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.

All this time I was sitting on it not knowing what would be suitable. I had always thought it could be a shawl of some kind, but nothing too intricate, and anything boring would be unfortunate for the yarn. Until I was perusing Ravelry and found the Montego Bay Scarf. A mesh stitch would be perfect!

Here is the result! (click for detail)

Closeup to see the sparkle:

It’s so much nicer looking in person. It fits nicely around the shoulders and is so sparkly!

ETA: Patched with a new theme. Very rush job. I might keep it, and continue to make it mine since I was so utterly sick of the old theme.

Here we go! This is made from 2 skeins of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in the Bittersweet colourway. I couldn’t be happier with it.

In progress:

In all its 7.5″ long glory, thanks to a bit of a miscalculation about loom waste (in that, the average amount of loom waste does not equal MY amount of loom waste on my loom):

Closeup of the tassels:

Detail of the weaving:

It’s just lovely, in my opinion. I was regretting buying the yarn for socks since nearly every project on Ravelry had such hideous pooling with it, but it’s perfectly suited to weaving I think! If I make any more as gifts, I might go a tad wider, and definitely a bit shorter. I’d use this yarn for weaving again.

I have finished a few other things, which will be forthcoming soon. Right now my big news is that I’m performing surgery on my forlorn Tilted Duster. The pictures are a touch gruesome, but if I’m as clever as I hope I am, I will be back with a much better fitting coat. Or 6.5 balls of frogged yarn, with 1.5 balls unused surplus, all of which could be re-purposed to a garment that will actually bloody fit. I had a hard time finding something on Ravelry that I liked, so if I had to rip this out, it will probably be something of my own design.

In a hideous breach of my self-imposed yarn embargo, I ordered 4 skeins of Cascade Eco+ in Plum. I will be making a Sylvi. Rubber room on standby, thanks. I don’t actually think it’ll be hard, just time consuming. I am overcome with need for that coat. NEED. Pattern has been purchased, and it’s stunningly clear and well laid out. The ladies over at Twist Collective know good editing! I’ve been happy with every pattern I’ve bought from them.

More finished objects coming soon!

Yes. I now own a loom. A 15″ Schacht Flip Loom to be exact! So far, I like it a lot. Warping it is as big a deal as I’d heard; I spent some time admonishing myself for not getting the 20″ but I’m glad I have this one, actually. Warping something bigger would be quite beyond me right now, and if I do get on with weaving (which I think I will) I can always swap it for something bigger. Or have two looms. Who knows!

The project on it right now is just some seriously retro acrylic (white sport weight warp, minty green fingering weight weft) with approximately 10″ of warp. It’s not totally even since I ran out of yarn with about 4 ends to go, but since it was practice, I didn’t mind. (When I want to do something for real, I will bother to calculate.)

A lot of it is quite bad. The selvedges are pretty sloppy at the beginning, but as always happens with a bit of practice, I figured out how to use the shuttle and control the tension of the yarn before I beat it into place with the heddle.

One thing I can say about weaving so far is there’s A LOT of new vocabulary. Loads. What I have is called a rigid heddle loom, but as with anything else, not all looms are created equal. It’s considered a fairly beginner loom, however there are people that have figured out to make it do tons of things it may not have been intended to do. I’m content with this. One day, sometime in the future, I may want to try weaving on a “real” loom, which has more harnesses and shafts and many other things I forget the words for, but for now, I am really eager to see what I can accomplish with this loom. One thing I know I can do is add a second heddle, which would allow me to weave twice as fine as I might be able to currently. I am definitely in a hurry to order the other size heddles; I have a 10 dent heddle which seems appropriate for sport weight yarn, but there are also 8 dent (better for worsted weight yarn) and a 12 dent (better for fingering weight yarn). Like with knitting, using a different gauge heddle with different yarns will produce different results. I could warp my 10 dent heddle with laceweight using a light beat and get something very gauzey and loose, for example. I have to evaluate my stash to see what could (and should) be repurposed for weaving. Having the new heddles would make the process a little easier. If I ever figure out a good way to explain it all, I may make a page about it. I’ve found information remarkably difficult to come across so far.

So, I actually finished the piece pictured on the loom, but I’d like to see how I should finish it first before I post pictures. I don’t know how usable it’s going to be, but I should see how it softens after washing. I suppose I could make it into a little pouch!

…to a lovely elegant piece of lace:

The yarn can not be done justice by the photos – there are so many subtle colours (click through for a better look).

It looks lovely even draped over a chair (though the chair could be nicer, I’ll admit)!

All the work was totally worth it. I don’t normally do projects on a deadline, but this seemed well within the scope of reality, and I’m glad I was right. Truth be told, I’m feeling a little lost now since it’s no longer obvious what I will knit when I get home! I am dying to cast on another shawl now because this was just so fun. I have three I’d love to make, and I have lace yarn to make two shawls. Just need to wind the yarn and do it I think!

I have fallen out with my Kelso Lace Cardigan yet again. I had to rip out another 10 or so rows, so it’s not AS much as before, but I’m getting entirely too annoyed with it. I want to throw it in the naughty basket, but I’m rapidly noticing that I put projects there and do nothing about them. Last year’s lace disaster is still there, as is the Tilted Duster. New stuff is so much more appealing though…hmm.

Started the bind off tonight. I won’t lie, juggling a knitting needle with a crochet hook is not easy or fun, but it’s fairly pretty and definitely manageable, if a little slow. I expect it to take a full night, possibly spilling over into two depending on how bonkers it makes me. That puts me at Tuesday though, which is plenty of time to block it before Saturday! I’m so pleased I got this far though…my right hand is kinda pissed at me, however, and may need to be treated to a night or two off after I’m done.

I can’t wait to post it when it’s all done!

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