Tinking Mohair & Other Hairy Tales

Knitting with mohair is fraught with peril.
Knitting with three strands of mohair is fraught with even more peril.

So I'm making this scarf from Shibui Silk Cloud and I'm knitting and purling, purling and knitting like one does. And I'm knitting with three strands, like one does, because knitting with a single strand would make a garment so insubstantial, so ethereal, so . . .so . . . so wispy that it almost wouldn't be there. So there I am working with a triple strand and sometimes I only pick up two of the strands. And sometimes *duhn duhn duhn!* I only pick up one of the strands.

ONOES!!!!

So I have actually tinked back on a mohair project and lived to tell the tale! I was successfully able to tink back about 34 stitches, and when I look at it, I can't tell where. Oh, it was tricky, I'll admit. Devilishly painstaking. One might even say it was hairy! And since I made the mistake at night, I waited until morning to make the correction.

Piece o' cake.

At least, that's what I want you to believe.

This is the project in question.

At the bottom is a block made from three strands of ivory; followed by two strands of ivory and one of graphite; followed by two of graphite and one of ivory; followed by three of graphite; followed by two of graphite and one of suit; followed by two of suit and one of graphite.

I am beginning to think it's a bit monochromatic, and that the differences between the graphite and suit aren't great enough to be really noticeable. But I am NOT going to tink back what's already there and throw in a few more blocks of ivory between the graphite and the suit. Not even I am that willing to tempt fate!

Provisional Cast On: Mishegas or Agita?

There's a reason I'm a knitter and not a crocheter. Beside the fact that knitting uses less yarn than crocheting and burns more calories, I just like the way knitting looks more than the way crocheting looks. However, last  weekend I attended a knitting workshop to learn about a specific pattern. The first row of stitches had to be kept live in order to graft the beginning and end together, so we had to do a provisional cast-on. I totally suck at manipulating a crochet hook, and had a hard time coordinating my hook and my knitting needle. A lot of crocheters say that knitting is hard because you have to manipulate two needles as opposed to one crochet hook. But using that crochet hook and getting everything to work out right took the devil's own time. Now that I know how to use the provisional cast-on, I hope I never have to try it again. Talk about agita! Talk about mishegas! Talk about mixing two cultures!

This project is called Shibui Mix. It is Shibui Silk Cloud (60% kid mohair, 40% silk), and is some of the softest stuff I've ever knit with. The colours I've chosen are Ivory, Graphite (which is grey), Suit (which is blue), and Ink (which is black*). In alternating blocks of colour, three strands of Colour A, then two of A and one of B, then two of B and one of A, then three of B, and so on, when it is finished, the two ends are grafted together (the reason for leaving live stitches on the first row and using the accursed provisional cast on) and you've got a loopy scarf for which you didn't have to cast on hundreds and hundreds of stitches (yes, I'm still working on the 1000 cast on lace weight scarf on US size 3 needles; why do you ask?).

When I've got more to show for what I've been doing, I'll post some pictures.


*When dealing with pretentious colour names I always wonder if it should be spelled blacque.