Watership Down II - Halfway through the second border

Last week I frogged the Rosebud cape that I was knitting and while I was waiting for my Snow Queen yarn to arrive I picked this one back up and got back to work on the border.  I wasn't really happy with how the Rosebud Cape was turning out, although I did enjoy working with the Marici Lace.  I think I'm going to knit Nightblossoms, from Romi's Pins and Lace Club 2014, with the yarn instead.

I didn't get a great deal of knitting in over the weekend as we had to do some yard work - raking leaves and trimming bushes - but I did manage to get past the half-way point on the second and final border.  And then my Snow Queen yarn arrived on Monday with my Christmas Club shipment and I dove into my test knit.  The yarn is just gorgeous - Dusk on the Fjord on Marici Fingering - and I have lots of beads.  Lots and lots of beads.

And I'm going to use lots and lots of beads with this one.  There are already beads in the pattern, and a lovely pattern it is too, but it just cries out for more.  Lots more.  This is the first time that a pattern has really spoken to me in that way and it is very exciting.  And that's all I can say about it, except that this is my first time knitting with Marici fingering and I love it.  Bye now.

Pattern:  Watership Down by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Eos in Moulin Huet
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Rosebud Cape - Chart 2 Done

I've been working on this as well, off and on, and finally finished up Chart 2 last night.  I'm going to skip Chart 3 - not crazy about cables in lace, especially with a pure silk yarn.  Fortunately it should be pretty straightforward to match up Charts 2 and 4.  I'm also going to repeat Chart 4, working it two times instead of one, and I'll probably do the same with Chart 5.  This should make the shawl more of a Pi shawl.  That was one of the things that threw me with this pattern - you're doubling stitches between charts until you complete Chart 4, but the number of rows in each chart do not follow the traditional doubling that you would see with a Pi shawl.

Pattern:  Rosebuds A-Flying by Heatherly Walker modified to be a cape
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Marici Lace in Rosebud
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Rosebud Cape - Chart 1 Done

This is the third shipment for the first round of the Inspired by Art Club.  The pattern is a circular shawl, but of course I don't usually do those so I am converting it to a cape.  Instead of starting with a garter stitch tab as I have done on other capes I just did a regular cast on and then knit 4 rows.  This is how the Liken shawl started and I really liked how that came out.  I also figured it would give some stability to the neck of this shawl.  On the fifth row I started the pattern, beginning on row 29 of Chart 1.  I'm keeping 3 edge stitches in garter stitch.  I also added rest rows (plain wrong side purl rows) between the lace rows of Chart 1, because the original has lace patterning on every row and I'm just not going there, especially with this yarn.  Why?  Because this yarn is pure silk.

As much as I love wearing silk and sewing things out of silk I'm not a big fan of knitting with pure silk, especially lace weight silk.  It is gorgeous and I love the feel of it and the sheen of it, but knitting with it is just weird.  It feels so insubstantial, almost ethereal, and I really have to watch what I'm doing and I knit slower.  I feel a bit like those actors in science fiction movies that are pretending they are in a low gravity environment so they move very slowly and carefully.

Pattern:  Rosebuds A-Flying by Heatherly Walker
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Marici Lace in Rosebud
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)