Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf ...

... or how I learned about short rows!



At my LYS, I fell in love with this yarn - Wool in the Woods Southern Rose, Color: Poppy Patch, content: 55% Merino/45% Wool. I asked the knitters there that day what I could make with such yarn and they handed me the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf pattern. The picture is what has been done to date. What it doesn't show is the start, stop, start again as I went through my first short row learning experience!

I had done three triangular sections and was halfway through the fourth when I realized I was making a pentagon. Lesson Learned: If you add an extra row of straight knitting at the end of each segment, you will have a pentagon shape at the end of the fifth section!

I did the only logical thing, I frogged* the entire thing and set the yarn aside, really determined to forget it and find another pattern for this great color. (* generally used by crocheters, 'frog' is a term associated with taking apart all progress on a yarn item ~~ "Rip It Rip It Rip It")

Lesson Learned: Yarn and patterns will not be forgotten nor discarded that easily! I am obviously a glutton for punishment because I heard the siren song calling me back to the pattern and the yarn and a new try.

Pictured is the progress. The scarf will be finished in ample time to be given as a Christmas Gift and I have learned the short row technique - which will be very useful when I try my first hedgehog sometime soon!

Such progress for a Saturday!!

Well -- a minivan full of debris and recyclables was taken to the 'dump' (compactor site) and were dumped or recycled, as appropriate. About 20 cardboard boxes were broken down for recycling in the mixed paper bin. Four "Tall Kitchen" bags of bottles and cans were sent to the glass/plastic recycling bin (I managed to survive the emptying of said bags without getting stung by the many, many, many - did I say MANY? - bees that swarm there in the summer heat!).

All the "Have they out grown this? I think this might need washing before I donate it"-type clothes have been washed and folded. Now, we need boys around to say "That's mine" or "I don't want that" or "That hasn't fit me since first grade!" The sorting to donate, therefore, must wait for another day because no boys were/are around for the sorting process today!

In between cleaning up boxes and washing/folding (mom did a LOT of this for me!), I was knitting to cool off ~~ though I don't know why I thought I could cool off while knitting Wool in the Woods "Southern Rose" (55% Merino/45% Wool) (pictures another day) or Debbie Bliss Merino Chunky (100% merino).

With the DB Merino, I am making a Black/Brown/Left/Right pair of mittens using the "Plaid Mitten" pattern I found at the blue blog.


I didn't have Rowan Plaid yarn in my stash. But, I did have Debbie Bliss Chunky Merino and the required US#10.5 dpns to attempt the pattern.

This has been a learning day. Before today

> I had never encountered M1R or M1L.
> I had never used dpns for anything except the end of a hat done on a circular needle.
> I had never put stitches on waste yarn to be picked up later (for the thumb!) (I still haven't picked it up.... but I will!)

I made some mistakes. I went in the front, not the back, of the M1L, so the tight stitch I was supposed to have is a lovely air hole for those hot hand days! :) (I decided I was not tinking it as I didn't discover it until I had knit almost two more inches. I chalked it up to a learning experience!)



Not bad for a day's work! :)

I call them Black/Brown/Left/Right because I plan to add an L and an R to the appropriate sides of the mittens in honor of my 'learning to drive' son that can't seem to remember his left from his right.

The mittens are ambidexterous and I plan to put the letters so that they are correct regardless of which mitten is placed on which hand. If I can find the right suede-type material, I plan to use it to embroider the letters - to add grip to the mittens, which would allow a person to wear them to drive and not slip-slide all over the steering wheel. The goal is to finish them and submit them to the "Bitchin' Mittens" contest being sponsored by Dave of Cabin Cove Mercantile!

I hadn't planned to enter the contest. Dave added my name after I made a few comments (even though I said I wasn't doing it when I made the comments!!). I told him I had never done mittens. He added me to the list anyway! I feel compelled inspired to submit something!

More pictures later - as progress is made.

No Saturday Sky today

The sky was the same cloudless blue it had been for weeks. (though it appears to be solid white right now. I hadn't looked since I started cleaning this morning... hmmmm... maybe we might get that 30% chance of rain.)

I am not traveling today, so the vista is the same as most of my previous posts on Saturday Skies. Perhaps next weekend I will take a road trip.

Today is cleaning day. There are a few places in my home that have accumulated way too many boxes and baskets of broken bits of toys, computers, curtain rods and such; outgrown books (kiddie-lit and such); outgrown clothes (younger son is now almost-16 and about 6'4" - there is a lot of outgrown clothing in our house!); computer parts, monitors, a couple of free printers (worth what you pay, btw!) and other computer related things that need to be free-cycled or tossed in the proper recycling way - whichever is appropriate.

I am typing this while taking a cool-me-down break... found this flower quiz and thought I'd take it. Not sure I agree, but the flower was my sorority flower, so it might be right! :)

I am a Violet What Flower Are You?

Edited to add their commentary: "You have a shy personality. You tend to hesitate before trying new things or meeting new people. But once people get to know you, you open up and show the world what you are really all about."

Back to the sort, sort, toss, wash, donate, toss... when is our next dump run??