Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Summit

So now the cat is out of the box.



I'm in Knitty!

Sock Summit was so amazing, just walking around. Every other minute I saw some sweater or shawl that made me say ooooo! I have a bunch of slips of paper with names of yarn or patterns that I brought back, things I thought were awesome.

And then I saw Sue at the Ravelry party. She had this white sweater on that was mind boggling. I mean WTF. How the heck? Wha? People were talking and pointing, How do you DO that? Is it increasing and decreasing? what? I've seen a lot of knitting, and I'd never seen *anything* like that.

I went up and asked her and she told me her story. She was a perfectly lovely woman. I can't remember all of the details of her story anymore, but it involved buying this sweater on vacation somewhere, and that it had been machine made. And also that apparently someone (a vendor?) told her you can't knit that by hand.

WAT?

Yes you can. There's nothing a knitting machine can do that a person can't do. I was sure of it (and so was she, though she didn't know how). She really wanted someone to figure it out.

I'd started a sock and didn't like it anyway so I was going to frog it. I whipped the yarn out and started playing around. I swear I could feel my fingers tingling. I had to go back to her sweater and look at it a few times, but I thought I had it figured out.


This is my friend Carol who is an awesome knitter and who was a fantastic sport and willing to pose for pictures in a tank top in late November. I was wearing gloves and a hat when she posed for that picture. I sent it to Knitty in December and got back a Yes! Amy wanted me to take more spring like pictures. We had a foot of snow when she said that, but I told her I'd give it a shot. Carol was again a sport and we trucked all over town looking for a greenhouse or something as a background. The problem with greenhouses is they're all glass. It may be warmer in there but it's still obviously winter.

I finally took these:

I kind of love this one with the motion.





The only one that made it in was this last one, which I took in my kitchen!

Thank you to everyone who sent congratulations! I must admit I'm terribly proud of it and very relieved to be able to talk about it. It made me feel incredibly clever.

Some people have asked me about substituting yarn, and how much was used. You should be able to substitute yarns pretty easy. This yarn was sport weight. It felt only slightly heavier than fingering which I think would work fine, maybe on 1 size smaller needles.

The shawl itself weighs 6.8 oz, which calculates out to 765 yards used. If you use a smaller gauge you would need to do more columns and rows to get the same size shawl, so you might need a bit more, but I think 200g of sock yarn would be plenty to make that size.

Part of what makes the shawl hang the way it does is the weight of that particular yarn though. I think it will feel quite different if made with 100% wool. I would look for something with at least some silk, bamboo, linen etc content if you want the same drape.

Edited because I forgot to mention, DO NOT be afraid of the crochet hook called for in the instructions. You only need it to do some chain stitches in the bind off (and you can even do it with needles if you prefer). I'm going to post a video of how to do that in the next week, hopefully.

35 comments:

  1. Congratulations! It is beautiful!! Can't wait to check out the pattern!

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  2. Wow! So this is a witty-knitty-thing!
    I believe it was a great challenge for you, but you won it! Congratulations for your job! You'd deserved the first page of Knitty for this!

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  3. Its beautiful. I am looking forward to the 'got it' moment when I have some time to knit and read and understand how it works.

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  4. Saw your pattern on knitty and just had to come to your blog to tell you how unbelievably awesome your pattern is!!!! I LOVE it!! LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!!! :) Thank you!!!

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  5. I've been curious about this since we talked last year! So exciting to finally see it. You must have almost burst keeping this so secret for so long.

    It is a lovely, lovely pattern!

    Way to reverse engineer!

    Mary

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  6. Congratulations!! Such a cool design, as well. Great job!!

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  7. Positively, absolutely gorgeous!...so in love with this design. Will definitely be Knitting this one up soon!...congrats and thanks so much!

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  8. Absolutely brilliant!
    Who would have thought it possible?
    Great job!!

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  9. Love the pattern! Beautiful and very interesting. Congrats!

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  10. amazing, beautiful and WOW! thanks for sharing your talent!! :)

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  11. Beautiful, I also saw this on Knitty and had to come over here and comment in person - very cool! Great reverse engineering job, it is stunning!

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  12. Just saw this on Knitty and want to say...BEAUTIFUL! I had to hop over and give you big props! Thanks for sharing.

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  13. Congratulations! I love your pattern and as soon as I saw it I ordered 3 skeins of the Raw Silk. I can't wait to start the "perfect" summer wrap.

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  14. Any tips on using two colors? Would it work to do half the columns in one color the the other half in another? I did a quick swatch last night. Looking forward to a new project!

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  15. I'm another one who saw it on Knitty and thought it was so beautiful. I'll hope I can get all my projects done to make one of these for myself. Thanks.

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  16. very clever,l love it and thanks for sharing.

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  17. I was just about to comment on this (I've never seen your blog before) but got distracted by skein of yarn in my stash that is perfect for this! Bye!!

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  18. Oooooh, I need to make this. Lovely design work!

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  19. Hi Mandie from Ireland.
    Saw this pattern on Knitty, and would love to have a go at it, its soooo beautiful, but it refuses to let me download it. Can you help me please?
    Many Thanks,
    Lee

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  20. Congrats! I met you in Corydon last fall...
    I love your pattern in Knitty!

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  21. mariaboscarino@libero.itSat Apr 24, 08:23:00 AM

    congratulations on your scarf is beautiful I'm Italian not understand English I am a translator aide if I understand you wanted puplicare a video but I did not find hello maria

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  22. Love this pattern, making it in Melody by jojoland, a bit harsher, next time it's being made of cashmere. Thanks so much

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  23. I was there at the Ravelry party in Portland sitting next to the lady with the sweater. I took a picture of it also, but you figured it out. BRAVO!

    Happy Knitting,

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  24. this is one of the most incredible beautiful patterns i have ever seen, awesome! Awesome!

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  25. This is stunning... I need to figure out how to do the cast on.. and I will try not to be afraid of the crochet hook. (but I am) and I will have to get over it to make this beautiful shawl!!

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  26. I LOVE this shawl. I will have to get the pattern. What a great job. jealous that you wen to the sock summit. Will have to follow you more.

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  27. I just started reading your blog and saw this wonderful shawl. That is an amazing pattern -- I'm not surprised that you were dtermined to figure it out. Congratulations that you did it. The shawl looks great.

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  28. Met a woman at a conference today who was working on this shawl. Hers was lovely and your pattern is, too!

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  29. Just wanted to tell you that I just finished it and it's one of my favorite FO's...
    Thanks a lot for this terrific pattern!
    Carole

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  30. just saw this on knitty and wanted to say i was blown away. congrats-- it's amazing.

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  31. This has been a fun project. I learned so much and feel even more clever. You are amazing! Thanks for sharing.

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  32. This is so awesome! I'm not really a shawl person, but I wanna make this. Right now. lol.

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  33. Bonjour
    Je reve de savoir le réalisateur de MAIS JE NE PAS comprends .
    Pouvez Vous faire morceau de l'ONU et UNO être montrées explications des
    http://forumtricotin.com/index.php?topic=41320.0
    princesserusse@hotmail.com

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  34. Je n'aucun idee quoi elle demande. (I have no idea what she's asking)

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