update on peace of pi

after ripping out the sleeves (just to the armpit) and re-doing the descreases, I'm much happier with the new shape. It's tapered nicer and seems to curve halfway up.

I'm frustrated with flickr. can't remember my ID/password. sigh. So I'm migrating things over to photobucket, which actually seems faster and will let me display my avatar on next exit, so, yay!

my left shoulder hurts a lot.

I can't believe it's August already!

Work on the Peace of Pi shrug is progressing - I hate doing sleeves. I decided to carry over the ribbing effect and so I'm doing K1, P1 ribbing. It looks great, but man it's boring. So, since I finally have DSL I can finally check out the videos online about Continental knitting. Illustrations of this technique have for years left me going "uh?" and whenever I see anyone do it in public they just go too fast. And asking them to slow down and show me exactly how to work the stitches is kinda like asking a centipede how it manages all those legs. If a centipede could think like a human...

Anyway - my left shoulder has been hurting a lot lately and Continental knitting is supposed to be better for pain management. The knit stitch is easy-peasy - now worries - the purl stitch is a bit snarky. And wrapping the yarn around my left fingers is odd. But I just need to get used to it. It could seriously speed up work on felted purses, Which would be nice if anyone ever wanted to buy the blasted things...

Crowded House in 9 days!!

I finally got the circle to lay flat AND (mostly) achieved the spiral-y look that I wanted!





Now I shall work on the sleeves. I hate sleeves. :) I also have to dye that last skein. I wonder how the green will turn out.

Even though it's too hot to knit...

I just had to start in on the Peace of Pi :)

Adventures in dyeing

I was going to use Procion dyes, but they are rather expensive. Then I found Dylon dyes at Walmart and they were much cheaper. Especially since I wanted primary and secondary colours. Procion does have brown dyes and I might just splurge for those, for another project in the future.

Dyeing is messy, certainly, but if you have everything set out and ready to go it makes the job much easier.


I used a foam dauber thingy to paint the yarn. I did it outside and the hose was nearby. I probably mixed in far more powdered dye than I needed, but I didn't measure it out - I just guessed at half the packet. If I had used the whole packet I could have dyed about 20 skeins of this yarn.



That's the final product after washing out the excess dye. The white-ish bits are because the yarn is half acrylic and that didn't take dye. I rather like the effect though.

I like the Dylon dyes (so far, I don't know how well it will hold up to washings) and would consider using them again, especially if I find cotton t-shirts that fit me, but come in nasty colours. I do wish they had brown dye though.

Peace of Pi

I decided to call these design ideas "YABIs" (Yet Another Brilliant Idea) because I will get a design stuck in my head and there's no hope for it until I actually try and make it. Usually it fails, somehow, and I can at least tell that designer in my head to shut up for a while. But sometimes it works out OK. And this project is possibly one of the ones that will work out OK, but first I have to get some dye that will work on cotton. I thought kool-aid would work, but, alas, it won't - not on cotton.

The idea popped into my head on July 4th, which was damp and chilly here. I was wearing a t-shirt and wishing I had brought a jacket when I saw some girls walk by wearing shrugs. Shrugs are basically sleeves of a sweater, attached at the back. (I don't like the ones that tie right under the bust, that only looks good on a girl who looks more like a boy ) I was thinking that it'd be cool to have a Peace sign on the back and how would I do that? Cables? Naw - I-cord would be easier, but can I knit a flat circle?

Turns out the answer is "Yes". Elizabeth Zimmermann answered this question years ago when she unvented her Pi Shawl. The increases on her round shawl are based on pi.

And that just gave me the worst pun ever - The Peace of Pi Shrug!

I want to dye the cotton yarn in rainbow colours, then knit it up and attach I-cord in dark green for the peace sign and edges. I debated about just knitting it up and then tie-dyeing it before adding the I-cord, but I think I will prefer the colours all knitted up.

I'll have pictures, whenever I have anything to take pictures of.

more knitting ponderings

I have a possible hat pattern stuck in my brain and the idea is simply not letting go, so I must attempt it! :)

I'm imagining it in suede, but I'm not quite willing to rip that stuff out yet - or look for the remaining ball.

I have some variegated cotton, although I truly doubt it's enough to do what I want. But as I'm really just messing around I'm sure I can fudge it a bit. If I get desperate then I'll go in to walmart! :)

I have to try and calculate how many stitches to cast on and work with this pattern. I think I'll do 120 stitches - size 8 needles - peaches & cream cotton yarn.