Life LackaDaisiCal

I can hear you now...oh no! She's on about GAUGE again! Yes, there has been quite a lot of discussion on the Mystery Afghan Threads on Ravelry about gauge...do I have to get gauge...does it matter? Weeks 1 and 2, my "off the needles" squares were wider than 8" and shorter than 8"....but with a wash and a block, they happily stretched up, and therefore in...to make the required 8" square (or 40 cm). Week 3 threw me for a loop! Using my 4.5mm needles (as per Week 1 and 2) I cast on and finished a block in Apple!  It came out absolutely  square...and seemed to me to be somehow "large". So, being the intrepid knitter that I am, I immediately worked another square in Buttercup with 4mm needles...some somehow it seemed to be "small" Both came out totally square! Shown here on my blocking mat which is marked in 1" increments - the Apple block is 8" square right off of the needles! the Buttercup square is 7" squa...

A friend of mine is knitting the Silk Diamonds Scarf from Simply Shetland 4 -- she's using her own colourway and she let me photograph it when we met for lunch..... I've never done any modular knitting like this -- looks very interesting. A couple of you have asked me about the vintage design "Thoroughbred" by you know who -- what shades would I use if I were to knit it....well, I would love to knit it but I have other things on the go right now......but that doesn't stop me from swatching LOL! So I'd use It's hard to tell from the photo in Vogue, and looking at the original shades used in Vogue, and comparing them to the shades used in the Scottish Collection version.....I came up with my own colorway. I'm happy with it, but as I've never seen the original, I don't know how close a match it is. The Thoroughbred design calls for 17 different shades - with two skeins of the main shade and only one each of the other.......that's 18 balls -- w...

Hi! I've been away in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Hubby and I have never vacationed in this part of the US before.....so it was totally different for us. Having conservative palates, we were delightfully surprised at the authentic Mexican food -- yes, some of it was hot, but in general it was just extra tasty! We loved our Green Chile and Cheese Hamburgers -- we'll be trying this ourselves. Before I left, I was playing with swatching the Shetland Lambswool & Cashmere yarn to get proper gauge. Here's swatch #2 -- 21 stitches and 31 rows per 10 cm - done on 4mm needles. So for me, I'd probably try 4.25mm needles next to get both stitch and row gauge. Swatch 3!

I'm laughing because I KNEW that my digital caliper would attract some attention.... One day I was bemoaning the fact that I couldn't hold the measuring tape and count the number of stitches accurately to 10cm or 4" -- every time I did it I seemed to come up with a different number -- maybe only one stitch out but it was annoying to not be totally SURE! So DH goes down to his model railroad room and comes up with this! You can measure your knitting needles with it. This is sometimes very surprising to see what the needle actually measures! In this case, the 3.75 mm Addi turbos read 3.75.......but I measured some wooden needles I had -- they were not so accurately sized. It wouldn't matter if the labelling was off, as long as you know what size of needle you are working with. Something I just realized when posting my Shetland Lambswool and Cashmere swatch photo -- I can actually count the stitches much easier by looking at the photo - so I am going to just put the calip...

OK, here we go......... The label reads 20-22 sts, and 24-28 rows per 10 cm (or 4 inches)on recommended needle size US 5-6 (3.75 - 4.00 mm). What this gives us, the knitter, is a range of stitches and rows per 10 cm that the manufacturer recommends this yarn be knit at. They (the manufacturer) feel that the yarn performs best at this gauge. It's up to the designer to either design at this gauge, or if they are trying to do something different (lacier, thicker, whatever) they can set their own gauge. Why do you have to know this? Well, if you wanted to knit a design but couldn't find the original yarn called for -- you need to know the specs of the original yarn, compared to the gauge called for in the pattern -- then you'd be in a better position to substitute if necessary. In my Gauge Quest, I'm going to figure out what size needles I'd need to knit this the Tomales Bay Cowl from the Simply Shetland 4 book...... The pattern calls for 22 sts and 30 rows to 4" (...

Duxbury Point is a joy to knit -- just enough excitement without being overwhelming.......I've done two repeats of the large cable and the sleeve is shaping up. I love how this Silk and Shetland Lambswool yarn knits up -- very bouncy -- shows of these delicate cables really well -- and I don't even mind doing the Trinity Stitch in the center of of the cable or the bobble -- that's saying a lot! Since this is going to be a long knit, I'll give you update shots every once in a while -- enough to keep you interested, not to0 much of the same old to bore you with. Also, I'm on a quest for gauge! Yes the "G" word. A lot has been written about gauge and it seems that knitters still don't get it. I've had some disappointing knitting done for me lately -- by "professional" knitters -- and none of it was to gauge, which meant that the finished product wasn't what it should be. My first "GQ" (Gauge Quest) will be for the new Simply...