More Details

One of my knitting goals this year is to knit from my stash. I've joined the Stashdown 2008 group on Ravelry, but haven't been participating in their official challenges. (I haven't any desire to take the time to track yardage used -- or miles of yarn knit, for that matter.) However, my stash has been big part of the inspiration for the majority of the large projects that I've started so far this year.

Now that I finally have a bit more time, here are the details & some of the earlier pictures for a couple of the projects in my previous knitting post.

The grey lace is the vest from the Quiviut Twinset by Linda Romens, from The Natural Knitter. I started it on June 4 2008 -- got to love Ravelry for being able to go back & look up details. The yarn is Louet KidLin Lace Weight, which used to be called Kidlin Pixie. (No Quiviut in it at all, despite the pattern name. That's a bit beyond my budget right now.)

The color is called "Smokey Grape", though the purple in it is very subtle & doesn't show much. I have two sets of this yarn in my stash, from two different dyelots. For the vest, I'm using 3 skeins I purchased at Kirkwood Knittery in Kirkwood, Missouri. I have 6 skeins of the other dyelot, purchased at a big discount when a different Kirkwood LYS decided to sell off their yarn inventory & focus exclusively on wool rug-hooking. I'm planning on using those skeins to make the matching cardigan sometime later.


It isn't a very good Knit-In-Public type project, though the pattern is very well done. Most of the work on it so far has been done during quieter times at home, usually while trying to stay caught up on my favorite podcasts. At first I had a little bit of trouble understanding the instructions for the bottom edging. The first half of the first lace pattern repeat calls for several sets of short rows to create the scalloped effect at the bottom of the vest. That part took complete concentration even after I figured out what the pattern actually meant.


The green sweater is the Mirage Pullover by Lisa S. Rowe, from More Big Girl Knits. I'm using Cascade Sierra, which is a nice cotton/wool blend. I purchased the yarn on sale last year at Hearthstone Knits in St. Louis, Missouri. According to Ravelry, I started this one on June 10 2008. I love this pattern so far. It's very well designed, so that there is a natural shirt-tail hem effect without the need for any extra complicated knitting -- I especially appreciated that after the difficulty I had with the other pattern.

Even though the side details look complicated, the pattern is fairly easy to memorize. It's knit in the round, which I love, with plenty of interesting knitting to break up the boring stockinette. I'll probably end up making this one again, in a different yarn & color.