Friday, February 4, 2011

Kauni effektgarn Thistle design and The Knit-a-Journey retreat

January/February update:

I started on this sweater using Kauni effektgarn, which I  bought in December at my local yarn shop.  This yarn changes color from tan to beige to cream to off-white to grey and back to tan, with very long color repeats.  I started with two balls of the same colorway, but started at different points in the gradual color change.  This is the effect it gives.  I have now bound off the shoulders and am cutting the steeks for a v-neck and armholes. This yarn is very "sticky" so I'm probably not going to sew the armhole steeks.  I am picking up around the neck opening to do a corrugated border around the rib v-neck.  I'll try to post some more pictures as I make more progress. 

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The bits of maroon yarn are the scrap yarn that I put the bound-off stitches onto at the base of the armhole (13) and v-neck.  The pattern said to bind off 4 for the v-neck and when picking them up do a K2tog and ssk with those 4 stitches.  But the design has a center stitch, so I thought it would be one stitch off if I did that.  I think maybe I should have done 5 or 1, but I did 3.  So in picking those up, I tried to fix it so the center stitch is on top and I did a dec 2 putting the other two behind it.  If it looks odd, I'll take it out and try something else.  I often have to redo the necklines of my sweaters (see many previous posts).  So that's where I am with my knitting now.

Adding one more picture after finishing the neck opening and cutting open the armholes.  It looks so much better this way.body-done

In January I helped host a retreat for listeners of Susan Dolph's Knit a journey podcast.  Three knitters from the Twin Cities area and one from Tennessee came for the weekend.  Most of them stayed at a lovely Victorian B&B about 1 mile from here.  I had them over here for supper Saturday and Sunday evenings.  We went for a hike in Hartley Park on a very cold, but sunny day.  We visited two local yarn shops, we played games and sat and knitted and chatted.  It was a lovely weekend. 

Here are a few photos from that weekend:

Breakfast Breakfast at the inn, listening to the owner recount the history of the Mathew Burrows Inn.

 

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Atop Rock Knob in Hartley Park on a day when it was 5°F. Betsy, Allison, Laurie, Susan.

 

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A dessert that looks like it has raw wool on top, but it was spun sugar.

 

IMG_5718 Sitting around the fire knitting at the inn.

 

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Sitting up in the third floor sitting area of the inn. Me, Betsy, Lisa, Susan, Allison.

 

IMG_5735Lisa, Susan and Betsy on the shore of Lake Superior.