Photos as promised....

As promised here are a couple of photos to keep you up to date....



















The back of my 'Penelope' tank top, I have started the front but I have to say it's a little bit 'dull' to knit after the Forest Canopy shawl but I have two weeks to finish it so hopefully fingers crossed a little bit each day will get it finished....

I have to admit it does look rather 'uninteresting' but I do love the finished article in the book so I will persevere the only thing I am not too chuft about is the fact I have found it difficult to get an even rib; the purl st before the knit sts is somewhat larger than I would like....














My Lang Jawoll socks which are a Christmas gift for someone; I wasn't planning to start my Christmas knitting so soon, it's just well there's too much white for me and my stash of sock yarn has been growing of late so I am not short of yarn for socks that I love....

I always have socks on the go.... it is my knitting for when I can't or don't want to concentrate too hard but still need to keep my hands occupied.... I think that's why I've not had the urge to knit lacey or patterned socks.....

On a roll...

No photos at the moment but promise I will later not that they'll be very exciting.... I do seem to be a on a roll at the moment regarding my knitting though, perhaps it's this Easter deadline & this urge to reduce my stash of projects...

I managed quite easily it turns out to finish the bank of my tank top last night, sufficiently early enough that I finished my 2nd sock I have been knitting in Lang Jawoll, which should have been for me but isn't anymore but thats another story for another post....

An intrim knit or stash reduction????

Well as I finished py Patons Jet cardigan well before my Easter deadline (which is the official starting date for my VLT Sampler shawl) I decided upon another hopefully quick knit in the effort to reduce my stash....

This is RYC Soft Lux in Amethyst which I picked up at the JL sale on Boxing day; now it's not often I find something in a sale that I really like and in the colour I like... that pattern is "Penelope" from the RYC Classic Women booklet; which I also got in the sale :o)

Hopefully tonight will see the back completed and I can cast on for the front tomorrow.....

Excitement

Due to a very kind Angel Yarns forum member Kryptonite Kay in Canada this arrived yesterday morning.....


















I have been desperate to try these Knit Picks classic circs and Options, so when Kay offered to forward them on I nearly bit her hand off.... I was like a little child, feeling how smooth they are, and how pointy the tips are, they are going to be very very nice to knit lace with.... I spent last night playing with them not with any yarn you understand just testing the screwing mechanism and explaining to DH what all the bits did....

I opted for some classic circs, the 3.25mm is for my VLT KAL to be started at Easter, the other two are for knitting socks.... then before I commited to buying a full Options set I bought some tips and cords to try out....

Blocked & Ready to go....

Well here it is being blocked and my first time using my blocking wires that I got as part of my Christmas present, from Heirloom Knitting.

I, OK we (DH is so much better at things like this than me) found them a bit fiddly at first, but the fact that you can pull an edge straight in one go is so much easier than all those pins!!!!

I couldn't wait this morning to take the wires out to reveal this soft, drapeable fabric, the transformation amazes me every single time....

Here's a close up to see the pattern & yarn...

Overall I am pleased with this, despite my reservations about the yarn. I think it works well with this pattern, because it's at an angle and the pattern is simple.... but I have satisfied my curiosity with this yarn, I like it and I love the colours but I feel and this is just my personal opinion it has limited uses for lace knitting.... the stripes would spoil a different shaped shawl and the strong colours would mask the lace.... I do however have some lace weight yarn from this company which is a lot more subtle in its shading....

Forest Canopy - Finished!!!

Well it’s finished, but it has yet to be blocked…..It didn’t take as long as I thought it would; 5 days I think, but then I did knit most of Sunday which is something I don’t normally get the opportunity to do…

I had one or two little hiccups, like missing the odd YO, but I managed to spot my error before I got too far so luckily didn’t need to rip back to my lifeline at any point, just a little tinking here and there to create a YO in the right place… I think lifelines are a mental safety net just as much as a physical one for me… it’s that little thought of well if it goes completely wrong even on the last row it’s only 8 rows to pull back, somehow this stops me worrying about mistakes so I concentrate on the pattern and make less mistakes….

I ended up doing 3 extra repeats of the pattern, which took me up to 243sts this wasn’t a form of self torture but more based on needing two balls of yarn for this project and I finished the last official pattern repeat at 195sts with still some yarn left out of my first ball :oO even after all the extra knitting I still have a bit left but I think doing a further repeat would have been pushing it a little so I played safe…

I enjoyed the pattern and I found that once I got back into the rhythm of lace knitting I re-aquainted myself with being able to recognise were I should be in the pattern so at least I could tell if I was going wrong….

I am still reserving judgment on the striping effect of this yarn, but I will make my final decision after blocking which will be in the next few days….

Forest Canopy

Yarn: Jojoland Melody (4ply/fingering wt) Col Y16 – Green Violet

Needles: 4.5mm

This is a little bit retrospective as I finished this yesterday, but it still needs blocking yet!!!

Despite this being my maiden voyage into blogging, it's not my first introduction to lace knitting. It is however, my first attempt at a shawl that isn’t rectangular so I shall see how I get on with the increases outweighing the decreases. I am so used to being able to check that I have the same number of sts on as I started with that I must admit I am a little concerned with all these growing number of sts… will I be able to cope with them all? and will I have the staying power?

The photo shows the shawl after 3 repeats, growing quickly which is nice but I am constantly thinking it will slow down as I get more sts on the needles and how long will it take me to do a repeat when I get more sts on (this is what I did as a child which is what put me off knitting back then, constantly trying to work out how long something would take me!!!!) I have to remind myself this isn’t a race and so what if it takes me an hour or more to do a pattern repeat, just enjoy the rhythm of the knitting, watching the emerging pattern and take delight in the fact that I am getting the pattern right!!!

I love the yarn and the colours, it is a little rougher than I thought it would be but still it’s nice to knit with and think will make a nice shawl for my friend’s birthday. The only thing I am reserving judgment on at the moment is the striping. It has long runs of colour which is good but it is making definite stripes which concerns me that it may mask the pattern somewhat….

First Steps into Blog World

I sort of ended up here quite by accident..... no really I did.

I wanted to post a comment on a blog about a lace shawl that has been knit from VLT in a KAL by a forum member on which I belong.... it wouldn't let me leave an 'annoymous' comment, so I thought I'd better register myself so I could leave posts and as I also want to join this KAL at Easter I went ahead and registered....

Now normally DH is around for me to shout and ask questions about what I'm really saying yes and no to in the technological world but not this morning, so I put a few straight forward details in and next thing I know I have a blog!!!!

Honest that's what happened to me....