Please Pass the Cheese!

Mom's Lace Shawl

Yup, I am gonna whine. I was a little more than halfway threw the second pattern repeat on my mother's shawl when I messed up a couple of stitches. No biggie, I corrected. A couple of rows later I realized my correction had made matters worse. Again no biggie, I took it off needle and frogged a handful of rows, then began putting it back onto the needle. I got the shawl back onto the needle and begain knitting again. I realized that I had completely *muffed* it up! I finally realized that I needed to frog the entire shawl and start over!

Introduction....and ...

Hi my name is Jan. I thought I had better introduce myself before I began posting about the shawl I am working on for my mother.

I am a SAHM of a 15 yr old son who is mildly autistic. Wife of a former merchant marine. Mother of 2 older sons: 22 and 19. (The 19 yr old was pretty much adopted when he was 18 mths old.) And the grandmother of a beautiful grand daughter who lives entirely too far away from me. My dh not only supports my yarn and knitting addictions, but he enables and encourages them!

I am fairly new to lace knitting. In fact my first successful lace project was a pair of socks for my dh that I made as my training project before the Knitting Olympics (KO). My KO project was a pair of rainbow knee high lace socks, and they pretty much ensured that I was now addicted to lace knitting. (I am working on getting the money and courage to use lace weight yarn for lace!)



My mother is the type that absolutely loves whatever I make her. She treats the items as precious gold, she stores them away to protect them and keep them safe from harm. This is frustrating when it's something that is made to be used! Last December for her birthday, I got so frustrated that I had to ask her what I could make her that she would actually use and not store away! (I crocheted her some red doilies as per request.)

Well recently my aunt won a friendship cruise for herself and two friends. She is taking my mom and dad with her. Now I remembered that two years ago when my parents took a cruise to Hawaai, mom stated that she wished she had taken a shawl to wear in the evenings when she was dressed up. I thought, hmmmm maybe I can convince her to USE a lace shawl.

So I left a message with my aunt--you see, my aunt would help to convince my mom to use it!--asking what shape/color she wanted her shawl. Long story short, my mother choose a rectangle lace shawl, black and silvery, with fringe and possibly some beads.


Please ignore the mess on the floor, and the horrid sofa, but here's a picture of my progress so far. I got the stitch pattern from Vogue's "Stitchionary", but otherwise I am making up the shawl pattern. I am using a silver 'blending' thread and "Paton's 'Grace" 100% cotton yarn. The yarn says use size 6 needles, so I am using a size 9 circ. The stitch pattern is large diamond lace.

Sorry to go on and on and on. Thanks for allowing me to join.

Introduction...

Hello,

I found this blog through Celia's blog (I think). I've been knitting lace since July last year. I started with the Mystery Stole Along, which sadly, I never finished. But I did start and finish the Mystery Shawl Along, and am now working on MS3. I have knitted a couple of other lacey items and my Olympic Knitting piece was this shawl





It is the Follow the Leader Faroese Shawl by Sivia Harding.

Cheers Eva

Fir Cone Square Shawl

Done in right at 2 weeks (my Olympic knitting), the Fir Cone Square Shawl is finished! Again, the yarn is about 4 ounces of 1/14 cashmere from ColourMartUK in "Everglades" on 3.5mm needles. The cost of the yarn was about $15 - not much more than Zephyr!

A couple of quick pictures (click to make 'em big and useful)-


I am amazed at how many different colours I can get out of this yarn. Most things look different depending on the lighting, but wow have I never had something that would go from green to blue to almost black so consistently. Messes with my mind!


(Few more Fritty pics here)

About the yarn - it's oiled for machine knitting, so it needs to be washed. But cashmere is quite delicate, especially when it's as thin as this, so wet blocking is a bit risky. This meant washing it Thursday night, letting it dry, pinning it out in the morning and hope that spritzing will be sufficent blocking. Thankfully it was! (oy that was a lot of commas)
Finished size is, eh, about 50" square. Plenty big.

A little note from your host

Hi everyone!

I just updated the look of this blog a little bit, to widen the content area. There's been some problems with overlapage of photographs onto the sidebar in the past. This new width will accomodate pictures up to 600 pixels wide. Please do not exceed that amount, as it will throw the entire blog off.

Thank you, and happy knitting,
Danielle

Ene 2 is completed..

It is completed. I have a rather unclear picture on my blog. I am waiting for some sunlight tomorrow toget a better picture.

A shawl or a scarf?

Hello to everyone here. I have been inspired by all the lovely lace shawls you are knitting. Right now I am working on Ene's scarf from Scarf Style, which is really more like a shawl than a scarf. So, does this count as a shawl? I am knitting it in KnitPick's Shadow in the Oregon Coast colourway.

Currently it doesn't look very different from this picture, taken a few nights ago...

a couple more...

Spirit of the Southwest

knit in Grignasco Regina - that's 2/25 merino , 1250 meters per 100 grams
more details

Tiger Swallowtail

knit in handpaintedyarn.com 's laceweight in Damask Rose
more details


hmmm... those two in the same post kinda make the Fibertrends pattern seem downright mundane.
For the Olympics I am knitting the Fir Cone Square Shawl from Folk Shawls - Whitestar and Eunnyjang have finished versions up for ogling if you don't have the book yet - so in two weeks I shall hopefully post again....

Frost Flowers & Leaves - FINISHED

I finally finished the Frost Flowers & Leaves shawl. It took me about 4 1/2 months. I absolutely LOVED knitting this shawl. I may even knit another one. Below is a picture of FF&L unblocked. I just ordered some blocking wires on line, so once I receive the wires, I'll block my shawl.



On Friday, I am going to start the Flower Basket Shawl for Yarn Harlot's Knitting Olympics and for Team USA-Lace. Can't wait to start. I'm going to begin working out today after work by making a few gauge swatches so I can determine what size needles I'm going to use. I will be knitting with KnitPicks Essential in Dusk. It's a sock weight yarn.