Saturday, February 11, 2006

Shaker Rib Shakedown

Isn't Worfy the best model ever? Even though he just stepped on me and left a cold, wet, paw print. Today he's wearing the scarf I made this evening (yes, one evening) after learning a new stitch at Sheep's Clothing. They had a shaker rib workshop today, and I drove out with a couple of ladies from my knitting guild. Turns out, it's pretty easy, but I totally wouldn't have gotten it from the directions. But, if you're braver than I am, here are the directions if you want to try:
Cast on an even number of stitches
Set up row: *YO, sl1, K1 *, repeat from star
Second row: *YO, sl1, K2tog*, repeat from star
Repeat second row until second coming of Christ or desired length. Cast off as *P1, K2tog*, repeat till end.
I only used 8 sts on size 15 needles for this one.
The yarn is really cool, a bulky called Blizzard. It's 65% alpaca, 35% acrylic and super soft. I only used 1 1/3 skeins for this, ~66 yards/ skein. I would have made it longer, but I got greedy thinking of the cool things I could make with the leftovers. I've got a great pattern for bulky baby booties.
I'd never even heard of shaker rib before, but you can see what it looks like (also, Worfy's belly) in the close up. Paula, the owner of Sheep's Clothing, describes it as spongier then regular ribbing, which is guess is appropriate. It's got a much better rhythm to it than k1p1 too.
Guildies can see it at the next meeting. The rest of you are on your own.

1 comment:

e's knitting and spinning blog said...

Thanks for the mini workshop! Your scarf looks great. A finished object in one night! Yippee!! I hope you ladies had fun.