It is charity to teach (lace infection/inspirations)

I believe we all learn from each other. Not just the actually hands-on teaching of knitting, or publishing a pattern or book for others to enjoy, but the inspirations by example that we unconsciously set as we knit for ourselves and those we cherish. I love reading every one else's blogs because I really do get inspired. Missalicefaye is busy finishing her Wedding Ring Shawl and serial knitting other projects just as stunning. She just posted her next project at her blog and it's a pattern I have myself. I bought it years ago and did not think I could knit it at the time because I felt daunted by stitch techniques I did not recognize. I pulled my copy out and now I wonder what the heck I was so concerned about. Time and experience march on. If you like the "Lace Christening Shawl" by Gema Ord, you can get a copy at Shetlandtoday though I got my copy from Jamison Smith originally. I bet they have them still though they don't advertise specific patterns for shawls/wraps etc. at the site. I have not thought of this pattern in many years but now I am interested to see how it comes out for missalicefaye. You never know, it may go on my long list of things to knit. Opal has put" Spider Queen " by Hazel Carter, on her list too so maybe my pictures gave her a little nudge. As you can see, I've posted pictures of a pattern I just had to buy to add to the conga-line of shawls I want to knit. The "Reflections Shawl" by Sharon Winsauer was designed to go with The Alpaca Yarn Company's Suri Elegance line of alpaca yarn. I love it and I know it will likely drive me mad, if her "Heere Be Dragone" shawl, also by Sharon Winsauer, doesn't kill me first that is. I know some people might not have tried any lace yet, but I'd like to think that watching those of use have fun with our lace might make some others give it a try! I have posted some pictures of my sister-in-law Melinda's knitting. The first thing she ever knit that she considers "lace" is the scarf you see with the hearts that she made her daughter. She had learned to do a "yarn over" to make eyelets in a vest and this scarf was her second knitting project after that vest. Melinda discovered, as many of the rest of us have, that lace is just knit, purl and yarn-over stitches that are being manipulated one way or another. Everything else is just a little practice. The pretty pink variegated lace is the"Estonian Garden Wrap & Scarf " pattern by Evelyn Clark published by Fiber Trends. My sister-in-law is making the scarf for a co-worker from variegated merino singles she bought at Stitches West from "Tess". I think her work is just beautiful and she says she is really enjoying making the lace. That's the part I really like, that she is enjoying herself and hopes to bring pleasure to someone she really likes. I wish everything I did had that kind of a result! As for the pictures of plants, we have not had time to do much in the garden, but even then it gives us great beauty and inspiration, if you take the time to look! Good Knitting and Inspiration to you all!

So much easier to Knit (Spider Queen 2nd repeat)

Ok, so I snuck in a picture of spinning. But I'm spinning laceweight so I figured it was still "Ok" for the blog. Just a short post to show progress on spinning laceweight merino from Lisa Sousa in "Petroglyph"colorway. I only have 4 ounces of the stuff so I plan to ply with BFL in the same colorway. The Shetland Tea Shawl is taking shape. This is made out of yarn that I spun after not spinning for a long long time. It's not the best or the most even yarn I've ever made but it will make a nice rustic shawl and I like the color changes in this circular shawl. Depending on how much yarn I have left, I may put in another lace pattern in the end before attaching the edging. Spider Queen is knitting up nicely and I tried to get a close-up shot that shows some of the color variation but I'm not sure if you can see it well or not. It's been so stress-free to knit that I'm afraid I have not worked on the WRS at all (still on row 17 of border) but I will work on it during the weekend. Other than Laritza, and Sharon Miller, has anyone else finished this shawl out of the 350 patterns that were sold? I actually don't know. I imagaine missalicefaye will be next to finish of the people I know. I found another person who is close to finishing the border too. "Retirement Knitting Time" is on row 58 of the border. Check her blog out! It's really hot for a change out here so I've been at Home Depot shopping for gardening supplies. Happy Friday!

"Simple" Lace Relief Knitting (The Spider Queen Shawl)

Now that the Flower Basket Shawl is done, I needed another "simple" project I could rotate with Wedding Ring Shawl (I'm on row 17 of the endless border). I am knitting again on Peacock Feathers after neglecting it for months and months. I guess my snit over having to pick back is over. And I'm knitting on the Shetland Tea Shawl and on Boundary Waters as well but I needed one more. I like to have five or six projects going so I always have something at different levels to knit. I don't know about everyone else, but when I don't have something to knit, I tend to read . Once I get on a reading jag, no knitting gets done. I do spin, but it's more like 30 minutes or so of spinning laceweight singles and that takes forever to get done so it hardly counts as an activity. I decided that I needed to use that 55/45 cashmere silk yarn I dyed rather than go for another gossamer weight shawl so I'm using it to knit The Spider Queen shawl by Hazel Carter. Knit on US 2 needles. I decided on the heavier weight yarn so that the shawl can take a little wear. If you check out fleegles blog you can see her "Spider King" shawl which her version of this shawl using a different border. It's really beautiful and she's decided on a finer yarn than what I'm using. For anyone considering a first effort into Shetland Lace types of knitting, this would not be a bad choice at all. You would have to have some experience with knitting other lace first but it's really a nice and easy knit so far. After looking at the changes that fleegle has made to her version of the shawl, I have started to wonder if I should also change mine. There is always something to be said for knitting a pattern as given. It's another "notch" in the knitting belt so to speak, but when I look at that border, I do admit it's a little odd. Oh well. I have time to consider it. I have Hazel Carters book on Shetland Lace Knitting From Charts and maybe I can do something a little different using that. Hope everyone's knitting is going well !

Flower Basket Shawl Blocked (Is it worth making a shawl blocking frame?)

The Flower Basket Shawl is now blocked and wrapped in acid free tissue paper until needed. As you can see. It's pretty to look at but best worn at an angle to the body so that the point does not end up in an unfortunate location (as it does in the photo on me). Golly I need to dye my hair something fierce! It just so happens that the new Knit Picks catalogue came today and has the theme of "Lace". In addition to talking about lace knitting charts, dyeing etc. they also have several PDF instructions. One for making a shawl frame and the other for instructions on various methods of blocking . Check it out! Still knitting the Wedding Ring Shawl border. Not enough to really post yet. I found a dropped stitch so I just picked it up with spare yarn and did the fast and dirty fix. No picking back this time. I'd rather eat dirt than pick back over a thousand stitches for a row. I don't get as nice a stitch definition as missalicefaye since the yarn is so darned hairy. Still, it's pretty. Not perfect, but my niece Jessie won't care. It's really the Heere Be Dragone Shawl she wants but I don't know if that will be next or not. Maybe another simple lace to replace FBS. Time to swatch!

Flower Basket Shawl (In Koigu)

Finished another one of the easier shawls. Flower Basket Shawl in Koigu, knit on US 5 needles. Fun to knit and relaxing after knitting on the Wedding Ring Shawl. Very little progress on that front. However, if you want a visual feast, go look at the pictures on missalicefaye's site. The work is phenomenal! Her border came out just beautiful. Makes me want to sit and knit some more. Good Knitting!

Easter Holiday Stitch & Bitch (The Family that Knits together...)

On Saturday my sister and I got together with our brother, Herman, our sister-in-law, Melinda, their children Shelby and Jessie as well as Melinda's sisters Millie and Marlene. We brought the kids their Easter Baskets and spent the day shopping, watching the traditional Easter TV offerings including The Ten Commandments, and knitting. Every last one of the adult females brought knitting with them. It was our own informal Stitch and Bitch. In fact, it was during one Easter Weekend not long ago that my sister and I taught Melinda to knit. This is why we know there are no knitting stores open on Easter Sunday. We used chopsticks and it worked out fine. See above, the Pirate hats that my sister-in-law has been knitting. The hat is a pattern from Knitty and the skull and cross-bones is an image from another Internet pattern. She knit the black and red hat for the young son of a friend of hers. He's in the hospital going through chemo and rehab at the moment and loves his pirate hat. He also asked for a hat with the logo for the San Francisco Giants. He wants to be able to wear it when he's well enough to go to watch the team play again. Knitting does have it's plus side! The Pink and Black Pirate Hat is one for a niece who saw the original and wanted one. I have been slowly knitting the WRS but already have spotted an error. With so many stitches in each row, it will be another Homer Simpson Fix but I don't care at this point. I'm knitting the Shetland Tea Shawl and the Flower Basket Shawls for relief knitting. It's nice to see the Madeira pattern actually take shape for a change now that I have the corrected pattern.

For those of you who have bought the book "Victorian Lace Today", you may want to check out the corrections for this book. My sister-in-law and I check periodically because new corrections appear to get added. Don't be like me and ignore the fact that not all patterns are perfect when printed. You will save yourselves a lot of grief.Happy Holiday for all those who are celebrating and Good Knitting~

Thousands of Stitches (The Wedding Ring Shawl Border)

It's slow going to knit the border so the pictures are not very inspired. However, I thought I just had to show that I'm actually knitting . I'm only managing a row or two every other night between work, reading and other activity's including a few rows on other shawls. I'm going slow so I don't have to pick back too much. I'll try to make more progress before the next post. I also took time this weekend to dye some cashmere laceweight yarn I purchased on E-Bay at one of my favorite shops, ColourMartUk. I tried to dye it black but I misread the amount needed to and ended up with uneven black/grey/dirty white yarn. It wasn't very expensive so I decided to over-dye it with Violet. It looks much nicer this way. Good Knitting!

My Sisters Lace Project (Stitches West Lace Infection)

My sister knits socks as a rule. It's not that she can't knit anything else. It's just fun to knit socks. I imagine the allure of a short but satisfying project in many unique and colorful yarns that provides immediate gratification must appeal to lots of people. Not everyone is as masochistic as those who knit interminable lace projects. However, there is always the odd infection of lace that happens. This one was not due to my knitting of lace but due to our recent trip to Stitches West where my sister picked a pattern for a lace shrug. The pattern is from Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farms. The Illuminated Oriels Shrug. Designed by Zuzanna Woods and purchased at Stitches West from Ellen's 1/2 Pint Farms. If you link out to the site however, you won't find that pattern. They do have nice yarns and colorways but we did not buy yarn there for this shrug. Instead, this is knit by my sister out of yarn I spun last year. Fiber was "Tiger Eye" from Three Bags Full purchased at Carolina Homespun. Spun on my single treadle Schacht wheel at 19-20 WPI in a color I usually don't gravitate to. I think I was bored with my usual colors and broke out with this. There are nice yellow slubs in the yarn that you really can't see in these pictures. This section is the back of the shrug. Stitches are picked up along both sides and knit outwards so that the design is at a 90 degree angle to the back for the sleeves. It's turning out nicely so far. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Pick-up Stitches (Round and Round We Go)

Well, I caught a little natural light at the tail end of the day today since I didn't get caught too badly in the commute so I was able to pick-up the stitches for The Wedding Ring Shawl. As you can see, it will require me to do the limbo to show you border shots because it now looks like a cheesecloth bag for straining jelly. I did manage to transfer it to longer circular needles (Inox once again). I've actually gotten used to using the Inox and if I buy those Knit Picks needles or the new Addi Lace needles, I will try them out on something else in gossamer weight first. I also gave you a shot of the work on top of the enlarged version of the border chart that I made. I obscured the pattern on purpose because I don't think I'm allowed to show the pattern on my blog. Color me fearful of copy write infringement. Anyway, did I mention my vision has never been great? Do the words "coke bottle bottom lenses" mean anything to you? These days I pay many many dollars for high-tech super thin lenses so they are not as heavy to wear and look a lot less unattractive, but that doesn't make my eye-sight any better. I attached the blown-up pattern to cardboard and then covered the pattern with SelfSeal Repositionable laminating sheets of plastic so I can use my very large post-it notes under each line without having the print come off. Now for phase 2 for The Wedding Ring Shawl, the border. I'm actually looking forward to it but there are no mistakes allowed because having to pick back thousands of stitches to fix it is just not an option. This is going to be slow and I can only knit it when fully awake. That may mean less week-night knitting and more weekend knitting after a good nights sleep. We shall see. Also above I have some photos of my Flower Basket Shawl which I transferred to my very pretty and lovely to use glass knitting needles from Sheila & Michael Ernst. I have 4 more pattern repeats before I can start the edge for that shawl and I'm really enjoying these needles. At first, I was a little concerned I would snap them since I am a little up-tight with knitting at times, but I managed to lighten-up on my strangle-hold on my knitting and now they work really well. The join between the needle and the clear plastic tubing they use for the cable section has the same issue as the Inox needles. For both, you have to ease the stitches over the slight bump, but in the weight of yarn I'm using, it's not really an issue (Koigu). The pointy needle tips more than make up for any slight inconvenience I may have experienced with the join.

Good Knitting!

Boundary Waters Shawl (A Short Intermission)

Just a quick post so you can see what I knit when I need a break from the Wedding Ring Shawl. US 6 needles. Even with the variegated yarn I really can't complain. Up to row 115 (464 stitches so far). Someone mentioned that they had not seen this or Mountain Pines knit up. I think it's because it's a pretty old pattern. There is one site from 2003 "Color Joy" that shows a finished Boundary Waters shawl. But that's the only example I've found so far. I looked at the edge of the WRS so I can figure out how hard it will be to pick up all those stitches and I think I will need an afternoon of uninterrupted peace and quiet to manage it. We shall see! I have been remiss in checking or posting at the Heirloom Knitting site or Shawl Knitters site so I did short posts there. Just not enough time to do it all I fear. I hope I won't make you all wait for posts as long as the last time. Good Evening !

Cheesecloth or Shawl? It's your call. (The Wedding Ring Shawl Center)

Actually, the cheesecloth is cleaner than the center of The Wedding Ring Shawl at the moment. It's amazing how dirty your hands get the yarn over months of handling it. Finally, the center is done. I'm not much with the digital camera so these are not the best pictures but here it is at last. Over-all I'm pleased with the center. Yes, it's not perfect. That makes it an accurate reflection of it's maker :-) I didn't want to over-stretch this so it only measures about 30 inches across at this time. I have no idea what it will block to. Knit on US 0 needles with cobweb weight Shetland singles from Lacis in Berkeley this shawl will definitely be "For show, not for blow" as my friend Louise would say. Unlike Mountain Pines, this is not a shawl I will be wearing to next years Stitches West even if I do finish it. I'm too frightened to catch it on something. This is the best it will look for awhile because once I pick up and start knitting the boarder, you will not be able to see much though I may be able to post sections like missalicefaye has done with her own Wedding Ring Shawl (you really have to go and look if you haven't been keeping up with her progress!)

Once again, I want to thank missalicefaye for knitting the Wedding Ring Shawl or I would never have picked mine back up after I stalled. You are a terrific inspiration! I also want to take this opportunity to thank all of the people who have been taking the time to blog about their own knitting experience and for everyone who has checked in with me and given me such wonderful encouragement and support. I love looking at all the beautiful work that you share and I've learned a great deal from everyone elses knitting. Now to pick up the edge stitches. I have enlarged the first chart for the border so I can see it well. I think I will go knit on Boundary Waters for a bit before I get back down to business with the WRS. It's coming out pretty too!