Thursday, July 26, 2007

Just yer average knitblog entry

Sock class yesterday! The students bought their yarn and started up their socks (we're doing top-down). It didn't go as smoothly as the first class because a couple of the students had difficulties with the joining in the round (which is to be expected, it's definitely tricky at first). But everybody persevered, so I think we'll be able to continue on next week with heels.

In other news, there's a new yarn store in town:


It has a roof and everything:

Competitors beware!

Dress socks for DH
I needed my own sock project to demonstrate sock knitting techniques to my class with as we go, so I started this up. They'll be for DH...which I didn't take into account when I first started, and so cast on 64 stitches instead of 72. But I realised my mistake pretty quickly, ripped it back and started over. I shouldn't have any trouble getting to the heel starting point by next Wednesday.

The Girlfriend Shrug for DD1
The centre back panel is now finished!



Unfortunately, as I suspected, the shrug is too small across the back. It's 12.5" wide instead of the required 14". So, I have to heave a deep, fortifying breath and put in two more panels. They'll be single braids, one on each side of the wide panel.

Rainbow lace blanket
The slog continues.

Tubey for moi
The body is really coming along:



Like, totally top
I bought some St-Tropez câblé from Schaffhauser to swatch with so I could start the designing process. It seemed to be sportweight-ish, with a nice sparkly strand running through it to give it a little jazziness, which was what I was looking for. The fibre combination also seemed very good - 37% cotton, 32% virgin wool, 31% viscose. I took it home, swatched it up (finalising the main pattern in the process), and concluded that it was exactly perfect for this top.

Then I discovered that the yarn was discontinued.

A thousand curses! The yarn in the shop that seems to be the next best substitute is "romanze" from Scholler, which also seems to be discontinued (at least, I can't find any mention of it on the Scholler website).

This SUCKS.

But, according to the Knitty pattern submissions FAQ, you can submit a pattern for a garment that you used a discontinued yarn for, but you need to give an alternate that will produce similar results. So I think that's what I'll do - go with the câblé anyway, and then list a decent substitute when I submit the pattern.

Ravelry position
You signed up on July 6, 2007
You are #14465 on the list.
7577 people are ahead of you in line.
6239 people are behind you in line.
32% of the list has been invited so far

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I finally got my Ravelry invite last Saturday but have barely had a chance do much at all but look around. It is, howeve, as awesome as advertised.

Not as awesome as that new yarn store, mind you.

At least the Girlfriend Shrug can be fixed with two additonal braids! And GRRRRR to yarn being discontinued. That bites.