Next project

As I'm knitting away on my shetland shawl, and knowing that the next 3 pieces are just like the first, I'm already trying to figure out what to knit next.

A Niebling, of course. Now which one?

Well, I had a couple choices picked out. Mostly because I said I was going to knit them (and they are all so pretty). It was going to be a table topper, and when I get really crazy, I'd like to do a table cloth for my 'seats 8' dining table...(yeah, that's going to happen).

But, as some of you might know, we're getting some work done on our house, and one of the items on the agenda was to get a new front door. Well, on my birthday earlier this month, they came and installed a new front door. This one has a big giant window in the front, and so, I've got my project.

I'll be knitting Niebling's curtains from Anna 07/92.

I've done a swatch with linen thread and am pretty okay with using US1 needles. I'll be knitting 3 motifs and started with a provisional cast on so that I can do a decorative scallop edging on the bottom.

Wish me luck.

On the edge

One edging, border done (and center). And now, just 3 more edgings and borders. The 2nd edging went quite fast, many thanks to my friend L with KnitVis (he recharted the edging).

But picking up the over 365 stitches was a total pain. I totally spaced and just picked up the stitches at the bar...couldn't for the life of me get any where near that number of stitches...ack! it was so easy the first time. Yanked and retried and picking up stitches where I know you're not supposed to, just trying to make up the numbers. Spent a good deal of a morning to do that...before the epiphany.

psst...reread the following page where it says to YO in addition to the knit. sigh.

Okay, onward to border II.

Happy November and progressions

Well, it's November already and I've been knitting. Here's the progress on my Shetland lace shawl from GoL. I've finished the center and am now working on the other edgings/borders. I really enjoyed the center and it went by super fast.

Not a huge fan of edging, but am now on point 5 of 21 for this one side. Then border and another 2 edgings and borders.

I had the chance to see other shawls in progress this weekend and they all look absolutely lovely. It's really neat the color choices and construction modifications folks made.

Instead of working on the Shetland Lace shawl...

No actual knitting pics here...

So, I've got lots to do...I want to work on the GoL shawl, reading The Road before the movie comes out, laundry before the contractors disassemble the washer and dryer tomorrow morning...to name a few.

Instead, I made these for my kid's preschool Halloween party. The idea is from bakerella. She made these cake pops that are so cool. Anyway, so I made them for the party. I started out making white ghosts, but what a disaster. The cake would not stay on the pop and made the

white candy a mess (you dip the cake into candy melts). I maybe salvaged some, and made some ghosts. Z looked at them, and deemed them to be mummies instead, so that's what they'll be.

And then I ran out of the white. Darn. Wanted to be done with these...

Looked high and low, and discovered I had purple candy melts. Yay. But I need eye balls. What to do what to do?

I opted to use chocolate sprinkles inserted into mini marshmallows cut in half. I did figure out that the white candy melt had a different melting point than the purple. The purple melted beautifully, whereas the white was just stiff and didn't cover well (as you can see above).

I highly recommend making these. (I just followed her methods).

The purple monsters weren't perfect. One slipped as I was making it...oops.

It's Raining

The yarn I found for this project is named 'Rain'. And it looks like rain. It's grey with a tinge of color. When I washed the swatch, it's actually a lighter color.

I decided to knit this the way it's written--the Shetland way. Where one edging is knit, then stitches picked up and the border knit, then the center. Three additional edgings/borders are knit, then sewed on (gulp).

So far, I've knit one edging, and am working on the border. Yep, slow going. Wish me luck.

Knitting Content

I belong to a knitting group. Actually a couple of knitting groups, but I've been doing other stuff (like having the house remodeled) and have not been very good about attending meetings...or knitting, for that matter. (Bad, I know). Anyway, I'm lucky I haven't been kicked out of the groups.

So, one group decided to do a knitalong. And the pattern chosen after an on-line poll is Shetland Lace Shawl from Gathering of Lace. This is a shawl that I've wanted to knit for some time, so I'm happy.

I found this lovely dark purple yarn in my stash -- it's silk/lace from Colourmart. 2500yds of it. It's beautiful. I used 2.25mm needles and finished off 21 repeats of the edging.

Then found out that most folks needed not 2500yds, but over 3000yds. I contacted the company and unfortunately, they don't have any more of this yarn. Back to square one.

I have since decided on another Colourmart yarn in my stash. The color is 'Rain'. Upon weighing the yarn, it's clear that I should definitely have more than enough for this shawl.

Holy Cow, where have I been?

Ack! I've been Facebooking. Sorry folks. Took a huge hiatus from blogging and knitting, and spent this summer doing summery stuff.

Anyway, I'm back (hopefully) and I'll be posting a bit more regularly.

While perusing my copy of Pitsilised Koekirjad, I found that I kept coming back to this one pattern. It didn't have 'nupps', it didn't have 'stars', what it did have was cables!. Yep, cables and lace. It's like peanut butter and jelly(which I don't like)...or better yet, like bacon and eggs...mmm...bacon...

Anyway, I digress. Here's the scarf done in Kidsilk haze. Over one ball.


And here's the pattern:


Stats:
Started February 28 2009
Completed March 4 2009
yarn: Kidsilk haze in dewberry --less than 2 balls
needles: size 8US KP
pattern: from Pitsilised Koekirjad and edging from Estonia Lace knitting

CO41

Bad case of startitis

Who me? There's just so many beautiful patterns out there that I must try...

Let's see what's on the needles right now, shall we?

Exhibit 1: Adaptation of Niebling doily (E903_09 -- Magnolie / Frühlingsblumen).

I'm actually more than half way done, but have decided to rip out a huge bunch of rows because I had previously added on extra leaves.

I originally thought that this oval pattern knits along the long axis of the oval. But as I continued the pattern, it was clear that the knit was along the edge of the short axis. I added the leaves to increase the wingspan of the shawl. As I continue knitting, it's become clear to me that this will result in a very misshapen shawl. So to the frog pond it goes. I'm really liking this yarn, tho'. It's Colourmart 50/50 cashmere/wool. Lovely amazing stuff.

If you look closely, you can see a lifeline I put in (yep, was thinking back then that this might be necessary).


Exhibit 2: Since I had to rip, I decided to use my pretty green yarn and make a lace purse. I've checked out the new Mason-Dixon book, and they made a sweet little lace purse with the bleeding heart pattern. I thought I'd try a new-to-me Estonian lace pattern that incorporates lace and cables instead.

I like how it's turning out, but I'm a tad concerned that it's not going to block out right. Hee, not that you can see the lace pattern here.

Which leads us to...

Exhibit 3: lace scarf
I actually really like this simple, yet effective pattern. So I had a couple of ball of Kidsilk haze (aka crack) and casted on for a scarf using the same pattern.



Here's the in-progress scarf:

Is that a cool pattern or what?!

Anyway, that leads me to another project: another cardigan for me. I need like 3 cardigans. I want to knit them all...but I must restrain myself until these get finished or the 1st 2 goes to the frog pond (there's no way I'm ripping Kidsilk).

Wish me luck in getting these projects finished.

All the knitting...

Okay. Here's the knitting content:

Since last I blogged, I've knitted a few items.

I'm still really seriously in like with my book, Pitsilised Koekirjad . I liked pattern 201, so I knit it.


The finished shawl:


Stats:
Started January 25 2009
Completed January 31 2009
yarn: Colourmart laceweight
amount used: 989yds
needle: size 4US

Cast on 113 stitches. 4 rows garter stitch. This pattern is knit on both sides. I modified the pattern by reducing the number of 'vertical' line to 3 stitches instead of the 5 in the pattern.


********************

Next up is Evelyn Clarke's do-it-yourself Lace triangle shawl. This is from her book "Knitting Lace Triangles".


I had my little one pretend she was a red butterfly (getting her not to flap her wings). She was such a great model that I'll have to use her again--but only if she's not busy playing beautyshop.

Started February 5 2009
Completed February 18 2009
yarn: Colourmart cashmere/merino laceweight
amount used: 575yds
needle: size 4US



***********************

Finally, a market bag. I actually don't own this book, but checked it out of the library. This is from Mason-Dixon's new book, and it's got some funky stitches. But 2 were the same as the ones from Heere be Dragone, so I just fudged it a bit. I figured that it's a market bag...for going to the market. So long as stuff doesn't fall out, I'm doing okay.

Instead of using the thicker Euroflax, i used some #8 cotton I had around. I had to increase the circumference as well as the depth of the bag.

A galaxy far far away...or why I've not updated recently

We had a very cool 6th birthday party. A Star Wars party. Since the party was held at a party place, we just had to do invitations and provide food and drink.

I opted for not going nuts on the preprinted party material and kept it at just the table covering. We got grey silverware and grey napkins. And we seriously had a bunch of Star Wars toys so we used them as table setting.

I thought about baking a Death Star cake, but there was a special request for cupcakes...

The light sabers were made by dipping small pretzels in chocolate.

I also dipped large pretzels in chocolate and made the light saber handles. These were given to the kids.


It was a fun party. The knitting will be in the next entry.

Another test knit for Lacis

I offered to knit one more for Lacis. This is pattern from pg. 72. Wait a minute, you say...this doesn't look like the one in the book...

Well, since this was a test knit, and they asked for it to be completed by the end of January, what was I going to do? As I finished the first set of motif, I realized that after row 87, the pattern is repeated again (2 in each section). So I just made sure that this knit okay, and then proceeded to the edging section.


This took a bit over a ball of the Cordonnet 100 thread.


Started January 15 2009
Completed January 24 2009
needles: 000
thread: Cordonnet 100
pattern: test for Lacis

oops. apologies

whew. What a month. Can't believe it's almost over and I've not posted this:



This is a pattern from my Estonia book. It's pattern 187 which ends up being Frost Flowers plus edging 205. It's done with Colourmart cashmere/wool.

Started December 26 2008
Completed January 10 2009
Needle US 4 / 3.5 mm
Yarn ColourMart Cashmere/Merino 2/28NM Lace Weight
0.32 skeins = 736.0 yards (673.0m)
Colorway ruby

GESTRICKTE SPITZENDECKEN pg 78

Since I was done w/ 2 patterns, I asked for another one to check. I am impressed by the number of errors that can occur in one small pattern. whoah...

But the result is pretty cool.



I'm amazed by how by manipulating stitches, you can get a more 3-dimensional feel. Very cool. See these petals, the crossed-stitches give the petals depth.


When the book comes out (a little plug for Lacis), definitely worth getting. Every pattern I tested has had errors in it.


pattern: GESTRICKTE SPITZENDECKEN pg 78
Cebelia #20 thread in white (less than 1 ball)
needles: 2mm KP Harmony circs
Started January 4 2009
Completed January 7 2009