In Dwimordene, in Lorien...

Now that I'm mailing the shawl off to my partner, I can finally post pictures about it! On the off chance she looks at this post, she should look away unless she wants spoilers.

So, the basis of the pattern was various descriptions of Lothlorien. I chose Dwimordene as the name because it's really a riff on Lorien from a human's point of view, and Dwimordene is what the Rohirrim call Lothlorien.

The leaves are easy - forest=leaves - but I wanted to include flowers as well. We read about Aragorn standing on a hill, holding flowers and remembering his meeting with Arwen, and Sam's daughter is named after a flower that grows only in Lorien. The Rohirrim also have special flowers that grow on the graves of their kings. I finished off with arrowhead lace because of Galadriel's words: "But do not think that only by singing amid the trees, nor even by the slender arrows of elven-bows, is this land of Lothlórien maintained and defended..." The wave edging was easy - we read about the Silverlode, Celebrant, Nimrodel and even Galadriel's fountain - so water had to be included.

I started with a miniature leaf motif in the center. I did a provisional cast on, then knit 12 repeats of the leaf motif up. From there, I transitioned to English Mesh, which works on the same amount of stitches and rows, and even has a row in common. This made making a transitional section a lot easier. I did 11 repeats of the mesh, which I consider to be flowery. From there, I ended with 2 repeats of the smallest arrowhead lace motif I could find. I then picked up my provisional cast on and knit the same repeats/motifs in the opposite direction. After that, I did not bind off, but cast on 13 stitches invisibly and began the wave edging. I didn't really miter the corners, but I did do multiple joins (2, 2, 3, 2, 2) to try to give the corners more ease and create a bit of a swirling effect. I picked up 2 stitches for every 3 rows down the long sides of the stole and joined the edging by knitting one picked up stitch every wrong side row, then starting out with a k2tog for the join. At the end of the last row, I grafted the live stitches to the invisibly cast on ones that I'd done at the beginning.

All in all, I'm happy with it. I could have blocked it out longer instead of wider, but what I did seems to look right. It would also be interesting to knit this in a heavier weight of yarn as a blanket or just a thick shawl. I might even convert it to a triangle shawl...I have some ideas floating around, but I need to take a bit of shawl/stole break :)

Now for the pictures:







And the beauty shot:



I love it when a plan comes together.

Year of the sweater?

So, I'm working on two sock monkeys for DP's sister's kids and spinning yarn for my Lembas and Lace partner, and Friday I decided to cast on for a short sleeved cardigan for myself. It's the Zoe Cardi and I've already finished the yoke. Now it's just 15 inches of body :) I'm using Cascade Pima Silk in a dark grey color. I bought it a couple of years ago for some project that I can't even remember, and I've tried to make various things with it, but nothing ever really stuck. I love its hand; it's soft and supple.

I realized that this will be the 5th sweater I've made this year - 2 Liesls, my Olympics v-neck, Dunkle's cardi, and now this. For a person who doesn't make sweaters, I'm making a lot!

On that note, I've finished Dunkle's cardi but still need to sew buttons on. I have some buttons that DP chose, but I'm not sure they're right - they may be too bright. DP also told me that he'd try to find an infusion for my button box, which would be wonderful. I'm getting low on fun buttons.

I'm spinning up the fiber for the L&L swap; I have 6 spindles spun up, and I need about 18 more. I'm using my charkha - it's the first time I've used it for a large scale project. It's definitely a different way to spin, especially since I'm used to spinning with the fiber supply in my right hand and the charkha pretty much requires you to spin with the fiber in your left hand. You need a very soft touch.

I also got some Stansborough and some Gotland from International Fleeces. I can't recommend them enough! Beautiful fibers, beautiful packaging and super fast shipping. The Stansborough is the fiber the cloaks were spun from in the LotR movies, and while I have gripes with the movies, I did like the cloaks :) Stansboroughs were bred down from Gotlands, I think, and so I also got some Gotland. I bought a little Jacob because I've never spun it, and when the fibers all got here, I realized they all go together! I have an idea for a shawl using all of them...but it will have to wait until I get this other fiber spun and plied!

So I started the weekend with one project on the needles and one on the spindle, and ended with double that. Not bad for a weekend's work ;)

Updates - two steps forward, one back

I finally uploaded pics of DP's purple and orange socks. I give you the socks of Dr. Caligari:



I'm so glad they're done! Schaefer Anne is the best yarn for socks, but having to knit it on such small needles makes me insane. It's DP's fave though, so I'll be knitting several more pairs of it, I'm sure :)

I don't have a good picture of the waterfall socks, since I gave them to my sister before I had a photo shoot. But to prove they really existed:



And cuff detail:



I love the feel of STR mediumweight for socks - but I enjoy thick, cushy socks. For the next version of those, I think I'm going to go with STR lightweight, if I have an oceany color.

And here's a process shot of the Hearts cardigan, or Dunkle's cardi, as it will now be called:



It's the only shot I have, since I ripped the entire thing out yesterday. I was 10 centimeters into the stockinette section when I finally decided that my gauge was just too far off. I'm now two repeats into the yoke - sigh. The pattern is neat, and I don't mind knitting it again, but I could do with the instructions being a bit clearer. I think that's an issue when a pattern is in translation, just like when a book is in translation.

And finally, I was playing around with hairstyles and copied this from an LotR hair how-to:



It's Eowyn's hairstyle from Theoden's funeral. I don't prefer the movies, and I don't particularly like the funeral, but someone on Ravelry posted the style, so I had to try it. I think it would be even easier if I had my long hair, though I don't know if I could handle my four foot hair in this weather!

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...

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.

Finito

One wood elf sock down, one to go!



I love the feel of this sock - the cedar sockitechture seems to fit well, and it's relatively painless to execute (if you don't keep miscounting!). Here's a pic of the yarn before I had my way with it:



The yarn felt great, very smooth, but it was as splitty as the dickens. Very irritating when doing k3tog.

Now I just have to figure out how I want to make the second sock - identical twin, sibling or cousin?