So Long Summer...Hello Fall

September has finally arrived and I can thankfully say so long to the summer of 2010. With a few wonderful exceptions, like my trip to the Rustic Tarts & Old Farts Knitting Gathering back in June, the rest of this summer has pretty much been lousy. I've been working with my health care team to make drastic changes in the medications I take to manage my fibromyalgia. The end result will be very positive, but the journey has been anything but. I've been sick as a dog pretty much all summer. Add to that the excessive heat and humidity we've had here in Smoky Mountain Country and, well, I'm ready for Fall to get here and for life to get better. Much better.



When I haven't been sleeping --or not-- I've been watching sports on TV and reading novels that have been collecting dust on my bookshelf for years. My knitting output, especially in August, has been minimal. I spent July watching Braves baseball, Wimbledon Tennis, and the Tour de France. My TDF KAL project was an amazing Estonian-inspired lace shawl called Aurantium Blossom, which I knit in a delicate pink baby alpaca laceweight yarn. The lace patterning is comprised of two different Estonian flower motifs, accented by a simple leaf motif edging. Never one to leave things as is, I chose to gild the lily just a wee bit by adding pale pink silver-lined AB 8-0 seed beads to the edging. When the light hits the beads just right they look like raindrops. Beautiful!!! AB is one of the prettiest shawls I've knit to date.

Inspired by the stunning outcome of AB, I cast-on another shaped Estonian Lace shawl, Echo Flowers, the last week of the TDF. Having mastered the 3-into-9 stitch flower cluster I figured I could whip out EF in no time at all. Yeah, right. NOT! I was so sick I hardly touched my knitting for 2+ weeks. I barely managed to finish EF before the start of the La Vuelta in Spain(another 3 week road cycling Grand Tour Race, another KAL hosted on Ravelry). A shawl that I could normally knit at my leisure in maybe 3 weeks took closer to 6 weeks to finish. SIGH!!! The good news is that EF is perhaps even more stunning than AB because of the wide nupp and flower border that finishes the bottom edge. Once again I used baby alpaca lace yarn, this time in a butter yellow with rosy pink heathered highlights, and added a touch of bling with a few champagne pink SL 8-0 seed beads. The shawl is blocked, but I have yet to take FO photos. Stay tuned!

In the meantime I have several knitting projects I'm working on in fits and starts. The Atlanta Braves are in the NL East pennant race and playing better. Tennis has moved on to the US Open in NYC, the Schleck brothers are cycling in the sweltering heat of Andalucia, and beginning this Saturday it's FOOTBALL TIME IN TENNESSEE! GO VOLS!!!

If I finish a few...

...lace shawls, then maybe I can start some new ones, right??? Well, that's what I'm hoping. In the last week or so I finished two lovely lace shawls, Haruni and Trachtentuch B. Both shawls are crescent-shaped triangles knit from the top down with stunning wide leafy edgings. With my love for lace doilies and such, knitting shawls with similar characteristics really float my boat. Hence, I loved knitting both of these shawls.


I started the Haruni Shawl last March when the peach tree in my back yard was in full bloom. I bought the yarn a couple of years ago from an Etsy shop called Prairie Daisy Homespun -- a merino laceweight in lovely shades of pink and pale spring green called Peach Blossom. With those colors and that name I couldn't pass it up! With my tree in blossom I just had to cast-on a shawl with my peach tree yarn and Haruni was calling my name. I normally would not use a handpainted or variegated yarn to knit a lace pattern with such a statement edging, but the overall lace patterning of the shawl body helped persuade me to try it out. While I would definitely use a solid or semisolid for this pattern the next time I knit it, I do love how my lovely pink Haruni turned out. Sometimes "rules" are meant to be broken!




I broke no "rules" when it came to knitting a very traditional German Trachtentuch. this lovely shawl is a vintage design of Erich Engeln, who created numerous lovely lace patterns for tablecloths, doilies, and other home goods in the mid-to-late 20th century in Germany. This is the second, or "B" version, of the trachtentuch patterns, which I chose to knit in a heavy laceweight cashmere cotton blend yarn. The original design was knit in a fine weight cotton thread, and was scarf-sized, but I wanted something just a bit larger. I was the intrepid leader of the Knitalong group in the Small Shawls forum on Ravelry, where a number of knitters created beautiful versions of the two shawl designs. It was rather quite fun!



I totally love the leafy edging on my German shawl, though blocking such a detailed-shaped shawl is a bit tricky for those who haven't done it before. I did take photos of the process and will try to post a quickie tutorial shortly. Meanwhile I am moving on. I have an Elizabeth Zimmerman classic Pi shawl and Eugene Beugler's new Circle of Life shawl in progress, and will be casting on a new shawl tomorrow morning as a part of the 2010 Tour de France KAL over on Ravelry. FUN!!!

KAL Progress Report: Knits from the North Sea

The Lace Knitting group at The Yarn Haven has almost doubled in size with the beginning of our Fall KAL featuring projects from the new book Knits from the North Sea: Lace in the Shetland Tradition. I have already made my thoughts about the book more than clear so I won't repeat the rant. My challenge was to edit the instructions in the book to meet the needs of group members. I have newbies, beginner, and intermediate/advanced intermediate lace knitters with a varying range of knitting expertise, thus my task has not been exactly easy.

The KAL group has had 2 meetings thus far. My 2 novice lace knitters chose to knit the simplest scarf--Carol's Peaches--but were struggling with the mohair yarn the 1st night. They weren't present at the second meeting so I'm concerned they may have been scared away. I hope not. All the beginners except one (she's an expert knitter, just new to lace) are knitting the Cockleshell scarf at my suggestion. Every knitter has struggled with some aspect of the pattern. The multi-chart pattern has been confusing as has the unclear language of some of the chart symbols/pattern instructions. AT least one has abandoned the Cockleshell pattern for a more suitable beginner lace scarf pattern (not in the book). The two knitters who have started the High Country Wrap are also finding it very challenging/frustrating but are soldiering on. One chose to use the size 1 needles recommended in the pattern (I didn't know about that until she had already started) but was having a bit of a go at it and was considering switching up to a larger needle. I have two more newcomers planning to join the group at our next meeting later this week. One decided in advance to knit something else for her project. Smart lady :-)

I'm making progress on my Cockleshell scarf. According to the book I'm done with the first side and halfway through the second side. Of course this is not nearly long enough to be a scarf IMHO so I still need to decide what I want to do to extend the pattern--just keep knitting the same lace rep or change it up to a Seaman's-style scarf with a rib knit center section. I'm leaning towards the latter but I'll make the final decision when I get there.

While this pattern books lacks much, I still love knitting lace and mentoring others in the art of lace knitting. After all...

LACE KNITTING ROCKS!!!
KNIT ON!

R is for...

I recently joined a year-long knitting/fiber-related KAL hosted on Flickr called ABC 2008. Participants are to post pictures which reflect a specific letter of the alphabet during each ~2 week period. I haven't posted my photos yet since i just got accepted, but my 1st one is ready and waiting: A is for Angel scarf knit out of Alpaca yarn with Amazing beaded tassels. How cool is that?

So, now I have letters on my brain...which brings me to my next New Years goal, which is to finally finish or frog all my ufos. And so the letter is R. R is for finally coming to the Realization that I Really don't like either option for finishing the blue MS3 stole that I started last summer during the KAL. And so Really, Really late last night I had a private Ribbit party to say farewell to the half-done stole and Reclaim the really beautiful cashmerino yarn for yet another lace shawl. The Release I felt while Rewinding the yarn was Really amazing. I am a free woman.

And so I am rethinking my relationship with online KALs, especially the "mystery" KALs where you have no idea what you are going to get. Well Forrest Gump, Life may be like a box of chocolates, but when I open that box from See's or Russell Stover's I have a fairly good idea of what's under that robe of chocolaty goodness. I know if it's a caramel or a cream or a nut cluster. That's more than you know with a mystery KAL. I really enjoyed knitting the MS2 the summer of 2006 and the Scheherazade Stole is among my most favorite projects knit to date. I'm also loving the Mystic Waters Shawl I'm currently knitting, but I know what the end looks like since I wasn't able to keep up with the speedy knitters in the group. But the fiasco of the MS3 KAL left me, and many others, more wary and less confident that the mystery will turn out to have a happy ending for us. For example, I didn't cast-on the SOTs stole last fall because I was 1) too busy with other projects, and 2)I didn't like the double pointed starting edge. Tincture of time let me know that the rest of the design wasn't my style either and I was glad I didn't jump in and blindly follow along. But... at the same time I didn't start Secret of Chrysopolis either, even though I liked the 1st clue. It's an awesome design that I hope to find time to knit one of these days.

Now the spring KALS are starting up and instead of 1 or 2 lace shawl KALs there are 5! I'm feeling the pressure to decide which one or two to knit, but if I knit the KALs I won't have time to knit other lace shawls on my wanna knit list. Now the not-knowing is stressful--it's no longer fun and adventurous for me. And after a little dialogue with some knitty friends (thanks Kat!) and with myself (yeah, I talk to myself--it's healthy!) I have granted myself permission to not cast-on any of the KALs when they start. if I'm ready for a new project and I like what I see in the KAL design, then I'll have the files saved and I'll cast-on and happily knit on. Whew!

Now, having said all that, the 1st two clue for Spring Shawl Surprise are out and I've checked the photo files...it's looking really great thus far! The shawl calls for skinny lace yarn and little needles which is right up my alley so I may knit it next. There's a bunch of knitted lace in the SSS, something I need more exposure to doing, so that adds to the appeal for me.

The Trouble with KALs...

...is there are so many of them! I've joined most of the lace/shawl KALS, esp. the "mystery" ones. I knit the MS 3/Swan Lake last summer, which was "the" mystery KAL that really put the concept "on the map" so to speak. By fall there were 3 lace KALS: Chrysopolis, SOTS, and Mystic Waters. I could only cast-on for one and I chose Mystic Waters because the start was different and looked interesting to me. I didn't start the SOTS because the start was a bit too different and I was skeptical. In the end, my 1st impressions of those KALS held true to the end. I wish that I had been able to knit Chrysopolis as it turned out to be an exceptional design. Someday I will knit it :-)


I'm now at row 260 on Mystic Waters and I have to decide whether to go short or long. So, I knit the shawl onto a 47" lace needle which allowed me to stretch her out a get a good look at the shawl. With only a mild stretch she measured ~55" across the top and 35" from top to tip--a nice size but not big enough for my kind of shawl. So this means I'll be knitting another 100 very long rows to finish MW.


With MW still OTN with at least 3 weeks of knitting left to go, what am I to do about the new KALs? The 1st clues for Spring Shawl Surprice are out and they look awesome. SSS is a big project with 12 clues and it's calls for skinny lace yarn. My cone of pale yellow cashcotton from ColourMart arrived in the mail yesterday and would be perfect for SSS. Then there's the VLT KAL which I need to do because I still haven't knit a project from that luscious book. I guess I won't any time in the next few weeks either. And last, but not least is SOTSii which starts next week. I have a gut feeling this design will be more to my liking, so my wanna knit list is getting longer. Thankfully Moni and her German-based KALS Fischer and Bad Nauheim won't get going until later this spring, with Fischer starting in Feb. Thank you Moni! What's a lace knitter to do with so many choices???


And I think I'd finish off today's ramblings with a picture of the finished ends of my Angel Pearls Scarf. Sivia suggested applying beaded tassels to the points at each end of the scarf. Now I can't stand yarn tassels or fringe as they look ratty after a few wearings and horrible if washed. Yuck! However, the idea of a beaded tassel intrigued me and I do think pointy ends deserve embellishment. So I grabbed a spool of gold C-Lon and some Thread Heaven from my beading stash and came up with my variation on Sivia's beaded tassel. I had to modify the design just a bit because I didn't have enough beads to do the slightly bigger and longer tassel. Nevertheless, the tassels seem to add a bit of panache without being too heavy or too garish so I'm pleased. While staring at the finished, tasseled ends I was horrified to find yet another dropped yo in a place where there are decreases on both sides of the knitting--the true lace areas. Man oh man have I learned how tricky this stuff can be! Of course i fixed it just as I did the previous spot, and no one will ever find it---even though you know the repair was made 'cuz I told you so. Maybe I should shut up and not confess these things, but I believe it good for others to know that we all make boo-boos, novice and experts alike :-) My tongue-in-cheek motto: If I were perfect I wouldn't be here! (Just think about that for a second...)

Knitting on!