FO: Enchanted Wood

Just to prove that I actually have knitted a lace shawl, may I present Enchanted Wood (also know as Hell Freezes Over).

I did this as part of a Unique Sheep KAL in February. I did post blocking shots back then, but never got around to the official FO post.

The yarn is from the Unique Sheep, in what they call a "gradience" colorway, which is a series of specially dyed skeins that progress from on color to another as you move from skein to skein. I like the idea, but it works better in some colorways than others, and the progression is occasionally a little more abrupt than I would like. I suppose that's the nature of hand dyeing. (It didn't stop me from ordering another gradience colorway for their next KAL...which I dropped out of during the eternal and horrific cast on. But that's another story.)

This was also my first (and only) attempt at knitting with beads, and I loved it!

I haven't had an opportunity to wear this yet, but it does grace Bertha (the dress form) in my craft room, so I get to enjoy it every day anyway.

It remains to be seen whether I will (successfully) tackle another lace shawl, but at least I can prove I knitted one once!

FO: Knitting Sunshine

I've been remiss, as usual, in blogging my FOs. I had to dig through the blog archives to figure out when I started this. This is the one I named Knitting Sunshine. I knitted it back in April and I've even worn it in public, but this is its official blog debut.

Pattern: Multnomah. This is a free pattern written for one skein of sock yarn. I used 630 yards of dk weight yarn and added a few rows.

Yarn: British Mohair Kidd Silk. Absolutely LOVE this yarn! So soft and slightly fuzzy, and the most gorgeous shade of gold.

Needles: Knit Picks Options circs, size 5.

Mods: Just added a few repeats of the garter pattern to use up my yarn and adjusted the lace pattern for the edging accordingly.

Thoughts: A wonderful, warm shawl pattern. I would happily make this again and again, if I were the sort to repeat patterns. The dk weight yarn made a thick, weighty shawl, due to all the garter, and the fact that I used fairly small needles for the yarn gauge.

Hear That?

That's the sound of the Knitting Goddess laughing.

This is where I ran out of yarn on the bind off. $#%&!

Knitting Sunshine

Several months ago, I bought some lovely hand dyed British Mohair Kidd Silk from an online clearance sale, intending to use it for a warm, fuzzy shawl. A few days ago, I came across it while cataloging the stash and was seized with the urge to cast it on.

So I did.

This is Multnomah, a free, simple shawl pattern. It's mostly garter stitch, with a feather and fan border. Super simple pattern, and perfect for a beautiful yarn that just begs to take center stage--perfect for this yarn. Knitting with it is exactly the way I imagine knitting sunshine would feel. It's incredibly soft and has a gorgeous sheen from the silk content, and the color is an absolutely perfect golden yellow. [I don't wear yellow. Ever. I don't own a single item of yellow clothing. But I loved this color on sight and I love it more now. I will wear it, even if the brilliant yellow next to my red hair blinds everyone who looks in my general direction.]

The pattern is written for a single skein of sock yarn and makes a pretty small shawl. This yarn is a dk weight (I'd actually call it light worsted) and I have two 100 gram skeins of it, so I'm working it on larger needles and expect to get a medium sized shawl out of it. The combination of warm, fuzzy yarn and lots of garter stitch means this will be a very warm shawl, which is great, since I'm always cold. I anticipate wearing it over a little black dress for going out in the evening. (Yes, I do own several little black dresses and wear them out regularly. I'm always looking for things to put over them to keep from freezing. I'm hoping to avoid a repeat of my friend's wedding, when I had to borrow my mom's polar fleece jacket to wear at dinner in the refrigerated dining room. Not that it wasn't a lovely jacket, but it didn't go so well with my floor length formal gown.)

This is knitting up quite quickly, helped along by the fact that the feel of this yarn slipping through my fingers is a pleasure akin to eating dark chocolate while sipping red wine in a hot bath.

Hmmm. Where did I hide those Godivas?

As Promised...

...here are blocking pics of The Enchanted Wood shawl!


We got home last night. After unpacking, doing laundry, reorganizing the storage room so we could get in to put away the ski equipment, and getting all the gear and clothing put away, I took a few minutes to soak and block this. [I sometimes read about people spending hours blocking lace, which leads me to believe I am less than particular about my blocking, because it never takes me more than a few minutes. But I digress.]

The pictures are, as usual, not great. The guest room, where I do my blocking, has poor lighting, and it's a grey day. That will soon change (the lighting, not the day, but more about that in another post), but for the time being, this is the best I could do.

Modeled pics coming soon!

Enchanted Wood Spoiler

Just to prove that I am, in fact, knitting a lace shawl--successfully!--here are some crummy progress pictures. I took them indoors, at night, with my point and shoot, and this is the best I could manage. You'll have to take my word for it that the yarn and beads are so much prettier than this in person.

I'm about halfway through the second clue and working on my second skein of gradience dyed yarn. These pictures don't show the gradual color change that is starting to happen. This is a much better picture of the yarn:

I started with the blue yarn on the far right and I'm working toward the green on the left. The structure of this shawl is odd (to me). The cast on consists of the two short legs of the triangle (which will become the bottom of the shawl), and steady decreasing at both the middle and the edges draws the edges steadily together to create a triangle as the work progresses upward toward the long, straight edge at the top.

Here you can mostly see the beads. It's not nearly as difficult as I imagined to knit with beads, but it is time-consuming. It's also really, really fun! They're like sparkly little stitch markers you don't take out.

I definitely foresee more beads in my future...and maybe even some more lace, too.

Counting to Ten

I started winding the yarn for Enchanted Wood last night, but I couldn't resist jumping ahead to the cast on. Which took three hours. 375 stitches, double-stranded lace cast on, working with two ends of the ball and using beads. None of these things caused me any trouble. So why did it take three hours? Apparently I need to return to kindergarten for a little brush up of my counting skills. The cast on was mostly just "cast on ten, place bead, repeat." Alas, mine was more like, "Cast on ten, place bead, cast on...wait, how many was that? Is this bead before or after that stitch? Uh, oh. I must have messed up back here. Rip, rip, rip. Cast on ten, place bead, cast on ten, place bead, cast on ten...why don't I have the right number of stitches? Let's see...ten...nine...or is that ten? Where is this bead supposed to be? Is that one stitch or two? Damn it! Where are my glasses?" And so on and so forth. But I did get the cast on finished and--wisely, I think--stopped there. I'm hoping I've gotten the stupids out of my system now and the rest of this will just jump off my needles. Hey, a girl can dream, right?

Let the Madness Begin!

The yarn for the Enchanted Wood mystery shawl KAL just arrived in my mailbox--only four days from England!--and it is just lovely. I'm so excited to get started on this. I'm also more than a little worried that all I'm going to make with this beautiful yarn is a huge mess. I've been reading the threads about this on Rav, and I don't even understand the questions, much less the answers. I've decided to just take it in little baby steps. My goal for this evening is to get the yarn wound. If prior experience holds true, this will be more than enough to deal with.

Anyone else working on this? I could use a little company.