Finished Object: Pinwheel Afghan II

Pattern: Oat Couture’s Pinwheel Afghan, DK weight, solid color version
Yarn: Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece (80% Pima cotton, 20% Merino wool, 215 yards) in Alpine Lilac, 6 skeins
Needles: US size 6
Recipient: Allison and Greg’s baby
Modification: I did a provisional cast on and grafted the first and last row together.

Comments: I finished this baby blanket a week ago but didn’t get around to writing about it. As it turned out, procrastination was a good thing. Peter and I gave the blanket to the parents-to-be last night and I received the most enthusiastic response to a handknit gift that I have ever gotten—and it was from the dad-to-be, not the mom-to-be.

Allison unwrapped the gift (she knew what it was because Peter told her when I was knitting it—bad Peter) and was very happy and excited when she saw it. But Greg was fascinated. He kept studying the blanket and trying to figure out how it was made. At first, I gave a pretty general description of the construction, but he wanted to know more. He kept grilling me until I had explained how short rows worked and how to make lace.

After Greg understood the construction of the blanket, he suggested that the blanket could be made with different colored wedges. That’s right—a guy who knows basically nothing about knitting suggested a modification that is actually included in the pattern!

THEN, he suggested to Allison that the two of them learn how to knit. :) Allison didn’t want to have anything to do with it, but Greg was serious. He really wants to learn how knitting works. (I wasn’t sure if he wanted to learn to knit or just learn how the knitting changes yarn into fabric.) So, I suggested that he visit knittinghelp.com and look at the videos. I also told Greg that I would teach him to knit if he wanted.

Scout Happenings
Those of you who have sharp eyes may have noticed the chicken wire that now graces our stairwell railing. We have not taken to raising chickens in the house. (Though the idea of having fresh eggs is very appealing.) The wire is, in fact, known as Scout wire. Soon after we moved into our new home, Scout discovered that she could go outside of the railing and walk along the four-inch wide ledge—the four-inch wide ledge over a one-storey drop above a slate floor. Then, Scout learned that she could RUN along the same ledge. After watching her do this a few heart-stopping times, Peter installed the Scout wire.

Since the installation of the Scout wire, Scout has been keeping busy in other ways. Lately she has been reading Mockingbird by Charles J. Shields, a biography about Harper Lee. Scout was named after the main character in To Kill a Mockingbird—one of my all time favorite books. Mockingbird (the biography) was published last year. My parents went to hear the author speak and bought an autographed copy of the book for me. As Mr. Shields was inscribing my book, my mother casually mentioned that I named my cat after Scout Finch. So Mr. Shields added a little something for Scout. Now Scout thinks it’s her book.

Answering Questions

Ingrid asked if there was a trick to getting the gauge right on my x-back tank. Yes there was, but getting the gauge correct was not the only trick needed to obtain the proper fit. For the x-back to fit properly, it must be made with negative ease. That is, the finish product has to be smaller in circumference than I am! In this case, the tank has about 3 inches of negative ease. So, trick #1 is to pick a size smaller than you would expect.

Getting the proper gauge was more problematic for me. I'm not sure if my swatching/gauge problems were a result of the ribbon yarn, the seed stitch pattern, or both. Whatever contributed, the results were clear--it was impossible for me to judge the gauge of the final product by using a small swatch. The resulting fabric has quite a bit of stretch to it, and a small swatch cannot demontrate just how much a larger piece of fabric will stretch. For example, with size 15 needles, my swatch had a gauge of 3 sts/inch (the required gauge), but the final product had a gauge closer to 2.5 sts/inch. With size 11 needles, the swatch had a gauge of 4 sts/inch, and the final product had a gauge of around 3 sts/inch. So, for me at least, trick #2 was trial and error until I found a combination of needle size and pattern size that gave me the correct fit.

Monkee asked how I manage to get Scout to look up when I'm taking pictures. Her cat, Fritty, will not mug for the camera like Scout does. There is no trick to getting Scout to look at the camera. Scout knows her name and responds to it like a puppy dog. All I have to do is call her name and she looks at me (or comes running if she's in another room). I call her my little puppy cat.

Other Stuff
I found cute buttons for the stripe-y sweater:


I blocked the blanket for my co-worker's baby of unknown gender. Sorry, that I didn't take an attractive photo. After washing and de-cat-hairing the blanket, I wanted to wrap it up as soon as possible so I didn't haul it around the house looking for good, natural light. The blanket is now in an appropriately gender-neutral package with some gender-neutral onesies and will be shipped off today.

Baby Time!

No, I'm not expecting a baby. I've just moved on to knitting more baby things. I've decided that baby things are good to knit. Babies don't care what they look like and baby clothes are small. Unfortunately, one of the baby things I'm knitting isn't small. I'm making a baby blanket for a coworker whose baby is due in June. I'm a little more than 1/3 of the way finished. (Warning: the following photos were taken in an extremely bright patch of sun to show off the objects' true colors.)



A closeup of the pattern:



I'm also working on Candace--a baby sweater for my little niece. Like Devan from Knitty, it is made from self-striping sock yarn. I've never used self-striping yarn before so knitting it up is very fascinating for me. The small gauge doesn't bother me as it bothered PumpkinMama, but she made the 2-3-year-old size and I'm making the 1-year-old size. Also, I haven't started the extremely boring, plain backside of the sweater. Here are the front panels just before the armhole shaping:



Meanwhile...the Spring edition of Knitty was published yesterday. Lots of cute stuff. I think I'm going to start with the Ribbon Xback. I want to do this pattern because (1) I have never made a tank top, (2) I have never used ribbon yarn, and (3) it's made with bulky yarn on fat needles so it should knit up quickly. But what about poor Moni? I can't start her until Candace is done and the size 4 needles are free again.