Warmth in the North

McCafferty

    This shawl is my new love.  It's warm, light, airy and so easy to wear.  I think it's the yarn, handspun by the lovely Jolene of Jobo Designs, that makes it so perfect.  The pattern is mostly garter stitch and Jolene's yarn really make the shawl special as opposed to plain.

    The edging took forever and a day but that's entirely my fault as I loath knitting on edging.  It just seems to take eons, while all the turning back and forth drives me nuts.  All that aside I do think it's rather pretty and the pattern was really easy to follow, even for the short row bits.

    I really, truly love the plums and purples running through the shawl.  They're so rich and remind me harvests and autumn rain showers, when the sky quickly gets dark in the mid afternoon.  McCafferty is my second entry into Celebrate Color for the month, it's simple and won't win any awards but for me it's what autumn is all about, rustic, warm and rich.

pfft

    All my knitting is in this exact state.  Almost done with some made up problem keeping me from spending a bit of time finishing it off.  At the moment I despise all the turning required to knit on this lace boarder and have gone on strike.  Hopefully my sanity will return and I'll get back to knitting because I really, really want to wear this.  Autumn is coming and my neck is going to be cold soon!

a work in progress

    I thought I should spice up my posts with some unfinished business.  It feels a little bit fake to keep posting everything from the last month without acknowledging that things take time.  So today I bring you a tiny bit of knitting that's barely started.  I'd really like to finish it before the weekend but that is never going to happen may be overly ambitious. 

    Does everyone know about My Sewing Circle?  It's a Ravelry-esque site for sewers of all verities and although it's still in the beginning stages may have potential.  The pattern area needs beefing up but like all user generated content sites that takes time. I've got no idea how to find people but I'm marycatharine if you're already a member or decide to join.

percy shawl

    This shawl was finished towards the end of February and I've got to admit that I don't really like it.  There's nothing particular that I can put my finger on, all the stitches are in place and I still love the yarn, I think it's just a residual dislike of the pattern.  My problems with the pattern are probably unjustified and fulled by confusion.  I usually find lace knitting to be a fairly organic process, one pattern moving into another creating a finished piece that flows.

    For some reason I couldn't get into the groove with this shawl and I think a little part of that has to do with the transitions from one lace pattern to the next.  Well maybe lack of transition would be a better way of putting it.  Looking at the finished shawl the different patterns don't seem to relate well to one another and this made it really hard for me to read my knitting during those transitions.  It's strange to find out how much your brain struggles when things don't fit an established pattern.

just in case...

pattern ~ Percy Shawl by Sanne Kalkman (rav link)

yarn ~ Madelintosh Tosh Lace in Celadon, 0.5 skein

needles ~ 3.25 mm (US3)

a month of crafting

    I didn't intend to disappear again but one night I broke my computer and without it I was cut off from the internet.  It took me a long time to get around to getting a new laptop since I waited until I really missed having one.  Strangely it took quite a bit longer than I'd though for me to get frustrated with having no access to the internet.  However with such a long break my google reader is overflowing but I'm slowly reading everything and trying to comment. 

    Although I couldn't document anything I have been working away with yarn and fabric.  I tried to collect everything for a quick picture but didn't manage to find it all.  A few long standing projects are finished but almost everything was small and simple.  I'll bore you with the particulars later as I'd better get back to cleaning out my in-box and reading your blogs.

midwinter knitting

celaeno

    This shawl was so easy and simple to knit that I'm not really sure what to say about it.  Garter stitch that slips into beaded lace without any particularly tricky elements is relaxing to knit.  I mentioned before that I wasn't going to put on the uncharted beads and I don't miss them.  I think they would have been tedious as well as time consuming.

    The one change that I made, other than the beading, was to leave off the last two rows.  I wasn't at home and had begun to run out of beads on the second last beaded row.  If I wanted to finish everything according to the pattern it would have meant sitting around without anything to do for a while.  My compulsion to knit took over and I ended up casting off.

    Celaeno is shaped like a crescent as opposed to the more common triangle.   Despite the fact that the shawl only used one skein of yarn it ends up having long "wings" that will help hold it in place when worn.  I blocked mine into the gentle curve that it fell into naturally.

just in case...

pattern ~ Celaeno by Rosemary (Romi)  Hill (rav link)

yarn ~ Springtree Road merino/nylon sock, 1 skein in Pear

needles ~ 3.75mm (US 5)

moving along

    I've made it past the lonely garter stitch section of the pattern and finally hit the lace.  Although I love the look of garter stitch and it's rustic simplicity, it's one of my least favorite things to knit.  When the contest is stockinette vs. garter stitch, stockinette will win every time.  It takes forever and bores me to tears  but I'll continue to sacrifice for my art - ha.

the longest list

    

    I hope those of you experiencing snowmageddon are alright, surprisingly enough we're having a chinook so things are warm and sunny up here.  I'm off today and have a huge list of things that need to get done.  Considering the lack of food around here grocery shopping should be first instead I'm concentrating on finishing up some crafty projects.  The purple shawl is soaking on it's way to being blocked and I'm working on the last chart of the little blue shawl. 

    

    All this fabric needs to turn into the backing for two lap quilts before I go to bed. The green fabric hasn't even seen an iron so I'm starting at the very beginning. The blue looks like it might be finished, unfortunately it needs to be ripped out because the seems are all wrong.  At least I know the dimensions are right so it should be a simple fix.  I'm a little bit nervous that everything will not be finished in time so I'll be chaining myself to the sewing machine.  

slow going

    I'm making progress on Damask but starting at the bottom and working up does seem to take longer.  Maybe it's the unfamiliar direction but I've got no idea what stage of the shawl I'm on.  Following the pattern is easy enough, it's figuring out how much further I have to knit that's confusing. 

    That might sound like a complaint but I'm finding the uncertainty refreshing.  The mystery of what comes next has long been gone for me when knitting a center out shawl.  There's nothing wrong with that and knitting on auto-pilot is really nice so I tend to stick with the familiar.  On the other hand learning the ins and outs of this type of shawl construction is interesting.  I'm sure more patterns like this one will find their way into my queue sooner or later.