After several false starts with different yarns and needles, I've finally finished my Swallowtail Shawl. The pattern is from Interweave Knits, Fall '06, by Evelyn A. Clark. I found the pattern pretty simple-there were three sections and none of the sections went on so long that I got bored. It was rather sock-like in that regard. I used Handmaiden Sea Silk that I bought on vacation last year, in colorway Glacier, on size 3 Addi Turbo Lace circular needles. Thanks to my dear friend Cyd's special prayers and offerings to Yarnovera, Goddess of Lace Knitting, I ended up with enough yarn. Heck, I shouldn't have been worried-I could have gone on for miles and miles!

I love this yarn and I can't wait to find projects to suit the two other skeins that I have sitting in stash. While I do love the yarn itself, I am kind of disappointed at how the handpainted yarn conflicts with the lace pattern-you can't see the nupps that I worked so hard on all that well. At any rate, I still think it's pretty, and I look forward to wearing it with a coordinating shirt that I have. It will make a nice scarflet. I couldn't wait to take photos of it so I did so while it was still blocking. They're kind of crap pictures because it was so early in the morning, but you can get the general idea. I'll try and get some better snaps outside in natural light soon.

The whole shawl on blocking wires. The points aren't as pointy as they would be with a stretchier fiber like wool.




A closeup view that kind of shows all three sections. Would be a better photo in better light.

Specs:
• Hanging Garden Lace Stole, pattern by Sivia Harding.
• Jaggerspun Zephyr Wool/Silk, Evergreen, size 3 Addi Turbo Lace needles
• Start date: 9/9/2006
• Completed: 9/8/2007

The whole shawl, on a chair

Draped against the window

Extreme closeup through the window

Me with the stole. Can't wait until the weather gets colder!

I suppose I should talk about my Knitting Scout Badges at left. I'm most proud of the first one-MacGyver Level II-clever use of a knitting tool in a non-knitting scenario.

Picture it-I'm home by myself, and I've just gotten out of the shower. I want to return to my bedroom--my glasses are in there, and I want to get dressed! Betoweled and blind, I stumble toward the bedroom door, but alas, the doorstop has come off behind the bedroom door. When the doorknob hit the wall, the button lock popped in and the door slammed shut behind me, locking me out. Dripping a trail of tiny puddles behind me, I make my way downstairs to my needle case and extract my great grandmother's size 2 casein needle. I shove it in the little hole in the doorknob and pop the lock, et voila! Open Sesame!

The Proselytizing Badge is for getting my boss at work hooked on knitting, and then enabling her with sock yarn. Do I get bonus points for suggesting that she use the leftover yarn from her first sock to knit a scarf for the ceramic turkey on her desk?

The Unnecessary Objects badge. Ahh, my first sweater. My gauge was fine at first but upon blocking it grew, and grew, and grew...unnecessary for me, yes, but would have made a bang-up trunk warmer for Snuffalupagus.

And the Knitting While Drunk badge, well...let's just say that the combination of red wine and cones of laceweight make for a frustrating, rather than soothing, evening.

Welp, my beloved got 3 of his wisdom teeth extracted on Friday morning, and knitting pulled me through the anxiety. He's been an excellent patient, dealing with everything like an absolute champ, but it has been a quiet and uneventful holiday weekend. I'm lazy, so I'm going to put up pictures of some of the stuff I've been up to (stuff besides running up and down stairs with glasses full of varying flavors of Carnation Instant Breakfast):

I finished up a pair of matching mismatched baby cable rib socks. I didn't really follow a pattern, I just "wung" it. I used Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Mineshaft colorway.







I also started on a new pair of socks. For this one, I'm using Tofutsies sock yarn, which is made out of soy and sea shell by-product. The pattern is from Southwest Trading Company (the Tofutsies yarn manufacturer) and called Tidal Wave Socks. I suck at holding the camera still:






I did a little cooking. I made pasta sauce for next week using jarred Newman's Marinara, and I doctored it up with farm share leeks, carrots, and farm share kale and peas.







I also made a miniature squash casserole with the farm share yellow squash.





Then, desperate times called for desperate measures. Daniel hadn't eaten anything solid since Friday, so I pulled out the big guns:





Apparently, these were worth chewing.

Hanging Garden Stole by Sivia Harding

Seven Repeats completed!
Yarn Used: Jaggerspun Zephyr, pine green

Needles Used: Plymouth Bamboo, size 3









I haven't been working much on this one, so I took a picture of it all spread out in hopes it would motivate me to see how far I have come on it. Of course, it looks like utter shite, as all unblocked lace does.



Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A Clark from Interweave Knits Fall 2006



Five out of fourteen Budding Lace repeats completed.

Yarn Used: Knitpicks Shadow in the Jewels colorway

Needles used: New Addi Turbo Lace needles, size 3









This is a fun little knit. I can't wait until I get to the Lily of the Valley border which contains the dreaded p5tog!

Child's First Sock in Shell Pattern from Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush



Yarn used: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, Gold Hill colorway

Needles Used: Addi Turbos, size 1







I'm not too fond of how the colors came out, but they're done, so I'm keepin' 'em. I loved this pattern. It was easy enough to memorize, but not easy enough to be mindless.



Jeannie Townsend's Leaf Lace socks from Townsend Socks Knitalong

Yarn used: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, Baltic Sea colorway

Needles Used: Addi Turbos, size 1







I'm giving these to my mom for a birthday present, because her "motif" is leaves. I think she will like the greens and browns together. Luckily she and I have the same sized feet, so I could knit them in secret, but at the same time be sure that they would fit! The kitties in the background of this picture are chasing a laser pointer.

Cascade Fixation
98.3% Cotton/1.7% Spandex
Size 4 Susan Bates aluminum needles inherited from my Mamoo gave the gauge listed on the label.

I'm wild about this yarn and its performance, but I think I would choose a solid colorway if I were going to use it for a summer sweater. Looks like there are plenty of solids to choose from.

While knitting with this yarn, I didn't have to worry about splitting, and it was as if my "scooping" needle (I knit continental) always hit in just the right spot. The knitted fabric doesn't have much weight or heft to it like many cottons I've tried to knit with before. Although the end fabric feels like cotton, the spandex makes the process of knitting it much less painful. I like that the method used to twist the yarn created a slightly bumpy, textured surface. I washed the swatch in the washer with Woolite on the hand wash cycle, and dried it partially in the dryer in a lingerie bag. Then I laid it out to dry, and I must admit I didn't make certain that all the edges were perfectly straight. I was also glad to see that the washing and drying had not significantly changed the look of the surface of the fabric. The yarn passed the "gravity" test (suspended for 2 days to test for drooping or sagging) with flying colors, I think because of the spandex content.

Elsebeth Lavold Designer's Choice Hempathy
34% Hemp, 41% Cotton, 25% Modal
Size 3 Susan Bates aluminum needles inherited from my Mamoo gave the gauge listed on the label.

This yarn was not annoying to knit with , but I didn't find it to be "like buttah" either. The resulting fabric was quite thin. I think that a sweater made of it would look great on a thin person, but on someone like me the thinness would mean clinginess. It also appeared that I'd need to wear an undergarment, because even at a fairly tight gauge, there was still a bra-seethru-ness issue-the fabric's opacity was not what I was going for. Too thin and clingy for my modesty, but it would be something I'd enjoy using for a summer sweater if I were skinnier. On the plus side, the thin fabric would probably be great temperature wise in the NC summer.

I subjected the swatch to the same washing and drying treatment as Fixation, and it did not droop/held its shape after 2 days' suspension.

Mission Falls 1824 Cotton
100% Cotton
Size 6 Plymouth Bamboo needles gave slightly tighter gauge than listed on the label.

This yarn hurt my hands to knit with. The resulting fabric was heavy. Even after partially drying in the dryer, the swatch took 3 days to dry when laid flat. I sort of liked the texture of the fabric, but I did not like it enough to commit to making a whole painful sweater out of it. The twisting method made the yarn cling to both bamboo and aluminum needles. I started out with aluminum needles, but found it slightly less painful to knit on bamboo needles. I don't think I'll be tempted by this one in the future, although it would be a good "modesty" yarn.

Cascade Pima Silk
85% Cotton, 15% Silk
Size 5 Susan Bates aluminum needles inherited from my Mamoo - you know, I didn't write down gauge for this one, but whatever I got seemed perfect, so I would use Sweater Wizard to design a sweater for this yarn in that gauge.

Knitting with this yarn on my favorite needles was like knitting with butter. There were no snags or weird bumps, and I could easily knit with my eyes closed without splitting or snagging. The yarn felt really nice in my hands-the silk gave it a soft sheen and it was definitely a pleasing sensory experience. I liked the overall stitch definition-the yarn made me look good even when I was a bit sloppy with keeping even tension. I would definitely like to make a sweater from this yarn. Hehehe. I just typed yearn. While the yarn didn't change much after the same machine wash, partial dry, then dry flat, treatment, I do worry a bit about the silk content with regards to pilling. There was a fuzziness to the surface of the fabric that was there when knitted but was enhanced after washing. It wasn't drastic though. I've done the gravity test on it, and my swatch didn't sag or droop. I would like to give it some more wearability tests, maybe rubbing it repeatedly on an elbow or something. I'm hesitant to be so in love with it until I have more information about how long it will last.

Classic Elite Bam Boo
100% Bamboo
Size 6 Plymouth Bamboo needles; haven't yet measured gauge

This yarn has a gracious plenty plies, so I had to be very careful while knitting with it-it definitely failed the eyes closed test. If any one of the plies snags on something, the yarn doesn't seem to recover well. The way the yarn felt in my hands, though, I didn't mind knitting carefully with it. And I was absolutely seduced by the end result. The drape of the fabric is lovely and silky, and the fabric is thick enough not to be too clingy without being stiff and heavy like the Mission Falls cotton. After a wash, the surface of the fabric looked decidedly less shiny, but it dulled to a matte finish that I ended up really liking. It did not seem to droop after being suspended for 3 days, even though I was afraid it might due to its drape. I believe my swatch is about 8.5" square, as it fits in a notebook sized sheet protector. And it used up nearly the entire skein. Because of this I am not sure if I can justify the price. However, if it wears well and could withstand many washings and wearings, it might be worth a splurge.

So I had this top-down raglan. You know, the one that I made for the Knitting Olympics last year? In Green Mountain Spinnery Mountain Mohair? It's nice and toasty warm. I had worn it once without blocking it, and now that cold weather rolled around, I wanted to wear it again, but I did need to block it to correct some lumpiness around the neckline.

I soaked it in the tub of my washer, and then ran the spin cycle to drain most of the water out. I took it upstairs and laid it out on the bed, beginning to pin out the sleeves and the neckline a little.

Then, the horror occurred. While adjusting the collar, I noticed that there was a place in the collar where the yarn had just...disintegrated. It wasn't a dropped stitch. It wasn't a skein end. The yarn had just...gone away in that one spot. After a couple of maddening hours of trying to pick out the stitches unravel the neckline into a re-knittable situation, I tossed the sweater in the guest bedroom where it sat for about four weeks.

This morning was the first time I got up the courage to try a different approach.

Today, I inserted a lifeline in the middle of the two rows of garter stitch before the mock-cable neck pattern began, and also before the raglan increases began. My theory was that even though the sweater was knit top-down that I could cut off the old neckline and knit on a new one in reverse, but that no one would ever be able to tell the difference.

Then, I cut my knitting.

CUT it.

I cut the whole neckline off and lived to tell the tale. Now the bottom collar stitches are on a collar-sized needle in a knittable fashion. However, I cannot make myself continue on it yet. I am going to toss it back in the guest bedroom until I get up the courage to start knitting it back on. It looks like there are a couple of weak spots and I am afraid of how the knitting will go when the sweater is in a delicate condition.

However, I am kind of feeling like I rule, just a little, now that I've cut off the old and am able to start the new.

The light was finally nice enough today to get these photographed. Clapotis has been finished for a long while-soon after I got home from Pittsburgh. I finished Cozy a couple of weeks ago, and just finished the Baby Sweater today. Yes, the Baby Sweater will actually lay flat-my finishing skills don't suck as badly as the picture makes them out to be!

Clapotis in Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb Motherlode Colorway, size 5 needle

Cozy in Blue Sky Alpaca Silk, size 8 needle

Seed Stitch Baby Jacket, Debbie Bliss Baby Knits for Beginners in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Baby, color 340101, size 3 needles

I proved just how wrong that Columbine Peaks sock was feeling by how absolutely wicked good it felt to rip that sucker out last night. I rewound the yarn three times into a nice fluffy, squishy center-pull ball. Then, using Judy's Magic Cast-on, I learned how to start socks from the toe up.

After one false start (I was doing a make 1 increase but forgetting to ktbl and ending up with a hole), I remembered to ktbl in my make one increases and the toe was underway. I've started a 2x2 rib for the top of the foot and will probably do the same for the leg, because that is what I need right now-a nice boring sock. The boringer the sock, the more likely I'll be to start the second one. Sad, strange, but true.