The long and winding yarn

Ben came up over the weekend to ride with Jim.  Good exercise and a fun time together.

I finished the Sinopia shawlette from Curls.  I confess to a bit of whining during the process.  I found the chart difficult to read.  I prefer uncluttered charts for knitting.  Checking through  my books I could see the difference.

This was a great one skein project.  Baah Aspen was lovely yarn to work with and the color is just gorgeous.  

I pulled the points down to give the edge a nice shape.

Comparing the symbolcraft in this chart to the others below, notice the long vertical lines representing the k on rs/p on ws blends in with the grid lines.  

The smaller vertical lines fit into the grid and the horizontal dashes are bold making this easier to read.

The easiest chart for me to read has blank grid squares for the k on rs/p on ws.  

On Sunday I took the sock blank dyeing class at Anoka Fiber Works.  Carole and her son from Rocking Horse Farm in St. Cloud taught the class.  Since I rarely knit socks the stripes did not appeal to me so I chose a free form approach.  It was fun!

Everybody had fun experimenting.  (Photo from Rocking Horse Farm)

Distinctive striping and dragon scales.  

I opted to go freestyle with vertical stripes so the color would be more random.

I did the second one before class ended.  I used leftover colors.  I was happy to have lots of green!

I purposely did not allow the color to saturate the scribbly blank because I wanted more of the white to show.  

The two strands separated easily while winding one on the ball winder and the other by hand.  

I love this one!  Lots of green with white peeking through.

All wound and ready to knit.  I wound the skeins so opposite ends would show.  

Charts

You'd think after all the years I've been knitting I'd know how to read the flippin' chart! No wonder I kept having to frog. I didn't pay attention to the placement of the beginning of the sleeve chart. Now it works. Cripes! I can't believe I went blank on this one for SO long. The photo isn't very clear, but the line up the middle of the charts indicates the center of the sleeve and the body. There are separate markings for the sleeve and body beginning. I was looking at the increases indicated on the chart for the sleeve. No wonder the design wasn't lining up. Heaven forbid I make it EASY. It's going better, and I don't think the bits and pieces of yarn are worse for wear.