(such a) Fickle Stitcher

Tonight, while picking up some of the clutter which accumulates around my nest and in my bags, I came across the receipts from the yarn shops in TN & NC. Not only was I wrong about where I bought the Cascade yarns, I totally forgot the last shop we visited! How embarrassing.  It was Yarn Paradise (Asheville, NC), and I bought the yarn for a purse pattern I found very intriguing.  The name is Mezza Luna, and it is from KnitKit:

The model at Yarn Paradise had been knit using the Quatro yarn from Cascade. For mine, I selected the blue Quatro for the body, and the green heather for the handles.

At this point, after knitting and ripping the recycled silk several times over the last two days, I’m wishing I had begun the Mezza Luna.

Hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving.

I had a few extra moments this morning, so I dumped onto the bed the bag of yarn I bought while in TN & NC two weeks ago, and took one photo.

What is a little sad, is that I don’t remember buying the blue and green hanks on the left side of the photo!  Okay, let’s see if I can figure out how I ended up with all this yarn . . .

The purple, cream, grey and dark taupe (?) Nature Spun at the top are all out of the sale bin at the shop in Johnson City (yikes! I can’t remember the name). The three balls of teal Nature Spun at the top left are from Earth Guild.

I know I bought the Himalayan recycled silk (bottom far right), the Tofusie (pink ball in the middle), the pale aqua Misti-Alpaca (cozying up beside the Tofusie), and two Addi Turbo circular needles there… now, turns out that Earth Guild has several levels of discounts.  I was about $5 short of $100, and the gentleman advised me about the 5% discount for $100 purchase. I went and picked the teal two balls of dark teal Nature Spun, only that made six yarn items, which kicked in another discount, so I was once again, just a few dollars shy of $100… thus, the two balls of darker teal Nature Spun. So, three extra balls of yarn for free!

But the recycled silk, the Tofusie, and the Mist-Alpaca is only four items, so I must have also gotten there the Cascade 200 ”The Heathers” (green) — ah, yes! It is heavenly soft. (A mind is a terrible thing to waste on me!)

That’s parts settled. Those two purpley-red violet hanks to the left of the recycled silk are Noro Cashmere Island. Those I know I bought at Purl’s Yarn Emporium, along with the Noro Silk Garden I have already complete knitted up into an entrelac scarf (needing only my deciding how to finish the ends, and to graft — gawd! i AM crazy! — the two sections together). 

So, those three . . . no, there are four . . . hanks of tweedy blue/green are Cascade Quatro. From where did they come?? Perhaps the sale bin at Purl’s? I supposed if I really want to know for sure, I will have to dig out the receipts.

Or, I could just enjoy stitching with it all, right! After much fondling, of course! For now, though, it is time to go back to work.

This was my progress on the entrelac scarf as of Tuesday night. By Wednesday night, I had the left side to the same point as the right . . . now just waiting to hear from the woman who made the store sample at Purl’s Yarn Emporium in Asheville, TN, about how to make the pointed ends, and it will be finished!

So, of course, that night I grabbed the Noro Silk Garden I bought at Purl’s, a smaller circular needle and packed it in my bag to take to work.  Son#1 drove, so I got to knit.  I used a provisional cast-on, and rather than start with the boring K2P2, I jumped right in with the entrelac!  Decided to make 6-stitch sections on 18 stitches instead of 8-stitch sections on 16 stitches.  I got the base triangles and one full repeat of the pattern finished on the ride, then decided it was still wider than I wanted even on the smaller needle (using US6 instead of US7).  Tinker’d back and dropped back to 6-stitch sections on 12 stitches. I’m really happy with the way the Noro is knitting up . . . I got seven repeats finished by the time I went to bed Thursday night. Picture will follow soon.

In looking at all the entrelac tutorials and free patterns on the net — okay, not ALL — it seems that there is no standard way to do some of the sections. This is great news for me, because I was not happy with the edges of the first scarf.  Carol Wyche’s instructions have you slip every first stitch. This I like a lot and wanted to do with the first one, but wasn’t sure there was a reason not to do so. I also like the way Carol’s pattern has you increase on the purl side rather than do a KFB on the left-side triangle.

I also checked on line (rather than dig through my books) about no-hole M1, but I had already gone so far on this scarf that I won’t change how I am doing it on this one . . . but I’m sort of compiling my own entrelac guide for future use, and noting my preferences. [Um, that means, I made an Excel file that compares all the instructions; I am so sad, aren’t I?]

Here’s another photos, that, though very out of focus, shows the colors more truly.

If anyone knows a slow-color changing wool yarn in blacks & greys, please let me know.  A friend has asked me to make one of these for her, and it knits up so fast, I just can’t refuse her.  She’s a pretty sweet gal, too.

The entrelac scarf is coming along nicely–will try to get a more recent photo posted soon– though I spent last evening removing spangles from a little crocheted cropped sweater. There was a pattern in either 2006 or 2005 Knitting Pattern-A-Day calendar that had spangles on the lower edges. I think it will be cute and fun.

The most exciting news knit-wise, however, is the opening of two new knit shops in the (general) area. One is just a few miles from where I work The Yarn Basket, the other is in Jackson, The Knit Studio. Rissa had a peek yesterday, and that one opens tomorrow. I’m sure she’ll report on her blog all about it! The one local to me opens today. I plan to visit after work, so I’ll try to post about it tonight (perhaps with photos since I just happen to bring my camera today).

I finished one half the entrelac scarf, except for the pointed end. I send a request for help to Purl’s Yarn Emporium last night. Hope to hear from someone there soon. So, I secured the live stitches and the remaining thread on that ball, then began with the second ball on the second half.

However, I haven’t made much progress tonight (I have just now finised the ribbing and am ready to begin the entrelac), due to this:

Now that’s he’s changed positions, perhaps I can get back to it . . . or I could work on papers.

I’ve never cared much for the entrelac knitting (well, most of it) which I’ve seen in magazines and books. Not until I was in the tip of northeastern Tennessee this past weekend. First, my hostess, Vickie, showed off some of the entrelac items she has knitted. They were beautiful. The owner of her LKS apparently has a thing for entrelac and has created some lovely designs. Unfortunately, the one I like best was not one for which she has written up a pattern. Yet.

Then, on the Estrogen Tour stop in Asheville (NC) on Saturday, at a lovely shop called Purl’s, I spied a spiffy entrelac scarf. It was just the ticket for me to give this techniques a try. The young man tending the store even copied the back of the yarn wrapper on which was written some very brief instructions (see photo below).

Took me forever to find the model yarn in a colorway I liked. Then I did’t really care for the yarn; it was not as soft as I like my scarf yarn. But, I bought two balls of the Knit One Crochet Too “Paint Box” in color #18 (Caribbean). I also bought my first ever Noro yarn — same weight and similar gauge as the Paint Box: Silk Garden #268.

So, this morning on the way to work I cast on for the scarf with the Paint Box. I would have done it the night I bought the yarns, but I didn’t have size 7 needles with me. Here’s what I have accomplished so far today (on the ride to work, a few minutes during lunch, then while waiting for #1Son after work and on the ride home.

I should probably be taking photos for you of my wonderful purchases, but, I want to keep doing this entrelac! It’s enough of a puzzle to be really interesting, a nice break from the lace of the Twin-Leaf Beaded Scarf, and not so complicated that I can’t pay attention to CSI &/or L&O on the DVR. So, no more stash pictures until tomorrow night.

Earth Guild is one of the shops we visited while in Asheville (NC) this past weekend. I checked their website this morning for something I thought I saw there and have decided I would like to have, and found that they are having a VERY GOOD sale, THIS WEEK ONLY. Check out the details here. Photos of my knitting haul to follow (hopefully, tonight).

My thanks to Rissa’s sister for a lovely weekend, and to Rissa and Lisa for letting me tag along.