Whew! I have my work cut out for me during the month of May. Since my husband is set to deploy in June, that might be a good thing. It will keep me busy and not thinking about that near as much. Deployment is never fun or easy.
For some unknown reason, I decided to knit my sons' teachers scarves for their end of the year gifts. My kids get out of school June 2. Uh, right. LOL And are they easy, whip them out in no time scarves? Of course not! They're LACE scarves. I adore lace and I think every woman deserves something completely frivolous and beautiful that has no purpose. :-D One of my sons' teachers is male, so obviously a lace scarf won't work for him. So, I'm going to bake cookies a day or two before school is over and send him some of those instead.
Enter the scarves. I'm going to do this beautiful pattern I found on Ravelry. It's called Traveling Roses. Also, I found someone on Ravelry selling two skeins of the same colored yarn, so I won't have to decide which teacher gets which color. That makes it so much easier! Okay, and I'll admit it. I'm looking forward to using 100% alpaca yarn. I'm hoping I'm not allergic to it as I've never worked with it before. I'm allergic to angora and sensitive to wool, so it's an honest worry.
I'm currently working on a shawl called Falling Water. It is so pretty. Though, I'll admit that the stockinette rows are putting me to sleep. Luckily, I only have 13 more rows of that left before I start the lace pattern. I'm going to get this finished before I start the scarves. I had an unfortunate set back on this pattern recently. I dropped a stitch or something part way through and ended up having to rip out all of the stitches. I'd started it on size 6 needles even though the pattern calls for size 7. So, when I had to rip it all out, I was able to switch over to my new size 7 needles. Last night, I finally caught up to where I was when I noticed the mistake.
I also have plans to make a pair of socks for my mom for Mother's Day. I was working on those, but discovered that I'd dropped a bunch of stitches along the way. *sigh* Apparently it was "drop a stitch" week for me last week. Needless to say, it set me back quite a bit on my projects. I'll get those restarted soon. And then there is the Anniversary Shawl knit along that I'm starting in May.
See? I said I was getting in over my head here. I have no clue how I'll get all of this finished in time, but the lace shawl I'm doing in May is probably the one that will suffer the most. I'll just be sure to get the pattern saved and work on it as I can. My first priority will be the socks and the two scarves.
For right now, I'm exhausted. So, I'm going to cheat a little bit and go take a nap so that I can knit my little heart out all afternoon long. I'm hoping to get Falling Water finished ASAP so I can get it blocked and start on the socks. Whee! The joys of getting in over my head.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Sunday, April 17, 2011
The Needle War
Well, it's not really much of a war, but it is a contest of sorts. I've been trying out various high quality needles and attempting to decide which brand I want a full interchangeable set of. Of course, most of my knitting has been done on Boye and Susan Bates to date. Those are the two brands I could get my hands on easily at Hobby Lobby. However, I recently splurged and bought a total of 4 circulars. One is an Addi Turbo, another an Addi Turbo Lace, and two are Hiya Hiya circulars. When working with regular yarn, the Addi Turbo is a dream. I love my Addi Turbo Lace needles for working on delicate lace. Enter the Hiya Hiya needles. I received those in the mail yesterday, so they're still in the testing phase.
I'm currently using the size 7 Hiya Hiya circulars on a lace type shawl that uses DK weight yarn. I'm using the Spa yarn by Caron. I'm saving the size 4 circulars for use on an upcoming lace shawl that will be done using MadelineTosh lace yarn. I'll start that shawl on May 7.
So far, I have to admit that I like the Addi needles better. In a way, I'm sort of sad by that. Why you might ask? Well, it all boils down to cost. The Hiya Hiya needles cost about half of what the Addi's do. My guess is it's because they are made in China while the Addi's are made in Germany. The joins on the Hiya Hiya's are smoother. I'll give them that. However, the points on the Addi lace needles are sharper and I like that. The Hiya Hiya's are stainless steel versus Addi Lace's brass. Though the interchangeables are nickle-plated brass.
I'm a little worried about that nickle-plating. You see, I have high acidic sweat. Isn't that funny? I think it is. I've worn off most of the letters on several keyboards over the years. I've also worn off the silver-plating on my favorite thimble where my finger rests on the inside. So, I have no doubt that I will wear off that nickle-plating on those needles over time. The nice thing about the Hiya Hiyas is that I wouldn't wear off any plating since they're just stainless steel. Unfortunately, those points are a big selling point for me. They slip under the yarn effortlessly and make knitting more enjoyable.
Until I can afford the price tag on the Addi Turbo Lace interchangeable needles, my current needle collection will work fine. While I like the Hiya Hiya needles just fine, I do believe I will end up going with the Addi Turbo Lace needles. However, it's nice knowing that there are choices out there for everyone.
I should have known I'd go with the needles with the sharpest point. I always do. In cross stitch, I went with the sharps even though tapestry needles would have worked just fine. In quilting, I always preferred the thinnest and sharpest needles I could find. So yes. It goes to reason that I would pick the same sharp points in knitting. I suppose I'll set my knitting budget aside for a few paychecks until I can get them. Maybe for my birthday. :-)
I'm currently using the size 7 Hiya Hiya circulars on a lace type shawl that uses DK weight yarn. I'm using the Spa yarn by Caron. I'm saving the size 4 circulars for use on an upcoming lace shawl that will be done using MadelineTosh lace yarn. I'll start that shawl on May 7.
So far, I have to admit that I like the Addi needles better. In a way, I'm sort of sad by that. Why you might ask? Well, it all boils down to cost. The Hiya Hiya needles cost about half of what the Addi's do. My guess is it's because they are made in China while the Addi's are made in Germany. The joins on the Hiya Hiya's are smoother. I'll give them that. However, the points on the Addi lace needles are sharper and I like that. The Hiya Hiya's are stainless steel versus Addi Lace's brass. Though the interchangeables are nickle-plated brass.
I'm a little worried about that nickle-plating. You see, I have high acidic sweat. Isn't that funny? I think it is. I've worn off most of the letters on several keyboards over the years. I've also worn off the silver-plating on my favorite thimble where my finger rests on the inside. So, I have no doubt that I will wear off that nickle-plating on those needles over time. The nice thing about the Hiya Hiyas is that I wouldn't wear off any plating since they're just stainless steel. Unfortunately, those points are a big selling point for me. They slip under the yarn effortlessly and make knitting more enjoyable.
Until I can afford the price tag on the Addi Turbo Lace interchangeable needles, my current needle collection will work fine. While I like the Hiya Hiya needles just fine, I do believe I will end up going with the Addi Turbo Lace needles. However, it's nice knowing that there are choices out there for everyone.
I should have known I'd go with the needles with the sharpest point. I always do. In cross stitch, I went with the sharps even though tapestry needles would have worked just fine. In quilting, I always preferred the thinnest and sharpest needles I could find. So yes. It goes to reason that I would pick the same sharp points in knitting. I suppose I'll set my knitting budget aside for a few paychecks until I can get them. Maybe for my birthday. :-)
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Hand Dyes
Way back when, I used to hand dye fabrics. You see, I'm also a quilter and what quilter doesn't love unique fabric? Unfortunately, I sold all of our fabric dyes last year or I probably would have tried something.
I used to do a 6-step color progression with our fabrics. Oh, people loved buying those because most other dyers only did 5-step color progressions. Our 6th step was unique. Unique is good. However, that 6th step also made it more "natural" and the steps between colors were smaller. If I still had those dyes, I would get myself some pure white, all natural fiber yarn and try to put that 6-step color progression into a single skein of yarn. What would it do? What would it look like? Could it be done?
In my opinion, this is dangerous talk. Why? Because I might be tempted to buy dyes again solely to try it out. That could be an expensive proposition. What if it didn't work out? And what colors would I try anyway? Though, I think I could get away with just a small amount of dye and soda ash. Ut oh. Ssshh. This is crazy talk. Too bad I know where I can get a starter dye kit for a reasonable amount of money... I might have to try it just to be difficult.
I used to do a 6-step color progression with our fabrics. Oh, people loved buying those because most other dyers only did 5-step color progressions. Our 6th step was unique. Unique is good. However, that 6th step also made it more "natural" and the steps between colors were smaller. If I still had those dyes, I would get myself some pure white, all natural fiber yarn and try to put that 6-step color progression into a single skein of yarn. What would it do? What would it look like? Could it be done?
In my opinion, this is dangerous talk. Why? Because I might be tempted to buy dyes again solely to try it out. That could be an expensive proposition. What if it didn't work out? And what colors would I try anyway? Though, I think I could get away with just a small amount of dye and soda ash. Ut oh. Ssshh. This is crazy talk. Too bad I know where I can get a starter dye kit for a reasonable amount of money... I might have to try it just to be difficult.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Final Shawl Photos
There it is! That took around a month to do and I can't even begin to convey how proud of it I am. I'm going to wear it to a ball on May 5th, so I'm glad it's finished. Heck, I'm amazed it's finished at all. lol
My friend and I are going to do a mystery shawl knit along on Ravelry but it doesn't start until May 7th. We're filling our time with small projects to clean out our yarn boxes. Every yarn we use clears the way to buy new yarn! That's exciting. :-D
I'm currently working on The Age of Brass and Steam Kerchief. It's nothing thrilling, but it's using up a ball of my DK weight yarn. When I ordered some Araucania Ruca recently, the company didn't match the colors worth a darn. So, instead of using it together like I'd hoped, I had to split it out into two projects. This little kerchief is turning out to be quick to make and will use almost a full ball. Hurray! It's sort of funny. My friend isn't liking how the colors are pooling. Me? I'm just glad I'm using a ball of yarn. lol
This particular yarn is interesting. They're hand dyed in Chile and this yarn is made out of 100% sugar cane. Isn't that neat? It's very soft and so silky. It's fun to touch and a joy to have next to the skin. Unfortunately, the hanks are a nightmare to wind into balls, and it splits as you work with it. You have to keep your eye on that. Even though it's an awesome feeling yarn, I don't believe I'll buy any more. I still have 2 more balls to use up. I'll get there eventually.
One thing I've learned is that, while I like variegated yarns, they don't work well in a lot of projects. If you want to do fancy stitch patterns, you need the yarn to be "dull" so as not to distract you from it. I'm finding that a good tone-on-tone hand dyed yarn is better. Too bad they're more expensive and can be hard to find. Oh, well. I'll keep my eyes open and buy some as I find it. :-)
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Shawl is DONE!!
I totally win! I do, I do, I do. This shawl was 1.5 months in the making and I'm so proud of it. My very first lace project. Whoo hoo!!
It's currently up in my sons' playroom being blocked. They are, of course, banned from that room until the shawl is dry and I've picked everything up. Blocking took around 3 hours and I can't even begin to tell you how many pins I have in it. A lot, that's for sure. I am using those colored puzzle mats that you can buy for kids. Walmart had them for $5 for a set, so I bought two of them. I noticed a lot of people on Ravelry use them, so figured they would work for me. :-)
I'm in the process of deciding my next project. Unfortunately, I'm in a quandary. Turns out I don't have size 7 circulars and I seem to need those for every single shawl that's on my list. How the heck did that happen? I don't get it. I do have two unfinished projects I can be working on. They're just a tad bit anti-climatic after the lace shawl. lol Might as well though. I'm set up to do a knit along starting May 7th. I guess I shouldn't let myself get too bogged down with another major project before that starts. I'll get it figured out.
It's currently up in my sons' playroom being blocked. They are, of course, banned from that room until the shawl is dry and I've picked everything up. Blocking took around 3 hours and I can't even begin to tell you how many pins I have in it. A lot, that's for sure. I am using those colored puzzle mats that you can buy for kids. Walmart had them for $5 for a set, so I bought two of them. I noticed a lot of people on Ravelry use them, so figured they would work for me. :-)
I'm in the process of deciding my next project. Unfortunately, I'm in a quandary. Turns out I don't have size 7 circulars and I seem to need those for every single shawl that's on my list. How the heck did that happen? I don't get it. I do have two unfinished projects I can be working on. They're just a tad bit anti-climatic after the lace shawl. lol Might as well though. I'm set up to do a knit along starting May 7th. I guess I shouldn't let myself get too bogged down with another major project before that starts. I'll get it figured out.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Almost Finished!!
Oh, this is about to be an exciting day. Maybe not until a little (a lot) later, but hey! I'll take it. My Vernal Equinox Shawl is within 8 rows of being finished. I believe the only thing that will keep me from finishing it today is if I run out of yarn. I have decided that if that happens, I will order more of the same yarn and finish up. It will be such a small section that a color change shouldn't be too noticeable. Considering the yarn is hand painted, it will be different if I get more. However, it might not be a problem at all. I'm putting off an order for new yarn until I know for sure if I'll have enough.
This is VERY exciting. It's the largest knit project I've ever finished. It also has the distinction of being my first shawl, my first project in true lace, and the most beautiful thing I've knit to date. I can't wait to see it finished and off my needles. I will definitely take a picture of it this evening once it's off, even though it will still need to be blocked. I have work to do to get the room ready for it to be blocked, though. I'm going to be "stealing" my sons' playroom for a few days to get it done. They have the only room I can keep the cats out of and, when cleaned up, has enough floor space.
See, I have these two cats. I've had to chase Mr. Shadow through the house before while he's running away with a ball of yarn and any project attached to it at the time. Then there's Ms. Echo. She's always stealing the finished projects to play with. I've caught her with a wool scarf and she keeps sneaking off with my son's socks. Needless to say, if any of that happened to this shawl, it would be destroyed. So, I have been over protective of it from day one. :-)
It's time to pick up the needles and begin the final steps to seeing this shawl finished. I hope I can stay still long enough to pull it off. I'm getting rather excited. :-D
This is VERY exciting. It's the largest knit project I've ever finished. It also has the distinction of being my first shawl, my first project in true lace, and the most beautiful thing I've knit to date. I can't wait to see it finished and off my needles. I will definitely take a picture of it this evening once it's off, even though it will still need to be blocked. I have work to do to get the room ready for it to be blocked, though. I'm going to be "stealing" my sons' playroom for a few days to get it done. They have the only room I can keep the cats out of and, when cleaned up, has enough floor space.
See, I have these two cats. I've had to chase Mr. Shadow through the house before while he's running away with a ball of yarn and any project attached to it at the time. Then there's Ms. Echo. She's always stealing the finished projects to play with. I've caught her with a wool scarf and she keeps sneaking off with my son's socks. Needless to say, if any of that happened to this shawl, it would be destroyed. So, I have been over protective of it from day one. :-)
It's time to pick up the needles and begin the final steps to seeing this shawl finished. I hope I can stay still long enough to pull it off. I'm getting rather excited. :-D
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Minor Setback
So, here I was, happily knitting along on my Vernal Equinox shawl when all of a sudden, I realized I was missing a stitch. In looking at the pattern, it had been missing for awhile. Dang. As my friend said about this section, "it's deceptively easy." She was right. See, I think she meant that you get lulled into the simpler pattern and well, make more mistakes. I got lazy in counting my stitches every marker, so I dropped my stitch and didn't realize it for quite some time. I ended up having to pull out 6 rows. That's not too bad, I suppose. It showed me something interesting. As I pulled the rows, I wound it back on the ball. The ball didn't change a whole lot in size between, so that means there's quite a bit more yarn there than I thought. I'm not as concerned as I was before that I'd run out.
This evening, we had a baseball game, so I haven't had much time to knit. I guess I could have worked on it at the field, but well... I can't seem to do stuff like that out in public, so I didn't. Currently, I'm so tired, but I'd love to finish the row I'm on. I think I'm near the end, so I think I can do that and tackle the following purl row. I would like to get back to where I was this morning.
With that, I'm going to go grab a cup of coffee and pull it back out. If I can't concentrate on it, I guess I'll do something I've never done before. Gone to bed with an unfinished row. *gasp*
This evening, we had a baseball game, so I haven't had much time to knit. I guess I could have worked on it at the field, but well... I can't seem to do stuff like that out in public, so I didn't. Currently, I'm so tired, but I'd love to finish the row I'm on. I think I'm near the end, so I think I can do that and tackle the following purl row. I would like to get back to where I was this morning.
With that, I'm going to go grab a cup of coffee and pull it back out. If I can't concentrate on it, I guess I'll do something I've never done before. Gone to bed with an unfinished row. *gasp*
For the Love of Lace
Ut oh. Am I starting several posts with those two words? Oh, well. I have discovered that I adore lace. It's so pretty and gorgeous and unique and... Okay, and I also love the fine yarns that you use to create the designs. My friend and I both agree that we don't like going above DK weight anymore.
So, I came across a Ravelry user who knits almost nothing but lace. Oh, my. I don't know what she does with all of it, but you can tell she doesn't really care. She has done some stunning work and I'd love to do what she has done.
I'm looking at my little Vernal Equinox shawl and realize that it has taught me much. First off, it has introduced me to the love of lace patterns. Okay, not really. I've always loved the look of lace. But it has taught me that I CAN do it, with a little patience and perseverance. That's all that matters, right? Of course it is. I'm getting ready to pull it back out of my bag that keeps it safe while I'm working on it, and continue working away. I'm so close to finishing it. I'm getting a little paranoid at how quick my yarn ball is shrinking, but I'll keep plugging away. If I run out of yarn first, I'll decide what to do from there. Yeah. Okay. First things first! Do I run out of the pattern first or yarn? Let's go find out. :-)
So, I came across a Ravelry user who knits almost nothing but lace. Oh, my. I don't know what she does with all of it, but you can tell she doesn't really care. She has done some stunning work and I'd love to do what she has done.
I'm looking at my little Vernal Equinox shawl and realize that it has taught me much. First off, it has introduced me to the love of lace patterns. Okay, not really. I've always loved the look of lace. But it has taught me that I CAN do it, with a little patience and perseverance. That's all that matters, right? Of course it is. I'm getting ready to pull it back out of my bag that keeps it safe while I'm working on it, and continue working away. I'm so close to finishing it. I'm getting a little paranoid at how quick my yarn ball is shrinking, but I'll keep plugging away. If I run out of yarn first, I'll decide what to do from there. Yeah. Okay. First things first! Do I run out of the pattern first or yarn? Let's go find out. :-)
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Hunting for Yarn
Ugh. That's all I can say at this point. You see, I can't wear wool. When I put it on, I get all itchy and I can't take it. Oddly enough, I can work with it just fine. I just can't wear it. Weird, huh? So, that leads me on a very painful hunt every time I want to start a new project I might want to wear.
My current shawl, Vernal Equinox Surprise, is done in 100% merino wool. Why? Well, probably because I couldn't think of a reason to ever wear it. lol So, I'm doing it for a wall hanging. At that moment, every option opened up to me and I could use wool. What's interesting, is that I am now planning on wearing it. Once. To a ball on May 5th. I figure I won't wear it for long and that will work. Then it's going up on the wall for decoration. I know. I'm weird. ;-)
However, I'm now looking at yarns for upcoming shawls with the idea of wearing them. Sheesh. That doesn't leave me with many choices. Well, when it comes to lace weight yarn, I have pretty much 1 choice. That choice is silk. Poor me, right? lol Well, unfortunately, it tends to be expensive and the array of colors isn't that big. You might be thinking, "Why can't you try alpaca or cashmere?" Well, I could. But those are hard to find, too. That and I'll admit I don't like the idea of having a "fuzzy" shawl. Both of those fibers tend to appear fuzzy when knitted. At least the yarn pictures appear that way. Not being near a true yarn shop makes it difficult to know for sure without dropping a pretty penny on them to order through the internet. Keep in mind that I'm a new knitter even if I have been knitting for around 12 years. This is my first foray into fancy yarns and good knitting needles.
The only thing keeping me from going insane in finding yarn at the moment is that the shawl I have picked out next uses a DK weight yarn. That, I have. I have the pattern, the needles, and the yarn. Talk about exciting. lol I'm going to be using a sugar cane yarn. Isn't that crazy? My friend and I recently decided to pick up unusual yarns to try. I hope it works nice. It's beautiful and fun to touch. Very silky.
I suppose that's all for now. If you have any recommendations for a good lace weight non-wool yarn, I'd love to hear them!
My current shawl, Vernal Equinox Surprise, is done in 100% merino wool. Why? Well, probably because I couldn't think of a reason to ever wear it. lol So, I'm doing it for a wall hanging. At that moment, every option opened up to me and I could use wool. What's interesting, is that I am now planning on wearing it. Once. To a ball on May 5th. I figure I won't wear it for long and that will work. Then it's going up on the wall for decoration. I know. I'm weird. ;-)
However, I'm now looking at yarns for upcoming shawls with the idea of wearing them. Sheesh. That doesn't leave me with many choices. Well, when it comes to lace weight yarn, I have pretty much 1 choice. That choice is silk. Poor me, right? lol Well, unfortunately, it tends to be expensive and the array of colors isn't that big. You might be thinking, "Why can't you try alpaca or cashmere?" Well, I could. But those are hard to find, too. That and I'll admit I don't like the idea of having a "fuzzy" shawl. Both of those fibers tend to appear fuzzy when knitted. At least the yarn pictures appear that way. Not being near a true yarn shop makes it difficult to know for sure without dropping a pretty penny on them to order through the internet. Keep in mind that I'm a new knitter even if I have been knitting for around 12 years. This is my first foray into fancy yarns and good knitting needles.
The only thing keeping me from going insane in finding yarn at the moment is that the shawl I have picked out next uses a DK weight yarn. That, I have. I have the pattern, the needles, and the yarn. Talk about exciting. lol I'm going to be using a sugar cane yarn. Isn't that crazy? My friend and I recently decided to pick up unusual yarns to try. I hope it works nice. It's beautiful and fun to touch. Very silky.
I suppose that's all for now. If you have any recommendations for a good lace weight non-wool yarn, I'd love to hear them!
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