Braided Join

While working on my Pole cardigan I had a little dilemma when I ran out of yarn mid-wedge. The outside circle of Pole can be worn reversed so I didn't want ends to weave in and Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage is a superwash yarn so spit/splicing was out of the question. I really didn't want to frog back a bunch of rows to an area where I could weave ends in less conspicuously without giving something else a try first. So after researching Ravelry and the Madelinetosh board, I came across two alternatives, the Russian Join and the Braided Join. I thought I'd give the Braided Join a try.

First I separated one end of the yarn into two plies about six inches (as I was knitting on large needles and wanted the join to cover a few stitches). Then, I took the new end of yarn and overlapped it in the middle of unseparated yarn and secured it with a hair clip.

Then I braided the yarn together and when finished removed the hair clip. The join is very secure. I gave it a good tug to be sure. There are ends that will be left at the back and cut off once the piece has been blocked.

Then you knit as normal with the braided yarn. Here you can see that it blends pretty well except for the one stitch where I had braided the yarn too tightly and it had twisted and become too thick. (sorry for the sideways pics - computer issues today)

I did find it helpful to have an extra pair of hands to hold the hair clip when braiding.

Overall it worked in a pinch. I think it might be more successful with other types of yarn. It is supposed to work with everything from cotton to wool, including Superwash, bulky to thinner yarns. To be honest, next time I'll just plan my join a little more carefully unless I'm running low on yarn and trying to use every last scrap.

Traveling Woman to the Pole

I have another shawl blocked! I'm getting good here, if I do say so myself.

This is Traveling Woman shawl from my month of shawls in August 2010 where I went a little shawl crazy and whipped up three shawls then left them to wallow waiting to be blocked until now. I won't go into my complete patheticness (yes, I've decided it's a word) as I think we all know about it by now but one can only improve and grow which is what I'm trying to do.

I decided to use a different model this time as I'm sure you're getting tired of seeing my silly face and asked Sir Winston to assist in showing off the shawl. He surprisingly was very happy to oblige. I think he thought himself rather dapper in the shawl. The deep blue did look beautiful with his color. I do love redheads.

Talking of the color Red.... I've knitting the most divine new project in red. I joined Joji's Fall Sweater KAL on Ravelry and am knitting Pole in Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage in Tart (which was a gift from the most wonderful Jessica. Mwah, thanks again this is to die for yarn). This is the first time I've knit with Madelinetosh and I'm loving it. The yarn is so beautiful and full and the colorway is incredible. The pattern is very interesting and is fun to knit. I was going to knit Opposite Pole but chickened out and decided to go with something a little easier in trying this new technique. Now I realize how easy it is, I could have easily done Opposite Pole, but am looking forward to this sweater and its easy to wear style.

Raindrops Shawl

You better believe it, I'm really on a roll now! Yet another shawl is blocked!

This one is Raindrops Shawl by Renee Strouts. I knit it over two years ago in four days and then waited this long to block it. Ridiculous, I tell you! It's knit in Dream in Color Smooshy in the Cats and Dogs Colorway which was a Woolgirl sock club 2009 yarn and the pattern was part of the club also.

I already have another shawl blocking as I type. It feels so good to finally get these shawls blocked and so silly to have waited so long. Maybe this will inspire me to actually sew together some of the many sweaters sat in my closet... We can only hope. Stranger things have happened.

Highland Fling

I'm still on my blocking kick so I pulled out Highland Fling which I knit in March of this year for a friend of mine. It's knit in Cascade Eco Alpaca and was lovely to knit with. I knit this while I traveled to England to visit my Mum and Dad and it was a easy knit for traveling although the fuzzies from the alpaca flew around the cabin on the plane and hopefully didn't bother anyone.

It's soft and squishy and this is one of those gifts you knit that you're half tempted to keep for yourself, but this was knit while Sandy was ill and a lot of thoughts and prayers were put into this shawl for her, so it belongs 100% to her. Hopefully she'll feel the good wishes as she wears it. Knowing Sandy she'll appreciate every bit of it.

Caught in the Web

To what will be the shock of many of my knitting friends, I finally blocked one of my many shawls that have been sat in the depths of my closet - 100% knit and just waiting to be blocked. 

Introducing Charlotte's Web which I'm not sure when I knit this, but I looked back on the blog and I was listing it as on my "to do" list to block on July 6, 2006! Yes, I have needed to block this shawl for over SIX years. How sad am I?!

I remember I knit it in Koigu but obviously have no idea what colorways I used. I can't find my knitting notebooks from back then and Ravelry didn't exist when I started this project. I do know that I whipped this project out in a matter of about three weeks and then let it sit until now. 

I'm not sure what this says about me... I'm definitely not a product knitter because apparently I don't care about finishing the product once knitted; maybe I'm a process knitter because I love the knitting and just don't like the finishing but shouldn't you like all of the process; or.............. maybe I'm just a little bit silly and a procrastinator and need to get cracking. Yeah, I think that's it.