tangled up

the mini poncho experiment

here are a couple of photos of the mini poncho experiment in progress. it is a very simple construction -- can you guess how it works? i'm not going to tell just yet. i'm using Peruvian alpaca that my friend Rachel brought back on a cone from Lima. i'm going to finish this prototype with it, but I think I can already tell that this particular fine yarn on so large a needle (11) is too unforgiving (at least for my skill level). i'll cross that bridge later if the design works out. in the meantime, it does make a nice open design just in garter stitch.

i borrowed a digital camera to take pictures and have realized very quickly that my problem isn't just the camera phone, it's my photography skills. i need to find a tutorial for how to take photos of knitted work, particularly for posting on the web. with so many knitting blogs, someone must have written one. if you know of one, please point me to it. i did get a pretty good photo that shows the actual colors of the Toscana Wigwam.

wigwam wallaby WIP

....just have to get that digital camera. the phone just doesn't do justice to this Wigwam color, Toscana. the wonderful wallaby pattern is very easy to follow. to adjust the gauge for a 6 year old size, i'm using the 4 year old directions. i've learned that with the Collinette palette, you really have to see the yarn and not many stores carry much of it. maybe next spring. this lot i got from eBay at a really reasonable price, but from the photograph i would have thought it was charcoal tinged, rather than green. the Wonderful Wallaby, i figure, is practice for the Rogue I want to knit this fall/winter.

it's already late, but i had an inspiration earlier for a poncho pattern that i need to do a little test on. my mom has been asking for a mini-poncho since she saw people wearing them at a yarn industry thing in Atlanta in April, but she had a really hard time describing it. at the time, i scoured the internet looking for patterns, but didn't find anything that seemed right to her, and i hadn't yet seen one on the street in DC (the most un-fashion-conscious city at least on the East Coast). funny, in the months since, it seems like the number of poncho patterns has increased like a family of rabbits and I see people wearing machine-made models all over the place. for her, i initially settled on a Colinette vintage poncho, which I was lucky to have been given the pattern for, and chose some beautiful yarn for it at Woolwinders. one rectangle is finished, but it's just sitting right now -- the thing just isn't very much fun to knit for some reason (photo when i get that camera). maybe it's just thinking about all those loose ends that will have to be woven in. after looking at a few things today, i had this eureka! moment. i'm not going to spoil it -- if it actually works, you'll see the results. if it doesn't, you know i'll confess it right here.