Life's a Stitch

Part of the fun of trip anticipation is the plan for travel knitting. Used to be I could take several projects, but with recent weight limitations I limit myself to one or two small ones. The result is quick progress.

Pattern: Summer Flies by Donna Griffin, with variations explained below.

Yarn: Madelinetosh Pashmina, Stargazing colourway (royal to navy blue with green flecks), a birthday gift from Blogless Marsha. 

Needles: US size 7, last row and bind off in size 8.

Finished blocked size: 59.5" (along the top edge) x 13.5" at its deepest point.

Thoughts: The perfect pairing of yarn and pattern. Could this have been my favourite project ever? The knotted openwork was a slower than the rest, but fun. The key is to knit that section loosely.

My variations:

1. After adding two extra repeats of the knotted openwork, knowing that I would have enough yarn and wanting to avoid a frilly ruffle, I knit through Section 7, Row 2 of the pattern, stopping just before the row where you the knit through the front and back of each stitch.

2. I added one section of a chevron lace, with a bit of stockinette above and below, similar to the one seen in the pattern "My version of Summer Flies" by Alla Postelnik, but without the increases described above and adjusting the amount of stitches across one of the stockinette rows to accommodate the repeats.

3. I finished with a tailored ribbed ruffle as follows:

Row 1: Knit all stitches, increasing until you end up with a multiple of 8 stitches. I needed to add three stitches across the row.

Row 2 and 3: K 4, P 4 to the end of the row.

Row 4: *K1, K to the front and back of the next stitch, K2, then P1, P to the front and back of the next stitch, P2* repeat across the row.

Row 5 and 6: K 5, P 5 to the end of the row.

Row 7: *K2, K to the front and back of the next stitch, K2, then P2, P to the front and back of the next stitch, P2* repeat across the row.

Row 8 and 9: K 6, P 6 to the end of the row.

Row 10: *K3, K to the front and back of the next stitch, K2, then P3, P to the front and back of the next stitch, P2* repeat across the row.

Row 11:  K 7, P 7 to the end of the row.

Row 12: Bind off in knit and purl. 

You could make it longer, but weighing my yarn with each of the last few rows in order to use all my Pashmina, this was the end result, a perfect size.