! So this way I get the best of both worlds - I enjoy the doing but there's no pressure of a Finished Object.

And I've always loved the look of this one. It's beautifully designed and aimed at slightly higher than a beginner. The pattern says 2 out of 4 for difficulty so it looks complex but it only requires you to know a few of the easy stitches like M1, Kfb, Yo. The thing that makes this pattern so unusual is its use of short row knitting - where you knit each 'wavy' strand individually back and forth in sections - rather than a full row. Once you get your head around that, it makes a lovely logical structure. How happy am I when that happens? Happy happy:) - when you 'get' the pattern and know exactly how it will unfold from then on in. Harmony, that's it. Perfect harmony.

I wanted to try a few things out with this pattern too. Firstly to see how the short rows would affect a variegated hand dyed yarn and secondly if I didn't use the suggested silk how would it flow or drape in contrast. As to the first, you can see where the green sections meet the blue ones so although it isn't terribly contrasting, I think a semi-solid yarn would give the best effect, especially if you are going to spend the time dyeing your own like I do. So, good to know. Secondly, the handle of this fingering weight does have a lightness and won't slip as much when knitting silk but - well, silk is silk and who wouldn't prefer a silky draped shawl to a wool mix??

Despite our desire for expensive gorgeous silk, I think this will knit well in any smooth yarn and if it has a slight sheen or lustre to it, even better.  This pattern has an evening, dressing up feel to it so if I were to knit an actual shawl or smaller scarf, I'm thinking deep teals, reds or plums for me.

Casting on in sections                                                                        First ladder created

cast on row complete for my mini scarf (7 sections instead of 15) - all set up now for the first curve section

right curve

left curve

I've taken some photos as I went through each stage of the pattern so I can remember in the future how it's constructed. Hope this helps anyone who may be interested in trying this pattern out. After the initial set up section to get all the solid areas and ladders in place, you then develop the right curve section, then the left. That's it. You just keep waving those left and right curves and the pattern just appears. Wonderful!

This isn't a pattern to be knitting watching the tv though, so it was nice music as accompaniment today. Now I've got the construction clear in my head I've found it getting quicker and quicker to knit - which is excellent if you're going for full shawl size! One other thing I made myself do was double check the stitch count before dropping the stitch to create the ladder. It's much quicker to check again than have to reknit a dropped stitch in the wrong place:)  This lovely shawl is really worth the effort and just trust the pattern, it does work out perfectly, honest!

Tomorrow, I'll choose something that's a bit more manageable in a day, although I like the idea I can give you a follow-up on this too. I think I'll sleep well tonight - hope I don't see waves and ladders in my sleep!!

See you all tomorrow!