The stealth knitting project has been received in its new home. Here it is in its new habitat:
The lady with the beautiful smile is Eleanor, aka eleanorfromthecommentbox. I won her blog contest last November, for which she wrote a poem for me.
Eleanor lives near the beach in Sydney, Australia. In January she built sandcastles for her blog friends; we got to tell her what kind of castles to build. I had no need for a castle, so look what she made for me instead:
I have not been to Australia (yet), but my name -- and my knitting -- have!
Sydney's winter is nothing like ours, but I thought that that was no reason for Eleanor not to have a soft wool scarf to ward off the 50℉ chill of a morning. So I knat her one.
A couple photos taken before the scarf went halfway around the world:
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug (superwash merino); 1.5 skeins, 480 yds. (The Loopy Ewe sells half skeins -- that's where I bought the yarn.) This stuff is absolutely, positively yummy to knit.
Pattern: Amy Singer's Montego Bay.
Mods: None.
Needles: Knit Picks Options Harmony*, US#7.
The blocking shot:
I discovered some welding rods tucked away in our closet (don't ask) so I put them to good use as blocking wires . Welding rods and every single T-pin in the box. My blocking mats are children's play mats, a package of eight interlocking squares, $20 at Sam's.
Here's what I wrote about the project in Ravelry:
Although this is essentially a 2-row pattern (rows 1 & 3 are pattern, rows 2 & 4 are just purling) and even the pattern rows are just a k2tog and a yo, I still found it really, really, really difficult not to screw up. (This is why I don’t knit lace.) I knit and frogged the first inch or two AT LEAST a dozen times before I got it right enough to keep going.
What finally saved me was putting in markers every 10 stitches. Then at least I could narrow down the possible mistakes, although eventually I began to suspect that much of my frogging was due to inaccurate counting when checking rather than actual knitting errors.
The final product is very nice, and except for my poor blocking – which made the ends a little whacko – I am pleased with it. I hope Eleanor is, too.
Judging by the enthusiastic email I got from Eleanor and the smiles in the photos, I think she does. Wear it in good health and warmth, E!
* Check out how nicely my needles coordinated with the yarn:
