Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Penelope

I am knitting.  Yes.  I'm knitting a wool skirt in the round, Penelope, from Perl Grey Studios.  I picked up this kit while on a business trip to Miami a few months ago.  I made it all the way there without knitting project in hand, but I had planned to visit a local yarn shop anyway.

Penelope

It was a cute little shop - can't recall the name, but the staff was very friendly and helpful.  But I have to say I was amazed that they only seemed to have wool there in June.  No warm weather yarn like bamboo, cotton, or silk.  The lone yarn shop in El Paso, a city known for its hot summers, doesn't carry any warm weather yarn either.  Why is that? 

Anyway, I fell in love with the semi-solid aqua color of the yarn, it's knit in the round, so it's easy.  I'll make it shorter than it is in the photo - probably around the knee.  It's got an interesting hem scheme that requires a provisional cast on then joining it to knit in the round.  I couldn't manage joining 200 some stitches without ensuring that it wouldn't be twisted, so I cheated.  I knit in stockinette until the correct number of rows for the hem were completed.  I purled one row to create the fold, then joined it.  That was much easier.

IMG_1082

My guess is the cheat won't be visible since it will be on the wrong side.  If not, I'll have to frog.  I've done that before.  Whole sweaters, in fact.  I don't have as much time as I'd like to devote to it - I'm limited these days to knitting in transit to work.

Did you visit the Urban Decay sale at HauteLook today?  What did you buy?  It was wild - I think the traffic for the sale almost crashed the site.  I scored one of my favorite lipglosses, Gash, and some eyeliners, which are among the best.  I missed out on the eyeshadow primer.  Everyone wanted it and they sold out in no time.  I could have used in primer in Miami...my makeup lasted 15 minutes while I stood waiting for a cab back to the hotel.  Oddly, the only cool place was the beach!  I loved Miami though:  I loved the Cuban food, I got a good Cubano, the best Cuban coffee, and scored some Cuban bread, and mojo.  I'll just have to go back at a different time of year.

3 comments:

  1. Yay - you started Penelope. Thanks for the tip about the hem. Yarn looks yummy. Maybe I can catch up and we can do a KAL. See ya soon.

    Deb

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey there!

    Maybe folks there really don't knit in the summer? I know on the reservations, wool is the norm, and no one has temperature issues.

    The next time you have to cast on a lot of stitches, hang stitch markers every 30 sts or so. The weight of the stitch markers will keep the cast on from twisting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Sahara, lots of people here knit in the summer, but I have to admit that my knitting mojo isn't as strong in the warmer months, despite the prevalence of bamboo, cotton, linen, and other warm-weather yarns! I've learned to just go with it.

    I neglected to add that I hang stitch markers every 20 stitches when casting on. Perhaps because I use plastic markers, their placement doesn't keep the work from twisting, but it makes the counting easier.

    ReplyDelete

ShareThis

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...