Archive for Lace

Super Shawl Shimmy

November 26, 2008 at 12:55 am · Filed under Knitting Disasters, Lace, Miscellaney, Works In Progress

After I took the Lace Leaf off the needles yesterday, I didn't put it back on the needles right away because I knew it was a job that would require some concentration. After Iris went to sleep, I started to get it back on, only to have the needle come up missing. I decided to cast on for new socks rather than hunt up the missing needle, but letting that shawl sit with all those naked, loose stitches made me uneasy all day. I turned the living room upside down tonight, found the prodigal needle, and got the shawl back on. Phew! All is right with the world.

Or rather, it would be if I hadn't realized after re-needling that I actually need to frog two more rows than I did. So it all has to come off again, and the cycle begins anew. I am comforted by the fact that it could always be worse. So much worse!

In other shawl related news, I ordered the Lotus Blossom Shawl pattern from Fiddlesticks Knits. It's definitely the most I've ever paid for a pattern, and I don't mind telling you that it's driving me crazy that there's no option to download it as a PDF. It's not just a matter of the internet spoiling me with instant pattern gratification (even though it totally has!) I like having the security of the PDF saved to my hard drive. Around here, a lot can go wrong with a printed pattern! I could scan it into the computer myself, but buying it in PDF format is just so much more convenient! But, the shawl is gorgeous and I have some yarn here that just screams Lotus Blossom to me. (Hint: New yarn, not my Pigeonroof Studios. Not yet, my precioussss.) I've heard about the greatness of Fiddlesticks charts, so maybe it will be worth the pain of waiting for snail mail after all.

While I'm waiting for my pattern to get here (and avoiding taking Lace Leaf off the needles to frog AGAIN) I'm swatching, swatching, swatching. If you're not a rabid Sundara fan, you might have missed this great post about lace yarn and needle sizes- check it out! Good stuff!

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Spinning Crunchy Style

November 20, 2008 at 8:06 pm · Filed under Lace, Spinning, Works In Progress

Hippie1

This is a bobbin full of singles I spun up a couple night ago from a Hippie Art Chick batt, 75/25 wool and soy silk. I bought two ounces at the fiber festival, then two more in the same colorway (Flower Power!) at Rebelle. It's so pretty as a single, I kind of wish I didn't have to ply it. It's spun a bit too tightly to be left as singles now, so hopefully I'll like the plied product just as much. I really liked spinning the soy silk bits. I'm not sure how it compares to real silk, but it was soft and drafted easily.
Hippiechickfp

Spinning has slowed down here lately due to focusing on other projects, like my recycled sweater blanket and Lace Leaf Shawl. I'm about halfway done with piecing together the blanket, and on my ninth repeat of the shawl. You are probably tired of hearing about it by now, but I just love my shawl so much! I keep thinking that any moment, I am going to get sick of it, but row after row, repeat after repeat, I'm still chugging along, happily entertained. I've gotten the lace pattern down enough that I can do it with very minimal reference to the chart. It's really easy once you get into the rhythm of it, and I think that picking a DK weight yarn was a good decision. I can really see progress happening!

I'm aiming for thirteen repeats, plus the edging. The first ball lasted all the way to the end of the seventh repeat. I'm curious to see how many repeats I'll get out of the second. I think the whole thing will probably end up using three, but we'll see how it goes. This project has really opened up my mind to the possibilities of shawl knitting. It might be too ambitious, but I'm thinking I might try an actual lace-weight lace shawl for my next project. I love this one! And this one! Ooh, and this one!

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