Archive for the 'Swallowtail Shawl' Category
Such indulgence! I had to go in to the office both days this past weekend, so to make up for it I skibbled off campus after teaching yesterday and spent the day knitting. Today I’ve got one two-hour meeting to go to, so I know I’ll get in another bit of knitting. I also got to meet up with Chris on Monday evening for some knitting (and trading!), so this week is shaping up much more satisfactorily than last week from a fiber arts perspective.
The Swallowtail Shawl is done, except for weaving in of ends and blocking. Here’s an in-progress shot from last Friday.
The colors aren’t quite right, but you can see the weight of yarn I used and the stitch definition I got.
I’m now happily knitting away on my own version of the Sugarplum Shrug (second project pictured as you scroll down) from the IK Holiday issue. I’m using some chocolate brown angora I got from Little Knits, which is absolutely delicious. The yarn feels heavenly running through my fingers and the color a delicious tinge of purple to it. I’m knitting the lace on a garter stitch base instead of stockinette, so that the piece has more texture. (Texture! Texture! Texture! I am all about the texture!) I’m also planning to come up with my own edging that can be picked up along the edges and knit in the round, rather than knitting lace separately then sewing it on as the pattern calls for.
The yarn swap with Chris was great! She got my lavender bamboo (all 2,500 yards of it!), and I’m also giving her two skeins of Cherry Tree Hill: one of bulky wool and one of babyloop mohair. In return I got a bag of three colors of Dale of Norway wool, five skeins of a silk-wool blend from Drops and a Rowan book. We are each of us absolutely convinced that we got the best end of the deal—which is as it should be.
What I would really love to be doing just now is designing my own shrug and working it up in the pumpkin-colored wool-silk blend I just got from Elann, but there’s not quite enough room in my brain for that project at the moment. The best I can do is play fast and loose with someone else’s pattern. I am perhaps a bit behind the times from a fashion perspective, but suddenly shrugs are striking me as the most delightfully cozy and versatile garments—I want dozens of them!
P.S. Here is my latest favorite thing to do on Ravelry: look at other people’s queues. I surf around the new FOs until I find something lovely, then I look at what that person has in her queue. I get all sorts of things to add to my own that I would never have come across by any other means. I’ve also just learned (breakthrough moment!) that I can add comments on the items in my queue, so I dutifully went back and added info on pattern price and availability, along with yarn and variation ideas. If anyone else is cruising queues, I want to be sure she has a good time in mine!
January 23 2008 | Ravelry and Swallowtail Shawl | 4 Comments »
Last night, I suddenly realized that with the exception of a bit of mindless knitting-in-meetings I hadn’t done any real knitting since Sunday. Egad! It was a miracle that I was still upright and could form semi-coherent sentences. Of course, I remedied the situation right away by sitting down for two-and-a-half hours and knitting another skein’s worth on my Swallowtail. I am now past the central lace pattern and working on the three remaining lace charts.
And in keeping with complete disorganization and behindedness, let me share a few pictures from the winter break. As Melissa and I were driving home from Walking with Dinosaurs: The Live Experience, we saw a great twinkling of lights along one of the frontage roads. One crazy swerve and we were off the highway and investigating things for ourselves.
We had to pay $12 to enter, but we were on a date, so we excused the extravagance as a romantic gesture.
Apparently Nessie celebrates Xmas.
And what holiday would be complete without a smiling tooth to remind us of the importance of good dental hygiene?
In keeping with the evening’s theme, there were dinosaurs.
We also saw a pirate galleon that launched illuminated cannon balls from time to time.
And then we were exiting the display by a different route entirely…
… which resulted in complete disorientation and forty-five minutes of driving about in utter confusion until we found a highway again. It wasn’t even the right highway, but it was a highway (an highway?), and we gave thanks for its discovery and gradually worked our way back to our original route.
P.S. Here are the latest knits I’m drooling over.
• Bee Fields Shawl. Check out the interplay of vertical and horizontal lines and the way the two lace patterns are worked together along the border.
• Japanese Vines Scarf. This lace pattern has wonderful lines—it reminds me of deco fabrics from the turn of the 20th Century.
• Puppy Mittens (that’s right, puppy mittens—so cute even a cat person loves them). You can get an English version of the free pattern here. The colorwork chart is here.
January 17 2008 | Patterns and Swallowtail Shawl and WIPs | 2 Comments »
I’m posting from one of the computer classrooms at UCSC while on a break from a day-long Excel class. In my new position, I receive, modify, and create many Excel documents. I’ve been using the program intuitively, but clumsily, and am glad for the opportunity to have a systematic go at it. I have not yet come up with any knitting-related uses for Excel, but I’m sure it’s just a matter of time.
Thanks for the great responses to my question yesterday! I’ve enjoyed the sites you’ve steered me to and welcome more suggestions.
Yesterday afternoon I finished up the Lacey Shrug in Malbrigo. It’s a good fit, and I expect to get a lot of use out of it. I’ll ask Melissa to photograph it when she’s back from visiting family in NY.
Of course finishing one project left me itching to start another, regardless of the fact that I have a whole stack of WIPs. After an hour or so leafing through back issues of IK, I decided on the Swallowtail Shawl. However, I’m not knitting it in lace-weight as recommended; that would be far too safe. Instead I’ve cast on using size 9 needles and Cinnabar by Louisa Harding (color 8). The shawl as shown in IK is actually more of a scarf, and I’d like a larger version that will really be worth wrapping up in. I’m not sure yet if Cinnabar is the ideal choice. It has a high cotton content, so it’s heavy, and the different fibers in the marl make it a bit splitty, but it sure is pretty. With the metallic sparkle in this yarn, I’ll either have a show-stopping shawl or something that looks like it’s made for a high-pomp junta dominated by grannies. We’ll just have to wait and see.
P.S. If you’ve got the Winter 2006 issue of IK, check out the clever cast on for this shawl. You start with a two-stich provisional cast on (which is manageable even for the provisional-phobic), work six two-stitch rows of garter, pick up a stitch along each of the three garter bumps on one side, then undo the provisional stich holder and knit those stitches as well. Voila! You have seven stitches on your needles and a very tidy start for a shawl.
January 10 2008 | Academia and FOs and Lacey and Swallowtail Shawl and WIPs | 2 Comments »
