Joined a KAL for Peacock Feathers Shawl (maybe this will give me incentive!)

Sometimes it's nice to be able to knit along with others, but not really have to "get together". I just don't have time to get in a car and go somewhere to knit with others. I commute during the week so I thought I'd give the KAL at Yahool for the Peacock Feathers Shawl a try. I've never participated in a KAL before. The Wedding Ring Shawl can hardly count as it will take a year to finish (I'm half-way through the second repeat of the center panel). What I found is a nice group of people who are all interested in at least this one thing we share. I'm afraid no men have yet joined this group but I bet there will be some eventually. Of course, I had already started my shawl, many on the group have not yet begun, but it is actually encouraging me to keep up the knitting on it and not lose interest. I am now up to row 150 of the pattern. See above a pin-out of the work in progress. I had to transfer the work to longer circulars to pin this out but it was worth it for you to see it. Of course, I have at least one or two "Homer Simpson" fixes ie not perfectly done but, "Good Enough!" Since I'm using US 3 needles rather than US 4, it may be somewhat smaller but that's alright by me. I'm still working away on other projects and shawls but I will post those later. "Mountain Pine's" is still closer to completion than "The Peacock Feathers Shawl", but it also has a Vandyke edge that must be added at the end, and that always feels like an eternity to do. I may change the edging to something else of course, just so my shawl will not be exactly like everyone else's who has made this pattern.

Just so we are clear that I'm nuts. I have sent away for a new pattern that I saw on Criminy Jickets blog (http://criminyjickets.blogspot.com/) . It's called the "Heere Be Dragone" pattern. Yes, it is a triangle shawl with a dragon knit into it. I have a neice who loves dragons. You know where this is going of course. The only question now is what yarn to use so the dragon will show up nicely, and will this cause me to finally lose all of my remaining hair? Oh well. This means I must finish at least TWO shawls. One so I can do the Spider Queen and another so I can do the Dragone. Very little spinning will be happening because I must use every spare moment to knit!

Until I have more to show or more to say, Good Evening Friends!

Peacock Shawl Do-over (much bigger yarn and needles)

So yesterday I started doing the Peacock Shawl over again in a yarn size that I can live with on US 3 needles. You see a partial pin-out since there is no way to do a full pin-out unless I take the shawl off the needles and put it on something longer to hold the stitches. When the yarn is this big, I can see everything and I am already on row 91 of the pattern. Knitting this now just flies along like no effort at all. It's amazing how you can knit with authority when you can actually see the darned stitches. Now I know what you may be thinking. You may be rather concerned that the yarn is so LOUD. Well, you would be right about that. It will take a special kind of presence to wear this shawl and not be daunted. Still, when you are my age, life holds little to be afraid of in terms of what other's might think of you or how you are dressed. Besides, if not now , then when?

Anyway, the concept of knitting lace is not actually hard for me, it's the size differential that gets me. I want to knit the very thin lace-weights, but I pay for that desire in frustratingly slow progress since I can hardly see the stitches to correct errors. Hence, it is best not to make any errors in smaller size needle/yarn weights to begin with. Like I said, slow . I'm on row 20 of the WRS and did not knit it at all during the blistering heat-wave that we had here where I live (high 90's). I also took a picture of how I keep some of my lace projects now. I really like these clear project caddies. You can see all your supplies and retrieve them quickly It is also less likely that your lace projects will get bumped etc in these. I'd love to see how everyone else organizes their work. Of course, I have other things just thrown into knitting bags etc, but these are things that are not very delicate and if they accidentally fell off the needles, could be put back easily. There is a gathering in Dixon CA this weekend with sheep and vendors of sheep related products. I had considered going until it became so unbearably hot out here. I can't justify it since I have plenty of yarn, fiber and there are already 3 wheels in the house. Going to that show would only tempt us to buy more stuff and we already have a gracious plenty of supplies. I have been busy practicing spinning thin on my Schacht single treadle with some beautiful merino I bought from Lisa Sousa Knitwear (see side-bar). It's such a pleasure that I can't begin to tell you! I might experiment with my singles to see how sturdy they are. I've always been afraid to try to use my yarn as a single for fear it would just fall apart on me, however, on examination of the Shetland cobweb weight I've been knitting, I have begun to re-think my stand on this. If I give it a lot of twist, then steam-block it, I think It would be something I could use to knit with. I'm going to give that a try later. For now I'm still busy with the shawls and with my crazy quilt project. Not only that. Once I finish my Peacock Shawl, I have a lot of other patterns I want to try out!

When you are older, you need a lot of crutch's (Dodges to keep from messing up!)

Although Jason was nice enough to say that I appear to be knitting fast, in reality I'm not fast, just sedentary. I like to sit and knit. I'm also menopausal so when hot flash wakes me up in the middle of the night, I will just sit and knit a little until I can go back to sleep. My attention span is not very good, my eyesight sucks so what's a person to do in order to get the job done? We develop "crutches". Ways around some of our limitations. I like to enlarge my charts and put them in plastic sleeves so I can put post-it notes under the line's I'm knitting. I also use smaller post-it's to section off the part of the line I'm working on so I don't get as confused. This slows down the progress of knitting but It helps me not make as many mistakes that I have to correct later because I'm tired or inattentive. Lots of people use magnetic boards instead, but I have way too many projects to do that and the sleeves are light and portable too. You can also use painters tape to make reusable" section" markers instead of the smaller post-it's. They stick better and for longer. (see above example of a chart). It's never been about speed for me. I learned to knit as an adult so I'm just happy to be able to do it at all, much less be fast at it.

I have some pictures of the Peacock Shawl above and I am at row 85 of 223. The "feathers" are beginning to appear and I must say that after knitting on US 0 for the Shetland swatch, knitting on US 1 is much easier now. Also, in the Peacock Shawl, as in the Wedding Ring Shawl, there is a "double yarn-over" stitch that makes what ends up being a "gigantic" hole that I do not like at all. It might be ok in a thicker yarn, but in such delicate yarn, it just looks too big. Sharon Miller gives a great tip that I used on the Peacock shawl. I made a single yarn-over instead of a double, and on the flip side, I knit and purl into that one yarn-over stitch and end up with a much more reasonably sized hole. There you have it, cross pollination at it's best! That's the nice thing about knitting. If you don't like what was done, you can change it on yours!

Now that I've had a break, I will return to working on my Shetland swatch again. Knitting right now is a challenge as it's been hotter than the hinges of Hell out here in Castro Valley CA. Since I went to multiple places seeking out Susan Bates US 0 straight needles in 14" unsuccessfully, I ordered this as well as Inox US 0 in 24" on-line. I have time. I'm still swatching!

Happy knitting to all!

The Curse of the Peacock Shawl (get back on the knitting horse darn it )

This is the re-do of my Peacock Shawl or as my computer tech family might say, version 7.0 of the shawl as I've had to start over that many times. I have checked each row on the flip-side to be sure the number of stitches is correct before moving onto the next row of lace pattern. This way, corrections tend to be made before things get too far out of hand. It's slow, but there are currently no errors. My sister just shakes her head as I continue to labor on. I have pictures of it pinned out and am currently on row 59 with charts that go to row 223 before edging is then started. The original shawl was meant to be a finished size of 88" from tip to tip along the top, 43" from middle of top to lower point on US 4. My shawl is being done on US 1 so I have no way to know what my version will actually block out to when done. There is also a picture of the very cheap but extremely serviceable neon plastic ponytail holders I use as stitch markers for lace work. I used to make yarn loops as markers but these do the job just fine for me and were a hint my sister got off the web while reading knitting blogs. Now, there may be some people out there who are asking why I would choose to do this shawl in a different needle/gage. The use of US 1 for this shawl is important for me . Why, you ask? Because my copy of the "Shetland Lace Wedding Ring Shawl", #350 out of 500, has arrived and just as I expected, requires a needle of US 1 - US 0. The Peacock shawl is meant to be good practice for me. A nice discipline to help me get "up to snuff" so to speak, for the really difficult work. I cannot post any pictures of the pattern contents in respect to the conditions of sale of this pattern to me. However, I will say the packet has very lovely production values with clear instructions and hints to help make it more understandable as how to proceed with this work. It also contains three full-color preview pages/images of the next book that will be published by Heirloom Knitting/Sharon Miller, entitled "More Heirloom Knitting" in which pictures of this shawl are presented. One can only hope that my hands and vision are up to this task. It will be terrible/great fun to try in any case. Within the packet of information is a really wonderful card of knitting yarn samples. There is sufficient yarn so that you can knit a small example in each, wash/block it to see if they would suit you to use for this project.

Promises To Myself-
1) I will read ALL the instructions first and see if I can understand everything BEFORE I start.
2) I will swatch/wash/block all possible contenders for the honor of being this shawl so I don't choose something I will be disappointed in later, after all that work.
3) I will NOT choose a yarn that I cannot really work with, no matter how competitive I am with myself.
4) If I finish this shawl, I will only give it away for a darned good reason!

I have already compared the sample skeins enclosed with my pattern, to my stash. The only three contenders, some that I have shown on this Blog are:

Shetland Cobweb (c. 914m per 20g) from Lacis in Berkeley CA
Silk laceweight yarn from Skaska Designs (100 g, 6040 yds, 120/2).
Cordonett Special DMC crochet cotton # 100 (431 m-20g) which I just had around the house for tatting actually.

I will knit up a swatch with the Cordonett, then the Shetland Cobweb as it is already wound into balls. The silk, alas, I must wind myself. I will try both the Addi Turbo circular needles in size 0 and the Crystal Palace bamboo circular needles in size 0. I have taken a needle gage to the bamboo and they are not "true" US 0 but more like a small US 1. I may go out and try some rosewood straight needles or double-points if I can get a "real" US 0 from those. I just went to the post-office this morning to send my check to the UK for the "cobweb" weight cashmere I ordered from ColourMartUK. If it is not too long in coming, I will also take a look at this for a potential contender. After all my dears, I am already knitting 3 shawls not to mention all the other stuff I'm doing. I can wait a little while longer!

Fun, Fun, Fun my Pretties!