Happy, Very Happy

What can I say? I'm happy, very happy with how my Icarus Shawl turned out. My anxieties over the potential conflict between the lace pattern and multicolored yarn proved to be unfounded as in the end, they came together quite nicely. Thanks to Kat and Regenia for encouraging me to stop overanalyzing and just knit. I have this issue with obsessing over every little detail-- it gets in the way of a good project every now and then (sigh). Fortunately I got over it quick with Icarus and I have a fabulous shawl to show for it. Knitting *is* good therapy ;-)

I took a bazillion pictures of my Icarus after casting-off--more than I've taken of any other knitting project. This is a side effect of being a knitter on the net. I need pictures for everyone and everywhere...Blogger, Flickr, Ravelry-it's gotten outta control! No longer are just plain photos of the shawl being blocked or draped on something sufficient; no, they must be artistic! I traipsed, shawl and camera in hand, from the bedroom to the family room, to the deck, and out to the garden in the quest for the perfect photograph. Knitter, set director, art director, and photographer all-in-one!

The set director really liked the neighbor's split rail fence. the photographer, though, thought the late afternoon sun was a bit much and would wash out the colors. The art director loved the ficus trees under the deck, but it was a bit shady and the wind was blowing--good for models with long hair but not so good for gossamer lace shawls. Thankfully everyone agreed the deck rail showed off all the best attribute of the shawl. (Multiple personalities anyone? LOL)

The final statistics for my Icarus shawl:
Size: 84" x 42" (big, but light as a feather)
Knitting time: 28 days
Yarn: JKnits Lace-a-licious "Wyoming" (100g used, 13g left over). I totally "heart" this yarn and will definitely use it again. It's a fine lace weight yarn to be sure, but it was beautifully spun without slubs or clumps of fiber and there were no knots or noticeable tie-offs in my hank. I bought mine at the Loopy Ewe, an online retailer I highly recommend.
Needles: US3 (3.25mm), KnitPicks Classic Circular 32" to start, switching to Addi-Lace 47" once I reached 400sts.
Final st. count: 571sts (I needed all 47" of those Addis!)
The last Baaa, baaa: Ewe-Nice approves! 'Nuff said :-)

It's Done

It took me almost 2 hours to cast-off all 550+ sts late Wedsnesday night. I was practically cross-eyed by the time I finished the row, but my Icarus shawl is done. I only added one repeat and I probably could have added another as I had 13g of yarn left over, but as it is Icarus looks pretty big. I finished weaving in the ends today, but I didn't have the courage to do the blocking...or should I say my BACK didn't have the courage to do the job. Maybe tomorrow :-) I don't think the wingspan will fit on the guest bed, so this one will have to hit the floor in the family room. My back screams at the very thought :-(

So now it's time to figure out what to knit next. I have three 2nd socks to finish, none of which inspire me. I have several new sock yarns in my stash which are inspiring, but which pattern to knit next? There are at least a dozen on my list, and the list seems to grow at least weekly. So many great sock designs, so little time.

It was OK that I didn't have anything serious to knit on today because I spent a good chunk of the afternoon sucked into the time trap that is Ravelry. This site is so cool! I love having one place to go to find out all the nitty gritty details of my projects. Gathering and entering that stuff is time consuming, but once I'm up to date the maintenace will be simple. I still have lots to figure out and I haven't gotten into the forums yet. I'm not a big fan of the Forum format as I prefer the e-mail digest features of Yahoo Groups. The up side, Forums are much easier to deal with when there are huge numbers of people involved, as in some of the mystery KALs I've joined. The menial email volume on Yahoo is more than I can stomach, but Ravelry is much better since I can bypass things and cut to the chase. This may be especially good for the SOTS KAL as the moderator hasn't been consistent about sending out the Special Notices mail for when the clues go up, etc. It may not matter, however, as I've been rather unimpressed by the 1st two clues. It may be the way the charts have been drawn, though, so I'll wait and see what the knitting looks like before I pass final judgement. Strange charts...I don't know what program she's used, but these are the only charts I've seen where I can't really visualize what the lace looks like. It's taking the mystery thing a bit too far for me.

Chart 4

I'm finally on the last chart of Icarus. Yes...the end is in sight. I am really ready to move on to something else. I'm on the middle rows of Chart 4 which is nice, but the Wrong side rows are no longer "easy" knitting and everything requires concentration. It took me forever to knit just one row while waiting for Daddy at Cardiac Rehab this morning. I really do like my plain purl rows :-)

I would probably be a few more rows closer to finito if it weren't for Ravelry. Such a cool site! I spent hours this weekend logging in yarns into my stash and documenting my projects. Being the O/C person that I am, or at least a stickler for details, I am finding I have to dig out the yarns/labels to get all the info recorded. I'm just getting going with the projects, but already I'm cross-eyed because I can't remember the exact start and completion dates. Some are recorded on the patterns and others are on my blog--all require digging to find the info I need. Oh bother! I just have to add a little each day and eventually I'll get there. Heck, I haven't even scratched the surface of all the stuff you can do on Ravelry. No wonder everyone has raved about this site...it's *that* good!!!

Turning Ravelry off for now....back to knitting :-)

Back to knitting

While I was having my little freak out over my Icarus on Thursday night, Regenia was happily casting-off the last stitch on hers. I guess this means I'll be taking that yarn crawl up to the northeast corner of the state. What a terrible thing to have to do, and in late October/early November too when the colors in the Smokies are at their peak. I was about to say their best, but with the terrible drought and the prolonged, excessive heat we had this summer the fall colors will definitely not be at their best this year. Better luck next year I suppose :-(

Kat was right about my shawl. Sometimes I get a bit too O/C about my knitting. It helps to have caring friends to remind me to just shut up and knit! Actually, you could see the lace edging much better in the photo than I saw in person at the time I was freaking out. The lace looks even better now that I have another dozen rows added too. I'm ready to finish and move on to the next project. Of course, I'm obsessing over what the next project should be. The 2nd clue for Chrysopolis is out and I really like what I'm seeing thus far. This is seriously lacy, but still has plain purled wrong side rows...just what I like. the 1st clue of SOTS came out yesterday and I'm not feeling the same enthusiasm for it. I'll wait a bit longer before passing judgment on SOTS. Of course Romi just started KALs for Muir Woods, her new design published in the Fall issue of Knitty. Muir looks like a nice design too, but it kind of reminds me a bit of the basketweave I knit forever on Hanami--I think I need a bit more time before I knit that kind of patterning again. But then, it's not the same as Hanami either...and I do like it.... I think I'll put it on the To Do List but just not at the top of the List :-) I wonder if Muir Woods would look nice in a fingering weight yarn? I saw a yummy alpaca yarn at the Yarn Patch in Crossville yesterday that I would love to have knit into a stole. Ah, a girl can dream, can't she????

I guess I'll stop worrying about what to do next and just focus on what I need to finish first. I'm quickly learning that I'll never get any knitting done as long as I keep on sitting behind this computer trying to fill in all the holes in my Ravelry notebook. It's a very cool site, but I need to pace myself filling in all the gaps and figuring things out. Tonight I started adding in my yarn stash. I didn't think my stash was really all that big before tonight. Now I've changed my mind as I've hardly scratched the surface. Filling in all the projects, even just the ones from this year, is going to be a huge job too. When do normal people with jobs and kids and stuff find time to do this? I can't even imagine....

There's something about feathers

and lace knitting that I seem to have trouble with. First it was the MS3 Swan Lake Stole where the feathered wing and I never did see eye to eye very well. Now it's the feathered finish of the Icarus shawl that's doing the squawking. Or maybe I should say not squawking...... 'cuz it's pretty darn hard to see those complicated stitch patterns
against the color variations of the yarn.

So last night I had a "where are the feathers?" induced panic attack. Now that I'm halfway through the third chart (2nd chart of real lace, aka feathers) I got the bright idea that I should spread my work out and actually look at what I was knitting. What a novel idea! And that's when I realized that all I could see was color and the pattern was barely discernable. OK, well, maybe not that bad. After all, the shawl was in it's unstretched/unblocked state when lace usually looks like a jumbled mess AND it was very late AND I had a wicked headache; NOT a good time to decide anything. I pitched the thing in a corner in disgust and went to bed.

This morning I started pulling out patterns and books and engaged in a generalized state of frenzied behavior aimed at how to rescue the shawl. Of course I would have to frog the feathers and do something else, but what? Knit a different, simpler lace motif. Diamonds? Waves? Maybe I should just add a frilly ruffle and call it a day - that would look nice. BUT WAIT, there's just one huge drawback to the frogging plan, NO LIFELINE. OK, I hate the things, lifelines that is. They are a pain to put in, but even worse, they are a big pain to knit around. Do I REALLY want to go back and put in a lifeline now, then pick-up 450 sts just to double them and knit a 700 st (or more!) ruffle. Imagine casting that off! YIKES!

The headache is now a full-blown migraine and the dog has arrived to claim her rightful spot on the bed. Nap time Mom. I clear off all the stitch dictionaries and Over the Edge books and let the dog take over. That 's when the little voice in my head said stretch it out and look again. Either I'm having a psychotic episode or maybe I just needed a fresh look at my Icarus. Things somehow tend to look better in the morning. I cleared off the comforters and pinned out a section of the edging. Surprise! The feathers really were there! No, they aren't as obvious as they should be, or would have been if I had used a solid colored yarn, but I knew that was the risk I was taking when I started.

The migraine got much worse as the day rolled on, but at least I can take comfort in knowing I don't have to frog back and pick up 450+ sts and knit something else. Icarus has risen again from the ashes...oh wait, wasn't that supposed to be a Phoenix? No, no Phoenix shawl. I need to lay off the feathered things for awhile. Please pass the Diet Coke and the Excedrin. The knitting will resume again tomorrow.

PS. I'll fill the tank Regenia. Where shall we start the Tri-City tour...Jane's Fiber & Beads or Yarntiques?

PPS. I got my Ravelry invite!!! Yikes, there's a huge "suck time away from real knitting" distraction! I've started filling in the blanks already :-)

Progress Report

I'm feeling pretty pukey puny tonight so just a quick note to report that I have completed chart 2 of Icarus and have moved on to chart 3. After 2 weeks of being lulled into the complacency of sameness, I was rudely awakened part way through chart 2 to discover that there were both knit AND purl stitches on the wrong side rows. Oh whoops! It's a good thing no one can tell that I purled those sneaky little knit stitches for a couple of wrong side rows. By the time I needed 3 knit stitches, I noticed my error. Let's face it, there's no way in heck I was gonna tink/frog back 4 rows at 400+ sts/row to fix those Knit 1 spots. And if you think raveling back each spot and hooking back up was any better, NOT! Let's just say that sometimes using handpainted yarn has hidden benefits :-) If all goes well, I should be ready for Chart 4 on Wednesday, or Thursday at the latest. I need to focus now that Regenia only has 4 or 5 rows left.

Knitting on!

Chart 1 is done

It only took me what, 16 days of knitting to finally finish all the repeats of Chart 1 of my Icarus shawl. I still had almost half of my yarn left, most likely enough to add a second repeat to the extra one I've already knit, but the mere thought of doing another repeat was more than I could stand last night. I am moving on! After counting to 7 ad nauseum, now the mantra is only 3. Nevertheless, I still catch myself counting to 7 on occasion and I have to stop and tink a couple of stitches before proceeding. Even still, I feel like the end is in sight and what's left is all the fun stuff--the lace!

Maybe, if all goes well, I will be finished knitting Icarus by next weekend. Surely that will be enough notice for Regenia to knit the last few rows of her shawl so she can beat me to the "finish first" prize. Well, not exactly a prize really, but more like bragging rights :-) I think Regenia already has her prize (wink, wink, smile).

The first clue for the Secret of Chrysopolis KAL is out and I must admit I really like what I see. Even though I hadn't anticipated knitting this project anytime soon, I may just change my mind and cast-on after Icarus is done. If you are interested in joining the KAL, sign-ups remain open through this week and the link is in the sidebar. While the group is a German language group, the clues are given in both German and English, in chart and text form, and the leader, Moni, is fluent in both languages. In short, don't let language stop you! There are plenty of English speaking knitters participating to help you as needed.

I added to the yarn stash this past week with another package from Richard at ColourMart. This time it was a cone of 65%/35% cash/silk in my favorite BonBon pink. Oh this is yummy stuff! It has the lovely sheen of silk with all the fluffy softness of cashmere. All this and the yarn is still on the cone and hasn't been washed yet. I've petted this cone everyday, but I have yet to decide what project to knit with this yummy yarn.

My other yarn acquisition was a couple of balls of Panda Wool in shades of teal and blue called Ultramarine. Sandy at the Yarn Haven just received a new shipment from Crystal Palace restocking the Panda Cotton and adding Panda Wool to the mix. I've already cast-on a pair of socks, but I'm not sure my gauge is right. I'll let you know more once I make sure I can get the cuff over my foot! Until then, Knit on!

The Way Knitters Write...

or What is a Repeat. I'm knitting away on my Icarus Shawl and looking forward to getting beyond the boring plain section and moving on to the interesting lacy section at the bottom of the shawl. I want this shawl to be big enough to really wrap up in when I'm freezing to death in church on Sundays. It's surprising how such a fine shawl can provide so much coziness and warmth while weighing practically nothing.


I have 112g of a slightly finer lace yarn than the designer used. She used 90g for her shawl, so I have at least a 20g "fudge factor" which is a good thing if you are considering increasing the size of your shawl. I'm thinking I may need to work more repeats because my fine yarn will most likely block out a little smaller than the original. This led to an interesting discussion, mostly with myself of course, of what is a repeat? I came to the conclusion that the way knitters write patterns and the way we really think about what we're knitting are two very different things. Icarus is an excellent example. This is what the pattern tells you to do:
Work R1-42 of chart 1;
Rep R19-42 five more times (aka 5 repeats)
Work rows 19-34 one time.

My logical math brain adds up the number of times I have to knit the same series of rows and says 7 repeats, but my pattern reading brain says there are 5 repeats. No wonder so many knitters get confused! It's a brain teaser game... Q: When is a repeat not a repeat? A: When it's the first or last time you knit a pattern sequence, or not!

Regenia says she knit 7 repeats on her Icarus and she ran out of yarn. Did she knit 2 repeats too many...or not? Who knows, but one thing I know for sure and that is I have knit the rep R19-42 5 more times and I'm on R25 of the next repeat. I have more than half of my yarn left-- which is more than enough to knit an extra repeat, which will result in a bigger shawl, which will make my already crowded needle even more crowded, and will take even longer to knit, which will almost guarantee that Regenia will finish her Icarus before I finish mine. I wonder where Diana is on her Icarus?

Saturday Update

Another week has rolled past. The Vols are playing Arkansas State at Neyland Stadium tonight--not a big enough game to be on the usual TV stations so I'm listening to the game on the radio. It's a trade off not being able to watch the game...it's much more fun to be able to see what's happening but I get more knitting done tuning in to the radio broadcast. I much prefer our UT announcers over anyone else, so that's a big advantage to following the game on the radio. No matter, the bottom line is the Big Orange desperately need a seriously good win after the shellacking we suffered at the hand of Tim Tebow and the Florida Gators last week. No defense! Things are looking good as they just scored another TD with 1 min. LTG before halftime. Leading 31-14 at the half sounds a lot better to me!


I took a few more pictures of my garden this week. It's still terribly hot and dry, so the garden looks kind of ragged. My roses are filled with blossoms and I've never had such an abundance of lantana before either. They look more like shrubs than flowers and they are covered with big fat fuzzy bees and a multiplicity of butterflies. Miss Emme, the wonder mini-wiener dog, is fascinated by those bees and she gets irritated with me for not letting her go after them. Children!!! I planted some bronze tipped golden mums out by the lamppost and in a few flowerpots this morning. It's still kind of hot for mums, but as long they get plenty of water they'll be OK. I was pleased that several of the little lavender mums I planted last year came back and are blooming quite nicely too. Gotta love those perennials :-)


I chose to share photos of 2 of my favorite plants today. The first is a blue hybrid passionflower. This flowering vine really takes off and starts to spread and bloom in August. Mine is a little late this year because I moved it to the back of the backyard where there would be more room for the vine to spread. I love the complexity of the flower and it's delicate features. It's amazing that a wild vine can produce such spectacular blooms! The other picture is native wildflower here in the Smokies that blooms in the late spring, fades in the summer, but returns with new foliage and flowers again in the fall. The native pink bleeding heart (Dicentra eximia) loves a moist shady location which makes it a bright spot under the trees.


Moving on to the knitting front, I've been focusing all my attention on the Icarus Lace Shawl. Regenia has taken me up on my throwdown so now I really want to finish fast! The pattern calls for 5 repeats of a 24 row section of chart 1 before moving on to the more interesting lacy stuff. I'm working on that 5th repeat but I'm concerned about the size of my shawl and how much yarn I still have left over. The original used 90g of Fino, which is a little bit fatter than the Lace-a-licious I'm using. They are both baby alpaca and I'm using the same size needles, but I'm at about the half-way point and I've only used 20g of yarn. That ain't very much folks. I've pretty much decided to add an extra repeat and I might even add a 2nd one depending on how things look after 6 repeats. A bigger shawl is good, a smaller shawl would be disappointing, and since I have plenty of yarn I'll just knit on!


I love the way the colors of this yarn are working out in this design. Icarus is well-suited to a subtly hand-painted fiber--something you can't say about most fine lace shawl patterns. I just received another cone of new lace yarn from Richard at ColourMart. This time I purchased a blend of 65% cashmere/35% silk in my favorite "BonBon" blush pink. I already have some pure silk yarn in this colorway in my stash, but I was unprepared for how stunning this cashsilk would be--all the softness and halo of cashmere with the strength and sheen of silk. Wow! I think I might like this blend even more than I love pure cashmere. I'm considering patterns for this yarn, but am leaning towards knitting one of the Shetland Sampler Stoles from either A Gathering of Lace or Victorian Lace Today. Of course I have lots of time to change my mind while I finish Icarus, but right now Hazel Carter's Stole in AGOL is in the lead. Oh yummy!

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!