Kirschblüten (AKA "Cherry Blossom" ) Blocking

I know it's been awhile but work and life have been way too busy. Short post this time but I promise to do better next time.

This is the circular version of Kirschbluten that you can find in the White Ichida book. I used US 3 needles, 100% silk from "A Verb For Keeping Warm" in the "Shimmering" yarn, colorway Chartreuse's Sister. It is actually a lovely green color but I can't get my camera to register the real color. Though pretty, it may end up being a "more than circular" shawl since there are so many repeats of the border flowers that it may end up "ruffling rather than staying flat. I will post when dry. I have some other things I picked up recently that I will post next time but my camera is acting out and I may need to retire it and go get something else. Least you think I will never again knit on smaller needles, my next project is on US 00 needles and I am once again knitting on Goldregen (I will finish that one yet!) on US 000 so it will be a break from all the small shawls I've been knitting :-)

Blocking Boundary Waters Shawl (Size Matters)

I did say that I was going to post on using the lovely Shawl Frame that my brother, Herman, so kindly made for me. He's really a great brother. He knows I'm a bit dyslexic so he marked all the parts to the frame so I would know which parts went on top, which on the bottom and what parts were assembled for the left and right sides of the frame. Still, as I put it together, I realized that I'm not as tall as the frame is once it is standing up on it's feet. This is where you learn that size really does matter! Hence, I had to lean the frame against some furniture so I could reach the top pins to put my shawl up. I used crochet cotton and pulled it through the top points of the shawl edging. I did two sides on one bit of string, the other two on another bit of string because I was concerned that I would not have enough cotton to arrange the shawl on the frame as the frame looked so much larger than I thought the shawl would block out to. When I do this again I think I will use a separate string for each side. It would make adjusting it easier I think. A word to the wise. Beware of knots. They will cut through your edging point if you are not careful. I was not careful enough and had to do a repair while the shawl was on the frame. You live, you learn. A man on horseback won't see it and I think the frame works pretty darned well. Things to be aware of if you have someone make one of these for you.

• You are better off having it lean against a wall or furniture so you can hang your shawl unless you are taller than I am (5'6" and shrinking).




• Watch out for knots if you have to add more string or it may cut your edging.




• Set aside a good amount of time to do this because you have to fiddle with the string to get the shawl points even. (A ruler is handy to have for this)




• Have a spray bottle of water handy if the shawl starts to dry before you get done.

Are there enough advantages to make it worth your while to have one of these? I think if you are really really particular about your blocking,(Who, me?) it might be something you want. If you are running out of floor space, again like me, because the shawls just keep getting bigger and bigger, then a frame is a good idea. If you like to hit the thing with steam to set it then this is a big advantage if all you have is a hand-held steamer like me. If the cartilage in your knees is giving out and blocking a shawl while crawling around on the floor is killing you, this might be a nice tool to have. Once the shawl is on there, it does dry fast. An added bonus, it just looks neat. Down side. The blood may drain out of your arms as you reach up to fiddle with all the shawl points. Things tend to dry out if you take too long so you have to spray. You still have to build the frame (unless you have someone around who will do it for you) and have space to store it, and I don't think it takes less time to get the shawl blocked this way. In fact, it may have taken longer because of all my fiddling.

Picture #1 is the one my brother took of the frame once he had built it. The second picture just shows that the frame is leaning against my TV cabinet for support so I can begin hanging my shawl on it. I just stood inside the frame and hung the top row first. The next picture is the shawl being washed. The ball of cotton you see there is actually the spare cotton after I threaded the shawl points in preparation to blocking. I used rubber bands to keep the balls tight and to keep the balls from tangling. The next shot is the shawl on the frame but still leaning on the furniture and the one after that is the frame standing and the shawl drying. After that it's just shots of the shawl after I cut it away from the frame once it dried.

Re-Cap. Dyed the yarn on Superbowl Sunday Feb 4th 2007 using White Crystal Palace Lace Weight Yarn I had stashed and acid dyes. I laid the damp skein on Saran Wrap and used squeeze bottles of dye, wrapped it up and steamed it in a crock-pot. Knit using US 6 needles the edging was mind numbing to knit. Still, it's pretty and looks really good on that frame:-) Happy Knitting to you all!

Boundary Waters Shawl (All I need is a little dry weather)

Just a short post so that you know I'm still out here knitting the less exciting stuff. Yes, I'd rather be knitting on my doily since it's a Niebling, no I did not cast on another big project, yes I will have to finish the edging on the Sampler Stole and finish my Legends of the Shetland Seas before I will be able to try to cast-on a big project. I also will try to change the needles on my WRS to see if that makes it more enticing to knit on. Wish me luck with that! In the mean time, I have finally finished the edging for the Boundary Waters Shawl! Hip Hip Hooray! Now if it would only stop raining I would try to block it. Actually, since I have a shawl frame I may go ahead and block it anyway since it will take up very little room while standing and should dry pretty quickly. Above are just shots of it un-blocked. Not very appealing in this state I must say. I will get shots to you once it's on the frame so you can get a report on how that goes for me. I've never used a shawl frame before and I'm curious to see how hard it will be to get the shawl on it.

Since I'm now trying to keep a few of my shawls rather than giving them all away, I find that I don't have many shawl pins to speak of. I saw quite a few at the Knitting and Crochet Show and at Stitches this year, but nothing that really stuck me. However, I did find a nice Shawl Pin on E-Bay. It is a laminated Birch wood tinted with a nice lavender color which I was able to purchase from "WOODbyC" . It goes nicely with my Lyra shawl:-)

As I no longer try to keep up a craft blog, I will, from time to time, post a few things that are not lace related, but it will be seldom I promise. I just find this interesting as I do not knit socks and rely on my sister to produce them for me. This is a shot of my sister, Mays current project. She is old-school and knits her socks on double points but at the Knitting and Crochet show she picked up a package with videos, needles and yarn to learn to knit socks with two circular needles. She also has the new book by Cat Bordhi on the same subject. The Bordhi book uses stitch markers that have the alphabet printed on them to help with the initial instructions on knitting with two circulars and so I bought some for my sister on E-Bay at "Hide and Sheep" . They come in different ring sizes to fit different sized knitting needles and they are very reasonable and work well. She says it's fun to knit with two needles and I must say she is making fast progress.

Until later my pretties! Good Knitting!

Lyra (Row 129) WTF does this mean in English?

Ahhh. The hazards of buying old lace knitting magazines in German. Yeah, they give you the English translation of the symbols in general but that doesn't help you when the center graph pages have special little comments for the pattern you want to make in GERMAN with symbols you don't have on the key. The two magazines you see there are ones that I got on E-Bay and they are in German. The third one is a magazine I bought in 1992 in English though it was also published in German as was the Anna Magazine that contains my copy of the Lyra pattern. I made a close-up shot of the instructions that I do not understand and the symbols that I don't understand. I'm thinking they are asking me to do a cable cross but I'm not sure. Those are from the older Burda magazine so I think it may have been before they came up with a more standard version of cable icons. I'm just guessing here. If anyone has a clue, let me know. It's for a doily I'd like to knit. These two magazines in German have quite a few patterns I'd like to try so I will work on these as well as the patterns I have in the Japanese books for awhile. Not all Nieblings are appealing to me. I favor the ones that have flower/leaves etc. Not so much a fan of the ones that are straight traditional doilys. I have to say that being on vacation for 12 days has made me realize how little time I have had to really knit. Most of my time is taken up with the commute to work but since I've been off I have knit for hours at a time. I can knit late at night without being concerned that I have to get up at 5:30 AM to get to work. It has been really nice and I just have to find more time to knit once I have to go back to work. Anyway, here are a few shots of things I'm making progress on. Boundary Waters I'm on side #3 and it's very dull to do the edging but I'm trying to make myself finish this so I can do the edging for the Sampler Stole. Also, I'm enjoying the Lyra pattern so I'm having trouble making myself finish the edging I know I need to do on the other projects. The flower center consists of small single cables that cross each other and look a little bit like a rope spiral. You don't get great definition with yarn but I bet this is a knock out with crochet or tatting cotton and I plan to find out by knitting Lyra again with Flora 50 or Cordonet 50 cotton later on. No progress on the Wedding Ring Shawl. It has been very warm here so I'm not at all tempted. Still, if it cools down I will try to knock off a few more rows but it lacks the appeal or ease of Lyra so I won't hold my breath. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Edging, Edging, Edging (And A Little Something Else)

So, as the Borg would say, I have done "One of Four" sides of the Boundary Waters Shawl. Did I mention that doing edging is boring. So I took a break and did some of the Legends of the Shetland Seas stole. I was not going to post progress on the edging as I imagined it might be as boring to see it as it is to knit it , but missalicefaye says she enjoys the posts none the less so I go ahead with short posts. Enjoy!

Boundary Waters Shawl (Finally at the Edging!)

I finally finished the border for the Boundary Waters Shawl as you can see above. I have started adding the edging and I think it looks pretty good. My sister-in-laws sister, Millie, has finished a lace shawl (her first) so I will be breaking in the shawl frame by blocking it for her. My sister's wheel, a Majacraft Rose, is a really terrific wheel. Thing is, I hated the "delta" orifice and had to obtain a "lace" flyer assembly with a circular orifice. It spins great now so I'm making more lace singles. If you see this fiber, it's the same one I used for Mountain Pines. Why do more of the same fiber you ask? Because. When I bought the fiber, I was knitting cable sweaters. I bought enough fiber to make an entire sweater. I will be spinning this stuff into lace weight yarn till Hell freezes over. The set comes with bobbins with thicker cores so that the take-up with lace weight singles is much easier and the orifice has a ceramic liner for smooth going. So now I'm spinning both this green fiber as well as the Lisa Souza Petroglyph fiber which I'm spinning on my Schacht wheel. It's really good to have more than one wheel in the house! "Squeee!"

In addition to the spinning and knitting I've also been guilty of shopping for more yarn. I know I don't need it but I still wanted it. I think this is the only time I have ever bid on an item on

E-Bay. I have bought items but not bid on them. I purchased the really lovely suri alpaca and I think it will help me to figure out how to spin the baby suri alpaca fiber that I recently bought at Copper Moose. The suri alpaca has virtually no crimp so I think seeing this yarn will also help me to figure out how to make mine. The color of this yarn is more "peach" than pink but I don't know if it will translate in this blog. On my monitor, the last picture of this yarn looks closer to the actual color. I have an idea of what I will use it for but I will wait until I get a few things done before I start my next projects. Once Boundary Waters is done, I will start the "Heere Be Dragone" shawl for my niece. I'm still knitting on the shop sample for Yarn Place but won't post again until I have one end border done. It still looks very pretty and is fairly easy to knit because it's only a stole. Good Knitting!