Free Pattern: Pythagoras Shawl

I have an FO and free pattern to share: a simple top-down triangle shawl named Pythagoras.



Pattern: Pythagoras Shawl
(A basic top-down reversible triangle shawl with 2 yarns)

Yarns
MC: Plymouth Yarns Outback Mohair in Rust - 1 skein (218 yards).
CC: Unknown fingering/light-sport weight silk blend in gold color purchased from thrift store. Any silky fingering or light-sport weight yarn will do, about 100 yards (or half the yardage of your MC). A good substitute: Celia by Adrienne Vittadini.

Needles etc.
Size 10 circular needles
Size 10/6.00 Crochet Hook for bind off

Pattern Instructions

Using mohair yarn, CO 7 stitches. Place markers on either side of center stitch. These stitches constitute the top-center of the shawl. I know this is weird, but it works, I promise.

You will work 4 rows with the mohair (MC) and 2 rows with the silk (CC), creating stripes with the bright silk yarn.

Work triangle as follows:

Row 1: K1, yo, k2, yo, slip marker (sl m), k1, sl m, yo, k2, yo, k1.
Row 2: Knit all stitches and slip markers as necessary.
Row 3: K1, yo, k until 1st marker, yo, sl m, k1, sl m, yo, k until 1 stitch before end of row, yo, k1.
Row 4 and all even rows: As row 2.
Rows 5-6: Using CC, work as rows 3-4.

Continue in this fashion until you have worked 15 CC stripes. Work 4 more rows in MC, then prepare to bind off. Using CC yarn and crochet hook, BO as follows:

Step 1: Insert hook into first loop on needle, single crochet (sc) 1, chain (ch) 1.
Step 2: Insert hook into next loop on needle, sc (pulling yarn through both loops on hook), ch 1.

Repeat step 2 until all sts are bound off. The extra chain stitch in between each single crochet creates a nice, loose edge. At the end of the BO, break yarn, pull through loop, and weave in the end. Break the MC yarn and weave that in, too. Done!

Air Blogging and an FO

This is officially the first Knitty Professors blog post from 30,000 feet.

I'm on Delta with their new Wifi service (that I paid out the nose for). Adrian is asleep on my chest, strapped into the Ergobaby carrier.

I'm headed to San Francisco to visit some friends, including raptwithfiber, who'll be picking me up from the airport. We're going to explore some yarn shops and I'll have some columns to write from out there.

Knittyprofs Featured in Oregonian

Peggy McMullen over at the Oregonian paper contacted me about their knitting blog.

(Wait, their local newspaper has a KNITTING blog? I want to move THERE.)

She wrote a nice post about the EZ Pi Shawls I've been knitting.

You can read it here.

Awesome: Green Knitting

A wind-powered scarf-knitting machine:

Although, people like knitting. A different approach would be to harness knitting energy to power other things. For example, as I’m knitting, I could also be charging my cell phone or laptop.

I don’t know why these things don’t exist everywhere all the time. I’ve been trying to convince my BF (a power engineer) to rig up a laptop charger that would be powered by an under-the-desk pedaler like this one:

Not only would you get in some extra exercise while stuck at your desk, but you’d be reducing your energy consumption. Who’s with me?

Philosophical Question

Do you ever feel like everything you knit sucks? Like, everything you knit looks like something that would be on the TJ Maxx clearance rack, and as you flipped through the rack, you'd even be afraid to touch it lest its ugliness stick to your fingertips?

I'm knitting a lot of lace shawls right now because I can't seem to make a sweater that doesn't look like its ugliness is contagious.

But then, other times, I'll go a whole week and realize that I wore a hand-knit sweater every darn day. What is this weird split feeling I have toward knitting? How about knitzophrenia? (I hate it! It's ugly! It's awesome! I love it!)

Right. I'm totally nutters.

Rant, Continued

I recently wrote a post upon the receipt of the latest copy of Verena. I found it aggravating that (nearly) all of the sweaters had been worked in multiple flat pieces, as though they were machine-knit. (Handknitters can knit in the round; isn't that miraculous.)

And none of the sweaters were top down. It seemed ridiculous to me.

I was thinking I might be a bit of a lone wolf on this one, and then I came across this quote in Knitting Daily:

Tammy T, on ease: My daughter's favorite tip for knitting sweaters is "Finish knitting them!" A tip that has been revolutionary for me is this: If you are a shapely lady, knit a sweater top down. I had no idea what size I needed and had trouble modifying bottom-up sweaters to fit my 12-inch difference between bust and waist measurements. If you knit from the top down, you can try it on as you go and get the perfect fit. Then when you do a bottom up sweater, you can use the top down one as a template to help with the sizing and shaping. Also, I don't know about everyone else, but I tend to overestimate my size. Even for a larger lady, wearing a sweater that hangs like a sack isn't attractive. A little negative ease is your friend!

[From newsletter titled, "Knitting Tips and Tricks, from You!" published 4/16/2010.]

Exactly. Top-down. In the round. Better fit.

Sigh.

FO: Oread Pi Shawl

I knit another Pi Shawl, this time in a frenzied binge. This one went really fast, a combination of the yarn/needles and the simple concentric circle pattern. I let the yarn color changes do the talking, instead of complicated lace.

An Oread is a type of nymph from ancient Greek mythology. They lived in mountains, valleys, and ravines. The greens and grays of this shawl evoked that sort of imagery for me.



Oread
Pattern: Elizabeth Zimmerman's Pi Shawl
Needles: Size 10 1/2 circulars
Yarns: This is a little more complicated.

I used some mohair ball ends I found a thrift store (brand unknown) held double with some Valley Yarns Alpaca/Silk Lace--I bought a cone of it a few years back, plus some other mohair in my stash. Basically, use a lightish weight mohair held with a lace-weight woolish strand. I'll try to give as much info on my yarn as I can.

So, here goes:
Main Color--Used throughout: Valley Yarns 2/14 Alpaca Silk in Olive. 4 ounces. (half of a half-pound cone)
Color 1 (center): Rowan Kidsilk Haze Color 645. 1/2 skein.
Color 2 (2nd color from center): Unknown Green variegated mohair. 1/2 skein.
Color 3 (grayish): GGH Softkid. Dark Gray. 1.5 skeins.
Color 4 (green/brown variegated): Fiesta Yarns Heaven in Catalina. 1/2 skein.



I used size 10 1/2 needles and this went really fast. I bound off with a crochet hook, like this:

Pass hook through one loop on needle and work a single crochet. Chain one stitch. Repeat all the way around.

Very simple but effective. The edge is ruffly because I worked an extra round of YOs shortly before ending, and I also worked a pattern of garter stitch rows periodically.

I’d be glad to write up what I did exactly if you want to know, if you want. Just post a request in the comments.