FO: Cathedral Grove Shawl

I have a good friend who loves the KAL. We had two shawl KALs between us over the last year. Perhaps I will finish the first this year. The second however is done.  It is Romi Hill's Cathedral Grove.  I do love a good lace knit. It does feel like my happiest knitting place (if not the most functional sort of project...that leads me to not thinking about how many lace shawls I have finished...). The dark yarn is Malabrigo Sock, color Pocion. The wonderful rosey orange,  I have not clue. I had just enough to finish.

OK, that's it for now...I am not working at present and should have time to knit  but the garden keeps me busy, and I am determined to be a better iris gardener this year. Here is my first open of the year:  Iris Siberica, Caesar's Brother

Fair Trade Scarves

I love this drooping elm lace pattern which is a classic lace but the first place I saw it was it was Lankakomero’s blog, for free. Thank you!

I have been experimenting this year with combining a strand of Kidsilk Haze with a strand of Habu Silk Stainless, makes a lovely combination. I have tried to do these filmy scarves and then felt them…so far I haven’t found the right technique for that. However, when I showed some fiber guild friends the basic scarf, my friend Linda loved it.

Now, Linda does beautiful painted silk scarves and I suggested a trade. Linda got a beautiful green scarf and I in return a lovely pink silk poppy scarf...

Time

A good friend of mine once said "I either don't have enough time or enough money...".  I think of her quote weekly.

There are multiple UFO's right now, including...

the edge of the lace shawl that I designed.   I have trouble finding enough time to do this or any knitting...so I am doing one point every morning before work.  One point per day, I can handle it...

Working on spinning some singles lace in my favorite green that I started almost 2 years ago

I tightened and oiled my wheel 2 weeks ago so it was time to get back to it...

Hap shawl update and where I'd like to be this weekend

My hap shawl that I am knitting from my Shetland handspun is not finished;  I was hoping that it would be done last weekend. Here's the tale:

Being the impulsive that I am, I just launched in and did not correctly calculate the ratio of stitches to pick up on the edges, and did a 1 stitch to 2 row ratio.  HELLO??  I  completed the WHOLE blasted thing including binding off, and the middle sagged like crazy. 

So, I want back and consulted Sharon Miller's book, then frogged the 6 inch wide fan and feather lace border that I had so enthusiastically completed over the last 2 weeks.  Turns out I needed to pickup 5 stitches for every 8 rows;  one in each facing stitch plus an extra after every 4th.  I proceeded to do this, then happily knit two rows, and discovered a mistake in my fan and feather.  SO, frogged a second time; not completely but a good ways back.

I am really hoping that this will be a lovely family heirloom, so I want to get it right!  More to follow...

This is what I'd be looking at if I could if could this weekend:

SWEA is the Swedish Women's Educational Association and every year on the first weekend in December they hold their annual holiday fair at the cyclorama in Boston.  Here is the info at the SWEA Boston website.

I took my boys there when they were small.  B recalls getting Will Farrell's autograph one year (his wife is Swedish).

It's an absolute blast, well...for me anyway, with

Lucia procession, Swedish crafts, food including those cute little heart shaped waffles made fresh with jam and whipped cream (boys were bribed with that), a number of folks sporting handknits in the Scandinavian tradition, and of course, the Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) table, to help you plan your next trip!

If you are in the Boston area, don't miss it!  Since, I'm not going, perhaps I'll complete my hap shawl instead...not to mention my holiday UFO's...

Noro and Holiday Knitting

I went to my lys in Hilton Head several months ago, with no particular purchase in mind.  When there, I found this book

I liked the cover sweater for a little girl who is related to me, for Christmas.  The pattern, called Rita, is in the yarn Aya.  However, I have found in the past that yarns-that-change-color and lace often don't mix. Sometimes, its just all too much for me.  For example, in this shawl which I knit in the last year:

I really like this shawl pattern which is Windsbraut-Herbstwind, by Monika Eckhert;  it is done in minimochi.  I loved both the pattern and the smooth yarn in my favorite purples/greens, but together the lace and the changing color didn't work.  The shawl went to Afghans for Afghans. So, I learned my lesson this year, and decided to go with a solid yarn for the pattern.

I went with some Plymouth Encore instead, here's the result

It wasn't as boring as a lot of children's patterns with vast prairies of stockinette or garter, thanks to the lace pattern.  I need to add buttons.  And I just need to finish the sweater for her brother, also from this book.

Now, I'm not saying that I don't like the Noro thing, here's an example of what I love. I've been working on this afghan to be for about four years.  It's  a mitred square afghan, in Kureyon.  I have more squares done, but not sewn together. I love it.  But in its own way, it's a vast prairie of stockinette, interrupted by the occasional k2tog, so I've got a long way to go.

Back to the topic of gifting for children;  if I run out of knitting steam, I buy a book.  This is one of my favorite childrens books

A Symphony for the Sheep is the story in rhyme of sheep-to-sweater, set in Ireland, by Cynthia Millen, with lovely illustrations by Mary Azarian, who is a woodcut artist in Vermont.  Unfortunately, it is out of print.  Available used at Amazon.  If Houghton Mifflin had any sense, they would do a reprint and sell at our favorite knitting venues.

Estonian Lace Update and Five Year Anniversary Project

Here's my latest Estonian Lace WIP.  This is Nancy Bush's Peacock Tail and Leaf Scarf, from Knitted Lace of Estonia:

The yarn is my handspun cormo singles at about 18 wraps per inch.  I'm not great at this spinning thing, it's a little thick and thin, so it's not exactly turning in to fine lace, but I like it.  Maybe I can blame the glass of wine I was sipping while spinning.  The cormo is from Juniper Moon Farm, and is dreamy soft.  It will be warm and soft neckwear for the recipient, a cousin who shall go unnamed just in case she's reading this...

 I have also been putting holiday knitting aside to work on my hap shawl;  I am up to the fan and feather lace edge, done in natural Shetland wool colors.  I am lucky to have a bad (good?) case of finishitis for this project.  I've pulled the needle out to give an idea here;  I have several more shades to go.

Here is Samantha making herself at home on it:

The end of September marked my five year anniversary as a homeowner in my present home.  I celebrated this last weekend by moving my compost pile, which had been next to the house.  I am a neglectful composter:   vegetable kitchen waste and yard waste including some pruning trimmings go in to the wire fence frame that I've formed in to a circle.  I then do nothing except keep adding to it for FIVE YEARS.  The four foot high wire structure which is 3 feet in radius had 4 feet of stuff in it.   The lugustrum shrubs next to the compost had twined their roots around it.  (It is alot worse than my yarn stash, which ain't very organized...).

It took:  a shovel, a loper, pruning shears, and a rake to clear the debris and remove the wire frame from the ground.  If I'd had an axe I would have used it.  If a teenaged boy had offered to help, I would have accepted it.  Almost extricated:

Done (meaning pulled out of the ground with roots attached):

Naturally, as I had included pruning clippings, I had to sieve the compost before putting it on the garden and the remainder in the new compost pile, which is away from the house.  Yes, I put the old sticks in the new compost pile. Why?  Dunno.  I used 1/2 inch metal screening (on the smaller cart) to strain it.

I keep thinking of Maurice Sendak's Chicken Soup With Rice:

In September it will be my dwelling's anniversary... 

Kashmir and Flower Basket

Dale of Norway has  a retail line of sweaters and outerwear as well as patterns and yarns for those of us who prefer to knit our own.  The pattern lines for adults are updated with regard to style and color, but still often reflect the heritage of stranded, multicolor knitting.

My favorite Dale sweater that I have done is Kashmir, from Tiur, 60% mohair and 40% new wool, 5 ply sport weight:

   

I love the original colorway clash of the purple, orange, red, with a little tipping of green on cuffs and neckline.  The pattern is Dale of Norway, book 6030.  It made a lovely fabric that is extremely warm but has some drape.  It's a little itchy next to the skin, so I usually wear a turtleneck with it.  I added some beads around the collar of the sweater. The sweater actually has a matching lace scarf also, which I have not been able to get the edges to lie flat despite several blockings.  But of course I added beads on the end of that too, which weigh it down:

The mohair gives the Tiur some shine and it looks great in this stranded pattern, which to me is  of course reminiscent of an oriental carpet, in a damask print sort of way.

I had a fair amount of Tiur left over.  So, I went on to my favorite shawl pattern at the time, what else but Flower Basket?  After confusing myself in my post on Flower Basket Shawl, I've given up on numbering them.    I added small beads at the border, and I think I ran out of yarn so the points did not come out in the blocking.

I was really pleased with how the Tiur knitted up so well for two very different types of knitting.  The halo of the yarn made it nice for colorwork, but the mohair also has a crisp quality which lends itself well to lace.

This is my favorite Flower Basket, in the draped-over-the-Ashford view:

Here's the bathroom mirror view (yes I have mermaids in the bathroom):

And here's through the sunlight window view:

Estonian Lace

I bought a book and fell in love, Knitted Lace of Estonia by Nancy Bush.

I'm not sure why this heritage of lace appeals to me more than other types of lace. I just love the way the stitches curve this way and that to form the wavy lily of the valley fronds. Perhaps because it's a more regular pattern rather than something that keeps changing patterns as in fancy Shetland lace shawls, but still provides some serious technical attention span requirements during its creation. (Great for someone highly distractible like me).

Lace shawls are like spinning wheels; I am caught between the attraction to something novel and new; and something old and traditional with time-tested appeal. I love Anne's genius and beautiful shawl designs, and yet I crave being near something with direct history. I love the look (but have never tried) the look of newer spinning wheels like the Bee, but I'm also fascinated with a great wheel. But then I guess, I can appreciate both the old and the new for what they offer. And yes, when it comes to lace shawls, most new designs are based on old patterns; but there's nothing like knowing you're coming fairly close to something that a hard working impoverished woman knit for some needlepointing rich lady a century ago. (Oops, no offense meant if you needlepoint; I used to and wish I had the time and the vision to continue with it).

So my first almost FO from Nancy's book is Triangular Summer Shawl. I'm not done with the lace edge (sewn on) yet. It's my handspun, incredibly enough. By accident I found a nice wool roving at Wild Fibre in Savannah that goes with my default spinning technique quite nicely. This is my second shawl from handspun, the first is a little well, uh, chunky...

This is a newer designed pattern according to Nancy, published in 1983 in Triinu magazine. Triinu was a women's magazine, founded to bridge Estonian culture for women who had managed to emigrate out of the country.

Why is it that I take 40 shots-in-bathroom-mirror-which-knitters-do with my dominant right hand, they all s___, then switch to my left and I get a decent one in the first 5?? Is it a right brain thing? A left brain thing? I ain't bothering to look that one up...

I am simultaneously reading Purge by Sofi Okansen, translated by the writer of this lovely blog. It's the story of two women, and reflects the extraordinarily difficult history of Estonia:

In the last 100 years, Estonia won it's independence from the Russian Empire in 1920, only to be reinvaded by the Soviet Union during World War II, then the Third Reich, then (was there any doubt??) back to the Soviet Union in 1944. Estonia regained it's independence in 1991, after a blood free revolution, very unusual for one small country trying to crawl out from under Soviet dominance, along with other Baltic and Slavic nations.

Purge's story shifts time frames, but the primary reference time is 1991, post independence, when there were still shufflings going about with Soviet influence and culture, including of course women's material culture, pervading in the story. For example, on page 96 ... "The women in the village held on to their Singers, and anyone who did get a new machine got a treadle model, because what if something happened and there was no electricity?"

Well, guess what old thing is in the corner of my bedroom?? (Missing some veneer on the front).

Yep, that's it... my Great Grandmother's treadle Singer. Ain't she a beauty?

If you want a very inspirational documentary film version of Estonia's latest fight for freedom, check out the film, The Singing Revolution. You'll be singing along with the Estonian National Anthem by the end. And they knit on through all of this. An English feminine pleural for they would be nice here. Wonder if they have it in Estonian?

SPINNING SINGLES

I have an Ashford Traditional spinning wheel. I am not a great spinner, and it took 2 years to find a functional default yarn. I learned to spin at courses at John C Campbell Folk School. I am a spontaneous spinner and don’t spend a lot of time comparing my twist during the course of spinning a particular yarn. However, I love making yarn.

I started out making a lot of 2 ply yarns then didn’t know what to do with them. How much was there when I was done? Who knew? Certainly not enough for an adult sized sweater. Not living "up north" anymore, I don't need a scarf and I've given everyone I know who lives there at least two. And as much as I love my little niece and nephew, knitting them a sweater out of handspun that might be headed for the washing machine just didn’t seem right. Apologies to my sister (my brother in law assured me “I would NEVER do that!”)

As in the last two years I have mostly knit shawls, and my 2 ply yarn tended to be too chunky for those fine lace shawls that I love, I switched to doing singles. I can now produce a fairly useable fine singles at about 12-14 (or more!) wraps per inch to use for a lace shawl yarn. And when the yarn is used up, however much the yardage, the shawl is done!

Here’s an example of a shawl from my single ply:

Evelyn A. Clark’s Wild West Lace Shawl

This was spun from roving from Gale’s Art (met Gale at Folkschool), blue faced Leicester. For this yarn I actually separated the colors as I spun to get longer lengths of one color. This is actually more of a kerchief than a shawl. I modified the lace patterning thinking I had enough yarn so added an additional lace section, then I didn't have enough to do the buffalo tracks at the end. I'll just have to do it again!

If you scrunch up your eyes, you can see the buffalo in Evelyn's clever lace design to the right.

Finished in March, this was the first shawl that I used blocking wires to block. I got mine from Knitpicks. Nothing beats the thrill of seeing the lace expand as you pin.