blueblueblue....

Today I drove to the Yarnfactory and brought 200g wonderfull, blue Angora-yarn.
Just what I had been searching for and also reasonably priced!
So, I began knitting a test pice in the feather and fan pattern. I put the knitting to the side in order to make a photo to show to you...
See, what I discovered:


My fingers are blue!!! I think I've got a shawl curse...
Does anybody know a way to fix it? My mum told me to knit the shawl and wash it gently in vinegar water afterwards. But then I'll be having blue fingers all the time untill I complete the shawl!

Anyway, here's the photo of the test piece:

Madli's Shawl

The Easter Bunny brought me Knit Pick's Alpaca Cloud in 'Tide Pool'


My camera never gets the colors correct, but hopefully you can check out the site. It is a gorgeous color. My first Knit Pick's yarn, first shawl, and first lace. woo hoo! I cannot wait to start on this. From seeing all my friends (knitters and non-knitters alike) who have ADD, I truly wonder if I have it as well. Because I still complain about having too many things on the needles, yet last night I started crocheting a scarf, and I am still working on ruffles from scarf style but I HAVE to start this, I must.
and before i go into too much else that is not shawl knitting related, i will go cast on my shawl. hehe

An update on me

More Shawl...

It seems this is the only project I'm working on right now... I'm anxious to get it done too. I know I need to buy more yarn, so I'm thinking of ordering it from Jimmy Beans Wool and just getting two more skiens... I'd hate to hate it when it's done just because its too short to hang off me.

I've decided I like the striping.. I know, weird right? Someone said it reminded them of a nuclear sunset. And that kind of goes with the post apocolypticness of it... all six string samuri and all... Oh I forget who it was!! But thanks for saying it!

I'm also having trouble finding ribbon I like to go with the stripes its got going on. I've toyed with the idea of using Lions Brands Incredible, weaving two strands sort of countering each other. I can't find any other ribbon yarn I like that's reasonably priced, and I can't find any ribbon to match well either. We'll see when I'm finished.

And look at this...

A KNOT!! ARRR! I hate that! And its a variegated color!! It looks ok, but I was so pissed. It went from bright red to dark dark blue...

... good thing its not horribly obvious.

Pass me a bottle of that Shawlahol!

What can I say, I like shawls, stoles, wraps, and other vague beasties. I have four (!?!) in some state of progress at the moment. In no particular order:


Simple stole in Skacel merino laceweight, currently about 20" (50 cm) x 48" (120 cm). I started this in the middle of December; this picture is from the middle of Feb. , but I've knit only a couple inches since. I'm planning to bind off fairly soon and then find some lace edgings to prettify the sides. Indecisiveness on what to do with it is the main reason for hardly touching it at all for a month.

(The diamonds really are square - well, diamond - but between the camera angle and the poor pinning....)




Then there's this wrap made of Lion Kitchen Cotton. Intended for beach purposes only! The needle was only long enough to show half, but it's currently about 40" across the top edge. I haven't knit any on this since... umm... January 22... because it was a dreadful reminder that beach season hadn't arrived yet. Interest in the project will be renewed as the weather warms!



(Those last two are from no particular pattern, but for their simplicity it seems pretentious to say "own design"! Patterns for both will be put on my blog when they're finished, though I'm hardly assuming they're unique enough to warrant a cult following.)


Next is Knitty's Cozy, which I started at the end of January. Yarn of choice is Omega Sinfonia, a sportweight mercerised cotton. Almost finished - if I apply myself I could easily have it finished by the end of March - but the newest project has stolen my attention.




Finally, the newest addition to my WIP list - "Farose-style Lace" by Myrna Stahman, from "The Best of Knitter's Shawls and Scarves".



Much after that, there gets to be so many stitches on the needle it gets all bunched up and hard to get a full shot. About 8" into it now... another shot of the lace -



Wow, has this post turned out to be long. Not that I'm any less long-winded on my blog. Oh... and pimping a FO from last December! Madli's shawl - see, I can finish things in a timely fashion if I don't let myself get distracted... oh look, a butterfly!

Lace!

This is just a little check in.
Check out the Faroese Shawl growing over on Monkees needles, very pretty. Orang Merajut and I both seem to have taken a liking to the feather and fan pattern. Orang Merajut, what about going up a few sizes in needles? MissJulie seems to be deciding if she likes her Bob + Weave; the colors are wonderful Julie! Shelob, our newest member has expressed interest in Bob + Weave, FiberTrend's Shoalwater Shawl, and check out her beautiful Ostrich Plumes scarf. Mary Jo has a heavenly Orenberg shawl on the needles. DeAnn has some very helpful posts on knitting shawls and wearing them; aslo when doesn't this lady have a beautiful shawl on the needles? Laura is also starting her Bob + Weave now that her lovely Clapotis is done. Suzanne needs a little help with her poodle yarn shawl, which by the way sounds really neat. FickleKnitter has started the fantastic shawl from Lorna's Laces.

Ok, I think that covers this round of checkups, you all look quite healthy! Check back in with more on the needles in one week!

Danielle

And all that Jazz!

Hello! Jazz is a standard poodle who belongs to my good friend, Karen. When she was visiting us in this chaparral-clad canyon last spring, we decided that Jazz (still a pup and starting to look like a tribble) should have his first haircut. He was picking up stickers all over the place! We bought clippers and went to work on him. In a moment of temporary insanity, I suggested that we save the clippings, have them spun, and I would knit her a lace scarf. She went home with two grocery bags of clippings - one mostly long, the other medium to short - and I forgot all about it until a package arrived in February containing 7.2 oz of handspun poodle in 3 small skeins. The yarn appears to be mostly approx. 13 wpi or Sport to DK weight - yardage is as yet unknown. I have charted a pattern 83 stitches wide, composed of Wings of the Swan with compatible twisted open cables, and am now faced with a dilemma: do I plunge right in with a provisional cast-on, work a few inches, then pick up and knit in the opposite direction, and continue both ends in tandem until I run out of yarn? Or, shall I swatch first in a similar weight alpaca, to work out the detail of patterning for two pairs of wings departing in opposite directions from the center back? The drape of the alpaca will not be even remotely similar, but I fear that the poodle may not respond well to frogging. So, here I sit, mired in indecision.

*le sigh*

Here's my shawl so far...

I gotta say... I'm not elated about it... I don't think I'll have enough yarn and look how its striping!! ):

*sobs*

It was my first big yarn purchase, like... realy fibers and top dollar, drove an hour away to get it... I just hate that I hate it!

Should I keep going? It's supposed to look like this...

I know, not traditional lace, but lacey. And frustrating!!

Check This Out!

For my previous error, I offer this amazing lace blog. We've been given permission to poke around it and take a gander at her beautiful pieces. She has at least 2 free lace patterns on her left side bar. Look in the Knitted Lace Shawl Photo Album to see her creations.
Danielle

Hello

I'm knitting the lace shawl pattern that came free with Helen's Lace by Lorna's Laces.



I've done one full repeat and am working on the second (of six). I am now completely and totally fascinated by lace! After I finish some other projects I'll knit the Crystal Palace mohair scarf with yarn from my stash.**

Thanks for putting this together NoNoKitty!

**I thought I saw the link here, now I can't seem to find it.

May have deleated your mail by accident

Hi, I apologize, I accidently emptied my mail box, and I know there was an email about joining this KAL. So if you have not recieved an invite to post, or do not see your name on the participants page, please email me ASAP. Thank you all for being understanding.
-Danielle

Orenberg shawl progress - let's see if I can send this properly!

Answers to questions (gossamer web post)

I tried to post this under comments of my last posting, but my HTML tags "weren't good enough" so you'll have to give a day to figure out how to fix that.

Thanks for the suggestions! I do make copies of sections of the charts and enlarge them, but for the most part they are repeats and I can't... keep 20 rows in my head . But the women in Russia that orginally knitted these things rarely used pencil/paper/charts I've been told (after a few practice shawls, I'm sure). The scrap yarn markers are a good idea. If I can find my camera over the weekend I'll try and take a picture of what I've done so far.

Next question: my "shawl" is really a pattern for a scarf that can be worn as a shoulder-wrap type of shawl or a scarf. For those of you that are really making a shawl ... do you wear/use it, or it is just in the fun of making? I'm not sure I'd really ever wear one of those "full size" shawls that you see in books like "Gathering of Lace", for example! Maryjo

Gossamer webs and more

Greetings: this is my first time for all of this -- KAL, blogs, etc so I hope to learn some things from the rest of you.

I'm knitting a Gossamer Web/Orenberg lace shawl and decided I'd better join a KAL to keep going... it's simple enough once you get the idea of the whole schematic, but slow knitting! I'm using the pattern from Piecework Mag Sept/Oct 2000 with white Douceur et Soie (mohair/silk, I think). For more info about this, look at http://www.skaska.com/

I'm enjoying seeing the types of yarns others are using! I haven't knitted in a while, so it's fabulous to see all these new, trendy and funs yarns on the market.

I have lots of questions though! What do you all use for stitch markers for these thinner needles we're all using (I assume!) ... the "small" markers are sort of big . Also, how do you all keep track of where you are in your patterns if you are using a chart? I seem to have to write out a chart with the rows numbers of "each section" and keep track of it that way; reading across the chart each time drives my eyes crazy, and then of course I am at a section (row 48) that just says work in ....xxx border pattern, xxx inner zig zag pattern etc to row 300+ ... now you see how far I have to go!
Maryjo

First Lace

Hi everyone, this is my first KAL and my first lace project. I'm doing "Ene's Scarf" by Nancy Bush from Scarf Style using Rowan's Kidsilk haze in a delicious deep red colour. This scarf is like a trapezoid in shape, it starts out on the bottom edge like a shawl and works up but where a point would end on a shawl this ends with a ribbed edge. I'm only 10 rows into it and am really loving the experience, at first I was very timid with the yarn, thinking it'd just snap on me, but it's very resiliant. It looks a bit like crumpled tissues but you can already see the edge pattern coming through. Hopefully I'll be able to take some pictures later.

Yardage

Looking through my lace books, the average yardage for a rectangular shawl is 1200 yards. If you're going to use Alpaca Cloud or Shimmer, you'll need 3 balls total for a 22"x80" shawl. Currently I'm using Alpaca Cloud for both of mine.

Ready to go!

Hi everyone,

As you can see the button has been changed to something a little less home made looking. You're more than welcome to keep the old one or take the new one.

It looks like we're ready to start, if you haven't already. There's no time limit, so there's really no set start date. Go at whatever pace makes you happy.

Have fun!
Danielle

Tempting Lace

Have you ever seen pictures from early American life, or of Irish and Scottish women wrapped up in a lacey shawl and been inspired? Have you ever wanted something that you can pass down to your children, and grandchildren? Have you ever wanted a garment that can keep you warm and look wonderful at the same time?

I have, and I've decided to do something about it. This is a knit along for anyone else who has felt the urge to make something beautiful that can be passed down for generations to come.

The rules are quite simple:

1. The item must be a shawl or wrap.

2. It must be lace.

Those are the only rules. You can use any pattern, very simple to very ornate. Any size needles, or yarn. This is your shawl, feel free to make it in anyway that suits you.

If you would like to participate please drop me an email.

Hopefully I will have some examples up within the next week to get those wheels turning.

Danielle

Let the Lace Shawl Knit Along Begin

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