The Life, Designs & Crafts of Marie Haigh
Life is what happens while I am busy planning my next knitting design.
9 stitches were cast on to begin this shawl.
3 years later, it is only halfway complete. It takes me about a half an hour just to knit one round, since there are now 576 stitches on the needle.
The current band I am knitting is a sea of stockinette stitch. In other words, it is dreadfully boring. On the plus side, it was easy to pick back up after not knitting on it for over a year.
Maybe I’ll finish it before she gets married. (hysterical laughter)
Despite the hot summer weather, I’ve been toting my knitting bag on every little outing I take.
And just like in the colder seasons, I reach for my knitting when my hands are idle. Even though I hate the warmth of wool on my hands when the humidity is doing its best to suffocate me, I hate idleness more. I’m a fidgety person. It only takes about 5 minutes of doing nothing before the to-do list starts scrolling through my mind like the credits of Star Wars. Ten minutes pass and I start to feel guilty about sitting down and doing nothing. It drives Dan nuts. He’s always on my case to just relax and stop bustling about.
Yet my quirk is slowly knitting a skirt for Elly.
Forget about knitting a stole. I ran across my design to knit Elly a tiered skirt yesterday and cast on.
I must have drafted this pattern last summer as evidenced by this picture.
Note how Elly has very little hair.
The skirt was shelved by the hexagon blanket. Well, now that the blanket is done, I can return to the skirt. Thankfully, there is no rush. Elly won’t be wearing wool until late Fall at best.
As you can see by the swatch Elly is holding, I’ll be using two different yarns: Malabrigo Merino Worsted and Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Boucle. Once I get past the ribbing up top, it will be all knit stitches as I work in the round with just a few increases to make the skirt a-line. Though I didn’t include it in the picture, I think I will add ruffles to the bottom for a more girly touch.
Recently, I purchased Nicky Epstein’s Knitting on the Edge trilogy.
Knitting on the Edge
Knitting Over the Edge
Knitting Beyond the Edge (Amazon links)
I’m a little behind the times as the first two books were published in 2004 and 2005. The books are similar to Barbara Walker’s Treasury books, but focus just on patterns that can be used to enhance or construct an edging. The first thing I noticed was the beautiful photography. Though I haven’t had time to really peruse the books, one pattern instantly grabbed my attention, Cord n Cable.
It will go perfect with my cabled stole idea once I add in a lace ladder, maybe. The buttery merino lace wool no longer seems like a good fit though just for hoots and giggles I’ll still give it a whirl on a swatch. I’ll also try out what might be a better option, the hand-spun brown wool my MIL gifted to me after receiving it from her MIL. 
It is finished.
According to my Ravelry project page, it took me a year to knit this blanket. Though I’m fairly sure for 6 months of that time, I had it stuffed in a basket that was then piled high with fabric. It took me a while to fall in love with the pattern. But, I did. Perhaps it was all the stitches that one must pick up in this pattern that caused me to initially hide my head in the sand. I was never very good at picking up stitches. Thanks to this pattern, I’m a pro and speedy to boot.
Speaking of the pattern, let’s talk details. I hope you want to know the stats because I am dying to share them with you. I took notes just in case you wanted to knit a hexagon blanket too or just in case you are curious. Either works for me.
Pattern: Basic Two-Needle Hexagon by Barbara Walker
Located in a 4th Treasury of Knitting Patterns book
Page 16 in my copy
Size of finished blanket: 60″ diameter
Size of individual hexagon: 20″
My gauge: 5 sts per inch on size 6 needles (though as mentioned previously, I’m a very loose knitter)
I originally made a hexagon about the size featured in the book by casting on 25 stitches. Yet, I knew Dan would find me on a train headed to the funny farm if I had to knit 20+ hexagons and then stitch them altogether. Learning from my swatch, I cast on 55 stitches. The rest of the instructions I followed to the letter. I even used 2 colors like Barbara recommended. After the first hexagon was finished, I became lax and perhaps a bit confident in my picking up skills. Finding her instructions on how to pick up exactly 55 stitches tedious, I stopped counting and proceeded to pick up only the stitches that were easy to pick up, skipping stitches at random. Rarely did I pick up the correct number. I usually had 2-4 stitches too many, but I solved that problem by quickly decreasing the extra stitches on the next row. Can I tell you that it made the hexagon just that much more enjoyable to knit? And how! As happy as I was to finish knitting before the weather got hot, I was sad to be done with the blanket. Though I’ve never knit a pattern twice, this is one pattern I would gladly make an exception for.
Now as you know, this blanket was a yarn hog. I made 2 trips to my LYS and still had to order extra yarn from a fellow Ravelry user. In the end, I used 8 skeins of Manos del Uruguay Wool Clasica in natural, colorway 14 for the MC (main color). I even needed a 9th skein to stitch all the hexagons together. It was that close. For the variegated yarns, I used 3 balls of Crystal Palace Taos and 6 skeins of Noro Kureyon in colorway 250. If you plan to use Noro throughout the blanket as the CC (complimentary color), then you’ll need closer to 10 skeins.
Oddly, when I finished stitching all the hexagaons together, I didn’t like the blanket. I didn’t like it. It wasn’t as amazing as I had dreamed it could be. It looked like a bunch of little stitches with 3 different types of yarns. No angels descended from on high and sung to me. It just didn’t happen.
And then I washed it and blocked it. But more importantly, I left it at my neighbor’s house in her upstairs room to dry (she had the space to allow it to dry flat). Walking away from it for 2 days and not looking at it allowed me fall in love with the blanket when I saw it next. I think I had been too close to the blanket for too long. It looked so mundane to me because it was commonplace in my hands. Now, I truly love it again.
In an effort to ease the soreness in my hands after a knitting session, I am learning how to knit in the continental style.
Last year at the Pottstown Knit Out, I had taken a class on how to knit continental. By the end of the class, I could make both a knit stitch and a purl stitch.
Yet when I got home and picked up my current knitting project, I reverted back to the way I had always knit. The habit was too great.
At first I rationalized that I didn’t want to potentially alter my gauge halfway through a project. When I cast on for the next project, I would switch to knitting in continental. But, I didn’t. Nor did I do it for the project after that or for the huge hexagon blanket I just finished.
So here I am having to consult my Knitting Without Tears book to remember what I learned in the Knit Out class.
I feel like a beginner knitter. Part of me is happy to be learning something new and expanding my knitting knowledge. The other part of me is frustrated to be relegated to knitting dishcloths when what I really want to do is test out my new lace pattern.
After just a few rows of the dishcloth, I understand why the continental style of knitting is as beloved as it is. It requires a whole lot less hand movement. I can make a new stitch with just a flick of my wrist. It’s nice. It might even correct my gauge issues. You see, I’m a loose knitter. I tend to use needles 2-3 sizes smaller than what is recommended by yarn companies. I didn’t start out that way. In fact, I knitted extremely tight when I was first starting to knit. Well one day, my MIL saw me struggling to knit. “Why are you knitting so tight?” she asked. Before I could even answer, she took the needles out of my hand and showed me how to knit loosely. I never knit a tight stitch again. But, I went to the other spectrum and began to knit extremely loosely. Now that I’m learning to knit again, maybe I can knit just so and not be too loose or too tight. Just so.
Jared Flood, who blogs over at Brooklyn Tweed, offered some great advice on how to knit with wool in the hot and humid summers of the Northeast in his guest post on Knitbot. He mentions his great love of wool and how he tried to knit other fibers but always came back to his first love. Yet, how does Jared knit in the hot summers? Well, he swatches. The knit never gets too heavy or hot in his hands since he’ s knitting such small samples. Brilliant!
Long have I had a cabled stole idea brewing that I would love to knit in this merino lace yarn by Yarn Chef.
Plus, I bought this hand-spun wool yarn two years ago from the Pottstown Knit Out with the intention of knitting Mommy and Me vests.
I think I shall knit this summer after all while I test out the patterns for these projects.
Said Elly after I stitched the six outer hexagons together.
I stitched the hexagons together on the picnic table outside while Elly played in her water table and her sandbox.
It was a wonderful day.
So wonderful in fact that we took a ride on the tandem bike to Coventry Ice Cream Parlor. Elly repeatedly told us how much she liked ice cream.
The next few days should be rainy so the center of the flower will sit and wait on the dining room chair. By the end of the month though, the hexagon blanket will be finished. My current plan is to devote all my energy to the party dresses, but it may prove hard to stay away from my yarn stash. Maybe I’ll spin the alpaca fiber. Oh dear, I think I’m smitten already.
I was going to write a post about how I ran out of yarn on the final section of the 7th and last hexagon. It was comical because when I made the trip to my LYS last month, I had picked up an extra skein of the Wool Clasica by Manos del Uruguay. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t need it, but got it anyway for insurance purposes. Besides, it would be nice to have some in my stash, I reasoned. Yeah, that is the skein I used up completely while knitting the last hexagon.
I ordered more yarn, but no longer need it. I found a small ball of Wool Clasica in my project bag. It was so small that I didn’t think there was any chance that it would be enough to knit the last few rows.
But, it was.
Dance of joy followed by a huge sigh of relief.
The blanket is finished (except for the finishing) before my May 15th deadline and before the summer weather arrived.
Hooray!
Yesterday morning, I seamed up all the hexagons.
Now, I just have to sew the pieces together. Unfortunately, it’s a bit fiddly since the stripes need to line up. It’s going to take a lot of patience and a glass or two of port, I think.
Noro!
Noro won the poll last week.
I have more than enough of the Noro to finish the blanket. I’m not sure I would have enough of either of the handspun. So, it works out. I wouldn’t want to get halfway through the last hexagon and realize that I have to reknit it. Not only is the warm weather almost here (It’s supposed to be in the 80’s this week), but my hands have been hurting after just a few rows of knitting. I’m powering through this blanket to get it finished, but I might take a small break afterwards.
The small break would give me the time needed to sew up the seams and weave in all the loose ends.
The Life, Designs & Crafts of Marie Haigh 