Whatya makin’?

Well I already mentioned that the retreat was great! I am now the undisputed, Egyptian Ratscrew champion of the Hartville Church of the Brethren! (it’s a card game) I came back from nothing to win too!! Most impressive. Once you looked past the three inches of snow that fell while we were there and looked on the bright side (lots of time to sit inside by the fire and knit) it just added to the closeness of the event!

Well the two most frequent words spoken to me all weekend were “Whatya makin’?” It started just about every conversation! So I guess I had better let you in on it too.
It’s really hard to explain to someone who doesn’t knit, that you are trying something new and you are making swatches to figure out just what the best way of going about it is. Non knitters seem to always feel that the object that you are making NEEDS to have a use; must in some way become a finished object that has an obvious practical application. Unlike say a peice of music that a musician must practice over and over in order to perfect. Or an artist who sketches a subject from various angles before finding the one that is just right for the peice.
No apparently, to the non knitter, we are religated to a practical craft, no more an art than sewing on a button. Now I know, it’s just a swatch, but where else can we work out our ideas and bring into reality those fleeting images that come into our heads when inspiration hits?

Well, inspiration hit. It hit while I was drooling onlooking over Nicky Epstein’s book Knitting on the Edge.
Now I was liking the ruffled edges in the book, ok, let’s face it I was drooling over every picture, enraptured by every word and so I decided to try making ruffles on my looms.
I needed a portable, short project to take along for the weekend, so this seemed the perfect time.
Here is the first one:

If you look closely you can see a line across where the ruffle part and the other part meet. Not good. I cast on twice as many stitches as I needed then simply moved every other loop over one so that every other peg had two loops on it. Then I knit them off and moved them all together on the loom and continued knitting. This made a row of ‘yarn overs’ better known as holes made on purpose (usually) and looked terrible. So I tried fixing it by using my crochet hook to close up the gaps. That left that line there between the two parts was the result. Definitely not what I wanted.

So I tried again:

Well this one looks better! No line, no gaps. Pretty good. I still cast on twice as many stitches as I needed, then I took all the loops off the loom, and placed them back on the loom two per peg. Then I wrapped the loom so there were three loops on each peg, and knit off two over one. Then I continued with a 1×1 ribbing. I think this is the way to do it! I also did one with three times as many stitches cast on then removing them and placing three per peg back on the loom. It looks pretty good too!

The next step is to try out a lacier pattern, like a peasant type ruffle. But it will have to wait till I am done with the sweater body. I’m on row 80! Twenty more to go!

Last but certainly not least! The package from Delia came! Wow!

I have never felt yarn this soft! It is true to it’s name! It feels just as one would imagine a cloud would feel like! And the candle! It smells just like clean laundry that you are taking off the line after having the scent of the sun soaked into it! Wow!
Now… what in the world am I going to do with this yarn! I don’t know, but whatever I make needs to rest gently against my cheek! Because that is where that yarn is resting right now! THANK YOU Delia!