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.


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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



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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.

Camel's Back and the straw

I've been plodding away on a rectangular shawl, based on a curtain design from an old Anna magazine.

I received the single ply lace weight camel yarn called gazelle (yes, it's camelhair named gazelle). The color is a little deceiving because it looks redder than it actually is. It turned out to be lovely dark brown yarn. Single ply. I was a little worried about, but I knit a swatch and blocked it and it looked lovely. Absolutely lovely.

I didn't want to do a flowery motif with this chocolaty goodness. I opted for a geometric (PITA) pattern that took me several repeats to finally understand (a 70 row repeat, seriously?!). AND I ended up knitting one end, then picking up and knitting the other end and feared that I knit the world's longest shawl...but it did block out nicely.

After blocking, I noticed that it does look a tad feather and fan, but it's not. And the end bits, man, that makes up for the boring middle part.

The pattern wasn't fraught with errors, but there is one line that did have errors and I pretty much reinvented that line (81) to get the others to work.


Specs:

Started September 14 2008
Completed October 8 2008
Yarn: 1/15 laceweight camelhair yarn from Colourmart in gazelle
amt: 990 yds.
needles: Addi lace turbos US3

Mods:
Cast on- 2 edges, 4 center repeats with 3 stitches on each side for edge (127 stitches total) and the pattern repeat? Well, that would seriously be a 70 stitch repeat. I did 3 on each side and then the edge. Modified row 81 because there were issues (extra stitches that didn't get used up in the edging) -- k,ssk,k9,kf&b,k9,k2tog,YO,k,YO,ssk,k9...

Knitting Olympics part I

As my Knitting Olympics project, I originally chose Lyra (finally). But when I went to Lacis to pick up the thread, I couldn't figure out how much I needed (since I decided to do it with 100 thread).

Anyway, I have been meaning to do Hyrna Herborgar, so that's what I did. I did a little head scratching with one part (not the part that everyone else had), but other than that, it was a easy knit. I now understand why folks knit several of these. Easy and it looks amazing--kinda like swallowtail. I can totally see knitting 1 or 3 more of these...

And fast.



specs:
Started August 8 2008
Completed August 13 2008
yarn: laceweight cashmere in dark red (purchased from a knitter who was destashing from Knitters Review)
needles: US4 KP options
pattern: Hyrna Herborgar

Ory-gone

Due to a soon-to-expire free ticket, we had a minivacation in Portland this weekend.

Of course, what is my main thought? What knitting to bring? Since we didn't want to check anything, I had to bring a project that would work w/ my Harmonies. So, it would be a doily (0-2needle size) or something that goes with size 4.

I chose to bring my Malabrigo green laceweight that I purchased from Nine Rubies a bit ago. And since one of my friends is turning 40 this next month, I thought I'd knit her something. I went back and forth between Ice Queen and Swallowtail, and then decided that the Malabrigo would be much better as a swallowtail.

Anyway, I cast on the tabby bit and that was it. Printed out the pattern, and put it in the bag.

We dropped the kids off and make it to the airport with plenty of time. Only to find that our flight had been delayed. Not a little bit delayed, but 4 HOURS delayed! Good thing I brought my knitting. 4 hours normally wouldn't be that painful, except for the fact that we boarded our plane at 1:05 AM. Ouch!

Anyway, I was able to get lots of knitting in during that time, and surprisingly, I finished the shawl in 3 days (and vacation too).

Given the amount of time I KIPed, only one person asked me about it...here's my knitting at the Portland Rose Garden.


Here's some gorgeous roses.


Did I mention this was going to be a short vacation (couldn't leave the kids too long). We were in the city of Portland for a total of 65 hours. And in the time I knit the whole shawl, got to check out Yarnia, where I picked up a cone of purple cotton yarn, and got to check out the Yarn Garden, where I picked up the latest Piecework for the shawl pattern.
This is my yarn being wound off at Yarnia.

Didn't have that much time at the Yarn Garden because we only found it 15 minutes before they closed. And lovely husband was so nice about it since we needed to be at the airport to catch our flight. (Of course the flight was late too, so whatever). I think had I known it was in the same block as my favorite Ethiopian restaurant in Portland, we would have gotten there earlier. By the way, that restaurant would be Jarra's. I went there when I lived in Oregon and we'd make a special trip up there. Of course, that's the restaurant where one of my closest friends said 'Even the vegetables are hot (spicy)'. Man was it fabulous! Then they moved to their present location, and we've been there once (that would be once in the last 12 years?)

To all: I must say I've got a most fabulous husband. He hung out as I checked out my version of heaven at Yarnia -- just imagine wall to wall yarn...in...cones. And he suggested and helped find the Yarn Garden as a stop before leaving Oregon.

The most fabulous killer spicy wings can be found at the Widmere brewery/pub.


As for the project, it's the swallowtail shawl:



pattern: Swallowtail Shawl from IK
start: July 9, 2008
finish: July 12, 2008
modifications: I did an extra 2 rows at the end (because I wanted to)

Creature verses Peacock

Several of us from the Lacis lace knitting group decided to knit the Fiddlestick's Peacock Feathers Shawl as a KAL. I got the pattern when I first got into lace knitting and really liked it, but the question was: 'did I really need another triangular shawl?'

On Ravelry much later, I found that someone had converted the triangular pattern to a rectangular stole. In fact, 2 knitters had. And it was lovely. So, while my KAL cohorts were off knitting their triangle, I started researching and knitting the stole.

Wow. What a great pattern. I was worried that the repetitiveness of the stole pattern would make my brain numb and make me very frustrated, but it was nice. I'm still not a big fan of pattern #1, but that's just me. But the rest of it just flew off my needles.

I cast on a couple of times because I didn't like the needle size. Casted on a total of 128 stitches provisionally (4 on each edge in garter). I decided to go up to US4 even though previously I'd been using US3 because the peacock's I've seen looked dense, and I'm all about airy. (And after working with #100 thread, Jagger Spun Zephyr feels like worsted).

Flies off the needle, I say, easy pattern to remember (sort of). I opted to add an additional pattern of pattern 5 and then added #6 glass beads to the knit row before crochet cast off (every other stitch). 9 stitches crochet and every 3 stitches (4 on the edge).

Picked up the other side and knit going the other way. Then disaster strikes this weekend. I'm on pattern 6 of the 2nd side when the Creature struck.

I set it down and told her as usual, please don't play with mom's knitting. I went to discuss dinner plans and hear the older child going 'mom. mom.' Not a screaming 'MOM', nope, a 'mom, can you come in here please'

I come back to find this:


The good news was that Creature did not yank the needles off the stole. The bad news is (and this is all from the 5 year old) that Creature took the ball of yarn and bit it like an apple...several times.

This is probably what my poor ball of yarn saw right before the tragedy.

Anyway, instead of finishing the stole as I planned, I spent about 5 hours trying to untangle, and rewind this mess. And to add to this, I read that the stole took a little more than 4 oz, and I only had 4 oz, so I'm all about trying to salvage this tangled mess. I also found to my horror, that the yarn was broken at the stitch I was working on, and several other places in that tangled mess.

After rewinding, I tinked back and reattached the yarn and finished the stole.

Specs:

pattern: Fiddlesticks Peacock Feathers shawl

start/finish date: June 24-July 6, 2008

mods: many. Changed from triangle to rectangle, added beads, increased length

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.

Dragone comes alive

Finally got around to finding the perfect eye for the Dragone, it's a swarovski crystal.



It's attached with 30 gauge wire.

Swirl Twirl

This was a easy knit (once I got over the simple math since I wanted to make a few changes).



2 is the number of balls of Jojoland Harmony yarn I purchased from Stitches West

3 is the size needles I used

21 is the number of days it took for me to make this

80 is the grams of Jojoland yarn used (1.4 balls)

65 is the number of spirals I made

67 is the number of pins I used to block this sucker

1920 is the number of stitches picked up

2760 is the number of stitches I cast on



130 is the number of ends I wove in.

But here it is....



whew. Worth it? I think so...

Update on the ever growing bunch of lace...

Dragone update:



yes, I'm almost done with the head...and I'm dragging on my dragone...

I also finally looked at the swirl shawl pattern by Jojoland and cast on one component to figure out if I'm willing to knit 80something of these...


Why yes, you cut the yarn so there will be over 160 ends to weave in. The one nice thing is that you pick up the edges so there's no seaming...This is supposed to be done in fingering yarn, but I like the Jojoland Harmony, so that's what I'm using. It's looking a bit flimsy to me (this is US3, of course) so I think I'll increase the size of each of these...I'm looking at Spiral Octagon Shawl from IK as a guide...I need ONE project where it'll be easy to follow once I start and I was really hoping this was it.

Back to tinking and knitting...

Filigree progress

I know I should be working on Dragone, but why when I've got extra lovely Colourmart silk/cashmere in Sangria whispering to me. Saying CAST ON FOR SOMETHING! oh, I guess it's shouting...not whispering. I decided that this gorgeous red cone of delight has to become a Niebling. (It's actually much darker red than pictured--note to self: work on taking better picture).


I was going to make Lyra, but fleegle has such a beautiful red version of it that I decided on Filigree. 'Filigree' is 554/33 aka Burda Special E554 pattern #33 aka Anna 0896/21 (Aug 1996 pattern #21). There might be other names too, but I don't know. Lacefreak is working on this shawl, and her's is in a sweet pink. She calls it Poppy, and I think it's a lovely name. It is related to Goldmohn (Burda #198), I believe that has more chrysanthemum-oaky jagged leaves in the center. And Goldmohn is a monstrocity at 311 rounds while this is a sweet 176 rounds.

Anyway, I had Colourmart double the cobweb weight yarn and am using a US3 needle. I'm finding that for laceweight, that's my standby. I started this project April 5, 2008. Here's the progress picture:



I think it really does need another tier of something...I think I'll do the leaves as is, fill in the in between leaves with hex, and then do a round of flowers or edging to finish it off.

WIPs

No worries. I'm cruising on Heere be Dragone. In fact, here's a picture of it:

There's a recent thread on Ravelry asking about the most difficult lace, and this was one of the patterns listed as being difficult. Of course, I'm all like "oh no it's not. pretty simple actually." THEN, I drop a stitch. After my heart started again, I was able to repair it. I'm just thankful I opted not to use the cobweb 100% silk. whew! (oh, as you can see, I'm using BOY for this piece).





Oh, and then there's this:
This is scrumptious DK cashsilk in ancient green from Colourmart. I'm knitting this beautiful shawl with it (variation of a leaf pattern - kind of like kiri, but with a bit more substance) but unfortunately, that thing I always tell other folks to do and didn't do it myself?! yep...didn't swatch with the needles and this pattern is not showing up very well at all. This will be ripped and this pattern will be used with some other lace weight yarn. For this yarn? I think that I'll have to stick to larger needles and a more open pattern. I finally broke down and purchased Evelyn Clark's 'Triangle Shawls' based on recommendations by two people at the lace knitting group at Lacis. I think I'll do a EC triangle with this yarn.

By the way, this is the most lovely yarn. It feels nice to knit with it.

As for Ms. Dangly. I'm working on her outfit now. M's mom is super crafty and will undoubtedly make her additional clothes if M wishes. Will do a mini fashion shoot when done. Speaking of fashion shoots, while knitting last night, I was watching 'Make me a supermodel' (shh) last night and it amazes me that most of these models look like normal people unless you put clothes and make up on them. Then they look amazing. Actually, it seems like the real purty ones all got voted off the show. I find that interesting, don't you?

Already, Issues.

Arghh...do not try to use silk doubled for doing horizontal stitch, especially cobweb weight silk. PITA, I say. I've just spent last evening struggling with the first 31 rows (actually, it's row 31 that's the deal breaker).

That lovely mauve-blue will become some other knitted finery instead.

I think I will be making Dragone with something else. I'm thinking this.
This is a lovely yarn that I have no idea what it's made of (but I think it's cashmere/wool because of the label on the inside of the cone). It is lovely lovely and super soft and it's some sort of animal fiber.

So, it's either this or the cashmere/silk in rosehip (the one that's been languishing as Campanile on row 30 something?). or black zephyr.

So many choices.

Niebling Goldlack stole

In honor of Spring and the plum blossoms blooming (yes, this is a picture of my neighbor's tree, just highly manipulated)




I just finished this Herbert Niebling stole:

As you may or may not know, I've been trying to find a nice curtain pattern for my kitchen and really wanted to do one in linen. Well...

linen thread--check
needles--check
pattern--uhmm...still haven't found one


However, I did find this pretty Goldlack Niebling pattern. It's been done as a circular tablecloth and as curtains. Well, I'm not so sure I'd like these as curtains, but as a stole...yes!

So, I put on my advanced degree hat and did all the calculations...okay, 3 columns of flowers... After 30 rows of this monstrocity, ripped and restarted. Then I decided that I really would like a symmetrical stole, verses only having leaves on the one end. So, rip again, and this time, did a provisional cast-on so that I could just pick up the stitches and knit the other way.

As I'm knitting, I'm doubting my swatch and thinking it's going to be thin...then justifying to myself that I could use it as a lace scarf...then when I had it long enough, broke into the other ball and knit it going the other way (again using advanced math). I didn't want to cut the yarn on my one side because what if my calculations were off and this is too short?! And I didn't know if I liked the ending of it anyway (looked too much like curtains and since I only ended up doing 2 columns of flowers, I thought, that would look dumb...anyway, I knit and I knit, then I took a break and did the Niebling January KAL (in Feb) and then I knit and knit...

What is goldlack? I love the intarweb. 'Goldlack' translates to 'gold paint'. It is the wallflower.

The scientific name is Cheiranthus cheiri, in the family Brassicaeae (mustard plant), by the way. And did you know that Brassica plants have a natural ability to uptake heavy metals like Cadmium? One of the projects I worked on as a post-doc was to study the mechanism of metal uptake in plants and phytoremediation--with the thought that you can genetically engineer plants that you can sow at Superfund sites. Tend the garden and then just remove the heavy metals from the soil by harvesting the plant. Cool, or what!

Of course, whenever I eat some veggies, I do of course have that thought in my brain...because, folks, heavy metals accumulate.

Anyway, back to Goldlack.

Here's the specs:

pattern: Herbert Niebling Goldlack in ANNA April 1983

yarn: Yarn TreeHouse Sweet 94% merino 6% polyester in pink

amount used: less than 2 balls

start date: February 9, 2008

finish date: February 26, 2008

modifications: Many at the bottom. I decided not to do the frill, and repeated the mesh instead. Then I modified the leaves.

Cast-on 90 provisional stitches, included 4 on each side for edge. 9 flower pattern repeats. Then I picked up the provisional stitches and knitted another 9 flower patterns.

Here's some other pics:

Good news bad news

The good news is that I finished my bamboo shawl. It's the one from No More Sheep. The other good news is that we switched to a new computer so now everything is much faster.

The bad news...yep, haven't gotten the photo part working yet. So, no pics.

(insert picture here when I get the photo part up)



But here's the specs:

pattern: Tuscany from No More Sheep
yarn: SWTC bamboo in navy 2 balls
needle size: US6
start time: Jan 6, 2008
finish time: Jan 9, 2008

The only modifications I did was to end on row 8 instead of row 16 because I figured I'd run out of yarn and I didn't feel like adding another ball. I also didn't do the purl2tog bind off. I tried that, but it seemed really tight, so I did my normal bind-off and before blocking it was looking loose. Got better after blocking.

edited (thanks for the comment, fleegle-- it would have taken longer...):

here's the pics.

A few pictures of the shawl

I actually wove in the ends and am pretty happy with the way it turned out. Well, it is gray. But they only had gray and tan and a marled available, so...I forgot to say that when it was looking wet and furry and a tad felted, I started thinking about how in heck I could salvage it (seriously looked like a sad wet giant mouse). But it blocked out and I might even wear it. Nah, it'll probably go into a bag to be put away.

Niebling shawl complete

I finished the shawl and didn't know which edging to use, the doily or shawl...so since I wanted to bind off and finish today, I posted the question and pictures to Ravelry.

That was the only place I knew where folks would instantly put their 2 cents in--and they did. The shawl bind off won. So, I spent some time and bound off the shawl.



Specs:
yarn: 2/18NM fine 4ply weight 51% baby alpaca 49% cashmere from Colourmart
Amount used: 70 grams = 677yds
needles: Addi lace US3 and US8 for bindoff
Start date: November 21, 2007
Finish date: December 2, 2007

modifications: I couldn't figure out the start, so I fudged that section. I also added a couple rows of garter before the edging, but it's hard to tell. The 3YO where 10 stitches went into was reduced to 2YOs, and the hole is still pretty huge.

This pattern rocks. I really like how it turned out. And from the magazine, you couldn't tell that it had such nice detail. You couldn't see the back of the shawl, and the tablecloth was a small picture insert.

My only 'complaint' shockingly has to do with the yarn. I love Colourmart yarns, but this one...the yarn was springy and tended to twist up when knitting (you know I use a yarn cone holder, so the yarn isn't picking up additional twists from the cone). And when I was washing the oils out at the end, I found that the shawl had started to felt. I blocked this shawl hard. Yes, you can bounce a quarter off of it. The edges are still a little stuck together. Tomorrow, I figure I'll go and try to tease it apart.

I might have to make the tablecloth, since even tho' I have to purl on the right side, I can knit the resting row (unlike having to purl for this shawl). Maybe maybe I'll start Lyra now. Or I might start Federdolde or Filigree.

I'll post more pictures when it's actually dry.

Wearable Niebling

I decided to work on this from an Anna magazine. If you look at the bottom corner, that's what a square would look like. It is in fact a Niebling tablecloth. Well, half a Niebling tablecloth. Instead of working on 4 sections for the square, you only work on 2 sections.

My complaint?! Yes. I have to purl the wrong side. Durnit! That's why I've been loving Nieblings. You don't have to purl.

What's even worse is that this pattern has you PURL on the front side too!

What yarn am I using? Colourmart got in a 4-ply alpaca cashmere. *

In a lovely grey. And it's lovely to knit with, even unwashed. I'm using a US3 needle (addi lace)
Reading the instructions, I was unclear as to how to start it the way they explained it. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how they got the number of stitches they got. I then battled, yes, battled the pattern and ripped it probably around 6 times trying to figure out how they got from 10 stitches to 24 stitches. I was ready to 'improvise' the start when I actually read the stitch legend that actually started on the page you see here while the rest (including square=k ) was on the next page.

Anyway, the 10 stitch row had ooo, which is a triple YO. Now, being the educated person I am, I figured that the next row must mean k,p,k into that YO? Right? Well. Had I read the pattern for the tablecloth, I would have noticed that ooo=knit&purl 10 times into the triple YO. duh. Read the pattern.

So, anyway, I'm now on row 77 and it's going pretty well. I'm hoping the color isn't too 'mousy'. Whatever.

start date: November 21




2/18NM fine 4ply weight 51% baby alpaca 49% cashmere (1450yds/150g)These yarns were spun in Scotland by Todd & Duncan, and have the nuttiness of high quality Baby Alpaca combined with the softness of the best cashmere. They are balanced yarns with a great thickness for hand or machine knitting.