Winter Mystery Shawl 2010 - Finished

I finished this up this morning.  The last clue was easy and a pretty quick knit.  I read while purling back on the wrong-side rows.  I only have 38 grams of yarn left over though, which may not be enough to make the fingerless mitts.  And here is a better picture of Miss Chatelaine, looking very Audrey Hepburn.

Miss Chatelaine - Year of Lace 2010 - Finished

I finally finished Miss Chatelaine.  I took her with me down to Florida over Christmas when we went to visit family, and basically spent two days knitting.  I don't think that I have ever spent that much time just knitting lace.  I almost finished her too, but ran out of yarn with one repeat of the edging to go.  And the reason that I ran out of yarns is that I modified the pattern.  The pattern called for knitting both of the edges, repeating the edging pattern 3 times, and then picking up stitches on one of the edging pieces, and grafting the other edging to the body to finish.  There were a number of things about this construction that I didn't like.  1) The pickup stitch count did not evenly go into the number of rows on the edging.  2) Grafting with lace is not my favorite past time.  So, I made some modifications.  First, I did 4 repeats of the edging, this allowed me to pick up every other row for the body, provided I increased the garter stitch edges on the body from 2 stitches to 4 stitches.  When I got to the other edge, all I had to do was knit the edging on to the body.  I knew that I would be very close on yarn, and I almost made it.  I made an appeal on the Year of Lace forum on Ravelry, and one of the group members came to my rescue.

Miss Chatelaine - Year of Lace 2010 - 4 repeats done

I am almost half-way done with this shawl.  I have done 4 of the 9 repeats.  This is the first rectangular shawl that I have done.  An advantage that rectangular shawls have over triangular and circular shawls is that the rows stay the same length, rather than getting longer, and longer, and longer, and, well you get the idea.

The lace pattern is not as hard as it looks, and the yarn is dreamy to work with.  Very soft, and the variegation helps to alleviate the boredom of repeating the same chart 9 times.  This is my "easy" lace project for when my brain gets tired from working on the Fall Mystery Shawl, which is definitely harder.

Miss Chatelaine - Year of Lace 2010

This is the first shawl in the 2010 Year of Lace (the fourth and last shawl will be coming out next month).  I cast this on last weekend and finally finished the first repeat of the body chart.  One of the reasons that I waited on this one was because of the instructions for the construction of the shawl.  You are supposed to knit both edgings, then pick up stitches on one of them for the body and when you get to the other end you are supposed to graft the other edging to the body.  Well, frankly, grafting lace is not my idea of a good time, especially when you have 5 stitches on the edging for every 3 stitches on the body.

I pondered this shawl for a while, and watched what the other folks were doing before I decided to tackle it myself.  The first thing that I did was change how I started the edging.  You're supposed to knit a 2 stitch garter strip and then pick up stitches on the edge of that.  I just did a lace cast on.  I also added an extra repeat of the edging, bringing the row count up to 164, and cast off using a lace cast off.  The pattern called for doing the 2 garter stitch thing again.  I suppose that would have made the edge of the edging match the edging on the body of the shawl, but that really didn't matter to me.  I then picked up every other row for the body, which gave me 82 stitches, and added some extra stitches at the beginning and the end to get me up to 85 stitches - the pattern calls for 81 stitches - so I have 4 garter stitches at each edge, instead of just 2.

The yarn is Audrey,  by Schaeffer Yarn Company.  It is a light fingering/3 ply 50% merino, 50% cultivated silk blend.  It is wonderful to work with, with great stitch definition, and I love the colors.  I have really been drawn to these colors lately.  They just make me feel happy and warm and relaxed.

Belle Nuit - Finished!

 

I finally finished this shawl this morning (the picot cast off was all I had left) on the way up to Fort Belvoir for a meeting (no, I was not driving).  The beads really slowed things down, but they do look beautiful.  I know that I sang the virtues of using a needle and thread for placing the beads, but I switched back to the crochet hook method because it was considerably faster.

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.

Belle Nuit - Started Chart B

I've finished one repeat of Chart B.  I re-charted both Chart A and Chart B, mirroring the side pattern to make the shawl symmetric and getting rid of the purl stitches.  They really weren't doing anything for me from a design aspect, plus they were interrupting the flow of the knitting, so I decided to get rid of them.

I've been using a new piece of software for charting, Knit Visualizer.  I discovered it via ravelry.  It really made the charting easy, especially mirroring the side pattern.  I just copied the section and then mirrored it after pasting it.  I was able to print all three pieces of Chart A on a single sheet, but for Chart B I had to resort to three sheets, which provided a bit of a challenge when it came to actually knitting.  I use a magnetic board with magnet strips to keep my place in the pattern, but I needed 3 surfaces and only had two magnetic boards.  I solved the problem by putting the two side charts on opposite sides of one board.  I also put the charts plus boards into page protectors.  It has been working quite well. 

I'm using a needle to put the beads on the knitting rather than a crochet hook.  This is another technique that I picked up on ravelry.  It is really easy.  You just thread some beads on a needle and thread with a bead stopper (the spring in the picture) on the end.  When you need to add a bead, you just poke the needle through the loop of the stitch, pull it off the needle, slide the bead into place, replace the stitch and pull out the needle and there you are, easy as pie.  I was using a tiny crochet hook, but sometimes I split my yarn, and it was a bit fiddly.  This method is very reliable, and your beads stay safely corralled on your thread - no getting away and rolling onto the floor or into the cushions of the couch.  Just keep it away from curious kitties.

 

Here is a view of the back side of my setup for the center Chart B so you can see the magnetic board and one of the magnet strips.  I didn't think it would be cool to post pictures with the charts showing because you could get the pattern that way without paying the designer.

Belle Nuit - Finished Chart A

I finished Chart A of the shawl.  I actually started it over again.  It had a simple cable stitch bordering each section and I just couldn't stand the interruption in the flow of the knitting, and cabling with lace weight is just too fiddly, so I substituted two fake cable stitches - a right twist and left twist.  It made things go much quicker and gives a similar appearance as the original cable.  Before I can do much more, however, I need to get a smaller crochet hook.  I have a 1 mm, and I can get it through some of the beads, but a smaller one would make things much easier.  The pattern calls for a 0.6 mm one.

Belle Nuit - Year of Lace 2009 #4

 The fourth kit in the 2009 Year of Lace arrived this past Wednesday.  The yarn is Curious Creek Fiber Meru, a lovely 50% Tussah Silk, 50% Merino in my favorite color.  The designer is Sivia Harding.  The kit comes with blue color lined beads, but I think that I'm going to use the lavender instead.

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.