22 Purple Silk Leaves – FO

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Aug 102012
 

At the end of May I started this little shawl.  I won the pattern from the Yarniacs (thanks ladies!) and used some silk lace weight yarn that I dyed last summer.

Due to the (yes, I’ll mention it again) shoulder problem, I stopped knitting it in June and just now picked it up again to finish it.  I only had 10 rows to go to finish it up.

The pattern is 22 Leaves (Ravelry link) by Finnish designer Lankakomero.  She has a lot of lovely shawl designs.

Now, for the first time in years, I have no knitting projects on the needles!  Oh no!

I am making some worsted weight swatches, planning for a sweater pattern.  Or, rather, a series of sweater patterns.  Yes, I have something in mind in answer to the blog post of two weeks ago.

Lace for Mom

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Jun 292012
 

My Mom’s birthday is in January and I’m usually kind of late getting her present to her.  This year was no exception.  I started knitting this shawl before her birthday, but I didn’t finish it until April and didn’t give it to her until we visited in June.  She doesn’t seem to mind. :-)

This is Echo Flower Shawl, a free pattern from Jenny Johnen, available here on Ravelry.  I didn’t make any modifications at all – knit as the pattern was written.  This has been on my to-do list forever and I can’t think of a better reason to knit it than for my mom’s birthday.

The yarn is Madelinetosh (no surprise there), lace weight (100% merino wool) in color Posy.

The shawl is knit from the small square in the center top back, and increases into a triangle.  The main flower section is pretty quick to knit and looks more complicated than it really is.  I just love this pattern and the lovely flower design!

The lower section, with all the nupps (the little bumps or bobbles) was slow going.  I’m not a nupp expert.  I have to use a very small crochet hook on the purl side to work them off, which is a slow method but it works well for me.  It’s the only way I can keep from dropping loops.

I really enjoyed knitting this shawl and would definitely make it again.  I think next time I’ll make it a little bit bigger.  The pattern says to make 13 flower repeats before starting the border.  Next time I’ll do 16.  I used 66% of the skein of yarn for this shawl and I think I can still manage 16 repeats with 1 full skein.  Have some Tart color that is just waiting to become this shawl.

You can check out my project page here on Ravelry.

Lace Progress

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May 302012
 

Above is my progress on the 22 Leaves shawl.  From here on out I have to pay even closer attention to detail as it’s nothing but leaves from here on out.

While I really like the look of the finished shawl, and I’m enjoying the result, I would not recommend this pattern to a beginning lace knitter.  So far I haven’t found any mistakes at all.  I don’t think I will find any either – the charts are correct.  My issues with the pattern have more to do with logical layout and user friendliness.

If you are a knitter you know that every country, and even within the same country, you will find different symbols for the same stitches.  It’s only a little annoying because once you start knitting a pattern you quickly remember what symbol means what.  But in this day and age you would think there would be more work towards standardization.  One reason I think Japanese patterns are works of art in themselves is because they are so beautifully consistent.  Charts always use the same symbols and everything, and I mean everything, is charted.  I have a couple of Japanese knitting books, all in Japanese, but I can still figure them out and make the patterns because everything is charted.  Not just the stitch patterns, but the entire sweater!  Fabulous.

This 22 Leaves pattern uses some symbols I haven’t seen anywhere else.  It’s not a problem, it’s just that I don’t understand why.

I had to read the pattern several times to understand where to start the instructions.  It starts out talking about 22 Leaves and all of a sudden it begins instructions, including charts, for a larger version, and then at the end you find the charts for the 22 leaf version.  Not user friendly!  She should have given all the information for one size in the first section, and then put the alternate larger version at the end.

But I’m just nitpicking.

Maybe it’s just how I feel right at this moment.  I think today is the last day for poor old Bas the Cat.  He’s been laying under a bush in the back garden all day.  He went there after he peed in his own bed this morning.  Neither action is normal.  Not at all.  More news tomorrow.

Lucky Me

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May 182012
 

I like podcasts.  I listen to a number of podcasts regularly, like Planet Money and Fresh Air and especially Cast-On by Brenda Dayne.  I learn a lot listening to NPR and frankly I could listen to Brenda’s voice all day.  The fact that she talks about knitting is a real bonus.

I’ve just found a new knitting podcast that I like so much that I’m going to be a regular listener.  It’s “Yarniacs” by Gayle and Sharlene (GayleyWayley and KnitterNinjaShar on Ravelry).  They talk about knitting.  How can people talk about knitting for an entire hour?  Easy.  Really.  I could talk about my knitting for an hour every few weeks.  Easy. If you aren’t a knitter you might find it strange that knitters like to listen to complete strangers talk about their knitting.  But we do.  We are nothing if not devoted to our craft.

Anyway, I joined the Yarniacs group on Ravelry and earlier in the week Gayle decided to have a pattern giveaway based on a random drawing.  I was the lucky member number (377) drawn!  I got a free pattern from the Ravelry database.  YEA!

Here’s the pattern that I chose:

image by © Lankakomero

image by © Lankakomero

It’s called 22 leaves and here it is on Ravelry.  I plan to make it using some 100% silk lace weight yarn that I dyed myself.  I bought this yarn at a close out discount and dyed it last summer with some acid dye I bought from Dharma Trading.  The skeins are not a 100% perfect match but I’m not sure I’ll need more than one skein to make this shawlette anyway.  I think it will be a nice summer project.

Go check out out the Yarniacs podcast.  Even if you don’t win anything, you’ll get a free hour of entertainment!