The Beaded Waterfall Scarf

The last time I taught my “Beaded Waterfall Scarf” class at K2Tog, one of students, Breda, held up the inch of scarf border she had completed and said, “Ooooh, wouldn’t this be a beautiful necklace?”

Breda, you are BRILLIANT. Here’s the result, made with the same yarn and beads . . .

Beaded Waterfall Necklace

What I did was get out my needles, about a million beads (okay, 375 beads) and an equal amount of yarn schnibblets (for the uninitiated, a schnibblet is the little clump of yarn you have left over from a project – usually a pair of socks or a lace shawl – that is too small for most projects yet too big to throw away).

Schnibblets!

With a little adaptation of the original pattern and some jewelry findings, here are some of the results . . .

Some samples

I am not at liberty to post the pattern here because I am scheduled to teach it as a one-session class at K2Tog in February. It is perfect for the new-ish knitter, the knitter who wants to explore beads, and the knitter who is swimming in schnibblets.

My cuff

Ladies, I am sorry for the delay in getting this out to you. My husband and I went away to The Sea Ranch for the weekend and I just thought our house would have internet, as they usually do there. But this one did not. So I was without internet from Friday a.m. til Monday p.m. and I’ve been playing catch-up ever since. I hope you all have progressed without me.

So, let’s go over what we did in class. We looked at the diagram of the sock, which has six parts, and in this first session we were concerning ourselves only with the first part, the cuff. In a standard sock pattern – the kind where you use sock-weight yarn (also called fingering) on size 1.5 or size 2 needles, you generally cast on 64 sts. We did discuss that two of our members would cast on more to fit the circumference of their ankles. As Cynthia so rightly pointed out, you want to cast on a number that is divisible by four.

You want to use a long-tail cast-on – and thankfully, all of you knew how to do that! We cast on over two dpns held together to make sure our cast-on is nice and loose and also consistent.

You then divide your stitches in the following way over three double-point needles (dpns) – DPN 1 – 1/4 of your total stitches (this will be 16 for those who cast on 64); DPN 2 – 1/2 of your total stitches (32 for most of you); DPN 3 – 1/4 of your total stitches (16 again). You then make sure your stitches are not twisted, but lying in a line. Then join for knitting in the round by making the first cast-on stitch and the last cast-on stitch trade places. Place a marker to mark the beginning of the round.

Are you with me?

Now you simply work a rib pattern for 7 inches, or for as long or as short as you want the cuff. I use a knit 2, purl 2 rib, but in future you may use a k3, p1 rib; a k3, p3 rib or any other one that works out evenly for the number of stitches you have cast on.

Some tricks that will help you here . . . If you have cast on 64 stitches and have divided them as described above, every dpn will begin with 2 knit stitches and end with 2 purl stitches. That also helps you know which side is the right side of your knitting.

Okay, as I said last week, session 1 was going to be the easy session. Session 2 will be tougher, as we have to get through the heel flap, turning the heel and working the gussets. I have linked to some videos for each of those that I hope you will be able to watch before tomorrow’s class. Don’t take these videos as gospel – I just want to you to see someone make these things before you and I do them together. My way of doing this is slightly different from all of these folks. MY WAY IS BETTER OF COURSE!!!!

Hope you are doing well. Let me hear from you.

Taffy, the sock inspector

Before beginning the toe, you need to move the last st on dpn 1 to dpn 2 so that there will be 31 sts TOTAL on dpns 1 and 3 (the bottom of the foot) and 31 sts on dpn 2 (the top of the foot). Work 1 round even, knitting all sts.

Okay, let’s go . . .

Begin shaping toe:

Round 1: On dpn 1 – K to last 3 sts on needle, k2tog, k 1; on dpn 2 – k1, ssk, k to last 3 sts on needle, k2tog, k1; on dpn 3 – k1, ssk, k to end of round.

Round 2 – K all sts

Repeat rounds 1 and 2, ending with round 2, until there are 22 sts left – 5 on dpn 1, 11 on dpn 2, 6 on dpn 3. Transfer sts from dpn 3 to dpn 1 – you now have 11 sts on each of 2 needles for a total of 22 sts.

Work kitchener stitch AND WEAR THAT SOCK, BABY!

Much better pics with camera over iPad

Toe-shaping close up

What a great bunch gals

Okay, so this was the first time we did an Aeolian Shawl Knitalong and we found out it really will take 4 meetings, not 3, to get to the end. Fair enough.

Tita finished her shawl – the only one to do so by the end of the fourth session. That is not to say that everyone else wasn’t far behind. A couple of these women were only 5 rows from the end – but that doesn’t really give you the full picture. Tita said towards the end, a single row including beads and nupps took her almost 3 hours to complete. A single row.

Tita (hiding) and her shawl

Do you see why I said finishing this shawl is a major accomplishment? Tita used a lace weight silk/merino blend with purple beads. This shawl is stunning. Simply stunning. I want it.

Something very interesting Tita shared with us – when she was making nupps, she used a locking stitch marker  to gather and hold the 7 stitches and yarn overs of each nupp until she returned to purl them all together on the next row. This insured that she always purled together the right strands of yarn for form her nupp! This is an awesome tip. Thank you, Tita.

Emily’s shawl was also a jaw-dropper. She did it in Centolavaggi in an off-white, creamy color. She was the only one of us to choose a light color for her shawl and the effect was dramatic . . . .

Emily!

Emily used frosted glass beads and OH BOY was this pretty. I can’t do it justice in a picture taken with an iPad. Just drop-dead gorgeous.

Here is Lisa’s shawl, made with some Girl on the Rock lace weight . . .

Lisa's Aeolian

Something Lisa did that was quite interesting is that for one repeat of the Yucca chart (it was Yucca, wasn’t it Lisa?) she changed bead colors, from a coordinating teal to a contrasting mix of subtle jewel tones. This gives the effect of forming a V of different colored beads across the back of the shawl. Very chic, very individual, very subtle. I love it.

This is Ruth’s shawl, but I don’t think the picture reflects the true color, which is more of a burgundy, isn’t it Ruth? I apologize – again, it’s what you sacrifice for the ease of shooting with the iPad. But looks at the great impact of her beads – they really draw the eye to the shapes formed by the stitches. Just lovely.

And Dale’s shawl . . .

Dale's Aeolian

Can you believe how beautiful and how different all of these are? I love the color of Dale’s shawl and how color of beads, because it is close to the color of the yarn, just gently punctuates the lace. Gorgeous.

And Jan . . .

Jan's Aeolian

I cannot remember what yarn this is, Jan, but I do remember you are not using beads. Here’s what I love about Jan’s shawl – this pattern was a struggle for her. But she never gave up. She had to restart the whole shawl at least once, but she did it. And now she gets the pattern and is well on her way. This shawl will be a milestone in her knitting life.

Cynthia would not let me take a picture of hers because she did not feel she had come along far enough. I say the fact that she’s got it on the needles and continues to work on it is accomplishment enough. You go girl, and bring it in to me whenever you need help. You rock.

We also discussed blocking out shawls, and how lucky for us that just a few minutes ago I came across this great post about blocking lace triangles by Michelle Miller of the fabulous Fickle Knitter Designs. Michelle will be jointing us for a trunks show on Feb. 22 with Lorajean Kely of Knitted Wit (see link below). Thanks for this, Michelle.

In between glasses of bubbly and bites of cookie, we talked about some of our favorite lace and fingering weight yarns, both in the store, and elsewhere. With Stitches West coming up, we made a long list of luscious yarns we look for. Here they are, in alphabetical order . . .

A Verb For Keeping Warm,  especially “Shimmering”

Blue Moon Fibers, especially “Socks That Rock”

Claudia Hand Painted Yarns, especially “Silk Lace”

Girl on the Rock

Knitted Wit

Lisa Souza, especially “Silk Lace”

Madeline Tosh, “Tosh Lace”

Schaefer Yarns, especially “Anne” and “Audrey”

Sincere Sheep

Skaska

Snicklefritz

Tactile Fiber Arts, especially “Larkspur Lace” and “Bolinas Sock”

And Dale and I shared our wonderful interactions with Asciano FiberArts Tools. I purchased a pair of size 5 lace tip circular needles from them several years ago, they broke, and were replaced immediately for free! They rock!!! They’re a local company – based in Marin – and if you’re looking for an indulgence, you can’t do better.

And that, ladies, is it. I will miss you and our class. Please stay in touch – and as you block your shawls, take some pics and email them to me and I’ll post them here.

Here you go . . . . .

Gusset - the triangle between the heel flap and the top of sock

Make Gusset:

With RS facing, k9 sts on dpn 1. Place marker for new beginning of round. K remaining 9 sts on dpn 1.

With new dpn (dpn 1), pick up and knit 18 sts in the slipped stitches along the left side of the heel flap. (If you have a different number because you made your heel flap shorter or longer to fit your foot, just pick up and knit 1 stitch for each slipped stitch you have). Transfer the first 9 sts on this round to dpn 1.

With a new needle (dpn 2), work stitch pattern across next 2 dons, combining them onto the new needle. This should be row 1 of the stitch pattern.

With a new needle (dpn 3), pick up and knit 18 sts along right side of heel flap (or as many stitches as you picked up on the left side) and then continue knitting to end of round.

You should now have 82 sts spread across 3 dpns. With the RS of the sock facing you (the bottom of the sock) the needle immediately to the left of the stitch marker for beginning of round is now dpn 1 (26 sts), the one with the stitches working the pattern is now dpn 2 (30 sts) , and the one with the right side heel flap stitches and the last 9 stitches on the turned heel is dpn 3 (26 sts).

Knit 1 round even, knitting all stitches on dpns 1 and 3 and working stitch pattern as established (should be row 2 of pattern) across dpn 2.

Decrease for gussets:

Rnd 1 (Decrease round): K to last 3 sts on dpn 1, k2tog, k1. Work stitch pattern across dpn 2. On dpn 3, k1, ssk, k to end of round. 2 sts decreased.

Rnd 2. Work round even, knitting all sts on dpns 1 and 3 and working stitch pattern on dpn 2.

Repeat these two rows until there are 62 sts remaining on needles – 16 sts on dpns 1 and 3, 30 sts on dpn 2.

Now the easy part – continue working stitches as established across all needles until the sock hits you at the beginning of the cleft between your big and second toes. Yes, go ahead, try it on, needles and all. You want the last row before the toe to be either row 9 or row 18 of stitch pattern, so work until sock is long enough and you’ve just finished one of those row.

And now we do the toe – in the next installment.

The sock so far!

Me, sick, with sock.

I have been offline for a few days dealing with a bit of a flu. You’d think it gave me lots of time for knitting, but not really. Mostly, it gave me time for being cranky. Everything sucked. Anyway, I am back on the needles and working through my design of these socks using the “Eyelet Swirls” pattern from Vogue Stitchionary Volume One: Knit and Purl.

So if you’ve been knitting along with me so far you should have 3 full repeats of the stitch pattern, ending with row 18. If this is too short for you, do another repeat of the pattern. There should still be a total of 60 stitches on 3 double point needles (dpns). You will now work back and forth across 32 stitches to create the heel flap. To do this, place the first 30 stitches of the round on a single needle. This is now dpn 1.

With RS facing, work heel flap set-up row as follows:

The heel flap is to the right

Slip the first stitch as if to knit with yarn in back (wyib), *k1, slip 1 wyib* ; repeat across, ending with a k1. AT THE SAME TIME increase 2 stitches evenly across row by making working a left-leaning M1 for two of the knit stitches. 32 stitches on dpn 1.

Begin Heel Flap:

Row 1 (WS): Slip 1st stitch as if to knit wyib, purl across

Row 2 (RS): Slip 1st stitch as if to knit wyib, *k1, slip 1 wyib;* repeat across ending k1.

Repeat these two rows until there are 18 slipped stitches along the side of the heel flap and ending with Row 1.

Now we’re ready to turn the heel.

Turn heel:

Row 1 (RS) : slip 1st stitch as if to knit wyib, k16 stitches, slip slip knit (ssk), k1, turn work

Row 2 (WS): slip 1st stitch as if to purl with yarn in front (wyif), p 3, p2tog, p1, turn work.

Row 3: slip 1st stitch as if to knit wyib, k4, ssk, k1, turn work.

Row 4: slip 1st stitch as if to purl wyif, p5, p2tog, p1, turn work.

Continue working short rows back and forth in this way, working to one stitch before the gap created by the slipped stitch on the previous row and using the ssks and the p2togs to close that gap. Work until all stitches are worked and ending with a WS row. There should be 18 stitches on dpn 1.

The heel has turned!

And that’s as far as I’ve gotten. Next, I’ll pick up stitches along the sides of the heel flap to create the gussets. At the same time, I’ll continue the stitch pattern across dpns 2 and 3.

ARE YOU WITH ME? if not, leave a comment here and I’ll help you along.

KEY:

k = knit; p = purl; yo = yarn over; k2tog = knit 2 stitches together; ssk = slip 2 stitches as if to knit to right needle, knit them together

Round 1: *yo, k8, k2tog;* repeat around

Rnd 2: *k1, yo, k7, k2tog*

No new pic as I have only done a few more rows

Rnd 3: *k2,yo, k6, k2tog*

Rnd 4: *k3, yo, k5, k2tog*

Rnd 5: *k4, yo, k4, k2tog*

Rnd 6: *k5, yo, k3, k2tog*

Rnd 7: *k6, yo, k2, k2tog*

Rnd 8: *k7, yo, k1, k2tog*

Rnd 9: *k8, yo, k2tog*

Rnd 10: *ssk, k8, yo*

Rnd 11: *ssk, k7, yo, k1*

Rnd 12: *ssk, k6, yo, k2*

Rnd 13: *ssk, k5, yo, k3*

Rnd 14: *ssk, k4, yo, k4*

Rnd 15: *ssk, k3, yo, k5*

Rnd 16: *ssk, k2, yo, k6*

Rnd 17: *ssk, k1, yo, k7*

Rnd 18: *ssk, yo, k8*

So, if you are knitting along with me, here’s what we have so far:

With size 2 dpns (double pointed needles), cast on 64 stitches using long-tail cast on. Join for knitting in the round. Divide stitches over three needle in the following way – needle 1 – 16 sts; needle 2 – 32 stitches – needle 3 – 16 stitches. Work k2, p2 rib for one inch.

On last row of ribbing, decrease in the following way: Dpn 1 – K2tog, work in ribbing pattern to end of needle (15 sts on needle). Dpn 2 – k2tog, work in ribbon pattern across next 12 sts, k2tog, work in ribbing pattern to end of needle (30 sts on needle). Dpn 3 – repeat for needle one (15 sts on needle). You should now have 60 stitches total.

Begin working Traveling Eyelet pattern above. You may have to shuffle stitches around on your needles as you work to keep them evenly distributed. That’s okay. Just don’t lose the beginning of your round.

That’s where I am so far. When I get to the heel flap, I’ll write more. I think we’re going to knit the above pattern 3 times, maybe 3.5 times (through row 9) before we hit the heel flap. Stick with me!

And, hey, look – another knitter got the same idea I did in 2008! Go to her blog to see an excellent picture (scroll down) of how these should turn out!

Now, a word about my finger. It is getting better daily. Had a bad dream about it last night tho – big hole in my finger in the dream. EEEEK. But it has stopped hurting almost entirely and now just goes numb after too much work or tingles a bit. Nothing to stop me from knitting and work (drat the last one).

The Fixins

I didn’t want to do just a plain old pair of ribbed socks, so I went to my bookshelf and got out Vogue Knitting Stitchionary, Vol 1: Knit & Purl and it wasn’t long before I found a pattern I like – #196, “Eyelet Swirls.”

I used the standard sock pattern requirement of casting on 64 stitches, joined for knitting in the round and knit 1 inch of k2, p2 rib. You with me so far?

The pattern is a multiple of 10 stitches plus 2 – but that is if you are working it flat, going back and forth. I am working it in the round – so there are no selvedge, or edge stitches that have to be created to make a seam. This means, I get rid of the “plus 2″ and only work the 10 pattern stitches. This means I had to decrease by 4 stitches from the ribbing (cast on 64, subtract 4, which equals 60, which is a multiple of 10). Still with me?

The pattern as written is for a flat piece. But again, I am working in the round. So there is no “purl side,” only a “knit side.” In other words, the right side of the sock is always facing me. So that means as I am reading the pattern directions, I can work all odd-numbered, right side rows as written, but I must REVERSE all even-numbered, wrong-side rows.

Here’s an example from the pattern as it is written in the book:

Row 1 (RS): K1, *yo, k8, k2tog; rep from * end k1.

Row 2 (WS): P1, *p2tog, p7, yo, p1; rep from *, end p1.

To make this work in the round on my socks, I knit it as . . . .

Row 1: *Yo, k8, k2tog; rep from * (I eliminated the “plus 2″ stitches that are not part of pattern but make a selvedge edge)

Row 2: *K1, yo, k7, k2tog; rep from * (more complicated – I eliminated the “plus 2″ stitches’ and I reversed the order of the stitches, reading the line from end to beginning, and I changed all the p2 to Ks)

ARE YOU WITH ME????

So far . . .

Not to worry. As I work this out, I will write it down and I will pop the whole thing up here as a free pattern. I hope it works out!

And here’s a bonus pic – sock with dog (Taffy)

Taffy wants my sock!