My rendition of the Birch Shawl is done. It took me a long time to get the pictures sorted. The light colour of the yarn, overcast skies amd wind all conspired to ruin the Sunday photo-shoot.
More than once, I arranged for pictures, when a gust of wind blew it the darn thing out of position. Kid silk haze is so light and delicate that even a small gust really got her moving.
To finally get some definition on the lace, I hunted down a dark blue blanket.
The difference between a light and dark background is so clear in these photos.
Here's a close-up of the neck edge and the birch pattern. The pattern forms squarish leaves.
This should give you a sense of the dimensions. The shawl is over 6 feet wide. (The fence panel is 6 feet wide)
But, so light, I can string it onto the branches of this plum tree without worrying about damaging the branches.
I've decided to name this pattern Kiri. According to Rowanette Carol, the ferm (which this pattern is based on), is New Zealand's national emblem. The only Maori name that I could find was Kiri and I wasn't sure how Ms Te Kanawa would feed about having a shawl named after her, but I found Kiri easier to spell than Maori (is it pronounced as May-OR-ri or More-RI)
And just for Tink, a few frolicking pictures.
And the question that all girls ask, do you think my backside looks big in this? (heehee, you don't have to answer that)
I'll post the pattern tomorrow, I just can't stomach Microsoft Word formatting hell at the moment.
I've finally finished my beaded bag. It's very similar to the star bag that I did last year. The only difference is that I made it a little bigger and gave it a rounded bottom. The square one was a little too small for a pair of socks, so I knew that I had some work to do to convert it.
It still think that it's a very pretty litttle bag and doing it in the round means a lot less sewing-up. (A very good thing since I've managed to misplace all my tapestry needles. I wonder if they are hiding in the same place that single socks go?)
I think that I meade the twisted cords a tad too long, so I had to wind it about 10 times around the bag. Part of me wants to re-do them, but the other part (obviously more intelligent part) tells me that I should leave well enough alone.
When knitting in the round, blocking, isn't really an option. So I steamed it. Rolling a sheet up and stuffing it into the bag, a few powerful squirts of steam later and voila, much more even stitching.
(amendment below on Sunday)
Here's the photo, I took on Sunday. I love the natural lighting. That hydrangea is still hanging onto her leaves.. but they are all yellow now.
The knitting stuff
I've started a new project and it's not lace. In fact, it's small blue cotton bag, that I'm making as a kind of a wrapping for a pair of socks that I made for a Christmas present. The French are really good at wrapping presents. The wrapping is normally so lovely that you just don't want to unwrap the present.
So rather than give a pair of sock, I'm wrapping them in a a little bead bag. Now the problem is....
I was feeling a bit mingy and I bought the cheaper beads when I was in NY. The Japanese beads were $3.00 more, so I bought the ones made in Hong Kong. The hitch is (and there is always a hitch), the beads are a little more irregular in shape and the aperture runs from big to tiny. So it took me about 2 hours to thread 700 beads.
OK , if I knit very fast, I might get a picture up before I go to bed.
Now, my Secret Pal 2 is a real sweetheart. I mean her name is Valentina, so I mean that figuratively as well as literally. She sent me another little present. (really should not spoil me like this). See that scarf book? Well, it's true all scarves are not created equal. I've lusted after this book since reading Froggy's review. My bookcase groaned (what another knitting book!). My husband groaned (the E numbers.. you can't possibly drink that stuff, then later, DYE...what do you mean DYE in my kitchen) and me, well, I was like the cat with the cream. Thanks Valentina. ... you are soooo kind.
More from my sister's wedding
This picture I display for Amelia. Amelia was a real trooper when I was in NY, she voluntarily went shopping with me for my shower favours for me sister. I didn't want to break the bank and preferred to get something nice, even if it meant a smaller quantity.
In the end, we went to l'Occitane. I bought large packs of 15 guest soaps (they were so yummy) and 30 little things of Shea Butter. I asked for raffia and cellophane and spent about 3 hours wrapping these.
In the UK, people don't really do the Hen (Batchoerlette) Party, Spa Day and bridal shower. It's all a lot more low key. The key differences from each of these parties are different. For example, the shower is a proper party that you can invite the mother of the bride and groom. No raunchy games and strippers.... You can even invite the boss. While it's usually done in someone's home, due to the number of people travelling, we had to hold it in a restaurant since it was so close to the wedding date.
Here's the cake.
Spa Day is really between the bride and her bridal party. It's just a girls' day out. You all get pampered and treat the bride to something fun and relaxing.
Hen Party is a wild night out. No, I'm afraid we opted out of this one.
One way or another I was not going to let this shawl defeat me. When working neck-down, it's very, very difficult to estimate how much yarn you'll use up when you get to the bottom of the shawl. The rows get longer and longer and it's very easy to get caught short. Normally, the thing to do, would be to go out and buy more yarn to finish off the edging. Since I was trying to make BNG, still awaiting a name , with the front-runner being Maoiri, to use the same amount of yarn as Sharon Miller's birch, my over optimism meant that I had to rip back 15 rows of greater than 400 stitches in kid silk haze. I seriously needed a stiff drink after that!
Somehow, I managed to do it without make a total mess of it all.
Here she is... too late for an outdoor photo and she deparately needs a blocking. I haven't decided on wet blocking or pin and spray yet.
I'll post the pattern up next weekend, after the photos and blocking so I can give some accurate measurements.
The second ball of kid silk haze took me just over 7 hours to do (7 hours 12 minutes), but that's because I had a 4 hour continuous block of knitting time last Sunday. The third ball took me 11 hours 10 minutes, but 2 hours 8 minutes were spent labouriously unravelling. So new birch should take approx 24 hours to do. Mind you, if you run short of yarn, go out and buy another ball, this stuff is murder to undo and you have to be gentle or it can get a bit bald in spots.
So how much, KSH did I have left, after casting off...? Not much.
The difference between natural light and pictures in a darkish house with a flash. The shawl actually looks purple, not some shade of chocolate brown. (not that I have anything against chocolate or browns). What the pciture doesn't capture is the subtities of the yarn, that gives the purple its depth. I can see why so many people love shetland wools.
I've stretched it out along the fence to show the proportions off. I ended up with a shawl that was between the small and large size, because I thought that it was the right length/width. Not because I got bored working with it.
Only with a close-up can you really see how the beads look. I couldn't find any purple ones, so I went with glass beads with silver foil. It's kind of subtle. The shawl came out much warmer than I'd thought and although slightly felted (yes, you can tell), it's feels much fuller than on the needles.
I woke up this morning to a crisp and cold day. There was even a frost on the ground. The husband assured me that it was even more spectacular about 2 hours earlier, when I was still lazing in bed. It's hard to get out of bed once it starts getting cold. Who would willingly subject themselves to the cold when they could snuggly more deeply in their duvets?
When I finally managed to get myself going, after coffee and a bit of breakfast, I went out to the garden for the weekly photoshoot. (My neighbours have workmen working on their house at the moment and they were staring at me as I dragged out my chair and various pieces of knitting. ) They must have contacts in the building trade, as I can't seem to ever get any workmen to work a 7 hour day during the week day, let alone come in on the weekend.
Birch - NG
I've been knitting away on Birch -NG. It seems like this patterns needs a new name. It's a rework of the fern pattern, but it's not exactly birch either, so let's call it Birch - Next Generation, until I get a better name.
I've forgotten what a pain in the a*** it is to work with this yarn. It takes forever to finish 1 ball, and I'm not a slow knitter. Not fast like Wendy, but fast along the mortal scale ;-)
Less I start sounding like Tink, it was not fun when I had to unravel a few rows to fix a small problem. Yes, I am one of those lazy people that don't use lifelines.
This is where I got to with one ball of Kid Silk Haze. (I've just joined in the second ball and did a row in it. Blocked out, it would be approx. 36 inches wide, 22 inches deep. A nice kerchief size, don't you think? I'll try and remember to measure as I finish each ball, so that if you get a bad case of the 'I'm so bored, this will never get done', you can anticipate how much of a kerchief you'll end up with.
I've stretched this over the top of the chair so that you can see the pattern a bit better. It took me nearly 8 hours (7 hours, 47 minutes to be exact) to knit up ball 1, so I reckon maybe in 2 weeks time, I'll be done with the test knitting and be able to share the pattern with you.
Don't you just love this colour? It's called Jelly and while it may look like a flourescencing green, it reminds me of Granny Smith apples.... which is appropriate for an autumn project, don't you think?
First to answer a few questions:
1. From Lisa - Where did the Leaf Lace Pattern come from ?
The Leaf Lace Pattern is a Fiber Trend Pattern. The patterns written by Evelyn Clark are fantastic. There are written instructions as well as charts. Charted lace patterns are much easier to read.
2. How do I knit lace so fast?
I haven't actually done the leaf lace shawl very quickly. I started in back in October. It was also my primary knitting project. Repetitive patterns go very quickly once you've learned that patterns. The beauty of these shawls are that they are written from the neck down, so you learn the pattern on small numbers of stitches and are less likely to make mistakes (which is what is so time consuming when working lace patterns. Nightmare when you have to unravel).
Oh and when work stresses me, I sleep less and knit more.
Knitting on the run
If you're starting to panic about your Christmas knitting, then may I suggest socks? These are my commuting project. I only work on them when I have spare moment (sipping my weekend coffee at Starbucks, waiting on line, waiting for a train, on the train, etc). It makes me think of how much time we spend in our lives either waiting for something or traveling to somewhere.
I like simple patterns and textures for socks. Stocking stitch is OK too, but I don't do colourwork socks because it's hard to take it out for 10 minutes and stuff if back into your bag. Come to think of it, I haven't done any colour knitting this year, maybe 2005 will be the year of colour. 2004 was definitely the year of lace.
Socks are really the perfect present. So utilitarian, so comfortable and unlike a scarf it's got a personal touch. So what are you waiting for? Go make some socks for someone special....
(I know, I sound smug and like all years before, by December I will probably be calling Colinette in a panic for something to knit on my 15mm).
First the knitting stuff....
Remember the Leaf lace shawl that I'd started, in purple Shetland wool? I'm pleased to say that it's doing quite well. It came off the needles this afternoon, and is currently soaking away in my sink.
The water was filthy. The yarn was full of lanolin and while it was intensively nourishing to my hands, it's going to leave a pretty nasty ring in my sink. I love working with shetland yarn. It blocks out so well and it's available in some many colours and so many different weights.
(Going to add some pictures when I've got it pinned out. Sorry, lighting is not so good to show this off)
I just took it out of the sink and one thing that I must remember, do not swish it around too vigourously or the shetland will felt. My shawl felted just a tiny bit, not the end of the world, but I am annoyed that after all that hard work, it's not perfect. It's pinned out at the moment, while the camera is getting a charge.
Non-knitting stuff
Did you catch Touching the Void on tv on Thursday? Wasn't it just the most amazing thing? It's a true story about 2 climbers that made it up the Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes in 1985 and ran into trouble coming back down the mountain. Simon Yates attempted a one man mountain rescue of Joe Simpson, after Joe broke his leg. Under dire circumstances, he was forced to cut the rope with Joe on the other end. Joe survived the fall, and made it back down the rest of mountain by himself with a broken leg (that took 6 subsequent operations to correct). It was absolutely gripping. The human spirit's fight to survive. I need to go watch Kenneth Branagh's Shackleton again.
Hard to believe that I'm already at the mid-point of the Six Sox Knit-along. So far, there's been a lace, cable and a simple rib pattern. It's all been good fun, but I think the Fluted Bannisters were the easiest and fastest to knit. It's the perfect commuting project. I can just yank these out when I have 5 or 10 minutes and actually make headways.
First, there was the Clover Leaf Eyelet sock.
Then we were tortuously Making Waves.
.. and then there were the fluted bannisters.
The fluted bannisters are the easiest and most forgiving to knit. I like the simple rib and the unisex style. I love textures because I can count the repeats easily. These are the first of the 2004 Christmas present list to be completed. I couldn't resist posing them on my hydrangea. In a few weeks time, all the leaves would be gone, but for now, I love the way the colours changes.
that I'm crazy, but ...
Sharon Miller's birch shawl, featured in Rowan 34 is based on the classic fern lace motif, which comes in many variations. It is a classic shetland motif and works really well either on it's own or as a panel within a larger design. The charm in Birch is it's simplicity. It's such a lovely pattern, easily and effectively executed on Kid silk haze, giving it a gossamer effect that is warm and feminine. The pattern only used 3 balls of KSH, at 75g, it's the perfect shawl to not only drape over your shoulders in the house, but to wear over your shoulders thoughout the year.
The only problem was the design required you to cast on nearly 300 hundred stitched and to work until you got to the point of the shawl. Whilst birch isn't a particularly difficult pattern, a lace newbie might have some problems learning the pattern on so many stitches. Kid Silk Haze is also not the most amenable yarn to be ripped and reknitted. The mohair makes the stitches cling together for dear-life when you try to frog or knit, whilst exhibiting an alarming tendency to slide off the needles whenever you put this thing down. It was virtually impossible to count the stitches when casting on and casting on loosely was not easy (especially with the stress of casting on nearly 300 stitches). Working such fine yarn on large needles (recommended 5mm) was also another nightmare.
So, I've reworked this pattern, so that
(1) you get a triangular lace shawl using the fern pattern
(2) You don't need to cast on 300+ sitches. For my version, you use a provisional cast on of 3 stitches
(3) You're knitting from the neck down, but you can stop when you get fed up and don't need to knit until you're at the point. This is because the point is always there.... really... you can see it after the second repeat.
(4) Tension? what's that? for those of you allergic to doing tension squares, you can stop when the shawl is wide/long enough. If you have a low threshold for boredom, you'll probably end up with a 'kerchief.
(5) I've test knitted this swatch from the charts, but I'll write up written instructions and test knit those as well.
Here's the swatch.
I've even wet blocked it to check that it lies flat, is triangular and I get a nice edge on the cast-off. I'd tried several edgings and cast-offs before I was satified with the elasticity and integrity. As you can obviously see. I'm not as fastidious with my swatching as I am with knitting actual projects. The center stitches could had been better executed on a few of those rows and I would add an extra repeat of the fern leaf on the outer edges of the shawl edging. But what the heck, it seems to work and it give me a good idea of how this is put together. I haven't decided, but I might make the edging a bit pointier.
Now that most of the jiggery pokery is done, maybe, I'll go hunt for some Kid Silk Haze and see how that turns out.