Tag Archive | lace knitting

Pretty in Pink

Do you know how hard it is to photograph the color pink? It’s really hard. It might even be harder than red. I have two FOs to show off today, but I struggled to show the true beauty of the pink. It’s one of those that’s really best in person, but still, I’ll try.

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The pattern is A Noble Cowl and it was lovely to knit. Interesting lace without being too difficult. I used one of my yarn treasures from our Colorado excursion, my Baah! Sonoma in Pink Tourmaline. I love this yarn. It feels so nice in my fingers and is just firm enough to cooperate perfectly with the needles, plus it blocks out wonderfully. The colors are stunning too.

I ran out of yarn and couldn’t do the full pattern, but I think it blocked out plenty tall enough, and I love the scalloped edge.

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My other FO is a delicious shawl.

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The pattern is called Frisson and I’ve already worn this one a couple of times.

The yarn is Manos del Uruguay Fino, which is a merino/silk blend that is simply heavenly. I wanted to knit on this shawl every day because the yarn felt so good in my hands. And wearing it is just as delightful because it’s soft and lightweight despite its impressive length.

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That’s even one point shorter than the pattern! The knitting of this one wasn’t as easy as the cowl; I had some difficulties as I was getting started (you can read my Ravelry notes here) but once I got used to it, it was a smooth and pleasant process.

Today I’m hoping to finish the cowl I’m test-knitting, though I won’t be able to show that off for another week or so. Happy knitting, friends!

Madelia Photos

Jan16

I unpinned my Madelia shawl this morning and started taking photos as soon as I got enough daylight. I just love lace, don’t you?

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The only modification to the pattern was to use DK instead of sport weight. My edge didn’t come out quite as pointy as hers, but close enough. If you don’t set it aside for two months as I did, it’s a relatively quick knit. The pattern was well-written and easy to follow (except for one bit where it says to use the right needle tip to lift a stitch over, and I think it should maybe be the left needle that’s doing the lifting). Plus it’s super easy to modify; it’s written for three colors but obviously I only did two. It would also be lovely in a solid color. And if you made it in a fingering weight, I think it would be a good size for more of a scarf look.

This morning I came to the determination that I am inspired more by yarn than by patterns. I wanted to cast on some new projects so I had more variety, and went to my stash and picked out five yarns that were calling my name. Thanks to Ravelry, a short while later I had patterns picked out for all of them and have big plans for today! … Except I just realized that none of them are a hat, and I need a hat in the mix, so I’ll be revisiting the stash in a bit. Yeah, I’ll be doubling my WIP count today. Right now I’m okay with it. We’ll see how long it lasts before I’m hit with a bout of finish-itis!

Madelia Shawl

Jan15

I started and finished a shawl yesterday. Haha, NO! Not that same shawl! First, I cast on the Chevrione shawl with high hopes of making good progress this weekend. I made it through the first two sections, but it was tricky! Not that it’s really that difficult, but the lace is intricate and a little complicated and I kept making mistakes. I had to focus all my attention on it, no movies or TV, and after a couple of hours, I needed a mental break. But here’s what I’ve got so far:

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It’s really pretty and I like it and I can’t wait to get to the next color. I think it’ll go more smoothly now that I’ve gone through the chart once.

When I set aside the Chevrione, the girl and I decided to watch a movie, so I pulled out another old WIP, one that’s not mindless but is easier to follow with distractions. It’s the Madelia Shawlette by Picnic Knits that I started in September. As I finished the section I was on, I realized I only had three sections left, and each one was 12 rows or fewer. So close to the end! Suddenly my goal was to finish this project.

I knit my way through West Side Story, Moulin Rouge, and the evening news, and at 10:30 I finally set aside the completed shawl. And this morning I got up, wove in the ends, and blocked the sucker.

Here’s a close-up of the lace. I think blocking is going to make a huge difference in this one. When I was done binding off, I wasn’t sure I liked it, but it’s growing on me now.

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So with that done, I had 4 WIPs: three shawls and a blanket. Well, that wasn’t going to work for me. I need more variety in my knitting life. Fortunately, I was saved by a friend’s request for two pussyhats. I did a bit of stash-diving and came up with an assortment of pink yarn, and had a nearly finished hat after a viewing of The Time Traveler’s Wife.

Now I’ve had a workout and a snack break, and I’m ready to dive back in. The goal is to have two completed pussyhats by the end of the day. I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!

Two Pink Hats

Jan14

These are the only finished objects I have to show you this week, two pink kitty hats. They are cute. I like them.

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They were supposed to be for me and my daughter, but then a friend of a friend needed two hats for the March on Washington, and I was more than happy to send these her way and make more for us. I used AndreSue Knits’ pattern for the KitKat hat and KnitPicks Preciosa Tonal in Pokeberry. I was able to get two hats and another brim out of one skein, and I’ve got more on the way. (And if you don’t know anything about what these hats mean, check out www.pussyhatproject.com)

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Wow. That’s a very large photo of my face. Second guessing that selection now.

I did find and attach buttons for my Gothic Lace cowl, and I’m delighted with how that turned out. I’ve already worn it to work and gotten several compliments on it.

My only (very small) regret is that the silver buttons I chose, which I adore, are a bit heavy for the cowl, so it’s a little hard to wear. I very much want to make another one of these with lighter buttons.

Anyway, while I wait for my pink yarn to arrive, I needed something new and exciting for my weekend of knitting. Not only do I get Monday off for the Martin Luther King, Jr. day, but we also have an ice storm warning, so yay for three days of solid knitting! Last night I wound my Frolicking Feet gradient set and cast on for the Chevrione shawl.

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I didn’t get far because we started watching a movie and this is not movie-watching knitting. But I’m hoping to make good progress today! My only question is whether I should have started with the darkest teal instead of the lightest…hmm. What do you think?

One Done, Two Begun

Dec31

Here, let me show you something I finished! I actually finished it a few days ago but was slow getting around to taking a halfway decent photo.

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This is my Quickie Scowl. I used Classic Elite Chalet and Chateau, two skeins of teal and one of light gray, and that wasn’t enough. It’s shorter than I wanted. I blame it on needle size. The pattern calls for 10 1/2; when I made it the first time, I used 10s (no idea why), and this time I chose 10.75 because I wanted to use my fun Marblez needles and I thought the size would be close enough. And I do love the loose drape and the nice big yarnovers, but of course it’s wider than my first scarf, so with the same amount of yarn, it’s also shorter. I thought about sewing the ends together for a cowl which would be long enough to double, but I asked my daughter and she voted for a scarf, so a scarf it stayed. And it is a cozy, warm, close-fitting scarf indeed!

I did start two new projects yesterday, the ones calling my name, and boy are they fun! First I cast on for the Miss Winkle with my hot pink Frolicking Feet. It’s a Martina Behm pattern so there’s plenty of squishy garter stitch but also this nifty looped edge that is super addictive.

It’s also super hard to photograph! It was a little tricky to figure out, and I’m pretty sure I did the first one wrong, but eh, it’s a design feature, right? At first I thought I’d get annoyed by the fiddly nature of it, but it turns out I’m loving knitting this and want to keep going just to make more loops!

My second cast-on was the Gothic Lace cowl in MadTosh Vintage and that’s a delightful knit too. The yarn is thick and squishy and slides just right on my bamboo needles and the lace makes me think without being too complicated, and bonus: when it’s done I’ll get to pick out buttons to add!

And thankfully, the rest of my weekend is pretty empty, so I should get to work on these quite a bit. But once I get started on the margaritas tonight, I’ll probably switch back to the simple Hill & Dale cowl.

I think that’s a wrap for my 2016 blogging. See you on the flip side, and here’s wishing you all a happy, safe New Year’s Eve!

The Call of the Yarn

Dec30

I have four sad WIPs that I have been neglecting. I have allowed myself to become distracted by all the new, pretty yarn entering my stash. I want to knit ALL the things with the new yarn. I’m quickly filling up my Ravelry queue with potential projects and am slowed only by having to go back to work. I’ve already started one new project, with some yarn I bought right after Christmas. I got two skeins of Malabrigo Rios in Archangel, and wanted a simple pattern to show off the gorgeous colors. I love cowls and wear them almost every day, so that was the easy decision. After much perusing, I settled on the Hill & Dale Cowl, a generously-sized cowl that will make perfect lunch-break knitting.

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As always, I’m loving knitting with Malabrigo. But I’m also itching to cast on a Chevrione shawl with my new Frolicking Feet gradient set. I haven’t done any fingering weight lace in ages and I’m craving it!

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Plus I’m desperate to make a Miss Winkle shawl, and I think this pink Frolicking Feet will be perfect. (I’m sensing a theme here.) I also have this gorgeous skein of Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage waiting to become this Gothic Lace cowl.

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See?? So many beautiful projects just waiting for my attention! The pull of these yarns is so strong that I’m even ignoring a Malabrigo Hitchhiker already on my needles! That’s pretty significant…but hm, maybe I should get that back out…hmm, how many WIPs is a reasonable number?

Beauty Shots

Jul31

After the rain left, I took my new beauties outside and took some photos, and I had to share some of the best ones.

Reyna Shawl

Secret Beach Scarf

Reyna & Saroyan

Jul31

Yesterday was a happy day:

That’s my new dishwasher! When we bought this house, it came with an old dishwasher. It worked, mostly, but it also wasn’t installed correctly so when we opened it, it would rock forward. The silverware container was small, cramped, and partially broken. So we decided that part of my first paycheck would go toward a replacement. And it’s fantastic!

But I also finished my Reyna yesterday. After a morning of chores and errands, I picked it up after lunch and realized I was running pretty low on yarn. That meant I could only get five more rows in before binding off, and that went very quickly. Then Grace said she would try it on for me.

She approved. It then went upstairs for washing and blocking. I blocked it a little aggressively, because it was a wee thing and I wanted it bigger. Can’t wait to unpin it later today and try it on. I really really enjoyed making this shawl. The pattern was fantastic, and it’s not often you come across a pattern that works so well with variegated yarn. I’m pretty sure I’ll be making another Reyna.

While I was blocking, I figured I might as well go ahead and block the Secret Beach Scarf too. I’m a little embarrassed to share this photo because it’s such a crap blocking job. But it’s SO LONG, and I’d used up all my KnitPicks blockers and just couldn’t stand the idea of doing T-pins all down the length of this scarf. It’ll be fine. Right?

So, big shawl done. Bulky cowl done the other day. You know what that means: time to cast on something new! After much (and I mean A LOT) perusing, I finally chose a pattern for my Dream in Color Classy with Cashmere. The winner was Saroyan.

I feel like this is one of those super popular patterns that’s kind of required for knitters, much like the Hitchhiker, and I can see why. Isn’t it lovely? So much fun to knit, though part of that is the super-soft merino/cashmere yarn. I adore the leafy border. I have a playdate with my Knitting SIL this afternoon, and this is what I’m taking with me.

Enjoy the last bit of your weekend, friends! Monday will be here all too quickly.

Three Times a Cowl

Jul24

Last weekend I cast on a couple of new projects. One of them was with my treasured Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Bulky.

I wanted something simple to show off the yarn, something quick and easy that would be a good travel project for my lunchtime knitting at work. I chose The Simplest Cowl, all stockinette, cast on, and took it to work with me last week.

It was definitely fast; I finished in just a couple of lunch breaks. But I didn’t like it. It was too wide and too short. I frogged and started over with 75 stitches, but then the yarn pooled (not sure if that’s the right word) in a weird way. The colors stacked instead of being more random. Frogged again and started with 85? 87? I’m not sure. Again, it went quickly and yesterday I finished it and bound off during lunch, and happily put it on.

It was still too short. It curled so much that the curls were all you saw when I was wearing it. My one skein just didn’t go far enough to make the look I wanted from that pattern. Now, if it were any other yarn, I probably would have tossed it aside, listed it on Etsy and forgotten about it. But I love this yarn, plus it was a gift from my mom. It had to be something I loved, something I would wear. I frogged one more time and rewound it. I went through the cowls on Ravelry that others had made with this yarn, and found one that looked quite delightful called Squishy Soft Cowl. I found the right needles, double-checked the pattern, and headed out with the girl to see The Secret Life of Pets. This would be my first foray into movie theater knitting.

And it went quite well, I must say! I got a good chunk done before the movie even started and was able to keep track of the simple pattern while still paying attention to the movie. It probably helped that the movie was a little silly and I didn’t have to work at all to keep up. I’m not sure I could knit that well during a movie aimed at actual grownups. Anyway, I got through 3/4 of the yarn and finished it last night and THIS TIME I’m happy with the end result.

I chose the smallest version so it would be snug and tall, and it came out exactly right.

Do you want to see my other current project too? It’s the Reyna shawl with my new blue/green Araucania Huasco. I think I love this as much as I love my rainbow. It seems to be such a good match of yarn and pattern, and the pattern is so fun. It’s just sections of garter and mesh alternated so that you never get tired of either one.

I’m using my new Addi Turbo Lace needles and really like them. They’re lightweight, super smooth, and I love the pointy tips. I’ll be adding more of these to my wish list. I have about 40 rows left and then it’ll be done. But this isn’t a good lunch break project, so I’ll be casting on something new today to take to work this week. Maybe a hat this time!

Something else fun: I keep finding more knitters at work. The lab manager knits, and brought in a shawl she’s working on so I could help her with it. And we decided her 8yo daughter needed to learn to knit, so I brought in some 10″ size 11 needles and a skein of bulky acrylic in a pretty teal for her to try. Anything to create new knitters, right? The needles were metal ones I’d found secondhand for cheap, so I didn’t mind passing them on. As we sat in the break room knitting, we discovered another knitter as well as a crocheter. Just wait, I’ll bring all these yarn people together and create a big yarny community over there! *rubs hands together evilly* Bwahahaha!

I’m back, with a Shawl!

Jul10

Guys! I have missed this whole blogging world! I’ve missed writing and posting photos and reading all your blogs and commenting on them, and I don’t know if I’ll ever get caught up. But I’ll do my best.

For those who don’t know or have forgotten, I got a full-time job, and I started this past Tuesday. Each day I’d work, then come home and play with pups, catch up on my Wimbledon, do a bit of knitting and fall into bed by 10 each night. Adjusting to this new schedule is hard, but thankfully, I think the job is going to be great. I’m a senior administrative assistant at a medical research institute, and I’m supporting two labs. (I know, it probably sounds a little strange, because I have very little science experience. But I rock at office management. Plus I think science is pretty interesting, so it’ll be cool to see the super smart scientists at work.) Last week was all training, and now I have a 3″ binder full of materials I think I was supposed to learn. I mean, I learned a lot, but I guarantee that for 95% of those things, I’ll need help the first time I do them. And that’s okay, because the people there are awesome. Everyone expects us to ask for help, everyone is more than happy to answer questions or give tips. It’s fantastic. It’s a friendly, laid-back environment, and I *might* even be able to go back to my purple hair at some point, which would be awesome. Anyway, it was a good week and I think I made the right decision and I hope I figure out what I’m supposed to do when I show up on Monday.

I did manage to sneak in a bit of knitting here and there on breaks, and finished this pair of fingerless gloves. They’d been a lingering WIP for weeks, so I’m delighted to free up that project bag.

At night, I worked on my Peek-a-Boo Bay Shawl, and bound off yesterday morning. Once again, I ran out of yarn way before the pattern said I should, but I didn’t swatch so I’m sure it’s my fault. It worked out fine anyway; I just did fewer repeats of the lace chart and ended up with a shawlette. I’d still like to do the full version at some point, just not right away. Because: it has a picot bind-off. Have you done that before? Yes? Then you know how tedious it can be. By the bind-off of any project, I’m ready to be DONE, and I want it to go FAST. Picot bind-offs on shawls do not go fast. At all. But they’re lovely and it really is a wonderful way to end this beautiful shawl.

Here’s the blasted picot edging:

More/better pics forthcoming, when I have the time and energy to do an outdoor photoshoot.

Already, my knitting philosophy is changing. The focus has swung away from making things for my Etsy shop and toward things for myself, and maybe a few gifts. Right now I’m in a “Finish all the WIPs” mode, and then I want to cast on a new hat and maybe a cowl. But I’m not really interested in making things for craft show inventory. Maybe it’ll adjust as I adjust to my new schedule, but for now I’m happy to be a purely selfish knitter.

Oh, speaking of knitters: my new company supposedly has a knitting club! Someone mentioned it to me but I haven’t found the people yet. That will be on my To-Do list for next week. AND they have a book club that’s reading Eleanor & Park this month, so I know they’re good people. It’s funny: within a span of two weeks, I applied for over 15 jobs. This was the only one I heard from, and it just happened to be the one I thought was the biggest stretch. I didn’t meet all the preferred qualifications but I thought it was plausible, it sounded interesting, the company is well-known and highly respected, and I’d be doing something worthwhile. I guess it just goes to show that sometimes things work out exactly the way they’re supposed to.

This week, my goal is to finish my Secret Beach Scarf.