A Taste of Things to Come

Now that I am almost caught up with my backlog of crochet blocks, here are a few things waiting in the wings.  First up, of course, is the March 2013 Crochet Block, Ferris Wheel by Donna Kay Lacey. The yarn is Verve in Earth and Coal.  Check out that cute little spinning wheel stitch marker!  I rarely use stitch markers, and when I do they are pretty plain, but I have a whole tin (not an Altoids tin, but a Newman's Own Cinnamon Mints Tin) full of pretty stitch markers that I have received as part of kits and clubs.  One of these days I am going to make some jewelry out of them.  I'm thinking a chain-mail necklace.  I've always wanted to try chain-mail jewelry and even have a kit I picked up a couple of years ago at Bead & Button.

Yesterday I received two packages from The Unique Sheep, which went a long way towards making up for the rough week that I had.

This is the first shipment from the new Gourmet club.  The yarn is Back to Basics 2, a worsted weight Merino that I have never tried before, the colors are Lemon Balm and Laurel.  Along with the yarn were two cute cookies cutters, two cookie recipes and a pattern for a double knit pot holder.  I've been wanting to try double knitting and this might be just the project to get me started.  The pot holder is also supposed to be fulled, which is something else I have never done before.  And I am seriously thinking about making some cookies today...

I also received my yarn for the next Unique Sheep Knit Along - Treasure Island.

The colorway is Tranquility on Luxe, with gold lustered raspberry beads.  I will probably not be knitting along with the rest of the group because this is another circular shawl, well, actually I think it will be octagonal - pieces o' eight - get it?  But I will probably modify the shawl because I have decided that I don't really do circular shawls anymore.  Been there, done that, they are lovely to display and there is one living on my piano, but I don't really wear them.

Some time ago, when I pulled my Evenstar shawl out and placed it on my piano on permanent display

 I vowed that I would make another one to wear so I ordered a set of Eos from The Unique Sheep.

The colorway is Midnight Delight, and it is a set that is specially dyed up for the Evenstar shawl, which is why that skein on the right is fatter than the rest, that one will be the outer edge.  I still haven't completely decided on my design modification, but I am thinking about making it a circular cape, so keeping with the circular theme, but making the neck area bigger, and obviously not working it as a circular shawl - that would turn it in to a poncho, which would not do for this design.  I have seen some beautiful dresses made out of this pattern, especially this stunning one by FadenStille, but am not sure I want to tackle something quite that challenging.

You will no doubt have noticed the constant thread running through this post.  All of the yarn is from The Unique Sheep.  With furloughs looming on the horizon, my disposable income is going to being pretty sharply reduced, so I have been cutting back on the clubs as well as yarn purchases in general, but The Unique Sheep is exempt from the cuts.  Yes, I love them that much.  Zen Yarn Garden is also partly exempt.  I am sitting out the latest Fickle-Zen knit along,but I did sign up for the next Butterfly-Zen knit along.

Mystery Shawl 17 - Clue 4

Clue 4 finished.  This one was a bit harder than clues 1-3.  It didn't help that my hormones were being particularly wonky last week causing my brain to randomly shut down.  But I persevered.  Lace knitting is really not that hard provided you take the time to master a few skills:  reading charts, reading your knitting, and counting.  Before I begin each right side row I look at the pattern for that row and see how it fits with the pattern of the preceding rows.  This enables me to use my knitting to help provide me with contextual clues as to what I should be doing.  By understanding the pattern and how it is being formed it is much easier to spot errors before they become too difficult to fix without tinking or ripping.

My most frequent errors are forgetting a yarn over, or putting one in when I shouldn't and both of these are very easy to fix, provided you find them within the next two rows (the wrong side row and the next right side row).  Dropping a stitch or picking one up is simple and blocking will generally remove any resulting unevenness.  Counting is also an essential skill.  I routinely count the knit stitches between the lace motifs, even if there is only one.  Before beginning a chart I will write down the number of knit stitches on the chart for any stretch that contains more than 4 stitches.  I don't use markers, except on circular shawls and then only to mark the beginning of the round.  I find that they get in the way of my reading my knitting.  When I am tired, or for particularly tricky rows I will look back over the knitting (proofread it, so to speak) before beginning the wrong side row to try to catch any mistakes I may have made.  If I spot a missed yarn over I mark the spot with a split ring marker and fix it as I purl back.  Similarly if I put a yarn over in where it doesn't belong.

One slight challenge that I had on this clue was the fact that I ran out of the beads that I was using.  What is worse, I could not get more of that color - yes some beads have dye lots, just like yarn.  Fortunately I had some that were in a similar color and I had enough of the original color to get to a spot in the pattern where switching colors would not look out of place and one could even say it was intentional.  One thing that I deliberately do is not plan my projects too carefully.  I like the fun and challenge of improvising with my materials.  Fortunately I have a large enough stash of beads and fiber that I can do that.  Here is a close up of the color switch.

The top two beads are slight lighter in color than the rest.  Almost the exact color of the yarn, in fact.

The bag of beads on top is the original color, the one on bottom is the new color.  In the Beadcats universe they are stock numbers 2-08-154-90 and 2-08-152-90, respectively.  I really love the second bead color and have to figure out something to make with them.  They have just the most wonderful pearly sheen to them.

Evenstar Mystery Shawl - Clue 1

 

Yes.  Another shawl project, and another mystery shawl.  That makes three lace shawls on my needles right now.  And 5 magnetic boards for my charts.  Methinks I am a bit out of control here, but I just love lace knitting.  This is the Evenstar Mystery Shawl by Susan Pandorf of A Few Stitches Short that is making such a splash on Ravelry.  Susan is using Blue Moon Fiber Arts Silk Thread II in Winter Solstice.  I bought the yarn in Tanzanite (purple, of course) and then also bought it in Winter Solstice after Susan posted pictures of hers.  But I also bought this Eos in Aubergine (50/50 Tussah Silk/Wool) from The Unique Sheep.  I swatched with the Silk Thread II in the Winter Solstice and it is a beautiful yarn, but I wasn't sure I wanted to make this out of pure silk.  The other advantage of the Eos is that the wonderful people at The Unique Sheep put up 6 oz hanks that are long enough to knit the entire shawl, so no joining, which I would have to do with the Silk Thread II.

Belle Nuit - Update

 

I have mostly been knitting lace this past week.  I am working on the 6th repeat of chart B on this shawl.  There are 8 repeats of chart B and then chart C and I will be done.  Placing the beads is a bit tedious, but the results are beautiful.

Mystery Shawl 16 Knit Along

Another lace project?  What am I thinking?  And a mystery shawl knit along.  I've never done a mystery shawl, or a knit along, but this one is done by Goddess Knits and I am just head over heels about her lace shawls (although the pictures on Ravelry are generally better than the ones on her web site).  What is a mystery shawl knit along?  Well, you join up by buying the "pattern" and in Goddess Knits case, joining the yahoo group.  Then you buy the yarn.  I bought the suggested yarn, trusting in the designer to pick something appropriate, plus it is a great way to try new things.  Then you wait.  The clues (in the form of lace charts with some directions) come out once a week, and at the end of it all you have a shawl, and you get the complete pattern.  The yarn is Winter Mountain Fibers Fingering, 100% wool.

Wisteria Garden Shawl

The second shawl in the 2009 Year of Lace.

I think that one of the reasons I am so into the fiber arts is because they allow you to create such beauty, and the world can never have too much beauty. Lace shawls, especially, just take my breath away. Plus, they are functional. What more could one ask for?

Centrino

I finished this last weekend, but didn't have enough blocking mats so I had to order more. Lace knitting is so addictive, and the end result is so rewarding. Pretty amazing what you can make with two sticks and a piece of string...

Counting also helps...

On October 5th I received the third kit in the 2009 Year of Lace. This shawl is called Centrino, designed by Laura Nelkin. The yarn is Schaefer Yarn Anne, the pattern calls for 2 skeins. The yarn is 60% superwash Merino, 25% mohair and 15% nylon. I'm not a big fan of mohair (not big into fuzzy), but the fuzzy effect of the mohair is hardly noticeable. It is a circular shawl, knit from the center out.

It has been pretty easy knitting. I love working in the round, it is my usual knitting practice. This time I did use stitch markers between the pattern repeats. The only thing I did not like was starting out on double point needles, but I was able to switch to 12" circulars about half way through chart A. I also had to start over after almost making it through chart B when I realized that I was short a stitch on one of my repeats. I traced back to find the error - a missed yarn over, but it was too hard to fix it and it was just as easy to start over. I made one other mistake that caused me to rip back a couple of rows, but other than that it has been pretty smooth knitting.

If I were writing the pattern, though, I would have called for 12" and 16" circular needles, in addition to the 24" and 47".

After the mistakes I started counting as I knitted, and when I got to chart D I actually wrote the number of stitches between the yarn-overs and decreases. So far it has kept me out of trouble.

Knitting Lace Without A Net

So, this is my year of lace. There is actually a club you can join where you get 4 lace kits a year. This is the second shawl. I didn't end up knitting the first shawl. Lovely yarn, but the pattern didn't really grab me. No worries, though, I'll find another lace shawl pattern for that yarn.

Accepted wisdom when knitting lace is generous use of stitch markers and life lines, but I've never been one for accepted wisdom. I tried to place the stitch markers when I was establishing the pattern, but they just got in my way. Instead, I studied the chart, trying to understand the pattern and how it evolved. Getting through the first chart was the trickiest as that is when you are establishing the pattern. I did have to rip out my work twice. But once I got the pattern established, things started going very well. I was a bit worried about the second chart as you have to repeat that chart 6 times, and they only show the first repeat. Okay, fine, but each repeat you are adding more of the central motif. I was afraid that I would have to chart all of the repeats by hand. Ugh. Too much work. I studied the pattern. Understanding dawned. I could see how the pattern was going to evolve through each repeat of the second chart. I dove in. So far, so good.

So, for me, the key to knitting lace without a net is learning how to read the pattern and how to read the lace as you are knitting. If you can do that, the knitting will lead you and you shouldn't have too much trouble keeping your place in the chart.