I’m swatching for my Stashmina shawl (heretofore referred to as the Shetland Rectangle) and I’ve decided to knit it with a slip-stitch double knit border like on my backyard leaves scarf. It’s a no-curl edging, and it’s straight and simple and looks much prettier than garter stitch. I love the simplicity of garter stitch, but I think something as pretty as lace deserves something a bit nicer. Besides, when I’m knitting a garter edge I always screw it up because I end up purling all the way to the end on one WS row or something else happens and it just doesn’t work out. I like the double-knit as an alternative, and it’s complicated enough that I’ll do it every time.

I wanted my cast-on and cast-off edges to mirror the sides, so I learned how to do an i-cord cast-on. It’s pretty! And ingenious. I used the instructions here but they were somewhat unclear at times. Here’s how I thought about it, in case you need some extra clarification:

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This poll isn’t going the way I wanted. Sigh. I’d like to knit the Shetland Triangle but triangle shawls don’t work when you’re running around and playing croquet and badminton and don’t want to tie it up into horrible bunches. I’d rather a long rectangular shawl, but it seems like you folks disagree with me. It makes sense; the Shetland Triangle is so tempting. In the hopes that beginning-of-the-weekers are of a different mind and to accumulate more than a paltry 14 votes, I’m opening up this vote for another few days. Remember, I have two weeks! I’m not even sure what yarn to use.

If you’ve knit any of these before, leave a comment and let me know how long it took you. Think I can knit it in two weeks?

UPDATE, an hour later…

OH, SCREW IT! I love you guys. I really do. I spend the whole weekend at the cottage working out a pattern for a lace parasol but then I come back and I see the tally and it’s 6 for Shetland Triangle, 1 for parasol. And I try to convince myself that the parasol is a good idea but the Shetland Triangle, oh the Shetland Triangle. So then I’m musing over it and trying to stick with the parasol and then I come across this post again after having bookmarked it because I didn’t have time to read it on Friday and I realize that it was knit for the same reason as mine; that the Shetland Triangle has a wonderful stitch pattern but she doesn’t want a triangular shawl. And she knit it on an insane deadline! It’s serendipity-do, it surely is. I am going to knit a Stashmina. And you guys knew I was going to knit a Stashmina, you just had to let me figure that out myself. You guys are so smart!

If you are knitting or have already knit a pattern that I’m talking about, leave me a comment and I’ll update my post with a link to your version. If you’ve written up a pattern and you want me to link to it, send me an email or leave me a comment and I’ll post it! It makes the list longer and my job easier.

• I go crazy for anything damask, so this handbag is right up my alley. Damask is the name, HOTTT with three Ts is the game.
• I love this name. The Manitou Passage Scarf. It reminds me of the “Huron” Christmas carol we were taught when we were kids. I don’t know about you, but my parents were pseudo-hippies and they sent me to summer camps where we learned to play inuit music, and from the few native celebrations I’ve seen on the tee-vee I can tell y’all it ain’t no Huron carol. Oh here we go; ya, written by a Jesuit in the hopes of befriending the Hurons. Looks like he was martyred by the Iroquois shortly after the Huron nation was wiped out by smallpox. Well, that was a cheerful story.
• For those of you who like to shop in the greenest way possible, Elisa’s Nest Tote is an alternative to plastic shopping bags. PDF here, example here.
• Here’s a quick mini-pattern for a guy called Mr. Peen. As a hint to what he is, let me just warn you that this might not be SFW.
• Pondemonium is a baby sweater WITH LILLY PADS FOR ELBOW PADS and it is SO CUTE and you should KNIT IT if you have a BABY.
• Barbara has an adorable Fuzzy Lamb pattern with a handy Flickr pool. Look at this cute little aran sweater!
• Who’da thunk it?! There’s a favourite pattern of mine in one of Phildar’s French-only magazines called “Colchique” (or at least that’s what the internet is calling it). I didn’t bother buying the magazine because I’m not familiar yet with French patterns, but now I don’t have to! The French version is being offered for free at the Colchique-Along (PDF here), and it’s accompanied by a rough English translation.
• I’m not the hugest fan of the clothing patterns that Lion Brand puts out, but I like the look of these two crocheted tops designed for Cotton Ease. They’re getting better at styling over there, I guess. Here’s the Light ‘n Lively Tank and Cotton-Ease Tunic. They’ve also got some nice footlets.
• Strangling Vine is a free pattern with a twist. You have to do a good deed first before she’ll email you the pattern. I love it!

Let the record show that Eve is in a panic. She has 1.5 repeats finished on the SWATCH for the Myrtle shawl, and she has to finish the actual shawl itself in two (2) weeks if she wants to wear it to the garden party. This is so not happening. A shawl with lace in every row is never a good idea for a deadline, and she has decided to scrap it in favour of a faster project. To this end, she has prepared a poll and is requesting your opinion as to the best project to knit: Shetland Triangle, Japanese Feather Stole, Lace Dream Stole, a lace parasol based on Victoria, or Orangina. Results will be tabulated at the end of the weekend.

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The origin of Shreddies cereal.

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I love the fastest woman. She’s got the hammer down! I wish I knitted Myrtle shawls as fast as she knits Shreddies. I wish she could be in my house to motivate me to finish the gauge swatch!

Elizabeth “EZ” Zimmermann’s February Baby Sweater, started April 6th, 2007, finished May 21st, 2007, seamed and finished finished on July 9th, 2007
Pattern: February Baby Sweater from Knitter’s Almanac (got it at the library)

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This is a bit of a patchwork post. First, check out this cute new t-shirt design from Threadless!

Second, this is a wonderful tip from bunchkinknits on shaping armholes that require stitches to be cast off at the beginning of rows:

The trick is to decrease one of the cast off stitches in the last two stitches of the preceding row. So for instance, if you are supposed to cast off three stitches in the next knit row, you would purl two together on the last two stitches of the preceding row (decreasing one stitch), and then only cast off TWO in the next row. The change in the line of decreases is amazing, and so much easier to sew up that all of those stair steps.

Neat! So if you have to cast off 5 stitches, you decrease on the row before and then cast off 4 stitches at the beginning of the intended row, creating a slant so you don’t have a “stair” effect on your sleeves. This is especially useful if you’re knitting a tank top or something that doesn’t allow you to hide the stairs in a seam.

Third is an update on some UFOs: I finished the February Baby Sweater yesterday! It’s officially my first finished sweater, even if it’s for a baby. I sewed on the buttons using this tutorial and I knit a flower for the front that looks like a daffodil. I’ll be taking photos this afternoon and I’ll have a post ready for tomorrow. I also finished a huge portion of my Dad’s scarf over the weekend (only half a foot until I’m done), and knit up a swatch for my mom’s Somewhat Cowl. No progress on Baudelaire this weekend, though; I had to read a textbook on Experimental Design and I have at least 20 papers to read and AUGH! AUGH! AUGH!

Ooh! And I caught four fish on Saturday. It was family fishing weekend in Ontario where you can fish without a license. The beau landed all my fish but at one point I decided I was going to land one but then it kept swinging back and forth on the line and I was afraid of hurting it and I touched it along the side and it was surprisingly un-gooey, but then I knew if I kept screwing around it would reverse-drown, so I let him land it so it could get back in the water as soon as possible. Le beau caught a fish that had a lure stuck in it, and the jerks had just cut the line without removing the lure. Stupid, stupid, stupid people.

I don’t want this post to end on a sad note, so here’s a video of a cute puppy. Arf!

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Via glittyknittykitty again, a “knitimation” called Do The Brane.

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Music by The Stabilisers. This song is really catchy, and it includes knitting, and it involves the brain! I’m not sure if I can forgive them for calling it the “cerebal cortex” instead of cerebral cortex, but then again that may have been a case of misheard lyrics. I won’t get revved up like a deuce about it.

If you are knitting or have already knit a pattern that I’m talking about, leave me a comment and I’ll update my post with a link to your version. If you’ve written up a pattern and you want me to link to it, send me an email or leave me a comment and I’ll post it! It makes the list longer and my job easier.

• This Ribbed Lace Bolero is beautiful, and the pattern is free! Based of course on this popular Circular Shrug pattern.
• Flopsy Bear is a new free pattern by Kimberly Chapman and it looks beautifully designed.
• The Penobscot Scarf from Interweave Knits looks surprisingly nice in the blogosphere. Examples here, here, here and here.
• Berroco’s latest free pattern is the Bramble Bag.
• There’s also Wright, a drapey, cowl-neck, short-sleeved shirt. It looks pretty classy.
• Dipsy Doodle combines cables and lace beautifully.
• Kiki is a kitty. She is very cute.
• Here’s another cute little stuffed kitty. The pattern writer is rather rude about offering it, which confuses me but is probably because someone tried to sell the pattern as their own or something. There are also a lot of unnecessary swear words in the pattern, which doesn’t make sense. I don’t like writing that just randomly tosses the f-word into sentences that don’t require it. “Swatch it up, mother-effer?” You are not Samuel L. Jackson. I was almost tempted not to post it, but it’s too adorable not to. A beautiful example is here.
• The Lillian Tank Top is absolutely gorgeous. It’s also pretty flexible; keep the top the way it is, and you can switch the lace pattern in the bottom if you like.

I just got out Romantic Style from the library and I thought I’d share my review here on the blog. The patterns are absolutely adorable, and I love that I no longer have to watch eBay for a cheap copy of Rowan 37 just because I want to knit Butterfly. It’s right here in the book!

There are so many clever details in these patterns, from the beading in Butterfly to the subtle white trim in the Chevron Lace Top. The obvious comments about styling apply here as they do to all Rowan publications; these photos look good enough to eat. Most of the work is done in the pink, blue and purple pastels that are so popular now, but the knits themselves are classic shapes that I don’t see going out of style very soon.

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