Intarsia Multi-Directional Scarf July 10, 2009

It took me forever to write up this tutorial.  It’s kind of hard to explain, but once you get the hang of it, it seems really simple.  This scarf looks great in handpainted yarns, but if you want solid colors this is a great way to go.  So, I hope that I’ve written the instructions clear enough so that you can experiment on your own.  It will be helpful to have a read the directions of the Multi-Directional scarf, since I haven’t rewritten the instructions, just made them confusing! 

 

The Multi-Directional Scarf is basically made of triangles that are formed with short rows.  The triangles start at the bottom as essentially one stitch and increase from there, with a decrease eating up the stitches from the previous triangle.  A typical multidirectional scarf looks like this, with the arrows showing the direction of the knitting:

 

To knit the scarf with intarsia blocks, the essential construction is the same except that at a certain point in the triangle, a new color is added.  This is done by adding the new color at the beginning of the row as part of the increase instructions.  The old color becomes a stripe and the new color is a little triangle inside the overall bigger triangle.  The color changes are the dotted lines on the line drawing.

  

 

Start the Multi-Directional scarf according to the directions with your first color.  When you’re sick of that color and before you reach the desired width, change to the next color.  At the beginning of a row, work the increase with the new color.  Bring the old color’s working yarn up from under the new color (to prevent holes) and continue the row with the old color.  The side that has the yarn wrap showing is now the WS.  On the next row, work the old color until you reach the new color; bring the new yarn up from under the old yarn on the WS (you’ll have to bring the working yarn to the front to do this on alternate rows) and work the remaining stitches with the new yarn.  Continue this way until your triangle is as wide as you want.

  

Wrong side:

Right side:

 

Now, you’ve got your base triangle.  Mine looks all wrong because I forgot to increase every row.  But the principle is the same!

Main Triangles

Choose a new color.  This is the stripe part of the larger triangle.  It won’t look like a stripe yet, because of the short rows.  The key is to add the new color when the side of the triangle is as tall as you’d like the stripe.  It can be as short as two rows or as tall as twenty-five, it’s up to you.  Work the instructions in this color until the side is as tall as you’d like, then make the next set of increases in a new color.  Bring the old yarn up from under the new on the WS to prevent holes and continue the row (including decrease) in the old yarn.  Work back with the old yarn until the first stitch of the new yarn, bring the new yarn up from under the old on the WS and continue the row.  Work this way until the triangle is completed.

If you want, you can use more than two colors per triangle.  It can get a little dicey, because every new color in a triangle means another ball of yarn hanging from the back, but if you can handle the tangle, go right ahead!  The principle is the same, work the increases in the new color and switch yarns as you reach them.

 

Just remember to always twist your yarns on the same side of the scarf for neatness.  And good luck weaving in all those ends… that was not fun!

Birthday Yarn July 5, 2009

Ever have one of those weeks that seemed to be very busy, but at the end of it you haven’t actually completed much?  Yeah.  I did get a few things done, including a project for Knotions that had been hanging over my head for a long time.  And I ordered my Sock Summit souvenirs, which was fun.  But I didn’t write any of the blog posts or take pictures for a tutorial I’ve had planned for a while…  Where did the time go?

 

It was also my birthday last week.  My in-laws have started a great tradition where they take me to a yarn store.  Need more be said?  It’s probably my favorite part of my birthday!  This year we visited CDA Yarn and Fiber while we were in Coeur d’Alene. 

 

 

So, here’s the haul!

 

 

First up, Handmaiden Casbah.  This yarn is so yummy.  I was first drawn to the deep saturated colors, but the fiber content really sealed the deal.  Merino, cashmere, nylon.  This is a sock yarn, but I’m pretty sure it’s not destined to be a pair of socks.  It’s too pretty to be covered by shoes.  I have no idea what it’ll be instead though. 

 

 

 

 

Malabrigo!  I’d actually never run across Malabrigo sock at a yarn store before and it was love at first sight.  Like the Casbah, the color was the first thing that caught my eye.  This skein is a gorgeous blue with that classic wool shimmer.  It’s got subtle color changes from dark blue to very light.  I love it.  It’s so soft.  I got two skeins, one in Persia and one in Archangel, which is a strangely fascinating colorway.  It’s hard to describe and I don’t think the picture really captures it.  It’s lilac and pink but not pink and gold/green… Crazy.  I can’t wait to see how it knits up.

  

 

 

Speaking of Malabrigo, my brother-in-law bought me this squooshy skein of Malabrigo Chunky.  He has pretty good taste in yarn for a non-fiber-addict. He got me some Misti Alpaca lace-weight last winter.  He said that he looks for yarn that he would want to wear, something soft and cuddly.  Can that criteria ever steer you wrong?  After all, the number one cause of unexpected yarn purchases is the inability to put a skein down after picking it up “just to feel.”  He chooses colors that he likes which rounds out my stash nicely.  This isn’t a colorway that I would have picked for myself even though I really like the colors.  But my stash has a distinct lack of red and gold no longer!

 

 

I got one other thing from this shopping spree which is really neat, but I’m not going to post it yet.  I have my reasons, don’t think I don’t!  Stop judging me!

We’re Back! June 23, 2009

Well, we’re back from Idaho.  Turns out I didn’t have the time (or really, the energy) to write while I was there.  I hardly even knit while I was there.  It was a really great trip, with lots of biking!

 

We rode on the Centennial Trail through town, past this great playground (there might have been a break for swinging).

 

  

 

We rode the Route of the Hiawatha, from Pearson to the East Portal and back.  So many trestle bridges and tunnels!  This trail used to be the Old Milwaukee Railroad, just like the Iron Horse trail that we ride here at home. 

 

     

 

It started to rain while we were riding and we took refuge in one of the tunnels.  It got pretty cold in those tunnels, especially the long ones.  The St Paul Pass Tunnel is 1.8 miles long!  You could see your breath in the middle of the tunnel… or you would have been able to if there had been enough light! Luckily the sun came back out pretty quickly, but until it did the trail was misty and mysterious. It was a lot of fun.

 

We also rode on the Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes, from Medimont to the middle of the bridge over the lake.  We got rained on there too.  That ride was very pretty and it had ice cream!  We stopped off at the Creamery in Harrison for a small lunch, a little fudge, and lots of ice cream.  Mmm, banana split.

 

      

 

On the last day we were in town, we went to some yarn shops, played mini golf, and bowled.  Oh, and some laser tag.  I’d never played laser tag before- I was pretty bad at it!  I think I shot my mother-in-law more than anyone else, completely by accident I swear.  She shot me a lot too.  I think it would have been more fun if it hadn’t been so humid, although the terrible techno was a nice touch. 

 

You’ll have to wait for the next post for the breakdown of my stash enhancement.  (Although the yarn is in my Ravelry stash if you really can’t wait to see.)

Multidirectional Scarf June 12, 2009

I’ve decided that cleaning and knitting make a very dangerous combination.

 

My father-in-law asked me to make him a scarf.  Since I have cats and he’s allergic to said cats, I worked on the scarf only in the guest room, which is cat-free.  It would be impossible to get cat hair out of that yarn! (It’s already developed a nice halo.)  My in-laws are arriving tonight for a visit and I, logically, wanted to have the scarf finished by the time he got here (saves me the trouble of shipping it!)

 

In between scrubbing,  vacuuming, and laundry, I worked on the scarf.  I sat on the guest bed while I knit, since that’s really the only place to sit that’s not the folding chair for the sewing machine and I left the scarf on the bed when I wasn’t working on it.  I had about a foot left to knit and then the finishing.  I figured it wouldn’t take very long, since the scarf is pretty simple.  I didn’t really factor in the enormous task of weaving in all the ends.  It took me almost an hour!  Oy.  But I finished it!  After I finished the scarf, I stripped the bed to wash the sheets.

 

Then I went downstairs for dinner.  After dinner, I went back upstairs to block the scarf.  I looked at the bed.  There was no scarf, because I had thrown the sheets in the washer.  I panicked.  I said a very bad word, picturing all that work being felted in the washer as I stood there.  I swear my heart stopped… then started up again going very fast.

 

I went to go sit down, since my legs were a bit shaky.  Then I saw the scarf, safe and sound, where I had put it on the table next to the blocking supplies.

 

Apparently I’m smarter than I thought.  But that was too close.  I think I lost four years off my life.

 

Here is the scarf in all it’s blocking glory (with my stash underneath):

 

Nice, right?  Mirasol Sulka in Snow White, Juniper, and Paprika.  It’s about four feet long, since my father-in-law wanted a short scarf (which meant two feet that I didn’t have to knit!).  Two skeins of White and Juniper, one of Paprika.

 

It’s super squooshy and, like I said before, possessed of a nice halo.  The pattern is the Multidirectional Scarf using intarsia instead of a variegated yarn for the color changes.  And each block of color meant two ends I had to weave in… Oh, that was a nightmare.  But I really love this yarn.

 

Next week, we’re all going to Coeur d’Alene for some outdoor activities.  Biking, maybe some kayaking, etc.  There’s two yarn stores I’ve already marked on the map!  Hopefully I’ll have some time to post something while I’m there.  Now that the scarf is finished, it’s time to go figure out what knitting I’m taking with me!

 

Sock Summit June 4, 2009

I am so excited.  Only 62 days until the Sock Summit!

 

Registration was pretty tense.  It reminded me of registering for classes in college.  Then, you got assigned a number according to the number of credits you had earned so far (the assumption being that the more credits you had, the more senior a student you were).  Then the numbers were chopped into 200-people chunks.  Each chunk got a time slot.  Days before registration, students were making spreadsheets with contingency plans, sometimes with classes that they didn’t even want to take.  The second that the clock ticked to your time slot, you tried to sign into the school’s registration program.  Only 50 students could be on the program at once, schoolwide.  And once you got in if you stopped for more than 30 seconds, say to double check something, you could be kicked out of the system and have to start again.

 

Sock Summit was a little more fair than that system.  Once you got into the system, you had 15 minutes to get everything figured out and once you had something in your cart, it was yours.  Mostly.  The system was overcome with the load of people trying to register and things got pretty confusing with the server showing classes being full that weren’t really full, etc.  Registration was supposed to start at 10am PST.  The server crashed and didn’t really get back up until almost 11am.  There were a few hairy moments when I got kicked out of the system in the middle of an important step even after the server stabilized a bit.  The adrenaline rush and stress were so much that I was shaking after I hit “pay now.”  You can read more about the mess on the Yarn Harlot’s and Tina’s blog.  I’m not going to go into the problems too much, but I did use those skills I learned in college:

 

 

So many spreadsheets.  This was the final one made the night before registration, with my perfect schedule on top and other variations following.  On the side are the classes, listed by importance, with colored cells to show when each class was offered (in case I had to do some quick thinking).   There are so many classes being offered at the Summit that I wanted to take.  It was really hard narrowing it down to just six.  I think I had something like twenty classes on my semi-finalist list.

I ended up with Schedule 2:

9am: Paint Your Toes! Stranded Colorwork for Socks with Janel Laidman (I’ve always wanted to design completely Fair Isle socks, but I’ve never gotten the fit right.)

1:30pm: Sock Design Workshop: Know the Rules, Then Break Them with Star Athena (Sounds useful.)

9am: Cross Your Cables and Dot Your Purls with Deb Robson (Information on publishing patterns.  Very useful.)

9am: Fancy Heel Flaps with Charlene Schurch

1:30pm: Spindle Spinning Basics with Abby Franquemont and Denny McMillan (Spindles are cheaper than buying a wheel!  Although I’m kind of worried that I’ll like it and spinning will eat into my knitting time…)

9am: Making the Next Monkey with Amy Singer (How to get published in Knitty.  Also very useful!)

Having read about all the troubles everyone had, I feel incredibly lucky to have registered with minimal problems (although at the time they felt huge).  I got all the classes I wanted except one.  But if I had gotten Engineering Stitches with Cat Bordhi (that class filled up fast!), I wouldn’t have been able to take Spindle Spinning Basics which I really wanted to take too.  So, all is well in the end.  I’m super-excited.  I’ve never gone to anything resembling a conference before!