progress on lace is much slower than with bulky. by my calculations, i would have had at least two GAPtastics finished.
the color is more accurate on this shot.
about 5 repeats completed!
i will say my fingers like the smaller yarn and needles. my eyes…not so much.
when I first started this blog I was very particular about the pictures that I posted here. each was carefully edited and color corrected. these days I am lucky to have posted anything at all.
*so* I’m posting what I have! (mostly) unedited pics of my latest finished object:
a shawl for grandma kathleen. happy 87th!!
the color is more accurate here
i made her pose with it
blocking shot (thanks butter for helping me!)
i made butter pose too.
i actually have a small village worth of lace shawls that haven’t been blocked. and out of this stash I selected a beautiful pink triangle lace shawl. the name of the pattern is lost…i don’t seem to have it documented in ravelry. if you recognize it please let me know!!
happiest of birthdays to you, grandma!
last year i fell in love. with lace.
it was like another addiction hit me. socks no longer had their appeal. i just wanted to knit lace. and so i bought lace books and i stalked lace blogs and i loaded up the stash with lace and i dreamed lace and i knit lace and so on and so forth.
the most appealing patterns to me are those that are simple and geometric. the maltese shawl definitely fit the bill there. i also thought i would hate triangular shawls. i was wrong. (love them!) my first triangle was actually adamas, by miriam l felton.
i wish i had more time last year to knit. i didn’t get too many projects in. but i did manage to knit up adamas. and adamas was such a joy to knit i had to do an encore immediately.
the mil recieved this as a present. and as of 25 december 2008, she reports that she has yet to use it. meanwhile, my own adamas (no picture yet)…has been in regular rotation with my winter wear. (sigh). oh well. i did happen to snap some pics before i gave it to her in august.
unblocked
blocked
yo mama…in law… adamas
pattern: adamas by miriam l. fenton (my ravelry link)
knitpicks gloss lace in pinot
2 skeins | 440 yds : 50 g | 80 wool : 20 silk
started: june 26, 2008
finished: july 27, 2008
needles: US #4 knitpicks nickel plated options
notes: the color is a little dark in this picture. it’s more representative of the other shots. i used really only 1.5 skeins.
what fun to knit and really easy to wear. i only wish my mil wore it more (cuz i would!).
wow! it’s been a loooooooong time! is anybody out there? well, i’m not pretending that i’ll be posting regularly…i’m in the throws of my master’s program. only 6 more months to go! take heart, though! i have been knitting…
here is the last draft that i had in my queue:
(written on 30 april 2008)
i told you that I’ve been itching to knit some lace. so far my lace success stories only include fingering weight yarn (mostly socks…but there was the diamond shawl – which i totally love). this is mostly because I horde sock yarn.…er… the majority of my stash is fingering weight.
i do have some laceweight in the stash:
- penthouse silk lace in staton park by neighborhood yarn co. (from knitter’s connection ’07)
- zephyr silk-wool (knitter’s merc)
- knitpicks merino lace (where else?)
- skacel (vegas purchase)
- unknown yarn (dollar bin at a lys in gena’s hood)
I had originally balled up the skacel for the another shawl….but 12 rows in the project imploded. Since then i’ve been trying t find a project to fit the yarn. No go. The project found another yarn. a few days ago I started the maltese shawl from VLT. LOVE IT. However, I have only 7 repeats knit…out of 88!!!
the pattern itself is not difficult, but it is patterned on both sides so one must pay attention at all times. i suspect that i move on it will become easier to read my work. there are only 6 rows in each repeat, so keep your fingers crossed that i don’t get bored!
so….8 months later, i’ve resurfaced. (ah!) i’ve come to show you that project! (in fact, i’ve counted 15 total projects for 2008. some tiny…some big…and a lot of lace…but not so much with the pictures).
maltese wedding shawl
pattern: maltese shawl from vlt (ravelry link)
jaggerspun zephyr wool-silk 2/18 in charcoal
2 skeins | 630 yds : 2 oz | 50 wool : 50 silk
started: april 29, 2008
finished: june 14, 2008
needles: US #4 knitpicks nickel plated options
notes: a little long for me but i love it!
anyway, this lace project ended up being the shawl i wore for my wedding. yup! butter and i eloped! if jj ever finishes up with the pictures…maybe i can post some. (cough!!) anyway, please excuse the cheesiness….i was being silly and i was on a post-wedding high!
and as a last note…i miss my blogging buddies, you are often in my thoughts and yes, at times i do stalk you. i hope the holidays have found you well and…
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!
…why i don’t blog as much?
i thought i would steal a few moments and knit a few rows on my lace ribbon scarf. now before you scroll down and take a peek at the picture below, consider two things.
ok, take a deep breath and marvel at the stupidity:
wtf?!?! lace ribbon scarf
pattern: the lace ribbon scarf by veronik avery
knit picks gloss in cocoa
started: april 13, 2008
what you are viewing folks, is what looks like a bite out of my knitting. somehow i managed to stop knitting IN THE MIDDLE OF MY ROW and started to knit back. for at least and inch before i noticed.
please, just walk away and pretend you didn’t see this.
scarves have traditionally not been know to hold my attention. well, they’re so rectangular. and the monotony just kills me. but given my knitting mojo has been waning, and the fact that i’ve been itching to knit with my kp gloss yarn…i think i’ve found a nice little pattern to keep my knitting A-D-D at bay.
the lace ribbon scarf by veronik avery (ravelry link) from knitty.com.
once you get through the pattern repeat, you start to blaze through the rest of the scarf. i’m almost up to 20″ after the biggest loser finale and a night ‘on call’. this will make great car/travel knitting…it’s hard to make a mistake once you get a hang of the pattern. and BONUS!! i can knit backwards on non-patterned rows.
lace ribbon scarf
pattern: the lace ribbon scarf by veronik avery
knit picks gloss in cocoa
2 skeins | 220 yds : 50 g | silk merino 4 ply
started: april 13, 2008
needles: 1 – #3 (3.25 mm) knitpicks nickle plated fixed circs
incidentally do you have any other favorite lace scarf patterns for fingering weight yarns? i think i’m going to have knit more scarves!
remember i said in my last post that i had started another project before bellamonkey? actually, i tried to start a number of lace shawls. ‘tried’ being the operative word. and why wouldn’t i? the lace diamond stole was so fantastic! i wanted a shawl in every color!!
for me, though, the marriage of yarn and pattern is a sort of magical thing. i’ll troll for patterns through books, magazines and on the web, mentally noting what piques my interest. then i’ll browse the lys or e-tailers or the stash for yarn that catches my fancy. when doing one or the other, suddenly inspiration strikes, the stars align and poof! an obsession is born. at least 99% of the time. and at least until the first sock is born.
the other 1% i find a project that i love and (cough) plan to knit it up. admittedly, much less magical, but these projects also exist. meet clapotis.
2nd wave clapotis
in knitpicks bare fingering 100% merino
started: october 2007
needles: US #4 knitpicks options circular needles
notes: zzzzzzzzzzzzz
i have always wanted the have the clap (snort – sorry, i know that’s been overplayed but, come on, let a gal have some fun!). i saw clapotis as a way to stash bust. but, my stash is almost exclusively sock yarn in sock quantities. not so much with the choices. my second problem lies in the fact that i wanted a dark….scratch that….a black shawl/scarf. i may be thirty-ish but my eyes belong in a 90 year old’s eye sockets. that would be just asking for a migraine. (excuse me, waiter, i’ll have a migraine with some blurry vision. but, can you serve that on the side?).
i really wanted to make this project. it’s almost like a knitting milestone.
oh, you started knitting when? that’s fantastic! you must have knitted clapotis, didn’t you?!?
i wanted to be able to say yes to that question and be one of the hundreds that participated in the knitting web community. (i realize i have a blog…but clapotis is more than that i guess. i mean, i’m not the only one who wants to knit it). anyway, i had some kp bare lying around. it isn’t superwash so i didn’t want to dye it up for socks…instead i decided to use it for this project.
since the yarn is so plain i think the magic of clapotis is lost on me. I AM GOING TO FINISH IT, THOUGH. i’m about halfway through. i’m just not so obsessed like some people (it looks awesome carol!). once i dye it black i foresee it being used many times over.
butter has fixed me up a new computer and now i can start posting again!! hooray!! (thank you, babe!)…unfortunately, i still need to install a bunch of programs, including photoshop.
in my blogging absense i have been knitting feverishly on my stole (much to the dismay of my little army of single socks). i will eventually catch up with the sock knitting (and pictures)…but in the meantime, here she is, my arctic diamond stole:
i’m loving the lace…and i can’t wait for post blocking photos. i’ll give a better “fo roundup” when i get more time!
just for the hell of it, i calculated my actual progress on my lace stole:
- arctic diamond stole: 50,042 stitches
- progress thus far: 21,484 stitches
- percentage complete: 21,484 / 50,042 = 43%
holy sh*t that is a lot of stitches! no wonder i stick with socks. okay, now let’s compare…i took a pair from favorite socks (interweave press)…
- cable rib socks (p.73): 24,560 stitches
this project is roughly only twice the number of stitches as a pair of socks, but it’s taking me so long!!! i need to progress because i won’t start a new pair of socks until i finish some of my WIPs.
computer is still broken. (sigh). butter has been kind enough to let me borrow his laptop. but alas, it does not have a CF card reader (at least i don’t think it has one). so, i am using my daughter’s camera/computer setup…
here is an unretouched photo of my stole on her very bright bed.
please excuse the mess, her room is my new second office until my computer gets fixed and/or i have time to file all of the stuff away (i’m working nights again). anyway, it doesn’t seem very long, does it? i may add an extra repeat if i have enough yarn. do you think it will be long enough after blocking? unstretched it’s about 17 inches long…
once upon a time there was a sock knitter who thought she could knit lace. as with most things in life, she threw herself into the yo’s and k2t’s with wild abandon. yarn and needles blurred together with the ferocity of a hungry lion. and when she happened upon a mistake, undeterred, our herione would read her knitting, fix the problem and knit on….
the sock knitter rarely picked up a project that wasn’t a quick knit or quick fix. heck, she never knit anything that she couldn’t take with her anywhere. why bother? she had seen the woes of other knitters who had to rip back hours of knitting to fix a glaring mistake. but how could it happen to HER?!?
still, the thought nagged at her, ate away at her confidence every time she had to tink back or pick up a missed yo. when she wasn’t knitting she lamented the “what if” of having to rip back. the scenario consumed her, even when she brushed her teeth she thought, “surely you can’t as esily fudge a mistake in knitted lace”….then…dental floss in hand, she struck the knitting jackpot – A SAFETY LINE.
floss saftey line
please excuse the pic, can’t get the color right!
of course!! and knit picks has these handy little holes for which to thread the floss. (didn’t she read that somewhere?).
cavity free knitting!
and the idea came none too soon. for today our heroine had to rip back 10 rows because of a glaring mistake.
but no matter. because the saftey line had saved the day. the end.
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