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Iknitarod 2012 Update

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This is my Iknitarod project (over on Ravelry, Iknitarod 2012).

http://www.garnstudio.com/lang/us/pattern.php?id=4575&lang=us

Figuring this may be the only way I’ll get this done, as it’s due for a baby shower in, oh, about a week! And yeah, I just started it.

The yarn I’m using is Knit Picks Brava in a sport weight. It’s not as orange as it appears in the picture, it’s more of a coral. this yarn is, by far, the nicest, softest acrylic I’ve worked with.

Also, I have Knit Pick’s way cool Chart Keeper to help me keep track of my designs after I get that far.

I know I should round it out and knit this puppy on my Knit Picks Harmony needles, which are my absolute favorite needles to knit with, but they are busy over on several other projects.

To the right you can see how much I got done last night – the ribbing on the sweater. Now to change over to the Size 7 needles and start flying. Should go pretty fast, little bitty knit, on big (relatively) needles.

Keep up with my progress (read, please, please, please help keep me on track…) over at the Iknitarod 2012 Group on Ravelry! I am redwingschick (penchant for hockey….)

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Comments

  2. Just joined this group last night after I read the post here. First time for me doing anything like this! I’m thinking about doing a lace shawl. That is going to be a challenge for me! Who knows if I will finish it in time, but I’m going to try 🙂 Happy knitting! See you on the trail!

  3. Just joined Iknitarod today, for a similar reason, have a baby blanket I want to do! 🙂

Have you read?

Make Your Knitting Machine Scarves Better

I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve shared any patterns for our circular knitting machine users. I know these devices aren’t for everyone but even though I much prefer knitting by hand, it is kind of fun to crank things out on these machines.

One of the most common early projects for a circular knitting machine is a scarf. Which makes sense, because it’s just one long tube and you can make it as long as you like.

One problem that comes from knitting scarves on the circular knitting machine, though, is that it can be hard to know how to finish the ends of the tube so that it looks like a finished scarf and not a tube of knitting.

If you’re not a knitter or crocheter, the most basic way to finish a circular knitting machine scarf is just by cinching up the ends and maybe adding a pompom to each end to cover up any hole that might still be visible at the end.

But if you have a little knitting or crochet skill or are willing to learn, there are a lot of different options for closing up the ends of a scarf. And this would also be true if you hand knit a tube scarf!

I recently wrote a post over at Our Daily Craft that includes five different ways to close up the ends of a tube scarf:

  • the simple cinching method mentioned above
  • sewing the stitches together
  • three needle bind off
  • grafting
  • crochet bind off

Grafting is my favorite because I feel like it gives the cleanest, closest to a seamless look. If you’re a knitter you may already know how to do it but even if you don’t it’s not that hard to learn.

Do you knit tube scarves by hand or machine? I’d love to know how you like to finish them!