A Fo, an Ancient UFO, and a Kidnap Attempt by Project Spectrum

Well, yesterday's fresh look at my knitting list served its purpose. Last night, I got out one of my cones of Sugar 'n Cream yarn and knit up a dishcloth for Gryphon.

Green Dishcloth

Nothing fancy, it's the basic garter-stitch corner-to-corner dishcloth that we've all known for decades. I made one small change. In the upper corner, I made a small buttonhole to hang the cloth by. It was a bother to make, though, and I realized that it would be a fuss to figure out which corner had the big hole to hang from, so future renderings will leave out the buttonhole and replace it with a simple crocheted hanging loop.

I'm still waiting for Gryphon to test it doing a round of dishes and tell me how the size works out. No point making more until I know what I'm doing!

This was the first time that he's requested a specific knitted item from me, and I can't tell you how pleasing that is. Or maybe it's happened to you and you know how good it feels. At any rate, I consider myself blessed that Gryphon places enough value on what I do, and understands it well enough, to feel he can ask for certain knitted things and get them!

A Recovered UFO Sees New Life

Dazzle Shawl in Progress

Having rediscovered my ladder yarn shawl (a work in progress from, oh, about 18 months ago), I'm going to make that my Panera knitting tonight. Here's a look at where it stands right now. It's about 26" wide unstretched, and somewhere between 6 and 8 inches long.

A Close Look at the Yarn

The yarn is Dazzle, purchased at A.C.Moore, in three colors; 73 (a sort of rainbow multi-color), 90 (shades of rose), and 93 (lavendar and purple). It's similar to the yarn Eros that is often found in independent yarn stores.

Detailed Look at the Knit

The rainbow color is used at the first hem. When the ball starts to get low, I add in the rose, alternating paired rows of the two colors to make a more subtle transition.

The pattern stitch is the classic K3, P3 that Prayer Shawls are knit with. This shows the ladder yarn to good advantage, and enhances the effect of the color transitions.

The needles are size 8 Addi Turbos. As you're working, you want to be careful that you never dangle the needles at all - they are slippery enough that your stitches may drop off the end. I have no problem with this, but less experienced knitters - or those who are easily annoyed by the slippery - may prefer working with bamboo.

I join in a new ball of yarn by literally sewing the new ribbon end into the old one with tiny backstitches. Not an extra sewing thread brought in to do that - I thread the ribbon in a needle, and the structure of the ladder "rungs" is open enough to pass the other ribbon through, yet still fabricy enough to hold a backstitch. Makes for a very easy join, and you can just knit with the section of doubled yarns with no worries about extra ends to work in.

Project Spectrum?

You know, I didn't sign up for Lolly's Project Spectrum because A) I have no trouble coming up with inspiration for new things to try, and B) I don't usually work with reds and pinks, and those are the colors for March.

And yet, here I am, in March, picking up an old project that uses...red and pink. Not only that, but I, a non-red-and-pink-wearer, am excited and eager to be able to wear this shawl.

I still don't think I'll bother signing up, but I find it interesting that Project Spectrum is insidious enough that its influence pops up in unexpected places!

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