Parade of Finished Objects

Looks like I've got some catching up to do since I'm a Blogger Slack-off.

Haruni Shawl

I've been forever trying to decide what to do with two skeins of Malabrigo variegated laceweight, when I saw this pattern (Haruni by Emily Ross) go up on Ravelry it was destined to become a Haruni. Maybe not the best choice for showing off the pattern stitches but it turned out okay (remind me not buy this type of variegated color, not really my style, always looks better in the unwound skein than it does knitted up). The revised version of this pattern is easy to follow and fun to do, didn't take too long either.

Bayerische Socks
This pattern is by Eunny Jang, currently the editor of Interweave; the pattern is here.


I think this sock pattern is gorgeous and tried several times to begin these socks. The problem was that there are four charts and it was tedious and confusing to work from one chart to the next without losing your mind. Finally I took the time to chart it myself in excel and once I printed it out it was smooth sailing........one sock done and one to go. The yarn is Cascade Heritage which I really like for this type of pattern as it shows the stitches nicely.

Starry Night Baby Blanket

Two neighbors' daughters are having babies soon, this will go to one of them for a shower gift. It is really cute but a bit puckery, not sure how great it will look if it just gets tossed into the dryer, I'll put a note with it that it should be dried flat for best results. It was fun crochet project, took a little longer than I thought it would and got a little tedious/boring once I got past the cloud section but I'm happy with the way it turned out. Pattern here.

Carol's Clever Little Shawl

I thought this was a nice idea but it's written for worsted or DK weight and I wanted to use Dream In Color Baby that I recently purchased. I only had one skein and wasn't sure there would be enough yarn (I worry about that for every project!) but there was actually plenty. Had to make some adjustments to the pattern to accomodate the lighter weight yarn and also to mirror the edging in a left and right direction, notes on my Ravelry project page. The flower is from my Flower Scarf pattern and it still needs to be steamed.

Shetland Shawl Redux

I love my fingering weight brown Shetland Shawl but as I wrote in a previous post it was not large enough, I want to be able to wrap/snuggle into it. So I'm glad that I took the time to add some length to the edging, it's much better now. I'm working a better version of this pattern as I'm still trying to work out a nicer transition of the interlocking diamonds around the corners.

Finished Objects....

Shetland Tea Shawl

pattern by Dale Long
Published in "A Gathering of Lace"
Yarn: Alpaca With a Twist Fino, 2 skeins

Blocking:   

Finished:

Arch-shaped socks 
pattern by Jen Showalter
Yarn: Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett
Based on this pattern, but worked toe up.

It is really difficult to take a photo of your own feet!

Handkerchief for Daughter's Wedding Day
Godmother's Edging from Treasury of Knitting Patterns

Yarn is 2/28 cashmere from Colourmart.

Embroidery design from old heirloom sewing/shadow embroidery patterns in my collection.

Fabric repurposed linen from a ribbon embroidery project that I never finished.
Sequins and beads are bridal alterations leftovers.

Daughter has decided that she will not actually soil this hankie as then
she would have to BLOCK IT (OMG).

Wedding Veil for Daughter
Veils at the bridal salons start at well over $100, plus my daughter wants to wear her veil vertically to complement the planned french twist hairdo.


So it was decided that Mom would try to make one.

This was so easy, and cost about $10.

Two yards of 72" wide tulle folded in half, then in half again.

Cut a 36" 1/4 circle with very sharp scissors, then cut another circle 3" radius from center point.

Unfolded, pressed, folded in half, ran two rows of stitching 1/4" and 3/8" from edger of inner circle.

Tied threads at one end, pulled up bobbin threads from other end, until edge was about 3/4" long gathered. Sewed a piece of ribbon over the rough edge.

Once we have tried the veil on with the dress I will permanently attach it and the trim with a glue gun to the comb.

Note:
This morning I posted the Hexagon Scarf pattern to my Ravelry Store.


It is priced at $2.50 and can be purchased through Paypal even if you are not a member of Ravelry. Just click the "Buy Now" button on my sidebar, this will take you to Paypal where you can purchase the pattern to download.


I had a hard time getting this to post and format correctly today, therefore....




Note to self: Do all Blogdrive editing from Internet Explorer, not from Google.

Finished Shetland Shawl, etc.

The Flower Scarf pattern has been downloaded over 1,000 times and there are 51 Flower Scarf projects on Ravelry -- that is amazing to me.

Joann made a second Woven Diamonds Faroese:

The shetland style shawl is finished. Why did I call it 'shetland style'?  I began with a cast of one stitch for the center section, increased one stitch every row until the center square reached it's full diagonal width, decreased one stitch every row until 1 stitch remained; picked up stitches all around the square placing markers at each corner and knit the first border, the second border and finally the edging increasing at each side of the four corner stitches every other row.

As I wrote in an earlier post I couldn't decide on an edging for this shawl.  Most of the other shawls I have made have a sideways edging (this type of edging is knit perpendicular to the body of the shawl and attached to the live shawl stitches once for every two edging rows).  A sideways edging is very stretchy since there is no bind off; ideal for a shawl. However, it takes a very long time to work even if it's fairly narrow.  I was getting tired of working on this shawl and decided that in this case it would be nice to work an edging that could be bound off.

Also, since the center and first border stitch patterns are very angular, I felt that the rest of the stitch patterns needed to be more rounded/softer so I settled on four repeats of Horseshoe lace from First Treasury of Knitting Patterns as a second border.   Then I chose a simple edging from Knitted Lace of Estonia that I worked for eight rows before binding off.

I've been forever looking for a good looking loose bind off option.

I've read in several places on the internet that the following is a stretchy bind off:

'*knit two together through the back loop, place resulting stitch on left hand needle, repeat from *'

But I don't find that to be stretchy at all; every two stitches are being reduced to one stitch making it even less stretchy than a regular (knit two, pass the first stitch over, knit the next stitch, repeat) bind off.

I was excited to find the solution in Knitted Lace of Estonia, the bind off above needs one step added in order to be stretchy....like this:

knit 1, place stitch back on left hand needle, knit two together through the back loop,

*knit the next stitch, knit this stitch and the previous stitch together through the back loop; 

repeat from *.

Also I modified it a little by substituting 'knit 1 through the back loop' rather than 'knit 1' which seemed to lay a little flatter.

It took nearly two hours to bind off approximately 600 stitches but even so the whole procedure took less time than a sideways border.

Deborah (Rogue Knit on Ravelry) is an awesome lace knitter and her knitting is gorgeous.  She thinks the key is in the blocking (she is an excellent knitter to begin with but careful blocking does make a huge difference in the look of the finished lace).  Deborah wrote a most informative post on her blog about her method of blocking and since I was just about out of Eucalan, I took a short drive to the nearest Walgreens (what is it with Walgreens anyway - there are six of them in the City of O'Fallon which has a population of 76,000) and bought the Pantene (even had a dollar off coupon).  It certainly smelled better than woolwash.

The shawl measures about 50" square and could have been a bit larger, but it's close enough. I'm pleased with how it turned out although I'm not in love with it yet - it takes a while until I love my finished objects - I know that I am my own worst critic, but I think that after spending so much time on a project I'm tired of it and need some distance before I can go back with a less critical eye and think 'that's really nice - did I 

actually do that?'

Finished Faroese shawls, Blocking shawls, a Cabled Tam Design

Regina (Rubicon on Ravelry) finished her Woven Diamonds Faroese...I think it turned out stunning!

She made a couple modifications to the pattern, if you are on Ravelry her notes are here:
Rubicon's Woven Diamonds Faroese.

I failed to show a photo of Fran's Woven Diamond Faroese. Fran was the first one to work the pattern - as a matter of fact she was the one who admired my blue one and encouraged me to write it up.

You can see Fran's shawl on her blog here: Fran's Woven Diamonds Faroese

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I am working on a shetland style shawl design in Jojoland fingering weight wool. I have yet to find just the right edging so I have put this project on hold as I await Nancy Bush's new book, " Knitted Lace of Estonia " I'm hoping that there may contain an edging that will work or a stitch pattern that will inspire me to create an edging. In the meantime I blocked the shawl to see how the size is working out and to determine how wide the edging needs to be.

I used to block my shawls on towels laid over the carpet in the spare bedroom (which was once my sewing room and has since become the stash room). However, we have a little Yorkie named Buddy....

who was making a mess of the carpet when no one was looking and had to pull it up.

When we did that I could see that I wasn't helping the situation by blocking on it. Sometimes I spray my shawls with water to re-dampen them once they are pinned out, and that was also leaving water stains on the carpet backing.

Recently I found some interlocking mats at Big Lots (I also saw the same ones at Tuesday Morning).

I bought two sets at a very reasonable price. They seem to work great for blocking, I can pin into them and still shift the whole surface around if I need to. The wrong side of the mats is smooth. They did have a very strong rubber smell when I first opened the package but that seems to have dissipated.

Last year I took a fair isle hat class at Kirkwood Knittery taught by Brooke Nico.

I wasn't too fond of the result on my first attempt, so that that first hat lives at the shop. I had much better luck with my second design and also made matching fingerless gloves (background is brown shetland wool and the patterning consists of many different pieces of leftover variegated sock yarns).  Not one to wear hats, I found that I really liked the way this one looked and it didn't smash my hair too badly.

To block this tam none of my plates were the right size (of course not); instead I made a 10" diameter circle out of cardboard and covered it with plastic wrap.  Stretching the tam over the cardboard form, I threaded a piece of waste yarn through the edge of the ribbing (this works great if the edge is worked with a tubular cast-on) and drew it up into a small circle.  This was much better than using pins to keep the hat on the form while it blocked.

         

The last few weeks I've had an idea for a cabled tam inspired by the celtic cables in Viking Patterns for Knitting by Elizabeth Lavold and the patterns charted by the girl from auntie for her awesome designs.

I worked a few swatches and a prototype just to see how cables might work:

I bought a skein of Classic Elite's Alpaca Sox at Knit and Caboodle to use for the actual tam in a soft gray color. Next I worked a portion of the stitch pattern as a fingerless glove to determine the gauge. Then I played with the stitch pattern in excel for many hours to decide on the best way to work it. Finally I cast on and knit, this is the result:

It didn't turn out exactly as I'd pictured it, still deciding if I ought to publish it or not - leave a comment and let me know what you think.

On Shawls....

My daughter asked recently what I was working on....

When I replied, "a shawl" she said "How many do you need?"

Obviously she is not a Knitter or even a knitter.

Any Knitter knows that how many shawls (or any other knitted item) you have made is beside the point.

I like knitting shawls, I like to wear them too but mostly I like knitting and designing them.

My first experience with shawls was a class on faroese shawls taught by Joan Schrouder and sponsored by the Greater St. Louis Knitter's Guild in the spring of 2004. I was totally lost.

But I have learned much since then, thank goodness I have her invaluable handouts,
and have enjoyed and been inspired by these books:

  

I love these books for stitch patterns:

  

A Shetland Shawl

The first shawl I made was inspired by the instructions for a shetland shawl in "Best of Knitter's Shawls and Scarves".  The yarn is alpaca/silk from Elann.  I didn't do a great job of knitting or designing this shawl and one day plan to make it again with improvements, but I was quite proud that it turned out so nice and I've worn it a lot to the point where it is showing wear and tear, needs to be reblocked:

A Pi R Square Shawl

Next I made a "Pi R Square" shawl from Elizabeth Zimmerman's book 'Knitting Around'.  The yarn is Silky Wool by Elizabeth Lavold.  I added a border/collar.  The 'square' portions of the shawl came out to be too long, so I knitted i-cord and laced it through the yarnovers to gather it up.  I like wearing this shawl although it is a bit cumbersome, it drapes beautifully:

A Flower Basket Shawl

I love all the beautiful shawls that Evelyn Clark designs.  Here is my Flower Basket Shawl knitted in gray laceweight merino with the yarn doubled.  It is knit exactly as given in the pattern from the Fall 2004 issue of Interweave Knits.

I also made the Swallowtail Shawl (Fall 2006, Interweave Knits) although I knit it as a square rather than a triangle.   I don't have any photos and it turned out too small so I gave it to my eight year old cousin Mira (she was thrilled and now wants to learn how to knit).

Flemish Block Cap Shawl

When Jane Sowerby's Victorian Lace Today was released I was inspired to make a 'cap shawl', but not one to be satisfied with following directions I decided to base the increases on the principle of the cap shawl shaping in the book but inserted my own choice of stitch pattern and border.  This yarn is from http://handpaintedyarn.com/, but I purchased it on ebay.  Very interesting, soft, handspun, thick and thin, lots of yardage for the price.  I'm really pleased with the way this shawl turned out, it's a little odd to wear because of the swirl shaping it skews when folded in half, so it works better to just fold back a section as if it's a collar.

Woven Diamonds Faroese Shawl

Finally I made it back to faroese shawls once I could understand what was going on by studying the notes from Joan's class and the articles/patterns in Best of Knitter's Shawls and Scarves and A Gathering of Lace.  I designed a shawl that is similar to the yellow and blue faroese by Meg Swanson in Best of Knitter's Shawls and Scarves, but again elected to use my own choice of stitch patterns for the gusset and border. I prefer lace that has a stockinette background, I think it shows the stitches better, so my faroese shawl has stockinette background on the border and gusset but the edging and side panels above the border are knit in garter stitch.  The yarn is Brown Sheep Naturespun Sport 100% wool.  I've worn it a lot, the yarn is pilling some and I've just re-blocked it.

My friend Fran begged me for this pattern so she earned the title of Test Knitter.  Unfortunately my first attempts at writing the pattern had errors and Fran spent a lot of time starting over - I'm still amazed that she stuck it out.  There is a photo of it on her blog.  In any event - the pattern is correct and clear and I will soon make it available for sale and teach it as a class at Kirkwood Knittery.  I decided to 'test knit' it myself and needed to find an easier way to finish the neckline where the last stitches are joined - so I just completed a version in white cotton/rayon by Dalegarn that I purchased at Knit N Caboodle.   I like it a lot and look forward to wearing it soon.

The 2/3 Pi Shawl

In between the two faroese shawls I found some gorgeous hand dyed silk/wool laceweight yarn at The Loopy Ewe . Not only did I love the color, I loved the name that the hand dyer goes by, Chewy Spaghetti.  I decided to make a modified version of Elizabeth Zimmerman's 'Pi Shawl' from Knitter's Almanac and Best of Knitter's Shawls and Scarves.
I thought it would be nice to have it open in the front so rather than make a full circle that is usually worn folded in half and draped over the shoulders, I used my pi r square shawl to determine that 2/3 pi would be enough to go around my body. I  cast on with a provisional cast on working increases according to the pi shawl formula. Then I added a very simple knitted on border from Barbara Abbey's book Knitting Lace. I folded back the border to create a 'collar' when I blocked it.  I think it has sort of an antique look to it.

Hmmm - how many shawls does one need?