Wednesday, February 29, 2012

WIP Wednesday: Shawl, Gloves, & Magic Balance

Writing:
Magic Balance (Working Title) - Rewrites
Previous Word Count: 5,175
Current Word Count: 5,175 (Up 0)

I decided to rework how the two main meet the third and ... I'm stuck. I've been letting them argue it out while I dye yarn and knit. Hopefully they'll figure it out and I'll be able to just write it down already.
Reading:


Let the Circle Be Unbroken by Mildred D. Taylor. I'm closing in on the end and the story lines are getting wrapped up. It's still as wonderful of a story as I remember it being.

Knitting: The shawl and I have had ... words. Somehow it snuck an extra yarn over in a line and I didn't see it until I went back across the row so I unpicked quite a bit before realizing I could just take up the slack and use a sharp needle to tighten all the stitches back across. A row and a half later and I was back on track. I'm only a few rows away from a color change so that should be interesting. I love watching how this shifts through the chosen colors. It's knitting up quite a bit faster than my first one did. Part of that is going and buying sharper needles for the lace work. Now I have no clue how I managed the whole shawl the first time on such blunt tips. *laugh*



Designing:
It looks like mostly nothing so far since it's only 5 rows but it's a design that's been poking at me. It's something I can work on in the car or other times when I can't focus on a pattern (so far) so it's probably not going to grow very fast since I'm still putting most of my time into customer stuff.



Dyeing:
Another experiment ... this time with kool-aid rather than food dye. If nothing else the yarn now smells of grape. If the yarn turns out the way I'd like then it'll be made into one set of mitts, if not then I have a different pattern in mind for it.

Purple Dye

It's no wonder I'm tired ... wow.

14 comments:

  1. Love the shawl you are knitting.. what pattern is it? It look so much like the lace pattern Pomatomus sock pattern. :-)

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    1. It's called the Chinook Shawl. I'm really enjoying it, even though it's the second time around. :)

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  2. Love the color you're dying your yarn!

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    1. Thank you! We'll see how well it takes, it's a 80/20 acrylic wool blend so it may not come out like I'm hoping.

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  3. Lots going on! I started some lace once on blunt needles and by the third row I HAD to go buy some Addi Turbo Lace needles - what a difference! You definitely need the right tools to succeed. I'm terrible about missing and adding yarn over; I have to count pretty much every row, so I feel your pain. It's looking great though.

    And grape scented yarn? Yummy!

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    1. The store owner looked at me funny when I asked if they were the sharpest she had. LOL I want to go super fast and be done already; I have another one to knit. I try to not count every time though I do tend to count several of the sections and let the look of the stitches below guide me.

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  4. wow grape yarn, looks gorgeous too. your shawl is beautiful - I wish mine would just grow a little quicker - it's driving me nuts.

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    1. It helps that I sit at home all day and pretty much knit all day. I've been keeping track of how long I spend on it and there've been several days where I seem to do nothing but work on it.

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  5. Addi lace are fantastic although the tips of my fingers hurt after a few rows! The grape yarn looks yummy and I bet it smelt amazing x

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    1. I think I push the yarn along differently because I generally don't press the tip of my finger to the tip, at least not very hard. I really do love my Addi lace sets though. :) I need to get more. So far the grape does smell pretty cool. :)

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  6. Replies
    1. I'm terribly in love with the shawl pattern, I only have to count stitches for every other row. :D

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  7. Your shawl has such an intricate pattern! Good luck on your next color change!

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    1. I love that it looks that way. :D The color change is one of my favorite parts.

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