Knitting in the Shadows:

Knitting Progress Reports:

Okay, time to get back to that knitting thing. I seem to be the queen of too much yarn ... I'm working on a modular shawl by Iris Schrier (the one in Modular Knits ), (which btw I've enjoyed), and find myself having followed the directions to the letter, reaching the end with a garment that's smaller than I want and 3.8 of the original 8 oz of yarn left. Now, I DID fear that it would be small. But when I looked at the instructions they said that the S/M size would take one hank of beaded rayon, and the L/XL would take TWO. I have one hank... so I aimed for the medium, and got what seems to me to be ... a kerchief, not a shawl. Certainly not a shawl the size that the model in the picture appears to be wearing....

That made me wonder if in my travel induced fog I'd just plain missed something in the directions. So I double checked. The pattern says to repeat the relevant rows until "one side of the diamond measures approx. 10: to 12" (small/medium) or 14" to 20" (large/extra large). I was pretty sure that's what I'd done. I went back and measured again today:

Measuring_5
The side I then worked the next diamond into was 11" (without any stretching or blocking). The side that was allowed to stretch a bit more was 12".
Measuring_2

That should have been big enough. This diamond is supposed to be big enough to cover my entire back... That means to me that it ought to be at least as wide as my shoulder point to shoulder point measurement.
Measuring_3
The unstretched diagonal measurement here is 15", which is more than my shoulder to shoulder measurement.

Thus, according to the directions, this should be plenty big.

Sigh.

I've frogged back to the original diamond, and will be reknitting (and probably redesigning, because though I DO want it bigger over all, I don't want that point hanging down my butt. I hate long points. Thus, I think I'll be adding some other modules to reshape the bottom edge of this thing.

Meanwhile, the Pomatomus socks are progressing nicely.

They're reminding me a bit of Clapotis -- the yo's are making a diagonal line in one direction, while the color stripes in the yarn are running the other direction. All in all, a pleasing affect to my eye.

I've reached the heel flap, and had a brief concern that my modifications (adding a repeat to accommodate my calf and the high arch over which the leg must pass) would result in some evilness at the heel flap point. Turns out to have been perfect! I tend to work my heels on 40% of the stitches of any sock ... so I have 84 stitches instead of 72, and 40% of 84 stitches is 34 stitches. My 36 stitches are almost perfect for my preferred heel size. Yee hah!

I had hoped to convert these to 2 circs in honor of Cirque du Socks, but have discovered that I have NO circs of this precise size -- and I'm not up for changing by .25 or .5 mm to make the switch.

Meanwhile, Project Spectrum is bidding adieu to reds and pinks as the month of march draws to a close. In honor of that, I wore my red boots to work today:

April will be hard for me. I'm not fond of yellow or orange as the main color of anything except the occasional daffodil. I look dreadful in those colors, and don't know many people who wear them well. Thus, I have little motivation to work with them as anything but accent colors. (Can I claim the Orange Knitting I did in February as doing pre-emptive spectrum knitting??)

Tonight's sky was an amazing bridge to yellows and oranges, with the sky to the northeast a magnificent display of pinks and the northwest showed splashes of gold. Alas, my camera was not with me. :-(

Farewell reds! I've enjoyed you this month.... and will miss you. I never did get to starting that marvelous Koigu! Hmm... I may wind up continuing to focus my knitting on reds, while trying to notice yellow and orange around me.

Until tomorrow, (well, likely Sunday, I'm not up for a good April Fool's post),I leave you with another silly quiz.