How do you wear a shawl?

I got this lovely shawl pin in the mail today, and I’ve tossed my shawls over my shoulders, pinned it, folded it, and I just can’t seem to get the hang of it.  How do you wear a shawl?

With Kiri.

In non-knitting news, my new Celebrant website is up and running - check it out!

A sad day for the sweater.

Something sad happened this morning.

I was getting ready for work, and decided, since it was one of those cold sunny spring days, that it may be the last opportunity to wear my Cascade Yoke sweater this season.  I hadn’t worn it since mid-January, and it had been sitting, patiently, on a closet shelf ever since.

I pulled it on, and immediately sensed it.

It’s too big.

I knew it was going to happen.  I knit the sweater in late September of 2007.  Since then, I’ve lost a little over 50 pounds.

My body doesn’t change shape rapidly when I lose weight.  It just happens one morning, when I pull on a pair of pants, and all of a sudden realize that I didn’t need to unbotton the fly to get them on.  Or I put on a button up shirt that I always have to wear a camisole under, because the bottom few buttons don’t close, and realize that I’ve buttoned it all the way.  It’s always a surprise, and usually a pleasant one (other than the pants - I desperately need new pants).

But the sweater - well, the sweater was sad.

I had measured myself and custom designed it for my body.  There were short rows along the bust line, and waist shaping.  Now, the bottom flares out, obviously too big for my hips and belly.  The short rows bunch under my arms.

The shaping, which made it such an elegant, well-fitting sweater in October, excludes it from becoming a comfy, over sized sweater, as the fabric falls in odd places on my body.

I mean, that didn’t stop me from wearing it today.  But this may be the last time.

I’ve been on a not well-enforced sweater moratorium since September.  I didn’t really follow it.  I did try not to make large yarn purchases intended for sweaters, as I knew I was losing weight and didn’t want to be sad when I couldn’t wear them.

But now I guess I’ll enforce it.  No more sweaters knit for myself until September 2008.  I figure by then I’ll have reached a very doable goal for myself - or at least be so chomping at the bit to start knitting garments again that I won’t be able to stop myself.

It’s still a sad day for me - this sweater was easily the most wearable sweater I’ve ever knit.  Elegant, comfortable, and well-fitting.  Well, I guess I’ll fold it up carefully and put it in the closet for now.

I guess this just means I have to knit more lace.  Oh, well.

Yarn suggestions please!  I have 300 yards of Manos Silk Blend - it’s a DK weight in those lovely Manos colors.  I’ve been swatching and trying endlessly to figure out what it will be, but all of the patterns seem to 150 yards of yarn or 500.  What can I make with only 300 yards?  I’m trying to see how long I can go without buying yarn…

FO: Another lace shawl.

I cast on for this on Saturday afternoon, after discovering that Dan had stepped on the needles for the shawl I was working on (he has since bought me a new needle, but I’m still waiting on it, as KnitPicks shipping isn’t the fastest). Worsted weight wool and US10.5 needles and an easily memorizable lace pattern made the knitting fly by.

Pattern: Kiri (available free here)
Yarn: Mediterranean by Reflections on Roclan, two skeins. I bought this yarn at the New York Sheep and Wool Festival in 2007. Just under two skeins, aprox 500 yards.
Needles: KnitPicks Harmony interchangeable US10.5s (I think - Harmony needles aren’t labeled, and I always forget to stick them in the needle gauge. I liked the fabric I got, so it wasn’t a problem).

Details on Ravelry.

Pre-Blocking (that’s a US35 or 50 needle)

The original pattern is written for Kid Silk Haze, and on smaller needles. I knew I wanted to use worsted weight, so I just stepped up the needle size. I don’t know how many repeats of the pattern I did (five, maybe?). I worked the repeats until I finished the first skein of yarn, then finished that repeat and worked the border. This left me with maybe 1/2 an oz of yarn left, so I used all of the yarn that I could. If I had run out of yarn, I had planned to cast off in Chestnut Brown Paton’s Classic Merino - or even work the full border in that. I thought the color would work well with the teal. But, I didn’t need to do that. It was a comforting thought when I wasn’t sure if I would make it.

OK, this picture is more of a windy picture of my new hair-cut.

As soon as I cast off, I wove in the ends, and gave it a long soak in some wool-wash. A lot of dye leached out, but the color of the yarn didn’t fade too much.

It blocked out beautifully. I was worried about the heavier worsted wool, but the fabric is light, and the lace feels delicate and soft. The yarn and fabric blocked beautifully. And it’s so big!

There’s something so magical about knitting lace. I still can’t believe that I knit that.

Singular Thought.

As I type this, Kiri knit on US 10.5s with a lovely, slightly heavier than worsted teal yarn I got at Rhinebeck, is blocking on the floor of my living room.

Kiri is slightly damp, my hands smell faintly of Soak (A Scent for Celebration!), and though the shawl turned the soaking water Hawaiin Punch Blue, the color is still vibrant in the yarn.

I can’t stop looking at it. Good thing the couch has a nice view.

Next up? Dan will buy me a new needle, and Icarus will get finished. I think I’ll invest in some blocking wires as well, as I don’t think my carpet is very happy to be pinned so much. Also I think it would be easier and my knees wouldn’t get so wet, crawling all over the shawl and pinning. And all it takes is one extra pin left in the carpet to get a pin in your foot…

Before that though? Wrap Style is on its way to me. The Shetland Triangle is practically begging me to knit it. Now, to just dive into my stash and find the perfect yarn… I’m thinking perhaps the two skeins of Manos Silk. Oooh. That sounds nice.

Pictures tomorrow, when there’s better light. But belief me. It’s spectacular.

All I want to knit is lace. Lace, lace, lace, lace, lace.

A sad day for knitting.

I decided to knit the Icarus shawl after searching through a bunch of old Interweave Knits issues.  Since I cast off on the Swallowtail shawl, I really wanted to knit another shawl.  I had tried to start Ene’s Scarf from Scarf Style while I was traveling last week, but casting on 375 stitches? Not something I enjoy doing.  I really like the pattern where you start off with a handful of stitches, and slowly increase, creating the shape of the triangle.

Icarus seemed perfect.  The mostly stockinette portion is really pretty in the subtle hand-dyed solid of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock.  The yarn over column will block out really well in the wool, and it’s a fun knit - pretty easy to memorize with a nice result.

I had plans to relax and make some progress on it this weekend.  That is, until I woke up on Saturday morning.  Dan told me he had something to tell me.

I had left the shawl on the floor, near the coffee table.  This got covered by the blanket that was on the couch.  Which Dan stepped on when crossing the room on Saturday morning.

Oops.

So now Dan’s buying me a new needle, but I don’t have any long, sharp, wooden US7s that aren’t currently in use.  So I had to put it aside.   And cast on a new project.

This is the Kiri shawl (free PDF here) knit in Reflections at Roclan worsted wool on US10.5s.  The fabric is dense and airy, the yarn has a ton of spring to it and, though you can’t see it in the pictures, has a lovely hand-dyed variation from light to dark teal.  I have two skeins, which I think will be more than enough for a wrap.  I really like the feel of heavy lace, of these delicate patterns worked in a larger yarn and on a larger needle.  And they knit up fast!

And thank you for all of your comments on the Swallowtail shawl.  I can’t tell you how happy I am with it.  And it seems to have sparked this new lace passion as well!  I have plans to knit another one, because I just love that lily of the valley border (nupps and all).

FO: Swallowtail Shawl.

It’s official: I’m addicted to lace.  It’s so much fun to knit - always interesting, the pattern slowly evolving and changing as you go.  The thin yarn on larger needles makes the knitting fly, and it grows swiftly.  But the best part?  Once you’ve cast off, and soaked it in a nice wool-wash bath, you pin it and stretch it out to within an inch of its yarny life and wait a few hours.  And when you unpin it?  Soft, crisp, perfect peaks.  Open yarn overs and delicate lace patterns.  And I made that?  Unbelievable.

 I think this is the most beautiful thing I have ever knit.

I didn’t change much from the pattern.  The pattern calls for lace-weight yarn and US5 needles.  I used Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock in Perwinkle (fingering weight superwash merino) and US7s (KnitPick’s Harmony needles have a nice sharp tip for wooden needles, perfect for those “nupps” and their infamous p5tog).

 I wanted to make sure my shawl was more, well, shawl sized, and less scarfy, so I added 5 extra repeats of the budding lace pattern (a tip I picked up on the Ravelry boards - if you’re going to increase the size, do it in repeats of 5 - so instead of 14, as called for in the pattern, do 19, 24, or 29.  This way the numbers will match up for the border).  Since I used a heavier yarn and larger needles, I knew it would be a little bigger than the one in the pattern, even if I didn’t add any extra repeats.

 Of course, there are a few mistakes in there.  I had some trouble transitioning between the charts, mostly because I had to follow the chart blindly when I started it off, and wasn’t able to easily read my knitting.  I tried to fix them the best that I could, and I don’t think they take away from the overall look.  In fact, I was happy that I had some mistakes that I conquered.  That was all part of my grand plan for the shawl.

As I mentioned, I made this shawl as a symbol of my choice to become a Celebrant.  I picked this color in particular because periwinkle has always felt like a magical color to me, that beautiful ethereal color of the sky that I always felt wasn’t quite real.  As a Celebrant, I will get to know a couple, then create and perform an original ceremony for them.  This will involve taking elements from many different places - the couple’s own words and cultures, known traditions, and my own creative knowledge.

The same can be said for this shawl.  I followed a general pattern, one that many have followed and done before (just as the wedding ceremony).  I made my own choices - I made it larger, changed the yarn, chose the color.   I even made some mistakes along the way, but I incorporated them into, and made it a part of the piece.  Though I followed the “rules” of the pattern, I created a completely unique shawl.  Just like when I write wedding ceremonies - I’ll follow the “rules,” but I’ll end with something completely personalized and unique for the couple.

Even if someone liked my shawl so much that they decided to do it exactly the same way, adding extra repeats and the same yarn and same needle size, they would still be different.  That’s the beauty of any kind of art, any kind of creativity.  By simply writing, simply knitting, you are making something that is completely yours, something that will be memorable, beautiful, and unlike anyone else’s in the world.

 I love it.  Absolutely love it.  I can’t believe I made this!

One week…

I cast off Sunday night.

And blocked it till Monday morning.

I unpinned it at 7am, admired the nupps, tried it on in the bathroom and gazed at myself in the mirror, and then went to work, and got on a plane to LA.
And just got back last night.

So more pictures will be coming soon.

For now, I’ll just tell you that I am in love with this shawl. It was so much fun to knit that I am contemplating knitting another one. I think it would be beautiful as a wrap in a heavier weight yarn.

I also have a ton of Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock left over, as I had ordered six skeins and only used 2.5 for this shawl. Since I’ve now got lace on the brain, I’m thinking of using some of that yarn to make the beautiful Adamas Shawl. I’m so excited.

Bye, Jeanie.

As you may remember, I decided to turn some lovely Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Sock into Jeanie.

After about two weeks of knitting, and a few mistakes, I got frustrated and didn’t love how it was coming out, so I pulled out my old issues of Interweave Knits and poured over them, looking for inspiration.

And I found it in the Swallowtail Shawl. I check out Ravelry, and found even more inspiration. There have been some beautiful interpretations of this pattern.

I almost immediately cast on. It’s been two days, and I’m almost one skein in.

The pattern is written for lace weight yarn, on Us4s. I’m using fingering on US7s. The pattern calls for 15 repeats of the main pattern. I’m doing 19. So it’ll be a larger shawl, which is nice, because it is why my Flower Basket shawl met its demise.

And it’s fun to knit! It’s much easier than the Flower Basket shawl so far. I haven’t reached the infamous “nups,” the little bobbles that are on the border lily-of-the-valley pattern. But I’m preparing.

That last one is kind of electric looking ’cause of the flash.

I think I made the right decision. I really love it. It’s making me rethink my lace moratorium.

Too much.

Last week, I went up to Massachusetts to visit Lindsey, and we had a yarn-filled weekend.

We drove two hours in the pouring rain to WEBS.  It was amazing and overwhelming.  We ran into Adrian of HelloYarn and Ravelry’s Jess (along with a group of their friends), walking out as we walked in.

We wandered the aisles, touching everything.

I bought enough yarn for a sweater, probably that DROPS Cardi that everyone’s making.  I also bought two skeins of Louet Gems in fingering weight, which will probably be some kind of colorwork mitts or mittens.  And two skeins of Malabrigo in Bobby Blue because I just couldn’t leave without some Malabrigo.

Afterwards, we braved the rain and had Tibetan food in Northampton for lunch.  They had amazing dumplings. Mmmm.

We drove home, and tried to stop at another yarn shop, in Lexington, but they were closed.  You can see how much rain there was at this point.

We made our way back to Salem, where we watched Woody Allen movies and knit.

The next day, I took some pictures of Lindsey modeling a scarf she knit, and we had coffee.  It was really, really windy, but not raining!

Yes, there’s a ship (the Friendship!) on the walk from Lindsey’s apartment to the coffee shop.  And this beautiful view.

Oh, and of course, there was some Queen Elizabeth playin’.

 It was a fabulous, Lindsey & yarn filled weekend.

Sick Day.

1pm this afternoon.

 

7pm this evening.

This is HARD!

But totally worth it. I almost (ALMOST) ripped it all out because it was looking funny a few rows in, but I’m glad I didn’t. It’s a knit I have to pay attention to, but fun. And beautiful! Dropping those first few stitches were a lot of fun.