Hera Scarf sneak peak & vest progress

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Vest seamed at shoulders

I discovered two things as I seamed the shoulder sections of my mom's vest last night. The first was simply purblind. I should have left much longer tails when I bound off the vest sections so that I could use them for seaming the shoulders. The second was forgetting a fundamental property of 100% wool yarn -- that it can be spit spliced! Ok, can you see how these two slip ups can go hand in hand?

Vest seamed at shoulders

I started seaming the left front section first, using the tail from the outer edge and working inwards towards the neck. Unfortunately I only had enough tail to knit about halfway across. Since the other piece had a tail on the inner (neck) edge, I used that to seam from neck edge towards the outer edge. I had enough yarn on this second tail to reach the point where I left off with the first tail.

Left shoulder seam

Here's a close-up of the left shoulder seam. You can see where the two ends met in the middle. It seems quite noticeable to me. And I don't think I seamed properly. I need to learn how to seam. I had the pieces with wrong sides facing in when I did the seaming. I wonder if I was supposed to do it the other way around, with right sides facing in. It's entirely my fault, I should have looked up how to seam before I started.

Right shoulder seam

Here's a close-up of the right shoulder seam. I think it looks a bit neater than the left shoulder seam. This is because I seamed in one direction. I did not have enough yarn to seam the entire section, however a light bulb finally turned "on" and I realized that I could attach more yarn to this end by spit splicing it. Oh, should I mention that I had already cut an extra long piece of yarn to start seaming from the opposite end before this light bulb turned on? Yeah, that happened. So dim witted of me.

Even though I cut off a few plies before joining the two ends, I can definitely tell where the spit splicing occurred. You may be able to see it in the photo above.

In a previous post, I expressed concern about the vest being too short. My mom is petite like me. I decided to drape this over my shoulders to get a feel for how long it would be. The bottom edge reached to my belly button. Perhaps a tad too short. I still have hopes of blocking the vest later and stretching it longer just a wee bit.

In retrospect, I probably could have knit an extra repeat (4-rows) for each block. This would have made the vest longer by 16 additional rows. Oh well, too late now.

Hera Cable Scarf

Here's a sneak peak at my latest design, the Hera Cable Scarf. It is the same pattern I used for that secret project I mentioned before, which I can't blog about until next month. However you can see what it looks like in my Flickr photostream.

I designed this a while back and made 2 versions. One has 3 cable patterns, the other has 5 cable patterns. I prefer the 5 cable version, however I haven't yet been able to find an appropriate yarn to knit up this version. Vicki saw both designs and told me she preferred the 3 cable version.

Elann Luxury Merino Superwash DK yarn, Irish Moss color

I wanted the Hera Scarf knit in Elann Luxury Merino Superwash DK yarn. Unfortunately it didn't work out in the 5 cable version of this scarf, where it ended up being over 12 inches wide. I thought this was too wide for a scarf. So I used this yarn in the 3 cable version instead. The color is Irish Moss, a very pretty green that is better represented by the photo above of the 2 balls.

I am still trying to find an appropriate yarn for the 5 cable version. Elann Baby Cashmere is so soft (perfect for a scarf) but doesn't provide crisp stitch definition for cable patterns (something I learned when I knit the Osiris Cable Scarf). I thought I would try Elann Highland Sport. The stitch definition was better with Highland Sport, unfortunately I thought this yarn was too scratchy to wear around the neck. So I'm still trying to make a good marriage match between my Hera Scarf 5-cable version pattern and some nice next-to-skin-soft yarn in an appropriate fingerling weight or sport weight. Any suggestions?

I haven't had time lately to type up row-by-row instructions for my Hera Scarf, but I do intend to someday. However I did upload the charts last month to Box.net, where both 3-cable and 5-cable versions can be downloaded.

Hera Scarf Chart downloads:

Hera Scarf Chart - 3-panel version from Box.com
Hera Scarf Chart - 5-panel version from Box.com

The cable pattern is a bit "yarn thirsty", as most cable patterns are. But this one seemed especially thirsty compared to the other cable scarves I made.

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Today is World Wide Knit In Public Day. As I was driving down El Camino Real in Sunnyvale, CA, around 12:10 PM, I noticed a Purlescence sign in the "park" by Mathilda(? sorry, not exactly sure what the cross street is), and 3 people in chairs under a canopy covering. They didn't appear to be knitting though, perhaps the event hadn't officially started at that the time I was passing by.
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