10/04/15
Planning Day. Bought my new circs and a blocking wire set on sale. Woohoo!

Dithering about what yarn to use. I have a stash of Malabrigo Sock, but when I took a photo of three I thought would look smashing and converted it to B&W… (Sigh) Two looked like mud together. Then I simply had to look at my big Trio and consider opening it.

I fell in love with this Trio and stalked it online for days before finally buying it as a reward for not-so-fun medical business. When I opened the three skeins, it took my breath away. That Biker Chick is intense! This skein is mostly deep, deep fiery reds with some scorched steel tones. Goes really well with the Faded.

10/05/15
Putting the Biker Chick on hold. My new purchase is cool and skippity. I like it a lot, but am not as enthralled with it as the BC. What that means is that I would like to use BC in something that has large portions of stockinette so I can admire it.

I am going with Believable instead as my multi. Predominantly light blue and light gray. Shots of ochre that deepen into a mossy green. The blue deepens into a Franklin blue-green that gets so dark it is almost black. Shots of Russet brown make me doubt using the Blackbird black, but I will because it will heighten contrast. Going with Moss for my MC1, then the Believable to provide bright and varied pop, and then Blackbird as the foundation #3 color.

This stuff is almost lace weight, so I am debating size of needle. Thinking #4? Will swatch with 4’s and 6’s.

Also doing the garter tab cast-on and a slower rate of increases to deepen the shawl. And Yes to YO’s because I am a tight knitter.

10/11/15
Abandoned the garter tab cast-on. Just couldn’t figure out whether to do 5 resulting stitches or more and alter the next few rows. I also did not do a slower rate of increases, but went with the pattern.

I am now into the third color in the Short Row section. Carrying the colors by using both for the first stitch was fine for the two color section. I am having to twist for three colors and am dropping the most recently used color and not including it in the first stitch. I think it still looks messy, so there must be some secret trick to doing it with class. Or maybe this is why there are hardly any photos showing the edge.

I am enjoying learning the short rows with the wrap and turns. I look forward to using them again.

I am absolutely fascinated by how color shifts from the original twisted skein, to the wound skein, to a knit row, to alternating with other colors. Part of me wonders whether I should have gotten some of that Franklin blue or Russet brown instead of the black. But I wear a lot of black, so this will go nicely.

10/13/15
So I think something is not quite right. I think I am not alone in misinterpreting the pattern. Is the short row part supposed to go all the way across the striped part? Or mostly? “Knit 3 stitches past the wrapped stitch”. I originally read that as K3 and I counted the wrapped stitch as one of them. I wound up 100 stitches short. If I had done 4 stitches including the wrapped stitch, that would have gotten me half way. So I am not sure how to count this. All I know is I am NOT frogging. I am counting with some short rows and working my way across the remaining striped section before continuing on with the Edging section. I am doing 10 - 20 - 30 - 40 (=100). When I do my next Color Affection I will map it out with counts to help me check my work and have a better understanding of how the sections flow together.

10/14/25
Discovered a dropped stitch last night. (Sigh)

Fixed the dropped stitch and marched right along. Finished with the knitting. A lot of people use “Jeny’s Suprisingly Stretchy Bind-off. I decided not to use it because I find it can flare. It’s decorative and I like it, but with this piece, I liked how sharp the black was and wanted to give it a crisper edge. I used an Elastic bind-off. Hopefully, it I’ll be stretchy enough for when I wash and block it.

UNBLOCKED DIMENSIONS
(at widest points)
Length: 66”
Width: 13”

BLOCKED DIMENSIONS
Essentially the same. A little longer and a little less wide. Still looks good. I like it wrapped twice around my neck to show the different sections, tied in the back or towards the side.

The Hump blocked out fairly well. All I did was press it flat by hand. I did not stretch or pin it. Perhaps that is why I don’t get the same sizing? The pattern size is 90+“ by 22”. I had enough leftover yarn to expand the different sections. I used 75% of Colors A and C, and only 50% of Color B.

NOTES from Other Knitters
from MandyS01
Lots of good stuff. Just click and go there.

from merseybluff
YO after the first stitch and dropped it on the “way back” (WS).

How to “carry along” the yarn:
when having 2 color stripes: http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/carina-spencer/1572525/1-25
when working on 3 color stripes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSMNcyGRawk&feature=yo…;

from HereKitty2:
When the stitch count ends in a 7 the next row is a row 1 (since you increase 10 sts per 4 row repeat) AND if you put a st marker on the RS of your work it is easier to keep track of where you are.

M1L & M1R increases. I keep it straight which is which by knowing that the BFF (pick up Back to Front and knit into Front ) is Right.

Using all 3 colors - wrapping the colors at the end to make the carrying of colors look neater as shown on this video…
http://www.knitca.com/video/wrapped_edge

ENTERTAINMENT
. started in the car up to the North Shore
. solid section done in a log cabin in Lutsen
Watched:
. Dark Matter (Season 1)
. Great Estates of Scotland
. Chappie
. Maze Runner
. Guardians of the Galaxy
. Chef