Thursday, May 14, 2009

slipped rib scarf

Slipped Rib Scarf


Knit this Scarf bigger for a cozy wrap or small (as pictured) to wear wrapped around your neck.

Yarn: You can use any weight you prefer. I used two skeins of an aran weight cotton yarn, Araucania Pomaire, colorways 4 & 7. I had more than half a skein leftover of the green/yellow/purple colorway.

Needle: With an aran weight yarn, I used US 10 circular needles for a loose drapey fabric. I recommend using larger needles for any given yarn to get the most out of a yarn's yardage and to create a fabric with nice drape.

Slipped Rib Stitch:
Row 1 (WS): Purl all sts
Row 2 (RS): K1, *wyif Sl1, wyib K1, repeat from * for slipped rib stitch


Abbreviations:
K: Knit
P: Purl
yo: yarn over
Sl: slip (stitches in slipped rib stitch are always slipped purlwise)
wyif: with yarn in front
wyib: with yarn in back
RS: Right Side
WS: Wrong Side
CO: Cast On
St: Stitch

Instructions:
CO with your favorite triangular shawl cast on.
I usually CO 5 sts and do the following 2 set up rows...
Row 1 (WS): K2, yo, P1, yo, K2
Row 2 (RS): K2, yo, K1, yo, K1(this is the center st), yo, K1, yo, K2

Row 3 (WS): K2, purl to last 2 sts, K2
Row 4 (RS): K2, yo, work the RS row of slipped rib stitch until you get get to center stitch, yo, K1, yo, work in the slipped rib stitch again to last 2 sts, yo, K2

Repeat rows 3 & 4 being careful that all the Knit sts are stacked on top of each other and all the slipped sts are stacked on top of each other on the RS of the shawl. This will mean that on one right side row you start the slipped stitch pattern with a knit stitch and on the next right side row the slipped stitch pattern begins with a slipped stitch.

Work shawl until desired length leaving a couple inches free for a garter stitch border.
I knit 8 rows while maintaining the 4 yo sts every other row.
Cast off, weave in ends, and enjoy!

(My cotton shawl ended up being about 20 inches in length from the cast on edge to the pointy tip, and the width or wingspan of my shawl is roughly 48 inches across)


Wednesday, May 13, 2009

chicago trip

I came up to Chicago with Chris on Monday so he could talk with a professor about grad school research opportunities at UIC. We stayed at my mom's in Skokie and took the train into Chicago Tuesday morning. After we went to UIC we got to check out Loopy Yarns in Chicago.


They had a really great selection of all kinds of yarn organized by weight. So, their worsted weight yarn was what you saw first, then they had their chunky yarn and sport/dk weight had its own room as well as lace/sock weight yarn. Their Lorna's Laces selection was excellent. I may have to get some of that at their shop this summer. However, their prices were all $2-3 more per ball of yarn than I've seen anywhere else. Perhaps that's because of their Chicago location, but they had some really nice yarns 25-50% off downstairs. They also had some roving downstairs. I want to explore spinning more, so I got my favorite colorway of merino top roving that they carry from Frabjous Fibers.


I even got a 10% discount for being a student and an awesome free tote bag for signing up on their email list. The bag has sheep knitting on the train.

Also on Tuesday, we went to Close Knit in Evanston, Illinois. It's a nice cozy one room shop with nice yarns stacked on all the walls. I found some awesome Fiddlesticks organic cotton yarn on sale for less than $5 a skein. I grabbed all five skeins because it was a soft neutral tweedy cotton.



I worked on a little shawl Monday and Tuesday with some Araucania Pomaire yarn. It's a wonderful cotton with amazing variegated colors. I loved working with it.



I cast on during the car ride from Urbana to Chicago, knit at home that night, on the train in the morning and throughout the day, and finished it at the beach in Evanston that afternoon.



I used a simple slipped stitch pattern with yarn overs on the edges and on either side of the center stitch. Then I just switched to garter stitch for eight rows with another colorway and cast off.



I think I'll definitely use this yarn again. It's a really nice soft cotton. There are several gorgeous colorways and they are all a little different. I like the purpley blue based one I got because it just had hints of the the yellow/orange bits.


I used one skein of the blue and less than a half skein of the green. So, I might have enough leftover for some fingerless mitts. I may try to add a crocheted border? Or some tassels maybe? I don't know. I may save that edging idea for another shawl sometime.



Let me know if you want me to write up a little recipe for this pattern. It's basically the same as the Boneyard Shawl that I wrote up, but you use less yarn and there's a different easy stitch pattern for the body of the shawl/neckwarmer.