Not Everything gets Ripped

You may have seen this picture before. It is my Heroine jacket. It was quick to knit and the perfect project to take knit on it the car. It has nice square pieces and is knit on big needles.


Okay, you may have looked at the picture and have wondered why I didn't rip it out. It's seems like it is the perfect candidate for the RRRRIIIIPPPPP.

This is what Heroine looks like after having a vigorous bath in the washing machine and drying for three days.
The sleeves were still a little long after the original felting so I wet them with my plant mister and threw the whole thing in the dryer for ten minutes. They shrank another inch and are now the perfect length.

I am going to make another slight modification. Instead of the front flaps being folded over, I will be removing the buttons on the right side of the jacket and sewing buttons on the inside. The two front flaps work perfectly when overlapped to create a very warm jacket.


Ahhh Moonfleet. This was a mystery stole based on the book Moonfleet. It was interesting to knit because the pattern changed several times, but unlike may other shawls and stoles, the patterns all flowed smoothly so there was never a distinctive break between the patterns. The borders are two completely different patterns but they still match each other.
My one disappointment with this shawl is with the color of yarn that I picked. I knit from four closely shaded yarns but they were so close in color that It appears as though I only knit from two mismatched balls of the same color.

And socks have been knit.

Green Roundy Rounds out of Fleece Artist Casbar (81% merino, 9% cashmere and 10% nylon).

After ten months of allowing the yarn to age and mature on the shelf I knit the teal Roundy Rounds out of Bugga (70% superwash, 20% cashmere and 10% nylon)

The orange socks are Glynis and are knit out of shibui.


I now will go rip out my Geodesic cardigan.

"Ophelia, you're breaking my heart.
You're shaking my confidence daily" *



"Using the long-tail cast-on, Cast on 626 stitches." ** The next step was to join the stitches and knit in the round. I thought that if I used a provisional cast-on, I could then graft the stitches at the end and avoid a seam down the middle of the shawl. After five rows, I decided it wasn't going to work.
I went back to the original design and cast on 626 stitches with the long-tail cast-on. I joined them in a round and started knitting. Five rows later, I checked to make sure that the stitches weren't twisted. You know they were.

Again I cast on all 626 stitches and started knitting again. I pinned the cast on edge onto a pillow so I could be sure they weren't twisted. I knit, I increased stitches and after two days I checked.

They were twisted again. I don't know how. I don't know why. They should have been straight.

I forced them into the right direction and continued on.


I have been knitting this shawl for ever. It never ends. It needs some time out in the basket.


Aeolean had been rescued from the basket but it is going back until I can get more beads. I have knit one and a half tubes of beads so far and I have ordered more. The last half tube of beads will be kept until the new ones come in and I can mix them together if there is a color difference.

The only thing I can do now is start a new project.

*with apologies to Simon and Garfunkle.

**Ophelia is started at the center, knit in the round to the outside edge and then seamed in the middle.

I Hate These Socks!

Or , to be more accurate, I hate this one sock...no, half sock.




I got this yarn in a sock club last year and I dutifully cast on the correct number of stitches. I worked away on the pattern that was sent with the yarn but soon realized that I was not thrilled. The sock went into the bad knitting basket.

Several months later, I knew that I would not finish them using the original pattern. I ripped.

I started again with the good old Eleanor pattern. It has worked before, It would work this time.

I wasn't feeling the love. The foot was too loose, so I changed to a smaller size needle . I thought I could salvage the work the had gone into the sock so far.

So, if you have read this blog before, you know where my story is heading.



Maybe this yarn really wants to be a scarf.