Finished (except for weaving in) Photos of the SCARF!

Hello:

See our eagle pair on a morning run?

I finally got a relatively rain free day today, so, in addition to taking some photos of Mt. Rainier,

See it?

I was able to talk Pookie into modeling my 2012 Advent Calendar Scarf.  It's a bit long.  I still can't decide which day I should have stopped, and just started a second scarf.  Maybe day 18?  16?  Anyway, ignore the hanging threads if you can,  I still need to do the weaving in.

It doesn't look so long on Pookie, as he is a bit over 6' tall.

Pookie said that he felt like he was in the video game, Assassin's Creed with the scarf over his head.  Then his buddy, Brandon, came over, and they held it out for me:

Just Pookie stretching it out:

I love it.

Peace.
Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with lots of lace.

2012AdventCalendarScarf Finished and Blocked

Hello!

I have finished knitting my 2012 Advent Calendar Scarf, designed by Kristen Benecken, who is wollkistchen on Ravelry.

soaked it,

and it is blocking.
I use welding wires that I bought last year and some children's play mats from Ross for just $12.50.

Here are all 24 Days:

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

Day 15

Day 16

Day 17

Day 18

Day 19

Day 20

Day 21

Day 22

Day 23

Day 24

Merry Christmas!  And a giant thank you to Kristen for this lovely scarf and for the experience.  Also, I want to really thank all of the people who joined together to make this scarf, especially the group Moderators who were really helpful and encouraging.

Peace.
Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a GINORMOUS Advent Calendar Scarf

edited to add:  that while this scarf is finished and blocked, I have not woven in all ends.  Um, I will wait to do that on January 1 so I can turn the scarf in as a WIP for HPKCHC and "WIP the First" earning points for my House, Gryffindor!

2012AdventCalendarScarf Day 24! Finished

Hello,

I just finished the last pattern for the 2012 Advent Calendar Scarf by Kristen Benecken, aka wollkistchen on Ravelry.

This section has a Centered Double Decrease, or ssk1psso, as the only "harder" stitch.  We have seen this stitch quite a bit, but if you didn't do the other sections for some reason, and want to do it, I have a bit of a photo tutorial Here.  Very easy, very pretty.  And, did you notice?  I am FINISHED!   It's 1:00 am, and I seriously need to go to bed. 

Tomorrow I will soak and block the scarf, and if it is dry, I will wear it to Christmas Eve Mass.  It is huge, though.  I was playing with it to see how I might wear it, and if I put in around my neck loosely TWICE, it is just about the right length.  I don't care, I LOVE IT.

I will try to post blocking photos tomorrow. 

Peace.
Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with an all but blocked scarf!

2012AdventCalendarScarf Day 23

Hello,

I should almost name this:  The one where my 2012 Advent Calendar Scarf becomes a cat bed.

It is 12:20 pm and I have finished today's section and am ready to move on to the next and LAST section of the scarf.  I haven't checked Kristen Benecken's blog,  von-stroh-zu-gold,  where she posts the pdf's for each section, but my guess is that the last section, for Day 24 is up.  After I finish this post, I will check.  If I get the whole thing finished, spacer section - day 24 - spacer section, tonight, I will post again, though it will be another bad photo with flash.  I have bought some lighting equipment and hope to put together a light box when I am finished with all of this lace madness.  My photos should improve in the New Year.

Anyway, on to Day 23.

Another super easy pattern.  I had absolutely no trouble keeping track of the YO's today.  It's interesting, some days, when I knit back on the even rows, I find I regularly forget YO's.  Today, there were 0 misses.  Another thing, this pattern has instructions for both odd and even rows. This makes it "Knitted Lace."  I found a decent explanation of the difference between Lace Knitting and Knitted Lace at knitting.about.com

...some sticklers for tradition make a distinction between "lace knitting" and "knitted lace," saying that lace knitting is what you get when you have pattern rows only on the right side of the work, while knitted lace has pattern rows on every row.

The Knitted Lace sections often use the 2, or purl 2 together.  Although Kristen does not make a distinction, I try to figure out which way the stitches should lean, and purl together accordingly.  Today, it seemed that all of the 2's should lean left on the right side of the scarf, so I used the Slip knitwise, slip knitwise, transfer both back to the left needle, then purl two together through the back loop that is beautifully illustrated on the TechKnitting blog.


Here is today's section:

The YO's on both sides, as well as decreases on both sides, make the section extra airy, almost as if I had dropped a stitch.

I don't have very much yarn left.

I just know I am going to need to dip into my last skein.  Boo Hoo.  Hope I make it without doing that.  Winding that last skein will take T-I-M-E.

Peace,
Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with Day 23

12:47  Edited to add that I just checked Kristen's site and Day 24 is NOT up.  I will knit the spacer and check again.


1:50 pm  Edited again.  I have finished the spacer section except for the last row (because it might need to be increased or decreased for the next and last pattern).  Day 24 is up!

2012AdventCalendarScarf Day 22

Hello!

We have finally decorated our tree.  We used to have a plastic tree.  Well, we used to have a real tree, for years and years until we got our little cat, Selena. 

She was born in the summer, and came to us on Halloween.  Our friends' parents live on a ranch in Montana, and they have lots of cats, but they are all OUTDOOR cats, working cats.  None of the animals on the ranch are "pets."  The cats' job is to keep down the rodent pests.  Selena was not interested in an outdoor lifestyle.  She snuck into the house every chance she got.  When Mrs. Kelley went to sit on the sofa, Selena was asleep on a cushion.  OUT went Selena.  When Mrs. Kelley went to read after supper, Selena was on the chair.  OUT went Selena.  When Mrs. Kelley went to bed, Selena was asleep on the pillow. They called us and said, "Do you want a pet?  Because we have a kitten who is determined to be a pet." 

Selena quickly found our heater vents.

She was fun and silly.  The only problem was that she loved to climb.  She was up in our trees more than she was on the ground.  This was a real problem when we brought a tree inside.  She knocked the Christmas Tree down at least 5 times the first year.  We had to get a fake tree.  But, the kids never liked it.  Last year, a strand of the lights on the fake tree would not light.  After trying new bulbs all along the string, we just couldn't figure out what was wrong, and decided to get rid of it.  This year, we bought a real tree again, one of the perks of living in Washington State is that we have lots of choice with many local Christmas Tree farms.  And the Doc put a hook in the big beam in the living room, and roped the tree to the hook.  Selena is about 11 years old now, but she still loves to climb, and she is still a very silly cat.  She has not even looked at the tree.  It is amazing.  If I drop a piece of fluff on the carpet, both cats are all over it.  What's that?  What is that new thing on the rug?  Is it a toy... etc.  But, a tree, a large tree suddenly appears in the living room, and they don't even care.


We will leave it tied to the hook just in case. 


On to the 2012 Advent Calendar Scarf by Kristen Benecken, aka wollkistchen on Ravelry.

The pattern today is another fairly easy one, with no difficult stitches.  It does involve a lot of stitch marker shifting, if you are the kind of knitter who uses stitch markers.  I am. 

I had to shift my markers on rows 1, 3 and 5  the irritating way.  By that I mean that you can't complete the repeat without removing a marker.  So I would knit up to the last stitch, take off the marker and usually bite it, knit the stitch, place the marker, and begin the repeat again.  At least it wasn't the kind where you have to either k2tog or ssk and one stitch is before the marker and the other after it.  I hate that.  you have to slip the stitch, remove the marker, then place the marker back on the left needle before you can do anything.  That gets fiddly for me.  But, I am still not secure enough to just remove all of the markers, and go by counting and reading.  I need my markers!

On rows 7, 9, and 11 you have to shift the markers the other way.  This is my favorite kind of shift.  I like to keep an extra marker handy.  I knit up to the place where the marker SHOULD be, place my extra marker, knit the next stitch, remove the old marker, and set it next to me.  Then I finish the repeat, place the marker, knit the first stitch of the new repeat, remove the next marker, and so on.  This feels faster to me.  It probably is not, but somehow I have the illusion of speed.

Here is today's pattern:

2 days left.
Peace.
Yours,

f1bercat
shaping the planet with Day 22

2012AdventCalendarScarf Day 21

Hello,

If you look in the photo of the planter above, you will see my first Daffodil of the year just poking up.  Here, I have circled it on this one:

If today IS the end of the world, no one told my plants, because they are getting ready for Spring.  Today is the Winter Solstice, and we are supposed to have our shortest day, of daylight, of the year.  However, the sun came out, and we had a beautiful sunny (though cold) day.  The sky was an amazing blue.  We had some serious cold a few weeks ago, then it got up into the 50's, and though it is very cold again, dipping down to 33 at night, my bulbs are beginning to put up shoots.  This often happens here, as the weather seesaws up and down.  I hope we don't have such a serious freeze that they are killed.

On to the 2012 Advent Calendar Scarf, Day 21.

Can  you believe it is day 21?  There are just 3 more days of intense knitting.  I will be relieved when it ends,, and I can concentrate on the socks I am knitting (beaded and blue for ska and solidsocks).  But, at least for one month, it is fun to really crank on a single project.

This was another very easy pattern.  There are no weird stitches.  Just a lovely barber pole  looking diabonal stripe.

O!  I wanted to say that I am almost out of beads.  Last year I know I bought 3 tubes.  I only bought 2 this year.  For some reason, I thought that I had not touched the 3rd tube, so I decided to only buy 2.  More Fool Me.  O well, it's an excuse for a trip to Beads and Beyond.  As if someone NEEDS an excuse to go there.

Peace.
Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with Day 21 (and still alive inspite of those pesky Mayans)