Sunday, April 8, 2007

Pie R Done

I finished my Pie R Squared shawl. It is now drying which will take some time since the yarn is so thick and it is doubled.

The yarn is handspun from some fiber I bought at Brown Sheep a couple of years ago. I believe it is the top of the lamb and is mostly wool with some mohair. This is what happens you buy from 'the bulk bin' of fiber. I have heard they don't have boxes of fiber consisting of all the bits and parts they couldn't process because of some machine hiccup any more. Which is a shame because it is great stuff for learning.


The two ply yarn turned out bulky and I knit it on size 15 needles. The shawl is about 28 inches in length and used approximately 850 - 900 yards of the 1000 - 1150 yards of yarn. I didn't get a perfect count when winding the skeins into balls and lost some of my slips when knitting. I had tucked a slip of paper with the approximate yardage in each ball.

Rather than using a knit-on edge for the bind off I used a really loose bind off method from Stahman's Scarves and Shawls. It is also on a Elizabeth Zimmerman video and really easy. It is started by knitting two stitches, slide them back to the other needle, and knit together. Then knit one stitch, slide the two stitches back, knit two together. Repeat the last part until you are out of stitches. Pull the yarn through the last stitch. It is really stretchy and if I am not careful can look a little sloppy.

I believe the slight rippling on the edges is caused by the variations in the handspun.

My other recently finished item is a Christmas apron. I am not going to confess how long it was cut out. It is done now. There was bit more hand stitching than I had anticipated. The pocket hem and hem along the top are sewn by hand. The binding was interesting. It is cut as one piece, the ends are sewn together with with about 2 inches hanging out either end of the seam, and then it is cut with one long cut that spirals. Pictures would probably help but I didn't take any.

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