I Am Not A Grinch

In fact, I’ve been very good this year and have been resisting my usual Holiday urge to rant about the stupidity of the whole Silly Season thing. Well, not too much anyhow. I actually have a wreath (with a bunny) on my back door and T-Man put the lights up on both back and front of the house. I loves me the lights! That and the visiting and the food are my favourite parts of this time of year. I also put up my wonderfully tacky tree that my birth mom made from broken wine bottles and old costume jewelry, all glued to a red velvet background in a speckle-painted frame with lights poking through the backing. She made one awhile back for each of us kids. (Sorry, Mother! But it is totally tacky and I love it.) I even put up the tree-shaped advent calendar that I made when my kids were tiny. The hand-stitched felt decorations button on with mother-of-pearl buttons that came from T-Man’s granny’s collection. Yes, it’s also tacky – but a family tradition more than 30 years old now. Along with Black Jack Bear in his Santa beard and hat in the basket on the front door with the felt pears, I think that’s it for decorating this year. Since we still haven’t cleaned out the last attic space, I can’t get in easily to wrestle out anything else. I would have liked my solstice sun, moon and stars decorations but they’re too far buried. Good enough is good enough. Martha I ain’t.

Instead I spent half the day yesterday attempting to reverse-engineer the Springtime in Philadelphia pattern (that I renamed my Earthly Beret) to fit the fingerless mitts. I’ve frogged back to the ribbing twice because it just doesn’t look right. I’m working in the opposite direction to the way the beret was knit and the angles of the decreases and yo’s are wrong no matter what way I knit them. Just shows you that you can’t simply turn the chart upside down and get the same pattern exactly. I did some research using my precious copy of Knitting Lace by Susanna E. Lewis (Taunton, 1992) to see if I could figure out what went wrong. Besides all the charted patterns from a vintage lace sampler, this book has a whole section on designing and charting lace. It’s fabulously helpful and I wonder why it hasn’t been reprinted yet. Original copies are currently listed for as much as $250! Yipes! The story as I know it is that Taunton didn’t want to reprint (apparently this type of important documentation is not a priority), the copyright reverted to the Brooklyn Museum (who owns the original sampler) and at least 2 years ago, Meg Swansen was in negotiations to get the thing reprinted through her Schoolhouse Press. Obviously didn’t happen - yet. Unfortunate. Meanwhile I guard my copy with trained attack dust bunnies. So no attempts at pinching it. Besides you’d never find it in the forest of books in my studio without a map.

But I digress. The problem I seem to be having is with the heavy line of decreases here:


See how they’re on the “leaf” side of the lacey triangle? When I knit the pattern in reverse it makes them disappear, blending into the yo line instead of defining it. As far as I can make out you can’t change that fact because a strong diagonal line of decreases can only appear beneath the yo’s in the direction you are knitting. I can emphasize the line on the upper edge of the lacey triangle instead by moving the decreases to that side of the yo’s. So it still won’t look the same but it might be better. The only way to do make it truly identical would be to knit the mitt from the top to the wrist. That would make the thumb gusset a bit tricky to cast on and decrease (would be like adding sleeves to a bottom-up circular sweater) and I would have to rip out most of the ribbing I’ve already knit and start again. Sigh.

I thought this would be easier than it’s turning out to be! Silly me. So not wanting to begin again at the top, I opted for “similar” as opposed to “matching”. We’ll see what it looks like when I knit it up again. The frog pond awaits if I’m still not happy. That’s the nice thing with knitting – you can undo it faster than you did it in the first place. Not too many things in life allow for such an easy do-over. Unfortunately that makes it all too easy to be picky. At least until my patience runs out. I'll let you know how it goes.

Still haven’t got a photo of the Frankensocks. It took a whole 24 hours-plus for them to dry even on the warm bathroom counter. There’s a hot air vent under there in just the perfect spot to warm the towels. However that assumes that one hasn’t set the house temp down so low the furnace rarely kicks in! It’s not currently raining so I hope things will brighten up by this afternoon.

Well

Sometimes you get what you deserve. The Canadian election results were pretty much like I expected: another Conservative minority but with a few more seats than last time. The Liberals lost several seats and the NDP gained some. The Bloc Quebecois stayed the same. What was disappointing was the lowest voter turnout ever at 59% of the eligible population. Here in my riding it was higher at 61% but that’s still pretty pathetic. There are countries in this world where people put their lives on the line to have their democratic vote and here almost half throw their precious opportunity away. Are they totally happy with things as they are? Everything the federal government does is just peachy with them? Or are they just too lazy to check out the parties and the candidates and what they stand for and, gasp, pick one.

Anyway the federal election is easy-peasy in comparison to the upcoming civic election. You only have to pick one person out of a short list. In the civic election you have to pick a mayor, 10 councilors, 7 park commissioners, 9 school trustees, yes or no to the capital plan and a partridge in a pear tree. OK, not the last one. And the list of choices is huge! Big fun. Not. Alright – enough of the polly-ticks already. This ain’t that kind o’ blog.

Back to your regularly scheduled crafty stuff. I managed to get a shot of the beginnings of my Laminaria Shawl:

It's already bigger than that. And I swear the colour of this yarn changes constantly from green to gold and back again. In different light and every time I try to photograph it, I get a different result. Even to the eye, it shifts. Very fun if somewhat frustrating to pin down. The knitted fabric looks quite dense for lace but that’s because this is the beginning star stitch section which is quite textured and not so much lacy. If you look at the garter stitch edge you’ll see how loose it really is even on 3mm needles. This part is very easy to keep track of but it still takes a lot of needle-maneuvering to work. That’s what I love about Estonian lace – it’s quite out of the ordinary. And this shawl has a lovely combination of lace stitches which is probably why so many have opted to knit it. There are hundreds of gorgeous finished Laminarias on Ravelry! As usual, I’m kinda late for the party.

So of course I can’t put the needles down now that I’ve started. I knew I should have resisted until I got a few other things finished first. Nah, I’m not going to feel bad about something I’m enjoying. That would be stupid. It’s not even bad for me, like eating potato chips or something. However, I do have other things to do today. I want to go weed some more garden now that it’s nice (but cool) out. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow. And I need to pick the next bunch of coreopsis. And save some of their seeds for next year. And go to the farmer’s market which is almost done for the year. Only one more of them to go and I need to get some winter squashes, potatoes, apples, carrots and whatever else will store well to carry us into winter. Things I can’t or don’t grow myself. Guess I’d better get to it, eh?

Thanksgiving Reflections

Yesterday was Thanksgiving here in Canada but we had our big family dinner on Sunday. It was a lovely gathering – except that poor T-Man felt totally crappy thanks to The Cold. He was very subdued and pale and tried not to leave his germs for anybody to pick up. Hopefully he succeeded. I’m personally thankful that I’m now pretty much over The Cold and have started to catch up on unfinished work. T was supposed to go to work yesterday but he stayed in bed most of the day. Today he’s working from home so he doesn’t spread his germs around. Though it’s quite possible that’s where the darn thing came from in the first place.

I’m thankful for many things in my life. Number One is T-Man. We’re currently celebrating 40 years since we met and fell head-over-teakettle in love. I’m also thankful for our wonderful extended family. It just keeps getting bigger! And I’m thankful for the life that T and I have built together, our home and garden and crafty stashes, and enough money to pay the bills with some left for the fun stuff. We aren’t really rich in a financial sense but we’re very rich in all the things that really count.

In crafty news, I’ve been trying to finish T’s Back Home Blues birthday socks. I’m at the toe decreases on one but only halfway down the foot on the other. I tried to wind the green-gold comfrey/copper/coreopsis-dyed skein of alpaca lace yarn into a ball and had it pop off the ballwinder not once, not twice, but 4 times! By that point I had some still on the skeinwinder with a strand attached to one ball with its centre pulled out and that attached to a second ball with its centre pulled out and the end of that attached to the ballwinder. It looked like green alien guts. I didn’t panic but carefully tried to keep everything in order so I could try to wind it up again. I’m thankful that the Henry’s Attic Alpaca Lace yarn is quite strong and not prone to either felting or drifting apart. It takes quite awhile to wind over 1200 yards into a ball though. Several times over. With pauses for untangling and unknotting. This time I got smart and dug out some coarse sandpaper and used it to scratch up the plastic cone on the ballwinder to roughen it enough for the yarn to stick better. Success! The yarn a bit fuzzy now but that just adds to its charm. It made me start the Laminaria Shawl.

This yarn is called “lace” but is actually more like “cobweb” even though it’s a 2-ply. This is quite a lot finer than more normal lace yarn called for in the Laminaria pattern. I started on size 3.25mm needles but frogged that and began again on 3mm Addi Lace circs. I like it much better. Somehow I prefer my lace to have a bit of body and a clear difference between holes and solid parts. I believe that’s probably what I didn’t like about poor abandoned Zetor that I was making in a similarly-sized mohair yarn on 3.5 needles. It’s too airy and I can’t differentiate the pattern very well. A tiny bit tighter (only half a millimeter needle size) and I’m much more satisfied. This will make the large-sized Laminaria shawl somewhat smaller but it was pretty big anyway. If I think it’s coming out too small I can always do another repeat of the middle pattern area. However, I only have around 1200 yds of this yarn and no chance of getting exactly the same colour ever again. Not even if I used exactly the same dyestuffs and the same amounts. If I run out I’ll just have to put a rusty edge on it with my other skein of plant-dyed yarn! Hopefully I won’t have to. It's too dark now to photograph the wee bit I've completed so far.

Well, today is election day in Canada and we’ve gone out and done our bit and voted. Now we can bitch without guilt because we’ve at least tried to put the best guy we could in parliament. I doubt whoever gets in in our riding is going to change sides on us this time anyway. Everyone kicked up a big fuss when it happened last time but apparently it’s legal, if not particularly moral. I’m hoping for the best for our country but who knows? At least I’m thankful I live here and not somewhere else. As T always says, things could be worse.

Lottecam

It was a busy weekend, especially on Saturday. I spent a goodly amount of time squatting in the veggie garden weeding the pathways. Oh, that is so satisfying! If somewhat hard on the old body. It’s rather tricky plucking out only the weeds and leaving the volunteer flowers and the moss and thyme groundcovers alone. So why is it that stuff usually grows best where you don’t want it? I’ll probably move most of the flowers off the path eventually and onto the edges of the beds. I’ve decided that most of the gazillions of feverfew are going into the compost, much as I love the chartreuse colour of the leaves and the pretty chamomile-like flowers. They attract black aphids though and reseed themselves too profusely. One single plant was brought into my garden years ago from my MIL’s and that was it. I’d like it better if my migraines were helped by it, but I must be one of those for whom it doesn’t work. And it tastes really strong and rather vile when you try to take the fresh version rather than the commercial one in capsules. I can smell it on my hands for hours after weeding it.

Another pretty flower that is driving me nuts with in its millions is alstroemeria (Peruvian lily). It is all over our property front to back and I’ve been vigourously pulling it out from among my hostas and my rhubarb. It’s even growing in the deeply shaded gravel between our house and next store. It’s supposedly hard to start but difficult to get rid of and I totally agree. For the time it blooms though (late June through July) it’s a glorious orange-yellow mass. Right now our cold wet weather has slowed it down so it’s not even budding yet but I’ll take a photo when it’s in full bloom.

Right now my gardening efforts are slowed by the rain we’ve been having on and off. As T-Man says, we live in “Lottecam” because it’s been raining in the day time and starts to clear up by the evening. (If you don’t get the reference, it’s from the musical Camelot where it reputedly never rains till after sundown.) It was quite pleasant this morning but now it’s raining again. It’s quite chilly too, much lower than seasonal norms. And I was hoping for a good growing year. Sigh. That warm sunshine we see every once in awhile is just teasing us for how nice it could be. But isn’t. Remind me of this when I start complaining about heat later on, ok?

Yesterday only 3 of our little Ravelry group met at the usual coffee house. It was a very pleasant time though and I tried to get their opinion on what to do about the Red Fields Shawl. That’s my version of the free Zetor Scarf pattern in some vintage mohair (I think) that was in my stash. The yarn is a lovely bright red and the right size for lace knitting, blocks nicely and holds its shape and everything, but it’s awfully scratchy for something that will be touching my neck or chin. I was knitting on it on Saturday, finishing the first repeat of the pattern, and decided that I wasn't sure I liked it but I needed a couple of other opinions first. Like me, they thought the lace looked lovely and the colour was great but it doesn’t really soften up much after washing. However, I’m holding off frogging right away. I think I’ll try beginning again with my madder-dyed handspun moorit wool first and see whether I like that better before I waste the effort I put in so far. The handspun yarn was left over from my Icelandic shawl since I spun enough for a whole shawl and it has 9 colours in it in total so there’s about 800 yards left. I’m not sure of the type of sheep this stuff came from. Merino perhaps? It’s not super-soft but it doesn’t seem like Shetland either. Dunno but it’s much softer than the mohair and is a pretty red-brown. (Yes, I like brown. And I have a lot of clothing that it will coordinate with.) So later I’ll cast on and see what it looks like in Zetor’s pattern of tractor tire tracks. Then I’ll decide whether or not to frog the red version.

In other news, I’m almost finished the Big Secret Project. I’ve started putting weaving and kumihimo projects on Ravelry. Why not? It’s not exactly set up to do this properly but I just don’t fill in the inappropriate spaces in the form and put more info in the notes section. The drafts go in as a JPEG in the photo area. At least I can keep track of the projects and their dates and stuff. One thing I could do that I haven’t yet is put the weaving yarn in the stash. It’s a bit awkward since very little (if any) of it is included in Ravelry’s yarn database. But still possible. It would be a lot of work to put all of it in though! Yikes. Photo shoots and all. I don’t even have all my knitting yarn in there. And probably never will. I’ve only been entering the newer stuff as it comes in.

There are already groups for weavers and kumihimo enthusiasts on Ravelry. Of course! I’ve kind of been avoiding posting because most of the members are newbies and I’d be driven nuts answering newbie-type questions. I don’t really mind that but I don’t have time right now. Might drop in every once in awhile though. Just to see what’s going on.

Otherwise I’m at the heel flaps on the Ocean Blues Socks and nearly at the same place on the A-Maizing Socks. I’m really not liking working with the splittiness of the Maizy yarn and my frustration with it is growing. The resulting fabric feels really nice though so I’m persisting albeit slowly. It should help that there’s only pattern on the instep and not the sole so that’s only half the annoyance to come when I get there. Meanwhile I have to do a fancy heel flap because I like the look of the one Criminy Jickets came up with for his Ridges and Ribs Socks pattern (here if you aren’t on Ravelry). All I changed from the pattern was reducing the stitch count to 64 from 72 to fit me better and shortening the cuff to 6”. The rest is going to be the same as the pattern which is quite attractive.

Well, I’d better go finish the laundry, make the bed and finish up the BSP. The wedding is this coming Saturday! Do I time it close or what?

Where Did Spring Go?

I should have known that I was enjoying the spring weather too much. Today is very cold and rainy and yukky. A good day to stay in and get stuff done indoors. I spent a goodly part of the morning sorting out all my recently collected knitting and crochet patterns and reorganising my “Inspirations” binder. I was reminded how many things I want to make Some Day. Not enough lifetime left to do it all in but that’s just fine. It’s the anticipation that counts. Besides, my grandmother lived to be another 40 years older than I am so you never know. At least I won’t be bored.

I stopped swatching and actually started on the Red Fields Shawl aka Zetor Scarf. I found out that Zetor is a brand of red tractors made in Czech Republic. Since I’m part Czech on my grandmother’s side and the pattern could be said to resemble planted rows (use your imagination, will ya), it works for me! I was surprised while checking out everyone’s versions on Ravelry how much the look of this pattern differs depending on how dense or lacy the knitting is. Mine is definitely lacy:

I forgot to mention yesterday that I also dyed a bunch of sock yarns:

Still trying to use up some old dye stock. The paler colours are weaker dyestocks of Lanaset (aka Telana) dye and the rusty red is made with stronger acid dyestocks. The yarns are ones I haven’t dyed before: the ocean blue-greens I named “Sea ‘n’ Sky” was a natural white On Your Toes (wool/nylon/aloe), the light blue with speckles was over KnitPicks Bare tweed (wool/nylon), and the rusty red that I’m calling “Persimmon” was a single skein of Louet Gems machine washable merino super fine/fingering.

I used what I call the “kneading” method to get near-solid colours. This works fine with the superwash sock yarn but I wouldn’t try it with anything that will felt. I soaked the yarn skeins in acid water (90ml of 56% acetic in 4 litres water) for 10 minutes. Then I poured some of the dye stock in a small plastic pail, enough to be absorbed by the yarn. After squeezing out the acid water leaving the skein damp, I quickly plopped it in the dye and wearing rubber gloves pushed and squooshed it around. Then I pulled the yarn out and added a bit more dye of a slightly different colour and repeated the kneading. When I was satisfied with the colours, I squeezed out any excess moisture (usually with not much colour left in it, except for the acid yellow that’s been giving me a hard time recently) and wrapped it in plastic wrap. The packages went into a heatproof dish for two 5 minute runs through the craft microwave with a 10 minute rest period between. After they cooled, I rinsed them and ran them through a few minutes of the spin cycle on my washing machine and then hung to dry. With the damp weather it’s been taking longer than usual to dry.

Oh, I don’t have to be Irish to wish you a Happy St. Paddy’s Day! Even if I am wearing red instead of green today…

Shawl Done

I finished binding off the Icelandic Lace Shawl yesterday, gave it a nice warm soapy bath and spent about 2 hours pinning it out to my satisfaction. As usual it took a patchwork of foam insulation pieces to fit it on but I got it out to 66 inches wide and 29 inches long at the point. Which really wasn’t a point because the bottom edge wanted to be a smooth curve instead of a triangle. Works for me! I was super-annoyed though because all this time I thought I was knitting with my 3.75 mm Addi Lace circular but I was actually using the 3.5 mm. They had been swapped when I last put them in my storage binder and — guess what? The size that’s printed on the cord wears off! And quite quickly too. That’s how I found out my mistake when I measured with my needle gauge. OK, you’re waiting for the stats. Here they are.

Icelandic Lace Shawl

Blocking in progress:
As full out as I can get it:
Detail shot:


Begun: spinning – June 2007, knitting September 13, 2007
Completed: October 3, 2007

Yarn: 165 g total of 9 different handspun laceweight 2-ply yarns: Shetland (moorit, 55 g), Shetland (black, 25 g), Merino (Exotic Wood, 20 g), Merino (Mojave, 25 g), Merino (Baltic, 10 g), Merino/Silk/Angora (white, 5 g), Blue Fox/wool (natural blue-grey, 10 g), Coopworth (dyed orange, 10g), Coopworth (dyed blue, 5 g). Amounts are approximate after weighing what was left and subtracting from original ball. There are leftovers!
Needles: Addi Lace circulars, 3.5 mm (US 4) 24” length. (Intended to use a 3.75 mm but made an error!)
Pattern: Icelandic Lace Shawl, PDF free pattern from Knitting Daily.
Finished size: pinned to 66” wide by 29” tall. Dried to 64” wide by 27” tall.

Comments: This was a harder knit for me than it looked! I was unable to follow most of the charts which were non-standard and couldn’t re-chart to my own satisfaction. I had to copy the pattern and re-jig it to create a check-list version (which was helpful for a few members of the KAL too so it was worth it). Then I had to figure out where to put my colours in the sequence. Not sure I’m totally pleased with that but it’s done now. Reminds me of wood and water so it’s not as bad as I thought it might be.

I started with a temporary crocheted cast-on which worked very well. I also used stitch markers between every 20 stitches at least for the first while. Each new section was a new challenge to get set up correctly. That was a lot of stitches on the needle at the same time! Hard to count without the stitch markers’ help. At least then I only needed to count between each marker. I can count to 20 ok. 339 is a lot harder!

I used a Russian join to attach the next colour without having a lot of ends to deal with. It left the first few stitches a bit lumpy but it’s pretty invisible. I found the best method was to attach the new yarn first and leaving about a cm between the last st on the needle and the join. Then I tinked back about 6 stitches and completed the join including some spit-rubbing to seal the deal. The extra space left is for the shrinkage that happens and it mostly lined up correctly when the stitches were knit back to the edge.

I needed to pay attention to what was happening at all times. Knowing what stitches needed to be knit over what really helped to avoid mistakes. I soon gave up trying to do anything else while knitting on this. It’s a lot of stitches to take out if you make a mistake! I did have to drop down and repair a few times especially in the centre triangle area. I can’t tell if there’s any boo-boos that got away. Luckily the slightly lumpy and uneven yarn hides all.

I used a small 2.5 mm crochet hook for the loopy bind-off and only crocheted 6 chains instead of the 10 that the pattern said. I didn’t want it too loopy and I’m glad I did it that way. The difficult issue is that when the top edge is picked up and knitted, the crochet doesn’t extend to the ends. I fudge that by unpicking the beginning crochet loop (which looked wrong anyway) and reattaching it to the top corner. Then I used the tail that I’d left (instead of a Russian join) when I joined the orange at the top and crocheted a matching loop on that side. It worked well and links the orange all around the shawl.

After washing and pinning, the bottom edge took on a gentle curve while the centre section remained a triangle. It’s what I would consider a medium-sized warm shawl, not too lacy and not too huge.

I’ve also finished the DDD Socks but they need to dry so I can take a photo. Posting two FOs in one day would just be too much anyway! I have naked sock needles so next I’m casting on for some more T-Man socks. He’s home today with a cold (has to be pretty bad if he stays home from work!) so I’m feeling sorry for him. I have the denim-ish dyed Sisu from the same dye day as when Darling Daughter dyed the wool for her socks. I thought I’d use the Yarn Harlot’s Earl Grey Socks pattern. It’s mostly plain with just a little cable action on the sides. Notice how I’m going for slightly more challenging patterns than my Standard Plain Socks lately? Except for the DDD Socks because the yarn is doing all the work and anything fancy would just get lost. If the Earl Grey pattern turns out to need too much attention, I’ll just start some little socks for my grandkids and use up some of the leftovers that are kicking around. Gotta have a mindless pattern for those times when my brain is occupied but my hands are not.

Latest Socks Completed

I was trying to photograph the socks but first I had to remove this creature…



…from the scene. Silly Ms. Polly kept sticking her nose into the camera lens. I think she wanted the kind of attention that the other bloggers’ pets enjoy: her photos and antics recorded daily for her adoring fans, cute thought bubbles included. I never thought of her as being such a prima donna! Sucky for lovin’ though. Anyway, after a cat-ectomy, the artsy shot:


Crosshatch Socks
(for my DIL)

Begun: August 22, 2007
Completed: September 26, 2007

Yarn: Meilenweit Mega Boots Stretch Colour #717, 100g balls = 400m/440yds, 70% wool/23% nylon/7% Elite.
Needles: 2mm Clover Takumi short dpns

Pattern: Crosshatch Lace from More Sensational Knitted Socks by Charlene Schurch. (This book has now justified its purchase!)

Comments: This pattern is one of the “true lace” variety with pattern stitches on every row. It has great texture when not stretched. You can’t really see the lace holes until the socks are on. It would make great gloves or wristwarmers as well.

Other than the pattern stitch on the leg and instep and a 1/1 ribbed cuff instead of my usual 2/2, this was my standard sock pattern on 72 sts. 8” (24 rows rib plus 9 patt reps) to heel turn, 7-3/4” (10 instep patt reps) to toe decreases. Dec to 6 sts each needle (24 total), “dog-ear reduction” before grafting.

Have I ever described what I mean when I say “dog-ear reduction”? I think it’s in my toe grafting tutorial. (Link in my sidebar.) But to reiterate, it’s a method to reduce the little “ears” that often stick out of the standard toe after you’ve grafted the remaining stitches together. When the toe stitches are divided on two needles (top and sole) and before I graft the toe together, I lift the second-last stitch on each end of each needle over the last stitch. Sometimes it takes a bit of maneuvering to accomplish but that’s four stitches reduced that you don’t have to graft. It rounds the toe slightly at the outer edges thus eliminating the “ears”. And there ya go!

I spent some time this morning knitting on the Icelandic Lace Shawl. The centre section is now decreasing markedly toward the top. It feels like progress is being made finally. Here’s a progress shot of sorts:


Nice texture, huh? I promise it'll look better after a good wet blocking.

There was some excitement (not the good kind) at my last spinning class yesterday evening. One of my poor students got her shoulder wrenched while trying to hang on in a full bus on her way to class. The driver stopped suddenly and she felt an ominous pop. When she got to the shop, the owner Cara (who is a nurse) decided that a trip to emergency for an assessment of the damage was probably a good idea and drove her to the hospital. The news today is that it was a torn rotator cuff and a pulled muscle pinching a nerve. Ouch! At least she didn’t break anything and it will heal up ok. The shop just got her new spinning wheel in too but now she can’t spin on it for awhile. That’s really gotta hurt!

So my last last class was down to 3 from an original 8. The remainder are all really gung-ho however and I feel it was a good class overall. Cara is still understandably annoyed with me but I’m leaving her with a very capable replacement who actually has real teaching creds and everything. So she’s not going to suffer without a spinning instructor. Meanwhile I get all my Wednesday evenings back. I don’t do evenings well anyhow. I’m always tired by then and my brain isn’t in full gear. It’s veg in front of the TV with knitting time. Now, if anyone wanted me to teach at 6 or 7 am I’d be all for it! Funny thing though — nobody is up for that. Go figure.

Happy Autumn!

Yes, time flies when you’re having a good time! Fall Equinox happened early this morning. This is absolutely my favourite time of year, All the colours are so inspiring and beautiful. The leaves are just starting to turn here but it’s already feeling cooler, especially at night. We’ve got the furnace on now and the heat cuts in more and more often. Plus I have my first cold bug of the season. Pooh! I’m not too sniffly but I feel like a wet lentil. No idea where it came from but T-Man has it too so that’s proof that he probably picked it up from work. I don’t get out much but I did take the bus to my weavers guild meeting on Thursday where I could have picked up a germ or two. Who knows. I seem to have no resistance to these things. Let’s hope this isn’t the beginning of something like last year’s Flu That Never Ends, eh?

I brought the cactus plants inside before it gets too cold for them outdoors. T wanted to put away the patio furniture — all but one small table and two plastic chairs so we can sit out in the sun when possible. Since the plants were on the big table which was being dismantled for storage it was a good opportunity to bring them in even though it’s quite warm and sunny this afternoon. I still have a few tomatoes in the greenhouse to pick. There’s some mixed greens (mizuna, tatsoi, arugula) in there which should be able to overwinter while I snip them off for salads. In the main garden I still have some leeks that will withstand any weather until I harvest them. Plus a few herbs like rosemary and parsley that should hold all winter. I have several overwintering broccoli plants that will hopefully give me some sprouts come spring. Otherwise we’re just waiting on the first frost when much of the garden will turn up its toes and die back. No hurry though!

It’s a bit late for Talk Like A Pirate Day but I found this great free pattern from Anne Kuo Lukito for Buccaneer’s Booty Socks. I SO want a pair! They could do double duty on Halloween as well. They are going into the Queue and I hope I’ll get around to making them before next year’s pirating celebrations.

Meanwhile I’ve knit and tinked, knit and tinked on my Icelandic Lace Shawl. Such a deceiving pattern! It looks complicated at first but when you break it down, the individual pattern sections seem rather simple. Until you go to work them and find out they get messed up so easily unless you pay attention at all times. Very Zen as you must be In The Moment while working on this shawl. Unfortunately I seem to be lousy at staying in focus. Here’s a button from Krista that expresses how she feels about “Slow Knit-A-Longs are OK”.


I agree — it’s not a race! You don’t win any prizes for a first place finish. Better to post your problems and solutions to help the ones who come after you. Of course you realize I’m also a very slow knitter who couldn’t win a knitting race anyhow! I am however very stubborn (must be my Scorpio influence) and I’m prepared to stick with this shawl no matter how long it takes. I already spent days spinning the yarn so what if it takes many more days to knit it up.

Avast Me Hearties!

Got yer eye patch, cat-o'nine-tails and your “Pirattitude”? Aye, ‘tis International Talk Like A Pirate Day terday! So celebrate, ye lily-livered landlubbers, or I’ll have ye walkin’ the plank and send ye ta Davy Jones’ locker! Just don’t be burning down the port or getting loaded ta th’ gunnels wi’ grog, eh? Ye could lose t’other eye. Arrrhhhh…

I did love me Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island” when I were a sprout tho’. And in the movin’ picture version, Robert Newton’s Long John Silver mite o’ been a scurvy dog, but he were me hero! Me pappy an’ me used ter watch old swashbucklin’ movies on TV and no gentleman o’ fortune could talk as colourful as ol’ Long John. He’d be embarrassed to know he be the Patron Saint o’ this day unless ye showered him w’doubloons as well. But shiver me timbers, th' real Bobbie woulda loved it! Unfortunately he’s been carousin’ in Fiddler’s Green since I were a lass. The grog got ‘im, not some scallywag’s cutlass.

Stow that, ye gobs! I can’t do a whole post like that. It’s exhausting! So I’ll show some photos instead. I’ve been steadily working on the Icelandic Lace Shawl. I’ve been successfully using the Russian Join to link in the next colour pretty invisibly.

Now I’m heading into the Main Triangle (aka the doldrums) which at least has the advantage of the rows getting shorter as I go.


So far it looks like something the cats got into but I’m hoping that as usual, all will settle down in the blocking. I’m not so much liking that single line of purl blips between the blue fox and the moorit. It’s not a mistake — I triple-checked. However in the original those two colours were much closer (light grey and white) and it doesn’t really show. The designer was trying for more of a blending between back and front of the shawl but I think there should be more than one place where this occurs so obviously. A “mistake” repeated is a “design”. If necessary I may have to introduce another one on purpose when I knit the bottom edge.

And I promised a photo of the cobblestones and brick work that we did (well, mostly T-Man did) in the back yard.


Bet you can’t tell which cobblestones we did first! We got better at mixing concrete as we went, though there wasn’t a lot of consistency in the bags of mix anyhow. At least there won’t be mud puddles there this winter. Everything is still wet from last night’s rain but it’s sunny out now. Relatively cold though. I’m wearing my woolies in the house and the furnace actually kicked in this morning. I’ll adjust eventually so that I’m comfortable at the lower temps. I’d rather be too cool than too hot. Just me.

Back to celebratin’ your scurvy selves, me mateys! Go find your inner pirate here. Haarrrrr….
Smooth sailin', an' fair winds t' ye!

There WAS An End

An end to the scarf-formerly-known-as-the-scarf-that-never-ends, that is! Yay! Now I can consider a new project out of the gazillions in The Queue. I sweated my fingers off yesterday in an attempt to finish the darn thing because it was just hanging on too long. Thanks to Lime & Violet’s podcasts, I managed to stick with it. Here’s the scoop:

Fern Leaf Scarf

Begun: May 22, 2007
Completed: July 25, 2007

Yarn: Cashmerino from Birkeland Bros Wool, dye-painted by me, leftovers from the Cherry Leaf Shawl. I would have had a better idea of how much if I had weighed the scarf before I put beads on it!
Needles: Skacel Addi Lace circular, 3.5mm, 24”.
Beads: 4 different leaves in spring green, 2 with AB coating on one side and 2 without. Little drops in muted orange.
Thread: Nymo nylon beading thread in grayed green.
Beading needle.

Pattern: Modified from the Frost Flowers chart in Lavish Lace by Carol Rasmussen Noble and Cheryl Potter and scaled down to one repeat with herringbone edging. Note there is an errata for the chart in the book at Martingale’s webpage.


CO 28 sts. Row 1: sl1 wyif, yb, k1, yo, k2tog, k2, k3tog, k1, yo, k1, yo, k3, yo, k1, yo, k4, sl1 k2tog psso, k3, yo, k2tog, k1. Row 2: sl1 wyif, yb, k1, yo, k2tog, k21, yo, k2tog, k1. Continue following chart. Repeat until scarf is long enough or you run out of yarn. I managed to end on Row 2 which made a nice balance. Last row: bind off.

Comments: Yes I realize I could have made this scarf more symmetrical if I knit 2 pieces and grafted in the middle or better yet, begun in the middle and knit to the ends. But I like the asymmetry, the results of just starting at one end and knitting to the other better. I had some issues with following the pattern. Because the yarnovers were separated from their corresponding decreases and the whole thing is asymmetrical, it made it more difficult to keep track of where I was even after I had the pattern memorized. I particularly had trouble remembering whether I was on a forward (lace) row or a return (almost-plain) row. Until I got the bright idea to add a stitch marker at the beginning between the slipped and second stitch. Doh!


I probably could have squeezed in another repeat of the pattern since I had several yards left but I think it is quite long enough at over 2 metres! It wraps several times around my neck just the way I like a narrow scarf to hang. I had trouble finding enough foam insulation bits to block it on. It was like a jigsaw puzzle when I was done. I blocked it to 5” wide but it came down to 4-1/2” when dry. Do you like it better on the pink?


Or the blue insulation?


I don’t think it goes well with either but it does look neat all stretched out.


No, I didn’t have blocking wires nor did I hunt down some weed-whacker line to thread through the edges. I just used a gazillion pins. Note my furry assistant, Ms. Polly Manytoes, inspecting the progress. And the glass of wine — that helped too. It dried really quickly now that the Big Light In The Sky is back for a return engagement of summer.

Later I decided to add beads at the ends because the thing just craved them. I found 4 different leaves and the muted orange drops that looked just right on the curvy ends. I stitched them on with Nymo bead thread so hopefully they will stay on. I hope they aren’t too heavy for the lightweight lace yarn. So far so good.

The Finished Object:

Now to wait until it gets cool enough to wear it.

Ya Wins Some, Ya Loses Some

I’ve been having one of those days today. You know the one where you try to run a bunch of errands and some of them work out and some of them don’t. And then you forget something important like depositing a cheque in your account. It’ll have to wait for another time. I did get my hair cut, which was the original reason for going out today. My scalp is healed enough now that even my hairdresser’s sharp comb didn’t hurt. At least the weather is spectacular for the second-last day of May. Sunny and warm and everyone is in shorts and sandals.

One of the things that didn’t work out today:


Can you see the oops? Took me awhile to notice. I was knitting on these last night while watching TV. Shows you how much attention I was paying apart from turning the heels. It was glaringly obvious this morning but not until after I had both socks out together. I missed one of the pattern repeats! The short one is frogged back and I’m working on catching it up to the heel. Again.

I also tried to work for awhile on the Fern Lace Scarf. But it too has it in for me and after frogging and fixing several mistakes, I gave it up for the moment. It’s this long so far and giving me a hard time all the way:


While I was out I bought some more big Ziploc bags for the stash. The fabric stash this time. I’ve just started in on the next phase of my organization/purge/inventory and it ain’t pretty. When I get it all out I’ll show you. Hope you don’t have a weak stomach! Har-har.

Short post today since there’s too much to do and not enough time to do it in. But I’ll leave you with this composite photo from my front garden this morning.

Notice how my colourful poppies are blooming right within spitting distance of next door’s lumber pile? They might be somewhat flattened but they’re still gorgeous. Be thankful I spared you the outhouse shot. It was just behind me. Pardon me while I go close the window. The cigarette smoke is blowing right in and my throat is getting sore. Several months more of this building stuff, huh? Oh boy.

Startitis

I was so happy to finish the skinny Ribby Socks for T-Man yesterday. They lasted a very long time on the needles. Not as long as my poor frogged Jaywalkers but darned long enough. They look totally ridiculous off the foot but since he isn’t around to model them at the moment, this will have to do:

T-Man’s Ribby Socks


Begun: March 7, 2007
Completed: May 21, 2007

Yarn: Trekking XXL (75% superwash wool, 25% nylon) in subtle olive greens, browns, and even a bit of pink and blue (colour 90), 1 ball (100g/420m).
Needles: Clover Takumi bamboo 5” dpns in size 2mm.
Pattern: Mine, the one linked in my sidebar, with a longer leg and longer foot.

Comments: For some reason I can’t resist the yarns with 4 gently variegating plies. It’s impossible to make matching socks but they are so beautiful they counteract my need for symmetry. There are a number of little blips in the knitting but I’m not going to look too closely when they’re on his feet in his shoes under his jeans.

So now that this set of needles was empty I had to fill them up again. And not with the plain pair of socks for SIL either. These are for me (like I need another pair!) in Mega Boots Stretch Softcolor yarn in shades of dark red. I’m using a tulip pattern that I found in an older issue of INKnitters. For some unknown reason, they published it under the name of Leaf Lace Socks, which they definitely aren’t and they were even shown in bright red as a clue to the pattern’s meaning. The pattern stitch, “Tulpen”(tulip) from a German book, was in words so I used my trusty Knit Visualizer to chart it. I’m always looking for patterns that look right upside down since that’s the way they turn when I knit socks from the cuff down. Here’s the chart if you’re interested:


I’m currently still on the ribbing and haven’t gotten to the tulips yet. And as if that wasn’t enough, I decided to cast on for a narrow lace scarf from the leftover yarn from the Cherry Leaf Shawl. I’m using a stitch pattern called Fern Lace with a row of faggoting on either side. The much wider version was in the book Lavish Lace but there was a mistake in the pattern so I checked on the publisher’s website for the corrections. I’m not messing about with provisional cast-on and knitting from the centre out to make the scarf hang symmetrically. I’m just starting at one end and knitting until either it’s long enough or I run out of yarn whichever comes first. There’s about an inch worth of this so far and it’s making an interesting scalloped bottom edge:



So what happened to my weaving you ask? Don’t ask. I got things cleaned up and tidied away and then didn’t touch it. I got carried away knitting and reading blogs instead. I’m so far behind on what’s happening with everyone. The observant will note that neither of the new knitting projects is the kind I can work on and read at the same time. However, I do need to buy some yarn tomorrow (when I go to my LYS to teach the last spinning class) for SIL’s birthday socks. They will be my plain pair so I can read while knitting. Meanwhile I can read while I’m working on the cuffs on the Tulip Socks.

Over And Over

Do you think of working yarn-overs differently before a knit stitch and a purl stitch? I don’t — I always think of a yarn-over as just one thing: scooping the yarn over my right needle so it lies from front to back. Then whatever I have to do for the next stitch is a separate item: if I need to knit it, the yarn already in the right place and if I need to purl it, I bring the yarn forward into position first before working the purl just as I would before working a purl stitch after a knit. When there’s a yarn-over right at the beginning of a needle, I just scoop under the yarn and carry on normally with the first stitch in the row. Maybe it’s harder if you knit “throwing-style” or English, if you prefer to call it that. It’s a whole separate motion with that method. In “picking-style” or Continental, it’s just a quick movement to bring your yarn to the front or the back making eyelets, ribbing and other similar patterns easy to do. When I switched methods from throwing to picking way back in the ‘70’s, I was actually surprised that I enjoyed ribbing so much more when I didn’t have to do so much maneuvering to accomplish it. It’s the same working yarn-overs. I do still know how to throw my yarn (in the awkward way I figured out when I was 6) but I only use it for colour-stranded knitting. As time goes by I’m getting more out of practice and am trying to learn how to do colour-stranding with both yarns in my left hand. Unfortunately it’ll have to wait until I’m out of my “Lace Phase” for further experimentation on the colour-work side.

Meanwhile I have a wonderful FO for you — the somewhat modified Shoulder Shawl in Cherry Leaf Pattern from Victorian Lace Today:

Cherry Leaf Shawl


Begun: Dyeing – January 15, 2007 Knitting – March 7, 2007
Completed: March 26, 2007

Yarn: Cashmerino (cashmere/merino laceweight yarn) from Birkeland Bros Wool. Perhaps 850-900 yards? I had quite a bit left from a skein that counted to about 984 yards long anyway.
Needles: 3.5 mm Clover Takumi 24” circular. 3.5 mm Crystal Palace dpns.
Pattern: main triangle from “Victorian Lace Today” by Jane Sowerby except that I worked 5 more pattern repeats longer, wide edging is an extension of Aspen Leaf Edging from Barbara Abbey’s “Knitting Lace” (I called it Walnut Leaf Edging), narrow edging is from VLT’s Half Square in Trinity Stitch chart D (mini version of Walnut Leaf Edging).

Comments: I was very happy with the dyeing. The colours were subtle enough that they didn’t detract from the lace, which can sometimes be a problem. The yarn was somewhat thinner and the needle size smaller than that called for by the pattern in the book. I worked 5 more repeats but it still only blocked to 60” wide instead of the 72”. The length is the same 33” though.

The edgings needed very little “fudging” to make them fit. I did have to do the bottom corner twice before it looked quite right though. In the end I worked the last edging repeat before the bottom corner twice into each stitch, the point repeat three times into each stitch and the repeat after the bottom point twice into each stitch. That seemed to make the point hang right. Also the first time I started the min-walnut edging on the hypotenuse, I forgot that it needed to be worked into every other bound-off stitch instead of every stitch so I had to frog and start that part again. I worked a short row triangle (increasing 2 stitches every other row) in the corner before starting the top edging. This worked very well and all the edgings though not symmetrical look very even. I like that they continue the “leaf” theme but are lighter and more lacey than the main body of the shawl in the more dense cherry leaf pattern. A nice contrast in textures. So this shawl ended up being partially of my own design and it makes me happy. I love leafy things.

Built To Last?

What becomes of the things you make? Do they get put away in a drawer or hung out in plain view? Do they get used and abused and eventually used up? Does this bother you? I guess it depends on whether you consider your work High Art or just creative crafting, a happy pastime that leaves you with something to show for your hours of twiddling your fingers. There are articles on textile conservation that would like to scare you into believing that everything must be carefully wrapped in acid free tissue and stored in a museum-quality specially-manufactured box out of the harmful light. However I’m of the Use It school of thought and use my stuff unto death. I like to surround myself with handmade things and if I had the proverbial million dollars I would commission artists and craftspeople to make me a house and virtually everything in it with creative style and obvious marks of the hand. Meanwhile while I’m waiting for the money to materialize I live with a mixture of the old, the Ikea, the junk, and the handmade (mostly by me, T-Man, friends or local craftspeople). It’s not Better Homes & Gardens-worthy, but it’s us.

Speaking of building, the workman have been having big fun next door removing the roof and top floor in preparation for the major renovations planned. I spent a goodly chunk of the day elsewhere because the noise and dust was pretty bad. I did manage to introduce myself to the crew boss who promised that it would all be over with quickly. But then the building will commence and that won’t be any more peaceful, I can guarantee. I surreptitiously photographed them from my study window.


They can see me at my desk so I waved at the boss! Just as I type this the last wall is going downnnnn….

Cynthia asked in my Comments about the yarn for the Cherry Leaf Shawl. Yes, I did dye it myself. The dyes were Lanaset, also called Telana depending on who sells it. These are dyes for protein fibres and have a somewhat muted palette. I especially like them on silk because they’re very luminous when combined with silk’s sheen. They are a little more complex to use than regular acid dyes when you’re trying to get an even colour because they have a couple of extra things (dye assistants) to add. But in this case I used a combination method: first the yarn skein was soaked in my reusable bucket of acetic acid/water, squeezed out and then dipped and squeezed through a strong solution of the chartreuse dye and arranged in a casserole dish (one just for dyeing). I poured dribbles of blue-green and orange-red dye over the skein, turned it over and repeated the dribbles. (There might have been some golden yellow dye as well. I can’t remember now!) Then I covered the casserole dish with its lid and nuked it for three 5-minute intervals in my crafts-only microwave, each time with a 5-10 minute cooling period between. After it cooled, I rinsed the skein, spun it out in the washing machine (spin cycle only) and hung it up to dry. The yarn is a cashmere-merino blend in a 2-ply laceweight. I can’t remember the manufacturer since it didn’t come with a label. I wanted to be very careful with the dye method because it felts quite easily.

And now it’s all done! I marathon-knitted this morning and finished the shawl. It’s washed now and blocked so I’m just waiting for it to dry. More details later but here’s what it looks like in its pins:


I think it’s beeeoooteeeful! But hopefully now that it’s done I can control myself from starting another piece of knitted lace and get my sewing done. We spent some time this weekend looking at fabrics but didn’t really find what is in my mind’s eye. There are more places to look however so I’m not giving up quite yet. It has to be the right weight, the right colour and the right texture. Plus inexpensive. It seems that the textile clearance place is mostly filled with icky synthetics that feel totally plasticky. I did get some chiffon for my veil in slightly off-white. Then we went to my favourite Punjabi-owned sari shop with lots of lovely silks and rayons but they didn’t have anything quite right either. Lots of other yummy fabrics though! I was controlling myself. These are the only places that I can walk to so it’ll have to be car or public transit next.

Be Careful What You Wish For

I learned a valuable lesson in the last few days. I was concerned about the house next door which has been empty for nearly a year and was gutted last fall for renovations. Then it sat, hollow and forlorn, with its back door refusing to stay shut. I was worried that someone would shelter in its dubious but dry interior or set it on fire or something equally nasty until finally they started working on it again the other day. Now I’m wishing it was abandoned again. The banging and crashing and hammering and sawing are driving me nuts! And they’ve only just begun the rebuilding which, according to rumours, will make it much larger than my house. What will I be looking out my study window into, I wonder? And how much light will I have? Bet I won’t be able to catch the lovely sunsets over the roofs any more.

Well, I spent a good part of the morning working on the Cherry Leaf Shawl edging. I’m now past the bottom corner:


I kind of fudged it twice until it looked more-or-less even around the corner. The pattern repeat on either side was mostly worked twice into every edge stitch while the one right at the corner was worked three times into the bottom stitches. Now I’m back to the normal join of every right-side row to one edge stitch. It should block out nicely. I’m quite pleased with it so far.

We’re back to dumping rain here though we haven’t set any records. It’s getting rather tedious however. Some of the seeds I planted under the grow lights are coming up. I have baby lettuce, arugula, and tah tsai (Chinese greens) and I think I saw a baby tomato or two. These will all go into the greenhouse when they’re big enough and then the salad greens and leeks will go in the main garden. The tomatoes will stay in the house until they are too large to fit under the lights! By then it should be warm enough at night since there’s no heat in the greenhouse. I’m going a little more low-key on the veggie garden this year. There’s no point in trying to grow things that don’t produce well so I’m not going to bother with peppers, eggplants, some squashes (maybe still zucchini). We usually get some peas and lots of beans. I know the peas should be planted already but they would practically be under water at the moment. Trying to dig in the mud is not good for seeds or me. I do have some overwintering leeks and the sprouting broccoli and multiplier onions are getting big enough to pick. There’s parsley and chives and even the asparagus is starting to come up. Next I should plant some flower seeds or we’ll be hitting the nursery for annuals again. I’ve got the seeds so I should use ’em. Meanwhile I’ve relegated the buggy coleus (yes, they’re still alive!) to my desk where they can get natural light. When it promises not to freeze at night then I can trust putting them in the greenhouse. Don’t want to lose them after I worked so hard dragging their roots through the whole winter.

Moving Right Along

In a bid to ignore the fact that I’m still not feeling all that well (and I really don’t feel like going back to the doctor again to whine at him), I finished knitting the main triangle on the Cherry Leaf Shawl. It’s 5 repeats longer than the pattern but since I’m working with finer yarn and compatibly smaller needles, it wasn’t much above neckerchief size before I continued on. Now it’s quite a respectable size. I wasn’t that happy with the edging chart in VLT, so I went on a hunt for something else. I was looking for something lacy and pointy with a 12 row repeat that would lighten up the somewhat dense main part of the shawl. In Barbara Abbey’s “Knitting Lace” book I liked #19 Aspen Leaf Edging so I extended it two more rows and two more stitches wide to make a 5-row leaf. I think it looks nothing at all like an aspen leaf so I’m calling it Walnut Leaf Edging after my walnut tree in my backyard. So now I have cherry leaves and walnut leaves in the same shawl! I do love me some leaf shapes. Here’s the chart:


Begin with casting on 10. On row 12 bind off 10. Note that the + is my choice of Knit Visualizer’s symbols for “k tog tbl with next edge stitch on shawl”. I didn’t have the loop symbol that Jane used for that maneuver in VLT. Remember that the chart shows the right side of the knitting so on the even numbered (wrong-side) rows, the dots are worked as a knit stitch, the blank square as a purl and it's a p2tog. The grey areas of course indicate No Stitch. I did find a similar edging to this in the VLT book but with only 3 pairs of leaves. Jane used it on the Half Square in Trinity Stitch pattern. It doesn’t include the “faggotting” at the inner edge as on Barbara’s pattern. This was a common linear lace motif that Barbara abbreviates as “f” in her shorthand way of writing patterns. There seem to be several ways to accomplish it but her version is created by [yo, p2tog] on both sides and looks like a zigzag ridge with an alternating line of yarn-overs on each side of it. I think working a p2tog rather than a k2tog causes the yo to stretch just a little more making a slightly larger line of holes and the centre line is more knotted looking. Jane’s version (in the Stripes and Torchon Lace pattern) is stockinette-based: [yo, k2tog] on the right side and [yo, p2tog] on the wrong side rows. It looks similar but isn’t the same on both front and back. There are other versions of the Faggot (meaning "a bundle of sticks", not any of the other slang meanings of this word!) type of motifs including Herringbone (staggered yarnovers with the decreases on the outsides rather than in the centre) and Beading (yarnovers on top of each other with a plain row between). Because of their linear emphasis, they’re often used to divide more complex motifs or different sections from each other.

Here’s what the bit I’ve done so far looks like loosely pinned out so you can see it:


I was right that even though I didn’t make my selvedge stitches correctly it isn’t hard to knit them up anyhow. I poke my needle through the last stitch on the edging through its back loop, continue poking the needle through the edge of the triangle from the wrong to the right side, and then knit them together by drawing the new stitch through the shawl and the last stitch. This leaves a little row of V’s along the join on the back of the shawl but it looks very neat and stretches as far as it needs to. Then turn the work to the front and slip the first stitch with yarn in front as if to purl. It means a lot of flipping back and forth but I try not to flip the whole shawl, just the corner I’m working on. It’s kind of slow, but I’m enjoying it anyway. The pattern is very easy to memorize and to work. The only tricky bit is the joining stitch. I think it helps that my bamboo dpns have quite sharp points on them.

As you might have noticed, the edging pattern is directional (asymmetrical) so that as I round the bottom point the leaves will be facing in the opposite direction to the first edge and the bound-off edge will not resemble the cast-on one. But I don’t really mind. I’m always trying to fight my tendency to absolute symmetry. This is a good exercise for that! Once I’m done the edges I’m not really sure how I’m going to finish the hypotenuse of the triangle. I’m not sure I want to just crochet a picot edge as Jane recommends in the pattern. Too boring. Maybe I’ll use the mini version of the edging from VLT.

I think it’s pretty amazing how knitted lace is just a bunch of yarnovers and decreases but the way they are composed makes for some breathtaking beauty! Once you understand how the motifs are created, what the different directional decreases look like and how they affect the motifs, and how to put the parts together, you can make up your own designs pretty easily. Really! Cutting and pasting, whether using paper or pixels you can play with reversing, filling in, expanding, extending, diminishing, until you get something you like. You might need to test knit just to make sure something is going to work the way you expect, particularly if you messed with the original a lot. For example I found out that I had made 2 mistakes on my first version of the Walnut Leaf Edging which I didn’t notice until I tried to knit it. Then it was easy to see what I had to do to fix it. Of course my “swatch” was the first repeat on the real thing! I figured if it wasn’t looking right I could frog it or simply carry on if it was looking good. It was and I did. I’ll let you know what happens when I get to the point!

Lace Style

I was really looking forward to this book. I love lace and I was hoping this would be the companion volume to Victorian Lace Today, only with more garments. Or failing that, a more up-to-date version of A Gathering of Lace. Nope. Not really. Perhaps I was expecting too much. (Quiet, those who are thinking “So what else is new, Damselfly?”)

It’s not that it’s bad exactly, just that it could have been so much more. It seems like an issue of Interweave Knits only a lot more expensive — 3 issues worth of more expensive. To be fair the patterns have more detail and there are more photos, but really there’s only about the same number of patterns as the Spring 07 issue of the magazine. The chapter on working lace, reading charts and fixing your mistakes is good but it could have been a much larger section of the book, at least for my money. I suggest you go read Eunny’s tutorials (under Techniques in her sidebar) if you want lots more lacey details. (Can’t hardly wait for her book!) I always want to know how and why. Not to mention when and where. I’ve already figured by myself out how to fix errors pretty much the way they describe. But that 2-page section could save many less-experienced lace knitters a lot of trips to the frog pond.

As far as the garment designs go, they are mostly Youthful. Don’t they know that there are a few knitters out here who are over 30? Alright. Over 50? I’m already thinking that shrugs (and there are two) are rather passé. And legwarmers were out but now they’re in again? Really? Ewww. I can’t keep up. And what’s with the Lingerie Dress? Would anybody ever wear something like that? It’s like a shawl slipped down to her waist! I also think it’s indicative of a big problem with a knitted garment such as the initially rather attractive cardigan on the cover, that the model is holding onto the fronts with a death grip. Does that mean that it doesn’t stay put on its own? Don’t we need to know that before we spend oh, say, several months out of our lives knitting it and then finding out it doesn’t hang right? Don’t we deserve the truth? The Just Right Wrap doesn’t look just right in one of the photos towards the back of the book either. The hem is totally out of whack and there is nothing holding that lovely lace in place on the right side so you can be sure it will not stay flat. For as long as it takes you to walk out the door. Maybe. Then it will fold up and hang funny and it will drive you nuts trying to pat it back into place.

I’ve already found an error or two in the book so you can be sure there are more just waiting to be discovered. There isn’t a corrections file for this book yet on Interweave’s website. I sent them a message about one of the things I found, a problem with the photo of Swatch 4 which matches Swatch 5 instead of being of the correct right-slanting double decrease. Page 137. Right after I did that, I found on page 53 that both charts are labeled Small Lace Petal when the right one is definitely the Large Lace Petal. Can we find more? Particularly something that will wreak serious havoc with your knitting? It would be helpful to know why it’s not turning out correctly before you start tearing out your hair or poking yourself in the eyeballs with your needles in frustration. Tell Interweave so they can get the corrections up where everyone can find them.

Quibbles aside, there are some lovely garments in here. I love the Katherine Hepburn Cardigan by Kathy Zimmerman and Lacey Waves Top by Nora Gaughan. They are lovely, elegant, timeless and worth spending your time knitting because they are eminently wearable. The Ooh La Lace Dress and Stole would make a great project for the bride’s mother to knit for her special day. (Don’t look at me. Mine’s getting married in Byzantine period costume. In purple.) I also like Laura Zukaite’s Essential Tank Top. You could knit it to the perfect length for you with minimal adjustment to the pattern. I think I would tend to make it in the round up to the armholes though. Or maybe leave side slits. It would be lovely in linen. But not doubled like the alpaca. Hmmmm…

…but I digress. I’m not really sure what Annie Modesitt’s knitted wire and beads bracelet is doing in this book. Along with her Garden Hat (which doesn’t fit the model!) it seems kind of out of place. Did they get left out of her specialty books or something? Or maybe that’s just me. Maybe I was expecting more of what I think of as “real lace” garments. Something more ethereal in fine yarns that might take some time to knit. But isn’t so up-to-the-minute trendy that it’ll be out of style before it’s off the needles. This book just doesn’t hit you the way VLT did. (That book actually made knitters run for the yarn and needles en masse.) And I don’t think this is just my opinion. I’ve heard others grumbling as well. It’s not bad exactly. Just not great.

So while we’re on the subject of lace, you can see how far I’ve gotten on the Cherry Leaf Shawl.


Ain’t it purty? Though I’m surprised that the “cherry” colour is really very subtle against the “leaf” colours. It looked more intense in the skein. After a whole lot of brightly contrasting multicoloured yarns, I seem to be on a more muted but still somewhat variegated kick lately. This one is very spring-like in feeling which I think most of us in the Northern Hemisphere are longing for about now. Look, ma — no stitch markers! I haven’t even looked at the chart since the beginning of the 3rd pattern repeat. What a relief after the Socks Whom We Shall Not Name Henceforth, aka #50. I think this shawl will be somewhat warmer than Swallowtail and I think I might make it somewhat bigger as well. I have lots of yarn. Still not up to much else besides knitting and reading but I am feeling a little better today. Off to knit another repeat.

Charts VS Words

I just read a message from someone who said they didn’t buy the Victorian Lace Today book because they couldn’t read charts. There are no wordy line-by-line lace patterns in this book so you have to learn to read the charted patterns if you want to knit the shawls. However, there’s a whole section on how to do this, along with a lot of other great info on how shawls and scarves are designed and executed. Why not consider this a really good excuse to learn how to read charts? Besides this book there are a whole bunch of tutorials out there to help you. It’s so much easier than working through a bunch of confusing words. I’ve even gone to the effort myself of charting patterns that don’t have them! It all becomes so clear and you can see exactly where you are at a glance. If you make a mistake you can see it much better in relationship to the stitches around it so that it’s easier to fix. What’s not to like about charts?

While perusing my library of lace books, I discovered that I had the early version of Martha Watermann’s Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls from 1993 and published by the now-defunct Dos Tejedoras Fiber Arts Publications. It doesn’t include any charts unlike the re-issued version from Interweave. If I want to knit anything out of this book, I’ll have to either chart it myself or go buy the newer revised version. Pooh. However this is a good lesson in how the world of lace knitting is evolving.

Another lesson was a class I took with local lace knitter Lynn Russell in March of 2005. The sample pattern we worked on was in a rather archaic shorthand word form, so first I put it into my own shorthand and then charted it out. It was then that I realized that her pattern’s centre was really off. Kind of a random asymmetrical section out of a larger shawl. And I didn’t like it one bit! So I redesigned the centre with some trees from Sharon Miller’s Heirloom Knitting and finished it off as a little square neck scarf. It was a great exercise and I was happy with my piece in the end but I was ticked off in a way. You’d think she would have noticed that the centre part of this little piece looked like a stoned spider had made it? (Have you seen the hilarious YouTube spiders video? Sorry I don’t have a link.) She actually knitted it up and had it as a sample in the class. It looked impressive to those of us who hadn’t knitted with such fine yarn (J&S cobweb) and in such a complex pattern. I noticed it was asymmetrical right away but I didn’t notice that it was not really a pleasing pattern until I charted it out. It certainly convinced me that charts are definitely the way to go. Besides I rather like the challenge of turning words into pictures. I guess I share that trait with VLT author Jane Sowerby though I haven’t tried to translate those really archaic patterns yet. Not sure I’m up to that yet!

Here’s a section of that mini-shawl after I dyed it. I’m not much for white lace so I couldn’t help myself! It was knitted from the outside in. First the edging was knit lengthwise, the ends grafted together, stitches picked up from the edge on a circular needle, and then knit decreasing towards the centre. Kind of backwards to the way I would do it but hey, it worked.

So what am I up to today? I’m almost down to the toes on the SIL Socks. The end is nigh! I’m an inch and a half into the Penelope Beret and it seems to be working fine so far. I won’t really be able to tell if I got the shape and size I want until I’m done though. Berets look weird until they’re blocked. I’m a fan of small firm berets, not big floppy ones. Must be left over from having to wear one for 9 years of Catholic school in my youth. The religion didn’t stick but the fondness for berets, black tights and pleated wool tunics did. Heh. So did the fear of nuns.

Shawl Gone

Well it was! Gone for almost a whole 24 hours! I thought it was MIA but it really went AWOL instead. Backing up, we went to the family New Year’s Day lasagna-fest at my MIL’s and of course all the coats, hats, purses, bags etc. ended up on her bed. She has a little house and it was filled with yakking family members (including the new baby!) so you can guess that it got rather warm in there. Even too warm for MIL who usually likes it tropical. So after all had a chance to admire the Swallowtail Shawl, it got relegated to the coat pile. I rolled it up and tucked it inside my fleece jacket so it wouldn’t go wandering. Long story short — we get halfway home and I suddenly miss my shawl! Got home and called the MIL and she couldn’t see it anywhere. Not under the bed or anywhere else. Check my pockets and my bag. Nope. Check ’em again. Still nope. Where on earth could it have gone? I was heartbroken. I’d only had it on for a couple of hours since it came off the blocking pins! Nobody called the next day to say it was attached to their clothing or fell into their purse or diaper bag. I was starting to accuse family members of purloining it (not to their faces of course!) and still it didn’t turn up. Later yesterday afternoon, T-Man started to call his relatives to check and, although his 90-year-old aunt said that if she’d seen it she would have taken it because she liked it (!), it was still missing. So I decided to have yet another hunt through my coat. It’s gotta be somewhere, right? I finally found it but left it in situ and took the coat to T who looked. And looked some more. And finally found it. Even though I had indicated it was there, he still took awhile to find it, tucked way down in my sleeve wadded into a little clingy lump that I hadn’t even felt! Sheesh. Now how do I punish that wayward shawl? By not wearing it for a week? Two weeks? BAD shawl!

Now that I’ve got that out of my system (amazing how much stress temporarily losing the darn thing produced), I promised to tell about the new book that I got with my Christmas gift card from Darling Daughter and her Sweetie. I’ve mentioned this before in a previous post: Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby. It’s a really impressive book: coffee-table-sized, hardcover, lots of eye-candy photos from Alexis Xenakis of Ye Olde English buildings, manor houses, gardens and bric-a-brac. However, the content is more than just pretty pictures thanks to Jane! She became obsessed with the evolution of Victorian lace knitting and has been obsessively studying the pattern books of the day in order to extract the lace from them. According to her it was hard slogging through the overblown language and lack of abbreviations or charts or often even illustrations to find out how the lace was actually knitted. Some patterns were riddled with errors and inaccuracies which she tried to resolve by charting and swatching and in some cases concluding that some were actually not knittable as given. Jane also recounts the histories of the strong Victorian women who published these books and it all makes for fascinating reading.

Many of the patterns could be attempted by fairly beginner level knitters and really none of the patterns are extremely difficult. They are very tempting! Toward the end of the book, there’s a helpful chapter on how the shawls and scarves are designed and assembled and ways to change or re-assemble portions to create your own versions. It’s in no way as detailed as in some other lace knitting books but the information is complementary and illustrated with lots of examples. Another section I enjoyed was a list of the yarns grouped into sizes, including a number of other alternatives not used in the book that you might like to try. There were even a number of shawls made from lovely fine handspun yarns, I assume spun by Jane Sowerby herself. All the shawl and scarf patterns include the yardage used (hopefully reasonably accurate), which is something I complained that was missing in my comments on the Swallowtail Shawl. This will make it easy to substitute handspun for any of the patterns.

There is a 2-page errata sheet for this book here. Seems like no pattern book can escape mistakes, no matter how diligent the proofers! Besides the obvious ones, it usually takes a number of knitters trying to figure out how to follow the patterns to find the errors in them. I routinely check on the publisher’s website and in the blogs before starting a project from a book or magazine. You don’t want to be in the middle of something and find that there’s some glaring error you weren’t aware of staring at you.

Swallowtail Shawl

Here she is in all her glory! I only used about half of the 600 yards I dyed so I’ve got enough left to make something else in my “Bryce Canyon” colourway.

Begun: December 20, 2006
Completed: December 30, 2006

Yarn: 2-ply merino-cashmere laceweight, unknown manufacturer from Birkeland Bros. Wool. I only used a small portion of the huge 8 oz skein. Dye-painted in the skein and colour set in the craft microwave.
Needles: 3.5 mm Clover Takumi bamboo 24” circular.

Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl from Interweave Knits, Fall 2006, p. 72.
Finished size: 45” across the top edge (hypotenuse) which is slightly smaller than the 49” of the pattern instructions. This yarn may be slightly finer than the Misti Alpaca Lace called for.

Comments: I dyed more yarn than I needed because I knew I couldn’t reproduce it if I ran out before the end. I needn’t have been so worried because although the pattern called for one 437 yd ball, it didn’t use all of it. Too bad they don’t tell you that. Here it is unblocked:



The knitting went very well, except for taking a few tries to get comfy with the nupps. It was so much fun I had trouble putting it down! Hence the reason why it only took about a week and a half to finish. When I washed the shawl prior to blocking, there was a little dye washout but the last rinse was clear. No noticeable change in the colour however. I had a flash of inspiration and got out the fine wires that are used when casting on on my knitting machine. After threading them through the eyelets at the long edge it was an easy matter to line everything up and pin. I had to improvise a larger foam blocking board because my usual one wasn’t quite big enough and the extra piece was thinner. I propped it up on a pair of hardcover books from the nearby shelf and it was fine.


The blocked shawl is just what I envisioned. It just covers my shoulders and is very soft but keeps the blocked shape well. This just inspires me to make something else lacey! Good thing I got a new book. More about that tomorrow when I have more time. Right now I have to head over to my MIL’s for yet another traditional family get-together, this time with the new baby attending. Happy New Year!