Entomology – This Tangled Skein

Lots of Tiny, Tiny Beads

February 23, 2011

11:56 pm

Entomology, In Progress, Knitting, Mishaps, WIP, WIP Wednesday

Last week, I was at a meeting with someone wearing a beautiful shawl. She mentioned that it was made from Wollmeise. And I remembered that I had a barely-begun Wollmeise shawl project sitting in my closet: my Entomology shawl. I pulled it out of the closet and read through the instructions again. I had not quite finished stringing all the beads.

The instructions for the shawl give a handy little tip. Instead of counting out each of the 1205 beads, string a bunch on and measure how many beads fit in an inch. Do a little multiplication, and you can simply measure the string of beads for an estimated total. I did the math. And I realized that, at 14 beads per inch, 1205 beads would measure just over 7 feet.

That’s a lot of beads. I strung them all, plus an extra inch or so for insurance, and cast on this evening. During a couple hours of tv watching, I worked my way through the 20 rows of chart A. And then realized I completely forgot to place the beads that were between stitches – I only did the ones in the yarnovers.

My little shawl is back to being a ball of yarn with a whole lot of little tiny beads. And that cross-stitch stocking is looking at me reproachfully.

It Might Be Cursed

by beth

June 17, 2009

12:00 pm

1 Comment on It Might Be Cursed

Yarn

Baby, Beaded Knitting, Deadliest Crab, Entomology, In Progress, Knitting, Lace, Mishaps, Projects, Shawls, Toys, WIP

I’m starting to wonder if this particular yarn is cursed.

Looks perfectly innocent, doesn’t it? Nice orange Cascade 220 all skeined up, waiting to be knit into a cute toy for Little Miss. My plan was a carrot from Amigurumi Knits for my daughter’s play kitchen. I popped the yarn onto my swift, wound it up into a ball, cast on, and happily knit away for several rows before realizing that I had miscounted somewhere along the line.

Off to the Frog Pond with the carrot. Maybe I should try something else. So, I cast on The Deadliest Crab and knit merrily away for several rounds, all the way through the first set of bobbles, and then I noticed that something was wrong.

Miscount. Again. A really big one this time, and I could not for life of me figure out what happened where.

Ripping out stitches can be so satisfying.

I’m hoping the third time is a charm in this case. If this one goes all wonky, I’m afraid this skein will be in need of a time-out, and I’ll just have to comfort myself with stringing another couple hundred beads for Entomology.

Ready, Set, Wait

by beth

June 15, 2009

10:07 am

1 Comment on Ready, Set, Wait

Yarn

Baby, Beaded Knitting, Blankets, Chicago Illusion, Entomology, Illusion Knitting, In Progress, Knitting, Knitty, Mishaps, Miss Honeychurch, Shawls, WIP, Wollmeise

I’m all set to get started on Miss Honeychurch (which I keep calling Miss Honeydew – perhaps I need more fruit in my diet), except for one thing.

My yarn is somewhere between Ohio and California. My copy of A Room with a View is also somewhere between a shipping center and my house, but I expect it to arrive today. (A year of Amazon Prime is one of the best holiday gifts I’ve gotten. It is, indeed, the gift that keeps on giving.)

But I have my pattern and a short circular needle for swatching. My plan is to read the book and knit the sweater over the course of July and August. The sweater should will be done by Labor Day, which is still quite warm in this part of the country.

It’s not like I don’t have anything to knit in the meantime. The Chicago Illusion Blankie is coming along slowly:

Each charted row is actually four rows of knitting (two in each color). It’s going a little quicker now that I’ve marked every 10 columns on the chart for easier counting. And it only took ripping out two rows to get me to do it!

And my beloved blue skein of Wollmeise informed me that it didn’t really want to be socks (after I started a cabled sock not once but twice!). It wants to be the Entomology shawl. How could I argue?

250 beads down, 955 to go.

New Knitty, New Post… New KAL?

by beth

June 10, 2009

4:01 pm

Comments Off on New Knitty, New Post… New KAL?

Yarn

Annette, Deadliest Crab, Entomology, Franklin Habit, KALs, Knitty, Lace Sampler Scarf, Mermaid's Lagoon, Miss Honeychurch, Outside In, Project Ideas, Socks, Treetop, WIP

The new issue of Knitty went up today, and it is full of cute things.

When I say cute, I mean really cute, too. Just look at The Deadliest Crab, who looks awfully cuddly for such a scary, scary name. I’m planning to knit one up for Little Miss just as soon as my orange Cascade 220 (which I ordered to make some other amigurumi knits) arrives. I’m going to embroider on the eyes, though.

Other items that made it into my queue include Annette, a sweet little short-sleeved lace cardigan that would be perfect to layer at the library, and Entomology, a beaded lace shawl in fingering weight yarn that drew me largely because of my butterfly/moth obsession.

Then, of course, there are the socks:

Mermaid’s Lagoon: a fairly basic lace-patterned sock
Outside In: a diagonal-ribbed sock with eyelets down the front that’s knitted inside out
Treetop: a cabled knee sock that’s one of the projects suggested for knitting in advance of winter

I almost missed Franklin Habit’s Lace Sampler Scarf, since I jump straight to the patterns and come back to the feature articles later. I really need to remember to check out the articles, especially since I love Franklin’s writing style.

And, finally, there’s Miss Honeychurch, a lovely A-line pullover with cable detailing down the sides, knitted in hemp yarn. The name comes from Forster’s A Room with a View, which I’ve never read. (I’ve never seen the movie, either.) I think this pattern is crying out for a Knit-a-long plus Read-a-long, don’t you? Are you interested? Drop me a comment!