Arrrgh!

Arrrgh! That's the word today. I got it from a reliable news source (Al Roker on the Today show) that's it's International Speak Like a Pirate Day. And you thought I was about to tell you about some huge knitting mistake didn't you? HaHaHa...... Actually things are pretty quiet around here. It's been almost a week since I cast on for the Icarus Shawl and I've made steady progress each day. Today is officially Day 7 of knitting and I'm starting the 5th repeat of Chart 1. I'm up to 250+ sts. OTN and the knitting, while certainly not challenging, hasn't been nearly as tedious as I had anticipated. Pretty much this section is about not goofing up the yo, k1, yo increases that start anew with each pattern repeat. The rest is just count to seven, knit, knit, knit.

But with simplicity comes relatively rapid progress. It would be really cool if I could be finished with the knitting by this time next week. I might even finish my Icarus *before* Regenia finishes hers (gasp!) So how's it coming along Reg???? At least Regenia has a special occasion to wear her Icarus while I'm just knitting it to knitting another shaw out of great yarn. The Lace-a-licious has been a delight to knit with even though it is super skinny stuff. The size 3 needle I'm using is just about right--a 4 would be too big for sure.

I've got several KALs casting-on next week and I've added a few lace yarns to the stash in anticipation of my next projects, whatever they may be. Richard at ColourMart has been posting new yarns lately and I've succumbed to a couple of temptations. I received my 1st order on Tuesday, an Italian cashmere/cotton blend in a yummy deep amethyst purple. Even right of the cone this stuff is wonderfully soft. I'm knitting a bookmark swatch right now to see how is washes and blocks before committing the yarn to a shawl project. A few days ago Richard posted some more cashmere/silk blends in lots of colors. I opted for a cone of a soft pink that should match some 100% silk yarn I already have. I feel totally spoiled to be able to have such beautiful fibers at a price even I can afford...on occasion :-)

Knitting on!

Somebody Loves my Socks!

When I first started blogging, I had my doubts that anyone would have much interest in what I had to share. Well, I knew that my close knitty friends on EZasPi and a few others would come visit, but beyond that I had few expectations. Last winter when I was convinced my blog was very lonely I added a visit counter which helped a lot. At least someone--besides Kat, Diana, and Regenia, that is-- was looking at my socks and lace and flowers. Cool! I was happy.

Things started to change this summer when I joined the Summer of Socks KAL. Suddenly my circle of reach expanded beyond mostly lace knitters to folks who are mega passionate about knitting socks. One day I got this email from Dr. Laura of Sirius Knitting. She is perhaps best known in the knitting community for her Friendly Socks pattern books, but she also keeps a blog called Socks and More which highlights socks knit with yarns from Crystal Palace. Most of my summer sock knitting involved an awesome CP yarn called Panda Cotton--a fact not missed by Laura. She asked if she could post some of my sock pictures on the Socks and More website. How could I say no??? She posted a piece on my traveling Meida's Socks several weeks ago. Cool!

Today Laura emailed me to announce that I was "Star Search Sunday" on Socks and More. It turns out she did a collage of all my Panda Cotton Socks and wrote a few nice things about my blog in her weekly feature of other knitters. To say I'm flattered would be an understatement! Of course the best part is I have all these great socks ready to wear with my favorite clogs this fall, but a little acknowledgment from the knitting community and the folks at Crystal Palace doesn't hurt. If you have the chance, hop on over to Socks n More and see all the great socks featured there. Thanks Laura!

Latecomer

Every Southern Lady knows the value of being fashionably late to parties and similar social events. Not terribly late, just a few minutes...say maybe 10 or 15 minutes after the stated time on the invitation. It allows you to make your grand entrance, to stand out from the crowd, or at the extreme, to blatantly draw attention to yourself. I'm certainly not trying to blatantly draw attention to myself, but I am a bit of a latecomer to this party. "What party?" you ask. Why, the Let's Knit the Icarus Shawl Party!


Yes, I have succumbed to what became an online knitting phenom. When Miriam Felton's Icarus Shawl was published in the Summer 2006 issue of Interweave Knits knitters everywhere went Icarus-crazy. Many lace knitters rushed to knit this design and folks who have never even thought about knitting lace suddenly decided to take the plunge. Soon a blog-based KAL was formed and the craze was on. Last summer knitting Icarus was the hip thing to do. I dunno, maybe that's why I didn't knit it? Or maybe it was because most of the design was rather plain, with the interesting stuff coming in only at the end of the shawl. My brain said boring. So I let everyone else Icarus-along and I knit other lacy stuff--like the MS2, which was spectacular. (Funny thing, this year the KAL phenom was MS3, which wasn't even remotely as awesome a design IMHO).

OK, so why knit Icarus now? This lowly shawl that has now risen to grace the cover on Interweave's new anniversary book and spawned them to form blog-based KALs for all their knitting books released this year. Why now, Kristina? Well, it was the yarn. I made an impulse purchase of some hand-dyed alpaca lace yarn from Sheri at the Loopy Ewe (an awesome place to buy skinny yarn). The yarn is the new Lace-a-licious from JKnits in a colorway called Wyoming. Basically, the yarn is shades of putty, terracotta and rose--all muted and very soft. The colorway reminded me of the rock cliffs in southern Utah at sunrise and brought back fond memories of my time living out west. The yarn is an extrafine baby alpaca and it's on the skinny side of laceweight--almost cobweb if you ask me. I cast-on and started knitting a rectangular shawl but the lace pattern didn't show off the beauty of the yarn and the rectangular shape result in zebra-like striped pooling. So I needed a triangle shawl that would do well with the handpainted yarn, something rather plain. That's when the lightbulb moment happened...Icarus!

I still had my doubts about the boring factor, but then I reminded myself that simple could mean "fast-knit" rather than "boring." When I pulled the pattern off the bookshelf and checked out the yarn specs, I knew it was meant to be--alpaca yarn on size 3 needles. Yup, perfect. So I cast-on late Friday night and knit a few rows. I'm almost through with the 2nd repeat of Chart 1 and I'm liking what I see. The design does require a bit more attention than I expected, and I did have one ugly tinking session of a couple of rows when I missed a decrease and everything got shifted and off-count. But, now that Icarus had my attention and my respect I expect things should go well. I have a couple of other shawls I'm working on so I can switch off when if I get too bored.

I know my friends Diana and Regenia are knitting away on Icarus, so I'm not alone at the party. Please pass the chocolate and let the music play on (I'm thinking American Classic stuff like Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett maybe...good party music). A toast to Icarus! Knit on!!!

Simple Pleasures

You know, it doesn't really take very much to make me happy these days. I think I demanded much more of my self (and others) when I was younger. Perhaps that's just the way it is as one gets older. Maybe not. Either way, I'll take my joy wherever and whenever I can find it. More often than not, I only have to look in my own yard to find joyful things. Sometimes, if I'm lucky, I capture those images with my camera. Today was one of those days. The first photo shows a Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly nectaring on one of my most loved wildflowers, the Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis). The spicebush swallowtail is a large butterfly (~4") and the iridescent blue hindwings glow in sharp contrast to the vivid crimson red of the cardinal flowers. (Can you believe I took that picture! Yowser!!!)

I fell in love with Cardinal flowers the first time I saw them in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park maybe a dozen or so years ago. I attended a plant sale my 1st fall (9 yrs. ago) back in Tennessee to complete a graduate school assignment. The gardenistas (is that a word???) were hauling 1 gal potted cardinal flowers out by the little red wagonload. I just had to have one so I carefully chose the perfect plant, a splurge at the time, and took it home. Given a nice shady or semi shady spot, a little compost, and plenty of water and in a few years you too can have dozens of cardinal flowers to brighten your yard in August and September when everything else is withered. You'll have enough to transplant to every shady spot you have and more to share with friends and family. Add a few Lantana to the mix and the butterflies and hummingbirds become your daily companions (esp. if those butterflies cocoon in the trees and bushes around the house). I never said joy didn't require a little work!


I'm delighted beyond words that this photograph turned out. Let's just say I tested the limits of my camera's ability to focus at maximum zoom. This is a juvenile Cooper's Hawk perched in a very large tree in my neighbor's yard. The tree may be in his yard, but from our deck & patio we get maximum enjoyment from it. This summer we've had an unusually high number of visits from a pair of Cooper's Hawks. This tree is a perfect place to scan the underbrush for prey like chipmunks, rabbits, field mice (eek!), snakes (yikes!!!), and even squirrels and groundhogs. And to think I live in a subdivision in a very populated area of town! These large raptors look quite massive when they decide to drop by my birdbath. Needless to say every one else vacates the premises in a hurry. I'm grateful to have such a natural form of rodent control nearby :-)

So, that's what's happening in my garden, now for the knitting content (this is a knitting blog, right?). I dropped in at Loopville yesterday to chat with Jinka, the owner, and see if I could exchange the 2 balls of Kidsilk Haze I bought 2 weeks ago. Long story short--do not expect KSH purchased now to match in color/dyelot the KSH purchased last winter. I tried and it didn't so rather than keep the mismatched balls I figured I trade them in for another color and maybe add a ball or two to knit another project. Jinka was a sport and I left with 4 balls in a yummy deep burgundy color called liqueur. So now I have 3 balls of Trance and 4 balls of Liqueur and decisions to make on which 2 shawl patterns I want to knit. Maybe I will finally knit something out of VLT

I ran into Judy Sumner, our local famous designer and the woman behind Knoxsocks Designs, while at Loopville. She does walk-in tutoring 3 afternoons a week but no one showed up yesterday. That was great for me because Judy had just received one of the new Japanese Stitch Dictionaries she had ordered and she was anxious to share this newfound treasure. I was practically speechless this book was so good. These stitch designs, which included cables, lace, edgings, and the like, were so far superior and creative way beyond anything I have seen coming out of the United States or Europe. I left the shop drooling and chanting "I want, I want, I want!!!" Better yet, the price point was no worse the buying the Barbara Walker Treasuries according to Judy. That means I can afford it if I plan well. I have the ISBN# and where she ordered them so maybe next month. Judy was busy designing a sock pattern for a popular handpainted yarn company, so keep your eyes open! While I'm at it, you should check out her website. There are some very nice sock patterns there and you would be supporting one of the most kind and generous ladies I've ever had the pleasure to meet.

Whew! I'm getting long-winded here, but I just have to share my used bookstore find before I shut up and call it a night. As a part of my dejunking endeavors I gathered up a bunch of gardening and flower arranging books to trade in at McKay's, my favorite used book store. I knew I get pretty good credit for these books and I was right. It was a good thing cuz' I scored a copy of EZ's Knitting Without Tears in superb condition! I've been trying to slowly acquire all the Elizabeth Zimmerman books for my knitting library as I consider them to be among the bones of a good knitting library. You know, right up there with the stitch dictionaries and lace books like AGOL and VLT. So while I'm standing there in the craft section I meet a couple of ladies from a neighboring town and one lady points to a book on the shelf and tells me it's on her must own list, especially if you ever want to design your own sweaters and such. She said the magic words, design your own, so I grab the book and start thumbing through. I can tell right away that she is correct and I decide to splurge even though the price point ($8) was a bit much, I thought, for an old book. Later i decided I had made out like a bandit with this book: The Complete Book of Progressive Knitting by Ida Riley Duncan (c)1940. This little green book has it all, from how to knit to how to design a skirt or sweater with the proper proportions to a small stitch dictionary at the back. I just love vintage books--another simple pleasure in life.

Knit on!

Froggy Paddle

Over the summer I became well acquainted with the frog pond. Getting to know the frog pond is inevitable for any knitter who spends much time engaging in the clickety-clack. It happens. You find a mistake way back in the project or you end up not liking the yarn you chose to go with a pattern or, or, or... I could go on forever but I won't. When I sentence a project to the frog pond, I usually toss it in a basket or a bag on in the enormous trunk at the end of my bed where the best of my stash resides. Once tossed, the guilty party languishes until such a time when I decide I want the yarn for something else or I'm just tired of looking at the pathetic mess and in a moment of mercy I release the trapped yarn back into balls ready to be knit into something wonderful (I hope). I then meantime, the unwanted project is left to froggy paddle on its own.

I've never had a doomed project survive the froggy paddle before--that is until this weekend. That's when I decided I needed to clean a little and empty some of the many baskets of yarn that were sitting around gathering dust. Some of this yarn is new and waiting for projects while the rest are UFOs. All needed to be stored in the stash trunk or somewhere where there would be less dust to impair my ability to breathe and knit at the same time. So I'm sorting and filling big Zip-lock bags and making a really big mess when I come across a fuzzy mass of tomato red with a circular needle dangling off the end. "Um, dust bunnies," I say to myself, "mega dust bunnies." This project had been sitting a beautiful artisan-made white oak basket on a shelf behind my recliner for what, maybe 6 months? I remember tossing the project to the frog pond, but it had more to do with the "boring, I'll never finish, and besides it's not my color" factor than anything wrong with the project. I also recall there being something about "this yarn is too nice and too expensive to be wasted on an ordinary Old Shale scarf" going through my mind.

What ever was I thinking??? The yarn IS beautiful and it was on the pricey side (isn't everything labeled Colinette?), but it's also the perfect yarn for a simple lace pattern like Old Shale. I plucked that fuzzy red mass up out of the basket, shook it out, sneezed and admired it! Come to Momma little froggy, you have been saved! I started knitting on the "Little Scarf that Could" using the size 6 Addi-Turbos that had been left in the project. The space-dyed colors of Colinette Parisienne are a treat to the eyes, but the stuff is murder to knit using a blunt needle-tip. Of course, the KnitPicks Options and Addi-Lace needles didn't exist back when I cast-on for this scarf. My LYS is closed on Sundays and Mondays so I would just have to wait and suffer through.

I woke up with a wicked migraine this morning and I've felt like #&@! all day. Despite the fact that I hadn't showered and i looked like He!!, I crawled in my car and drove across the street to see Sandy at the Yarn Haven. I picked up a US6/32" Addi-Lace needle and came home. Now I can knit on without losing my mind! Yeah, right... I jumped right in and knit a 4-row repeat, timing myself to see if I could knit faster with the improved needles. I probably was knitting faster, but that was before I realized that my stitch count was off on row 3. Upon further inspection, I was horrified to realize I had knit what was supposed to have been a purl row about 5 rows back. The lace needles help out with tinking too >:(

I have returned the Old Shale Scarf to it's former location on my WIP list. And I have decided that sometimes it good to let the froggy swim in the pond for awhile. You never know, you might just change your mind *again* and fish that froggy right back out again. Knit On!

The List is Shrinking...

The list of unfinished knitting projects that is. I can't believe I'm getting such a rush out of finishing things, especially since I'm such a "process" person who loves to start stuff but doesn't always feel compelled to finish everything I start.



Today's finished project is a pair of socks I'm calling the Little River Socks (LRS). I saw this lace pattern in a scarf design and I really liked it. I took a brief gander around the net looking to see if I could find a sock pattern that incorporated this lace, but I didn't see one. I had a nagging suspicion that a pattern existed somewhere, but I decided to unvent a pattern for myself using Crystal Palace Panda Cotton, one of my favorite sock yarns. I started my 1st pair of LRS using a variegated yarn and a cast-on of 64 sts. I finished the 1st sock and found the variegation obliterated the lace pattern and 64 sts was too many for a nice fit with this chubby sock yarn.


Rather than knit the 2nd sock, I decided to use a solid color Panda Cotton in blue and try again, this time knitting over 56 sts. The 56 sts proved to be just right and the 1st sock fit perfectly, so I went ahead to finish the pair. I cast-off this morning and in a few minutes I had the ends tucked away. You gotta love that star toe--no grafting! My LRS were ready for their photo shoot.


I headed out to the garden to shoot some pictures. The pictures I took of Meida's socks in the garden were such a hit I thought I'd try and replicate the experience. My garden looks quite pathetic after a summer of record heat and record drought. I find myself envying the folks who are getting all the rain, even if it's flooding. It's been so dry here in East Tennessee it feels more like the summers I spent in the Utah desert. Fortunately the lantana I planted is drought resistant and I have several "hedges" of it in my front yard. Besides being a nice backdrop for photographing knitted socks, lantana is a magnet for butterflies and bees. Just by coincidence a big, beautiful black Eastern Tiger Swallowtail happened to be dancing from blossom to blossom right where I was photographing socks. I snapped several shots of the butterfly and was delighted to find they turned out. You can't see the iridescent shimmer of the blue on the hindwings in the picture, but I think the butterfly surpassed the socks for a great garden picture.

I took more pictures of the socks which will be posted on my Flickr page here along with all the details of the project. You might want to buzz on over and feed on the eye candy there :-)

PS. After going through all the working of writing out my own pattern, I did find a published free pattern using the same lace on the SockBug's site. I don't know how I missed it! I guess that means I won't need to post my pattern after all. Cool, I prefer creating to pattern-writing any day!

Finished another one

I tell you, I'm really on a roll here. It feels *good* to finally complete all these shawls I've had laying around in their partially-knit state. The latest one to come off the needles and onto the blocking bed was the Fir Cone Triangular Shawl. I cast on for this shawl a year ago, but hit the skids when it got to the sideways knit-on edging--something I had never done before. I quickly learned that edgings of this sort are a PITA to knit and they seem to go on forever. I remember setting a daily minimum of edging repeats I had to knit each day as a way to keep myself going. It did help there for awhile, but obviously not long enough. And once it got to be spring and mohair shawls were no longer needed, this one hit the UFO basket in a big hurry.


I learned several lessons from knitting this shawl. First of all, I discovered that knitting lace with fine, fuzzy mohair yarns is a lot more challenging than knitting with smooth lace yarns. I started out knitting with mohairs so I really didn't fully appreciate this aspect until later when I'd used Zephyr and merino and cashmere yarns. I also learned about the edging challenge (as mentioned above). Another lesson learned: when you get too bored with the lace you're knitting, go find another lace pattern that is compatible that you can insert so as to not go cuckoo crazy. Then call it your own adaptation and think cool thoughts about your designing abilities. Well, not too cool ;o) And I guess last, but not least, if you are going to abandon a fuzzy lace shawl into a basket for many months--put it into a sealed plastic storage bag first. The dust bunnies liked to have killed me finishing that edging and you should have seen the bath water---yikes! Pass the Allegra &/or Benedryl...quick!

So here's the scoop:
Pattern: Fir Cone Triangular Shawl
Designer: My adaptation of an original design by Fruitcake Knits
Source: fruitcakeknits.weblogs.us/fir-cone-triangular-shawl/
Yarn: Madil Kid Seta (70% Super Kid Mohair/30% Silk, 25g=210m/230 yds.) color 631 - 3 balls
Needles: Addi-Turbo US5 (3.75mm)
Finished Size: 66" x 33" after blocking
Details: I inserted a diamond motif border before the knit-on edging in my adaptation of the original pattern (sorry, the border pattern is not available)
There are more pictures of this and my other recent shawl completions on my Flickr page

MS3: Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary Mom

I finished the splish splash party Saturday night by blocking a 3rd shawl--the MS3 or Swan Lake Stole. Melanie really threw a curve ball to this summer's mystery knitalong group by designing the 2nd half of the stole in a distinctly different manner from the 1st half. Known affectionately (or not!) as the "wing", this surprise ending was the hot topic on the knitting boards for weeks. Some loved it, many hated it, most were somewhere in between. To my surprise (and perhaps Melanie's too) many couldn't stand the idea of a stole that didn't look the same on both ends. Yes, we MUST have SYMMETRY! In this era where there is so much asymmetry in contemporary fashion and in the knitting magazines, the strong objection of many KAL members was a bit fascinating. The debate was heated (not flaming, though) although I confess I skipped most of it by subscribing only to the "special notices" mail from Melanie. This year's group was just too big and the inexperienced knitter chat too overwhelming for me to enjoy reading the digests this time. Heck, the volume of mail was so much I wouldn't have had any time to knit if I read it all!


I started 2 stoles since I couldn't decide between 2 yarns/colors. Once the mystery clue with the wing was revealed, though, I focused solely on knitting the natural colored one. I plan to resume knitting the blue version (without the wing) now that the natural one is finished.

I opted to go ahead and knit the natural-colored stole as written, wing and all, but I had misgivings about how it looked. The first picture above shows the completed stole before blocking. Looking at the 2 ends side by side I just wasn't thrilled with it. I know what Melanie's intention was, but I just couldn't convince my gut to like it. Nevertheless, I reserved final judgment until after blocking. After all, blocking can do magical things for a shawl. While I didn't like the finished stole at this point, my mother thought it was wonderful. OK Mom, I know what to do with it once I finish blocking. Aren't Moms just the best thing ever? Even now, she still loves everything I make :-) BTW, Mom is modeling the stole. You wouldn't believe how old she really is...she sure doesn't look it! She didn't acquire her 1st wrinkles until after she turned 70...I'm sure glad for that gene pool!


Enough about Mom... back to the story of the stole. I soaked the shawl in my usual warm soapy water (it was filthy--as bad as ColourMart cones--go figure?), rinsed it well, and headed to the bed. My pre-bath calculations said the stole would fit on the bed, but I was wrong and the wing took a strange curve down the side of the mattress--oh well (sigh). I was trying to hurry and get her stretched because my Father was having a little cardiac episode upstairs and mother was panicking (unnecessarily, but that another story). I had a sopping wet shawl that I really didn't want to abandon lest I run the risk of ruining it, so I moved quickly. Once I got the point of the 1st end perfectly even, stretching the rest wasn't all that bad. Since it was my 3rd shawl of the day, I was pretty quick threading the wires by now. My Swan Lake Stole turned out to be bigger than Melanie's version, but I used fatter lace yarn and bigger needles so I expected this. The wing really wanted to stretch out more than both my bed and the straight line across the top would allow, so there was a spot near the join at the bottom that wasn't stretched quite as much as the rest of the piece. But in the end, the interesting blocking of the wing didn't matter at all.


I unpinned the stole on Sunday morning, still not feeling the love for the thing, and took it upstairs to my mother. She carefully put the stole on, making sure the join between the wing and the rest of the shawl was positioned on her shoulder just right. Then something magical happened. She tossed the Wing over her shoulder, just as she would with any scarf. The feather points danced around her arm creating a perfect frame for the lace of the other end of the stole. At that moment I saw what Melanie had been trying to convey to thousands of doubting knitters for weeks. The beautiful white Swan had triumphed. The stole looked fabulous and my mother was completely smitten by it. Happy 50th Wedding Anniversary Mom, it's yours!


So, the final story is:
Pattern: Swan Lake Stole (MS3)
Designer: Melanie Gibbons
Source: Pink Lemon Twist
Yarn: KnitPicks Bare Laceweight (91g used)
Needles: Addi-Lace US 5 (3.75mm)
Dimensions: 81" x 21"
Details: Knit as written, with the "Wing", beads omitted;
Time: started July 8th, finished August 24th, 21 days of actual knitting

Splish Splash

My lace shawls have been taking a bath...in nice warm sudsy water...before being stabbed with long skinny wires and stretched to the limit. And since it's been so hot and dry around here lately, the stoles were bone dry in record time. The end result: 2 shawls (Coral Lace, Hanami) are already finished and a third one is soaking even as I write (MS3-Natural). Oh boy! I had to block the shawls one at a time because I don't have enough blocking wires to do 2 at the same time. I probably would have done them individually anyway since these projects fit on my guest bed and it's so much easier on the creaky old body to use the bead instead of the floor in the family room.


First up is a Coral Lace Shawl that I started last year sometime and cast-off earlier this summer. For some reason I just didn't get around to blocking this shawl which is kind of sad because it turned out beautifully and is the perfect summer accessory. The pattern is the Lavender Linen Lace Shawl out of Nancie Wiseman's "Knitted Shawls, Stoles, & Scarves" book (pp.62-64). I used one 2 oz. ball of Jaggerspun Zephyr 2/18 laceweight yarn (50% wool/50% tussah silk) in the coral colorway and US 4 (3.5mm) Addi-turbo needles. My final dimensions after blocking were 64" x 30" (published dimensions were 61" x 28").


The finished Coral Lace Shawl is very light and airy. You would hardly know you had it on it's so light! I think if I were to knit this again I would go down a needle size as I think the YO holes are a bit too large. The simple leaf motif and bottom-up construction would make this a wonderful 1st shawl pattern for someone wanting to venture into lace knitting. It would be just as wonderful knit from a fingering or DK weight yarn too, for those not quite ready to try their hand with the skinny stuff.



The next shawl up for the swish and stretch treatment was the Hanami Stole. Knitting this stole was challenging because of the fine silk yarn I chose and blocking proved to be equally as challenging. Threading the blocking wires proved to be difficult as I had no eyelet row separating the body of the stole from the edging. Even though I picked up very small bites, the finished stole ended up having a lacy loopy look to the edges. The looseness of the edge was exacerbated by the fact that I did not employ a slip stitch on the 1st stitch of each row. I usually knit the 1st stitch on garter band so as to maximize the stretch of the final shawl and it works well with stretchy fibers. With silk...not so much. Ah, another lesson learned.


So here's the scoop on this shawl: The pattern is the Hanami Stole by Melanie Gibbons of Pink Lemon Twist. It was knit out of 2 strands of 2/28 smooth silk in the Melissa green colorway from ColourMart.com using US 2 (3.0mm) KnitPicks Classic Circular needles. I knew this yarn was much finer than the Alpaca Cloud used by the designer and that I would need to add extra repeats to make sure my stole was long enough. Her final dimensions were 19" x 70". Mine turned out to be 19" x 58"-- a little short despite the extra repeats of the basketweave section plus a bunch of extra rows I added after the transition chart.

After blocking I could see that length wasn't the only "special feature" of my silk Hanami. The final ruffle never did ruffle with this fiber. The center portion of the stole, which is stockinette with very few eyelets, wants to curl at the edges already. Not that I'm surprised-- you should have seen the whole stole curled in from end to end before it's swish and stretch session. It looked more like a stalk of celery than a lace stole! The bottom line: A lovely lace stole pattern, not my favorite mind you, but still a good knit. One thing is for sure-- next time I'll stick to merino or baby alpaca when knitting this stole and save the silk for something else. Live and learn >:-(

P.S. I'll upload more photos to my Flickr site tomorrow

I Love Casting Off

I love casting off... well, I do and I don't. I don't really like the *process* of casting off. You know, making sure your tension isn't too tight...or too loose, and that your stitches are nice and even. All that stuff is a royal PITA. Now, make that soon-to-be-finished project one knit on small needles with double-stranded ultra slippery silk yarn, then decide at the last minute that you need to add beads to the cast-off edge and the PITA factor just rose exponentially. *BUT* move another lace stole from the WIP list to the FO list and, well...I just love casting off!

Yes, it's a WooHoo moment: the Hanami Lace Stole is finished! The timing, of course, was perfect as the KAL group I joined to help motivate me to finish my stole is casting-on tomorrow. Does that mean I was extra motivated??? (yes, absolutely yes!) The cast-on edge of the Hanami Stole is beaded, but the cast-off edge is a ruffle that doesn't include beads. In fact, the only beads in the design were at the cast-on edge. I really didn't think my silverlined clear beads were very noticeable against the celery green of my stole, a huge disappointment as they were such a pain to cast-on with. But after knitting my ruffle, I didn't think my edge was ruffled enough -something I also blame on the yarn. The silk yarn created a stockinette fabric that curled *a lot* more than usual. I was concerned that the stockinette ruffle would also curl and not hang properly so I decided to (gasp) add beads to the cast-off edge to add weight and give some balance to the otherwise asymmetrical design. This was my first 100% smooth laceweight silk project and it's had it's challenges. Only blocking will tell the truth in the end, but I suspect this project would have been better served with a wool or alpaca lace yarn.

I guess I need to have a little "block party" as I have four lace projects in need of a bath and blocking: a small shawl, 2 stoles, and a mohair scarf. Hopefully I'll get started on all that blocking this weekend. There will be pictures forthcoming!

Flap your Wings and Fly AWay

Flap your wings and fly away...oh MS3 "Swan Lake" Stole to the finished projects basket ! Yup, I cast-off my Natural white MS3 last Friday night. I haven't had a chance to block her yet (something about celebrating my parents 50th wedding anniversary), so pictures will be forthcoming. I cast-on on July 8th and cast-off on August 24th, having spent 21 days knitting on this project. I knit this version exactly as written, with the "wing". I used a single 100g hank of KnitPicks Bare Laceweight yarn and US5 Addi-Lace needles. The final stole weighed 91g.

Having finished the 1st of my 2 Swan Lake Stoles, I have to say that the pattern proved to be a pleasant knit--not boring! I can't offer a final opinion on the wing until after blocking, but my current thoughts are still not favorable. I don't love how my join between the 2 sections looks and I still would have preferred some connection between the lace patterning of each section. The good news is my mother absolutely loves the wing! She tends to wear her stoles and shawls with one end wrapped securely around her neck--the optimal way for the Swan Lake Stole. So I will give it to her after I weave in the ends and block the stole and I will finish the blue version without the wing for myself. I guess there was a reason why I ended up knitting 2 after all :-)

With one stole done I resumed work on another of Melanie's designs, the Hanami Stole. This was Melanie's first asymmetrical design, but this one is much more to my liking. The 1st half of Hanami is knit in a basketweave lace and the rest is a varying gradient of YOs intended to resemble cherry blossoms falling. I knit most of the 1st section before the MS3, but am now well into the last section of the stole. I have 1 1/2 charts left to knit before the final ruffled edging. I joined a KAL group for this stole even though I am a "cheater" thinking it would help me get finished. Besides, I can offer my help to others having already knit much of this lace stole.


Today's photos include some of my favorite things. First up is one happy baby and her very proud daddy-My nephew Tyler and his daughter Isabella, now 2 months old. Can you dig that goofy grin??? It's hard to top chubby cheeks baby pictures, but emerging from the drought and triple-digit record heat is a spectacular flowering vine--the passionflower. This version is a cultivar and is a bit different from the Tennessee State wildflower passionflower which has a lot more purple in in. I hope to have some of the wild passionflowers growing in my garden too some day. I found some growing in a place where I can legally take a start without hurting anyone or anything, so I may just be lucky enough to not have to buy a plant from a local wildflower nursery. The structure of the passionflower is simply amazing and would be considered beautiful by any standard. Christians find extra appeal in the symbolism attached to the passionflower, said to represent Christ's Passion. Either way, I just love these flowers!

This Teddy is...

dressed to a T! A great big orange and white University of Tennessee Volunteers T! I accepted the challenge of the Football-A-Long group to knit a teddy bear sweater in my team colors, something I had never done before. Not only did I use orange and white, but I did my 1st stranded knitting (fair isle) in the orange and white checkerboard and my 1st embroidery in the cross-stitch T--both iconic symbols here at Tennessee. This was my 1st top-down raglan, knit on DPNs due to the (not-so-small) size, and so it was truly a challenge for me to create/knit.

The purpose of the challenge was to knit sweaters to be donated to a charity that gives the dressed bears to organizations that deal with distressed/traumatized children. It's a good thing, but I have one big problem--I love the sweater so much I just can't part with it. It's been a really rough week with my Daddy going through angioplasty... again and coming to realize just how close he came to dying... again. The emotions of it all kinda caught up with me as I knit on this little sweater. This little sweater is really about a different kind of team spirit that has nothing to do with football, rather it's about my alma mater where I just spent 8 long years struggling to get my PhD. It's about the University where my father devoted his life to his students and colleagues for decades. It's about the united spirit of devotion to a place he and I uniquely shared. And so it will stay in a corner of my room where I find solace and inspiration--right next to that big honking diploma that carries my name and that of the University of Tennessee and says Doctor of Philosophy in bold print. It will remind me of the Team Spirit of the Drs. Plaas and our shared love for the University and education and research and all the good times we spent at UTK together. Go Vols!

Two weeks and counting down...

Until it's FOOTBALL TIME IN TENNESSEE!!! The Vols are getting ready for tonight's scrimmage and I'm getting ready by knitting with the Football-a-long KAL. Yup, knitters are screaming crazy football fanatics too :-)


So the 1st (preseason) challenge for the Football-a-long was to knit a team-oriented teddy bear sweater to be donated to charity. Hmmm...that *is* a challenge for me since sweater knitting, even tiny sweater knitting, hasn't really been my thing as of late. in fact I've never done anything like this before. But I went to the suggested website and downloaded some patterns and came up with some orange and white yarn. I had kind of decided to not do this challenge, but I was in a funky mood last night and decided to give it a whirl. I'm knitting a top-down raglan sweater in 2 colors (both are new techniques to me) using worsted weight acrylic and size 4 dpns. My little furry friend volunteered (get it, VOLUNTEERed) to try on my Tennessee orange and white sweater, shown here during the 2nd fitting to determine proper fit of the sleeves and chest). So far things are going well, but the true Tennessee touch is yet to come. Stay tuned!!!!

Thank God for Knitting, part 2

It's been a horrible, long week. I don't know how I would have survived without my knitting and the kind words of others who have reached out to me via my knitting. I dragged my Little River Socks with me, from one Doctor's office to the next and through 2 days at the hospital as I tended to the needs of my father and mother. It took the cardiothoracic surgeons a long time, but with patience and persistence they were able to remove the occluded stent in a major coronary artery, clear all the plaque and calcifications, and place 2 new stents to restore perfusion to his stressed heart. It was exactly what I had hoped for and Daddy came through the procedure like a rock. I *know* miracles happen and the Lord just delivered our family another one.

After spending Wednesday going to doctor's appointments (1st daddy's, then my own) I was quite dissatisfied with having to untangle my knitting from everything else in my purse. I've seen those cute little bags for on-the-go knitting, but I just don't have $20+ to invest in such things, BUT, I do have a great sewing machine and a serger and a fabric stash that exceeds my yarn stash. So I dug through some remnants leftover from other projects and started cutting and folding, stitching and pressing. No measuring needed for this simple project.
It was 10PM when I sat behind the sewing machine and whomped up the cutest little knitting bag I ever saw. Do you like the FROGS? I couldn't think of anything more suitable than frogs...besides, I needed cheering up! I put pockets on the inside-one big pocket on one side that can hold a paper pattern and any notions like cable needles and scissors or a measuring tape, and 3 long pockets on the other side to keep my dpns sorted by size. In the middle is enough space for 100g of sock yarn (balled or partially knit :-) The froggy bag performed perfectly on its test drive at the hospital yesterday so I am pleased.

I took a break after daddy had been transferred to his room and came home for an afternoon nap. I was thrilled to find a package from the Loopy Ewe in my mailbox! I've been surfing the specialty sock & lace yarn retailers online for months and finally decided to splurge and try one out. I had heard good things about Sheri at the Loopy Ewe from, of all people, Sandy, the owner of The Yarn Haven, my just-across-the-street LYS. There were oodles of yarns I wanted at the Loopy Ewe, but I narrowed it down to one sock yarn, a beautiful hand paint from Apple Laine, and one lace yarn from J Knits. Not only were my yarns beautiful beyond words, but they were meticulously wrapped in tissue paper before being sealed in a plastic bag and sent speedily to my door. I felt like I just got a present, and frankly, I needed one :-)


I have knitting progress to report, but I think I'll save it for another post as I'm pretty wiped out. Thanks to all of you who sent your well wishes and offered prayers for my family. I know they made a difference :-)

Thank God for Knitting

I can't tell you how grateful I am to have knitting in my life. I've spent a lot of time at home this past week tending to the needs of my father, who is in very fragile health. He really depends on me to be his "private duty nurse" and he'll listen and comply with my requests many times when he won't do so for my mother. Mom needs time to escape the house and nuture her own well-being and I do my best to make sure that happens. Daddy is now at the point where he shouldn't be left alone so we take turns being with him. I've had a very long turn this weekend.

Things were going just fine from my perspective until about dinnertime last evening. That's when he refused to take the medicine I recommended for another bout of cardiac symptoms because it would be the 3rd time he needed it that day. He didn't like the idea of needing nitroglycerin for the 3rd time because it would look bad. Being the obstinate soul he is (I had to inherit the trait from somewhere!) I wasn't winning this war and I was exasperated. Fortunately mother came home and together we got the stuff down him and she went to work calming him down. I escaped to my knitting. Thank God for knitting!!! You hear folks talk about how soothing and relaxing it is, and I agree. Right now I mega agree!

As my stress antidote I added a lot of rows to my natural-colored MS3 stole. I let the stole languish while I worked on socks and, frankly, while I decided what to do about "the wing" on the Swan. I decided to knit the wing for the natural-colored version just to see how it turns out. I figure it's a learning experience...but... I did run a lifeline on the last row of chart F so I can frog back if needed. I won't knit the wing on the blue beaded stole, rather I make it symmetrical with the lace panel insertion at the center. I'm very confident that the blue stole will turn out great.

Lest this post sound like a downer I thought I'd end with a couple of very happy photos. The first is my great-niece Isabella who is a chubby, happy 1 month old. She has her father's eyes, but the rest looks just like mom--especially the red hair. I took the last photo, a Queen Elizabeth Rose, during my morning stroll in the garden. This is a very fragrant rose and is a favorite of mine.

Before... and after!?!

You see these pictures everywhere...the infamous "before and after" photographs. Usually B&A pix are used to show how much better a person looks after mega weight loss, or a makeover--be it fashion, hair, makeup, or a room in your house. Somehow we are addicted to before and after pictures. They seem to say to us--"omigosh, can you believe how much better this person looks now that they____________ (fill in the blank: lost 200 lbs on this weight loss program, learned "what to wear", gave up thift store clothes, or stopped wearing 6 six coats of mascara, etc.). You get the idea. We love the ugly duckling turns into a swan or they all lived happily ever after stories. This is one of those stories. The leading character (ahem) is a greatly improved knitter who has no money and desperately wants yarn to knit a great sweater that fits. Let's set the scene:


I am so motivated by the new issue of Vogue Knitting! After knitting nothing but lace and socks for 2 years now I want to knit a real sweater--one that fits this time (see exhibits A&B above for evidence of excessively large sweater UFOs). Being of excessively limited financial resources I began digging through my yarn stash to see if I had anything good that could be coaxed into an awesome sweater. Frankly, despite the size of the stash, there wasn't much there for a fall/winter sweater (lots of craft store acrylic and summery stuff though). Two of the 3 best choices were trapped in limbo in partially, yes even mostly completed garments that were so big that the front half of the sweater could almost wrap around my entire body. Let's just say I'm a much better knitter these days and I understand more about gauge and how knitted fabric stretches.


So I present my before and after photos. Exhibit A is a lace pullover in a gorgeous 4ply lambswool (I didn't even know what 4 ply was when I bought the yarn online). It was supposed to be 22" wide and it's more like 30". Exhibit B is a superwash Aran wt wool--my 1st real yarn purchase at my LYS. It was on clearance at 50% off adn i figured that machine washable was a good thing for wool. I had never knit with wool before. After a visit to the frog pond and some serious unwinding-rewinding time I now have lovely yarn (Exhibit C). Now I have some great, natural fiber yarn with which to knit a sweater--out of real wool--and this time it *will* fit! Oh boy!

Little Volunteers

It's been more than a week since I updated ya'll on my knitting projects, but what can I say? It's hard to have show and tell when you're un-venting a sock design and you don't want to show it just yet ;o) I'm certain it's an unvention, but I haven't seen this design in anything I've looked through recently, including the more than 200 sock patterns I had saved from online (free or otherwise) that I just burned to a CD_R disc. What I can tell you is that even taking a simple lace/cable motif and dropping it into a basic sock formula still takes work and lots of test-knitting to make sure that things like gauge and fit are all working together in harmony.


The first sock I knit was out of a multicolored yarn (Panda Cotton, of course! my new favorite sock yarn). The yarn is great, the colors are great for fall/winter socks, the design is pretty good too, but they didn't create that nice harmony as the colors overwhelmed the stitch details. I discovered that the sock was a bit too baggy too as the 64sts that were perfect for the stitch pattern were too many for a nice, snug fit over the ankle and foot. So I cast-on again using a solid color yarn and 56 sts this time. So far thigns are looking good, but I'm still working the gusset decreases so it's too early to know for sure.

I'm also knitting a little on the MS3 "Swan Lake". The unveiling of the theme and the asymmetrical final design caught most folks off-guard. I half expected the asymmetry since Melanie's last stole, Hanami, was her 1st asymmetrical design. Even still, the Swan Lake design seems to be quite distinct from what I can tell at this point. It'll be quite interesting to see how the final clues shake out. I've been knitting on the natural-colored stole and am planning to knit the "wing" although I haven't gotten to that point yet. I'm very skittish about grafting 2 halves of the stole together in the middle after I finish the knitting as my "Kitch" stitch is quite terrible as to nice even tension. I was pleased to get the email from Melanie today announcing a non-grafting symmetrical solution to the dilemma. I was racking my brain as to what to do for my blue stole, and this looks like an easy answer to me :-)


I didn't want to leave without sharing a few cheery pictures, so I thought I'd show you a few little "volunteers" that showed up in my veggie garden. The sunflowers were "planted" by the birds who love my birdfeeders. Did you notice the second sunflower picture? It's actually 3 small flowers blooming in tandem--2 in the back and one centered on top. Strange, huh? I planted a few seeds last year for a Zinnia hybrid called "Thumbelina" They are miniatures and are quite cute. Of note was the phrase last year, as I didn't plant any this year. No, they just came up along the edge of the lawn and next to the raised planter boxes. I just love the plants that liberally self-sow adn grow without any work on my part.

In the Nick of Time

I finished my Victorian Lace Socks this morning...just in the nick of time! The Six Sox deadline is today to be eligible for goodies or whatever--I really don't know being new to the group and all. Anyway, it was good motivation to get another pair of socks into the FO list. To celebrate the occasion, I headed out to my garden to shoot some creative pictures of my VLS.


Up first is perhaps my favorite picture. I love how the yellow of the socks stands out in contrast to the brilliant crimson of the Vinca. This was my first time planting vinca (the flowers, not the flowering vine--but I have some of that too that grew under the fence from the neighbor's yard). Actually, I didn't choose to plant vinca, my mother just brought a pony pack home one day and that was that. They were the puniest things for a long time, but just in the last week or so they finally filled out and started to bloom with abundance. They do look good in contrast to the yellow marigolds, especially when viewed from a distance.


The second picture shows the socks perched on one of my most favorite garden plants--lantana. I purchased two of the newer hybrids this year, one is a fragrant purple variety that is more of a ground cover. I planted those at the base of a young Natchez Crape Myrtle. The contrast of the white blossoms of the crape myrtle look great with the lavender lantana. but the socks are perched in a lovely yellow-peach-pink hybrid called Peach Sunrise. This hybrid grows vertically in addition to the lateral spread so they end up looking more like a shrub by fall. Cool!


Up next we find the socks in the yellow marigolds. Yellow socks--yellow flowers. Need I say more? I suppose not, so we'll move on to the mainstay of any southerner's late summer perennial border: the purple coneflower. Not only are these coneflowers very long-blooming, despite the heat, humidity, and this year--drought, but they are a magnet for butterflies bees and birds. There is nothing more beautiful to look at than a male goldfinch feeding on the seeds of purple coneflowers. I guess that's why I needed to take a picture of my yellow socks on the coneflowers.


And last, but certainly not to be dismissed or ignored is the brilliant purple petunia. No, my petunias are not planted in an onion patch, but they are in pots and raised beds all around the house. My mother adores the fragrance of petunias, especially in the evening, so I planted lots of them on the deck where she sits and relaxes early each morning and again in the evening. After all, it's my job to take good care of my mother :-) Love ya Mom!

Where did July go?

It's late. The almost full moon is a glowing orange tonight and I'm sitting here wondering what happened to this month. I swear it was the 4th of July holiday just the other day. I guess watching the Tour de France every day helped the month fly by (and what an exciting finish to the Tour this year?!?!) I guess I'll have to find something else to pace my morning knitting now that the Tour is over.

I'm knitting away on my Victorian Lace Socks so they will be done by tomorrow's deadline. The next Six Sox design is scheduled for release on Wednesday and I'm curious to see what the group will be knitting next. I frogged the oversized Jaywalker sock and wound the yarn back into a ball ready for a new, better-suited-for-me sock pattern to show up. I may frog the 1st sock tomorrow too. As for the MS3, I spent yesterday knitting on the blue version. I guess I have some serious knitting to do if I'm going to caught up and ready for the 5th clue on Friday. I'm trying very hard to finish my WIPs--a challenge indeed when my fingers are just itching to dive into a new project. I'm seriously considering giving a go at a sweater--one that really fits (gasp)...but then again, maybe I'll stick with lace knitting after all :-)


Since I haven't taken any new pictures on my current knitting projects, today's visuals are of my niece, Victoria's 8th birthday party. the festivities were held last night and included the ever-present pink balloons and chocolate birthday cake. Victoria is in to art and animals, so we gave her several "how to draw" animals books along with a sketch book for her to practice in. I recently introduced her to scrapbooking, which went over with a big bang, but she still isn't all that interested in needlework or fiber arts...maybe next year :o)

Better news

Now that I've vented about my fiasco with the Jaywalker socks I'm feeling a bit better about things. Or at the very least I'm ready to move forward to knitty success. I've been watching the Tour de France faithfully every day for 3 weeks. I've only been a Tour fan for a few years, but I don't suppose there ever was a Tour with more unexpected events--good and bad. And so it is with knitting I guess. The Jaywalker socks surprised me kind of like the 2 dogs the jumped out in front of cyclists during the Tour. Yup, twice it happened--once during the first week and again just the other day. And so I've had big socks. The Panda Cotton ones I caught early on and remedied, but the 2nd jaywalker was just a bad surprise. But the Tour and knitting socks must go on! Vive le Tour!


The first thing I did after throwing the bad jaywalkers in the frog pond corner was grab my yellow Panda Cotton socks. I'm knitting the Victorian Lace Socks along with the Six Sox group and it's a pretty nice knit. It took a while to get used to the Mini-Melon lace stitch, but once I mastered that things went pretty well. Of course I sort of altered everything else about the pattern except the top-down start and the lace pattern, but it was all minor things really. The best part is I just finished turning the heel on the 2nd sock and I'll have another great pair of PC socks to wear in a day or so. This is very good since I ***LOVE*** Panda Cotton yarn. I'm already plotting and planning to knit several more pairs out of this awesome yarn.