No matter how many times I tell myself not be be a "Beta" tester for new lace knitting books, I find myself getting caught-up in projects only to find that there are corrections. This was the case with the "Crown Prince" shawl from the new Nancy Bush book on Estonian Knitting. I was half way through the center of the shawl when a nice person on Ravelry let me know there was an error in the chart. I thought those center diamonds looked kind of odd. I ripped the whole thing back and started over again after giving myself a mental "dope slap". For those of you who are going to get the book, here is the errata page so far. Be sure to check back from time to time as more are added. Though it has been awhile since I posted, I have not been idle. After playing with the "Wonder Weave"and making about a dozen woven squares, I realized that what I really wanted was something a little bit bigger to work on. I did, in fact, buy a 25 inch Schacht Rigid Heddle Loom from "Verb" and made a scarf out of hand spun yarn. It's a two ply made with a single spun from a batt of merino/silk noil from "A Verb For Keeping Warm" and plied with a complimentary fiber (the one left over from Mountain Pine) which is also a merino/silk for the weft. I used a smooth version of the yarn for the warp without the noil. It worked up to 20 WPI and I got to use the lovely new inch gage I puchased from Brandywine Woodworking. They are made from Goncalo Alves and are just beautiful. I kept one and the other went to my sister. As for the weaving, I used a 10 dent heddle and warped directly onto the loom rather than using a warping board. The scarf was a 4 day project so this new hobby will be my "Stash Buster" for fibers building up in the house :-) While I can see this fitting into my crafting nicely, I don't see it taking over all my time. My heart still belongs to lace knitting but making a scarf of hand spun yarn is really fun and quick.
The taupe skein of lace weight yarn is more of the CVM I'm spinning up. The singles on the bobbin are Black Bunny Fiber singles in a colorway called "Faded Flowers" I bought more alpaca lace weight from "Verb" in colorway "Green Beans" as well as additional spinning fibers "Victorian" which is a 80/20 merino/tussah silk in pinks and greys and,"This is a new day" in a sort of purple 50/50 yak/silk. The last two braids are Super Wash BFL from Girl On the Rocks that I picked up at Bizarre Bazaar. I could not resist. I will need to be able to weave just to make it through all this fiber!
I will be knitting on the Crown Prince, Goldregen and "Bells Through The Leaves" this weekend. Just so you don't think I'm in hibernation with piles of yarn and fiber around me. I hope to be able to post progress in January 2009!
As this difficult year comes to an end, I'd like to wish everyone out there a Happy Holiday and a hopes for a prosperous and healthy New Year!
20 comments:
I just got the book for Christmas. thanks for the heads up on the errata. Jeez, there's a lot of it. Reminds me of Victorian Lace.
BTW, the scarf looks beautiful. I envy your skills.
Oh, pretty, oooh, did you hear me as I looked. Gorgeous lacework, gorgeous spinning.
Re errata, if it helps any: I was obsessive about my patterns and about not making other people tear their hair out over something that was my error and not theirs; not a single error has been found in the written-outs. There were a few in the charts, because I couldn't write/read/nor proof them due to a brain injury, so if there's ever any question, check the written-outs. They're right.
The one written error is that I forgot to give them the metric sizing for the needles on the simple Concert scarf, and they labelled an 8 as an 8mm and extrapolated in the wrong direction.
I can see a 4H loom in your near future :)!
I love mine and I love weaving specially with handspun yarn.
Thanks for the heads up on the book....amazed at how many errors there are...oh well! nothing that can not be fixed if warned.
Hope you had a wonderful Holiday.
I'm glad you were the test bunny on this one--urgh. I am so sorry that you had to rip it out.
The scarf is lovely! Funny how everyone seems to be deviating from straight knitting these days. Too much fiber?
I can't wait to see Goldregen! I have a Niebling on the needles, but just can't get interested in that or the dragon of happiness, either.
Oh thanks for that - I got a copy of the book for Christmas and I'll definitely be checking the errata before I cast on for that one!
All the best for 2009!!
All the best for New Year looking forward to what you produce in 2009!
I got a copy of Estonian Lace for Christmas so thanks for the heads up on the errata...
Dear Katie,
Yes, there are quite a few mistakes and yet here I am knitting a shawl from the book anyway LOL. To far there are 5 errata pages but it's worth going to the site and fetching them since you got the book. I actually gave that book to my sister-in-law for Xmas with the printed errata pages inside so she won't have to look for them :-) Good Luck with your projects in 2009!
Dear Alison,
Thank you! I'm really into the spinning at the moment because of the Winter weather. As for book corrections, I'm just glad I don't have to edit anything myself LOL. I actually know in my heart that most knitting books are going to have a few errors, yours being the exception:-)
Dear Laritiza,
"I have no room for a floor loom!" she cried. Actually, I just can't picture me with something that massive though I just met a bedridden women who has her 4 shaft floor loom set up right next to her hospital bed, "Just in case she want's to weave" according to her son. I'm having a great time knitting, spinning and now doing a little weaving. Hope you have had a great Holiday so far and that we all have a better New Year.
Dear fleegle,
I really think the weaving is a direct result of my having sat down and calculated how many years it would take me to knit all the yarn I have. I really knit SLOW so I was either going to find a way to use my beautiful yarns faster or I was going to have to stop buying, making yarn because I already have too much LOL.
As for being a "test bunny" It was not on purpose but it's great to be able to warn everyone else so there is an up-side to it :-) I still have a few things that just sit there because I'm not "feeling the love" as well. I'm working on Goldregen in small amounts because I'm trying to make up lost ground with that darned Crown Prince Shawl. I hope to finish both before Stitches West. Hope you and Roy are both doing well and having a great Holiday. Happy 2009!
Dear Soo,
Happy New Year! The patterns from that book are pretty and fun to knit. Other than needing those correction pages the projects are relaxing to knit. Enjoy :-)
Dear Littlberry,
I hope your New Year finds you having lots of fun with your own projects since I love seeing what you are into :-) The Estonian Lace book is really lots of fun to knit if you can just get past those pesky corrections. I hope you enjoy it as much as I'm enjoying knitting the Crown Prince.
I am very impressed!
I love the way you do the photograph work. Delicious and always beautiful! Congratulations to the colourwork and spinning. Weaving is amazing in its gentleness. Visiting your blog often to enjoy and indulge myself !!! Doing E lace for shawl too! Birol Lacewhisper
Dear Irma,
Thank you! I'd be more impressed with myself if I had been able to spot the error in that Crown Prince Chart before I was already half way through. As it is, I'm impressed with the woman on Ravelry who caught it and let everyone else know LOL.
Dear Birol,
I'm glad to know that you visit this blog to get a little bit of craft and fiber fix :-) Hope you are having fun with your lace project.
says the woman who knits intricat elace, spins, weaves, tats etc... what else do you do I don't know about? but thank you for the kind words they are praise indeed from you.... as for EK batts thats missalicefayes fault for lurng me in!
okay... just how do you get to be a test knitter for lace books?
Dear LittleBerry,
I was tempted into my first batt of EK by something the Akamai knitter made. Those fibers are addicting :-)
Dear NeedleDancer,
I guess I was pretty vague :-) I call anyone who knits from a new lace book a "Beta tester" because it's those first knitters that find all the errors! I never can wait to see if errors are found by others. I had the same thing happen when I bought a copy of " A Gathering Of Lace". I went to knit the Shetland Tea Shawl only to run into an error in that pattern too.
Still, I hear that there is a group on Ravelry that you can join in order to test knit for designers.
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