Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Escapist - a free pattern

Thank you everybody who participated in the mystery knitalong for Escapist, the shawl inspired by the many period romances I watched last winter.

I can show you what it looks like, now that the knitalong is done:


My idea was to make a shawl that would be warm around your neck and shoulders, while growing fast around the arms so as to be big without insane amounts of knitting.  It had to be super easy so you don't have to count a lot, and it had to have a few runs of stocking stitch to make it easier to run in ends when you start a new ball  of yarn. 


You'd be surprised how hard it is to come up with different stitch patterns that meet all those requirements.  A garter stitch base is good for warmth, so it went first.  Because it holds itself close the shawl got really wide once I switched to lace with a stocking stitch base - and that limited what I could do with the third lace choice, because it had to stretch out either the same or wider.  In the end I decided on a subtle variation on the second lace stitch that smoothed out its garter transitions with thin strips of stocking stitch.

I wanted a special lace pattern for the spine, something compact but interesting.  This one happens to create a natural fold down the middle, which made it a lot easier to block - I just fold the shawl in two and pin it out in a perfectly symmetrical double layer, then press the fold flat again when it's all dry.


For the last part, I increased the stitches at the sides and centre to compensate for the stocking stitch border, which I think are lovely and, in the case of the sides, make a perfect place for a button if you want one to slip through any of the yarn overs.  I might do that myself.


You may notice from these pictures that one version has a scalloped edge, and the other a straight one (or do I mean wrinkled? sorry about that, heh.) Both edges use the same amount of yarn, and you get to choose which one yours will have.

Bonus: the garter stitch lace naturally rolls itself into - well, a shawl collar.  You can straighten it out when you put it on if you prefer, but I like to keep it, myself.



I wanted an old-fashioned humble-looking wool shawl that could be glammed up with luxury yarn or vibrant colour, and I think this one fills the bill.  It's looked great in all the different fiber compositions and colours used in the knitalong... and one of the first to be finished was snapped up for immediate use in historical reenactments to boot.


I hope you enjoy it too!


Download .pdf of Escapist

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Knitting in the dark

In my continuing quest to put all four of my current socks in progress back into Mindless and Mobile Knitting territory (aka past the heel), I did some knitting in a dark car on the highway the other night.  It's an amazing sensation to knit only by feel.  And look!


It actually turned out well.  Everything from the safety pin onward was done that way.

Of course if you look at the other side...


Yeah.  And it's not just the dropped stitches, which I thought at first I could address with a very small crochet hook.


There is something very peculiar about a pair of stitches 10 rows back as well.

Knitting in the dark: worth the effort?  Well, I probably lost more time ripping back and getting the sock on the needles again than I gained in the round or three before I went wrong, but I did have the fun of knitting for an hour when I otherwise couldn't have, so I'm considering it a wash.

I think I might really have turned into a process knitter.  Scary.

Monday, August 29, 2011

And there was much hilarity

It's a busy day here at Hugs so I don't have time to prep any of the magnificant photos I took/had taken over the weekend (let alone prep the Escapist Shawl file for posting as a whole today.)  So let's settle for a few highlights.

It takes approximately 236 photographs to realize that your background includes a pole that appears to stick out of the subject's head or a large piece of lint on the item being photographed or some other distraction.  After that, it takes another 246 to get one or two photographs in which the subject does not look Very Bad.

For me, anyway.  Honestly, I don't understand why I can't just look like myself in a picture because I almost never do.  I've seen myself interviewed on video and I look perfectly normal then, but put me in a still photo and I look like a stranger with hair in my eyes or freakishly large cheeks or nose wrinkles or something.  And this is not vanity.  I have shown recent photographs to co-workers and had them point at one of me and ask who that is. 

Making matters worse, I have a thing about the photographs of stuff I offer through Hugs being On Me.  I keep thinking I should ask friends to pose for me because it would be so much faster.  I just never do it.  Maybe I need Photoshop.

Anyway as a result of all that the photo shoots around here are lengthy projects that usually involve Pete stepping up with the camera and a spare hour or so. He is endlessly patient with my unphotogenic-ness and after two years of this now he is getting better at noticing pole-like objects earlier.  With this weekend's round though he got very silly and started feeding me scripts for what I should be thinking or feeling as he moved around with my rather sad little digital camera.  Your house burned down! Children skipping! You're confused! Now: wondering what's on TV tonight!  There's an ant on your arm! No, really!

Like I didn't feel ridiculous enough already - and once I get laughing, forget it. Fortunately we did get a few that are good enough for me to feel I can give up on the quest for better.  Isn't it amazing to think that one can take pictures in four different places and times for a total of more than two hours and end up with just three you all like and two more you can live with?  Thank goodness for digital cameras.

Oh, and I do hope to get Escapist up as a single file this week.  Just maybe not tomorrow, heh.

Friday, August 26, 2011

Socks as strategy

As promised (aka warned), today I will be talking about my sock situation. 

I know lots of people like to knit socks in summer because they are lightweight and portable and don't drape sweatily over your legs where more of us than usual is exposed because we're all in shorts and those pull up when we sit down (I am looking at you, Deco.)

But I like to knit socks in summer because I can knit outside then - which means I am knitting on the move in a park or at a bus stop, and for that, only a sock will do.


Or perhaps I mean the cuff of a top-down sock or the foot of a toe-up one, because once you've passed the heel in either direction you have a floppy swingy thing hanging down as you walk which I find impacts the drag on my subsequent stitches.

(my apologies if I have already posted that picture here; I didn't get time yesterday to take the picture I wanted for this post which would have amounted to four times as many sock cuffs.)

And there is the problem: every time I get to a heel I think, GAH, and cast on another cuff to take on whatever outing it is for which I need a lightweight non-swingy urgent project.  Which is why last night I had to carve out time to put two cuffs onto their heel flaps and a third onto its heel's turn, so as to have car knitting for the weekend.  I had to do that instead of casting on a new cuff because

I am out of 2.25mm double pointed needles.

Yes.

Now, I could just take that as a sign I should be finishing the four socks currently on my needles, and a sensible person would probably do that. But I can't help thinking the better plan is to buy more 2.25 double pointed needles and cast on a new set of cuffs with my Slughorn sock kit.  I mean, it is back-to-school season.  Am I right or am I right?

Thursday, August 25, 2011

I have been shopping

Well, we knew I'd been shopping, right?

But some of my shopping came in the mail yesterday. Whoo hoooo!


Yep, I joined the Biscotte club for another round. 

I was a little sad opening the envelope because even though Louise eases the pain of having to wait till the first of every month to get into each of the little pouches that you're keeping in your house in anticipation...


... there wasn't going to be any yarn to squish.

(isn't that a super cute bag though?  I do love the Biscotte cat logo... and I desperately needed a bigger project bag so Yay Louise!)

Then I saw a little peep of something colourful and pulled out...


My Slughorn sock kit!  Just in time for the rest of my summertime Harry Pottering.

You know, when I saw the ad for this kit I thought 'I Must Have This', which I sort of assumed was the post-funeral-crazy talking.  But now I see my gut instinct was right because what Louise calls 'parchment' is what I call gobsmackingly delicious.  None of my paper is that inviting I can tell you.

Now, whether I can justify knitting it very very soon is another matter.  Perhaps we can discuss this further tomorrow, heh.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Things not to do

There has been much discussion over at Knitting and Tea and Cookies about knitting stuff we've learned the hard way and just last weekend I found I was able to add something to the list.

You know how when you're knitting in the round on double pointed needles and then stuff the work into a bag to pick up later, and when you do the yarn is kind of caught on the needles and you have to unwind it off to get going again?

Well, what I learned is, you really need to check that you've unwound it all the way before you resume your knitting.


Fortunately I noticed after just one round (and wasn't drinking beer in that pub.)

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Spoiler pictures - Escapist shawl part three

I'm not even going to pretend I might finish Part Three on my handspun shawl in time for this week's reveal, because there are only about 5 days left before I want to deliver this one and I'm losing at least two of them to errands, chores, and the occasional party.

So here it is in my wool/alpaca blend:


with the help of a second very very long needle. It is getting crazy big on 4mm needles, up from the 3.5mm I used originally!

And up close:


I'll post the details about yardage and which rows I knit in the contrast colour over at Ravelry later today, and here at Hugs when I post the finished product.  Meanwhile: do the green stripes balance each other now, or just look weird?  Opinions welcome.

You may notice that the wrinkles in Part Two are being smoothed out here in Part Three. It may not be quite the correct form for a story arc but, you know.  It looks better.

Do you also notice the shadow cast over the shawl?  It's from a very big tree branch that has three cracks in it.  Sigh.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Escapist mystery shawl - part four

And here we are at the close of our four-part miniseries. Is your shawl ready?

Nah, mine neither.  The one I want to deliver this coming weekend is, because, erm: six days??? But the handspun version paused at Part Two and the lace at about a third into Part One because: six days!!!

Part Four was where I struggled the most, and you'd better believe I agonized the whole time about how to make this shawl look lovely but not be complicated. 

What I wanted was a nice scalloped edge, and in the end I settled on a variation of Feather and Fan that puckered and bubbled and wouldn't lay flat. Torn between knowing that would drive me crazy every time I wore it, and thinking it looked pretty cool, I did a later shawl without any scallops at all.  When I pinned that one out, it was easy to add in some points which, when dry, stayed put.  And then I looked back at the original, now well-dried and shrunk back into itself, and discovered the bubbles and flips had settled into something I quite enjoy.

So: you get to decide how your shawl comes out.  Both endings take about the same amount of yardage.  Which will you choose?

Click here for Part Four.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Spoiler Pictures: Escapist part two

Since part two was published - what, 10 days ago?  11?  I'm probably not ruining anything for anybody but just in case, la la la...


Okay, are you sitting down?

In my near-bulky handspun, this shawl is turning into a giant puff. 


It isn't going to be a shawl so much as a hug, but at least I've able to get it to the same size as every part of my original shawl; I'll add extra repeats of something if it looks like I have any yarn left.  Also, this is superwash fiber.  Maybe it will stretch out bigger after blocking.

Closeup:


ahhhhh. I am so happy I spun these two ropes of fiber together.

On the other hand, I have been panicking a bit about my choice of contrast colour for the Vermont shawl. 


Fortunately I got a good way into Part Three yesterday, complete with second stripe which seems to balance it better.  Also, while I was at that cottage last week I looked up at the leaves filtering sun down to where I was and they were glowing in pretty much this shade of green. I'm going to take that as A Sign.

In my opinion it looks prettier, aka less rumpled, in the closeup. 


It's getting so big, I don't know how I'm going to take the picture of Part Three!  But I do know I will have pictures to post, because I got so very much done in the car yesterday.  Go me.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Captive audience

I was invited again on a last-minute trip for today which may or may not involve mini-golf (my addiction) but will definitely feature 3 hours of car time and therefore enforced knitting, regardless of any hoppy skippy jumpy inclinations I might experience.  Yesss! oh, and with luck a trip to the best vintage store in Ontario for buttons. MUST look up the requirements for the Deco cardi before I go.

Anyway I will leave you with Hubie, who today is discussing gauge with Measuring Tape Sheep over tea.  Enjoy!


Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Not so much of a muchness

I don't know where I used to hear the expression 'too much of a muchness' which for some reason I associate with my dad - I think he reserved it as commentary for insanely rich desserts, if such things exist - but I am very aware that my knitting this week is not much of a muchness at all.

Things are hoppy skippy distracty around here and I have been unable to settle down for more than a few minutes to anything.

I did spend about 45 minutes in a waiting room with a blue and white striped sock yesterday but stopped when I noticed my tension was going ZiNg and zaP and every which way, and hoped I would not have to rip back.

I met a fellow knitter in the waiting room who was working on a hat from Vogue Knitting and we talked about the merits of Ravelry and various local knitting groups which I really need to get myself out of the house at night to attend.

I also obsessed, oddly, about a little knitted tea cosy I spotted at the cottage I visited last week. It was very humble and much-used but there was a very strong cable up one side and I wish now I'd taken a closer look or a photograph so I could think more productively about what elements made it so striking.

The tea cosy obsession is making me think about knitting as ornament.  Like, instead of pictures on the walls, what about blocks of knitting stretched out and framed?  I suppose moths would get them eventually, but hmmmm.  And also, stash-bustery.

But mostly I am wanting not to have a whole nother day of Not Productiveness, however hoppy skippy things might be.  So today I am going to take my second Escapist shawl to the porch and knit to the end of Part Two - I'm so close now! - and stop for a photograph before starting Part Three.  If I'm tempted to get up from my chair to hop and skip some more, I'm taking my knitting with me.  It deserves a dance too.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Cottage knitting

I don't have pictures of Escapist Part Two to show you today because I didn't finish the purple shawl's Part Two over the weekend. Why?  Because I went to a cottage and was blindsided by the fact that even the drive was Utterly. Restful.

Seriously, my productive activities were limited to sheets going on and off the guest bed, meal prep assistance, cleanup assistance, and sourcing swimsuits or putting said swimsuits up to dry.  The rest of the time I was strolling up the earthy driveway another guest had raked for fun (the gentle, evenly spaced ridges reminded me of a Japanese garden), sitting in a rocking chair and leafing through 20 years' worth of Cottage Life magazine, admiring the weirdest looking mushrooms ever in the forested front yard, or standing waist deep in warm, clear lake water admiring the view.

Here is what the lake looked like where it met the rocks:


Did I mention the weather was perfect, too?

I did knit a little of the shawl because I wanted some cottage worked into it - it's for somebody who also loves that place - and a little of some socks destined for another somebody who does.  I got this far:


Which is not much, but, erm... can you spell 'distraction'?

Monday, August 15, 2011

Escapist mystery shawl - part three

How is your shawl coming along?

Part three is right here when you need it.  Happy knitting!

* * * *

Correction Alert:

The page at the link above is correct, but if you downloaded the previous version there was an error: the fourth column in Table 1, Row 6 should read "P to marker", not "K to marker."  Sorry for any inconvenience, and thank you hugely to Angela for spotting it!

Friday, August 12, 2011

Vacation knitting

Oh, I'm so excited! I'm taking a little vacation - very little, but a vacation - and I'm taking knitting. As in, limiting my knitting to just two projects instead of the four I usually rotate around. 

Lottery winners: some socks, and one of my Escapist shawls.  Well, really there was no lottery. I chose these two projects because where I am going is a special place for the people those things are intended for, and I want to knit some of it into the stitches.

Hope your weekend has special in it too - see you Monday, when I post part three of Escapist!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Colour therapy

I think we've established that I have an insane number of skeins of sock yarn in my stash, most of them courtesy of 4+ sessions in the Vesper Sock Club I just haven't been able to get through, right?

In fact those skeins are the reason why I haven't rejoined the sock club; I'm waiting for the day when I have little enough yarn that I can knit a pair of socks before the next installment arrives.

But around the time of the funeral, I did a lot of impulse clicking on things that said 'add to cart'.  Especially when I happened to be near the computer at the moment the Vesper Sock Shop got updated (if you don't buy in the first hour after the e-mail notification arrives, you're waiting till next week for another shot, and even then, the colours will be different.)

Can you blame me?  It's been a long time since I had new Vesper colours and there is just something about that yarn.  I love my other sock yarns too, but these have the distinction of being high-contrast stripey, 100% wool, and so firmly spun as to be not perfect for anything so much as longwearing socks.  Though I did hear the idea of little squares knit from the leftovers for use in a blanket, which I think is brilliant.

Okay, enough talk.  Let's look at the pretty.




Happy sigh.  It took two weeks of shop-haunting, but I feel like I've made up my own adorable club.

Don't you love how these two vary by just one colour, and yet convey a totally different mood?


And also, how this one is missing just one colour from the socks I adore most?


I've left all three skeins on the kitchen counter for a little pick-me-up, but I'm not going to wait to get through the stashed yarns to get one of them into cakes and onto needles.  Can you guess which one it'll be?

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

A new bag

I've been buying tiny happy bags again.

Honestly, these things are just so... well, the fabrics are better than anything I have around here for a start.  Softer, crisper, more colourful, more muted and calming, more matchy.  More everything.

And then of course they are sewn well.  I sew well, but slowly, so having a finished product turn up in my mailbox with a cheerful note attached is infinitely more pleasant than spending the better part of a day hunched over my sewing machine and wanting endless backrubs afterward.

Here is one of the new ones - there are more, and you will doubtless be seeing them in project posts very soon because I'm getting back up to More Projects Than Fit In My Current Project Bags status again.


Isn't it pretty?  and so functional with the drawstring closure.  I was hesitant about this style at first because   zip closure suggests more security for things that might fall out, but after several weeks of knitting at bus stops where I pull yarn up from the bag at my side (as opposed to knitting on the sofa where the environment is more controlled) I noticed the yarn often getting wrapped around the zipper pull and thought I'd try a change. It's heaven.  Super satisfying to pull the drawstrings tight, too.

When not beside me this bag sits on my kitchen counter so I can grab it on my way out the door, and every time I so much as glance at it I just feel a tiny burst of happiness.  That's herringbone linen, you know? and the crocheted doily is perfect.  It's just so... well.  I can't explain why I love these bags so much, I just do.

Though one factor might be the inevitable lining surprise.


Always different, always cheery.

Those are some socks, by the way.  Super vibrant cheery Vesper self-striping socks, which I will show you another day when they're a bit further along.  I have more to say about Vesper this week though, because you can never have too many tiny bursts of happy, right?

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Escapist - part one pictures


Spoiler alert, if you don't want to spoil the surprise! If you don't mind seeing what Escapist part one looks like knit up though, you can check it out in the three totally different kinds of fibers I'm using for the knitalong.

Ready?

Okay.  First up, I think I'll show you what the heavy garter-based lattice looks like in sport weight on needles  little bigger than the pattern calls for (4mm, in this case), in the limited edition wool/alpaca blend I bought from A Piece of Vermont a while back.


I love looking at the central lace pattern in the air, with light coming through.


I find the first part of the shawl a bit of a slog to get through because garter grows so slowly, but on the other hand - nice to look at lace and pretty much see what you're going to get after blocking.  This part does stretch out a bit after it's been pinned to dry and then released, but not as much as the rest of the shawl does.  And of course the plus of that is: it's warm up around your neck where you want it.  It also produces a natural fold for a shawl collar, should you want one.  (Not to be too spoilery.)

I don't know whether I'll get a shawl collar out of my handspun FoxyMaple as it's so much heavier weight, but it's awfully pretty don't you think?


I did far fewer repeats of the first lace chart and will be making other changes along the way to adjust for proportion and the amount of yarn I have, but so far I've got this to the same size as my original sample so I think it will block out to be nicely wrappable.

Slower going: the cabled laceweight version.


I have to be a bit careful not to put my needle through the cabled strands (I did mention it's not perfect, right?) and I have a few other projects I have to keep up with, so I've decided to take my time with this one as it's for me and can therefore wait.  But I'm really pleased with how it's looking and I think it will make a lovely little accessory for my usual black on grey winter uniform.

Hope your shawls are going beautifully too!

Monday, August 8, 2011

Escapist mystery shawl - part two

Did you get all the way through part one last week?  If so, I bet you'll be glad to know - I know I am - that the shawl will start growing a lot faster now!

Click here for part two.




Friday, August 5, 2011

The other kind of cable

Now that I have a rudimentary understanding of my wheel, my thoughts have turned to the yarns I'm not knitting with because they're thinner than my brain can cope with.  There are several in this category, but being somewhat of a daredevil I didn't hesitate to look at the most expensive one first.


Yes, this is the 1300 yards of cashmere/alpaca/silk blend I bought from Viola well over a year ago.  The only more expensive yarn in my stash is the qiviut, which should tell you something.  And just getting the cake wound into two equal but smaller cakes took For. Ever.  I mean, you're still looking at 650 yards on each one, there.

Having taken the plunge, I got out my trusty Judith MacKenzie McCuin book and read about how to spin two or more plied yarns together - this is called 'cabling' rather than 'plying' - retained the directive 'spin in the direction opposite that of the original ply', and promptly forgot the rest.

The result?


Let's look closer.


It's not perfect - I was watching a Harry Potter movie at the time, and I didn't spin each section as much as I ought - but I think it's very pretty. 

You may have noticed that 650 yards is just a little more than you need for the Escapist shawl, and you might be able to guess what I'm now making with my first cabled yarn. I'll show you pictures on Tuesday after the directions for Part Two are released (on Monday - so there's still time to be an early member of the KAL!)  but for now let me just say that the way light reflects off a cabled yarn is about 60 million more times gorgeous even than the way it reflects off a regular ply.

(oh, and knitting laceweight as opposed to uber-thin laceweight?  totally do-able even for ol' limpy here.)

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Getting things done

Do you ever have the feeling that water is pouring into your boat faster than you can pour it back out, and you'd better just learn to enjoy the bath?  Well, around last week the water stopped pouring into mine, and I've been able to start the long process of getting dry.

I watched a few Harry Potter movies and got a few more inches onto my Deco cardi:


I finished off my plain stripey socks and, trying them on, was relieved to find they aren't a bit baggy without ribbing:



Patterns I've been editing in mid-knit have been all updated on my computer, and one finished sample lies next to another in progress which means that I'm getting a big thing out of the boat soon.  I've wound yarn I want to work with over the next few weeks into cakes and set them aside to be ready, and for the first time in months I have empty project bags ready too. 

I even cleaned my desk, folks. 

I don't know if it gets any better than this, and I don't care, because where I am is pretty darned good.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Sympathy yarn

I got a squishy parcel in the mail yesterday from Ady that turned out to contain this:


plus a  sympathy card in which she'd written that she thought beautiful yarn might be better for me than flowers. And oh, is it beautiful!!  The colours show true here but the pillowy factor is in-person only.

I'm not sure what to turn this into.  I first thought SOCKS! because the skein - very generous by the way, about 135g - is 80% alpaca to 20% nylon.  But I notice the alpaca/nylon blends in Ravelry's database have been largely discontinued, making me think they're probably better suited to scarves and hats and helper yarns paired with something more durable.

Which is to say that I still keep hearing

PRETTY ALPACA SOCKS!

as I move around the house... designing in my head a very peculiar scarf.  Well, there's no comfort in loss like keeping busy, is there - that Ady, she's such a genius, isn't she?

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Spinning roundup

I waited till the end of the Tour de Fleece to wind anything onto my swift, and - whoa.  Doing it all in one sitting I could really see how I progressed.

Fickle was first - overspun, underspun, thick and then abruptly, dramatically thin:


but very soft and I think potentially functional in a very weird sort of cowl.

Quirky was next.  I'd spun almost half of it on my spindle where I had pretty good control, so it came out a bit better once plied.  Okay... maybe 'a bit' is generous.


Another kooky cowl, I think.

After that I decided I needed to try a different fiber so I switched to my Polwarth, which came out very bulky and still a bit overspun in places, but a lot more consistent.


I'm hoping to persuade this lot into a shawl; each skein is a slightly different weight but I might be able to work gradually through such that this flaw looks deliberate.

When I was finished all that, things started to get better.  In the car, I spun my plain ol' green wool on a spindle, and when I wasn't I spun it on my wheel, and the plied result of both looks downright normal.


Digression:

After I got the green wool skeined, as you may recall, I got obsessed with spinning the lovely brown wool I couldn't work with on the wheel when I first started learning; I spent exactly one evening delightedly spinning, plying, and blocking the 85 or so grams I had, and though the colours look washed out here I can assure you these two yarns are going to make something beautiful together.


End of Digression.

And finally - between bouts of green, I was working on Foxymaple.  Four singles, plied together and requiring me to knot the join because my bobbin is just too small and I didn't want to lose my place in the colour shifts.


One skein is very slightly bulkier than the other - totally work-with-able - and I'm so happy with how the colours worked out.  I'm using it for one of my Escapist shawls and it's looking fabulous.  I'll show you Part One next week!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Escapist mystery shawl - part one

All ready to start your Escapist shawl?


I was a bit overzealous about conserving space for this first part to keep it on one page, so I accidentally left out these abbreviations:

RS = right side
pm = place marker
p3tog = purl 3 together

(but you would have known that anyway, right?)

Also, while I was obsessing about explaining how the stitches increase in two places, I forgot to mention that the count goes up and down in the 4-row repeat in the middle:

from 5 to 9 sts in row 2
down to 7 in row 3
back down to 5 in row 4

There is a chat thread about the KAL at Knitting and Tea and Cookies if you're a member of Ravelry and would like to join us, or you can comment here with any questions you might have.


Happy knitting!

* * * * * * *

Updated on August 30, 2011:

The whole pattern is available here (with any necessary corrections made.)  If you missed this mystery KAL, stay tuned - there might be another before you think!