Kureyon Dianna

Last month I joined the 10 shawls in 2010 group on Ravelry. The point of the group is to challenge yourself to make 10 shawls between the 1^st of the year and the 31^st of Dec. If you're interested the challenge rules are listed at the end of this post.

The yarn was a clearance item I picked up at Knit New York almost a year ago. I really liked the colors but I had no idea what to do with it. In an effort to destash I've been using the pattern ideas tab on Rav. And that's how I discovered this pattern.

The Pattern: Dianna by MaweLucky/Jane Araujo
Size: 52" on the longest side, 36" on the short sides, about 28" from the center of the neck to the tip.
The Yarn: One skein of Noro Kureyon Sock in 164
Needle size: 7

Started: 1/4
Finished: 1/24

I had a lot of trouble starting out. The designer lists this disclaimer at the beginning of the pattern:

"This pattern is not intended for beginners and assumes you already know how to work entrelac. This document will not teach you how to do entrelac. If you want to learn this technique, Google is your friend."

However, the entrelac wasn't what gave me problems. It was the lack of instructions. This thread really helped me get going. There is helpful advice from the designer and others who've made the shawl and some good links.

My problem was I had no idea what to do on the wrong side rows. The chart that is included in the PDF is blank for the WS rows and there are no written instructions either.

From the thread I discovered a chart with the WS rows included. But I still wasn't sure what to do on the wrong side, because the chart key simply lists the | symbol as knit stitches and the — symbol as purl stitches.

On wrong side — should be knit and | should be purled.

I guess that it is supposed to be obvious that the | on the RS are to be knit and the WS purled (and vice versa for the — symbol). What confused me was that it states the shawl is reversible. So to me that also could have meant that the shawl was garter stitch. In the end I looked at close ups of completed Dianna's to figure it out.

I ended up with 11 tiers, using nearly the whole skein of yarn and with only a little blob of yellow left over. If I had more yarn I would have done triangles on the last tier to make the top/neckline of the shawl straight across rather than jagged.

10 shawls in 2010 challenge rules:

1. Make 10 shawls between Jan. 1^st and Dec. 31^st 2010
2. 2 shawls must be a minimum of 500 meters (546 yards). The remaining 8 must be at least 250 meters/273 yards
3. NO WIPS count! Meaning anything that was started be for Jan. 1^st 2010.

At the beginning of January 2011, a prize drawing will be held for everyone who has completed their 10 shawls. The prizes are provided by sponsors and so far include:

• Gradiance Shawl Sets from Painty at Unique Sheep
• Lace collection (set of 7 patterns) from Leen002
• Choice of 1 of 3 patterns (My Valentine, Fleur-de-Lis, or Valentine Scarf) from ShuiKuen
• 1 skein of lace-weight yarn from Fun Knits

There are also monthly prizes.

You can join the group here. So far there are over 2000 members and nearly 500 completed projects.

**Update 2-18-10**
Recieved a couple questions about this patttern, so I thought I’d post the answers here.

If the RS was facing I picked up knitwise (i think this was the even tiers) and if the WS was facing I did it purlwise (should be on odd tiers).

On the pick up row you are only picking up 12 sts. The following row you are working 13 (joining one stitch of the previous square without a decrease). So you actually don’t do a joining decrease until the 4th row.

Elvira for Megan

The Pattern: Elvira by Sanne Bjerregaard
Size: 4
The Yarn: A little less than 3 balls of Sandnes Garn Lanett in 158
Needle size: 5

Started: 12/14
Finished: 12/23

I thought this was a fun item that could be worn year-round. All you have to do is switch out the long sleeves for something cooler.

I had a couple issues with the pattern.

1. I didn't like how the notation for the separate sizes was written. I'm used to having the alternate sizes written in parentheses. like this:
   sizes 1 (2, 4, 6/8, 10/12) then within the pattern it would say knit 3 (4, 5, 6, 7)
   Instead they were written like 1 (2) 4 (6/8) 10/12 and within the pattern like knit 3 (4) 5 (6) 7. The color makes it easy to follow, but all the added parentheses gets a little confusing.
2. On the increase rows it doesn't tell you how many stitches you should end up with. Granted I could figure it out by counting how many increases per repeat and how many repeats per row, but my math isn't all that reliable and it gets rather time consuming considering how many increase rows there are. Stitch counts (at least at the end of every section) would've been a help.

Other than that I thought the pattern was great. I like the strips of eyelets and the lacy collar. And best of all it is one piece, no seaming required!

I chose some clear, heart-shaped buttons to finish this off. They're hard to see in the pic. I should have taken a picture of them before attaching the the tunic. But I assure you they are cute.

I followed the pattern's instructions for the length and this ends up hitting her below the bum, but not long enough to be a dress.

Learn from my mistakes:

1. I didn't use smaller needles on the neckline as directed in the pattern, but I wish I had. The neckline fits her fine, but it is kinda stretchy so if she keeps tugging on it like in the pic its going to become a skirt. Using the smaller needles would have made the area tighter, perhaps preventing the neckline becoming a waistline.
2. The back starts out as two sections to create the button flap area and then joined together after that. When I joined the sections I wasn't paying attention. I got a good 2 to 3 inches along before I realized that I had gotten one of the sides twisted and had to rip it back :'(
   Its one of those lines you always read in the pattern "join in the round making sure not to twist" and you think HA! I would never do that! And shamefully I did.
3. Also don't recommend giving yourself less than 2 weeks to work on this. I was on a X-mas time crunch, otherwise I would never have pushed myself to get this done in that little time.

Rhythm for Anna

Now that all my holiday knitting has been gifted I can finally post about it.
First up are the hat and scarf I made for my 1 1/2 yr old neice.

The Pattern: Ear Cozies (CH-34) by Bev Galeskas
Size: Medium (1-2 years)
The Yarn: About 3/4 of a ball of Jojoland Rhythm Superwash in RS62
Needle size: 5

Started: 11/25
Finished: 11/26

A couple years ago I made a hat and scarf set for my eldest neice, so this year I thought I'd make one for my younger neice. I chose the ear cozie pattern because I love the way it covers the ears. Gotta keep those little ears toasty!

The ear flaps are made using short rows, which took me a few tries to get right. I was using a varigeated yarn and I wanted both the earflaps to be the same color.

In order to get the earflaps the right color I knit one earflap. Then on the setup row for the second earflap I knit 23 sts, knit wrap with st, k19 sts. Break the yarn and weave in end. Next I joined a second ball of yarn that started with similar coloring as the first and knit 14 sts to finish off the set up row. Continue to knit per instructions.

There are two versions of this hat, pointy and rounded. I chose pointy, it makes her look like a cute little elf :)

I chose this yarn because I was looking for something variegated and washable. This was also the right weight for the project.

I really liked this pattern and am thinking of making one for myself.

The Pattern: Speed Hook Scarf from Lion Brand
The Yarn: About 2.5 balls of Jojoland Rhythm Superwash in RS62 and almost 1 ball of Cascade 220 Superwash in colorway 1910
Hook size: P 11.5mm

Started: 12/23
Finished: 12/23

I started about 3 different patterns before I settled on this one. First I tried to do a striped version like Brooklyn Tweed's Noro Striped Scarf, but the color combo was looking to masculine to me. I'm not sure how purple and seafoam can look masculine, but it did.

Next I tried a brioche, but I couldn't wrap my brain around the technique.

After that I thought I'd try entralac, but it was too much work to alternate between the two yarns and I didn't have enough of the Jojoland Rhythm to use it solely. So I shelved the scarf for about a month.

At this point it was really late to be knitting a scarf. So I decided I'd go the quicker route using crochet, which remindind me of the speedhook pattern. Its the same pattern that I knit for my oldest neice. Quick and easy.
I'm not totally happy with how it looks with the hat. I feel like they don't look like a matched set.

Happy New Year!

Created with Photoshop and InDesign

Here is the January Calendar. I'm doing a space theme for 2010. We'll see how it goes.

Click here to download the half page size .
Or click here to download the quarter page size .

Check back the first of every month for the new calendar.