Killer Peach

in the mail tomorrow

There was an email sent to the Austin Stitch and Bitch group several weeks ago from Vickie Howell (founder of the Austin SnB) wanting to know if anyone was interested in knitting for Southwest Trading Company because they would be releasing her new line of yarn soon and needed samples knit. Admittedly, I don't actually go to the Austin Stitch and Bitch but I am on their email list and found the prospect of knitting with new yarn for a kick ass company who would pay me would be a decidedly good thing. In my email to Jonelle, I mentioned that I was a lace knitter, not expecting that they would be in need of such a skill but since it's what I do, I figured I'd mention it. It turns out that Mariposa is one of their most popular patterns.

I must admit, I wasn't impressed when I saw the picture. It just didn't seem like crisp lace and that's what I love. Somehow it seemed sloppy and off-putting. But I had the yarn - Indulgence - a nice blend of soysilk and alpaca and got the needles going.

Now that it's finished, I couldn't be happier.

 

 

I'm going to drop this in the mail tomorrow. Sadly. But I think I'll be knitting one of my own because I like it so damn much! One of the best features of this shawl is the ribbing tube on the left side that the point of the right side goes through to keep the shawl around your shoulders. No shawl pin needed in the least. It's fabulous!

There are a couple of things I found odd about the pattern - not major things and nothing that would impair a moderately experienced knitter but things that I think would significantly decrease the finished product of a new lace knitter. There are two repeat sections to the pattern, the frost flowers and the pebbles. For the pebbles, for some reason I don't understand, the designer only allows for a selvage stitch on one edge instead of both. I disregarded that and added a slip stitch selvage to both sides for symmetry and aesthetics. The pattern also never explains what a selvage stitch is or how to execute it. The other thing that wasn't mentioned in the pattern is blocking, something vital to lace knitting. There's also some decreasing needed for the points as you are knitting the pebble pattern and that was a bit tricky and I had to rip it so some clarification would be nice there but I can't find fault with the designer for that.

In other news, I've been knitting. Lots. There will be fo's coming. Some of the best stuff I've ever knit. There's even a sweater that's >< close to being finished. (>< means that I need to finish the neck, which means deciding how I want to finish the neck, sewing in about 5 ends, and blocking).

shaped triangle

I had a lovely time at the after hours knitting extravaganza at Bluebonnet Yarn Shoppe today/tonight. While I was there, I was able to get Sue Ann to take some pictures of me with Shaped Triangle. Yeah! Thank you, Sue Ann!

   

 

   

   

petal sonnet

Finally. The pictures I've been promising. Many of them. But first, a brief recap:

Pattern: Petal Sonnet Shawl by Hazel Carter

Source: Blackberry Ridge

Yarn: Jaggerspun Zephyr, color Vanilla, a bit over four ounces

Needles: Addi Turbos, US 3s

Other info: The shawl is over 80 inches after blocking on the long edge, so much larger than the 48 inches noted in the pattern which recommended using finer yarn. I really like the size, though, and wouldn't change it. The shawl has a strange construction: the border is knit first and the body of the shawl is picked up from there. It is also knit in two pieces and sewn together down the middle, which was relatively painless. It took around 3 weeks from start to finish.

   

   

   

   

   

Here's a close up of the sewing, see how the two sides line up so well:

Here's the tip, the only thing I don't like about the shawl. It looks rather wonky and not right. But I don't mind too much. And you deserve to see it if you've made it this far into the post.

flower basket

I happily finished the Flower Basket Shawl I've been working on. I really enjoyed the pattern and would definitely knit it again. It had enough variety to keep my interest, unlike the Leaf Lace Shawl that I can't make myself work on because it's so damn boring.

Stats:

Pattern: Fiber Trends Flower Basket Shawl

Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport, color Charcoal (I used just over 2 balls, or 400 yards, for this shawl)

Needles: Addi Turbos, US 7

The yarn was wonderful to work with and feels fantastic blocked. I probably could have used a size 8 needle to get a little more size from the shawl - it blocked to just over 5 feet on the long side and 3 feet down the middle. It's a nice size and looks good on, in my opinion, but I can't prove it to you because I couldn't get the remote on the camera to work. I think it needs a new battery (I really hope).

I'm currently working on the Petal Sonnet Shawl and I love it. I'm enjoying the more complex charts and the lace weight yarn. Zephyr is wonderful to work with after the sport weight yarns I've used for my last three shawls. Lace weight may take longer but it's very satisfying to produce something so fine and beautiful and complex. I'll post progress pics tomorrow.

long time no write - again

This is what I did last week while I was being quiet:

       

I really like Lotus Blossom and would even consider making a third one. Knitting with black yarn wasn't bad at all, either, like I expected it to be. I didn't go blind or anything like that and was able to see all the stitches without a problem. In fact, I liked the final results so much that I'm working on a Flower Basket Shawl in black (no pictures to prove it, though) and have a Flirty Ruffles shawl planned for black. The only problem with black yarn is the white beast hair that is inevitably attracted to it. I have to spread a pillow case on my lap to keep most of the hair off but there's always some floating in the air that sticks to the black yarn.

Specs:

Lotus Blossom from Fiddlesticks

Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold, Silky Wool, color black

Needles: Addi Turbos, US7

The current project - Petal Sonnet Shawl - is going well. This shawl is knit in two triangular pieces and then sewn together down the middle. It's not a structure that I really like, but I can handle it. The border is knit first and stitches are picked up from there and decreased to the point, so it starts long and ends short which should be nice, having shorter rows as I go instead of longer ones. Here is the progress from this weekend. Since then I've finished one border and picked up the stitches for the body of the shawl and have almost completed the second border. I figure it will be best to knit the two pieces at the same time so I don't end up with second-half-of-a-shawl syndrome. I love these little fishies.

In other news, I broke the yarn diet this weekend. I really wanted to knit some fair isle mittens and there was some yummy alpaca in black and turquoise that really wanted to be knit together. There was only one ball of black left, though, and I wasn't sure that would be enough and happily, one of the other women in the store had a ball of black at home that she wasn't going to use. She's going to leave it at the store for me to pick up. How cool is that?

The actual fair isle knitting didn't go very well, however. I knit with my yarn in the left hand and wanted to attempt two handed fair isle because it seems like the easiest, most straight forward way to go. That wasn't happening. I tried and tried to hold my yarn in the right hand but never got any better at it. I practiced for several hours but couldn't get my tension right - it was either too tight and under control or too loose and out of control. Very frustrating. I'm not giving up, though. I'm going to get someone to show me how they knit on Saturday (ahem, Tamara) if she can make it to the yarn shoppe.

There was another failed attempt this weekend as well that I spent a good deal of time on, but I'll save that discussion for another time.

And thank you, again, Jody, for checking on me. :)

more lotus

Lotus Blossom from Fiddlesticks

Yarn: Fiddlesticks Country Silk, Periwinkle

Source: Knitting Zone

Needles: Addi Turbos, US7

Begun: 12 November 2005

Finished: 16 November 2005

   

   

   

I really enjoyed knitting Lotus Blossom and love the finished shawl - it's not too big and is thicker/warmer than a lace weight shawl. Since this one is for my mom, I had to start one for myself this weekend. We'll see how the knitting with black goes with a white dog and cat around.

infinity has come to a close

Even the blocking of this thing took a long time:

   

    

There was a moment of sheer panick when I went to find my carpet remanent that I block shawls on and keep in the garage. Aparently my neighbors thought it was just a left over that no one was using and put it in their living room to protect the carpet from their dogs. I can understand the mistake, but was freaking out because the shawl was in the sink. There's another remanent in the garage, but it is the left overs of the front house's new carpet (I live in a garage apartment on the back of the property and they live in the front house and share the garage with me). I decided I had to risk staining the carpet because I was desperate. I didn't have enough towels to lay under the shawl, so I took the plunge and did what I needed to do for the sake of the shawl.

It's around 9:30 Tuesday evening and I'm going to leave the shawl out there to block. I've done it before and it should be alright. It took around an hour and a half to completely block it. It was much more challenging to block a square shawl than the triangular one, though not too bad.

All I have to say right now is: YEAH!!! IT'S DONE!

UPDATE: The carpet shows no signs of the red dye! Another Yeah!

madli revealed

Warning: there are excessive pictures of myself in this post. I sincerely hope that you will understand that this is only because I'm so smitten with Madli that I couldn't stop taking pictures. Also, you should be aware that I am in love with the remote for my camera that allowed these pictures to come into existence. Thank you very much.

Madli plain and simple:

Madli over one shoulder and over both shoulders:

Ode to Claudia:

Ready for the convertible ride:

Requisite draped on the porch photo:

Final measurements: 27 inches by 77 inches

Total repeats: 41

Happiness with finished product: highly approved

Sleepy

My Sockapal2za socks are done! And, I'm pretty sure they will actually fit my sock pal, which is even better. I decided to block these more aggressively than I do socks for myself in an attempt to smooth the odd lumpy places along the toe so I made little sock forms from coat hangers to the size of my sock pals foot. It worked very well and the lumpiness has been vanquished. Now I just have to wait until September to see if this venture has been successful.

Sock details: Yarn from Over the Rainbow on Ebay, Earth color way; pattern Priscilla's Dream Socks from Interweave Knits website with cast on of 80 stitches. I decided to go with a basic sock and let the color do the its thing.

Ruffly Peacock Feathers blocking went well Friday evening, though there was a chance of rain and the shawl was on the porch so I didn't sleep well, waking up frequently listening for the sound of rain. I was lucky and the rain didn't come. With so much moisture in the air, it obviously wasn't optimal weather for this venture, but in the morning, the body of the shawl was mostly dry with a mildly soggy ruffle. The cloudy sky threatening rain so I hurriedly released the shawl from its wires and pins and slung it over the shower rod to finish drying and was able to bring the rest of my supplies in moments before the rain let loose. I'm very happy with the way the stitches evened out and the yarn overs opened up. And since it rained a lot Saturday and Sunday, I don't regret the lack of sleep on Friday. While I certainly could have waited for the rain to clear up and blocked then, the patience for that eluded me.

Post blocking pics

I listened to the new Harry Potter on cd this weekend (I love my public library!) while I knit Madli and stayed up until one o'clock last night in order to finish it. It was very very good!

Blocking Happiness

After dinner with friends, I decided that it was time to block. Sure, it was almost 8:00 and I was more than a little tired, but the event had already been delayed 24 hours and there's a significant chance of rain tomorrow - between 40% and 60% depending on the source. So I shooed the cat off her carpet perch and went to work.

First I immersed the shawl in a lovely luke warm bath with a dollop of wool wash and let her soak while I quickly swept the porch, rolled out the carpet, vacuumed the carpet, and set out my supplies - measuring tape, pins, and welding rods (love it when there are welding rods in knitting, makes me giggle). It took a little less than an hour from the beginning of the bath to the end of the pinning. The welding rods did the majority of the work. Next time, I'll enlist the assistance of a yard stick so I can make sure that the welding rods are staying straight because they have a tendency to bow slightly, though I don't think it will affect the final shawl product.

I used rods for the straight lines and went from the top edge to the mid-line to the short edges and ended with tidying the ruffles. I measured the distance from the mid-line to the tips and the two sides were within an inch of each other. Yeah! There was a nagging fear that I would end up with a drastically lopsided shawl because I really couldn't tell what was going on with the shawl while it was on the needles, stitches all jammed together and whatnot.

More pictures:  

Now, I just have to stay up a few more hours until it's dry, though the radar says there isn't much rain in the area and I might chance it and give it the night to dry.