Life's a Stitch

Two in short succession. The first one was so quick and satisfying, thought I'd throw in the always fascinating self striping factor.

Pattern: Summer Flies by Donna Griffin, with variations explained below, different from my first Summer Flies with Variations.

Yarn: Drops Delight, 2 skeins, colour 05. Goes well with the blog theme colours, doesn't it? About the yarn, which is a self striping yarn similar to Noro, there are differences:

• there was only one knot in two skeins
• this yarn didn't pull apart in the fluffier areas
• although not as exotic a blend, the Delight being wool and polyamid, it is a reasonably priced alternative
• the gauge is comparable to Silk Garden Sock, but  knits up a bit loftier.

Needles: US size 8, last row and bind off in size 9.

Finished blocked size: 55.5" (along the top edge) x 12.75" at its deepest point.

Thoughts: Almost as fun as the first time, again knitted the knotted openwork loosely. I admit, I preferred knitting with the Madelinetosh Pashmina. Reality check: this yarn cost $13 in total. Alternating between the two skeins as the project grew helped make some of the stripes thicker, but resulted in many ends to weave in. 

My variations:

1. After the knotted openwork I added another section of ridged eyelet.

2. I added one section of a Feather and Fan stitch (an 18 stitch repeat), still starting and ending with the K3 and y/o's.

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 12: Bind off in knit and purl. 

You could make it longer, but again, weighing my yarn prior each of the last few rows, this was the end result.