Overload or Underload?

I have just one more day of my summer job! Yeah! But my knitting is kinda scatter brained right now. I have a bunch of things in progress but not much progress is being made. Currently I have 4 pairs of socks on the needles, 1 lace skirt ( I actually made a bit of progress on that, but since it just increased to 640 stitches around, I think its going to slow down a bit) , and the Mystery Stole (I'm 1.5 weeks behind on that one). 1 month of straight vacation should mean lots of good knitting time, I hope.

Yarn of the moment:
Crystal Palace - Panda Cotton - 55% bamboo - 24% cotton - 21% elastic nylon
in Fern.

Mitered Baby Blanket

I've finished the first of my summer projects, the mitered baby blanket. I love the optical illusion of the miters and ridges, it is the same front and back, and its easy to make! The whole thing is knitted in the round without any seams too!




Mitered Baby Blanket

Makes a 30"x30" square blanket
Yarn: Worsted Weight, 4 Colors, 600 yards total
I used: Blue Sky Cotton in Color 1: Nut (100yds) , Color 2: Bone (200yds), Color 3: Sky (150 yds) , Color 4: Circus Peanut (150 yds)
Needles: US 8, 36 inch circular, 24 inch circular, double points (Or size needed to obtain gauge)
Gauge: 3.5 stitches per inch
8 Stitch Markers
Note: The stitch markers will constantly be moved due to the shrinking nature of the blanket.


Move Marker (MM): Slip stitch, remove marker, slip stitch back to left and place marker again (Marker moved 1 stitch to the right)
SSKP (Left Slanted Double Decrease): Slip 2 stitches, Knit 1, Pass 2 Slipped stitches over.


Cast on 400 stitches in Color 1, Placing a marker every 50 stitches. (see note below)
Join, being VERY careful not to twist. (There are a lot of stitches so double check!)
Markers 1,3,5 and 7 are your corners, they are where all the decreases will occur, these markers keep moving. Markers 2,4,6, and 8 are in the middle of the sides (Marker 8 ends the round) They are stationary and indicate where to switch from knit to purl.

Round 1:
K1P1 to 1 stitch before 1st marker, MM, SSKP
K1P1 past next Marker (this is a side Marker)
K1P1 to 1 stitch before 3rd Marker, MM, SSKP
Continue to MM and SSKP at 5th and 7th Markers.


Round 2: K1P1 around
Round 3: Same as round 1
Round 4: K1P1 around

Switch to Color 2, work 8 rounds as follows:
Round 1,3,5,7: Knit to 1 stitch before 1st Marker, MM, SSKP, Knit to 2nd Marker, Purl to 3rd Marker, MM, SSKP, Purl to 4th Marker, Knit to 5th Marker, MM, SSKP, Knit to 6th Marker, Purl to 7th Marker, MM SSKP, Purl to last Marker.
Rounds 2,4,6,8: K to 2nd Marker, P to 4th Marker, K to 6th marker, P to 8th Marker.
8 Rounds of Color 2 completed.

Switch to Color 3, Work 8 rounds as follows: (Knits and Purls are switched)
Round 1,3,5,7: Purl to 1st Marker, MM, SSKP, Purl to 2nd Marker, Knit to 3rd Marker, MM, SSKP, Knit to 4th Marker, Purl to 5th Marker, MM, SSKP, Purl to 6th Marker, Knit to 7th Marker, MM SSKP, Knit to last Marker.
Rounds 2,4,6,8: P to 2nd Marker, K to 4th Marker, P to 6th marker, K to 8th Marker.
8 Rounds of Color 3 completed.

Switch to Color 4, work 8 rounds as for Color 2
Switch to Color 1 Work 4 rounds as for Color 3.
32 rows completed.

Repeat the Color 2,3,4,1 pattern again.
60 rows Completed. Now is a good time to switch to the 24" Circular.

Continue in the same knit/purl patterns but do 12 rows each of colors 2, 3, and 4 switching to double points after color 3. Finish with rows of Color 1 until you have 16 stitches remaining. K2tog every stitch around. Cut your yarn leaving an long tail and use a yarn needle to thread it through the remaining stitches to finish. Sew in any ends and block!



1/8/08 Note on Cast-on: This MAY make more sense with 404 stitches. Using 1 stitch in each corner as the 'turning' stitch. You would then place the markers alternating between 50 and 51 stitches. This will add 4 extra stitches every round as you go.
Note of finish: The original pattern called for decreasing to 4 stitches, this makes a bit of a puckered point in the center. I have changed it to do a big decrease at the end instead. This should make a smoother center.

Edited: 1/25/09 Switch last 4 words on odd sections for color 2 and 3. Its fixed now, and fixed on the Ravelry PDF too!

BUNNY!!!! Bunny... Bunny... Bunny...

You need to read this. Scroll down for the good stuff

Lacing Up

I've made some good progress on the Mystery Stole. I'm about a week behind the pace, not that I'm competitive or anything... but I'm on row 102. I'll take a picture this weekend when I have more done. I think I made one little mess up, but it doesn't bug me, and if anyone is looking that closely at my lace then they are looking WAY too hard.

Side note to Liz: It is a stole not a shawl, it will be like and extra wide scarf. Cool huh! I was thrown by the pointy beginnings but it has stopped getting bigger and the sides will be straight (at least for the next 120 rows of pattern that have been released)

K and I are off to Sonora for the weekend. I'm going to try to get lots of knitting done.

Good Times... Bad Pictures

I tried to take pics of the stuff I've been doing that has kept me so busy. But I suck at it. SO Here is the BAD pics montage....

Last weekend was K's Grandmother's 100th Birthday Party. She's a very cool lady and to help make her party special I made party favors. The bags had 100 Jelly Bellies in them. Yes... I counted.










I jumped on the Mystery Stole 3 Bandwagon. (With 6600 other people!) I bought yarn. I have needles. I printed the 1st clue. We'll see how far I get.....
Here are my bad attempts at taking a picture of the yarn. You can read the label on the dark one. You can kinda see the color on the light one. but they still both suck.










These are my new fishies. I was trying to keep a goldfish again, but it dies after 2 weeks. We had even named it... Mr. Biggles. Very sad... But I got a couple guppies, and they seem to be doing well. Except for me blinding them trying to get a picture... They're both male. No names yet.

More when my camera skills improve.
Jason's in town... I may start taking pictures of beer.

Silver looks good

Oliver was in his first 'show' like event today. It was fairly easy since it was at our barn. He was inspected for registration with the American Warmblood Society (essentially a registry for mixed types like Oliver) and... He Rocked! He took second place and the silver medal for the entire event (15 horses total) and scored a 71% (the winner scored a 75, they were the only 2 above a 70 which is a very good score!) . I am very proud of him and I can't wait to get him out to more events.

Here are some pictures. They had a professional photographer but I think mine turned out better so I didn't buy any of her photos.

This is Oliver in the morning before the show. Sporting his slinky and blanket to keep his mane and coat all clean. I was very proud of him for not ripping everything off during the night.















Here he is in the show. I took some pictures of him moving too but they are on the 'film' camera and need to be developed. Thats my trainer's daughter handling him, she did a good job.















And this is us after the show; I'm happy about the ribbon and medal, and he's happy its done!

Blankie

I loved my blankie as a child. That fact alone makes me love making blankies for other children. That and the more I get done on this huge mitered square just makes me want to giggle (and I do when noone is looking).
Here is one corner, as best as I could spread it out.













And another corner....



















The stripes alternate on each corner from knit to purl so that it will be reversible.

More when I get a little more done, and when I can bother to pull out the black velvet so that the carpet isn't so distracting.

Side note: Crazy horse decided to scrape himself up 4 days before he has to be inspected for his breed registration. He is now covered in healing creams and I have laid down massive amounts of shavings for him to roll in. If anyone needs me on Saturday, I will be bathing, grooming, primping, and shining the heck out of him.