Coral Mermaid

I finished my Coral Mermaid today. This is my second completed Mermaid kit. My first was Mermaid with Curry in November 2006. The coral kit was a Christmas gift from DH and very enjoyable to knit. Amy's spreadsheet is helpful. Orchids to Jane at Cucumberpatch UK.

Ballerina help please!!

I am using Amy's spreadsheet and am now on row 770 of the size m/l. This is the center back. The pattern directions say that from this point forward, the remainder of the jacket is a mirror image of the first part. I am having trouble understanding this since the stitch numbers do not mirror each other. There are 20 more stitches on the first half than the second(row 768 has 181 stitches and it's mirror image, row 772 has 161 stitches). Can someone please explain what the directions mean. I assume that a mirror image is precisely the same with the same number of stitches. This is probably a stupid question, but it doesn't make sense to me. I'm afraid I'll be in big trouble if I don't understand this and will have to finish on my own since I'm almost to the end of my beloved spreadsheet.

Mermaid

I have spend the last couple of days reading just about every post in this blog, as I am about to start knitting the mermaid. I will order the yarn tomorrow when I receive the colour scheme -if I can make up my mind :-)
Hopefully I will be able to read the pattern (I have it in danish -being danish myself) but I am a little worried as I am not an experienced knitter.
However, reading the posts have been a great help so for, now I just wait for a copy of the spreadsheet as it seems to be a must have.
A friend of mine has made the mermaid, but she can't cope with the wool. Does any of you have experiences in making it using a different kind of fiber? I will be using shetlandwool myself.

Ballerina

Would someone with the Ballerina kit please weigh the amounts of the various colors? I'm curious -- would like to know please!

Mermaid

... and while Diva is blocking, I have started a swatch for Mermaid. see, swatching isn't actually knitting yet, but I can't cast on the real thing until Diva is 100% done. here's pics of the yarns I bought, and the dining table turning into a mill. did I mention I love my shift and ball winder? all skeins transformed into nice stackable things. no horrible knots or yarn breaks. and the colours... love 'em! the off-white silk will be the contrast colour. yum.

Finished Mermaid and Spreadsheet update!

After more than a year, I wove in the last end on my Mermaid last night. Here she is:


Now I just have to block it. And decide what to wear it with for it's debut!

With that done, I also finalized the Mermaid Spreadsheet. I've had around 200 people request it in the last year. If you are still on my mailing list, you should have received an e-mail a little while ago from me with version 2.0 attached. If you didn't (I had some e-mail addresses bounce), contact me again!

Diva update

put it off forever, but i'm working on sewing up Diva since yesterday. sleeves are blocking - I had knit the cuffs separately, so had to sew those to the sleeves first. don't know why it took me so long to start sewing after i finished knitting, i guess it's not our favourite part of the game :)
tried the body bit on yesterday. it looks a bit small. i might be blocking the hell out of it. pics soon.

Diva Progress

I had much trouble working the collar, it took an entire week of daily ripping and re-starting to understand all the design elements. Here's what I have now:


Also, it was necessary to make a chart, I posted about it here.

Now for a little distraction: the Stella Beret, purchased from Sommerfuglen. I hope in the next few weeks I can finish up Diva and start Mermaid.

Lastrada 11 just arrived!

I want to abandon all household chores and start knitting. I've been wanting to do one of these for ages, and finally decided to take the leap. Looking forward to knitting along with y'all.

Christine

Tokyo information

Hello everyone,
As I am drawing to the end of my Lastrada project I have wondering about starting another Hanne. I am really interested in the Tokyo jacket but I haven't seen any feedback about how difficult it is. Have any of you seen the pattern or knitted the jacket and can give any insight to that project before I spend up big and take the plunge?
Thanks, Carolyn

Diva Help Needed

Hi I am knitting Diva and am beginning decreases for the collar. I am totally confused about the OUTER EDGE decreases, is there someone who can help with the directions for K2tog within the 3 slipped edge stitches? Does this mean to slip the 1st st knitwise, k2tog, then slip the 4th st purlwise?

Help, yo no comprendo :0

thanks, Jules

*****UPDATE*****

Problem resolved! The instructions say to decrease inside the 3 edge stitches, and I think it means to k2tog right after the 3 edge sts. I tried to k2tog inside the 3 edge sts which made a weird wonky edge. I ripped that section out and am continuing with the new understanding that the edge sts remain constant while the decrease happens adjacent to the edge.

Finished!

I completed my Mermaid a couple weeks ago, but my digital camera was broken and I couldn't photograph it until yesterday. This is the #3 colorway in a size Medium.

My one cautionary observation concerns the blocking: the sleeves grow in length very easily, so be careful! The sleeve length was perfect before blocking, but way to too long after blocking attempt #1. I had washed and blocked my swatch and didn't notice any difference in before/after measurements, so this isn't necessarily because of the yarn. I re-blocked and was able to reduce the sleeve length a bit, but I just can't figure out how to squish the fabric any more to shorten the sleeves.

BTW, Mermaid is only on the hangar for the photo. I do not store my handknits this way!

Thanks again to Amy for the fabulous spreadsheet. I never would have been able to complete Mermaid without her directions!

Linda in Chicago

Ballerina Help Please

I am making the larger size of Ballerina and am now on row 643. The directions say to k5, turn. The row breakdown is 6-T-(151). If you knit 5, then the total # of stitches should be 156, not 157 as per the directions, right? So do you k6, not k5 to make the stitch count come out right? I am confused.

Ballerina question

I know that a number of people have had problems meeting the guage. I'm wondering whether anyone wound up knitting ballerina with a larger guage than it was designed to be, so that they wound up with a longer and perhaps wider garment and how it looked.

Also, I am still wondering whether anyone has weighed the 2 colors in the kit.

Thanks

Poking my head up!

Hi Everyone --

Many apologies to people who have been waiting on spreadsheets from me. If you've been following my blog, you'll know that February was awful for me.

Anyway, I'm back on top of things. I've responded to everyone who has sent me a request so far. So if you didn't get something from me, your request got lost somehow and please resend it.

If you're knitting Ballerina, look for an updated spreadsheet soon as I work out the directions for the second sleeve.

Happy knitting!