Oh, the Rock Island Line is a mighty fine road! [knit-along]

ceres

Some of the denizens of the craft thread have thrown together a knit-along! We're starting to overrun the crafting thread, so to leave room for all our metal, wood, and bead workers, sculptors, crocheters, and knitters-of-things-not-this-right-now I am making this thread to talk about it and post questions and pictures. Feel free to join us, and if you want to start your own and knit along with us, let me know and I'll add you to the list.

This is a difficult pattern and the knitters range in skill from "I can make two stitches using these funny sticks" to "oh I wouldn't mind making another one of these, I gave the last one away." The idea is for the former to challenge themselves and ask questions and the latter will hopefully help them (us, cough) through.

Please post pictures of your progress when possible!


The basic materials

- US 6 (4.0mm) 32" circular knitting needles
- A whole lot of lace or fingering weight yarn


The pattern

The Rock Island lace shawl. The pattern is $7 from their shop, and buys you 5 downloads. The difficulty is listed at 4 out of 5 stars, which means very nearly all of the difficulties.

Dislclaimer: Yes you have to buy the pattern if you want to participate. Pattern-stealing is really annoying.


Resources

How to YO
How to k2tog
How to SSK
Using a Lifeline


The knitters

@Creagan
@knitdan
@SilverWind
@Usagi
@ceres


For the true beginner

Although I would certainly encourage even the least experienced to do the shawl with us, if you've never successfully knit a row in your life you might want to start here. If you get to the point where you feel comfortable with this piece you might be able to join us for Rock Island.

This pattern is a very simple lace scarf, and is free for personal use (you aren't meant to sell the product). It's easy; you cast on a multiple of 4 stitches, and the pattern is one row repeated over and over.

You will need: pretty much any yarn, and needles bigger than your yarn calls for. You can find the size needle it's meant for on the side of the label on the box with the little knitting needles. So if your yarn says “US 6” on it, you might want to use US 10, and so forth. The nice thing about this one is that I think it would look nice using pretty much any less-chunky yarn.

In addition to the videos for k2tog and YO above, you might find yourself needing videos for casting on, K (knit stitch), and casting off.

The knitters: Cello, ceres, lonelyahava

ceres

The Schedule

This is pretty flexible and subject to change depending on how far people get during the week, so don't feel like you need to be the fastest knitter ever.


Week One

The Edging - an 8-row repeat done 71 times - Get comfortable with the pattern.

Week Two

Continue progress on the Edging.

SilverWind

Woo!

I'm on repeat number 6 right now. I don't think I'll be fully done the 71 repeats by the end of the week, so I'm glad we're taking a flexible approach.

ceres

I am on repeat.. number.. I just cast on my first 12 stitches.

Creagan

Shoot. I don't have the right yarn for this. I'm probably going to have to skip this and cheer everybody else on.

Usagi

Oooh I am moved out

Time to cast on!

SilverWind

Creagan wrote: »

Shoot. I don't have the right yarn for this. I'm probably going to have to skip this and cheer everybody else on.

A lot of people seem to have done it with fingering weight too, if you have that.

Creagan

The lowest weight I have is is a cotton/elastic blend sock weight yarn. (Cascade Fixation.) Based on what Usagi's told me about drape, I don't think it'd work for this. It's a very stretchy, bumpy yarn.

Usagi

Hmm that might be a bit tough, yeah!

Usagi

Day 1 update: third cast-on is the charm! One repeat down!

ceres

I just finished my first row of my first repeat, and now it's late and I need to stop and go to bed or this is just going to end up a mess.

I'll post a picture of my progress after the first repeat, but this is my cast-on row.

ceres

Creagan wrote: »

The lowest weight I have is is a cotton/elastic blend sock weight yarn. (Cascade Fixation.) Based on what Usagi's told me about drape, I don't think it'd work for this. It's a very stretchy, bumpy yarn.

Maybe someone can send you something they've been sitting on for a while!

Usagi

Craaaaaaap if all my stash wasn't in storage I would totes do that

ceres

I bought some dyeable stuff in case the stuff I'm working with doesn't work out. @Creagan I forget what fibers you can't use.

SilverWind

I'll check my stash too, Cregan!

Cello

Would it be possible to also choose a second (newbie) pattern for folks who are trying to get more acquainted with knitting? I have a ton of yarn and some knitting needles, but didn't do so hot at my previous try. I'd love to participate but feel like this might be a biiiit out of my skill level at the moment.

ceres

Hmm.. I can do this. I actually started a very simple scarf that I can post about and work on in the background a bit. I started it because I really only know two stitches well (yes I am that first person) and I wanted to get the feel for simple lace before jumping in.

Let me get the stuff together so that you should have everything you need for it information-wise, I should be able to have that up by the end of the day.

Cello

ceres wrote: »

Hmm.. I can do this. I actually started a very simple scarf that I can post about and work on in the background a bit. I started it because I really only know two stitches well (yes I am that first person) and I wanted to get the feel for simple lace before jumping in.

Let me get the stuff together so that you should have everything you need for it information-wise, I should be able to have that up by the end of the day.

Yay! That would be wonderful!

Creagan

ceres wrote: »

I bought some dyeable stuff in case the stuff I'm working with doesn't work out. @Creagan I forget what fibers you can't use.

I can't use anything with mamallian fiber, or blends with less than 50% cotton/linen/silk. Even if it feels soft, I can't use it. (It sucks.)

But if there was a second pattern I could knit, I've got US 10, US 6, & that streatchy sock yarn in my stash right now. (Also, the yarn for that dress I posted about in the Craft thread should come today.)

SilverWind

Progress so far:



I forgot how annoyingly difficult this colour is to photograph...

Usagi

Woooow you're fast! It looks lovely!

I'm just finished with the third repeat, but I'm struggling

Fiddly yarns + pain day = super slow going

SilverWind

Thanks! My speed will drop exponentially during the weekdays, so I figured I'd make an effort on Sunday.

The good thing about this pattern is that once you get going, it's pretty easy to stretch out the edging and check that you knitted it correctly.

But I really dislike the yo, k2togs, which require a lot of fiddling each time

knitdan

SSK is the bane of my existence
Also I should not have tried to center pull this laceweight. Yarn barf oh no.

But I am progressing regardless.

ceres

That second sentence means nothing to me.

knitdan

Depending on how a ball of yarn is wound, you can pull from the outer edge or from the center. If you pull from the center you run the risk of it catching and you pull out a big mess of yarn that you then have to untangle.

That is yarn barf.

Usagi

Laceweight yarnbarf is the bluuuurst

ceres

Ohhhhhhhhhh

SilverWind

I bought a nostepinne a while back, since it's apparently very effective for making centre-pull balls. It takes a real long while to do, and you need to get the hang of it, though!

Eventually I caved and got one of these, but I still pull from the outer edge due to habit and yarn-barf concerns.

Creagan

I usually prefer to pull from the outside. Although I really need a yarn bowl to keep the stuff from rolling away all the time.

ceres

Cello wrote: »

ceres wrote: »

Hmm.. I can do this. I actually started a very simple scarf that I can post about and work on in the background a bit. I started it because I really only know two stitches well (yes I am that first person) and I wanted to get the feel for simple lace before jumping in.

Let me get the stuff together so that you should have everything you need for it information-wise, I should be able to have that up by the end of the day.

Yay! That would be wonderful!

And it's up in the OP, at the bottom.

edit: now with working bbcode :P

This is the one I've started. I just grabbed a something out of my giant box o' yarn, but it happened to be very soft and I just want to snuggle with what I've done so far.

SilverWind

@Creagan, I checked my stash and just about everything has mammalian fibre. Sorry! :P But one skein of this is enough for the pattern, and I don't mind springing it for you if you want to join in. (No pressure if you don't want to join in just now though!)

ceres

Yeah, I just checked mine, it's all wool and alpaca.

oh, I have an idea! @Creagan

This thread is 100% bamboo and feels lovely. I use it quite a bit, and you would need 2-3 of them.

Cello

YAY! Thanks @ceres ! I'm excited to get started this week!

Creagan

Thanks for the suggestions, I didn't think to look at crochet thread! I think I'm going to go with the Curio, since it's a bit cheaper and then I can get the right needles for the project. (Although I will at some point have to take a look at bamboo yarn!)

knitdan

If you've got some money burning a hole in your pocket, some of you might be interested in this thing:

http://www.theyarnit.com/

For holding yarn

SilverWind

Oh jeepers. New... new item on my wishlist.

Creagan

That is a massive improvement on the yarn-bowl. Wow!

ceres

That sounds great except I never make my yarn into balls

ceres

It took me hours but I finally finished the first repeat (correctly)! I'd never done SSK and I learned how to do that, and then what I was doing wrong with it and how to do it again, and then that this is too new and complicated for me to watch youtube videos while I work on it... twice.. and then I had to look up SSK again. But I got it! I'm pretty proud of myself right now.

I'm leaving my lifelines in to use for counting, since I'm making that my lifeline spot anyway. I figure at intervals I'll take some out so they don't get too tangled.



...Guys I don't think I'm going to be done by next week.

Usagi

I'm just happy to be through seven repeats now, but...yeah...not going to be done with the edging this week noooooope

Creagan

Yeah, I'm not going to even have yarn to work with until Thursday or Friday at the earliest...