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.

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!