Recently in Zebra Striper Category
Well, that's it. At this point I have pretty much done most of the interesting knitting on the Zebra Striper jumper project (except for a bit of duplicate stitch and some detailing around the arms and neck. Now that the colorwork is done I have an ocean of yellow stockinette to knit through, punctuated by the occasional decrease row as the dress slims from bottom to top. Believe it or not, I am happy about this. I enjoyed the color work a great deal, but I wanted to have at least one project that required no thinking in my current batch. This one has now become perfect for apres-nursing TV watching and for any other time I need something to just relax with. Lace knitting may provide me with a mantra to meditate on, but simple stockinette lets my hands stay busy while my is free to wander.
But I couldn't let this post go by with just a small picture of the overall project. After all, this is the project that helped me get my two handed two color knitting mojo going. With simple motifs and a long long way around, it was perfect for that task. My stitches are hardly perfect, but I suspect with a little blocking most of the most egregious problems will be eased away. Though the fabric puckers now, it's easily pulled into a better shape.
The zebra stripes are an excellent demonstration of the importance of choosing carefully which hand you carry your yarn in. Since I am still only moderately proficient carrying the yarn in my right hand, I always carried the yarn that was going to get used the most in my left hand. In the case of the zebra stripes, this was the black yarn. However, I think it would have been better if I had been more patient and carried the black in my right hand since the white seems to get lost under some of the black stitches and the black is a little more dominant than I think it should be in the design. A good lesson for the future, I think.
I'm enjoying knitting with the Baby Ull. Even though the gauge is tiny, it moves easily through my fingers and isn't as splitty as I might have expected a superwash yarn to be -- something that makes knitting in the dark more do-able since I don't have to stop all the time and be worried about whether I missed a ply or whether I'll have little slubby areas in the fabric that I don't want to have there.
It's a long haul project -- but when Ms. Z comes up to touch it and then gives me one of her megawatt smiles I know it's going to be more than worth the effort.
The zebra stripes are an excellent demonstration of the importance of choosing carefully which hand you carry your yarn in. Since I am still only moderately proficient carrying the yarn in my right hand, I always carried the yarn that was going to get used the most in my left hand. In the case of the zebra stripes, this was the black yarn. However, I think it would have been better if I had been more patient and carried the black in my right hand since the white seems to get lost under some of the black stitches and the black is a little more dominant than I think it should be in the design. A good lesson for the future, I think.
I'm enjoying knitting with the Baby Ull. Even though the gauge is tiny, it moves easily through my fingers and isn't as splitty as I might have expected a superwash yarn to be -- something that makes knitting in the dark more do-able since I don't have to stop all the time and be worried about whether I missed a ply or whether I'll have little slubby areas in the fabric that I don't want to have there.
It's a long haul project -- but when Ms. Z comes up to touch it and then gives me one of her megawatt smiles I know it's going to be more than worth the effort.
Doesn't look like much, does it? But it's actually the sum total of all my knitting time over the past week and a half. I have discovered that 336 stitches around is a lot of stitches. It seems like even more stitches when you are knitting them on 2.5 mm needles. But, finally, the Zebra Striper dress for Ms. Z has started. I'm making the 24 month size figuring that that will give me plenty of time to get it done. After seeing how long it takes me to get around once (even with just basic stockinette) I think giving myself plenty of time was the best choice I could make for the project.
This pattern starts out with a simple lace motif to make the bottom edge scalloped. After that, it launches you into the two color work.
This pattern starts out with a simple lace motif to make the bottom edge scalloped. After that, it launches you into the two color work.
The positive side of having so many stitches in a round is that it gives you plenty of time to memorize stitch motifs and to try out different ways to handle the two color knitting. I spent a lot of time doing things with both yarns in my left hand. But things just kept getting tangled and it was hard to keep my tension good when I used a lot more of one color on a row than the other color. Then, suddenly, on the row where there are three green stitches followed by one red stitch repeated throughout the row, something clicked in my brain and I figured out how to knit two color with one color in my left hand and one in my right. Don't ask me what happened or how it happened, but it did (I had a similar experience learning how to use the drop spindle). I am far from speedy and my technique could still use a lot of work but the breakthrough has been made. Whatever barrier I had in my brain that was preventing me from doing this has been broken. Now it's just a matter of continuing on this way and re-enforcing the neural connections involved with letting me knit with both hands at once -- which shouldn't be a problem since I still have quite a few more rounds of 336 stitches with which to practice ahead of me.
Now, hopefully I can apply this two handed stuff to the second Fiesta Foot! That would make the instep part of the project a whole lot easier!.
Time is short tonight. So a picture is going to have to provide most of my words.
Zebra Striper Socks, 6-9 month size. Dale Garn Baby Ull 100% merino superwash yarn. I did the two color work holding both yarn strands in one hand (continental style) with the help of a little tool from Clover that you wear over your index finger and it keeps the two yarns separate. I've tried the two handed thing and English style knitting, for some reason, doesn't come very naturally to me. As you can tell from the fact that I'm posting them today, this pair of baby socks is a quick knit, and I enjoyed watching the color work come together into a recognizable. It was a nice warm up for the main event.
We're packing up Zosia and heading for the warmer weather near Naples, Florida next week -- I always like to have a special pair of socks when I get on an airplane, and these little socks will be Zosia's first special pair for a trip (maybe I'll even get a picture!). I've decided I'm taking a little project for me with me on the trip. But a little dress will be next up once I get back. A happy healthy next 10 days or so to everyone. I don't think I'll have much Internet access while we're away from home.
Look what fell into my shopping bag on a recent trip to Madison (and a follow up online shopping trip to Webs). Yep, it's a riot of color in Baby Ull (superwash merino yarn by Dalegarn). Whenever I visit Madison, my good friend Judy gets me all inspired by multicolored knitting. She has a baby 3 months older than Ms. Z and on our visit we set off to Lakeside Fibers (a very cool yarn store with it's own coffee shop in the back), wherein we perused the Dale of Norway baby garment pattern books. 
One little sweater, the Zebra Striper (above) caused me to lose all control and buy up as much Baby Ull as I could find. (And the pattern book, too, which is Dale of Norway, Favorite Baby Designs Nr. 8101) Of course, they didn't have all the colors I needed, so I had to browse around the web to find the rest of what I needed. And then, after I got to Webs, it seemed a waste of all that shipping money to buy just 3 skeins of Baby Ull, so I bought enough to do the sweater, dress, hat and socks in the 2 year old size (I may be crazy, but at least I am realistic about finishing times) . I figure anything worth doing is worth doing in a somewhat obsessive compulsive manner, and if I am going to try out two color knitting, I might as well go for it. This little garment set seemed like a good start -- all the pieces have some two color components, but none of the garments is entirely two color. And the dress and had have this sweet lace edge trim on them. And I'll be honest, something about the look on the face of the baby in the photo really melted my heart. She reminds me a little of my own baby, I guess, and the idea of seeing Z in something so precious knit by me inspired everything else. It's hard to feel quite as grey in the face of such lovely bright colors, so, for that reason too, it was the perfect shot in the arm against that midwinter blues that seem to have grabbed me pretty hard this winter.
So, crazy or not, here I come! Baby's going to have some new socks soon (the socks only go up to a 12 month size and it seems like it would be easier to make a pair of socks than to swatch in the round for the project).
