The Lady in the Lake

I have seventeen more repeats of the border chart and then I will be done with my Evenstar Cape.  I took a break from my knitting yesterday to work on my modification of The Once and Future King to knit it from the center out.  I had already taken each chart and reversed the rows and changed the stitches that needed changing to maintain symmetry but yesterday I went through the entire pattern and adjusted it to make it even more strongly symmetrical. I decided to call it The Lady of the Lake.  As I was working on the charts I remembered this skein of yarn - Velvet Teal on Ling - that I had spotted stashed in a plastic bin of sewing patterns (don't ask).  I had originally gotten it for a mystery crochet along that The Unique Sheep ran several years ago.  My crocheting skills were not up to working lace weight so I never did the MCAL.  The skein is 90 grams, which should give me enough yarn to work the pattern.  I'll wind it into two 45-gram skeins so I can work it from the middle to the ends without cutting it.  I still have to decide on bead color, although I might go with the iridescent gold beads again, with gold daggers.  I've already used them on my Once and Future King and my Evenstar Cape, but I have plenty left.

The Little Mermaid - Done!

I finished this up last night.  Finally.  I did modify the pattern on the last row.  The arch didn't close in the original and I wanted it to.  Here is a blocking shot that I took last night with the flash.

The original pattern knit as a square shawl is very beautiful, but I think the three-quarter version came out pretty good, and I will actually wear it.  Mostly, it is just very nice to be done, considering I started it almost 2 years ago.

Pattern:  The Little Mermaid by Janine le Cras
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Ling in Bliss
Needle:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

The Little Mermaid - Clue 7 Done!

I've been plugging away at this steadily all week.  I actually am not quite complete with Clue 7, I still have to do the wrong side row but I wanted to get a photo before I lost the light.  It is getting pretty hard to stretch it out to get the photos, but that is okay, because the next time I photograph it will be when it is blocking.  Yes, I am about to start the final clue.

Pattern: The Little Mermaid by Janine le Cras
Yarn: The Unique Sheep Ling in Bliss
Needle: US 3 (3.25 mm)

The Little Mermaid - Clue 6 Done!

Clue 6 was a repeat of Clue 4 - lace lattice, so it was pretty easy and fairly quick.  I am liking the colors, but with the Ling I am finding it harder to read my lace.  I don't know if it is the fineness of the yarn, the tight twist, or the silk content, but the stitches slide against each other and distort easily, making it harder to tell what is going on.  It will be very interesting to see how it blocks out, and see if I made any mistakes.  I might have, the spines between the sections are sometimes hard to spot, so I may have missed a yarn over or two, but I am not going to worry about it.  Just two more clues to go.

Pattern: The Little Mermaid by Janine le Cras
Yarn: The Unique Sheep Ling in Bliss
Needle: US 3 (3.25 mm)

The Little Mermaid - Clue 5 Done!

I had actually knit two-thirds of this clue right after finishing clue 4, but then set it aside while I focused on getting caught up on my crochet blocks.  I picked this back up yesterday after finishing my March 2013 crochet blocks.  This clue was a bit more challenging to work because it has lace patterning on all rows.  This is not an issue when you are knitting it in the round (or the square, as the case may be), but when you are knitting flat you have to do those lace stitches from the wrong side, so to speak.  It wasn't as hard as I was afraid it would be.  I fired up my lace charting software (Knit Visualizer) and made myself a new key for the stitches so I could get the instructions for doing them on the wrong side.  I had to do some purling two together through the back loop, but the yarn has a nice twist so it doesn't fray easily, and my Addi Lace needles are nice and pointy.  The shawl looks like a squidgy mess right now, and I am amazed at how much it scrunches on the needles.  I could put it on longer needles, but I really don't like working on the really long ones, I just find them awkward to handle.  I am looking forward to the reveal when it is finally done and blocked.

Pattern: The Little Mermaid by Janine le Cras
Yarn: The Unique Sheep Ling in Bliss
Needle: US 3 (3.25 mm)

The Little Mermaid - Clue 4 Done!

Clue 4 was a quick and easy one, a few rows of garter stitch setting off some lovely lace netting.  One of the reasons I like these mystery knit alongs is the way they break up big projects into manageable pieces, even when I do them long after the mystery has been revealed.

Pattern: The Little Mermaid by Janine le Cras
Yarn: The Unique Sheep Ling in Bliss
Needle: US 3 (3.25 mm)

The Little Mermaid - Clue 3 Done!

I started on this Clue yesterday but I had to tink back and start it over.  You see, I am constitutionally unable to knit an asymmetric lace pattern.  I just can't do it.  I made it through the first asymmetry on row 3, it was just a yarn over and a slip-slip-knit.  Such a little thing.  But when I got to row 7 there was that yawning space, 10 knit stitches where there should have been something else and I just couldn't go on, I could not force myself to knit another stitch.  So, I fired up my charting software and redid the center section to make it symmetrical.  Then I tinked back to row 4, figuring I could fix that first asymmetry with a little bit of surgery, which I did, and continued on my merry way.

Pattern: The Little Mermaid by Janine le Cras
Yarn: The Unique Sheep Ling in Bliss
Needle: US 3 (3.25 mm)

The Little Mermaid - Clue 2 Done

It is nice to finally be making progress on this shawl.  It has been sitting in the bottom of a project bag for too long.  Even with a 40" needle I can only get the center triangle stretched out, but I am liking the colors and the beads.

It has been a while since I have worked with lace weight, there was a stretch when that was all I was knitting.  I guess I go through phases.  Right now I am mostly working crochet blocks, between working on my languishing projects.  The blocks are quick, fun projects that satisfy my need for something new without totally derailing me from the longer duration projects like this one.

Pattern: The Little Mermaid by Janine le Cras
Yarn: The Unique Sheep Ling in Bliss
 Needle: US 3 (3.25 mm)

The Little Mermaid - Clue 1 Done

I left work a little bit early yesterday and stayed home today with a migraine.  Not so much pain today as fatigue, a little nausea, and a fuzzy brain.  I re-cast on The Little Mermaid last night, after a nap, and it took me at least an hour to figure out how I wanted to do that.  Fuzzy brain.  Definitely a fuzzy brain.  I finished up Clue 1 today and got two rows into Clue 2 before my brain gave out and I decided to crochet instead.

The yarn for this shawl is Ling, a 70/30 Merino/Silk blend.  This is the first project I have knit with it, and despite the proportions, it really feels like the silk dominates.  The color is Bliss and I was going for iridescent mermaid tail scales.  We'll see if the variegation works with the lace.

Patten: The Little Mermaid by Janine le Cras
Yarn: The Unique Sheep Ling
Needles: US 3 (3.25 mm)