See A Void And Fill It (Yarn Place and Purlescence)

I recently began de-stashing my non-lace related yarn out of my storage bins. I used to knit cables but rarely do much of that any more as I am lace obsessed. The people who received my yarn are happily knitting away and I felt a nano second of virtue. All was right with the world. However, in my unwitting haste to transfer my "yarn-hoarding-guilt" to other unsuspecting knitters, I inadvertently created that most dreaded of natural phenomenons, the "YARN VOID" (echo,echo,echo). That's right, a vacuum so intense that it literally sucks the knitter who created it into the strong gravitational pull of any knitting store within a 50 mile radius of the stash location where the void was created. Unless you fill that stash void, there continues to be an imbalance. One that could, if not quickly corrected, cause The End Of The Universe As We Know It. I'd hate to be the one responsible for ending the world wouldn't you? So I had to gird my loins so to speak, and go shopping.

Seriously. It's not that easy for a lace knitter to shop sometimes. I mean, it really depends on what and how you knit. Lace, as much as I might like it, is not what the majority of knitters are into at the moment though more people may be trying it right now after that "Victorian Lace Today" book came out. So I buy a lot of my yarn on-line but that can be difficult because I'd rather actually see and feel yarn before I buy it. Buying a yarn you haven't seen on-line is a leap of faith. I like to buy from ColourMartUK because I have received really nice yarn from them and I have a real fondness for Cashmere and Cashmere blends at a good price. That's why I loved shopping at Stitches West. I was able to get some really lovely yarn that I would normally never get to see and touch before purchase. That said, I was in Sunnyvale visiting my brother's family and my Sister-In-Law Melinda took me and my sister May to two yarn stores. Now it's not an infrequent occurrence that I can walk into a yarn store and find nothing to buy but notions. Most knitting patterns for lace I have seen and either already have or are planning to buy on-line and they are the ones that are not usually stocked by yarn stores. Most yarn stores carry some small amount of lace weight yarn. The Zephyr, the Misti Alpaca. It's all fine but not something that will fill that Yarn Void I spoke of as I already have lots of both of those yarns. It's a bummer to be ready to shop, with money on hand and find nothing to buy. However, yesterday was different.

We went to Yarn Place first. Now I have bought yarn there before so I knew I would be buying lots of yarn there to fill that Yarn Void I had created. Their web-site is, to put it politely "messed-up" and they are in the process of trying to fix it so I had not been able to buy on-line from them. I've had contact with the staff at Yarn Place recently by phone and they were really terrific and willing to help me out when I thought I was going to need some yarn recently of a particular dye-lot. They were willing to set aside some yarn just to be sure I'd have it if I needed it. They were really great and so buying from them was not a hardship for me. Besides, they carry a lot of yarn that I found I couldn't resist. I bought a skein of bright green "Heaven" as well as two in a nice blue. Heaven has tencel in it so has a nice "shimmer" in the sunlight. I also purchased 4 ounces of a 50/50 silk/merino top from a place called Anzula, there that is really very lovely as well as a small cone of Heaven in a kind of a lilac color. In the picture, you can see it side by side with a cone of ColourMartUK which is a 55/45 cashmere/silk I also received the same day in the mail. I also filled in some books missing from my lace library as you can see. I'm not into Russian construction for lace but missalicefaye is knitting one of the stoles from it and it looks so great I had to have this book. "The First Book of Modern Lace Knitting" is a clasic I didn't have and that simple pattern from Cabin Fever for "Evening in Eden" looked like a nice simple knit as a break from more intense lace.

Next up was Purlescence Yarns . Now I didn't buy yarn there but they had some very nice lace-weight yarns, and I didn't buy fiber though they have spinning fiber from lots of very nice places including Blue Moon and even some Buffalo which is a little unusual. If I had not already dropped a bundle at Yarn Place, I would have bought more fiber but I just can't spin fast enough to warrent further fiber purchase at the moment. I did however, find something I have not been able to find in a brick and mortar store before. I bought a copy of the Hidcote Garden Shawl by Miriam L. Felton, from them and a bottle of "Soak"to try out. My over-all impression was that the staff have a good handle on what knitters out there are interested in right now. The shop is clean, well stocked and there were lots of knitters there just hanging out to knit. Really nice people, women mostly. You can knit there, they have spinning as well, they have classes for everything from basic knitting to lace basics, sock knitting, crochet and spinning. They even had the new Louet S-95, the extremely portable folding spinning wheel that I tried out. If we did not have 3 wheels in our home already, I'd be sorely tempted. It breaks-down and gets packed in it's own bag, comes with a kate of it's own and would be great for a spinner who enjoys "taking it on the road". It's a shop I'd go back to again.

Needless to say, I've corrected my error, filled the Void and am satisfied that I have saved the world. Good Knitting, Spinning and Shopping!

Spider Mutants and Bye Bye Mountain Pines

If you change a well known, well loved pattern, will you be struck down by the knitting God or Goddess? So Far fleegle is still standing even though she has been plagued by knots in her yarn. She appears to now be past the point in the yarn with all the knots and is hopeful to finish her "Spider King" without further aggravation. I'm going to spend the weekend charting the mitered corner for my version of "Spider Queen" which will now be referred to as "Spider Mutant". Think "Island of Dr. Moreau" only with yarn and spiders. Of course, I hope it will still be pretty, if different, but there is no guarantee in knitting! Forgive me Hazel Carter for I'm about to sin.

OK. I know I said I was going to start keeping my shawls rather than giving them away. Something about a "Legacy" to leave my little nieces who I imagine could care less. But you see, I have this very dear friend Jerry, who moved to Seattle some years ago with his partner, Paul (I have listed his fledgling blog in the side-bar under GPC). He really likes the Mountain Pines Shawl. He is here in the Bay Area and we just had dinner together because he is part of a committee interviewing potential rectors for the church he belongs to. Apparently, there was some conversation last night with some of the others on the committee and they were talking about how nuns in the Catholic Church used to do lace and go blind by age 35 yrs making the stuff. One of the people there asked aloud, "Who spins or makes lace now a days anyway?" Or words to that effect. Heh Heh Heh. Of course my friend had to tell them that I did and that there are lots of other people out there who do as well. He wants bragging rights, wants to show off the shawl, display it in his house for all to see and somehow that just feels "right" compared to being wrapped in tissue in a box on the shelf for the next 10-20 years or so until one of my nieces might take an interest. Besides, did I mention he's very dear to me? So on Wed, before he takes the red-eye flight back home, we will have dinner somewhere nice, talk about everything and nothing like we used to do all the time when he used to live in the Bay Area, and he will go home with a reminder of our friendship that he can show-off to his hearts content. The shawl is special, but then so is he!

Patience is a Virtue (Who am I kidding?)

I have to give you guys a lot of credit. If you want to watch speed knitting you are looking in the wrong blog. Because of my woeful inability to focus my attention on one task and finish it, you are forced to witness progress in tiny bites over multiple shawls. It's only gotten worse with menopause (or as we like to refer to it in my family, mean-o pause). With the demise of most of my hormones I find that I just run off and do whatever I want to whenever I want to. My inner-childish whispers in my head, "Bored with knitting Spider Queen? Well what the heck, lets knock off a row of the Wedding Ring Shawl!" and off we go "Wheee!" the roller coaster of lace knitting, that's me, and you all get to come along for the ride.

See above. I've finished 4 repeats of Spider Queen and have 1 and a third pattern repeats to go to finish the center. I am not doing the original border or edge so I can't really call it a "true" Spider Queen" after that. What will she do? you ask. Hell if I know. I will likely just take the border from another shawl pattern and modify it for Spider Queen. I've been looking at the border for the Unst Shawl and the one for the Christening Robe, both in Sharon Miller's, "Heirloom Knitting" book. I think I will deep-six the idea of having an actual "crown" in the border. I just haven't found one I like. I am up to row 142 of Boundary Waters Shawl's border (it goes to 171) and it's looking pretty nice with only one error that I fixed. I don't know about all of you, but I almost never have 100% error-free knitting. I usually have one or two Homer Simpson "good enough" fixes in them and only really sharp-eyed knitters can find them. Most people just enjoy the eye candy. And lastly, I'm up to row 20 of WRS. Not as nice stitch definition as misslacefayes because of my choice in yarn but still pretty nice by my standards. I have some nice cashmere/silk from ColourMartUK that I want to try and I know I will get nice clear stitches with that.

Speaking of ColourMartUK, they now have their own store/shop outside of their store on E-Bay which you can go to by clicking the hyperlink. I have to confess that I have purchased yet more laceweight yarn on that site even though I'm sure I will likely die before knitting all the stuff up that I already have.

In order to feel a little less like I'm hoarding, I have de-stashed a lot of my non lace related yarn (I used to do a lot of cable knitting) by giving it away to new knitters in my family. It's really good yarn since I have always bought nice yarn and there is no guilt at all when you give it away because you know they will love it and use it. I've seen several sweaters and scarves walking around in my ex-yarn and they look darned good! On top of that, I have high hopes to give away even more yarn as two more co-workers at my job have expressed a desire to either learn to knit or to have help to re-start knitting. For actual newbie's I usually bring nice yarn and some of my own circular needles to teach them. I don't have them buy anything at first because if they hate it, then they haven't wasted any money. Also, it's easier to "quality control" the yarn if you bring something you would use. Once they have knit with "good", it's much more difficult for them to justify buying cheap yarn. I have nothing against yarn that is inexpensive vs cheap. Cheap yarn feels bad in the hands and knits up worse. It creates a negative learning experience to knit with bad yarn. Inexpensive yarn may still be quite nice but cost-effective. In any case, I think something she can knit on a US 8 or US 9 is in order and Voila! you have an instant de-stash opportunity. I think I will stop now while I can still kid myself that I'm being virtuous. Good Night and Good Knitting!

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.