Tag Archives: earth stripe wrap

Finishing Up

Posted on by under Fiber Friday

I’m finishing up my Earth Stripe Wrap – finally! I took a picture of it yesterday, because it was so sunny. I knew the colours would show up well in the snow. Here’s the length of it:

Earth Stripe Wrap knit by Deborah Cooke

I had wanted to knit three full repeats of the colour sequence, but I’m running out of Majestic (as anticipated). So, I’ll knit a few more rows then bind it off in the same Trance and Majestic as the cast-on edge, and with the same beads. It’s 82″ long right now so will probably finish out around 85″ before it’s blocked.

Here’s a close-up of the cast-on edge. Because it’s not blocked yet, the edge wants to curl under, but you can see the beads. The colours in this photograph are pretty true to life. Earth Stripe Wrap knit by Deborah Cooke

It’s soft and light and so very pretty. I’m really happy with this wrap, and I’m also glad to be so close to finishing it. It’s been a big project but one that I’ve almost knitted right through without interruption. I started August 15 and took a break when it was too hot in September to have a mound of KSH in my lap.

Next up, I’m going to finish my Audrey cardigan, designed by Martin Storey. (This is the Ravelry link.) This one has been set aside for a while. It’s knitted in Rowan Angora Haze in the colourway Love, which is deep purple. There are lots of cables on this one. I originally cast on this project in march 2016, but stopped working on it when the weather warmed up. Here’s my first blog post. I’ve finished the back and left front, and am halfway up the right front. Maybe I’ll get it done by the second anniversary of the cast-on!

A Thousand Miles of Stockinette

Posted on by under Fiber Friday

I’ve been knitting on my Earth Stripe Wrap, which feels like it’s at least a thousand miles of stockinette.

In reality, it’s a lot less than that.

Let’s do some knitter geek math. According to Ravelry, the completed wrap takes about 3206 yards of Kidsilk Haze. There are 1760 yards in a mile, so that’s 1.82 miles BUT the yarn is used double. It’s not even one mile of stockinette stitch. It sounds a little better in metric—2932m is almost three kilometers. Divided in half for the doubled yarn, that’s 1.5 klicks. That seems to diminish what might be an endless project. Let’s try this: there are 115 stitches in each row and 186 rows in the stripe repeat. I’ve knit two repeats, for a grand total of 42,780 stitches. That sounds impressive!

Here’s what the wrap looks like now:

Earth Stripe Wrap knit by Deborah Cooke

It was just shy of finishing the second repeat yesterday when I took the picture. I finished that repeat last night. Right now, it’s not quite 60″ long. (148cm) I’m hoping to knit a third repeat—depending on how far my yarn goes. Ha. That’ll be another 21,390 stitches if I make it. I know I’ll run out of Majestic very close to the end of the repeat, but one of the other colours might run out sooner. We’ll see.

It’s quite a pile of fuzzy warmth to have in my lap when I knit. I stopped working on it in September when we had a warm spell, but now it’s perfectly cozy.

Whenever I knit a bit project like this, I need a little interim encouragement and usually take breaks to knit some quick projects. Quick projects are all about instant gratification. They usually take only one ball of yarn, and they knit up in an evening or two. Here are some of my recent ones:

Two Mobius cowls knit by Deborah Cooke

These two mobius cowls each used a single ball of Isaac Mizrahi Sutton. I liked the colors and the feel of it, so bought a couple of balls when they were on sale. The pattern is a free one: Bulky Mobius Cowl.  It’s easy, but I always have to watch the Cat Bordhi video to cast on a moebius. (There’s a link in the pattern.) I wanted to use a smaller needle, 8mm instead of 10, so I cast on 50 stitches. For the yellow and brown one, I followed the pattern until I ran out of yarn. For the purple one, I alternated two rows knit and two rows purl until I ran out of yarn. They fit snugly around my throat, which was exactly what I wanted.

Serpentine Hat knit by Deborah Cooke

I saw the yarn for this hat on sale and liked it. (It has alpaca fibre. How could this be bad? It’s purple. Likewise.) There was a picture of this hat with a cowl on the label, but the pattern wasn’t on the label. I had to go to their website to download it when I got home. (It’s here.) This was a little irksome because, in the store, I wasn’t sure how many balls of yarn I needed and had to guess. (No, I don’t shop with my phone in hand.) I bought three and only needed two for the hat and cowl. I could make mitts with the third, but that seems a bit matchy-matchy to me. I’ll make a second hat and give it away.

What have you been creating lately?

 

Earth Stripe Wrap Update

Posted on by under Fiber Friday

I’ve finishing one repeat of the 186-row stripe pattern of the Earth Stripe wrap. Since it’s Fibre Friday, this is the perfect opportunity to show you the work in progress.

Earth Stripe wrap knit by Deborah Cooke

I was a bit worried about “wasting” that handpainted green yarn, because I thought its variations would be lost when it was knit with another colour. It’s not, though. First of all, it shimmers a bit more than the other KSH, so you can pick out where that yarn has been used. And secondly, the variation is visible. Look at this detail:

Earth Stripe wrap detail, knit by Deborah Cooke

The variation is really visible in the band where the handpainted green is knit with the dark brown KSH (Bark).

I didn’t worry much gauge for this project, and it turns out that I don’t have gauge. Gauge on the pattern on 4mm needles is 24 stitches and 28 rows to four inches. My gauge on those needles is 20 sts to 4 inches and 30 rows. I’m not sure what I would have done to achieve gauge, actually—if I went down a needle size to get the stitch gauge (probably 3.5mm needles would have done it) I would have put the row gauge even further out of whack. It probably would have increased to 32 or even 34 rows in four inches. It doesn’t really matter with a garment like this—what’s important is that I like the fabric being created. I wouldn’t want it to be any more dense than it is.

Different gauge, though, does affect the finished size. My wrap is 57cm wide instead of the 49cm width expected by the pattern. This is fine by me, but also means I’m using more yarn per repeat than the test knitter did.

The first complete repeat of my wrap measures 65 cm or 25.5 inches in length. This means that to get the finished length of 149 cm or 58.5 inches specified by the pattern, I’ll need to knit one more full repeat plus a little extra. Since I’m leaving off the fringe, I think I’ll plan for three complete repeats. That will make it close to 80 inches long. I will have to buy more yarn, though, to do that. Before finishing the first repeat of the stripe pattern, I had to begin the second ball of Majestic. I have three, so to finish three repeats, I’ll need a bit of a fourth ball. I’ll wait until I finish the second repeat before I buy that ball, though, in case I need other colours, too.

I really like the beads, because they both shimmer and play a little bit of hide-and-seek.

What do you think?