My Mysterious Baktus

It must've been the that bit of crisp cool air those couple nights (before the latest heat wave), well, I dunno, but whatever it was, it got me casting on another scarf. This time, a Lacy Backtus, a sweet and simple scarf. Or is it a narrow shawl? Or, was the blonde knitter right when she asked me 'would that make it a scrawl?'

I've always liked the scarf as an accessory. I have a couple woven cotton ones with fringes, from Global Village, that I used to practically live in- I'd tie up my dreads in funky ways, or maybe I just told myself it was funky, and so were the colors I used to dye them. That was then (my early 20s), this is now (mid 30s), my hair is no longer dreaded, (nor dyed candy apple red, granny smith apple green, nor never seen an apple that color teal)- though it threatens to return to such a state if I don't keep working a brush through it, high-maintenance hair, that's what I have, but I never meant to mention my hair, I was talking about scarves...

There's my teen, who I can't believe just turned 16 on Saturday...!?! Should that be whom? I forget...

Back to my Baktus. I've had this bag of mystery yarn for a while. I don't know what it is, there are no labels/ball bands, but I like the color, and I have a lot of it, so, hey, time to make a scarf. I adore the pic of the original one, and this one, this one, this one, and this one- love her tassels.

*Distraction #7, I could just eat him up all day... very hard to knit when he's around...

I cast on last Thursday, while waiting for a soccer game to begin, and got off to a running start. How could I not? Cast on 4 sts, the 1st rows go pretty fast... the 8 row repeat is pretty easy to memorize, and the only thing fiddly for me has been doing my k2togs on that garter stitch (always a bit more fiddly than a k2tog on stockinette) with what has turned out to be a rather splitty, though bright and lively in color, yarn. I have a slight dread of every Row 3, especially now that I have 50 sts on my scarf. I realize that I am nearing the halfway point, and soon each row 3 will have 1 k2tog less than the one before, but I'm still ordering a new addi turbo lace needle and hoping it gets here before I finish this baby. I'm thinking that pointed tip will do wonders in this particular situation.

*Distraction #6, I wish I had her hair...

I mentioned that I cast on before a soccer game. I'd also like to mention that I cannot knit much during actual games, as I am manning the camera much more these days. I do get to knit a bit more during practice, though I am often quite *distracted by my sweet children, in most cases a welcome distraction. This scarf is my current grab-n-go project, getting only snippets of time here and there, time that I am glad to be doing something with my hands while my mind is racing along processing way more than I could ever journal if I wanted to.

4 & 8 yr olds playing checkers, except that the 4 yr old doesn't actually know how to play checkers yet...

And with that, it's time for me to process some to-do lists for tomorrow and the rest of the week. We start our homeschool coop tomorrow, which I am very excited about, then it's off to a soccer (away) game, Wednesday is violin lessons, Thursday should be a 'normal' school day, and Friday we're headed on another historic fort field trip, before another soccer (away) game. I think this week will fly by, and we'll just have to wait and see if there's a finished Baktus at the end of it...

Teenager playing gourd banjo at Fort Snelling recently

Nice hats, eh? They're supposed to make you look taller...

Happy knitting-
ali

Just Beyond the Garter Ridge

A while back, as I was playing with stitch patterns I found in my Harmony Guides, I fell into some stitch love with the garter slip stitches, which can be knit with 1, 2, 3, or 4 (or more!) colors, each choice bringing a distinct look to the knitted piece. I was in swatch heaven, ok, that might be going a bit overboard, but I was having fun with a couple washcloths.

I think my computer ate the washcloth pictures...

if, no when, I find them, I'll edit this post to include them,

and hopefully get them a nice Ravelry page...

*Sidenote- a washcloth is a great little project to try out a new stitch pattern. It's a usable swatch. Seriously, I love the practicality in this one, and I have 2 new washcloths to show for it.

**Another sidenote- my teenage son was cleaning up in the kitchen some months back (no, it was not the 1 and only time, we train 'em to work their tails off, er, um, I mean to pitch in and lend a helping hand, every day, around here) and he was using a recently knit washcloth. He told me we should go to all hand knit washcloths, because they're so much sturdier to clean with. Ah, music to my ears, (and 3 kids have washcloths on the needles again, sweet!)

Back to my scarf- after 2 washcloths, a single colored one, and a two-colored one, I knew I wanted to knit more with this stitch, and I wanted to see what it would look like knit up at a very loose gauge. I got my hands on a skein of Brushed Suri (Earl Grey) and I cast on for a light and airy scarf. I knit this on a US 11 needle, a fairly big needle for this yarn. I loved the result. This scarf is so soft and light, admittedly more adornment than utilitarian as far as winter gear goes way up here in the soon-to-be-frozen north, but we won't be holding that against it.

I wanted to try out a different yarn for a two-colored version and went with 2 lovely shades of Alpaca Silk (Plum & Amethyst), this time using size 11 needles for a nice and loose look, but not quite loose enough for many small fingers to just poke on through- occupational hazard of mine. This scarf still needs to be blocked, but I'll be sporting this one very soon, blocking or no blocking...

I'm going to offer up a basic recipe for this scarf, rather than a 'stricter' pattern. It looks lovely in 1 or 2 colors, the stitch pattern is interesting at both tighter and looser gauges (and so simple to knit!) and it would look nice in almost any width or length- whatever suits your fancy!

For both of these scarves I started out by casting on 21 sts and they both ended up approx 5" wide. I used the darker color as Color A on the silk version, and I wish I had photographed my swatch when I did it the other way around, with the lighter yarn as Color A- a totally different effect, seriously, I think the slipped stitch showed up more that way, but I went with the darker Color A for the overall darker effect.

Anyhoo, back to the recipe-

You could cast on more or fewer stitches, depending on your yarn choice and your preferred scarf width, just keep it an odd number, or 'multiple of 2, plus 1'. Then it's an easy to memorize repeat of 4 rows, as follows-

Row 1 (RS): Knit.

Row 2 (WS): Knit.

I told you this was easy...

Now, here comes that part that is just beyond the garter ridge-

Row 3 (RS): *K1, slip 1 as if to purl, rep from * to last st, k1.

Row 4 (WS): *K1, bring yarn to front, slip 1 as if to purl, bring yarn to back, * rep to last st, k1.

That's it, all there is to it, now just keep going, and going, and going, until to have a scarf length you love! (and then bind off in knit...)

If you are doing a 2 color version, Work the Rows 1 & 2 in Color A, and Rows 3 & 4 in Color B.

Enjoy!

Happy knitting-

ali

Scarves, Legwarmers, & Monogamy

What to knit? What to knit?

If I were a monogamous knitter I might not have this problem. Of course, I might not have this much fun either. You know- the fun of forever casting on yet another project, the completion date of which you don't dare to predict? I know you know the fun I'm talking about (ehem, Heather, I'm looking at you) that is, unless you're one of those rare monogamous knitters. At least, I think they're rare. I don't know any, well, I don't think I do.

I worked my tail off getting many of my ducks in a row before soccer practice last night, so I found myself preparing my bag a bit early, with 2 almost done projects looking up at me, calling my knitting name, I was torn. Then I looked at the clock- I was ready to roll with over an hour of 'spare time' (you know there really is no such thing in my life, but I like to pretend I have nothing else to do sometimes) and so I did the only logical thing, this is the way logic works in my head, I parked myself on the couch while the kids watched an episode of MythBusters* (commercial-free, we like our Netflix instant watch! I'm sure that counted for science, well, that, and following up on the Google Doodle, that one counted for science AND history) while I knit away on a legwarmer, thereby leaving soccer practice knitting time for my scarf. Brilliant! (humor me)

The legwarmer almost flew off the needles (it helped majorly that Baby J was napping while I was couch sitting knitting), but the scarf had to battle for my attention against a hungry baby and a toddler trying to climb up the slides and across the wobbly hanging bridges of the jungle gym that hosts my children during soccer practice. A few inches of progress were made, and that will have to do until Thursday night's practice, and then maybe there'll be a finishing job over the weekend. I said maybe.

So, are YOU a monogamous knitter? No? How many projects do you have going? That many? Okay, but how many of them are you actually working on this week?

Happy knitting-

ali

*we learned why it is that your voice sounds like a funny little cartoon after you inhale helium, very interesting! I say your voice because I would never do something like that...