Finished Rae Scarf: Knit-Along Triumph!

by | May 28, 2012 | Making | 6 comments

My Friday-night stitch group does lots of knit-alongs. We usually choose a designer, and everyone knits one of their patterns during the allotted time. It’s a fun and simple way of keeping us all interested. Until Friday night, I’d never actually finished a project on time. I’m usually the one oohing and ahhing over other people’s lovely projects, cracking self-deprecating jokes about my inability to knit or crochet on demand. But not this time. No, not this time.

This was the Jane Richmond KAL, and as it happens this most delightful of designers of classically simple patterns lives just across the Georgia Straight on Vancouver Island. And as it happens, she had plans to be in Vancouver this weekend. So she came to our gathering Friday night, the deadline of our KAL.

I first discovered Jane’s patterns last November, when I knit her eponymous hat for Owen’s beloved babysitter. So I was excited to have a reason to knit another of her designs so soon. In the interest of at least trying to finish on time, I kept it simple and chose the Rae scarf. I mean, dude, it’s a garter stitch scarf in a triangle. It was relaxation on two needles. At least half the KAL participants also made a Rae. Good times. (ETA: I made a few modifications to the super-simple pattern. Details on Ravelry.)

I used a skein of SweetGeorgia Yarns Merino Silk Fine in the Tourmaline colourway, which is my new favourite colour (and also my new favourite word to say out loud). I cast on mid-April, and I finished on Friday night about twenty minutes after the party started. I wove in my ends, and everything. Oh, sweet joyous finished scarf!

Rae, completed. YAY!

Who has two thumbs and finished her scarf on time? I do. (Photo by Marianela)

Rae, completed

It's my new favourite scarf. I haven't even washed it. And I may not take it off long enough to have time to. So. (Photo by Marianela)

Knit-along group, with Jane.

We posed outside the store with Jane (on the far left). Fun times!

Knit-along group, with Jane

Here's one with me in it. (Photo by Melanie)

Industriousness: WIP Wednesday

by | Apr 25, 2012 | Making | 0 comments

I did a lot of knitting and crocheting last weekend, what with the poor-man’s retreat and all the quiet in my house.

Rae is turning out to be a delightfully mindless knit, especially since I finally figured out how to tell if I’m about to start an increase row (there’s one every fourth row of garter stitch and the thought of moving a marker every four rows gives me hives). Here’s how to spot the kfb on the wrong side of the fabric if you, too, want Rae to be as simple as possible: It looks kinda like a V. If there’s a plain-old garter ridge above one of those Vs, the next row is an increase row.

How to spot the kfb increase on the wrong side of the Rae scarf

I've circled the increase. Can you spot one on every second garter ridge?

As for Land & Sea, look at all that land!

Land & Sea

Rut Race, Day 6: Keep on Keeping On

by | Apr 19, 2012 | Making | 0 comments

Rut Race, Day 6: Keep on Keeping OnI’ve been in a rut and this post is part of a series I’m writing to chronicle my efforts to get out of it. Are you in a rut, too? Or maybe you just want to spiff things up a little for yourself? Join in. I’m calling it the Rut Race.

Most of the things I’ve been doing to get out of my rut have been new things, new approaches to old things, or things I haven’t done in a long time. But I’ve also been trying to make sure I keep doing things I’ve been doing that I know make me feel good.

Namely, I’ve been crocheting or knitting every night. Not out of obligation to my projects or to the people I’m making them for, but out of the simple satisfaction I take from the activity.

Mostly, I’ve been steadily progressing on my Land & Sea blanket. I didn’t have time at all to work on it during our trip back east, which saddened me. But I’ve been stitching a few rows a night since we got back, and I’m especially enjoying it because there’s more and more land in with the sea now.

And I’ve started knitting the Rae scarf by Jane Richmond for the knit-along my Friday-night Urban Yarns stitch group is doing. It’s so simple and lovely and I’m making it from a skein of stunning SweetGeorgia yarn I’ve had for a couple years.

I’ve been crafting throughout this rut, which makes this one different from others I’ve experienced. But I’m not taking that for granted. I’m making sure I attend to my crafting needs, for what good is getting out of a rut if I’m just going to fall into another one straight away?