Blogging & Ravelry

I've been ignoring my blog for the past year or so, and have been devoting my free time to knitting, and posting on ravelry. I should either blog from time to time, or delete the blog.

Mystic Light Finished

The Mystic Light Shawl is finished and blocked. So far, I've only taken a picture of it blocking. The shawl was a really fun knit, and the shift in the pattern to the "flames" in the last part of the shawl was definitely interesting.

The yarn is fingering weight-Painted Sock Too (The Painted Sheep), and I used 4.6mm (US 7) circular needles. The yarn is beautiful-some of my favorite shades of blue-but the variegation does hide the pattern a bit. I'm planning to knit this pattern again in a solid color, or a gradual color change.

I think that I'll wear this to the Sunday's knitting group. It may be a smaller group tomorrow, as quite a few of the regulars will be at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. The CT Sheep and Wool was last weekend, and although a small show, was lots of fun. I went with Virginia, who patted and admired the angora rabbits. We missed the sheep to shawl competition, but saw the judging. We also saw some knitters from our area group, and met a couple of the spinners, including the Painted Sheep, who handpainted the yarn noted above. As I'm watching my spending, I only bought a few things- an Ashford spindle and roving set from Rowanwood Farm , three skeins of laceweight yarn (100% coopworth) from Short and Sweet Sheep Farm in a lovely, natural brown color, and a silver shawl pin from Leslie Wind. Hmmm...was this really watching my spending? Well....it was a lot better than driving down to Maryland, staying overnight, and also shopping! The best part of the festival was meeting a nice group of knitters from Massachusetts, who invited Virginia and me to sit down and showed us both how to use the drop spindle. It's a bit harder than it looks! I knit on my leaf lace shawl for a little bit, too.

Lace knitting

I'm currently juggling two lace projects, one more challenging-the Mystic Light KAL, and one easy- the Fibertrends Leaf Lace Shawl. Both of the projects use fingering weight yarn. Oddly enough, they have similarities: both are knit top-down, and begin with a provisional cast-on. The Fibertrends shawl is a repetitive pattern (leaves), while the Mystic Light pattern changes-the chart must be followed carefully.

Leaf Lace Shawl

Mystic Light, Clue 3

Mystic Light

The Mystic Light shawl is coming along nicely. It's a welcome change to use fingering weight yarn for a shawl, as it knits up much quicker. The yarn is from The Painted Sheep (www.thepaintedsheep.com), and is called Painted Sock Too, and the color is Blue Note. It's always tricky to use a variegated yarn with a patterned shawl, as it often masks the patten. One of the lessons that I've learned is that a solid color shows a pattern off the best. It's amazing how often I forget this as I pick yarns for a project, as the beautiful handpainted, variegated yarns are so alluring.


It's actually 40% completed, as this is the second of five clues. :) I'm really enjoying this pattern. The design is by Anna Dalvi of Knit and Knag.

sos ii finished

Secret of the Stole ii is blocking:

The completed stole before blocking, the color is more accurate in this picture:

Secret of the Stole ii is nearing its end, and it's been a great knitalong. Fellow knitters have been very supportive of each other, and there are some pretty stoles.
The finished blocked size is 82 inches long x 28 inches at the widest point(center) or 208 x 71 cm.

SOS ii Clue 8 finished

I finished Clue 8, and am awaiting Clue 9 on Friday--the last clue! It's been a fun knitalong with interesting people, and some beautiful (almost finished) stoles. The most amazing thing is that for the most part, I've kept up with the clues. Fitting 50-60 rows in a week sounds easy until one's schedule is factored in.

SOS ii Clue 4 finished

Things are going along better with Secret of the Stole ii, and Clue 4. It was a bit tough pulling out 12 rows of knitting, however, it was for the best. Knitting from charts is still a bit new for me, and the "chutes and ladders" was due to misinterpreting the chart. I increased one on the wrong side as there was one more cell in the row. Not sure why I did that; I've done triangular shawls, and do understand that there is an additional cell or two produced from knitting the chart itself.

Thanks, DK, all is well!

Chutes and Ladders

I knew the stitch count was off, but thought that I was making adjustments so that frogging wouldn't be needed. On Clue 4, row 217 of Secret of the Stole ii, I realized that there was a glaring mistake several rows back, and couldn't be overlooked. Here you go; the crooked "ladder" that must be fixed:


No lifeline, must place the stitches back on the needle and hope for the best!

Secret of the Stole ii

Clue 3 of Secret of the Stole ii completed last week, posted on the KAL group & ravelry, but not on my blog:




Hmm...shows up better on the white background..

SOS ii, Spring Shawl Surprise

It's clear to me now that joining two lace KALs was pure folly on my part. The Spring Shawl Surprise is definitely an intermediate to expert knit, and not especially a great choice for someone who has worked on and completed one lace project to date. No, it's not time to give up, however, it will be a longer term project. The sos ii is more of a beginning to intermediate project, however, with approximately 55-75 rows per week and one's busy life, it can be tough to finish on time. But two at one time? Pure folly!

Here's Clue 2 of sos ii.....finished on Thursday, just before Clue 3 was released:

Spring Shawl Surprise, clue 1

Clue one of the Spring Shawl Surprise is completed. I'm a bit behind on this KAL as clue #4 is due to be posted tomorrow. There were a few important (non-knitting) things that stood in the way of beginning the KAL on time. Knitting is going smoothly now, and there was only one frogging episode early on. On to clue 2....and back to work tomorrow............

SOTS ii Clue 1 finished

Clue 1 of the secret of the stole two (sots ii) knitalong was released on Friday, Jan. 18th. I started knitting Friday night, then Saturday, and finished the last 3 rows on Sunday. So far, the pattern has been an easy knit, however, who knows if the difficulty will change? The Mystic Waters KAL definitely helped me to improve chart reading, and knitting with laceweight yarn.

Also knitting the Spring Shawl Surprise, which is turning out to be at least a intermediate, if not expert level pattern. Will post when Clue 1 is finished, 10 rows to go.................

Spring Shawl Surprise

Progress has been a bit slow for me on this KAL. It took a bit of practice to become familiar with the symbols and to follow the chart. My first mistake was with the empty cell, which stood for knit on the right side and purl on the wrong side, and my second was misinterpreting the "increase 2" symbol. After knitting the first 10 rows, and two mistakes, it was time to start over. So far, I've made it to 20 rows with no frogging, and things are going smoother. Adopting a careful, slower approach has helped; there's no rushing this project. The malabrigo laceweight is very soft, and enjoyable to knit with. The only thing that I've noticed is that the yarn is harder to frog than others I've used, its fibers tend to hold onto each other.

It's such a pretty pattern, though, that it's worth the effort. :)

Spring Shawl Surprise, Swatching.....

This lace KAL by LUL began on January 1st, and will have 12 clues. This is my second lace project-Mystic Waters was the first- and I was a bit intimidated by:

1) the number of different symbols on the the two swatches
2) even more symbols for the shawl
3) there is a design to follow on both sides of the shawl!

not to mention the most basic dilemma-which yarn to choose! Every knitter is aware that choosing the wrong color or a yarn that one is not totally in love with, can cause the project to go dormant and never be finished.

Completed Swatch #1, and resolved a small portion of the issues above:

Unblocked Swatch #1, yarn is malabrigo laceweight, emerald, using 3.5 mm (US4) Knitpicks Options.

It wasn't that difficult, and looks pretty good. The yarn is soft and a pleasure to work with. It's on to the rectangular shawl (138 sts wide)! One of the new stitches, the loop stitch, was easy, and explained well by LUL on her website , and further on the yahoo group. Gotta love those brave enough to ask; it clarifies the process and helps the rest of us out! Back to knitting...currently on row 6 of the pattern...

Lace Blocking

Mystic Waters was completed a week ago, and it's currently blocking. Hopefully, it will come out fine; I really have no idea what I'm doing! Pixisis (from Monday's SnB) offered a couple of really good tips: Mist the shawl (instead of soaking it), and pull it out gently at first; it can always be blocked more severly later. The blocking board that I used are the foam interlocking mats (intended as flooring), purchased from the home improvement store. As space is a premium, and there isn't a spare bed, the mats were a good choice. Almost ran out of pins though.

I had lunch with Mom yesterday for her birthday, and showed her the (unblocked) shawl. She liked the design and really liked the color.

Meanwhile, I've started a pair of charcoal gray wool/silk ribbed socks for Dave. The Christmas list (Socks for Everyone!) went well, but it was Socks for Many but not everyone. After the ribbed socks, it's more shawls: the Leaf Lace Shawl by Evelyn Clark, and the two shawl KALs which start in January: Spring Shawl Surprise, and Secret of the Stole ii (both Yahoo & Ravelry groups). New yarn was purchased: Malabrigo Lace in Emerald and Misti Alpaca Lace in a sage green.

Mystic Waters......

More lace knitting, and for some reason, it's been my exclusive project for the past couple of weeks. All else has been ignored, even CHRISTMAS KNITTING! Actually, I've done much more knitting this Christmas than I've ever done. It's ok.....

So, Clue 3 is finished! Reading the chart has become easier, and the design is really starting to show, and make a bit more sense to me.



The variegated red has a tendency to hide the pretty design, however, it also will hide any mistakes! For the next project, though, I think that I'd match an intricate design with a solid color, and a repetitive design with either a variegated or a solid one. Yes, another (lace) lesson learned!

Mystic Waters

WHAT IS IT? IS IT A DOILY? LACE UNDERWEAR?

NO! It's Mystic Waters!

Lace knitting and wraps may be making a fashion comeback, however, there's clearly more work to be done!! Yes, three separate people asked the above questions. Hmm....who wears lace wool underwear?

Well, I'm proud to say that Clue #2 is done! The pattern is not a repeating one, and carefully reading the chart is really important. Knitting is going smoother now, with less frogging, as my chart reading has improved. In addition to the magnet under the current row, I'm also using a magnet to highlight the cell I'm on, and moving it along every series of stitches. Lace knitting....challenging.....and fun?

Lessons in Lace

Lace knitting really is different and a challenge. For one thing, "holes" in the knitting are part of the pattern, and not a mistake to be fixed. Some tips which have helped me in kniting lace and working from the chart:

1. Place a stitch marker just before the center stitch, and also where one chart ends. The Mystic Waters shawl is large enough that it spans three charts wide.

2. Use a metal cookie sheet and a long strip magnet to mark the current row. Place a check mark next to each completed row.

3. Count the stitches after each completed row (every 2 rows in Mystic Waters) to make sure that the stitch count is correct. If the count is off, there is a mistake somewhere. I also mark the stitch count on the side of each row on the chart. Mystic Waters is a triangular shawl which increases 1 stitch on each right hand side row.

Despite these tips gleaned from the KAL, I'm finding that this shawl has been slow going and there's been quite a bit of frogging. Still, I've finished Clue 1! Perhaps it would have been wiser to begin lace knitting with a smaller project...........

Mystic Waters

Mystic Waters, a lace shawl KAL, will be my first lace project. There has been much indecision and angst in choosing:

• yarn (color and weight)


• size of needle

After much frogging (much needed practice!) and trying out different needles and yarns, I finally settled on a red variegated laceweight yarn from handpaintedyarns.com, and a size 4 needle. Much of the indecision was due to not really understanding how the lace should look. For example, how open should the project be? Does it look better when it's tighter or more open? Here's the first 78 rows:

Finished Projects

I've been spending some time on ravelry, posting some previous and current projects, and also inputting some yarn, not to mention browsing to see what fellow knitters are working on. It will take some time to record the yarn that I currently have, but it will be worth it.

Christmas is fast approaching, and the list is getting a bit shorter as some of the socks are completed. Mark's brown (Sockamania Elegance) socks are finished, and Megan's snowflake socks are done. For some reason, I put this project aside for 1 1/2 months with one repeat of the pattern and the toe to go. At least it's finished now!

The MAN socks left will be a bit troublesome to complete, as all of the rest of the receipients like a SIMPLE pattern (knit and purl, nothing fancy), and I'd like to work some sort of pattern. Perhaps a compromise? Maybe something in Sensational Socks will work?

Meanwhile, I'm a bit stalled on the Mystic Waters KAL. A choice of yarn has been made, and I'm waiting for some needles. If I spend too much time on the knit along, the remaining Christmas socks won't be done.