Tourmaline Lace - Eight Sections Done

Now that I'm getting closer to the end of this set I'm thinking about what I may want to make with the other two sets that I have.

This is the Monarchy set.  I'm thinking another shawl, bias or just rectangular.  Maybe I'll actually make the Crown Wools shawl (which is what the set was created for).

This is the Earth Gems set.  The fun thing about this set is that I can shift the starting point and it still works.

I'm thinking about doing a full circle cape with this set.

Pattern:  Easy Bias Lace by Carolyn Blakelock
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Tourmaline Lace - Five Sections Done

A lighter pink, the next color has a bit more green in it.  I like how quickly this knits up and I'm loving the colors.

Pattern:  Easy Bias Lace by Carolyn Blakelock
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Tourmaline Lace - Four Sections Done

One third of the way.  I will confess to having a few doubts about my color order when I started using  the blue, but now that I'm bringing another pink in I'm really happy with it.  Basically when I mixed up the colors I interlaced the two gradient sections, placing the speckled skeins in where I thought they would fit.

This is the original order of the skeins.

When pairing colors I tried to match the values - hue, intensity, saturation - pulling the blues to one end and the greens to the other and tying it together with the pinks and speckles.  For the starting and ending skeins I had to have colors that would work together, but I didn't want to have two speckles.

Pattern:  Easy Bias Lace by Carolyn Blakelock
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Tudor Roses - Elizabeth of York - Swatch Done

This past weekend I finished up the Nordic Christmas test/sample knit for The Unique Sheep, so I have time for my own projects again.  As the name implies, the Nordic Christmas shawl involves colorwork.  It was my first real colorwork project and I found it to be somewhat challenging.  I now understand why you generally don't use superwash wool for stranded colorwork, and why you knit stranded colorwork in the round (wrong side rows in stranded colorwork can be a challenge), but I also discovered that I really enjoy stranded colorwork.  It has been two years since I worked on a project from Tudor Roses by Alice Starmore.  As readers may recall, I have a goal of working every single pattern in the book.  I have completed the first two patterns, but I balked at the third pattern because it involved, you guessed it, stranded colorwork.  Having successfully completed a colorwork project I decided I was up for the challenge, so I grabbed a couple of leftover skeins and did the gauge swatch.  I'm happy to say that my gauge is spot on, with the needle size called for.  In the past I have had trouble getting the gauge called for because my knitting was a little too loose.  But lately I've been paying more attention to my gauge and how I tension the yarn and form my stitches, so I can control it more effectively.

I still have many challenges ahead with this project.  No single size fits me, so I will have to figure out how to combine several sizes, and I will have to steek and cut my knitting!  The colors in the swatch are not the colors that I will be using for my project.  These are the colors I will be using:  Wild Orchid and Corn Crake.

Pattern:  Elizabeth of York by Alice Starmore, from Tudor Roses
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)
Yarn:  Hebridean 2-Ply

Tourmaline Lace - Three Sections Done

I am currently using this project as my "easy" project for TV knitting.  The lace pattern is not hard and the short sections keep me motivated to get to the next color.  And such lovely colors they are.  Wait till you see the other Casapinka sets.  I splurged and got all three.

Pattern:  Easy Bias Lace by Carolyn Blakelock
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)

Tourmaline Lace - Two Sections Done

About two weeks ago I was sitting at work thinking about knitting, which happens fairly often.  Bias lace shawls have been all the rage lately and I wanted to knit one using a set that The Unique Sheep created for Casapinka's Crown Wools MKAL.  The set is called Crystals.

When I got home from work I looked through the lace patterns that I've saved to my knitting Pinterest board until I found one that I thought would work when knit on the bias and charted it in Stitchmastery.  Then I took the 12-skein set downstairs and laid it out on my work table.  I knew that I did not want to knit the set in order because I wanted more contrast between the sections, so I played around and came up with this.

The pattern is super simple, lace sections separated by garter stripe sections for switching colors, and easily modified.  On the first garter stripe section I used the final color, and on the last garter stripe section I will use the first color.  I'll write up the pattern when I'm done and offer it for free on Ravelry.

Pattern:  Easy Bias Lace by Carolyn Blakelock
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Kiri
Needle:  US 5 (3.75 mm)