Hmm, this has been lingering for quite a while. Two years ago I posted about this one, saying it was a struggle. Of course it hasn’t seen the light of day much since then, except for a few angst-ridden moments when I’d look at it, feel a similar sense of frustration, and put it back away again. After moving to my apartment I had a bit of a reorganization task in front of me. I pulled out all the things that needed attention (including the Blue Lace Disaster ^TM, if you click through the link above) and I sat looking at this project for a very long time. I had the back and sleeves done up to the point that I’d need to decide how they would be joined. In a small burst of inspiration, I shoved them all on the same needle and started doing a mock raglan thing to finish them off – only to realize that it would be difficult to get the front pieces to look ok if I continued in this manner.

Then there was the loopiness on the one edge of the back piece:

And then I thought, as I held the sleeves up to my body, that there was a definite puffiness just above the cuff that I did not want. The gauge was too loose that it seemed unstable. A wave of dismay hit hard – this was not going to work. All the time I spent learning the stitch, doing the math, procuring extra balls of yarn, trying to think about what it would ultimately look like…all for naught. Well, except getting the extra yarn, since I’m not giving up on it entirely. I think it took about 5 minutes with the ball winder to rip the entire thing out. However, needle sizes were changed, swatches knitted, calculations calculated – and it has been reborn already. This time I’m going with a raglan construction. I’ve already got a couple of inches in (pictures to follow when there’s something interesting about it – let’s face the fact that all raglan sweaters start off looking essentially the same), and it has a V-neck which should meet right under the bust (note to self: BUST DARTS on BOTH SIDES), and when I get low enough down I’ll start the basketweave stitch along the edges, probably about half as deep as the photos above. The sleeves will be determined by how much yarn the sweater eats. I want the body to fit comfortably, definitely with positive ease. If it ends up with a cap sleeve, then so be it – it’s cotton after all, so it was never going to be a warm garment. Ideally I’d like to shoot for something that hits at the elbow. I don’t do long sleeves, generally, so I doubt I’ll be disappointed however it turns out.

Ishbel had been calling my  name since I first saw it – it’d seen it knitted up in a variety of yarns and it seemed to be one of the (very) few lace patterns that look acceptable in varigated yarn.  I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try!

I’m pretty pleased with the result – the key thing I’ve found that makes varigated yarns more versatile is to have little variation in the colours themselves.  In this case, even though you can spot a few pools of the yellow, the colours in general are pale enough not to be distracting.  This yarn is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock, in “Clara’s Garden”.  Here’s a close up of the lace:

I think it’s lovely!  It’s quite a bit tinier than I expected but I think it’ll make an elegant scarf, as well as a shoulder warmer.

Next up, I don’t think I ever posted the completed Pie Wedge Shawl.  Let’s see how much this contrasts with the Ishbel!

Woah, huge colour difference!  I LOVE this though.  The garter stitch makes it a very squishy shawl, and it’s huge, especially as compared to the Ishbel.  A knitting buddy of mine said it looked like it was shaded with pencils, and I have to agree!  This is Lorna’s Laces Helen’s Lace in Bittersweet.

Even though I have a ridiculous amount of projects started already, I cast on for another.  Meet Saryoan (Ravelry Link):

I love the leaves!  The original specs for this scarf is a narrow trapezoid, but mine definitely won’t be.  The designer wrote this pattern to be very flexible; I’m not sure if I’ll make it a triangle (thus, skipping the straight section entirely) or if I’ll do the straight section with some increases/decreases thrown in to make the middle curve gently.  I have 2 equal balls of yarn, so the triangle would be easy since I would start the decreases as soon as I ran out of the first ball.  It’s early days though, so I’m not committing for the moment!  I think I’ll keep increasing until I think I like how wide it is and make a decision from there.

Here are some pictures of things I have been doing, or have yet to do…

Stay tuned…

Well, a quick update from me before I fly across the pond for a bit. Knitting has been a bit stunted (hence, lack of updates) but the general malaise of the cooler weather setting in, combined with quite a bit of stress has really eclipsed the blog from my consciousness. It makes me sad. I really hope I can be less apathetic about talking about myself soon – things have just been so complicated that I’ve been hiding from pretty much everything.

A few bits of news though – I finished my Tilted Duster (for the second time) and it’s all blocked and better fitted, though lacking buttons. Secondly, I finished my Kelso Lace Cardian, which finally is wearable and looking pretty decent! They will both get their own posts soon. I also started a new “simple” project with the intention that I’d pick it up when I needed a mental break from other projects, but it’s been so soothing to knit, I haven’t been able to put it down.

This is the Easy Pie Wedge Shawl from the ball band of Lorna’s Laces Helen’s Lace. As you might have guessed, this is indeed some lovely Helen’s Lace in the colourway Bittersweet. It’s such a nice easy knit – all garter stitch and short rows. It’s perfect for right now – it’ll make good plane knitting, if I feel like bringing it on my trip. I haven’t decided yet. I had no problems flying with these exact needles to Maine a couple of months ago (which, incidentally is where I bought this very yarn), so it shouldn’t be an issue to take them to England either. However, I am wary of these TSA folks, and I don’t necessarily feel up to a challenge. I’m usually too distracted to knit on these trips anyway.

I have lots of ideas though for what I want to do when my trip is over. I have been dying to knit some fingerless gloves in fingering weight yarn, with the intention that they can fit under other gloves/mittens. I also really want to knit a pair of knee socks. I very much doubt there will be any holiday knitting this year. I’m not a fan of it in general, and there’s nothing obvious that jumps out that needs to be knit for anyone.

Anyway, I hope to return from my trip with a fresh attitude (after the mourning period ends, of course) and a bit more oomph for the everyday stuff, including blogging. I have new ideas for my loom too – I would like to weave a few things at some point too! Oh, and I’m getting spinning guilt now, for the wheel has been gathering dust. It makes me sad. I want to spin so much, but I can’t bring myself to do it. Woe.

Well, here we are on July 21 and as it happens, I’m wearing a black and tan dress, and this shawl matches very well. I got the dress just under two weeks ago, and I pulled out the shawl. I was at about row 80. Out of 190. Umm, that’s a lot of rows. But I figured I had to start knitting again to gauge if it even would be possible to finish. Here is where the math comes in. I plowed through until I hit row 123, the beginning of the final repeat of the flower buds. It was taking me roughly 20-30 minutes to knit a row. At 30 minutes a row, that is 33.5 hours of knitting remaining. I usually knit for three hours a night, so that’s six rows a night. Three weeks remaining. Seems possible…so I keep going. After a slight disaster on Sunday which caused me to throw it aside for a few hours, I pushed through and finished the flower bud section completely. That means I was at row 147. Hmm, getting much closer…only 43 rows left. 21.5 knitting hours to go.

Tonight I hit row 156 – this is sticking to my schedule exactly! Here is what I have tonight:

I have 34 rows remaining, which should equate to 17 knitting hours (or a little longer since these rows are getting damn long). I have 8 working days, and 2 whole weekend days remaining. IF, and only IF I can keep up this schedule, it should technically only take 5.66 days more to finish it. I have just a little less than twice that, plus weekends could give me more knitting time. I’d need a whole evening to block it.

Gratuitous detail shot:

And the great big ball of fuzz:

I think I can do this. Math says I can. I *think* I can…stay tuned!

Lace is a strange beast. It looks all shriveled and nasty as it is. I am having a hard time convincing myself that this is an adult garment! Every so often I am picking up my gauge swatch to see just how much the arrowhead lace flattens out. I keep gently pulling it, and it gains INCHES without even being remotely stretched. It just utterly transforms when it’s blocked – I feel like the real beauty of this piece is yet to be revealed, even though I can marvel at it while I’m knitting. That, and I hope to hell that it fits.

I just did the first raglan decrease as of this photo, and I’m hoping to power through and get this done soon. I’m amazed how much willpower I had for this project. Things go fast when you don’t procrastinate! After this, I will be on vacation for a while, and when I come back (provided I don’t need any short term consolation/satisfaction after vacation is over) I really want to finish the http://www.christinaslattery.com/blog/?p=370 Yay, it’s done and wearable!

I’m really happy with it actually! There ended up being enough yarn left over that I might’ve been able to manage full sleeves. If I’m being honest, I rarely wear long sleeved sweaters anymore. I’m MUCH happier with shorter sleeves. I’m sure the yarn will come in handy for something, as it’s BEAUTIFUL.

Details:

Pattern: Clementine’s Cardi (pdf)
Yarn: Briar Rose Fibers Legend (unique colourway)
Needles: US8/5.0mm

Already jumped onto the next project too:

It’s a Kelso Lace Cardigan in Paton’s Katrina. Damn yarn is lovely but impossible to photograph. I will try to get a better picture of it when the weather is nice – it was gorgeous today, but I completely forgot to take advantage of the daylight!

I’d like to present my first finished project of the new year (mainly because the crappy weather on New Year’s Eve prompted me to leave the house two hours earlier than I’d planned, therefore I didn’t finish sewing up OFFICALLY in 2008): My Manon.

And the back:

No, my knitting is not crooked, I am.

It fits perfectly – I just need to decide on a closure. I ended up reknitting the piece with the missing bust dart. It took one evening of marathon knitting, so with only that one day setting me back, it didn’t feel SO terrible. I can see myself wearing this a lot – I really love it so much.

Amidst my finishing up the Manon, and the few days of misery once I realised I forgot my bust dart, I decided I needed to knit up something bright and cheerful to take my mind off it. When I was recently in NYC, I stopped at Purl Soho and fell in love with a demo project. I am normally not attracted to something so….busy, but I really loved how the colours worked together!

The two yarns look so ill matched in their separate skeins, but together, they play so nicely! The scarf is over 7 feet long now, so I think I might have to stop…but there’s still yarn left and I don’t want to waste any. I haven’t decided how I will deal with this. It’s either going to be an 8.5 foot scarf or a scarf and a headband. I don’t know! It’s sat in its near-complete state awaiting its fate.

And I also have a Maelstrom sock:

I was aching to do a sock, this one in particular. It’s much more progressed in real life than in this photo. I have half the foot left to go, having just completed the chart. It’s 2×2 rib across the top from here on out. Easy. I went up one needle size (2.25mm to 2.5mm) since I was worried about the circumference – thankfully this seems to have been a wise decision. I’m noticing that I should perhaps be making my heel flaps a little longer from now on since anything patterned seems to pull a bit differently (and is not as forgiving as stockinette), causing issues taking the sock on and off. In this instance it will be fine, but it’s surely a lesson for the future.

Finally, as it wouldn’t be a New Year’s post without a goal involved, my goal will be to crochet a garment this year. I have two I will potentially pick from, neither of which are your traditional mumsy crochet. Both are lacy and beautiful, it’s just a question of which one to choose! More details on this later though (as well as a spinning wheel update), as this post has already got too long.

The bodice is done, hurrah! It’s unblocked, so it’s just basted together for trying-on purposes. It fits, thankfully! I did end up doing bust darts – in the end I decided they were necessary. They are about 2 inches, which seems ample enough…even though the actual differential is about 6 inches. It just doesn’t need to be THAT fitted, if you ask me.

So, this is quite exciting. I’m doing the sleeves now. Quite a boring update from me.

Firstly, I finished sewing the buttons on to the February Baby Sweater:

Next, I made a pair of booties this afternoon. They went so fast!

And a close up of the buttons used on both projects:

The buttons are so pearly, they were hard to get a clear shot – especially with the flash. But hey, I was here, and the camera was here. Can’t argue with that karma, so natural light will lose this particular battle.

And then I have the second Christmas Shawl:

Now, I do love this pattern – clearly, enough to knit it three times in one year. I’m getting a *little* burned out at this point. I’m up to row 86 (of 134), so I’m nearly there. But man, I will be glad when this one is done. I do think it’s beautiful, and the cream section is *just* starting to phase back into pink. You can not see it in the photo, but it’s such a delicate shade – it’s truly stunning. I will have to find more things to knit with Kauni, but given its properties (a bit rough, fingering weight) I’m not quite sure what that will be. Some kind of blanket maybe. I’d like to do some stranded colourwork with it perhaps just for the joy of watching both strands change. I have no idea what to make though, and frankly, it’s rather too late at night to think about it! I will have a lot of yarn left, so I’m sure I can come up with something.