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!

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~

Sometimes it's not you (knitting truths)

My sister taught me to knit. She's one year older and much more patient than my mother ever was. Mom used to knit my father a vest that could, swear to God, stand up in the middle of the floor without anyone in it. That's how tight she used to knit. An actual reflection of the woman if you catch my drift. When my sister taught me to knit, there were a number of knitting "truths" that she explained to me. When I teach someone to knit, I find myself quoting her often.

1. When you are learning to knit and you make a "mistake", it is not a mistake if you do it over and over again. It is a design element.


2. If you have a hole in your knitting, it's not a hole, it's lace.
3. To knit is to rip. If you cannot rip, you cannot knit.
4. Illiterate women have learned how to knit. Don't be afraid that you can't
5. Knitting patterns are not perfect. There is almost always a mistake in there somewhere so sometimes it's not you.

There are many more of these truths. I bet you can contribute some to this list for me. My point is, even knowing these truths and teaching them to others. I sometimes forget them. A good example would be # 5. I had tried to knit the Shetland Tea Shawl from "A Gathering of Lace". I kept getting hung up on the Madeira Lace section in this circular shawl. I could not get it right. I thought I just stank at lace and gave up in disgust for a very long time. I stopped doing any lace at all and went back to cable knitting. The shawl sat mouldering away in a bag, mute witness to my lack of knitting skill. I couldn't rip it, I couldn't knit it. To rip it under these conditions was to admit defeat. Very different from ripping because it's not a pattern you like or a color you fancy or you are bored. I couldn't knit it because it kept coming out wrong. Because I forgot about truth # 5, I never checked to see if there was a correction to the pattern. Until, that is, someone mentioned it on the Yahoo shawl knitting group. See above, there are corrections to the patterns from that book.

For any knitters new to lace. Welcome. Thank you to everyone who posted suggestions for new lace knitters that they could try. It was very very thoughtful and helpful of you all to contribute to a little list I have now put on this blog.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE any new lace knitters. Check to see if there are corrections to any lace pattern you are going to try for the very first time. Remember. Sometimes it's not you if it doesn't come out right!

Good night to all! and Good Knitting!

Interlude: Period of time before the next big lace project.

Now that Mountain Pines is done, I have to think about another lace project that is a little bit of a challenge. Although the Wedding Ring Shawl is a big project, it's so interminable that I can't focus on it too much or I will go mad. I'm nearing the end of the second pattern repeat for the center, but it requires at least 5 of these before I can start the border. So, while I knit away on that shawl, I plot what other "big", lace project I might start knitting. I find I also have time to do things that are not so very taxing as relief knitting. Those projects are important to me because they help give a sense of success that tends to spur the other knitting on. I think doing the Swallowtail Shawlette helped in that way just like watching missalicefaye knit the Wedding Ring Shawl helped to kick-start me back on my own WRS. So, see above my progress on the Flower Basket Shawl using my beautiful Christmas Koigu. It's a lovely shawl to knit for those who don't do much lace. It's not at all difficult and lacks those daunting "nupps" that are part of the Swallowtail Shawl (Jason, are you paying attention?). Flower Basket Shawl will be nice and warm and I think I will do the large size since I have enough yarn. Of course, it's been extremely cold out here for the Bay Area and this may have affected my perspective on shawls at this time :-) Also see pre-drafted fiber I am spinning for more laceweight yarn out of Romney I bought at Carolina Homespun . Blacks and greens, its a wiry yarn that spins up well but without the softness of the Merino/Silk I've been using lately. Still, pretty pretty though! See also that I am making yet another Swallowtail Shawl out of what normally would be considered a sox yarn by Shaffer "Anne'"which is wool with nylon in it. I bought it because it's about the right amount of yardage in one skein and it was pretty. The purple swallowtail is a gift to one of my co-workers who's leaving to go to another position so I still need to knit more of those little shawlett's so I might eventually end up with one. The Mountain Pines is sitting snug in a box wrapped with acid-free tissue paper. I don't often wear a shawl but I plan to wear this one a time or two at least. On the less satisfactory side, I am knitting on Fir Cone but it's not as pretty as I would like it to be. It's not the the ubiquitous Zephyr yarn in charcoal that is the problem. It's the fact that the lace pattern has difficulty holding it's own as the whole shawl rather than just an element among other lace patterns. Maybe it will look better once it's done and has an edge to it. Maybe I should have knit it in a variegated yarn and saved that Zephyr for something else.... Heck, I'd hate to frog it but it's just not very interesting. We shall see.

Lastly, I learned to spin when I was in my 20's, stopped for awhile while I obsessively knit cable sweaters, and took the wheel back up again a few years ago when I could not help but purchase beautiful hand-dyed fibers from Lisa Souza's booth. I did not do that first fiber justice. It was unevenly spun but I could not give it up once it was completed. I decided to knit a shawl with it but put it away and forgot about it because I was not happy because it was not "perfect" yarn. I found that unfinished shawl while I was tearing the house apart to find yarn to finish Mountain Pines. Rip or Finish? It would make a nice "office" or "car" shawl. One to sling over aching shoulders when it's cold. See my poor representation of the "Shetland Tea Shawl from the book "A Gathering of Lace",, pattern by Dale Long. My yarn is not so fine as the one shown in the book and I may already have a few errors, but I want to finish this shawl because it's a momento of when I started back with spinning and with lace. I will be looking at "A Gathering of Lace" and my other books/patterns for my next big project while I persevere with this odd little shawl.

To all of us who do persevere, Good Knitting!