DONE! FO: Diamonds and Triangles shawl

DONE!

Pattern: Diamonds and Triangles stole from Victorian Lace Today
Yarn: Baruffa Cashwool, nearly a full hank
Needles: US size 7, three brands.
Cast on date: November 2007
Cast off date: September 24, 2009

That's right. It took me nearly two years to finish this behemoth. I began it, finished the center and put it aside, worked on the edging, got bored and put it aside. Rinse and repeat until a couple of weeks ago when I decide that it will be perfect with the dress I've bought for the opening of my museum. At that point I have the edging complete on two sides, so I've about half the edging to go. And I kick it into high gear. I finished knitting it on the 24th and had it ready to wear on the 25th.

If I were to knit this again (which I don't plan on) I would absolutely use smaller needles, and probably a slightly thicker yarn. It was very fiddly. The pattern itself is quite straightforward. I find that I have a strong preference for shawls knit in one piece, instead of having to knit an edging on after knitting the body.

Technically speaking, there are problems with this shawl. I had some difficulty with the corners - I had to fudge one or two things here or there. There are a couple of mistakes in the edging. And my weaving in of ends isn't very good. In short, this isn't a fair piece. But I don't worry about it because the shawl is black, which makes a lot of things hard to see, and because of the size.

One thing this piece is, is enormous. I blocked it out to about 3' by 7'. And I didn't even block aggressively... It's also very warm. The wool is soft and kept me warm all night long at the opening.

Preblocking, with a meter stick.


Blocking on my alphabet foam blocks, with a meter stick. You can also see the line created by grafting. I pulled the kitchener tight, rather than making it invisible.


Blocking cat deterrent devices. We had a little problem the last time I blocked...


Post blocking detail


Wearing the shawl with my dress from the opening. Not the shoes though. My feet were tired from the heels.


Higher contrast posing:



Fluttery detail shots:

Lace ambitions

I didn't get so far as I had hoped yesterday. I did a couple repeats during the movie and another one later. Here's a big mess of black. I'm getting a little worried - it's going to be tight at the end for yarn.


But, in other news, I got packages today. First package is a very pretty sock needle holder from my pal Madam, which normally would be enough to thrill me, but it got a bit overshadowed by the second package.


Second package!


Knitted Lace Designs of Herbert Niebling! Printed by Lacis and available through School House Press (who had VERY fast shipping, big thumbs up there).

With pretty things like this:


And this:


And this:


Such lovely lace designs. I swoon. ... But first the edging.

The Green Mile vs. the Edging

Sunday, 1:43 pm PST: I have 8 repeats of the edging left to go on the Diamonds and Triangles Stole. I have about 3 hours of the Green Mile to watch. How far can I get? My money is on three repeats, when you count in interruptions. Hoping for more. Wish me luck.

FOs: Socks and Lilac Leaf Stole-ish

It's Labor Day in the US. Time to show off the fruits of my labor.

First up is a pair of socks for Ms. PolarG who will be starting a nursing program very soon! They're simple socks in Elann's Natural Merino sock yarn, with a contrast heel and toe from leftover Dream in Color Smooshy I had from my Killa socks. They were worked two at a time, two up, with a peasant heel (or is it an afterthought heel? I'm not sure there's a difference.). The ribbing may look familiar - it's the same as the Spey Valley socks, a 5x2 rib.


And then there's my Lilac Leaf Stole from Knitted Lace of Estonia. It took 4 balls of Naturally Dawn 2 ply, three of which I had in my stash and one which I had to hunt down in a panic when I realized I was running out of yarn. Three balls had the yardage the pattern asks for. I was using a needle size up from the pattern requirements. Yet my stole still blocked out much smaller than the measurements in the pattern. (14" x 56" rather than 20" x 66")

Naturally, I didn't swatch. I never swatch for lace because I'm all kinds of mavericky. I think, if I did it again, I would go up yet another needle size for a looser knit. The Dawn, while called a lace yarn, seems more like a light fingering to me. The yarn itself is soft, but tends to be a bit splitty. I hope it holds up well - I have six more balls of the stuff because I'm a sucker for silk blends.

The pattern, now that I get to it, is pretty easy! The center motif is memorizable, and the edging lends interest. Least favorite part of the project? Kitchenering the top edge to the body. Kitchenering is nice, and creates a good effect if done properly, but over 95 stitches? Oy. Still, all in all, I like the stole, even if I wish it were a bit bigger. Let's go to the photos:




In this photo you can see where the kitchener is. My tension on that is all kinds of wonky. Nancy Bush, in her wisdom, incorporates the kitchener into a garter stitch row, so it's a less heinous offense to have wonky tension.

FO: Simurgh Stole

It is done! My Simurgh Stole is complete. The specs:

Yarn: Hana from ArtFibers in San Francisco. 100% silk yarn
Needles: Knitpicks options, sizes 4 and 5
Cast on: January 25th, 2009
Finished blocking: April 16th, 2009
Notes: Made the petite version.

This yarn is beautiful, although it appears to be discontinued. I bought it while in San Francisco at a conference. Definitely a splurge yarn. It is extremely, extremely soft. The color is a silver grey with darker and lighter areas. It looks like steel in the shade (above), but like silver in the sun (below).

I liked the pattern, although there were some things I did not enjoy. There's a lot of yarn overing into a purl stitch, mirrored by yos into knits, so it was annoying to try and balance the two. I ended up taking the advice of another lace knitter to just pull the yarn forward over the needle and not do a wrap and a half, like I usually do. Pulling the yarn forward means that you have to untwist the stitch on the next row, but it makes the yos more even. For some reason, I HATED doing the edging on the first half, but it completely flew by on the second half. Using interchangeable needles was handy for the edging.

Since this stole is knit from the center out, you do a provisional cast on to begin with and then pick up from the provisional cast on to do the second half. I find that very challenging. I may have moaned about it earlier on this blog. But I think, in the end, it looks pretty good. Not a perfect center, but not horrible.

Even though I knit the smaller size of the stole, it's still pretty big. At least six feet. I'm about 5'6", for reference.

I think that, because this is 100% silk and a bit heavier yarn, the blocking isn't going to hold very well. I can see it beginning to stretch out of shape already. Blocking wires were a blessing for this piece, by the way; I can't imagine pining out all those many tiny points of the edging. Well, I suppose I could, but I don't want to.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with this piece. I can wear it as a large scarf or as a stole, and I think I even have enough yarn left over for a cowl or something. Which is fantastic, because this yarn is so soft I want to have it next to my skin as much as possible.