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

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

GESTRICKTE SPITZENDECKEN Doily 1

Whew, 45 rounds, mostly hex mesh and crossed stitches (yes, the crossed stitches are almost all the stitches NOT hex mesh). That's pretty much the doily. And a row full of errors (okay, 2 errors). I had to change up the binding off so that it would like like the original picture.



Started November 21 2008
Completed November 22 2008
thread: Cebelia #20 in ecru
needles: US0 dpns and US1 circs


Mods: corrected what I thought were errors. there's a move marker row that I thought I moved the wrong way. It just didn't look symmetrical. But it blocked out, so I guess I did it correctly.

The other thing I had to do was to rework the chain togethers. What a pain. But it looks pretty nice, don'tcha think?

New Anna magazine and Lily of the Valley

While at the Lacis lace knitting group this weekend, I got to check out their wonderful books (including the Estonia book). On my way out, I spied w/ my eyes the new North American Anna Burda magazine. hmmm...

Yep, I came home w/ it. I also decided that this little doily needed to be knit with 100/2 linen thread. (I did mention that there's a gap in my small needles collection and I don't have 0000 circs). So, I pulled out my 000, and got started.


The start is on 16 stitches, and I just couldn't do it w/ dpns. So I modified the start by casting on 8 stitches, and the next round, increasing to 16. Pretty easy knit but I did curse the k5tog...okay, not so much except last night, when I was on row 81, only to realize that I missed one of those k5tog back in row 77! From row 77 to 81, it's just stockinette, but there was no way I could drop down and knit that 5 stitches together (oh shoot). I ended up tinking back to row 78 -- yes, that is over 1800 stitches (thank goodness it was all stockinette). Then as I was crochet casting off, I managed to yank ~50 stitches off the needle...yikes. Anyhow, here's the finished blocked item.




As for the 100/2 linen? It has a little wee bit of slub, but that was it (definitely not like thicker linens I've used). I don't think I'll be knitting our kitchen curtains with the 100/2...the thought of 000 needles for curtains (sigh). I think I'll stick w/ the huge thing of 40/2 linen. One thing of note is that the linen thread is much more unforgiving than Cordonnet. You see all that unevenness of the stockinette? Some of that came about in the blocking.

Right after I knit myself a pair of socks (shh...I'm going to knit these. They have DNA on the side).

Gone to the Fair

Today was a totally fun day. The boy and I dropped the girl off at school and we went to run errands, including a trip the the Farmers Market, where we got some incredible strawberries from my favorite vendor and even some peaches. Then we hung out and picked up A after she's had her nap (the reason she went to school was so that she'd get a nap) to go to the County Fair.

We got there and A and Z each made one of these:

Very cool. They had set out some sheered wool and paper and glue and crayons.

We looked at a calf that was born yesterday...we looked at hobbies...and then we went in search of ...





yep. I entered several pieces in the knitting category.

I can honestly say in all the years I've gone to the fair, I've never stepped into this building. It was a little frustrating running around looking at every single display to see if it's one of mine. I had Z looking too. But he was trying to look for my name, and that's difficult in that huge place.





After much running around, I found all my items, and guess what?! I ribboned.



My goldlack shawl won 2nd place. woo hoo.

AND
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Blue ribbon for Hanalore.

Double woo hoo.

Niebling Summer KAL

This summer's KAL is this doily.

I decided I'd try to knit this with the smallest thread I can find. I went to Lacis (again) and talked w/ Erin, the manager. She pointed out the Cordonnet #100 and I also got 0000 metal dpn needles (1.25mm). I figured these should work.

Wish me luck, y'all.

As for other projects, I'm still working on Filigree. It's a bit stalled because I'm trying to decide how to extend the size. I think I'll do a row of leaves (like the edging), and then do another row of flowers ala goldmohn, or just another ring of leaves.

I've also fallen in love with the alternate form of Peacock shawl (Fiddlesticks) that is done in a rectangular stole shape. It looks easy peasy to go from triangle to rectangle.

I'm presently trying to decide among:
1) black bamboo laceweight
2) blue green cashmere laceweight
3) vivid blue tencel
4) basil zephyr

decisions...decisions...

Oh, I need a cardigan or two. I'm working on a black cardi (boring stockinette) based loosely on cropped cardi from Knitty, except mine will not be cropped, nor will it be that low cut. I'm also trying to decide what to use for the adult EZ Feb sweater. I figured I've made 3 children one's, I should make one for me.

Napperon Carre

Isn't Napperon Carre just a beautiful name? yep, it means 'square mat'.



Anyway, this was an interesting knit. The flowers are all crossed stitches, and then you crochet bind off and then pick up stitches (makes that cool loop) and continue. I did end up modifying it a tad. Bind off is at round 113, but I went up to 115 (keeping in hex-mesh and edging pattern). Then for the crochet bind off, I knit together 4 loops at hex mesh, 3 at the triangular points, 5-5-5-5, 4-5-4, 5-5-5-5. Crochet 14 instead of 20 chain (too loopy).



Yes, there was binding. I wish I remembered that when I looked at the picture, it looked like it binds right at the start of the flowers. I wish I had remembered that. It would have been easy to put in another hex mesh there. Drats.



Started May 30, 2008

Finished June 7, 2008

Cebelia #20

1.5 balls

US1 Addi Turbo Lace

Arnika

I had to put dragone in time out while I figure out if I skipped another stitch--I've already ripped 20 rows of it becuz I can't count.

Anyway, I was itching to for a Niebling fix, and I saw this little sweet doily and said, I'll do that one.

Isn't a nice sweet easy pattern?

A little bit about Arnica--it's a flowering plant that belongs in the sunflower family. Common name is wolf bane. It's used as a tincture for bruises and swelling. Not to be taken internally since it is poisonous. Has also been used as homeopathic medicine. (pic from Wikipedia)


All I can say is that I'm learning more about plants by knitting Niebling patterns than I had ever learned in college.

Anyway, back to the 'easy' pattern. It ended up not being that easy. It's actually quite challenging. There's an error at round 39 where there's an extra stitch unless you knit 3 together instead of 2 (like the pattern says). But the challenging parts?

Petals. Pretty petals. These consist of crossed stitches (that would be mini-cables for you all non-Niebling knitters).

And round 69? You bind off 12 stitches then pick them back up at row 70. How cool is that?! Oh, many thanks to yosemite55 ,Julimond &halfmaennchen from Ravelry for their help in decyphering German. I had babel fished it, but wasn't too sure.

So, here's my finished Arnika:

specs:
start date: March 28, 2008
finish date: March 30, 2008
thread: Cebelia #30
amt used: less than .5 ball
needles: US0 dpns and 0 Hiya Hiya needles

Oh, I should mention this is what I brought to knit on during the Ravelry meetup at the local library. By then, I was just knitting hex mesh, so it was pretty simple. The only modification I made was that I bumped up to US1 needles for the knit edge and then I actually knit 3X into each hex mesh so that I wouldn't get binding.

Back to trying to figure out Dragone...

This month's Lace knitting group

Given the rain and general inclement weather, a number of us braved the storm and attended the lace knitting group hosted by Lacis in Berkeley.

I walked in and saw that they have Hiya Hiya needles in stock now. (they just got them in). These are needles that go down to an insane size...I had to own a pair.


May I introduce my 000-000 needles (.7mm) OY!



I will knit some super small thread with it. Can you believe it?!



They also had the lovely book that Fleegle talked about a bit ago, Feminin Strik. What a pretty book. The sweaters are all lovely, but unfortunately, written in Danish. Mary Francis hopes that they'll translate the book into English. Wouldn't that be grand?



I brought a new little doily to work on because I want to figure out how to knit it flat. This has the hallmarks of Niebling, but is only 50-something rows. I figure I'll knit this, block it, and knit a few of the leaf elements in the flat (is that a term?) to determine whether this would work for curtains.


This doily took me a day! I finished and blocked it before we went to a Superbowl party. And guess what? It binds. I guess if you do 6 repeats instead of 4, that might not happen (that's another option for this pattern, it turns out looking quite different). See that 'corner'? That's supposed to be a sharp corner, not rounded like mine...



Specs:
thread: green linen
needles: US1
start time: Saturday morning 2/2/08
finish time: Saturday night 2/2/08, blocked 2/3/08
pattern: Kunststricken Folge 2 305/08

Anemone update

Well, I'm still knitting anemone but in a circle, without the sawtooth and edging (will be round and have to find a different edge -- if a edging is to be found). In case you don't know what I'm talking about, here's a pic of it. Isn't it pretty? I'm at the flowers portion, so I'm thinking that I'm going to keep going a couple more rows of the hex mesh and then find a Niebling edge I like and finish it that way. I might end up doing straight knitting on the edge since the center is so frilly--don't know yet.

I'm using Cebelia #30 in ecru w/ US0 needles and am on the 2nd ball. It's deceptive because this is quite large if knitted according to pattern. Like I said, I'm at the flowers (finally) and I'm on row 121. I think that by not forcing it into a square and without the saw tooth thingie as well as that edging, I think it will be smaller.

Oh, and thanks everyone for commiserating with me...

Cursed yarn

I received 'cursed yarn' from knitterbarb on Ravelry. The only stipulation was that I used it to make something and post it up on Ravelry in 6months. This yarn apparently used to be a bright blue, and she overdyed it with darker blue/greens.

She thought it was cotton/acrylic and there were 8 skeins.I opted to use the Spanish Peacock pattern to turn a doily into a blanket because, well, I didn't feel like being one of "506 projects, in 1595 queues" for Hemlock. I might be a lemming, but that is just too many (shhh, clapotis doesn't count).

I modified the original pattern by not doing double YOs (except the center) because I thought the holes are too large. I actually should have ripped the center and redone that part, but I'm lazy. I used 4.5 hanks of this yarn for the lap blanket.

specs:
start: Dec 25. 2007
finished: Jan 4, 2008
needles: 8 dpns and circs
yarn: cursed yarn from knitterbarb

I forgot to add that I knit bound off based on someone (I think it was Charlotte) from a yahoo group.

First FO for '08

Okay, maybe there's a little manipulation there. I am still working on the Spanish peacock doily turned into a lap blanket, but that is sooooo tedious at this point that I had to do a Niebling so that my first finished object of 2008 is a Niebling. It's from Meyers Handarbeitsheft Nr. 14 - Kunststricken

It is called 'Hangeblume'. A quick google translation = Hanging Flower.



This little ditty is only 64 rows, so you'd think relatively quick knit. However, much acrobatics are involved (that's why I'm pretty sure it's HN). There are crossed stitches, there are k6tog, and the new to me slip 3 knit 6 and P3SO the 6...very cool.

Stats:
pattern: Hangeblume
needles: 2.25mm (would have used 2.0mm, but couldn't find them at start of project)
thread: vintage J&P Coats #30 (6 cord merc. cotton). The original price tag for the 400yd thread was $.25 - used less than 1 ball.
start: December 31, 2007
finish: January 2, 2008

This thread was a bit discolored and I had the finished doily soak a bit in oxyclean. Now, back to the blanket...

Another Xmas present done

I decided that my brother and sister in-laws needed a doily. So this is what I knitted up for them.

Does this look really familiar. Actually, I didn't plan on it. The picture in the magazine is white table topper on light pink background and I thought, hey, that's about the size I want to make for them...well, doesn't it look like Lotus Flower?

Anyway, I hope they like it. I shall have to reblock the little fan things, they turned out uneven. (it was done late into the night)

Specifics:
thread: Cebelia white #30
needle: US0 dpn and circ (2mm)
time start: December 9, 2007
time end: December 14, 2007
pattern: 0896/20 table topper from Anna magazine August 1996

I'm inspired

Today was another lace knitting group at Lacis. As usual, it was inspiring.

There was the most soft cashmere stole being finished -- from VLT. It was absolutely scrumptious. And then there was the shawl from GoL being knit by L in a gorgeous silk, for his wife, how lucky is she?! There were two other lovely shawls and then there were two Nieblings (mine being one).

I brought Lotus Flower (a beautiful Niebling). I'm working on it using #20 crochet cotton with 2mm needles. I'm presently at row 49. This is a lovely pattern that I purchased from doilyhead. (This is the picture from the front page of the pattern).

I first saw this pattern at Lacis (Mary Francis had a copy) and I knew I just had to knit it.

I'm going to knit this as a tablecloth first, and if the pattern is not too bad, I'm going to make it in zephyr as a shawl.

Lyra? I cannot believe I haven't cast on for that yet. But one thing I'm figuring out is that I can only work on ONE Niebling pattern at a time -- I can have multiple projects to work on (right now, there are about 10 projects), but only 1 Niebling. Why? well, switching from a Niebling to another Niebling doesn't make much sense, but switching from a Niebling to a single pattern scarf or a stockinette sweater is great.

While you were sleeping

I should have been working on several projects that I started, but instead, I picked this little ditty up, and could not stop.

This is #21 Table top by Herbert Niebling from Anna.

Specs:
pattern: Anna magazine
yarn: green lace weight linen
needle: US1 circs from Knitpicks and US1dpns
time: 9/2/07-9/13/07
blocked: 9/14/07

modifications/comments:
I think there might be errors in the chart at the end of the knit. I kept screwing up and not having enough stitches to k2tog and what have you. So, mine is wonky. And if you look closely the last bits don't quite match the flower. So, whether I managed to not read the pattern correctly, or there are errors in this Niebling, it doesn't really matter. 'Cause I like it. I really like it.

I'm not too concerned about pinning out the points perfectly because it's linen, it's pretty drapey and I don't think those points will hold. (this was my observation from making a book marker from the same yarn).

I will likely knit this pattern again. It was fun.

I'm really glad I did this before starting a large project because I was introduced to double yarnovers, knit 5 into one stitch and knit 5 stitches to become one stitch. Oh, and given all the mistakes that happened, I think it turned out pretty nicely.

Must get back to spino and blanket and decide on yarn for campanile. Altho' I might tag along w/ some of the folks now knitting Lyra...decisions...