I tried to find a place to block Icarus (completely soak the shawl and pin it out so that the pattern opens up), but I have no large, flat areas in the house. A large bed is ideal, but both candidates are in frequent use.
I’m also just nervous placing something in the house that shouldn’t be touched for a few days. That is pretty much an impossibility in our house. There is a lot of destruction that goes on in this house, I’m lucky that most of my knitting needles aren’t lost or bent out of shape.
I did faithfully swatch Picovoli. It’s the first fitted garment I’m making for myself, so I wanted to be sure that I wasn’t too far off the published gauge. I knit myself a little square and then put it in the washer and dryer, something I would do to a cotton sweater.
Boy, did the fabric tighten up! And I’m pretty close to gauge! I got 22.5 stitches/4 inches and the published gauge is 22 stitches/4 inches. I’m not too worried about being off on the stitch gauge because the sweater is knit with negative ease (snug) so I’m hoping it won’t matter too much. I didn’t do the row gauge because I’m just lazy about it and because I can try on the sweater as I knit it and modify it from there.
I always have trouble at the very beginning of a project. This time was no different. After 2 rows, I determined that the stitches were indeed twisted even though I double-checked before I joined the ends. Crap-o-la!
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Scientific name: Podocarpus polystachyus
Common name: Sea Teak
Location: Singapore
this is such a great photo … seeing your dining room makes me miss mangos and oranges in the morning!