Saturday, June 30, 2007

First Posting

I have been working on the bath mat pattern from Mason Dixon Knitting. It is a garter stictch, log cabin design and I am using the Peaches and Cream yarn specified in the book. I ordered the double thickness worsted cotton right from Elmore Pisgah. They had the best price even with a slightly higher shipping cost. This yarn is supposedly available in Walmart stores, but I have not found it in my area, NW NJ.

I like the yarn. It is a quite thick and soft, with a fluffy, rather spongy feel. I think it will be a great bath rug. I use Knit Picks Options needles (http://www.knitpicks.com/knitting+needles.html) which seem to work well for a very large project like this. I am using a longer cable with the cap on the end.


The only problem I am having is that you have to muscle the stitches a bit. Using 3 strands of thick yarn on a large needle size is a little tough. The tips of my index fingers are taking a beating and I actually developed a little cut on the right one. I tried covering the fingertips with little dots of duct tape to protect them, and this actually worked very well! I used about a 3/8" square, double thickness. They stay on well without being too difficult to remove and protect the skin enough that I am not poking holes in myself! I also decided that despite my desire to finish this project right away, taking period breaks from it might help. So I am also working a scarf. This way, when the fingertips have had it, I can switch off for a couple of evenings to a 'milder' project.

The scarf is a ruffled affair which looks like nothing on the needles. When finished, it should be a gently folding, draping ruffle. I had a skein of a fine rayon boucle which I bought a while ago with no particular project in mind. I saw a scarf in a local yarn shop knit from a similar yarn and thought I would give it a try. I am knitting this without a pattern...just from the description from the girl in the yarn shop who also used no pattern. More on this project as it progresses!