And Then I Made Nupps

Nupps, or those little buds you see all over Estonian lace, have been bugging me for a long time. Probably since I first picked up the Swallowtail Shawl pattern two years ago and promptly put it down again, I've let the tricky little bobbles get to me. In case you're not familiar, here's what they look like in a very nicely knit and blocked piece of lace fabric.



These aren't my nupps. They're just a sample I found on Flickr, by Sissyvette.

Since I cast on a Swallowtail Shawl a while back, the nupps in that pattern have been looming. I've devoted possibly more time to agonising over them than any other aspect of my knitting for some while.

They come late into the pattern, if you happen to have never made the shawl (thousands have before us!) and so you have plenty of time to pretend the Lily of the Valley border doesn't exist.

I thought I'd do beads instead. And then I didn't because I don't feel like learning that particular skill yet.

And then I thought I'd just ignore the nupps altogether. That whole purl 5 stitches together thing really didn't sound appealing and Shelley was coaching me in ways to make a perfectly acceptable version without them. She should know. She made one for me and I adore it. Right up until the last moment, that was the way I was going to go. I was knitting with fuzzy yarn, after all, who needs to learn something complex with fuzzy yarn?

But the moment came when I had to choose last Thursday night and so I dove in. I'd almost decided to do it, but could just as easily have gone the other way, when I posted on twitter.

to nupp or not to nupp. that is the question.
8:14 PM Nov 25th from web

Sometimes we need a friend to push us over the edge don't we?

Dr K replied to my tweet almost at once and urged me to do it. Rather convincingly, she suggested that as she herself was planning to launch into a project riddled with the things next week, she hoped I'd be her advance party, that I'd go in and test the water, let her know if there was danger ahead or not.

Well, Dr K, I know you saw these at dinner last night, but I'm just letting you know that 24 hours later, me and the nupps are going great. Just peachy. I have loads more of them. See?



I think the nupps aren't so easy to see in the midst of all the Kid Seta fuzziness, but they're there and I'm banking on them standing out really nicely once the piece is finished and stretched. I've recently seen how Kid Seta scrubs up after a long soak and a good blocking and I'm confident the hard work of all that nupping will pay off.

If you avoid them, be not afraid. Nupps are cool. I've spent the whole afternoon enjoying every single one of them. Honestly, I couldn't be more surprised at how nice it is to make them. I'm not saying I'm going to seek them out from now on. I'm not stupid! They always sounded so fussy, so painful and in truth, they're fiddly, but I'm happy to say that me and the Swallowtail Shawl are gonna be just fine.

Bells

Of Roses and Lace

Summer is here. Unofficially. The calendar still says November, but the mercury says summer has arrived. We are in salad and cool drink territory now.

And lace. Lots and lots of lace. I promised on my blog break I'd do some maintenance on the blog, which was to include adding a list of A Long Lacy Summer participants to the sidebar but oops, I had a real break from blogging. One that included not doing anything to the site. I'll get to it. I've been busy with Icarus. Remember how I was agonising over the right project for my Helen's Lace? Remember how I was totally over thinking the whole thing?

Behold Icarus. This is what happens when you stop over thinking and just knit.



I love this shawl so far. Yeah it's fairly mindless but hey, after my Myrtle Leaf shawl, I think I earned the right to do some lace where I just enjoyed something simple, right?

It's the lace knitting equivalent, I think, of just smelling the roses. Or, if you're me, with no functioning olfactory nerves, just enjoying the look of them.

This is a heritage rose my father in law gave us as a cutting and they are flowering. Stunning, don't you reckon?



And speaking of cutting, a certain someone who also lives here injured himself terribly last night - the top of his thumb is now held together with stitches. We love our sharp knives, but sometimes we are careless. Thankfully he is left handed and the injury is on his right thumb. He can still use his iphone. That's a relief!

And no I haven't worn my Myrtle Leaf shawl to the Opera House to see Tori Amos yet. That's next Monday and I just can't wait.

Bells

Blogtoberfest Day 28: The weight of expectation

I hold this laceweight beauty in my hand like an apple. That's what it makes me think of as I focus the camera on it in the late afternoon. I am remembering a time, almost a year ago, when I bought it and paid a princely sum for it.



I think of a time, it was January this year, when I spent several weeks trying to find just the shawl for it. It was agony. I had bought this yarn, Lorna's Laces 'Helen's Lace' with the desire to make it my key project for my first summer of knitting lace. How could I not with that colour and a yarn bearing my name?

I learned from that three week debacle that placing too high expectations on a simple skein of yarn is actually a hinderance. Every shawl I tried seemed not right. Every decision turned out to be the wrong one. All because I had infused the strands with unrealistic meaning.

Yes. I paid a lot for it. Yes, it was going to be my first serious lace project (whatever that means). Yes, I had blogged about it being special and important.

I look back now and think, 'huh?' What was I on?

It's beautiful yarn. It's going to be delightful to knit it into something. I planned an Icarus shawl but tonight I find myself wondering all over again, is it the right shawl? Is there something better/different/nicer that I could make?

And I realise that a year on, I've learned nothing.

Bells

Blogtoberfest Day 24: Myrtle Leaf Shawl with Willow Border

Today a bunch of friends joined Dr K in the glorious Southern Highlands for her birthday lunch. A little village called Burrawang, with a stone cottage for a pub. RoseRed has some lovely photos. So does Miss Fee.

While there, showering Kylie with birthday gifts and affection, we had a little fun doing a photo shoot for my finished Myrtle Leaf Shawl with Willow Border. We tried hard to emulate the photos from Victorian Lace Today because, well, why not. In a setting as green and English gardenesque as this, you sort of have to, I think.



If you know the book, these might make you smile.



So this is one of those projects that takes forever and pays off in the end by being every bit as delicate and beautiful and ultimately triumphant as you could hope a piece of knitted lace could be. I really don't think it gets better than the feeling I've got from having finished this. It's not just relief. I don't even feel in mourning for it being over. I just feel so pleased!



And getting to drape it around my shoulders and have a bit of fun playing with Dr K as photographer and George as stylist was just the icing on the cake.



Myrtle was started on the Australia Day weekend in late January and I did put her down for quite a long time while I got on with more practical knits, so really, I think she took seven months all up. It's the kind of project that I think, if I focused, could have been done in three months. I vow next time not to let a big piece of lace drag on because near the end, it does all become a bit of a burden as the desire to work on something new takes hold.

All black is not easy. I think I suffered a fair amount of eye strain as I tried to get through it. The pattern itself is not hard. It's a two sided pattern, which was my first time of doing such a thing, so with no rest rows, it's fairly intensive, but there's nothing overtly challenging once you settle in.

Knitting on the border was a bit of a challenge at first but once I was in the swing of it, it took about three weeks.

The yarn is JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk 2/18 and it's just stunning. I'd use it again and again. In black. In any colour. It's the nicest laceweight yarn I've used.



Sure, she's not the kind of shawl I'm going to get to wear every day, but I have plenty of everyday shawls. This one's for special moments, like next month when I get all dressed up to see Tori Amos at the Opera House. That'll be just the right night.

Bells

Blogtoberfest Day 23: A Long Lacy Summer Returns

If you were around last year, you might recall I engaged in a summer long feast of lace knitting. Let's not discuss the fact that the majority of my time was taken up with a certain black lace shawl that I only just finished. This is not the point. The point was it was my first summer of really giving myself over to trying my hand at real lace.

And lots of people joined in.

So I'm doing it again. A few people around the place are already talking about what they want to do which is pretty exciting. I may do a Ravelry group. I may not. At the time I called it a half-arsed knit along because I didn't do much formally for it. Just watched everyone else to see what they were doing and got through the summer heat with as much light, delicate knitting as possible,



The plan is, figure out what you want to knit, let me know in the comments that you're on board and come 1 November, we're off.

I'm most likely going to start with an Icarus shawl. Probably. I reserve the right to change my mind!

These photos are teasers of my Myrtle shawl. She's done. I spent today showing her off to anyone who even looked like they might be interested. I managed to block her last night before bed (with Sean's help!) and she went out today.

Tomorrow, I'm going to be in a particularly beautiful location so she'll get a full outing, with photos, then.

And yes, those of you who are heading into winter are most welcome to join in. The more the merrier! There are other lace knit alongs around, but this one's really easy. No rules. No guidelines. Just knit lace. Shawls, scarves, socks, garments. Whatever. It'll be fun. And of course, RoseRed and I are running Southern Summer of Socks again too, which is also fairly low key so I'll be combining both lace and socks a bit I think!

Bells

So pretty

I made a doily and I couldn't be happier.



It's the Hemlock Ring Doily, which I've made twice before as a blanket so you could say I had some idea what I was doing when I began attacking this a couple of weeks ago.

Casting on in crochet cotton (Coats #20, inherited from RoseRed) is not fun but I managed it. And happily I went around and around until, lo and behold, I had a doily. Note, if you attempt it, look up the errata for row 35. It'll save you the night of ripping back I went through.



Doilies are fun. I'll make them again. Hell, I'll probably even start using them from now on, although not this one, because it's a gift in a swap I'm doing.

I just love love love, as always how you can turn this



into something beautiful just by doing this



Apart from the swap I'm doing, I also did this so I could have something finished for A Long Lacy Summer. My black lace shawl is still a work in progress and I suspected I'd be able to get this little love done on time. And I did.

Phew.

As for my thoughts on knitting lace, now that I've devoted the better part of a summer to it, I love it but I've discovered something important. Lace, to me, feels like luxury knitting. It's not the meat and potatoes knitting that I need to do in order to feel productive. Oh spot the Protestant Work Ethic Knitter in me! I need good, solid practical knitting in the form of cardigans, scarves, socks and the assortment of gift knitting I undertake. Lace knitting is wonderful, beautiful, creative knitting and I love it but I can't churn it out fast enough to feel useful.

I'm not about to stop though. No way.

Bells

A Long Lacy Summer - Part 2

So even though A Long Lacy Summer was, as I dubbed it early on, a half-arsed Knit Along, it was still fun to see people mentioning it and saying it had inspired them to do some great lace knitting.

The kind of knitting happening around the place was anything but half arsed. I mean, look at what Samurai Knitter Julie did.


That's three months' worth of not-half-arsed knitting. Julie also dyed that piece, which eventually was given to her mother in law.

Over at Pass the Slipped Stitch Over, Jan spent the summer churning out lace scarves and shawls at a rate that made it look like she was knitting garter stitch squares.

One item I kept a close eye on because I'm planning on doing one myself was Terri's Icarus. She just posted it this week, describing herself as smitten. I can see why. Can't you?



Another relative late comer was Amanda, who made the most stunningly vivid blue Mandala.

Hmmm....there's a lot of blue so far. Let's find another colour. How about some red?


That's a beautiful scarf from Victorian Lace Today by the lovely Kylie. She gifted that scarf to George. Talk about generous. I'd have had trouble parting with that.

And then there was Shelley, who not only did the lace knit along, but also the Southern Summer of Socks Knit Along, all the while travelling to the UK and struggling with her PhD.

Amongst other things, Shelley made not one, but two Swallowtail Shawls. One of them was generously gifted to me a fortnight ago.

(later edit) I missed Deb. She also wrote a round up post and I'm very sorry I forgot to add it! Deb did an amazing count of three swallowtail shawls! Each one a stunning piece is glorious colours. So sorry for missing you out Deb. Here's a photo of one of Deb's shawls.


That concludes a summary of all the Long Lacy Summer round ups I've seen. I do hope I haven't missed any.

And what about me? What did I do? That was, after all, the reason for making it a half-arsed Knit Along - I wanted to make sure I didn't lose much of time to managing participants and not actually knit anything myself.

I think I will save a summary of what I did for a post of my own because I'm about to go and cast off a particular lace item (hint: not the black lace shawl) so I'll save it for the next post.

Thanks to everyone who participated so enthusiastically. What a thrill! And to those who didn't quite get into the zone, thanks for signing up anyway. Maybe we can try again next summer?

Bells

A Very Lacy Summer - Part 1

Autumn is upon us and so the time has come to reflect on the achievements of A Long, Lacy Summer.

The idea was born when I decided late in 2008 to devote much of my knitting time over the summer to lace, to trying my hand(s) most notably at the kind if light, airy lace I admired so much. Why not get others to join in, I thought. And join you did. The sidebar shows the list (which won't be up for much longer though).

Over the last couple of weeks, the reports have been coming in as people have been writing their own roundups of the work they've done over the last few months. I'll post links to the round up posts I've seen. They are most certainly worth checking out, if you fancy a spot of lace lust. People did gorgeous stuff. I'm going to do a couple of posts about this because otherwise, the round up will be huge!

So, to begin.

At Knit, Knitty, Knit Knit you can see the beautiful doilies and shawls that Disquina made. She came to the party late and more than made up for lost time. Note I said doilies. Plural. Here's one of them.

Nettie had her first ever go at fine lace and introduced us to her Gail. Not an easy knit for Nettie, but the result was worth it.

RoseRed ruminated on her efforts and concluded that she in fact produced more lace than she had realised, including this beautiful reversible lace scarf.

George came up with a beautiful December-January-February Baby Sweater (love the name!) in yarn she dyed herself

And Princess Pea created a stunning Laminara shawl that is the most beautiful shade of green.

One project I felt quite mushy about was Jen's Mini-Pi. It's so cute but was not without it's problems. Several participants struggled with the sudden appearance of big, gaping holes in their work, like Lynne.

Lynne proved herself to be a hard-core participant, with a lace deadline to make the most seasoned lace knitter break out in a cold sweat. She had to complete a Myrtle Leaf Shawl for her daughter's January wedding. With some false starts and pressure-induced mistakes, it was touch and go for a while there, including the appearance of every lace knitter's fear, a massive hole, but she got there.

As did Dianne who discovered a hole upon blocking.

Chilling stuff. Thankfully, everyone who had such a disaster, managed to sort the situation and lived to tell the tale.

Tomorrow, or maybe the next day, I'll cover a few more projects. What a colourful array of lace there is out there!

Bells

My friends give me purple flowers and orange tea

On the weekend, I was the fortunate recipient of a couple of knitted gifts. One of them, I knew was coming. The other, I had no idea.

First, to the known gift. At Christmas, Kylie gave me one half of a pair of Monkey Socks made from Cherry Tree Hill. The lone sock came with an IOU attached and on the weekend, the pair were united.



Love love love. The Cherry Tree Hill just works so well, I think, for a pattern such as this. And Monkey does lend itself rather nicely to be made from variegated colours. What knitter doesn't love being given something a fellow knitter has worked so hard on? Kylie, you're a gem. Thank you. Next time I'm running late with a pair of gift socks, I'll take inspiration from you and go with the IOU. Brilliant.

The second gift was passed quietly across the table at dinner by Shelley, aka Caffeine Fairy. I took the modest little pink box and lifted the lid, utterly curious to know what was inside.

It was, I soon saw, a lace shawl. Swallowtail Shawl. Here she is.



Can anyone guess what the yarn is? At dinner, all knitters present were stunned to learn what it was, and we consider ourselves pretty well versed in what's out there. It was even a yarn we all knew.

Here's a close up.



It's Zitron Trekking XXL. We were all surprised to see that it worked so beautifully. Not that we don't love Trekking. Not that we don't love shawls made out of sock yarn, but that it looked like this, just perfectly balanced, no striping or pooling, was a joy to behold.

And what was the reason for this gift? Is it my birthday? No. Just because. A knitted hug, Shelley called it. And like all the best hugs, it was given generously and kindly. I was speechless. Someone made made a shawl for me? Goodness. Really. I feel hugged. Well and truly.

Socks and a shawl. I'm not sure a knitter could really fare better. Thanks guys. Love you lots.

Bells

Things with holes in them

I'm taking a small break from my black Myrtle Leaf shawl and so I have started two other small items with holes in them to take its place.  Don't worry. There's nothing wrong with the shawl, I just need some variety instead of going hell for leather and exhausting myself on it.

The first is a doily. And not just any doily. It's a Hemlock Ring Doily, the pattern which was used as the basis for BrooklynTweed's Hemlock Ring Blanket. As we know, I've made that blanket twice. RoseRed said yesterday, 'you must be able to do the pattern with your eyes shut!'

Not quite.



It's a lot smaller than the 12ply wool I used for the blanket! I spent the better part of a sick day off work doing this. I got to round 37 and realised there was something wrong, checked the net for errata and sure enough, row 35 was the problem. I should have remembered that The Rainey sisters posted errata for this row some time ago. 

I stop every now and then and have the following conversation, or variations of it, with myself.

Me: I can't believe you're knitting a doily.
Me: I know. Weird. I hate doilies.
Me: So why are you knitting one?
Me: Well I'm not sure I REALLY hate them. There's certainly a place for doilies.
Me: Really? Then how come you don't have any?
Me: Because I haven't made any myself before and I think a handknit one would be so much nicer than a mass produced doily.
Me: Won't this look much the same?
Me: Maybe. But I'll have MADE it. That makes all the difference. It's such a cool thing to have made.

So we'll see what happens when it's done. Who says doilies can't be chic?

And in Personal Sock Club news, I have a new pair on the go. Blackrose socks from Knitty. 



The yarn was chosen late one night just before I fell asleep. The Pomatomus socks were done and the packages of Sock Club yarn were all lined up in the spare room. I remembered it was time to choose a new skein! 

From the spare room I called out to Sean, who would have probably preferred to be sleeping at that point, and asked him to choose a number between one and ten. The number he chose corresponded to the bag with the Socks that Rock in Ravenscroft. Oh joy! 

After some deliberation, I decided that Blackrose was the perfect pattern. I love gothing it up once in a while and it's gorgeous, lacy pattern that's quite easy to get into.

So you see, there's still plenty of lacy stuff, even when I'm not working on THE lace project.

Speaking of which, A Long Lacy Summer comes to an end on 28 February. I'll do a wrap up post shortly after that, so post your projects on your blogs, finished or otherwise, if you'd like to be included.

Bells

This ceremony only fills my heart

So I thought I should give an update on how I'm going with my Personal Sock Club, the one so many sock knitters around the world are participating in. 

As a recap - if you can't afford/missed out on/just didn't want to join in any of the proper sock clubs where a package shows up every now and then providing you with new sock yarn and a pattern, make your own sock club. Easy as pie. Of course, it helps to have a bit of a sock yarn stash, which I'm glad to say I do.

I selected my sock yarns for the year ahead some weeks ago, but didn't actually gather them together (I just searched my photos on Flickr!). Now, they're all ready to go and what fun it was to dig through the stash and savour the finding of each one because almost every yarn that was chosen made me think good thoughts and recalled happy memories.  



I bought the brown paper bags from Lincfraft and will soon have the packages lined up along a wall in the spare room, ready for random selection when the time is right. And yes, they will be sealed so there's no cheating. I won't be peaking into the bags before undertaking the random selection process!

When I had them all packaged up, I stood and thought about it all and marvelled at the collection.

There are some big names in those bags. Koigu. Wollmeise. Socks that Rock. Schaefer Anne. Just to name a few. I feel really lucky to have them. More than a few of these yarns were gifted to me by lovely people and though I have been saving many of them, I figured in the end that well, they can be replaced (isn't that half the fun? Choosing new yarn?) and, like the good crockery, it's not much use kept for occasions that might never arrive.

Now I think what's really going to work about this sock club gig is the impetus it provides to finish the current socks in progress. Just knowing that some of my most treasured yarns are in there, with wonderful scope and possibilities, is a great reason to push on when the current socks are starting to drag towards the end. 

Socks? That drag? Really? Oh yes. I give you my Pomatomus Socks.

They are technically a year old. I actually began them this time a year ago, got half way through one repeat and gave them up. In January this year, with the same  yarn, I went into battle. These socks are my nemesis, I swear.



I think the problem was starting the pattern when. for reasons I now can't comprehend, it seemed a bit beyond me. Several false starts rankled me. I could have chosen another pattern, but I don't like to be beaten by something that is effectively just a fancy kind of rib sock, when it comes down to it.



I think the results are worth it and I could even say I'm comfortably settled into the pattern now, and loving the yarn which is called Burnt Butter and was dyed by Donni. But I'll be glad when they're over. A week of almost exclusive Pom knitting has meant I am now on the foot of the second one.

Finally!

Today I've worked on the Myrtle Leaf shawl but it's night now and the yellow of these socks is much easier to deal with than the fine black of the shawl. Soon, they will be done.

Bells

Summer Colour

So when the mercury is rising rapidly outside, what does a blogger in search of a topic for today's post do?

She goes outside wearing new socks and sits in the sun to take photos. 



Insane!

But really, the garden is is so brown, so scorched by the blazing January sun, that I thought the colour of these socks might alleviate that, if only for a few moments.



I've been working on these for months. Since about November I think. They were socks that were picked up from time to time for commuting, for social occasions where knitting was required, for the late night brainless occupation of my hands. And I love them.

The yarn is Regia 4ply and the colourway is one of the series designed for Regia by that colour mad man, Kaffe Fasset. I was so thrilled with it and what I loved best was not just the appealing blend of reds, but the shocks of peacock blue that jumped out at me as the fabric grew.

And that's all there is to say really. I never really grow tired of plain socks and get anxious if I don't have a pair on the needles at all times to keep me going when something simple is needed.

To that end, I've got another pair going. I call them 'Go Everywhere Socks' because that's exactly what they'll do, both on the needles and off. Same pattern as above, the Yarn Harlot's Basic Sock Recipe from Knitting Rules, on 2.75mm needles.



And finally, just because I am still absolutely enthralled by it, here's another shot of the Myrtle Leaf shawl. Eight repeats in and it's all going well.



Progress will slow when I return to work on Monday but at least I've made some good headway. I managed 1-2 repeats a day and a little sad that will stop now.

Bells

Time Travel

As a child I longed to be able to travel through time. I'm not a sci-fi geek, just a lover of what as children we probably all called 'the olden days.'

I know there'd be no running hot water, no central heating and none of a whole bunch of other conveniences, but I can't escape the fantasy, even as an adult, that it would be so much fun to break through time and find out what it was like to be, say, a woman in Victorian England.

I have a shelf full of young adult and children's fiction about girls and boys who got to find a way into the past and even a few adult books on the same subject (hello, Diana Gabaldon!) which are nice little worlds I retreat into sometimes when I want to indulge the fantasy.

At other times, I'm just happy to read literature from the periods I love best, or lose myself in those gorgeous, wonderful literary adaptations (or costume drama as it's so often called now) that seem to take up a lot of space in my DVD collection. 

And what's even better is finding something to knit that is in some way contemporary. Lately, I've been reading Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford, which is full of treats for the knitter. Discussions of the procurement of shetland wool, the wonders of lace and the frequent mention of 'worsted work', which I initially thought was perhaps knitting in heavier weighted wool but is in fact a kind of needlework. 

To that end, I've spent the last day and a half sheltering from the heat by a fan, with cold drinks and my Myrtle Leaf shawl while watching a borrowed copy of the recent adaptation of Cranford. It's the story of a fictional small village in the north of England in the mid-19th century. It's a fabulous cast, bursting with names such as Dame Judi Dench, Dame Eileen Atkins and a whole host of faces you'll recognise if you've watched anything by the BBC in the last two decades. 

I'm disappointed to say the writers didn't include all the knitting in the adaptation, although there is a scene or two which focuses on a piece of lace which is reputed to be so fine because it was made by nuns (who have plenty of time to concentrate, given they don't speak much). I'm also disappointed to see very few knitted shawls. 

As an aside, I'm also listening to Thomas Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbevilles at the moment and it seems every other page contains someone throwing a knitted shawl over their shoulders. I sure hope the new adaptation is chock full of country women wearing knitted shawls when I finally get to see it.

Nevertheless, I have wrapped myself happily in this sumptuous depiction of Victorian rural life and worked on my shawl which is just about the most joyful lace experience I've had to date. I love it. Love it, love it, love it. But it's only good for day work. Can't manage the black lace in the evenings very well, so I'm making the most of it this week while I'm not at work.

Isn't she lovely, my Myrtle? I've had to tink back a few times but on the whole, I'm in a groove now and simply can't imagine anything I'd rather be knitting. Obsessed? Just a little. Happy? Oh yes! I'm not sure it gets better than this.



I took a break from the DVDs only for a moment to write this. Next, I'm heading into another Mrs Gaskell novel - Wives and Daughters. I've done my chores for the day. I'm free now to do as I like.

Cranford airs on ABC 1 soon, if you're local and that way inclined. I'll be watching it again.

Bells

Swatching the Moment

Thank you so very much for the care and concern and kindness in light of the loss our dear friend, Mick. Sean doesn't often hang out here checking the comments, but I know he did today. Very kind. Thank you. Now we just have to make it to Friday afternoon when we will really say goodbye - and Sean will give a eulogy. A big day for him.

***
Today there was post on Gidgetknits about knitting through the inauguration ceremony for President Obama (oh how magical that sounds!). Both RoseRed and I were suitably inspired and agreed to do the same tonight, watching the ceremony. I didn't end up rewatching it. I actually got up at 3:30am to watch it live - I wasn't sleeping well last night anyway and loved every moment.

But tonight as my 'tribute' if you like, I cast on a swatch for something new and watched the news and thought about the great and important change that's taken place. I truly think it began in some way with our own nation getting ride of John  Howard in 2007. It was a sign of things getting better.

So instead of Knitting the Moment, as Gidget and RoseRed did, I swatched the moment. 

Here is my 'mini' Myrtle leaf shawl from Victorian Lace Today. I think I'm in love. She's a little wonky, but that's what swatching is for, to figure out the wonk.



This weekend, I'm starting this shawl with Kylie when I and a few other knitterly people hang out at her house for the long weekend. We chose the black yarn last year and promised we'd knit it together, starting on the Australia Day long weekend. Now that I've swatched, I just can't wait.

Bells

Lace Wrangling

After yesterday's head to head with my personal demons of unreasonably high expectation, I took a deep breath, stepped back and let go of all the inner turmoil about which lace to knit.

It probably sounds a bit strange to be sitting here, not yet at the mid-point of my annual leave, suffering angst and turmoil over lace. You probably think I must be hard up for real concerns if all I've got to worry about is lace, but you know I figure it's a way to channel my angst and turmoil over a bunch of other issues in my life into something more productive. It seems to be a suitable outlet for all that other nasty stuff and in the end, I get a beautiful lace project to admire. 

Worth it? I think so.

It seems everyone, including my mum, was right. Let it go. So I did. And I chose something simpler. My first lace project for the year does not have to be the project made out of the yarn giving me the greatest high. No. It can just be something I like.

To that end, I present the Shaped Triangle Shawl from A Gathering of Lace. I like it.



I chose it in the end because even though I've done a few triangular shawls this year, I haven't done one at this gauge (it's done on much smaller needles than I've used for lace before) and with shaping in it. The part that sits across your shoulders is shaped, which I'm doing now and I'm curious to see how that works out.

Also, all the other triangle shawls I've done have used the same motif throughout. This one changes about half way through and has a border knitted on at the end. So there, not the same at all! In essence that was why I didn't choose this one to begin with, even though I liked it right away. I feared repetition and wanted to stretch myself. Poo to that. I'm on holidays. I can be repetitious if I bloody well want to! Screw you, personal demons!

The photo above doesn't demonstrate adequately what colour this yarn is. It's not blue, not strictly speaking. Check this photo out instead. 



It's lace weight yarn dyed by the supremely talented Donni. Isn't she clever? I saw it when I was at her house, high up on a shelf, and said I'd love to make something out of it. She sold it to me for a scandalously good price on the spot. Love your work, Donni! 

I'd say it's definitely more of a peacock blue than a regular blue. So again, I might have done a blue triangle shawl recently, but not a peacock blue one!

I seem to recall half way through the year wondering how many blue cardigans I could get away with doing in a year. See, I always say my favourite colour is red, but I knit so much blue. What's with that?

Bells

Great Expectations

For Christmas, Sean bought me two books I have long wanted to own. 

Victorian Lace Today

and A Gathering Of Lace.

These are both books I pick up again and again in bookshops and at friend's houses. I've gone over and over patterns on Ravlery, seeing how others have made them and I have dreamt of great and wonderful projects I want to make. 

Since opening them on Christmas morning to great surprise (I knew Victorian Lace Today was coming, but A Gathering of Lace was a surprise he thought of all by himself) I've devoured each of them, dreaming, planning, scheming.

Eventually, once all the busy stuff was over, I set about casting on. I could bore you with the process of arriving at a decision but I won't, except to say it was not easy. I was quite literally suffering from an excess of choice and each choice seemed loaded with, well, difficulty. 

I know, I know, how hard can it be? Pick a pattern, find some yarn, cast on. 

Wrong.

See, I really think I am my own worst enemy. I build things up to such an extent that the moment can't actually live up to the expectation. All through the Christmas knitting of November and December, I knew this moment was coming. I had the special yarn selected and I saw myself floating in a sea of quiet days and delicate stitches. 

So far, I have cast on and ripped out three items. Casting on itself is part of the problem. Casting on in lace, if you've not done it, isn't easy. I don't like it. To me they are flabby, clumsy pieces of work and I get upset. 

Rather amusingly, when I was googling for alternative methods last night, I came up with a post by Samurai Knitter Julie which was actually written for me, and I'd forgotten about it. Sean found that highly amusing - that I googled a technique and found a post written just for me.

Julie wrote about the long tail provisional cast on and what do you know, it works! 

Now if I could just get through a first repeat of the Curved Shawl with Diamond Edging without screwing it up, I'd be ok. 

Three hours work today and I have this.


It was going well until I hit the end of the first repeat and realised I'm seven stitches short. Also, more so than any other lace I've ever knit, it looks butt ugly. I know it'll probably look marvellous once it's blocked, by my God knitting lace is sometimes such an act of faith. You have to believe it'll be incredible because you sure as hell can't see it during the knitting.

So once again, my ability to blow what was a nice plan into The Big Moment has hindered rather than helped me. You'd think I'd learn.

Maybe I'll go knit something plain for a while.

Bells