Greetings & Leaf Lace Shawl

Hi All,

This is my first post and am so excited to be part of this talented group.

I am currently knitting Evelyn A. Clark's Leaf Lace Shawl for my secret pal of the International Scarf Exchange 4 using handpainted 100% Merino Wool.

As I am new, not familar with the etiquette, please bear with me as I learn.

Margaret - Ontario, Canada

Lace Wings shawl

This shawl is made with a single skein of Handmaiden Sea Silk. LOVE THIS YARN! While on the needles, I seriously thought I was going to end up with a scarf, but like most lace, the magic occurred at blocking time and it came out great. More pictures and info on my blog. Now I need to finish the feather and fan stole I'm working on in Interlacements Rick Rack II and then pick a project for my new Addi Lace Turbo needles and some Jaggerspun Zephyr. So much lace, so little time!

And I'm inspired by all of your posts and pics! :)

More lace on the needles

I cast on for the Feather and Fan shawl from A Gathering of Lace about two weeks ago. I'm now at round 122, and this shawl is what I call "mindless knitting." I'm knitting straight for three rows, then I have an active row, then I knit straight for three rows-- it's getting big, but none to fast. The shawl actuall goes out to 189 rows, or a blocked width of 68." I'm using Alpaca with a Twist's Fino. The dusty rose pink is gorgeous.

I'm impatient, and I love to start new projects. On Friday, I cast on for the Spiral Cap Shawl from Vintage Lace Today. Between these two books, I should have enough lace projects to keep me busy the rest of the year! I'm using wool yarn from HandpaintedYarns.com, in the color-- mango. It looks more like an orange Creamsicle to me. At this point, I'm on row 56. Like the feather and fan shawl, this one (so far) isn't a difficult knit. As long as the knitter is paying attention to the amount of YO's and K2Tog's, everything works out great.

Happy knitting to everyone!

Seraphim Is Finished

I finished my Seraphim shawl (pattern from mimknits.com) yesterday, but rather than resorting to an indoor modeling session, I decided to show it on my stair rail. When the foot of snow that fell here over the last few days melts, I'll try for an outdoor shot.






I really liked the pattern, but I was less happy about the yarn. This is stash yarn that I've had for more than twenty years, and it is not nearly as beautiful as the yarns available now. It is from Berger du Nord, and it is 15% kid mohair and 85% wool, and so I expected a more ethereal quality. The yarn also expanded far more than I imagined. The finished measure was supposed to have a depth of 36 inches, and mine has 42. But it still looks nice, and perhaps a bit more dramatic than most of my wardrobe. I will enjoy wearing it. [A few more details are on my blog: primetimeknitter.typepad.com.]

I'm going to take a brief shawl break for a month or so to finish two sweaters, and then I'll resume with one of Evelyn Clarke's patterns as the weather gets warm (and I no longer want to knit sweaters). There is still a lot of stash yarn to knit up!

before and after

I blocked the sheep shawl the other day.
It got huge!
Before:



After:


A lot of people said when they saw the unblocked picture that it hardly needed blocking, and so did I, but now that I see the difference, it's amazing! The Zephyr is just awesome to work with, I was afraid that the washing as blocking would take away it's sheen, but if anything it got even better.

Modeled:

(not the best picture, but the best I could do with a tripod and a 10 second lead.)

I can't wait to give this to Monica.
It's a good thing that may is right around the corner!

Up next, the wedding veil shawl.
I have a little started on it right now, and it looks rather un-assuming, but I'm hoping that it transforms as beautifully as the sheep shawl did. I'm only knitting it in merino lace weight though. But it feels like it has a lot of stretch to it, and it's buttery soft and cozy.



---
Abigail
http://akittenknits.blogspot.com/

Here is my Shawl

Hi All,

This is my first post here to the group, although I have been lurking for a bit. I just think you all have such lovely work. I am quite content to wander through the posts all day long....but then I don't get any knitting done.

This is Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend from Goddess Knits/Bo Peeps Wool Shop. I like the pattern, but it probably should not have been my first foray into lace knitting. I have only restarted it once, and done a fair amount of frogging thus far. I love the color. I must say I am probably only about 1/3 done with it at this point.

Wish me luck.

Arctic Diamonds Begun

I'm sure it will be quite some time before my Arctic Diamonds Stole done, but I thought I'd share the beginnings of it. The yarn is a soft, very pleasant laceweight merino in the Hush colorway from Fearless Fibers.

Kimono Shawl finally done

May I present my Kimono Shawl? It's finally, finally done. It took long enough, I know. Don't ask me exactly when I started it, but I blogged with this one in the Lacevember KAL. I was on a family trip that took a good five hours one way, which gave me enough time to work on this an finally get around finishing up those pesky five last repeats. I was close to giving up and making this shawl shorter than intended, but I stuck with it. So here it is, the Kimono Shawl from Cheryl Oberle's book Folk Shawls. It's made from recycled red Cashmere bought off of ebay and after blocking it I'm happy to say that all the kinks from unraveling it disappeared.

Half Circle Fan Lace Shawl....Done!

I finally was able to finish the above mentioned shawl. It has a "wingspan" greater than my 5'4" height, and that's before blocking! It isn't quite as 'deep' as I had hoped, but I still need to block it so hopefully I can take care of that then. I don't have the floor space here, nor do I believe that my dh (as much as he supports my knitting addiction) would tollerate it if I used our bed to pin the shawl down for blocking. So I will have to wait until I have the chance to go to the LYS to be able to properly block this thing. When I do block it, I want to stretch the ever-living-daylights out of it!

I plan on wearing this shawl, the Eiffel sweater (from the recent winter issue of Knitty dot com) that I recently finished, and an as yet undetermined pants/skirt outfit to ArtBoy's (ds no.1's) collage graduation on May 5th. Anyway, the shawl is finally done except for the blocking!

Shawl update

Well I had problems finding my long cable as well as my small blocking board so did not get a picture posted at the end of the 3rd rep. So here it is at the middle of the 4th repeat of chart b.

I may have this finished in time for fair. Grin I have already realized I need a larger/better way to block it when I finish.

Light as a Feather

I finished up my Feather and Fan scarf last night. This is such an easy lace stitch, but yields such lovely results!

Yarn: Misti Alpaca laceweight, color MC-1070, a heathered moss
Needles: US3
Before blocking: 6 inches x 60 inches
After blocking: 6-1/4 inches x 72 inches

I wanted a nice long scarf that I could loop twice around my neck, or wear French style and still have plenty of scarf hanging down. I got just what I wanted and couldn't be more pleased!

Next project: The Arctic Diamonds Stole from the fall 06 Interweave Knits. I cast on for that last night. Must always have lace on the needles!

Ocean Shawl

My youngest daughter Emily loves shawls and have been nagging me to knit her one for ages. I chose this yarn from Posh Yarn. It's Helena dk and I used 2 skeins. the lace pattern is crest of the wave whihc i really like. Knitted up beautifully in this yarn and Emily loves it.

DONE!

The sheep shawl is finished!
I need to block it still, but that probably won't be until Monday, as I don't really have enough room to block it out to it's full dimensions here, I'm borrowing a room at the Motel that bill works at and I won't be able to do that until Monday. (Half of the motel is shut down for the winter, and they said I could use one of the closed rooms as long as I didn't make a mess)

The edging was ... interesting.
I had a few issues, mostly with my apparent inability to count correctly or read directions. But it all worked out in the end and I'm quite happy.

It's not very big right now, and it looks sort of...crumply and misshapen, but I think most of that will be worked out in the blocking process.

I'm holding a contest at my blog in celebration, feel free to drop on by and give it a shot!

---
Abigail
http://akittenknits.blogspot.com/