Tricotine

Olympics... Day 3 & 4

This weekend, I finished the back of my FLOWER POWER SHRUG (Saturday night) and started the first sleeve (Sunday afternoon)

Following the lacey chart was not such a big deal as the pattern is kind of easy to remember... It doesn't mean that I didn't make mistakes though... but thankfully, nothing that I was not able to fix...

 

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This morning, I finished sleeve #1, ending ribbing 1/1 with double pointed needles.

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I am glad to see that my gauge was perfect! My sleeve's length is exactly what it is supposed to be!

I got started on sleeve #2 now, picking up stitches along the body's selvedge and that is what I am going to be working on today.

Click on photos to enlarge.

 

 

Olympics... Day 2

After the first day, I am convinced that this FLOWER POWER SHRUG pattern is perfect for my participation to the Knitting Olympics!

First, because I always wanted a nice Shrug and second, because that pattern is very promissing to teach me a lot!

1 - Casting on was already a challenge to me!  I learned to do the Crochet Chain - also called Provisional Cast-On. How exciting!

Click on photos to enlarge

2 - Knitting with a Mohair Quality yarn is also a first! I found out that it feels great to the touch but it also makes difficult to fix eventual mistakes...

Yes... I already had to ripp a little when I realized that I had missed few YOs on the second row of my work... But that made me more vigilant! Now, I pay more attention to what I am doing, checking my work in between every section (in between the markers).

I am working on the back of the shrug right now and I already made about half of it... I just love the lacey effect!

Today, I hope to finish the second half and maybe get started on one sleeve... Sleeve seems to be pretty exciting to make, picking up stitches on the side of the back and knitting them in the round... I love knitting in the round!

I decided not to add the beads to that shrug... Knitting with beads would have been a first experience that I was not afraid to dare, it is just that I am not the shining kind of person... I'd like to be able to wear my shrug either with a little black dress, either with T-shirts and jeans... I think I could still add them afterward whenever I changed my mind anyway...

I am not sure I am going to add that "knitted flower embellished with beads" for "the touch of Glamorous fun" as they say either... But maybe... (?) We'll see how that shrug looks like when finished...

Boy! We are in News!!! But aren't we all Knitting for the Gold after all? LOL

All right! Back to my needles now!

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Olympics... Ready, Set, GO!!!

That's it!!! The Olympics flame has officially been lit! Time for me to grab my needles and to get started on that Lacey Shrug I am going to make in 16 days! What a challenge but I want that Gold Medal! LOL I neither ever made a Shrug before, nor knitted Mohair yarn... Lucious and so soft yarn but I hope it is not going to make me sneeze all the way to the end... :0 I didn't practice at all before starting that project so wish me Luck! BTW, do you know the meaning and origins of the Olympic Motto: "Citius, Altius, Fortius" ?

Swifter, Higher, Stronger? HEY! This is exactly how I feel about the Knitting for the Olympics right now! LOL

The Knitting Olympics Athletes Pledge courtesy of I, a knitter of able hands and quick wits, to hereby swear that over the course of these Olympics I will uphold the highest standard of knitterly excellence. I will be deft of hand and sure of pattern, I will overcome troubles of yarn overs and misplaced decreases. I will use the gifts of intelligence and persistence (as well as caffeine and chocolate) and I will execute my art to the highest form, carrying with me the hope for excellence known to every knitter. I strive to win. To do my best, and to approach the needles with my own best effort in mind, without comparing myself to my fellow knitters, for they have challenges unique to them. While I engage in this pursuit of excellence and my own personal, individual best, I also swear that I will continue to engage with my family in conversation, care for my pets, speak kindly with those who would ask me to do something other than knit, and above all, above every stitch thrown or picked, above every cable, every heel stitch, every change of colour, I swear this: That I will remember that this is not the real Olympics, that I'm supposed to be having fun and that my happiness and self-worth ride not on my success.... but on my trying. Let the games begin!

 

More yarn...

All right! First, I need to say that I had not bought yarn for ages... Keep that in mind while reading that post, OK? So, yesterday I took a trip to A.C. Moore my favorite craft store! Oh boy! Was I starving for craft supplies! I spent about 3 hours in there and I won't tell here the amount on the receipt, it would be indecent... Let's just say that I got some great yarn and that I will have lots of fun making new projects! Knitting Olympics, I am ready! LOL I got some Patons Divine, color Frosted Green (my 3 year-old picked the color for me) which I plan to make a Lacey Shrug as my Knitting Olympics Project. Cannot wait to start! I also got some Homespun - color "Boston Rose" and some Fun Fur - color "Rapsberry" for making DD's 1st BD Sweater and some interesting Magic Stripes Sock Yarn - color "Stonewashed Blue Pattern".   

 

 

 

My Stitch Markers

 

I guess I just HAD to give this a try!!! LOL

I like my Stitch Markers casual, functional and... not too uggly...

 

 

And, remembering my teenage years, I also made these...

 

The Knitted Mystery Doily Adventure 3

In a previous post, I was relating my Misadventure with that Vicky Doily I am trying to knit. Then, my Secret Pal showed me the photo of the finished project and I realized that my doily didn't look like it should at all!

So, I took the bull by the horns and... RIPP IT! RIPP IT! RIPP IT!!!

I ripped my work off until row 17 and decided to redo all the steps using all the markers like I should have done it af first... and from there on, everything went very smoothly and nicely!

I understood my previous mistakes, made essentially because of the missing markers... My CTs were not rightly positioned!

But there is still something odd... Although I am now 100% sure that I am following the pattern to the letter, my doily still doesn't look like the photo given with the pattern...???

Oh well! Although the doily on the pattern's photo looks lovely, I am happy with the way my doily looks now and with the way the progression goes... My misadventure turned into a pleasant Knitting-Doily-for-the-First-Time-Adventure after all! :)

At row 27, I switched to a 16" circular needle and it makes the markers thing much easier! I still use the toothpick as the extra needle for making the CT3 as I got used to it... :)

And here is how it looks now, at row 34!

Heart Cloth

I knitted this Heart Cloth that my Secret Pal printed out for me from the Knitting on the Net website...

I have planned to give few of them to my family and friends for Valentine's Day but although I like small washcloths, I think this one is a little too small to be used effectively in the kitchen or the bathroom...

So, I think about modifying the pattern to give that cute cloth a more decent size...

I will post here as soon as I come up with something...

BTW, check out the beautiful flowers I got tonight!

Click on photo to enlarge.

The Knitted Mystery Doily (Mis)Adventure (continued)

Here I am! Right about to start row 21 (photo) and I am afraid things are goint to be more complicated from now on!

I really have a bad feeling about that "CT3" thing...
I cannot picture what it is going to look like...

I guess this is the moment where a photo of the finished project would be more than welcome... LOL

I hope I am not going to ruin what I have done so far because I like the way that little doily looks right now...

All right! Row 21 and its "S(1)RHN" was completely confusing as I haven't used markers from the beginning... I tried to assume where they belonged afterward and hope I didn't mess out everything... I know that a mistake right here would compromise the complete project... I am a little worried...

Round 22 was not that terrible as I expected it would be after all... But, since I was already using 5 dbpns, I used a toothpick as the 6th dbpn needle for the "CT3". I had never knitted with 6 needles before! LOL
Actually, I had never done any "CT" before either...

Using a toothpick worked pretty well! Its short lengh makes it easy to wrap the thread around the 3 stitches... :)

That CT3 thing only requires a little practice, that's all! I am still worried that I am not making it where I am supposed to because of the "O" - that I interpreted as "YO" (yarn over) - at the end of each dbpn...

Oh well! As close as I am to finish that doily now (I am about to start row 30) and as not perfect as it might be, I am not going to start all over now...

I am way too curious to see how this is going to look at the end... LOL

Hopefully, my Dear Secret Pal will have a photo to show me so I can compare and try to understand where and how I went wrong... Because I DO have a strong feeling that something is not right...

Secret Pal, pleeeeeease?

OH NO!!! I just found out that the back of the first page of the instructions was printed too!!! In fact, there are 51 rows to knit for completing that doily so I still have 21 rows to go at this point!!! Silly me!!!

I also missed lots of terms and abbreviations too... For example, it's been said on the back of that page that "CT" stands for CLUSTER TIE!!!???

Well, it doesn't help much anyway because I have never heard of that before but it sure is nice to put a name on that acronym! LOL

BTW, "O" really stands for "YO" (Yarn Over)! At least, one thing I figured out right! LOL

All right! Back to my dbpns and my little sweating seance now! I hope I will survive that project! LOL

Back to you soon!

Previous post about that first knitted doily experience.

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