Solitary Foxen
Finished
September 30, 2014
January 3, 2015

Solitary Foxen

Project info
Fox Paws by Xandy Peters
Knitting
Neck / TorsoShawl / Wrap
myself
Needles & yarn
US 4 - 3.5 mm
1,848 yards = 8 skeins
Knit Picks Palette
1 skein = 231.0 yards (211.2 meters), 50 grams
Knit Picks Palette
1 skein = 231.0 yards (211.2 meters), 50 grams
Knit Picks Palette
1 skein = 231.0 yards (211.2 meters), 50 grams
Knit Picks Palette
1 skein = 231.0 yards (211.2 meters), 50 grams
Knit Picks Palette
1 skein = 231.0 yards (211.2 meters), 50 grams
Knit Picks Palette
1 skein = 231.0 yards (211.2 meters), 50 grams
Knit Picks Palette
1 skein = 231.0 yards (211.2 meters), 50 grams
Knit Picks Palette
1 skein = 231.0 yards (211.2 meters), 50 grams
Notes

1/4/15 - after photographing the completed but unblocked project, it is very apparent to me that blocking will be a good idea, to smooth out the edges and surface just enough, and to gently even out the patterning.

1/3/15 - am just casting off now, using the stitched cast off from EZ Knitters Almanac. There will be a photo session tomorrow when it is daylight. It has been a very enjoyable knit, for the most part. I loved the way that after a while my brain began to make sense of the patterning, and I am still very much in love with the colors I chose and the design as a whole. This is a large wrap. I will have to figure out the most advantageous way to wear it.

The listed amounts of yarn in the pattern are quite correct for the size as listed. I was a bit concerned about running out before I finished, there was plenty of the yarns that I chose extra colors (cool blue/bluegreen, dark chocolate/milk chocolate, and pale cream/beach sand) and there was just enough of the turquoise and the grey. I love the way the Knitpicks yarns look and feel; however they were a bit loosely spun, so at times my needle tips caught and split.

The only real difficulty I had with the pattern was the “K5tog” which even when altered to “slip 2 knitwise, K3tog, pass the 2 stitches over” was still a recurring difficulty. I followed a suggestion to use metal circular needles instead of my favored wood or bamboo, which worked well for some of the complex decreases, but I just prefer the feel of a less chilly needle in the hand.

12/2/14 - am almost three quarters of the way through the project. I have never had a piece of knitting generate so much commentary from entire strangers, a number of whom wonder if it is some combination of knitting and crochet… Pretty much any time I have it out with me in public, I get questions and appreciations of how it looks. I suspect that when it is finished, no one (except other knitters) will assume it is a homemade handknit, because it is so unusual.

11/4/14 - While this is not a fast knit, it is a really fun knit and I am enjoying it muchly! One of my favorite parts is that after knitting row five, how the stacked increases poke up and look like little fox toes…

10/29/14 - I have been able to return for a bit to my knitting (have been busy with a different project that has required all my free time) and I am still loving this pattern eversomuch! Almost at the halfway point, and I know that if all goes well I will have this to keep me warm this winter!

10/16/14 - I don’t think that there is anything I have knit in the last several years that has garnered as much positive comment from random strangers on the street

10/14/14 - A third of the way through the Fox Paws pattern knitted wrap; while it still requires counting, the repeats become more comprehensible with repetition. Blocking will smooth out the texture a bit once the project is complete. The knitting itself is not that complicated, being mostly garter stitch. The complicated part is counting out all the repetitive increases and decreases, which is what makes the fascinatingly psychedelic topology. I cannot imagine how the designer was able to imagine what would create this beautiful pattern. If you “unwound” it all, it is simple stripes in five colors, in a varying repeat

10/3/14 - The first twelve rows (one repeat) of my Fox Paws knitted wrap project completed. There are almost sixteen repeats in all, and the colors change places from repeat to repeat. This far into the knitting, while it is still challenging (K5tog!!), the sense of the pattern is coming clear.

10/1/14 - Today I cast on for the actual project… it is indeed a challenge, but after a bit there does come a sense of how the pattern is unfolding. Still not trivial, and there have been moments of tink-ing where I have lost track of exactly where in the increases I am, but overall, not bad. I suspect this will be a slow project to complete

9/30/14 - This is going to be beautiful, and the knitting itself is quite anti-social, as I will need to really focus on the pattern to get all the increases and decreases correct… no daydreaming on this one…

The yarn I ordered from Knit Picks arrived yesterday. The colors are more subtle and lovely in person than on their website, and I am quite pleased.

I made a sample with some of my cardweaving fingering yarn that is one repeat deep and two repeats across, so as to get some idea of how this unusual pattern works, and of what needle size to use. Based on how wide this is, at 40st+1= 5+“, it will work up somewhere between 15 to 20 “ wide, if I get a comparable gauge with the KnitPicks yarn that I do with the Brown Sheep yarn

viewed 1509 times | helped 13 people
Finished
September 30, 2014
January 3, 2015
 
About this pattern
1868 projects, in 4163 queues
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About this yarn
by Knit Picks
Fingering
100% Wool
231 yards / 50 grams

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  • Originally queued: September 20, 2014
  • Project created: October 1, 2014
  • Updated: January 4, 2015
  • Progress updates: 14 updates