Dunes de Sable revisited

I know plenty of people think dishcloths are for amateurs, but not me -- I think they are the best way ever to test drive new stitch and lace patterns before you commit to a huge scarf or afghan.  It's no secret that I love Danielle Cote's dishcloth designs because they are so full of possibilities for larger projects.  Unfortunately I have recently been unable to access her (disabled in 2012) site via the wayback machine as I usually do.  Their crawler robots seem to be having issues or something.  Thankfully I took screen shots of the patterns I wanted before they shut the whole thing down.

Anyway, I decided to make the pattern "Dunes de Sable" for a Ravelry swap I'm in.  I had previously blogged that this specific pattern was not public knitting friendly, but I have since changed my mind.  I took my cloths on the road this last week and found this pattern to be quite memorizable/intuitive and I was easily knitting along and chatting with relatives as I attended my daughter's college graduation.  My aunt sat with me and I taught her the pattern while we waited for the graduates to march.... 6 knit, 6 purl, 6 knit... and so it goes.  This yarn is called "Sweet Caroline" and I am in love with it.  100% cotton, but soft enough for a baby ensemble - lovely stuff!!  I'm sad Plymouth discontinued it.

Today, I had a Raveler ask me about my project page and as much as I tried to send her a link for the pattern I was unsuccessful, so I'm going to post it here even though this is NOT my pattern and I do not hold any rights to this.  No copyright violation is intended.  It was originally available for free on the website "Knit Dishcloth Corner" and it was designed by Danielle Cote (who has designed many beautiful cloths - I'm a huge fan!)... I take zero credit for this design even though I have modified it several times for my own uses -- it's really lovely - fully reversible too.

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Dunes de Sable or Sand Waves

copyright by Danielle Cote 2004

@ Knit Dishcloth Corner

(translated from French - but it just sounds so much prettier in French!)

(This is a 9in cloth, Sugar n'Cream, US8 needles)

(Click on pattern to see it full sized)

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(this cloth was modified by subtracting half of a repeat - I wanted a perfect 7in cloth for my swap and that's what I ended up with - this is on size 6US needles)

My "Dunes de Sable" project page on Ravelry - opens a new window

Happy knitting!!!

White Mountain Cowl - test

Silly me -- I was headed on a road trip and thought "Wouldn't it be fun to do a test knit for a designer on Ravelry?"  So off I went to the testing forums to find a pair of lace socks to knit up while I was on the road.... Wrong!  I ended up with this bulky yarn cowl to do instead.  Looking back, I'm so glad I didn't go with socks because I got a lot more talking done with the cowl than I ever would have if I had chosen socks to test.

I accidentally had this beautiful tweedy yarn in my stash, a wool & silk blend, so soft.  It's going to be lovely warm this coming winter... I finished it and uploaded the whole thing while I was on the road - imagine the looks I got taking iPhone selfies in a winter wool cowl in the heat of summer --- yeah, it was funny!

I'm hoping the designer makes this pattern a freebie download because I sure would like to teach it.  It looks like garter stitch, it's actually a row of k and a row of p... all done in the round on huge needles with simple increases and decreases.  I think it would be a great first circ project, and it definitely qualifies as a mindless project that can be easily done while in a distractible situation.

After she publishes it, I'll post the link to her pattern... 

White Mountain Cowl

(which may just be a working name - stay tuned)

My project page - Ravelry

Pattern over-confidence

I had company over last night to watch some movies and chat and have some laughs.  Of course I decided to pick up my knitting while the movie was going.  Normally this activity is fine and I knit along and all is well, but not last night.

I'm still working on Hitchhiker scarves for the girls, so I decided I would start #3.  The yarn is a beautiful handpainted wool and silk blend with rich amethyst jewel colors.  It's going to turn out fabulous when it's finished.

I got fairly far last night and was loving the look and drape of this yarn.... THEN I went to pick it up again this morning.... I found this....

What's up with that little half sized baby tooth?  How in the world did this get past me?

I feel so stupid this morning.  I started out ripping it out up to the next correct row, but in the end I just ripped out the whole thing and will start over.  I can't even think about caving in and putting lifelines in this project, but maybe I ought to.

I think my project today will be writing up a spreadsheet of stitch count for myself.