stash, knit, repeat

This week has been a doozy, what with the yarn urchin turning two and all, but I did manage to block the shawl and take some pictures.

Pattern: A curved shawl with diamond edging, from Victorian Lace Today

Yarn: Lacey Lamb, in Blueblood Red, under 1 ball

Time Elapsed: Around 2.5 months, although I knit other stuff during this time

Modifications/Notes: I didn’t make any changes to the pattern, including the yarn and even the color of the yarn! I love the way it turned out. Maybe I’m being influenced by the book, here, but it’s a very proper shawl and seems to cry out for a crisp white shirt, charcoal business skirt, and some knee-high boots. Of course, I don’t work in an office anymore, so it’s more likely to be employed in a rather casual ensemble.

So, okay. Given that I just love (loveloveLOVE) the finished product, here’s the thing. Those adorable tiny little circles? Mean almost two hundred four-row repeats.

Said repeats involve double decreases, and so knitting this shawl was at once boring enough that I craved television, and fiddly enough that I couldn’t watch it. The border was the same way–50-ish repeats over 16 stitches. So while the finished product really is everything I’d hoped, I just can’t recommend the pattern unreservedly. Be prepared for some major slogging. There. I said it.

Mostly, I should now tell you about the yarn and the needles. LOVE the Addi lace needles. Just love them. They kept my stitches in place when I wanted them in place, and still allowed them to slide freely. But more than I loved the needles, I loved the yarn. It’s thin, true, but I’ve never in my life felt something so soft (at least for under $200). It feels like cashmere mixed with silk mixed with clouds, even though it’s only merino. The shawl is lofty, floats in air, and still manages to give warmth. I couldn’t get it away from Jacob.

That’s that! Eight billion more pictures, as usual, on the FO page.

*****

(Pssst! I finished the Sidewinders, too. Hopefully pictures today!)

I’m headed to Maine for the funeral this weekend, and my travel itinerary (bus, plane, andtrain!) is a little nightmarish. Fortunately, I’ll have my knitting with me, and even more fortunately, this is no longer among my knitting:

Blocking will have to wait until I return, but hooray! The darn shawl is done done done!

Jacob wasted no time in appropriating it for himself. Shawls make fun toys, don’t ya know.

Up next in the queue: Sidewinders (and if they don’t make that STR behave, by golly, there’ll be another darn giveaway) and the cable-yoke sweater from “Wish You Were Here”, for my friend Neil.

See you Tuesday!

Sometimes, when it’s been a really rough week and you’ve had to rip out a few hours of work on an incredibly dull lace shawl border, you just need a little breath of fresh air.

Pattern: Chevron Lace Top, from Debbie Bliss’ “Wish You Were Here” collection, 2-3 year size

Yarn: Elsebeth Lavold’s Hempathy, 2.5 balls of color 13

Time Elapsed: Under a week

Modifications and notes: There’s really not much to say about this one. The lace pattern as marked has a small error (a row ending in k1 when it should be k2), but otherwise it’s a clear and simple pattern, very easy to knit. I love the little details that Debbie Bliss puts into her patterns, especially for babies and children. There’s a little decrease detail at the middle of the v-neck, the sleeves are set in, the top will look great over a tank in summer or over a turtleneck in winter.

Really, the story with this top is the yarn. I have wanted to try Hempathy for awhile now, but just got around to it with this project. The yarn is obviously splitty, when you look at it, and it feels somewhat rough in the ball. My tension, which is usually very even (if I do say so myself), was somewhat off with this yarn just off the needles. But the color is gorgeous, and any trace of roughness or uneven fabric goes away with a good soak. This is one of the softer, silkier things I’ve ever knit. The drape is incredible. I’m very excited about the 6 balls of a tweedy tan I picked up in Maine for a modified version of this top.

So that’s it, really. (Well, aside from the usual on the FO page.) A sweet, quick, easy top to clear my mind and get me rejuvenated on the shawl.

It’s going much better, this time around. And I may have started on something else, too…

I figured, the yarn’s been in time-out for over a year. It’s probably learned its lesson, right?

(Thank you all so much for your lovely comments about the cardigan. Each and every one made me smile.)

When I came up with this post, and took the pictures, I had a lot to tell you about rushing to try and get the border done on my shawl, making hugely noticeable mistakes, and having to rip it out.

And getting so frustrated that I had to cast on for something else or I’d lose my mind.

And taking the border nice and slow, and being thrilled with the results, even if it’s going to take another week or two to complete it.

But instead of talking about any of those things, let me tell you about my father’s mother, Lois.

In the way of things in (poor, rural) Maine, all of the women in my family were avid crafters. I got the knitting bug from my mother, and my mother’s mother’s craft of choice was crochet, but all of the women could do everything. Lois could knit well, and crochet well, and cross-stitch, but her passion was sewing. She made lots of clothes for me and my cousins, she made quilts, she made stuffed bears with movable heads and arms, she made my prom dress, she made my wedding veil.

I inherited my perfectionism from her. Everything she made was flawless, even my first quilt (badly pictured above). She patiently guided my clumsy hands on the machine, showing me how to create straight seams and graceful curves. We spread the filling and backing out on her living room floor and cut it together. I was the only grandchild to really get interested in crafting, and it created a bond between us. When I picked up knitting in earnest after my mother died, she gave me supplies and patterns for knitted dishcloths as good quick beginner projects. I still have several that she made.

When I was a child, I liked playing in her sewing room almost better than anywhere else in the house. An old couch was lined with bears and other animals she’d made, the closet was full of fabric, and the noise and smell of her sewing machine (always running, it seemed) comforted and soothed me. As she worked, she would tell me what she was doing and show me how to pick seams, cut cloth so that it wouldn’t fray, properly stuff an animal, hem pants, anything.

She was strong, opinionated, stern, and caring. My mother may have helped me understand the joy of crafting, but Lois helped me understand pride in a well-finished object, that hand-crafted items could be heirlooms, that process and product can provide equal joy. I owe a lot to her, and I will try very hard to be worthy of her sewing machine. She’ll be sorely missed.

I suppose that most knitters, when they get as bored of their projects as I’ve been, just cast on something new. I’m not sure why I don’t–it’s just not me, I guess. Part guilt, part obsessive-compulsive behavior, who knows. I just can’t make myself do it. Which winds up being okay, because no matter how much a project slogs in the middle, I get more and more excited about it the closer it is to completion.

The main body of the shawl is done, and the top edge is all picot-ed and sweet. Now I need to figure out how to knit and attach the border, which should be lots of fun since I’ve never done it before.

But it’s taking a back seat at the moment–because as much as I love learning new things, I love seaming more.

I realize that some would hold this up as proof of my insanity, and here’s a little more fuel for that fire: Seaming set-in sleeves is my favorite kind of seaming. It’s always the step that brings separate pieces of knitting into a sweater, for me. I love laying all of the pieces out, getting my little pile of safety-pin stitch markers, and easing it all together. I love seeing my yarn bring two pieces of knitting together harmoniously, but not identically. I absolutely adore the mix of straight lines and sloped edges.

And the structure of a finished sleeve totally makes me giggle. Look, ma! I made a sweater!

This sweater pattern instructs the knitter to seam most of the pieces before knitting the wide ribbed collar, to match the length most accurately. It’s a nice detail that I’m a little nervous about, here. I’m not using the recommended yarn and the Zara is stretching a fair amount. I’m going to try to stretch my ribbing slightly when comparing it to the (already blocked) main body of the sweater and pray that it works out. I’m pretty sure it will.

See you this weekend with at least one, and maybe two, FOs!

I’m finally getting there.

The cardigan just requires seaming and a large ribbed collar. The shawl requires just 24 more rows and a border:

It will be so very, very good to have these projects finished and out the door. I hadn’t realized how much I take my typical speedy progress for granted. I’m sure it’s just because I’m usually monogamous to a project–it’ll be somewhere around 2 months to finish 2 projects, which isn’t that much slower than usual for me. But usually, I have a nice little feeling of accomplishment halfway through. And this time, halfway through I was doing lace surgery.

Oh, well. The cardigan is making me fidget in my seat, I’m so excited to wear it, and the shawl is going to be knockout. It’ll be worth the work. Just the same, though, the next project is a tiny little lace sweater for a 2-year-old friend of mine. :)

Jacob would like you to know:

My current knitting is the opposite of good blog-fodder. The lace? Pretty much still the definition of ‘blob’. And eye-searingly red, to boot. The cardigan?

I’m pretty sure it’s going to be the most frequently-worn thing I’ve ever knit, but let’s face it: Miles of charcoal stockinette aren’t that much fun to look at. And they definitely require some kind of distraction for the knitter, too.

Maybe it’s because of my project ennui, maybe it’s because I got a very special gift myself recently…

(My grandmother’s sewing machine. My prom dress and many of my favorite childhood toys, clothes, and quilts were created with this machine.)

…but I find myself spending way too much time thinking about the knits I want to make for others. The ones I want to cast on for right now.

Generally speaking, I don’t knit for charity. I’m lucky enough to be able to donate money to my favorite causes, and I’m also pretty selfish with my knits—I want to see them being loved. But I’m also a huge process knitter, and my own taste for knitwear often runs in the tiny-gauge-charcoal-gray-stockinette direction. So I knit a lot of gifts. I’ve tried to knit more for myself this year, and I am beginning to become very impatient with it. Jacob needs another sweater, I have some crimson Hempathy for a lace tank for a toddler friend, I have at least 3 sweaters planned for the holiday season, I’m waiting for some Debbie Bliss Cotton Denim Aran to make its way across the pond for a birthday gift… The gift knits list includes cables, lace, color work, fabulous yarn, patterns by my very favorite designers.

You see the dilemma? So please, please, distract me! What project are you most looking forward to knitting right now?

That’s more like it!

More sleeve, more shawl, and a couple of kick-ass early birthday presents. Tonight: More knitting.

Hooray!

I finished all of these gorgeous projects and won a huge shopping spree at my LYS and got invited to teach the Queen of England to knit and…

…oh wait, no. Those were all dreams. Damn.

But I may as well tell you about them, because the actual knitting going on around here is sparse and boring. I think I’ve knit all of 1 row on the shawl, and a few puny inches of sleeve, since the last time I posted. I have high hopes, though, for the coming week. We finally got a replacement dishwasher installed today after waiting for almost 2 weeks, so I should be doing more stitches and fewer dishes. And in a week, I’ll be on a plane to Boston and Maine, where there will be babysitting and FOs.

I sincerely hope so, anyway, because I’m itching to cast on for some Sidewinders. Have you seen Nona’s and Grumperina’s? That Nona is a genius! And this sock pattern is just the thing for my misbehaving StR.

It is so impossible that an entire week has passed. Completely unbelievable. Thank you all so much for the lovely comments on Tulip, they kept me smiling all week long!

Of course, I cast on for something else right away. Two things, actually, which is really rare for me. It’s been a busy week, but I’m almost done with the first sleeve for the Shawl-collared cardigan out of Jo Sharp Knit issue one.

I didn’t want another alpaca cardigan, so I’m knitting this up in a lovely merino–Zara from Filatura Di Crosa. I really like how the yarn is knitting up for me so far, though I should warn others: It grew a lot once it got wet. I had to go down a needle size to get gauge, so I’m knitting it up on US5s. I’m trying out the “start with a sleeve, end with a sleeve” strategy to keep myself from going too crazy at the end of this sweater. We’ll see how it goes!

I’m knitting two projects right now because there’s no way I can do the other one while toddler-wrangling or chatting with my knitting group ladies:

“A curved shawl with diamond edging” from Victorian Lace Today, in Lacey Lamb. In the color pictured in the book, even! I’ve only gotten a dozen rows done this week, sadly. The pattern is pretty easy, the yarn is like a day at the spa, and I LOVE ME my new lace Addis… but let’s face it. Lace with yarn that thin just isn’t as easy to manage as a good sturdy merino stockinette. Who knows how long it will take me to complete the shawl, but I’m not in a rush. The longer it takes, the longer I’ll be feeling that amazing LL running through my fingers!

(It just occurred to me, writing this post, that I got both yarns from Ellen. The yarn I buy from her always seems to get knit up quickly, and turn into my favorite things. I think that bodes well for these projects!)