First Wash

Well, silly me, I forgot (both times) to put the ruler in the picture, so after cropping the photos, you can't see the shrinkage in the Pi bag! It wasn't much this round (the width went from 13.5 to 12 inches, and the length from 15 to 12.5) as it was only a "warm wash/cold rinse" cycle. Next round I'll throw it in with the "hot wash" laundry.

One thing that was interesting (hope it shows up on your monitor) was that the black wool, which is two-ply, didn't bias at all, but both of the wool singles yarns (the grey and the green) did bias noticeably. I only noticed a slight twist to the singles as I was knitting, but obviously it was enough to cause some biasing. All three of these yarns are marked "100% wool, 8 oz., 1000 yards, Harrisville Designs" inside the cone.

Harrisville Designs, in Harrisville (surprise!), New Hampshire, USA, is still out there, but the singles yarns are no longer offered. The two colors I have (Evergreen and Suede) are very pretty yarns close up. "Evergreen" is a deep forest green from a distance, but knitting it, I can see blue blended in there. "Suede" is mostly gray, but every so often there is a brown spun into it.

The shiny thingie that I put through the eyelets is a plastic bread bag, cut into a long narrow strip, to keep the eyelets from felting shut.

The color pattern at the edge is ve-e-ery simple. One green row is knitted. Then the first gray row is K1, P1. Then knit a green row, followed by P1, K1 with the gray. That's it! It's less prone to curling up than stockinette, and less flat and balanced than seed/rice stitch. It gives that neat diamond effect, with a fast, no-brainer knitted row every other row.

Yesterday was my son's last day of school. Today is the first day of summer vacation! Exciting and fun for him, but it also means less time on the computer for me. (We share a computer.) So we'll see -- blog posting might become spotty and erratic for the next three months.