Happy!

Here she is, in all her blocked glory:



The blocked dimensions are 70x28, which I hope is big enough. Here's a detail of the center:



and of the edging:



DP says it's my best work, and I'm inclined to believe him. That makes it an even better thing to give away. I've always been of the mind to give the good stuff to other people and keep the stuff with errors for myself...just like giving the best looking piece of pie to someone else and keeping the one with the crumbled crust :)

Knitting with the singles didn't seem to cause any problem. I didn't see any biasing in the finished piece, either before or after blocking. I spun the singles using the smallest whorl on my Ashford Traditional. I washed the singles and hung them to dry unweighted, then wound the yarn into center pull balls but used the outside strand to knit with.

I used 10 repeats of the alpine edging, and used the Danish tie shawl edging the full length of both long sides. For the center portion, I'd chain 9, sc 3 tog; for the edging on the edging, I'd chain 10, sc 2 tog. The alpine edging had a lot more longitudinal stretch than the starlight lace.

I'm very happy with this project!

I also decided to make my partner a pair of slippers:



(I'll get a better picture of them in their finished state, I promise.) I had the perfect yarn for her in my stash, but she wrote in her post that she didn't need any more yarn. I checked her queue, and she had Malabrigo loafers as one of the things she'd like to knit, so I knit her a pair. I got stitch gauge, but there was no row gauge, so they came out way too big. I fulled them in the washer and dryer, so I think they'll fit. I used some leather scraps to make leather patches for the soles so they'll be less slippery. I just have to sew them on, and I'll be done.

This was a very fun swap. It made me think hard about what I was going to make and do, rather than just going out and buying a bunch of stuff (as fun as that may be).

Okay, one more gratuitous shot of the shawl (I can't help it):

Almost done!

The edging is almost done! I may be able to finish it tonight and block it.

I'm very proud of this project. I planned, charted, spun, sampled and ripped countless times. I hope my partner likes it, but even if she doesn't, I feel I did a good job on it.

Since the final touches are the crochet edging from the Danish Tie Shawl pattern, I couldn't take it with me on the bus - it would take up too much room and it's too fiddly. I have to work til 6 today, so I won't get home to it until 6:30. My fingers are itching to get back to it.

I'm planning to string block it, since I don't have blocking wires and I don't think I'd like the edges to have pin points. Eeek!

In other news...who am I kidding - I have no other news!

Climbing through the mountains

So, charting out the alpine edging was horrible. I resorted to the notecard method, because I don't have the time to fiddle around. I'll chart it out when I finish the project.

I was using Precious Metals, but I realized that the tencel was too shiny against the matte body of the shawl. I ripped out several repeats, then started up with some Seacoast Handpainted in the "silver and gold" colorway. I'd always planned to make something LotR-esque with it, so this fit the bill. Once I did a few repeats of the edging, I decided that I'd need to do a few body rows in the edging color to make the transition less jarring. Rip-rip again, then back to the body, and then finally to the edging. I finished the edging on one side last night, and I'm starting the other side today. Hopefully, I'll get some knitting in during the playoff games.

I'm so excited to give this shawl to my swap partner. I hope she likes it...

Oh no!

I discovered I hadn't charted out the alpine edging yet...and it's a doozy. I may take tonight to chart it, while watching the game. Eeek!

On the bright side, the stitch counts should work out with only minimal fiddling.

I'm starting the second half tonight/tomorrow, and I've wound the yarn for the edging. I really like it; it's the Precious Metals colorway from the Unique Sheep. If I had more money, I'd join the LotR club again this year, but I can't do it. If there had been fewer errors, maybe.

I just did a ton of shoveling, which I'm counting as my workout for today...it was aerobic!

Starting 2010

I'm working on my swap project, but it's been going slowly because I've had no time to work on it! I keep telling myself that I finished a sweater in a week, so I should be able to do this :) I'm calling it the White Lady of Rohan. If you've read the Lord of the Rings, it will make sense, otherwise it probably won't :) Not that I think my swap partner is reading this, but if she wants to be surprised, she should stop reading now.
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Now, for the details. I'm making a handspun/millspun rectangular lace shawl: handspun cream center and millspun golden edges. I spun the cream alpaca/cormo/silk singles for the body of the shawl as a true laceweight with some slubs. I wasn't aiming for perfection but for a rustic look.

I chose the starlight lace from BW's 2nd treasury of lace patterns and charted it out. I disliked the chart, so I made the 16 row pattern into notecards on a ring that I can flip to stay on the correct row.

I cast on 125 provisionally with US 6 needles because my plan is to knit up half the yarn in one direction and the other half in the other direction. Once both sides are knit up, I'm going to add the alpine lace edging, also from BW's 2nd treasury :) If I have enough yarn, my scheme is to add the crochet edging from the Danish wrap shawls to the long edges, but I may not have enough yarn to actually do that.

This is based on various descriptions and passages about Eowyn from LotR:

-But the helm of her secrecy had fallen from her, and her bright hair, released from its bonds, gleamed with pale gold upon her shoulders...

-They were clad in warm raiment and heavy cloaks, and over all the Lady Éowyn wore a great blue mantle of the colour of deep summer-night, and it was set with silver stars about hem and throat... But she now shivered beneath the starry mantle...

Of course, my shawl will not be the blue of deep summer's night...though I've been looking for a yarn of that color for years. My partner likes gold, cream and pale blue. Rather than make a pale blue shawl, I've decided to go with cream, which is starry in my opinion. I've gotten her some pale blue sodalite stitch markers that I think she'll like.

Truly, I'll post pics as soon as I can, but I left our camera at my mom's house when we came back from Christmas so I'm currently high and dry. I'd use my sister's camera, but she's at her in-laws this week. Fie!

I have high hopes for this pattern...at least, I hope my partner likes it. She could always rip it for the yarn if she didn't like the pattern at any rate. The yarn is so nice to knit with: it just slides through my fingers, and the fabric it knits to is soft and elastic.

Blue moon!

It's a blue moon tonight - go look!

Argh!

Almost a month between posts. Sigh.

I decided on Tuesday that I wanted to make my mom a sweater for Christmas. She wanted the Leavened Raglan in white, in a silk/wool blend. I bought 20 balls of Plymouth Royal Silk Merino, now discontinued, to make it.

Well, I finished both sleeves and the front. I have 318 grams left to make the back of the sweater, and the front weighs 302 grams. I think it will work! I'm on pins and needles here, because I'll need to make the collar after I assemble the thing, and I'll need to seam it up. I'm going to use another yarn for the seaming, so I may have just enough to get this thing done. Eeek!

I haven't started my swap project yet; I really need to get through Christmas before I can do another big project. I did order something from Etsy for the package, and it came. I can't post about it until I mail it, but it's just lovely.

The wedding and the Hawaii trip were great, but the trip was too short. Got there Thursday evening, left Monday afternoon. Sigh. I'd love to go back - the weather is so nice, and there are no horrible bugs!