• Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 78 other subscribers
  • “Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers” — Isaac Asimov

  • Recent Posts

  • Pages

  • Categories

  • Archives

  • Blog Stats

    • 195,068 hits

Palindrome Scarf

Woo Hoo!  I have another finished project!

I love, love, love this scarf! It’s the first time I’ve ever knit with Malabrigo Worsted, and it was simply divine!

This is Silver’s pattern, which you can find here. The pattern is SUPER-EASY! It took me one week to complete. I started it last Sunday while we were on a college recruiting visit for my daughter. I started what I hoped would be a project that would require little thinking (compared to another project I’m in the middle of). It did not disappoint!

It would be the perfect pattern to start on if you want to learn how to do cables.

The scarf wound up being almost 63” long and 4” wide. I used size 9 needles and completed 55 pattern repeats. I used 1.7 skeins of yarn and have approximately one ounce left, which I hope to use to make the 75 Yard Malabrigo Fingerless Mitts.

For the bind-off, I tried something new.

The Fall 2008 Interweave Knits has an article that includes instructions for how to knit an invisible bind-off for ribbing. I used these instructions, finally understanding them after trying several times, and wound up with a clean edge. Here is a link for a p1, k1 bind off, which will give you a general idea of the concept.

On to the pictures!

I bought the yarn at Knitwitz, a store in Jacksonville. It is Malabrigo Worsted, and the color is Water Green. It reminds me of my first prom dress.

Ramblings

I’ve been rather busy the last few days.

On Friday, I left work early so that the family could travel to Ft. Myers to Florida Gulf Coast University.  It was Jr Recruiting Weekend, and Soccer Chick was invited to attend.

We arrived in time to watch the second half of the women’s soccer game.  The team is good, although the tied score did not reflect it.  Afterward, Soccer Chick was introduced to her host for the weekend, and we were invited to attend a team dinner.  The players’ parents were very welcoming, and the girls seemed to get along well.

Soccer Chick stayed with her host while we played house at a local hotel, returning the next morning for a talk with the coaches and a tour of the college.  We love the coaches.  The team is only in its second season, but it’s apparent that they have high aspirations.  The college itself is very small for a D1 school, but it has a great feel to it.  It has its own beach (can you believe it?!), and the athletes reside in apartments on campus.  We loved hearing about the way academics are stressed.  It is clear that their priorities are in the right order.

One of the neat things is that everything is almost brand new.  The team has a new field and its own building with a fabulous locker room and lounge area (see the windows on the second floor…that’s where we ate dinner on Friday night).

The only downside is that the school is a solid day’s drive away from home.  Of course, Soccer Chick likes this fact.  Duh!  She’s a teenager.

We ended the weekend by attending the women’s game on Sunday.  They won.  They looked good.  We thanked the coach, who told us he would love to have Chicky become part of the program.  Talk about making us feel good!

During Sunday’s game, I decided to start a new knitting project.  I had taken along my Knotty or Knice socks, but the pattern was too complicated for the car ride.  Thankfully, I had packed my Malabrigo and the pattern for the Palindrome Scarf.  What a great pattern!  If you’re looking for an easy cable project, this is it.  I completed 16 repeats before it got too dark.  The yarn is delicious too!

Malabrigo - Worsted - Water Green

So that takes us to Monday, which came way too fast after our late arrival home the night before.  After work, I washed a load of clothes and noticed water on the floor in the laundry room.

Uh oh.  Not good.  Last week, the same thing happened, but I attibuted it to hanging clothes up to dry above the washing machine.

Today I put on my grunge clothes and decided to investigate.  I couldn’t find water escaping from the hoses going to the machine.

I tried to get the cover off of the back.  No go.  I pride myself on being able to figure out how to take things apart.

Not today.

I did finally manage to get the front off of it.  Here’s what I’ve been looking at ever since:

Yeah.  A little intimidating.  At this point, I picked up the phone and called a repairman.  He’s coming on Thursday.

I’m still determined to fix this myself.  I have unplugged the machine after watching water drip inside it while the tub fills up.  I cannot figure out where the drip is coming from though.  Even my googling skills are not helping.

Grrr…

I hate spending the extra money.

Especially since I saved a whopping $55 last month by hanging up my clothes to dry on my new clothes lines in the garage.  My electric bill went down from $177 to $122.  Guess I’ll have to use the money to fix the washer.

Grrr.

Sorry for rambling.  It’s been a stressful few weeks, and my mind is jumping from one thing to another.  Maybe I’ll do another juice fast…pull myself back together.

Hmmm…

Oh, and one last thing.  I got a boost yesterday when I discovered that Knitting Rose had mentioned me on her podcast!  Woo Hoo!  I feel like I’ve won the lottery (minus the money)!  If you ever get the chance, listen to her podcast.  She’s easy on the ears and knows her knitting stuff!  She’s also got a group on Ravelry!