Herringbones

Yay for new projects! As beautiful as the moss stitch is, I got tired of it and I was just itching to get my hands on something new. I found a wonderful tutorial on Youtube for this gorgeous herringbone cowl that is super chunky and super cute. I planned on using a different yarn for this project, but switched last minute and I'm so glad I did! Instead, I used my tweed yarn from Romni's. As you can see below, the piece is beginning to curl a little at the ends, but I think it's probably because the cast on is rather thin, and then the piece doubles in thickness. When I wash it, I'll block it a bit to ensure it's flat.

After working with the stitch a bit, I've come to the conclusion it's the thickest stitch I've ever worked with, but it's also my favourite. I just love the pattern that comes out of it and it's very easy to work with. If you're afraid the stitch will be too thick for you because you want a lighter piece, I'd suggest using a thinner yarn, possibly a fingerling.

My first time.

I thought I'd start off my first "post" talking about my first project. When I took that beginner's class, the lady taught us the basics and then she gave us a project. As predicted, nobody had actually finished their project by the end of that class (except mine was almost done - overachiever, much?), so I don't actually know how anyone's came out.

Anyways, the first project was a basic cowl with this really beautiful silk yarn that she dyed for each of us. I chose a coppery/amber colour. She had us cast on 110 stitches and then alternate between knitting and purling for the first 5 rows and then it was supposed to be knit the rest of the way (Right knit, Left purl) and then finish off with another 5 rows of alternating knit and purl. I have to say, by the time I was finished, I'd never seen anything uglier in my life. I had missed a bunch of stitches so there were holes, I somehow managed to increase a few times, I was alternating between making really tight and really loose stitches and I kept knitting so I could only do 2 alternating knit and purl rows before I had to bind off (which came off really tight and I could barely get the piece over my head), after which I ran out of yarn. The project was done on straight needles so we had to use leftover yarn to sew together the two ends of the project. Because I had no yarn left, I had to use sewing thread (which was the worst mistake of my life).

I'm sorry for the crappy quality, but here's the scarf when I was close to binding off.

About a month later, I decided to pull apart the scarf and re-do it. I can tell you now, never use sewing thread to sew together the two ends. I cut it fine, but when I began pulling the scarf apart, the pieces kept getting stuck because there was little threads caught between the yarn. It was the biggest pain in the ass. Eventually, I managed to get my yarn back into a big roll and I started again! I should probably add, before I ripped apart my project, I counted out the rows so that I could approximate at which point I should start ending with my 5 knit/purl rows. That worked out pretty well but I ended up doing 7 rows because I still had so much yarn. I still have quite a bit of yarn left, but I'll be using that to sew together the ends (which I have not done yet).

Please excuse the pictures, it was an odd day and the lighting kept going weird.

This is the truest to the colour of all the pictures.