Orchid Thief FO Pictures

I'm still amazed at how quickly I got through this pattern. But I guess after spending time with 1,000 yards of lace weight anything would feel like a breeze.



I ALMOST had enough yarn with one skein. I ran out 3/4 of the way through the last pattern row. So I basically used the second for the bind off and that was it. Somebody is getting some magenta colored socks soon.






I've got knitters block right now. I want to knit more and I want to knit another shawl(lette) but I can't decide on a pattern or what yarn to use. I cast on for my second Hedera (I never did start that second sock) but as soon as I got to the pattern portion of it I remembered how much I disliked knitting it. I hate yoing before/after purling. I don't know if I'll keep knitting that. I need to knit something though. I'm open to suggestions! Especially one skein projects that use fingering/lace weight.

Orchid Thief the Blocking Edition

Orchid Thief is blocking. I actually knit that bad boy in less than a month. Once I figured out the chart repeats thanks to many posts on Ravelry it was a piece of cake. It was also really fun to knit. Pictures will be forth coming once the weather is nicer outside and she's done blocking.

Orchid Thief - The I Really Need to Learn to do a Gauge Swatch Edition

So I broke down at ordered another skein of my DIC Absolute Magenta last night. It wasn't instock at my beloved Loopy Ewe so I wound up ordering it from Eat Sleep Knit. This is my first time ordering anything from them but I'm really pleased so far. The price was good, I actually found a 10% off coupon code so it was cheaper than getting it from Loopy Ewe or Jimmy Beans and even though I ordered late last night I had an email waiting for me this morning saying that it had been shipped. Which is awesome because I am so close to finishing this shawl and I don't want to wait forever to get my yarn. I thought I was doing well with the yarn after I finished the last repeat of chart 3 but I didn't count on how much yarn was going to get eaten up doing chart 4. I'm not out yet but it's precarious looking now. I'm on row like 104 and there are 114 pattern rows, so like 20 left to knit and my ball has gotten considerably smaller than it was when I started this chart. I just didn't want to risk running out and I really want to see one all the way through. I probably won't use much of the new skein so there should at least be enough left over for a pair of socks or perhaps some matching mittens or fingerless gloves.

Waiting for the new yarn to come in before finishing will be killer though. I'm so close I can taste it! I can't wait to see this one all blocked out.

Orchid Thief Now with More Kitteh!

This post is brought to you by the letter G, a tummy ache and the prettiest kitty in the land, Gracie. Also, not a insignificant amount of frustration.




Frustration you say? Well yes. Between being completely over the whole wedding planning thing and not at all interested in making any more decisions related to that, the near constant tummy ache I've had for the past few weeks that changes in intensity during the day but hasn't quite gone away completely (I'm starting to think I may have a food intolerance of some sort) and the fact that my Orchid Thief is has 10 extra stitches, I'm a little annoyed and frustrated.



I've made it through the 3 repeats of chart 3. Other than missing a yo here or there that I had to fudge and make up for everything turned out ok. I think it looks the way it should. I'm not spotting any glaring errors and the pattern worked out fine, I didn't come up with anything extra that doesn't seem like it belongs but some how I'm off my stitch count by 10. The book says I should have 283 and I have 293.



I started chart 4 and was following mitchypoo's written instructions for row 86. It started out ok (at least as far as I could tell). The stitches lined up at least through the first ktbl.


k3, ssk, yo, k10, k3tog, yo, k, yo, k, yo, k, yo, sk2p, k10, yo, sk2p, yo, k11, yo, k, yo, ktbl, yo, k, yo, k11, yo, sk2p, yo, k10, k3tog, yo, k, yo, k, yo, k, yo, sk2p, k10, yo, sk2p, yo, k10, k3tog, yo, k, yo, k, yo, k, yo, sk2p, k10, yo, sk2p, yo, k11, yo, k, yo, ktbl, yo, k, yo, k11, yo, sk2p, yo, k10, k3tog, yo, k, yo, k, yo, k, yo, sk2p, k10, yo, sk2p, yo, k10, k3tog, yo, k, yo, k, yo, k, yo, sk2p, k10, yo, sk2p, yo, k11, yo, k, yo, ktbl, yo, k, yo, k11, yo, sk2p, yo, k10, k3tog, yo, k, yo, k, yo, k, yo, sk2p, k10, yo, k2tog, k3

 The bolded line is where I hit problems. I got through the k11 but I didn't have just one stitch left to do a yo k yo before the next ktbl. I had like 15 more stitches before I got to the next spine and now I'm stuck. I'm not sure if I should just fudge a few decreases to make things work out or keep just knitting until I get to the ktbl. The problem with throwing the decreases in is I'm not sure where they should go since the first bit of the row lined up ok. I think It would help if I knew exactly how many stitches should be in each section (between the spines). I'm determined to make this work. I'll be damned if I'm ripping out anything. I think I even have enough yarn to get through it. There's 2.3oz on my needles and I've got 2oz left to knit with.

But until I figure it out, here's some more kitty.

Orchid Thief Progress Picture Edition

So I'm in the middle of the 2nd repeat of chart 3. I can't think about the repeats too much otherwise I just confuse myself . So I just look at the stitches and work them as they come. It's obvious where the decreases should be, where the knits and yos go and the spines let me know when my count is right. I've gotten off by a stitch once or twice (probably by forgetting a yo somewhere) so I just fudge it and trudge on. Good thing nobody pays me to do this and have any expectations of perfection.

So anyway, here it is so far. I really like the color quite a bit. But the yarn isn't quite as soft as my first skein of DIC smooshy that I ever worked with. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll have enough yarn for this (gauge? what?). I went down a needle size just to be on the safe side after what happened with Hanami and my DIC skein had 450 yards when the yarn in the pattern only has 440. But then again, I'm the girl that ran out of yarn with 1,000 friggin yards to work with.

Orchid Thief - WTF Edition

Ok, so remember how I was raving about how simple the Orchid Thief was in my last entry? That was all a damn lie. Ok, it wasn't a complete lie. Casting on and working charts 1 and 2 were pretty simple and intuitive. No issues there whatsoever. And really, the pattern is very clear and distinctive in your yarn so you can really see what you're doing and can easily tell if you get off track. So that's nice and really once you start one row you don't even really need to look at the chart again to see what needs to be done. It's very repetitive.

The issue begins with chart three and Ysolda's repeat boxes. You do chart 3 a total of 3? 4? times (I can't remember and I'm at work so I can't reference the pattern). There are 4 pink boxes indicating repeat sections of that chart. And this may be me since I'm still a novice with lace knitting and shawls but when I see a repeat box that says to me 'oh I need to repeat this portion of the chart again immediately'. But if you do that when you first start working chart 3 your whole world will turn to shit because that's not what those little repeat boxes mean at all. At least not for the first time you work the chart. I am so glad Virginia pointed me to the Ysolda group over at ravelry when I mentioned I was going to tackle this shawl.

I found a discussion about the errors and errata for The Orchid Thief and the general madness that lies within the charts. I thought the big issue would be on row 86, the beginning of chart 4 but it seems like quite a few people have gotten confused by chart 3 (including myself). So I saved several versions of the shawl in my favorites where beautiful, lovely ravelers have made detailed notes for making your way through this mess. Little Blue Duck's notes for chart 3 are so helpful! I don't think I'd have figured it out if it weren't for her breaking down how the repeats should go. How in the world does one even figure that out to begin with if it's not clearly mentioned in the book? Ysolda is an evil trickster with her charts. I need my patterns to be simple and easy to follow line by line. So far any pattern I've tried by her has involved entirely too much thinking. But her patterns are incredibly beautiful so I'll probably keep subjecting myself to this kind of mental anguish just so I can have pretty things.

Shawl Fever

So I had so much fun knitting Hanami I decided to cast on for another shawl straight away. I was browsing around ravelry's popular shawl/wrap patterns listing and stumbled across The Orchid Thief. It's quite pretty and conveniently enough I have the book Brave New Knits so it was a winner. I'm knitting it with the Dream In Color Smooshy in Absolute Magenta. This shawl is knitting up fast too! Coming from lace weight fingering weight feels like worsted to me right now. I'm through the first chart already and the pattern is really intuitive and fun. And so far it's the easiest to understand Ysolda pattern I've done yet.