Do You Want To Torture Yourself? (Knitted Lace Designs Of The "Modern" Mode Book 1 and Knitting Lace)

Years ago I bought a copy of "Knitting Lace" from Lacis in Berkeley which is in Japanese. It had pictures and great charts and I guess if I had really sat down I could have figured out and translated a "legend" so I could knit from those charts. I never did it but I loved the pretty book so much I kept it and just drooled from time to time. I have a few books on what is apparently referred to as "modern lace knitting" and have never knit from them. I like to keep reference books because there are times where everything comes together and I suddenly start to actually knit from them. That's what happened when I bought Sharon Millers "Heirloom Knitting" book. I had it for well over a year before the light bulb went "on". Well, now Lacis has published an additional book and they have translated the "legend" for the stitches. I could actually now knit these patterns if I'm crazy enough to want to do it. I have to say that these are very very tempting but I'd have to start small. I will look at them, drool more and try to finish things before I start more. I have three things that have potential to actually be done. the "Dragone" shawl must be next in line for my niece, I am waiting for my copy of Sharon Millers "Spring Shawl" to come in the mail but I won't start that until the Wedding Ring Shawl is done, so maybe a little something from one of these books? Hmmmm. I have to go knit now.

Clarity And a Universe of Supportive and Wonderful People (That Would Be All of YOU!)

I want to thank everyone who responded to my post about the confusion over pictures of a really very lovely label that originally held spinning fiber from Widdershin Woolworks. I was very glad that that no one felt ill towards me for this mishap since I would never want to use someones artwork without permission, even by mistake. Since I bought this fiber so very long ago, "Just call me Methuselah", there would have been no way I could have legitimately gotten permission to use this art if indeed I had been using the label as my own, and I think it it was actually quite brave of the person who alerted me to this possible issue. I believe she was trying to be sure the artist and friend was protected and I admire that greatly.

I have since received two e-mails. One from the person who first approached me with a very nice letter indicating that she was now more clear on what had happened and hoped I had not been inconvenienced. She was very gracious. I also received a delightful e-mail from the original artist, Tenzin Nyikel (Michelle Mueller) who is now living in Dharamsala as a Tibetan Buddhist Nun working with orphans. Both she and her friend enjoy spinning and knitting and both sound like very lovely people. All's well that ends well. I hope to post some progress soon . Thank you again for all the great support. You all are wonderful people, but then I would hope you all knew that! Good Evening.

I Must Apologize! (Confusion about "Lable")

I am posting this to both clarify and apologize for any misunderstanding that people may have had about pictures I posted recently. For those of you who have seen the green yarn that I spun in lace weight from fiber I purchased years ago from Widdershin Woolworks. When I spun some of this yarn for missalicefaye and then wrapped the belly band around the finished yarn, she posted it as a pretty photograph on her blog. I've also posted pictures of the belly band by itself and with the fiber in it on my blog. I have received a kind message from someone who has seen these photographs and it appears that some people believe I am using this artwork as my own label.


Please Please Please! I had no intention of implying this is my label and had no idea that anyone would think that. I am hoping to contact the original artist in order to apologize for my grave error and am posting this to clarify. In future, I will not be posting labels as I am very concerned about what has happened. If anyone else knows how I might contact the original artist to apologize I would appreciate that help.

I hope I can correct this mistake and I appreciate your patience with me and my errors.

Beaded Purse (Just for Laritiza)

Because Laritza is asking about my past knitting with beads, I am making a short post even though it's not lace. I have purchased both patterns and books on knitting lace bags and made perhaps 3 total before stopping. I may do more in the future but lace is more fun. You can use needles in US 000 (the smallest in circular needles I could find) or US 0000 and smaller in straight needles. If you really have a need to go look, here is a little list of places to get stuff for this madness!

Swallow Hill Creations

Arhyonel Beadworks and Restorations

Barbs Beaded Bags

Purse Paradise

Lacis

Happy Knitting!

Lacis (AKA Lace Mecca)

I know, I know. I said I was going to try to knit from my stash. I really had decided not to buy more yarn. I have started to actually list all my lace weight yarn and it's a daunting amount. But I have been going to Lacis in Berkeley for years and years. Sometimes for tatting supplies, sometimes for knitting supplies, sometimes for Silk Ribbon Embroidery or Beaded Purse supplies. You name it, they usually have it. I went only to order a book, a very very nice lace knitting book that is in Japanese but has a legend in English for the chart symbols. It will be coming in next week and they will mail it to me. While there, I couldn't help but notice that the shop is now stocking more lace weight yarns and I found a lace book I don't already have and some quite lovely variegated lace weight wool yarn that I am not familiar with. It's called "Harmony" from a manufacturer named Jojoland (880 yds/50g ball) and according to the label is made in China.I know I'm weak but as vices go this one is pretty harmless:-) I bought enough for a shawl and will put it with all the other yarn while I try to finish something. The book is one with knitted lace doilies in it and I think some of the patterns can be adjusted to make shawls rather than doilies. I've started the opposite border for the Shetland Sampler Stole and will post pictures once I have something more to look at. I am also posting a picture of the "Legends" shawl so you can see the color shift in the work. If you look at my ball of yarn, you will see that I have replaced the toilet paper core with an empty pill bottle which works very well so far. I also wanted to put in a good word for a product my sister bought recently. I'd read about it in other blogs but never considered getting any. It's called "Highlighter Tape" and my sister bought it at "Knit Foundry". You can see it on one of the charts I've enlarged and I really like it because you can see to the row below the one you are working on if you are wondering if there was an error in the previous row. Many times an error such as a missed yarn over, can just be corrected by picking up a strand from the row below. It beats the heck out of peeling a post-it note up to look underneath! Short post tonight. Tomorrow is July 4th and I will be off to see my brother Herman and his family. Happy 4th!

Sampler Stole & Legends of the Shetland Seas (Progress of a Sort)

Though I have not touched my Wedding Ring Shawl of late (I just sit at my computer and admire missalicefaye's shawl instead) I have not been totally idle. I have been doing some spinning but have stopped for the time being so I will have more time to knit. Since some madness seized me and I joined the "Spun Stitches" spin/knit along, I have started yet another stole. But these stoles go quickly as you can see from the progress on the "Sampler Stole" by Hazel Carter. At the top of the page you can see the first repeat of "Legends of the Shetland Seas". Yet another stole by Hazel Carter. I am knitting the Legend Stole out of hand spun yarn I made from Lisa Souza fibers. I plied BFL with Merino in the "Petroglyph" colorway and got a yarn that ended up being 36 WPI. I'm using US 2 needles to knit it and the colors are very earthy and quite subtle. I did not skein the yarn but wound it straight from the bobbin with a ball winder. I put a toilet paper roll that I had cut down to fit over the core of the ball winder so that my yarn will not get all messed up as I use it. If I left the ball alone, it would eventually block the yarn, but I don't have that much over twist in my plied yarn so it's not difficult to knit with and the stole will have to be blocked anyway so what the heck! As for the "Sampler Stole' I have completed the 162 row border and will now pick up the reserved stitches at the other end and do it all over again. It goes very quickly and I really want to get this done so I can give it to Yarn Place and then focus on my other shawls. I feel a little guilty about not working more on the WRS but I still hope to work more on it this weekend. I hope everyone out there is having fun knitting. I know I am. Have a Good Evening!

Waiting To Become (That's What Yarn Is)

Two skeins of 70/30 Merino/Silk spun at an average of 30-32 WPI. I say average because It's not consistant in size but I think missalicefaye already understands that my spinning is not perfect so she may be able to come up with something to use this yarn for all the same. One skein is about 750 yds the other about 647 yds for a total of 1,397 yds (I counted off with the niddy noddy so I hope that's right). If it's not enough and you need more, missalicefaye, I am happy to spin up more since I have a whole bunch of that fiber left. I will be sending it off soon so be on the look-out for it. Now I can go back to knitting a little bit since I got my Ya Ya's Out :-)

Brain on Auto-Pilot (Can't walk and chew gum but can still spin!)

What do you do when your brain takes a hike? If you are so unfortunate as to be me, you spin. Why? Because at least at the end of the day, you still have something to show for it even if you can barely get coherent sentences out of your mouth! It has been very warm out here and I had to take a break from knitting. I am praying this stuff comes out nice because it's going to missalicefaye. For those who spin out there, I imagine your goals for spinning are very individual. Some go for the unique, some spin for fun, many are obsessed with making sock yarns and some to get a decent lace weight yarn like me. The yarn form Mountain Pines was not 100% even but it still made a very pretty shawl. I hope it will pass muster. We shall see!

Bringing The Pretty /Wrapped in Comfort

Just got a new book in the mail. This one is by Alison Jeppson Hyde and is titled "Wrapped in Comfort" She has some lovely circular shawls as well as scarf patterns using larger sized needles (US 9 or US 10 on average) and the shawls are very graceful and pretty. They are designed so they will stay on the shoulders and the instructions are both written and charted for those who have a preference. The patterns are graded from beginner lace to experienced and most all the patterns have a "story" attached to them explaining how they came to be. Though I'm currently knitting on smaller needles, these pattern are very appealing and I'm guessing the larger gage would make the knitting go pretty quickly. I just have to go look at my stash. I'm going to refrain from buying more yarn for now and "shop" from my stash for yarns for projects instead as suggested on the podcast "Stash and Burn" (see sidebar). Besides. I'm spinning yarn too. I almost have one bobbin filled with a single in the green merino/silk. It's not too bad so far. Let's hope I have developed the patience to ply the way I should.

You Must Go Look! (missalicefaye heads for the finish line)

You have to go look at missalicefaye. She is almost done with her Wedding Ring Shawl and it is such an awesome thing to watch as she reaches for the finish line. She just has to graft the lace edging and then she can wash/block. I have a long way to go before I get to that point and a lot of distractions. Check her blog out!

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!

Samper Stole (row 55 of border)

Still Knitting on the Sampler Stole. I'm up to row 55 of the border and there are 162 rows in all . I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but I find the odd dropped stitch from time to time even though I tug on my lace periodically as I knit to try to catch them early on. It happened on my WRS center and it happened with this one too. You can see it in the top shot at the bottom of the picture. It's the third diamond counting from left to right. I have picked it up and will just have to"tie" it in place and hide the ends. No way am I going to rip back to that point! Once again, not perfect but not too bad. Does anyone out there have any experience with trying to starch Shetland Lace? Sharon Miller had described doing it but if you store the lace, you have to wash it out and re-block it since you don't want the buggies to be attracted to the starch. As if the wool itself was not already an enticing little snack for moths. A word to the wise. If you Xerox /enlarge a chart from a book like I did, don't forget to check for color-coded changes in the chart symbol instructions. This pattern had several and I didn't transcribe them to my copy so I had to pick back a few rows when I realized that my stitch count was off. I should have looked more closely a the "legend" that explains the stitch symbols. In some rows, the symbol for Sl1,K2tog,psso was supposed to be K2tog at the beginning of the repeat so the stitch count would come out correctly. I guess knitting lace is always a learning experience :-) I added a shot of the un-pinned stole center so you can more easily see the color shifting of the yarn. What exactly is it about variegated yarn that has me hooked so bad? After all. Lace shows to better advantage when your eye is not distracted by shifting colors, or so it is commonly believed. Yet I still like those color changes. Guess only time will tell if I am disappointed in the results. Until then, I'm enjoying the knitting. Good Evening to all!