Five in any language

So, still lost in my shawl knitting phase, I’ve finished 5 of my (conservative) 12 for this year. I’ve been trying out some widely available yarns, but I started with my hand-dyed BFL.

Feeling the need for some deep purple around my neck I used a skein of 4-ply to make Peace Offering. The design is Olive Branch by Lindy, and it was a quick and really enjoyable knit.

Next I thought it was high time I became a Posh Knitter and managed to buy a skein in the Sunday evening scramble from Posh Yarn. Here’s Perfectly Possible in the most gorgeous silk/cashmere laceweight. It’s a large and slightly modified Ashton Shawlette – a great design by the innovative Dee O’Keefe.

As usual I beaded the edging with some black size 8s to weight the points.

I took some time off during the Cheltenham Festival and spent my TV couch afternoons knitting Festival in Debbie Bliss Rialto 4-ply. It’s been a while since I bought any DB and the first time I’d tried the Rialto 4-ply. Well, I love it!  Excellent stitch definition (of course), and beautifully soft and springy. The design is Karise by Karina Westermann and, in the black yarn, very Art Deco elegant, I think.

I’ve long had a wish to knit the Fountain Pen Shawl by Susan Lawrence and also to use some Knit Picks yarn. Putting the two together, here’s Waterman (because mine is blue) in Gloss Lace. It’s knit on a 4 mm needle, and I can understand why, but it’ll be a while before I knit laceweight on anything larger than a 3.75 mm. Grumpy Old Knitter!

And finally, to prove that knitting charts can overcome any language barrier, here’s my Pink Pavonis from a design written in Finnish by Sarianna.

But I must give a lot of credit to knitoutsidethebox, because her notes on Ravelry made it possible. The yarn is Drops Baby Alpaca Silk and one day I’m going to make a sweater from this beautiful stuff.

As you can see, I’m alternating laceweight with 4-ply.  Next up is Po Lena‘s Ink Heart Shawl in Debbie Bliss Rialto Lace.  Love the design, love the yarn – it’s just taking ages to finish ….

Knit or blog? Definitely knit

The trouble with having a job is that time away from work is limited.  With only a few hours in the evenings and at weekends I have to prioritise, and knitting comes first as one of life’s essentials.  After all, if I don’t knit I’ll do damage to someone or something.  It’s the only way to stay sane enough to turn up at work every day.

So this blog has suffered from lack of care since November, but here’s a little update on what I’ve been knitting.

I can’t say I enjoyed my lopapeysa, except perhaps the yoke.  I had to work a few shawls at the same time as a distraction, but I finally finished it a few weeks ago.  So here is Védís Jónsdóttir‘s Afmæli, my Once Upon a Lopi:

Inevitable, Evelyn A Clark’s Heartland Lace Shawl, turned out to be an absolute favourite and I wear it at least once a week.  I added some gold size 6 beads which look OK, but I reckon I’ll stick to silver-lined clear beads for the future.

However, I didn’t enjoy the early stages and was distracted into a KAL of The Birthday Shawl by the delightful Kate’s Twirl.  I used my (in)famous hand-dyed yarn which was featured in Knit Now, and it turned out rather nice.  So nice, in fact, that Kate voted it the best of the KAL and sent me a set of her beautiful stitch markers.  A lovely Christmas present!

And you can also go over to Ravelry to take a look at some in progress shots.

Then, as yet another distraction from my Lopi sweater, I used up some Airedale Aran in a winter-time version of Kate Gagnon Osborn‘s Springtime Bandit, Airedale Outlaw:

And to complete another year of feverishly knitting innumerable shawls, Boo Knits‘ Quite Continental:

I love the placement of the beads in Twinkle Twinkle, but not the shape nor the slipped stitch edge which I thought too inelastic.  I started the picot cast-off and didn’t like that either, so finished with the usual Russian.  Such a shame, because I was really looking forward to this one, but most likely the victim of shawl-knitting fatigue!

The Lopi sweater still wasn’t finished so next up was Froth, which was a bit of a marathon:

This is Jatta Saukko‘s Zetor which I’ve been meaning to do for a long time.  Knitted in DROPS Lace on one of my new ChiaoGoo circulars, it turned out beautifully soft and happily goes really well with a recent addition to my wardrobe.  Colour co-ordination is easy if you stick to your favourite colours!

I needed some further distraction before finishing this one, but I think that’s enough for today.  Time for some knitting ….

More Arithmetic

So the Augustine Shawlette turned out to be a scarf. Lovely and soft, but a scarf nonetheless. So subtract one from 20.

Instead, I found a use for my Lang Yarns Jawoll Magic and knitted up Childry by Elly Doyle. I wasn’t too keen on the yarn while knitting, but once blocked it’s been a nice kerchief. But not a shawl!

Since it’s very similar to my version of the Old Man of Storr Shawlette, I called it Presque Vu Déjà, because it’s easy to be stupid when you have no immediate audience.

I’ve enrolled in Miriam Felton’s wonderful Lace Shawl Design on Craftsy, and I’m thoroughly enjoying each lesson. I love to watch her demonstrating a point with a beautifully knitted (and blocked) shawl from her design collection. And so I knitted Adamas in some hand-dyed BFL laceweight,

and added some beads to the edging – hence Bejewelled.

So add one again to make 20.

In the mean time I’ve succumbed to the Icelandic bug and I bought some Lett-Lopi from Carreg Yarns (whose service is incredibly good). I’m making Védís Jónsdóttir’s Afmæli - just don’t ask me to pronounce any of this. It’s hard work on my hands but the yarn knits up soft and fuzzy:

 

And on the topic of northern/ethnic, look at what Sirdar came up with! Their own version of the iconic Sarah Lund sweater. Oh dear, I may succumb, on the rather feeble excuse that I’m supporting a Yorkshire spinner.

But plain knitting in the round can get a bit boring. I really am totally addicted to lace knitting – it’s quite sad – and I can’t not have a project on the needles. Hence, Inevitable, Evelyn A Clark’s Heartland Lace Shawl, in recently dyed BFL 4-ply. It’s on 4mm needles and knitting up quite springy: some aggressive blocking may be required to show up the stitch pattern.

To make things add up, Last Chance Old Boy (my Old Man of Storr Shawlette) drops out of my 20 shawls and is relegated to a kerchief.

And that should be it.

But remember this skein of yarn? Well, it would awfully nice with lots of silver-lined beads. I’m finding Boo Knits’ Quite Continental quite irrestible!

 

 

And 5 makes 20

It’s been a while since my last post and a lot of things have happened.  The main trauma was my mother falling and breaking her hip.  She spent two and a half weeks in hospital where she was looked after by some amazing people.  She’s been back home for a while now and is slowly gaining strength and mobility:  she’s pretty resilient for her age.

So it’s true knitting keeps you sane.  Although I’ve cut right down on projects (times are hard) and have only one on the go at a time, I’ve still managed to churn out another four more shawlettes.  I’m afraid my Amelia in pink cotton just didn’t work in the circumstances and is now a hibernating frog.

Third time lucky with my hand-painted BFL laceweight produced a black and fuchsia Old Man of Storr Shawlette, my Last Chance Old Boy:

I can’t say I’m hugely fond of it but I guess it might come in useful.  The colours are stunning, though.

Then some more hand-painted BFL, this time in 4-ply.  A very easy Undine on 4.5mm needles:

This is Liquid Lunch, and I’ve already worn it a few times on the cooler days we’ve had just recently.

And then, a version of Anniken Allis’ Winding Path in two skeins of my hand-dyed baby alpaca 4-ply.  I absolutely love this shawl! It was so nice to knit (even though it’s green) and it’s a real knitted hug to wrap around myself when I feel the need.

My nineteenth shawl of 2012 is Evelyn A Clark’s Shetland Triangle Lace Shawl in more hand-painted BFL laceweight which I blogged about last year.  I still love the colours of the yarn and I’m quite happy with the knitted result:

There’s a lovely dusky rose shade produced by a mixture of pink and chestnut, and I’ve reproduced it in a skein of kettle-dyed 4-ply BFL.

 

I dyed up the last of my yarn stock this week and put away my crockpot and steamer.  There’ll be no more dyeing for a while, I’m afraid.  But you can expect to see some of the yarns knitted up in the coming months on this blog, no doubt.

I’m using my last skein of baby alpaca for an Augustine Shawlette by Valdis Vrang.  I’ve just reached the half-way point so let the unravelling begin! This will make my 20 for the year, so perhaps it’s time I started on some socks.

Mind you, after putting together this blog today I feel pretty unravelled myself.  Hopefully I’ll post again before the end of the month.

Enjoy your knitting!

 

2 FO, 1 WIP and 3rd Time Lucky?

Since it’s FOFriday, here’s Bricked Up (my version of Brick by Brick from Michaela Moores) in a lovely burnt orange BFL:

I wore them the other day since it’s still cold here (although things may warm up soon, they say).  The combination of knit and purl, and the lustre of the BFL, brings out the colour very nicely – I’m quite fond of them, which is a surprise.

Now, as promised/threatened, here’s a project in bright hand-dyed sock yarn.  It’s Unleaving from the latest Knitty:

It’s not that bad, but I think it’s destined as a charity donation because I’m not hugely keen on long scarves at the moment.

As for the WIP, I’m knitting Amelia by Julia Frank from Rowan 51, which is a risky thing to do at the best of times.  I’m using Patons Cotton DK, which is highly mercerised, so the project is very probably doomed.

A while back I made the mistake of hand-painting some BFL laceweight.

I love the colours, but what to do with it has become a problem.  I started Semi-Precious from a previous Knitty, but the lace pattern was too obscure.  So I tried Demiluna and that didn’t look right either.  The yarn was just about to be binned when I came across Carie Harling’s Old Man of Storr Shawlette.  Will this be third time lucky?  Ironically, I named the colourway Smart Step.  I hope the eponymous racehorse does better.

And a small confession.  On things Rowan, I was passing an LYS in York and fancied a squeeze of Fine Lace.  It’s lovely stuff, but the colours are a little on the drab side for me.  The staff were very nice and friendly, but I didn’t buy any Rowan (although I wouldn’t rule that out for the future).  I bought some Lang Jawoll Magic sock yarn.  Why?  Because I’ve never bought Lang before.  Of course.

Five? Yes. Five

So here’s my finished Enzian and I like it so much it’s stayed out on display. It gets moved when I finish another shawl since I’m a real amateur and I’m photographing each one in the same way.

Here’s a bit of detail:

I love the yarn, the design, the beads … and the finished article!

To complete my 12 shawls in 2012, this is a Cassandra by Marie-Adeline Boyer (congratulations to her!). It’s knitted in Baby Alpaca, with a few beads in the points (of course).

It’s a lovely shoulder shawl for cool evenings, and there are many of those this summer.

So, I knitted 20 shawls in 2011 and I’m going to do the same in 2012. Probably more, since no one wants to buy my hand-dyed yarn. Here’s Dazmin, in my deep red kid mohair/silk mix:

The design is Yasmin, by Angelique den Brok. It’s knitted on 3.5mm needles, which I thought would be a bit small. The finished object is fine but I think I prefer this type of yarn on 4.5 or 5mm.

I guess I should knit something more complicated but simplicity of design is very attractive. Next up is my take on Dee O’Keefe’s Ashton Shawlette in a burnt orange/green handpainted 4-ply BFL:

I just like the rosebud pattern.

And finally, there’s Joyce Yu’s Budding Shawlette in (very) bright green. It’s knitted on 4.5mm needles, which I’d usually say were on the large side for 4-ply but with aggressive blocking the “bud” design really stands out.

Are you ready for this?

OK then – here’s My Name is Bud:

Now why wouldn’t anyone want to buy this lovely yarn?

So five more to go (at least) and I’ve got plenty of bright yarn to use. You have been warned.

And the Bead goes on ….

I managed to squeeze another two shawls out of my 200g of hand-dyed BFL laceweight. So that’s five from 1600m – so thrifty!

Here’s my Beaded Swallowtail:

Needless to say, I used beads instead of nupps and added three per scallop to make sure the swallowtails stay nice and pointy.

As a small diversion from Evelyn A Clark’s designs and light blue laceweight, I turned out The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief in baby alpaca:

It was so cold the other week my hands were hurting from arthritis and I thought some new mitts would help. I had enough baby alpaca left and got started on Jennifer Hagan’s Princess Mitts …

… and of course the sun came out! I think it may be a while before the second mitt is done.

Back to the blue laceweight now, I’m afraid. I have this thing about lace leaves at the moment and I’ve wanted to do Evelyn’s Leaf Shawl for quite some time. I thought I’d make the leaves a little smaller (8 stitches instead of 10):

Where to put the beads? Oh yes, the border! I added one to the knit stitch between the yarn overs and then three per point.

The finished object:

So that’s the end of it!

And for the last item in my stash (some fuchsia Filigran) I chose Sue Berg’s Enzian and I’m adding beads to every flower:

It’s taking quite a few so just as well I replenished my stock at Craft Basics last week with 50g of size 8 and 50g of size 6.

And that means, no doubt, that there’ll be more beaded knitting in the future, and it may be 4-ply ….

Hooked on Beading

So I’m going through the “where can I add beads to this?” phase.

Here’s a shawl which called for beads and nupps, but I used beads throughout because I’m not overly fond of nupps.

The design is Karen Strauss’ Bella Botanica Shawl.  Of course you can’t see the beads in the photo – never mind.

I love the edging:

This is the third shawl from the two 100g skeins of hand-dyed laceweight which came out in a colour I adore.  And I’m going to make a fourth!

I’ve been having a good clear out of my libraries: chucking out old magazines and books for recycling and deleting stuff from Ravelry.  In the process I thought it would be a good time to knock off a few classics and get them out of my system.  Finally getting around to the Prairie Rose Lace Shawl probably triggered things.

I have a couple of skeins of Zitron Filigran which I bought when I first got the lace knitting bug and they’d slipped to the back of my yarn queue.  Well, what a lovely surprise!  The yarn is high quality one-ply merino and knits beautifully.  I started with a limited edition multi-shade in purple/violet and finally got round to Emily Ross’ Haruni.

I’m not too sure about the colour-banding, but it’ll do.

I probably wouldn’t have used the yarn for this design if I’d been more alert when I wound it into a ball.  I did it in a hurry because I was a bit incensed over some black alpaca/silk/cashmere laceweight which I’d bought for Jane Sowerby’s Myrtle Leaf Shawl.  It’s by one of our leading indie hand-dyers and I’d been looking forward to using it.  Having got through the first pattern repeat I looked at my hands.  You guessed it – dye transfer.  As an amateur hand-dyer I was appalled.  I won’t sell anything which I think won’t be colour-fast so why should anyone else?  Needless to say it’s all on the compost heap.  I can take dye leakage during washing but not in the knitting.

And my next classic?  Evelyn A Clark’s Swallowtail Shawl.

“What about those nupps?” you may ask.

Indeed.

Pear Drop, Roses and Tea

Or, in other words, three shawls.

Here’s Droplet, which is Ysolda’s Pear Drop in my ever so lightly hand-dyed BFL laceweight.

It took about a third of the skein so I had plenty left over for more lace knitting.  The wonderful KiwiPurler blogged about her current lace knitting project and, of course, I had to give Evelyn A Clark’s Prairie Rose Lace shawl a go.  It’s a lovely little shawlette and I wore it nearly every day last week.

I bought 40g of silver-lined glass beads from Craft Basics in York and added three per point:

There’s another 100g skein and a bit left of this yarn and I’m planning something with lots of beads – this was a little practice.

And then another semi-circular shawl, this time from Knitty.  I used a skein of Araucania Ranco which wasn’t quite enough for the full design but it’ll do.

This is a nice and easy design that’s quick to knit.  I’m not too keen on lattices made from (k2tog, yo) but this works well with the wide lace border.  Neither am I a fan of picot cast off, but I always like the result.

So, like the weather, there were plenty of shawls in April.

Turned out nice

It’s always nice when something turns out better than expected. My monster isn’t, it’s actually quite endearing.

You’ll notice the assymetric sleeve stripes. That’s because I miscalculated the stripe pattern for the yarn I had, or vice versa. Just makes it a bit special, no?

This is all that was left of the Bilberry shade:

I had a good 75g of the Fuchsia which wasn’t really the point of the exercise, but never mind. I’m wearing the sweater right now, and I think it’s going to be a favourite.

I’m working on a my second Hedera sock at the moment, which is my only WIP. I’m in one of those phases when I can’t make up my mind what to do next. I’ve some rather nice BFL laceweight so I expect another two shawls will eventually materialise. I swatched a little of Plume as part of my annual crochet project, but put it aside. Then I started Ysolda’s Pear Drop and was going great guns until I noticed a dropped stitch. Feeling totally ashamed I ripped back to the miscreant, and then kept on going. Perhaps I’ll have another go.

I’m definitely in the mood for a half-circle shawl, I’m just not sure which one. Perhaps I’ll make something up along the lines of EZ’s famous Pi shawl, like so many others have done. Perhaps not. Any suggestions?