Tag Archives: knitting

Blooming Stitch Shawl by Mary R. White

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Here is my finished Blooming Stitch Shawl. This is the one for which I recorded the stitch counts in another post. Now it’s all blocked and ready to go, and I’m so glad because I think it’s really pretty.

There are times when it is painfully obvious I don’t have blocking wires. This is one of those times. However, I’m not sure how I would have used wires with this. It was all curved and then curved some more. So. We have this blocking job, and I declare it adequate.

I used Madelinetosh Prairie in the Well Water shade for this project, and I like Prairie a lot. I’m a huge fan of single-ply yarns, so it’s nice to have a laceweight option. Of course the Madelinetosh colors are wonderful, too.  I’ve got some more Prairie stashed for a couple other shawls and a sweater. As soon as my wrists and elbows start feeling normal again, I’ll take those projects on.

Here’s another photo showing the motif of the shawl, as well as the crocheted     -bind off:

It was a challenging project just because I am always challenged by projects done in laceweight yarn. The pattern itself wasn’t bad at all. Here are a couple notes:

1. As I mentioned, I was very careful to count my stitches on every row. The only row I didn’t do this  for was the row just after you do all the turn one stitch into a squizillion stitches. I don’t like counting rows with tons of yarn-overs, so as I purled back across that row, I counted sections. There are 11 stitches per bloom and 13 in between blooms, so that’s how I made sure all stitches were present and accounted for.

2. I noticed that my most frequent mistakes were: (1)  forgetting to work yarn-overs,  (2) mistaking k2tog for k3tog, and (3) sk2p for skp.

Another picture showing the shawl from the back:

I’ve seen some people make this in white as a wedding shawl, which is so pretty, but I love the versions in colors also. Very nice pattern.

Henslowe by Beth Kling

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I am excited I’ve finished this little shawl. It’s Henslowe by Beth Kling. I really love the look of this pattern.

Anyway, the pattern was nice and simple, which meant that I could not go more than two rows without screwing it up in some spectacular way and then  spending the next forty minutes unpicking my work. I do so well with complicated patterns because I count my stitches from the start and I’m so, so careful. Simple patterns, though? I just figure I’ll relax and not worry about it, and when will I learn my lesson? I knitted the shawl at least twice over before I was done.

I used Madelinetosh Pure Silk Lace in the Cousteau shade. Very lovely yarn, but again, I think this will be my last silk laceweight project or I will end up needing surgery.

I am working on a fingering weight wool Henslowe, though. Yeah, it’s a good pattern.

Here’s one more picture, and then I’m out. Have a good weekend!

Whaaat? It’s my THEME.

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My husband had a big weekend at work, and today was a very needed day of rest.

I think you might be able to predict what I did.

ALL of the Tolkien: bring it to me

A bit of knitting. It’s trying to kill me, so let’s stay really quiet and keep moving.

You guys, we’re going to have to talk about this tea as soon as I can figure out what to say/finish guzzling the whole tin:

Here’s a hint: BOOZY FRUIT (yesssss ommmnomnom)

I’m a little tired after all this strenuous activity, so goodnight and I hope your day was nice, too.

Slow Line by Veera Valimaki

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So, firstly, I missed posting yesterday. It was my um, summer vacation. Yep. But I’m back now!
Tonight I want to show you a sweater I finished a while ago. Actually, I wore it all winter, so…quite a while ago. I LOVE THIS SWEATER! So much. I’m going to make another one.

It’s called Slow Line, and it’s a pattern by Veera Valimaki, with dots over all occurrences of the letter a, but I’m not clever with making dots and symbols over letters, so I’m very sorry about that and please imagine them there.

Please observe the following pictures, which are terrible in my traditional fashion:

Front view

Back view

It has a cute little shawl collar, and a teeny, tiny peplum in the back, but not enough to be awful. Just enough to be super cute. In my opinion.

For my Slow Line, I used Madelinetosh Pashmina yarn, which is a blend of merino wool and silk and cashmere that is so soft and wonderful. The shade I used was Antler, and although Antler is conceived as being the lightest possible grey ever that was, and although when one looks at skeins of Antler, one can barely see any color going on at all, one must still alternate skeins of Antler, as one must alternate all hand-dyed yarns. My sweater is Exhibit A, if you like it, because I chose not to alternate, because I simply did not want to–normally I am very conscientious about alternating–and you can see the line where I started a new skein.

Anyway, Antler, being the very lightest shade of grey ever that was, in real life comes off as maybe a kind of dirty ecru, which may make some people say, “WHY?”, but which makes me say, “YES. Bring it to me, and also bring it to me on several other bases. PLEASE. NOW.”

Pashmina is a sport-weight yarn, and the pattern calls for fingering-weight, so I just made the small size when normally I’d make a bigger size. I chose my size by the very scientific process of looking at the sizes and choosing one that I thought would fit based on my feelings. And it fits! You could swatch or whatever if you want to try another weight of yarn, but I thought the style of the sweater seemed forgiving enough to wing it. Seems to me I’d normally take medium, but I made a small and used a little more than three skeins of Pashmina.

This sweater is the best sweater. I love it. So soft, and a great pattern that was fun to knit, and a very versatile and comfy sweater as a result.

One note: many people said they had trouble with the shawl collar not staying put, and popping up and not looking shawly, so I tacked mine down with a couple stitches on either side of the front, and one in the back center of the neck, like so:

 

In conclusion, Slow Line: highly recommended. Pashmina: highly recommended. If I have my way, I will own at least one more of these before all is said and done.

Have a great weekend!

 

 

 

 

Friday

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Done.  I wasn’t sure I was going to make it through that crochet bind-off, and I don’t think I’m entirely in control of my right hand anymore. It’s kind of doing its own thing. But I’m done. I’ll show you another picture once I block it, and for those who care, I’ll give some thoughts on the pattern.

Now: shower and passing out.

How I Lost the Ravellenic Games: An Exceptionally Boring Knitting Post Containing No Knitting, Which Is How I Lost

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I ripped out my shawl project for the games. The lace was too open, I  needed smaller needles, but they are occupied and I can’t knit fast enough to finish project one, free the needles, and make up the time on the actual Ravellenic project.

This post is turning out way more boring that even I thought it would be, and I had a heads-up about what was going to happen here.

Not A Winner

Also, I think the word “Ravellenic” is a bunch of baloney. I know whomever thought of it was doing the best he or she could considering the ridiculous circumstances, but if ever there was a time to very gently and politely–while holding long, pointy, size two needles–tell the Man that now would be a good time to excuse himself and turn his attention elsewhere, well this would be that time. In my opinion.

RAVELYMPICS!

But I’m still not going to play. It’s becoming too difficult and un-fun.

Also, a mosquito ate my face last night. Not that that has anything to do with anything. But still.

I wonder where that beast got to.

How Monday Was Spent

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Making dinner for a friend.

Reading some.

Knitting my Ravellenics project. I am on Team Happy Knits. I’m their weakest link. No one knows it yet. It’ll be a fun surprise.

This is a picture of biting off more than you can chew.

Two weeks to finish a lace shawl. I am too tired to make a joke about Olympic-level buttsitting, but if I wasn’t, believe me, it would be hilarious.

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Speaking of jokes, though, my husband has taken to calling all sports “sportsball”, and overpowering the sports news with his own voice-overs. It’s an improvement.

Eyeball Maintenance and a Completely Normal Level of Preoccupation with Counting Things

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Hey there! I’m still ill, and I also have had not one, but two appointments this week for my eyes which I was absolutely sure were infected and, well, if I told you what was going on, you might feel sure, too. You might also be grossed out. Anyway, I was shocked to hear that no, no infection at all, and that I am now one of those people with chronic dry eyes. They didn’t feel dry, but lo and behold, I tried the drops and my eyes feel better already. Hooray for doctors!

So, I expect to spend my weekend both seeing and not having eye pain, which promises to be awesome. I will also update my Blooming Stitch Shawl stitch count post as I have FINALLY finished repeat five of the main chart. It’s about time, right?

Wishing everyone a very great, infection-free weekend! With or without knitting! Wash your hands!

Dragging

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There is a summer cold making its way around here, and two of the four of us now have it. It wouldn’t be so bad if it was just me, but my littler guy is sick, as well, and I spent last night looking after a small person who didn’t feel like he was “getting enough air”.

I am tired today.

Oh, but that didn’t stop me from dragging the three of us to Costco for groceries. We were feeling well enough to go at the outset, and I was uncertain of how we’d be feeling tomorrow–you know how that works–so I figured I’d better get it done while we could. Long story short, we barely made it through and I needed a nap when we got home.

I never take naps.

We have some really delicious cheese for our dinner, though.

I am happy to say that my Blooming Stitch Shawl grows:

Possibly not quite quickly enough, because I was hoping to have it done by the start of the Olympics. I need these needles for my Ravellenics project, and I don’t want to put my shawl on stitch holders. However, speed knitting lace seems ill-advised. I guess we’ll see. I still have a week or so.

Tonight will be a night of good bread and cheese, and knitting, and television. It’s Doc Martin night. Does anyone else watch? I love that goofy show.