All the Colors of Fall - Finished at last!

I started this shawl on June 28, 2014 and it has been languishing, rather stylishly, in an Atenti knitting bag underneath my coffee table.  I had to set my Elizabeth Woodville aside this weekend while I wait for buttons to arrive so I pulled out this project, determined to finish.  I had gotten just past the halfway point of the second border when I put it aside.  I pulled it out Friday night and finished it up late Saturday afternoon, blocking it before dinner.

I love this blocking picture because my cat Jasmine got her tail in the picture.

I used size 6 beads on the spine and in the second border - they were leftover from my Maid Marian shawl and are a wonderful plum color.  The label says Metallic Amethyst Gunmetal.  For inside the hearts on the first border I used size 8 beads from my stash.  The Beadcats stock no. is 2-08-280-91 - and the catalog description is dark red transparent lined with black iridescent.  They remind me of maple leaves in fall.  I also had some Small Curved Leaves in my stash in a color that was just perfect, which I used on the points of the border - threading them before knitting (royal pain, but oh the results!).  The Beadcats stock no. is N-L7-523-00 - and the catalog description is olive transparent.

Here is a close up of the leaves.

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

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)

Watership Down II - Second Border - 20 repeats down, 70 more to go...

Thought I would just post a progress picture.  This border is taking a little longer than normal because of the beads.  I can only knit a couple of rows of each repeat before I have to pause and slide beads further down the yarn.  You have to be careful how you do that sliding because they can really cause wear on your yarn which could lead to it breaking, which would be a very sad thing.  After some experimenting I have discovered that 3 beads is the optimal number to slide at a time.  Of course, after each repeat there is one fewer bead to slide.  I am placing the bead between the first and second rows of the repeat - so at the end of the first row, beginning of the second row.

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

Watership Down II - First Border Done - Chart 7

I finished up the first border last night and have almost completed the pick up of stitches for the second border.  I stopped where I did because I want to join the fourth skein at this point.  But before I can do that I need to thread 90 more leaf beads onto it.

I decided last weekend to string the leaf beads so that they will dangle from the points of the second border.  My knitting mojo has been lacking a little bit lately, but I think it is coming back.  Part of the reason is that I have been exercising regularly again.  I started exercising regularly when I was 18 and took a weight lifting class in college, but I got out of the habit when the building that I was sitting in at work made me sick (mold) and then I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and even though it has been eight years since the diagnosis and treatment, I still have not succeeded in re-establishing my exercise routine.  I keep trying and things keep getting in the way, especially wacky hormones.  The chemo didn't kill my ovaries, just seriously confused them, and that confusion has been going on ever since.  I keep hoping it will end soon because I am getting tired of mood swings, depression, migraines and nausea, plus the random allergy attack for no good reason.

The depression was worse the first summer after the treatment, and that was the summer that I spent weaving on my floor loom - I purchased the loom as my reward for getting through the chemo (chemo sucks, but I can do bald).  The meditative movements of weaving were very soothing to my psyche.  That is another thing I need to get back into - weaving.  I have been working in my studio, getting it neatened up and organized so I can start working in it again.  I want to get back into sewing as well as weaving, and potentially sewing clothes out of cloth that I have woven.  I have a couple of pieces of yardage that I wove during that first summer that have been waiting for me to get up the nerve to cut into them.

While I was in my studio this morning getting the rest of the leaf beads that I need I noticed a package of beads in a pile of beads that need putting away and realized that they were the leftovers from my first Watership Down.  That was when I realized that the purple beads that I used down the central panel of this Watership Down were actually from my Robin Hood stole (mine is called Maid Marian because it was done in purple) so they are size 6 beads, rather then the size 3 beads that the pattern called for.  I have enough of the size 6 purple to use them in the second border.

After finishing up the first border I checked my yarn usage and redid my estimate for the second border.  The first border used up 22 grams of yarn, only 2 grams over my initial estimate based upon yardage.  I calculated the number of stitches (13904) and determined the number of stitches per gram of yarn (632).  I then calculated the number of stitches in the second border and figured out that I'll need about 27 grams of yarn.  My fourth skein has 30 grams.  When I was working the first border (Chart 7) I left off the last row and instead bound off.  That left my working yarn positioned to perform the pick up of stitches for the second border (Chart 8).  I am trying to avoid having any ends to weave in, joining the skeins when I switch.  When I am done I should have only two ends to weave in, the beginning and the end.

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

Watership Down II - Charts 5 and 6 Done

I switched to the second skein at the end of row 10 of Chart 5, after using up all of skein 1.

And after completing Chart 6 I still had 16 grams of skein 2 left over.

I did some math and have figured out that I can do the first border in skein 3 and the second border in skein 4.

My first Watership Down was done in Selene, which has 875 yds/100 grams.  This shawl is being knit in Eos, which has 1260 yds/114 grams.

On my first Watership Down I used about 24 grams for the first border.  To make the math even easier, let's call it 25 grams.  So, dividing 875 yds by 4 gets me 218.75 yds, which I'll round up to 220 yds.  Doing the math (220 yds)*(114 g/1260 yds) is approximately 20 grams.

Similarly, I used 28 grams on the second border, so the number of yards I used would be (28 g)*(875 yds/100 g) = 245 yds.  I rounded that up to 250 yds and calculated the amount of yarn I would need as (250 yds)*(114 g/1260 yds) or about 23 grams.

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

Watership Down II - Charts 2, 3 and 4 Done

I have also been working steadily on my second Watership Down shawl.  So, here is Chart 2 finished.
And Chart 3.

And Chart 4.

I will be switching to Skein 2 somewhere in Chart 5.

I am trying to get this finished up because I am going to be test knitting Oliver Twist, the next Unique Sheep Mystery Knit Along.  I was quite flattered when Laura emailed me and asked if I would be interested.  Right now we're just reviewing the pattern while we wait for our yarn to arrive.  Yes, free yarn is part of the deal.  I will post a picture of my yarn and the beads I pick when it arrives, but that is all I will be able to do until after the knit along starts.

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

Watership Down II - Chart 1 Done

This yarn should look familiar - it is Moulin Huet and it was being knit up into the shawl of that same name.  Unfortunately for me that shawl pattern is true Shetland Lace, knit in garter stitch with patterning on both sides, and I just wasn't enjoying it.  It wasn't that it was too hard, although it did require a fair bit of attention on my part, it just wasn't fun to knit.  I like lace patterns that just seem to flow from my needles and this one just didn't.  I made it through the first chart and about half way through the second chart before I decided to frog it and knit something else with the yarn.

The whole time I was knitting the Moulin Huet pattern, Watership Down was whispering in my ear.  Several of the folks in the knit along had done Watership Down in lighter colors than I had and used a gradiance set that had more subtle color changes and those shawls are really lovely.  I checked the yarn amount on my project page for Watership Down and compared it to what I had in the Moulin Huet set and it looked good yardage wise, so I pulled out my Watership Down pattern and cast on.  And then I got to that first row with beads.  And I didn't have any that I thought would go.  I have some size 8 beads that matched the color of the first skein perfectly that I thought would look great against the skeins with the green, but I didn't have any size 6 beads that would work.  I went on line and found something that I thought would work and ordered it, but I wanted to knit now, not wait for beads to arrive, so I grabbed the beads that I had used on my first Watership Down, and they worked!  It has a sort of pumpkin and plum thing going on that I really like.  In keeping with that theme I will probably find some size 8 purple beads in my stash for the beading in the borders.

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

Watership Down - Finished

I finished up the knitting Saturday evening, and blocked it Sunday morning and took this picture before unpinning it.  I finished up Clue 7 two weeks ago, but didn't feel like pinning it out to get a photo of it.  To start clue 8 you have to pick up the slipped stitches on the edge of clue 7 and knit into the front and back of each one.  I did the picking up first, slipping each slipped stitch (both legs) onto a knitting needle in the proper orientation.  As you can imagine, this took a little while.  Then I knit into the front and back of each stitch.  This took me two evenings.  Clue 8 went reasonably quickly, for a Never-Ending-Border.  I used my Knit Companion app on my iPad for both clues.  It is really great when you have to repeat the same chart multiple times.

Here is a beauty shot on my dress maker dummy and a close up of the beads in the border.

This shawl design has lots of possibilities for playing with color because of the two knit on edges.  The body of mine took 44 grams of yarn, the first border took 36 grams and the second border took 28 grams.


Project:  Watership Down by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Selene in Insecta
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Watership Down - Clue 7 - Half way done

I spent most of yesterday working on my Watership Down mystery shawl and managed to get through half of Clue 7.  Clue 8, the final clue, came out this past Friday and one of the test knitters has posted a picture of her shawl on the spoiler thread, so it is no longer a mystery.  Clue 8 is another knitted on border, so after I finish this one, I get to pick up all of the slipped stitches on this border and then knit into the front and back of each one and do another border using skein 4 (on the left).

That will get me more into the browns.  This is an interesting shawl design and you could have a lot of fun playing with colors.

I have been using Knit Companion on my iPad while knitting the border (I also used Knit Companion while knitting my Open Eye Tunic).  I have found that the app is very useful if you are repeating a chart multiple times.  If you use the smart counter you can even set the number of repeats that you are supposed to do and it will keep track of them for you, which makes knit on borders (also know as never ending borders or NEBs) more bearable.  I did not use it when I was knitting the body of the shawl because there were three charts, and we were only going through each one once.  Plus they all fit onto a single page.

Project:  Watership Down by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Selene in Insecta
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Watership Down - Clue 6 Done

Clue 6 came out on Friday, but I didn't even start it until this morning.  I've been focusing on my Open Eye Tunic, trying to get that done.  This was a very short clue and worked up very quickly.

Project:  Watership Down by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Selene in Insecta
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Watership Down - Clue 5 Done

I finally finished up Clue 5 this afternoon.  I almost ripped the whole thing out this morning.  I was working on it yesterday when I discovered a mistake as I was working the second to last row.  I put the shawl in a time out for the rest of day.  This morning I tried lace surgery.  I thought I had found the mistake, but was mistaken, so I ended up ripping out 4 rows.  As I was working the pattern I finally discovered my mistake.  I hadn't ripped back far enough, but the mistake was a missed yarn over, which is pretty easy to fix.  So now the mistake is fixed and the clue is done.


Project:  Watership Down by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Selene in Insecta
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Watership Down - Clue 4 Done

Clue 4 of the latest Unique Sheep Mystery Knit Along, Watership Down, came out yesterday.  The last two clues have been pretty short and I easily finished them Friday night, but waited until Saturday morning so I could get a decent photo.  I can only spread out one wing at this point.  The first transition is at the start of this clue, but because I don't do transition rows anymore I delayed my skein switch until row 7 of Clue 4.  Why row 7?  If you do transition rows as recommended by The Unique Sheep the complete transition takes 12 rows, 6 of each color, consequently when a transition is called for I do 6 more rows of the current skein and then switch to the next skein during the 7th.

I've also done 5 repeats of the Eyelet Chart on the front of my Open Eye Tunics, and have several great projects lined up and waiting to be started.

Project:  Watership Down by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Selene in Insecta
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Watership Down - Clue 3 Done

Clue 3 of the latest Unique Sheep Mystery Knit Along - Watership Down - came out last night.  It was a short one and I easily finished it before I went to bed, but waited until this morning so I could get a decent shot.


Project:  Watership Down by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Selene in Insecta
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

When I came back downstairs I had to take a picture of my two cats crashed on my daybed.

Fred (on the right) has pretty much taken up residence in that spot.  Jasmine (on the left) has lots of places she likes to sleep, but has staked out the other end of the daybed.  This puts her between me and my husband (he has a leather recliner out of the shot on the left), so she can get lots of scritches.  As you can tell, the daybed is my center of operations for all things knitting and crochet.  The little project bag on the back holds my Unique Sheep Crochet Block of the Month. And the little red stack to the left of that are my iPad, a notebook and my Kindle.  There are also eye glasses and a set of crochet hooks to the left of those.  And my computer in the foreground.  Everything I need close at hand.

Watership Down - Clue 2 Done

Seeing as how it is Friday, that means that a new clue of the latest Unique Sheep Mystery Knit Along is out.  And, seeing as how it is furlough Friday (the last one, thank goodness) I was able to get it done today.

Project:  Watership Down by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Selene in Insecta
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Watership Down - Clue 1 Done

The latest Unique Sheep Mystery Knit Along started yesterday.  This is their lace weight one and is another shawl designed by Janine le Cras and inspired by a book, Watership Down, which I read ages ago.  For this one I decided to try a base I hadn't used before, Selene, which is 100% wool.  I picked a colorway that I had been eyeing for a while - Insecta.

Project:  Watership Down by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Selene in Insecta
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)