Swallowtail - Take 2

Here's the start of my 2nd Swallowtail by Evelyn A Clark, I really enjoy this pattern I have to admit.....

The photo isn't very good colourwise but the yarn is from Yarn Treehouse. I have only good things to say about both the yarn and the seller. Her prices are reasonable for both yarn and postage and the service is good.

The yarn is lovely to knit with and this will be the 3rd time I've knit with it. My 1st Swallowtail was done with her Lace Merino Classic (which I dyed myself) and then recently I knit Hanami with the same Lace Merino Print as the current Swallowtail. In all three cases I have wound two balls together and knit with the yarn held double thoughout to give the correct guage.... In the case of the Lace Merino Print as the colour changes are very subtle and gradual it doesn't really cause any problems that the two yarns when held together are at different colour changes, in my opinion it creates a whole new different colourway.....

Small Beginnings....

Many thanks for the kind comments left about the model on yesterdays post, I'm just glad I cut my 'behind' off the backview photo... makes me realise I really have to keep up with the diet!!!!

There's not been a huge amount of knitting in the last few days I think it's that intrim period between projects finishing and getting established on new ones... and as I finished two shawls off more or less simultaneously and haven't got going on the border of the VLT sampler stole I sort of felt a bit lost.....

As I was trying to finish Swan Lake over the weekend I didn't want to start anything until I'd finished that so when I finished Sunday lunch I decided that I would swatch with the Silver grey silk I got from Colourmart. This may seem a bit odd as I won't be starting the stole until later this year (it's only needed for mid-April 2008) but I think I wanted a chance to see how the Colourmart yarn knitted up and 'bloomed'; as of yet I haven't heard anything bad about their products or their service, also I just wanted something small to fill in a gap.... The pattern is/will be the Alpine Scarf from VLT, but I'm going to add a further two repeats of the centre motif just to make the stole wider.....

I started off with 2.5mm needle and cast on as if I was starting the stole with 121 stitches and worked the pattern as stated apart from just doing 1 repeat of Chart A before starting the centre panel.... there is a green thread running through the swatch and this is were I changed to a 3.25mm needle (would you believe it I did not have a 3mm needle in the house! this has now been remedied)

After a washing and blocking discussion with Lace Maven (many thanks) I ended up (please don't cringe) washing it twice with Fairy Liquid and almost boiling water...... and then blocked it hard.... my swatch came out at 20" wide which is wider than the book says (it was 17" before blocking) so I've calculated a further 2 centre motif repeats will give me a further 5" of finished width, making a reasonably wide stole.... The swtach has come out lovely and drapey and softer, I think a 3rd wash may help with the final stole.....

I think I will use the 3.25mm needles as I preferred the more open effect of the diamonds with this needles and the leaves came out fairly solid....

I have also cast on for a Swallowtail (my 2nd) using 'Bloom' from Yarn Treehouse in a muted blue/ochre-gold colourway, this is going to be a Ruby wedding gift for a friend.....

I also started the Melon stole from VLT yesterday but I have pulled it off the needles today as I am not happy with my knitting of it, some of the outer sts round the melon stitch were a bit loose for my liking and I know it's a straigh forward pattern but my counting kept going astray.... so I have now opted for the Scaf with Border No 20 from VLT instead but I didn't think the Helen's Lace in Irving Park colourway would be suitable so I am now waiting for my BIL to ring back and give me some indication of what colours my SIL would like!!!!! and this is meant to be relaxing ;o)

Ramble over... thanks for reading/listening

Swan Lake aka PLT Mystery Stole 3

As promised a little later than stated the finished photos of the stole... I have to say I'm pleased with the end results and is a stole that looks better on than off!!!

Blocking... the mats are brilliant
Post Blocking

Ignore the model please there is no easy way of displaying this shawl without wearing it and as DH refused to model it for me ;o) I had to

Close ups





The blocked size is 20" by 76" (at it's longest point). It was knit on an Addi 3.5mm Lace circular using white Jaggerspun Zephyr laceweight, hand-dyed by myself in tones of apricot. The beads were from ebeads (see my sidebar)

Pink Lemon Twist Mystery Stole 3.... Complete!!!

I finished knitting about 20 minutes ago.... for some reason ever since the clue came out on Friday fate has conspired against me with various interuptions to be able to just sit and knit it, but finally I have managed...... I have no idea how Soo has managed to knit two of these at the same time, but they look stunning......


Anyway pre-blocking... I'll post the post-blocking photos and details tomorrow....

Is it...

... S.E.X if I don't buy it?

This is 100% pure French silk in Silver Grey (2/28NM) from Colourmart When it grows up it's hopefully going to be the Alpine Lace Scarf from VLT; well actually I'm going to put a few more repeats of the centre motif in to make it wider to make it more of a stole... It will be a 70th birthday present from my Mum to her cousins wife next April (so I have plenty of time) so in effect Mum bought the yarn so is it really S.E.X, That's the question.???

I can't tell you much about it at the moment as I'm only just starting to swatch with it. I can tell you however, it's a 4ply yarn (a 2 & 2) so there are two distinct strands when knitting.... which doesn't bother me as I've been knitting holding two yarns together for a few projects. It feels a bit harsh at first, but after a few rows of stocking stitch the fabric softens up and I can see it being quite drapey and even more so after washing and blocking.....

I'm using 2.5mm needles and so far I like the result :o)

O.K. confession time.... I sent a link to a friend to show her the yarn and Colourmart had just had a new delivery of 1/20NM 100% Cashmere and this colour was there just glaring at me and begging me to buy it....

It's just such a beautiful shade of green it's called "Asparagus"... I gave it thought as to what I could use it for I didn't just want to buy it for the sake of buying it and then I'd remembered I'd subconciously been persuaded to pre-order the "Princess Shawl" pattern from Heirloom Knitting. Sharon Miller gives a couple of suggestions for yarn on her site and the Merino is just a little thinner (about 4 metres per gram) than the cashmere, so I bought it :o))))

I have to say I'm impressed with Colourmart's photography as the yarn is true to the colour on their website.....

So in the end I did succumb to a little S.E.X ;o)

Midsummer...

..not the weather here in the UK that's for sure, but the shawl which was designed as a Mystery Stole Project for May & June this year by the Goddess Knits. I Joined after the 1st clue had been posted and by the time I got my yarn the last clue had been started, so I decided I would leave it for awhile.

Fate had other ideas.... one of our oldest & closest friends, Janet had a little girl back in February and she asked both myself and my husband to be Godparents in September. I decided as I'd bought the yarn in white (intending to dye it myself for this shawl) that I may as well knit the shawl for her christening. I'm not intending the shawl to be a traditional christening shawl, but if her mum wants to use it at the christening that will be nice, but I'd like it to be used as Sarah grows up (both Janet & I are very practical about things)....

Anyway here are the photos and plenty of them...

Blocking on my new mats, thanks for the tip Linda, they're great according to DH, as the pins stay where you put them!!!! As I used smaller needles (DH calculated 10% smaller) we blocked it at a respectable 74" by 40"

Close up's of the various patterns....




and finally the finished shawl.... I actually like it more now than I thought I did, the final edging seemed a bit heavy to me on the pattern but when I see it's lovely..... I am very pleased with it.

Details:

• 4.5mm Knit Picks Options (pattern state 5mm)
  
• 3 x 50g balls of Yarn Treehouse "Classic" fingering weight 100% wool in "Vanilla" (pattern said 250g)
  
  
  
  

Off the needles....

... and onto the blocking mat is Midsummer, even I have surprised myself how quick I've managed to finish this one!!!!!


I'll put up more photos and details after blocking, which may be tonight or it may be tomorrow, who knows, but for now you'll just have to make do with this....

Not Just Lace... Well Today Anyway

These seem to have been on the go awhile now so I was quite relieved when I finished them last night.... they're Opal Hunderwasser "Der Blaue Mond" and they're actually for me :) It'll be a bit before I get a chance to knit myself another pair as I'm starting to plan Christmas socks and I have a pair of knee length socks to knit for a friend in a size 10!!! so I'm going to use the opportunity to have a go at a toe-up pair of socks as featured in IK Summer 07

On another, completely out of the blue front Gilraen nominated me as one of her "Rockin Girl Blogger" nominees for my "lace knitting, extraordinary level!!" I am honoured that you think I am worthy Gilraen of such an accolade. Thank you very much.

I have to say though that my awards for Rockin Girl Bloggers have to go to some serious lace knitters. The following people really do inspire me with their lace knitting exploits, their encouraging words as well as their time they give up to explain things despite having busy lives. Although they live thousands of miles away they have become kindred spirits and friends, so my nominations are:

• fleegle (Harry included if we can entice him out the fridge crisper to collect the award)
• lacefreak
• missalicefaye
• lacemaven

Yarn Pron

I received this in the post today and I just couldn't resist posting a photo of it as it's so beautiful....



It's from the Posh Yarn sale last Sunday. It's Baby Lucia (720yds or 658m in 100g) which is 30% Cashmere & 70% Merino in the colourway "Alien". I'm really not sure what I'm going to use it for but there's 100g there to play with. It was just one of those things I saw it and I kept being drawn back to it to drool over it, so I bought it.....

On the knitting fron I completed Clue 5 from the PLT Mystery Stole yesterday, it's a bit difficult to photograph at this stage, but here you are for those of you who like detail ;)

Joining the Border Gang....

Yes that means at long last (it does feel longer than 4 months) the body of the VLT Sampler shawl is complete and to prove it.....

It's going to be big without the border and blocking it's about 5' 5" and 20" wide :0 but it's finally complete.

I didn't think it would come out quite as big as the yarn is quite fine [finer than it was meant to be :S) ] The yarn should have had 250m in a suposedly 25g hank (it's sold by length) however on weighing the hanks after starting they turned out to be approximately 22g which means that the yarn I thought was 10 m/g was in fact just over 11 m/g if I had known this at the beginning then I would have used 3mm needles instead of 3.25mm and it perhaps wouldn't have come out so huge...... so far I have just started into my 6th and final hank so I'm not sure if I will need to purchase more; however they do still have some smaller skeins (25m) of this dye lot left so I'm not sweating too much......

So along with Fleegle, lacefreak and missalicefaye I will be starting on the edging but not until weekend.

I now have questions for people if you don't mind....

I'm contemplating buying Hazel Carter's "Shetland Lace Knitting from Charts" and was wondering if any of you have it and what you think of it? or if you have recommendations for any other Lace books, I do have a few already....

I'm also asking what's your favourite lace yarns those around the 10 metres per gram mark (it's just my way of calculating how fine lace yarn is for comparison), the reason being I'm going to be knitting the Alpine Scarf from VLT and just thought as I'm not paying for the yarn it would be nice to experiment with a different yarn.... I don't do fluffy yarns such as KSH and don't want a cotton based yarn, preferably a merino or merino blend, so if anyone has comments or suggestions please leave in the usual manner.... TIA

Finally thanks Fleegle for the Norwegian Purl link, I will give it a try when I've watched it a few times..... perhaps trying it after a glass of wine will help ;)

Midsummer

Despite the KAL is now finished for the Goddess Knits Mystery stole 3, I've just come to the end of clue 2 and about to start clue 3 so I thought I would just put a photo up to show the progress, plus I don't think the pattern on the Goddess Knits site doesn't really show the lovely beginning pattern up...