one skein challenge revealed

Yesterday at the monthly meeting of our chapter of the Knitters’ Guild of NSW, we had a display of items knitted for the One Skein Challenge – what can be knitted with 100g of yarn or less? Here is a detail of my knitting:
Some of you who are members of Ravelry or who read a lot of knitting blogs may recognise this as the Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark (a free pattern on Ravelry). I deviated from the written pattern by not adding the nupps (a type of small bobble) in the Lily of the Valley pattern (the denser knitting towards the edges of the shawl) and by adding an extra five repeats of the Budding Lace pattern to the body of the shawl.

I knitted it Misti Alpaca – 100% baby alpaca in a hand-painted, lace-weight yarn. It's the first time I've knitted with alpaca and I was a little surprised at its fuzziness. It is very light and very soft. It’s hard to see the colour in my photos but it’s a blend of charcoal and denim-blue. The Misti Alpaca website (from where I copied this photo) says the colorway  is “Ashes”.

When I finished knitting the shawl, I was very disappointed about how small it was but I forgot to allow for the magic of blocking. It is 140cm (4ft 8in) across the top and therefore quite a nice size now!

And I still have 48g of the 100g I started with!

Orenburg lace workshop

Galina with her Orenburg Lace Sampler Scarf

On the weekend, DD and I attended a workshop in Orenburg lace techniques hosted by the Blue Mountains group of the Knitters' Guild of NSW. The tutor was Galina Khmeleva. The workshop was very intense and we were both tired on Sunday night.

On the Saturday we learnt how to cast on (a long tail cast on I had not seen before), knit from a graph and bind off using Granny's Purl Stitch. Galina supplied the yarn for the workshop:  I knitted with a beautiful purple 50% merino, 50% silk blend - gorgeous.

On the Sunday we learnt how to make our borders turn corners, how and why to use stitch markers made of yarn (not plastic or metal) and how to block. The yarn for today's workshop was cashmere!

The weekend doesn't sound like much when I write it like that, but we were very busy all weekend!

The workshop was brilliant. Not only did we learn the techniques of Orenburg lace knitting but also the history of the region. Galina also had some beautiful articles to show us and some gorgeous yarns for sale. I was too busy knitting to take photos.

I bought a magazine with the pattern for her sample scarf (see photo) but I have to wait until Galina returns to America to get a copy of her first book (now out of print). In the meantime, I ordered her second book from The Book Depository.

I am desperate to try some lace knitting but do I have suitable yarn in my stash? No way! Acrylic will not work in this instance (lace needs blocking and acrylic won't be blocked). Because I have no pattern (yet), I want to work with the design in my head but I need a lightweight natural fibre yarn to work with. *sigh*

I do have some laceweight in my stash but I have no idea if my ideas will work or if I will have enough yardage to complete the project. Oh the frustration!

it's been a long, lacy summer

Last October, I joined Bells' informal KAL: Long Lacy Summer.

Although I didn't produce many articles, I did spend most of my summer knitting lace in some form or other.

First there was the Myrtle Leaf Shawl from "Victorian Lace Today". I cast on in October and for the sixth and final time on 3rd January. I finished knitting on 17th January and blocked it on the 20th January. It was then I discovered the Big Bad Hole. I won't bore you, dear readers, with the details, you've already been through it once; but for new readers you can read about the beginning attempts here and here, the story of the dental floss here, the final cast on here, and my tribute poem/song to almost being finished here. The shawl was finished in enough time for DD's wedding; however the weather was so hot that even at midnight she was not cold enough to wear it outside! [And just in case you're new here and missed all the excitement: Yes, The Wedding went well, thanks].

After all the fun and games with Myrtle, I met my next Knitting Knemesis in the form of socks. Well, sock yarn to be more precise. This particular yarn has a habit of pooling in strange ways despite the short colour repeats. But finally, I found a solution: Waving Lace Socks from Favorite Socks.

I knitted the first of the socks while away on R&R after The Wedding. When WM and I returned from our week away, I intended to knit the second sock [no SSS here!] but I received an invitation to our niece/god-daughter's baby shower so I had a new project to knit.

I bought bamboo/wool [80/20] yarn and cast on without doing a swatch. I frogged the first attempt. I was using a pattern called Tumbling Blocks from Knitting Pattern Central's directory of baby blankets. The pattern was designed for thicker yarn on bigger needles. I had to guess [based on the gauge stated in the pattern and on the yarn label] how many stitches I needed. The pattern was for a smaller blanket than I wanted so I had to add 'a little extra' to compensate. My first 'guestimate' [intelligent guess] was 209 stitches. I knitted just 5cm/2inches before I finished the first ball; since I had only ten balls that obviously wasn't going to work. More thinking needed. If I had taken time to do a swatch and block it I would have known exactly what I was dealing with but enthusiasm and a deadline had me pushing ahead!

I did some more calculations based on the smallest size I thought reasonable for a baby blanket and this time cast-on 145 stitches. This seemed to give a blanket about 75cm/30inches wide before blocking so I forged ahead. Bamboo, being a cellulose fibre like cotton, would surely stretch when blocked and give me a slightly bigger size. Once I had knitted enough to gave me the chance to measure it on my needles, it looked like the blanket would be 90cm/36inches before blocking - perfect!

And so it was, dear readers, that I cast off the blanket on Friday night and blocked it before I went to bed; the baby shower was on Saturday afternoon. It blocked to 100cm/40 inches wide and 124cm/50inches long which is a little longer than I would have liked but a good size for a baby's blanket. Plenty to tuck in all around the crib! However, it wasn't dry by Saturday afternoon and I forgot to allow time to sew the ends in [I was in a hurry to block it and decided to leave the ends till after it was blocked] - I went to the Baby Shower with an IOU! :-(

So I present, for you're viewing pleasure, the modified Tumbling Block Baby Blanket. The photos were taken today, two days after the Baby Shower, so perhaps it's just as well I was disorganised! Unfortunately, the gorgeous sheen of the bamboo doesn't show up well in the photographs. The original pattern had a border of blocks and a stocking stitch centre panel but WM thought an allover lace pattern preferable and I have to say I agree with him. Thanks to Ranee Mueller for making the Tilting Blocks pattern available through Knitting Pattern Central [check it out if you haven't been there - literally hundreds of free patterns for adults and children].

And there's still lace on my needles, the second Waving Lace Sock was cast on last night and I'm off to knit it now!

Something new

My self confidence in knitting lace is slowly returning; I'm more than half way through the centre panel.

Instead of letting it get to me [which is easy when things are going well as they are now] I've decided to focus on other things I can do!

You'll remember that WM gave me this book for Christmas; on Boxing Day I managed - after four rip outs - to complete this. this was the first time I had followed a crochet pattern so I'm pretty happy with it as a first attempt. I'm not sure of its destiny yet - at the moment is a test swatch but it could become part of a panel in something larger.

There's more than one way to make lace!! LOL

New Year, New old project

The lace stole continued apace on New Year's Day - I manged to complete four pattern repeats [total 48 rows]. I could see this project being finished on time.

Yesterday brought a whole new slant on the story. On New Year's Day I'd gotten cocky* - I waited 24 rows before inserting a lifeline. I knitted another six rows and whamo! I can't even remember now what happened, but I had to rip back to that lifeline! And guess what I discovered - lifelines don't always hold the stitches the way I knitted them - some of the K@ tog. had become two stitches. And when I tried to fix them [had to take the lifeline out to do so because it was understandably twisted in the stitches, I dropped some more stitches. I had to rip back to the previous lifeline 24 rows below [that's two pattern repeats folks!]

I heard that collective sigh but wait - there's more! Last night, having finally made up all the rows I'd lost, I looked down and, to my horror, found a huge hole just three inches from the start! At first, I thought the yarn must have broken but no, it was intact. It seems that sometimes have trouble with K2 tog. and one stitch doesn't get knit properly. Eventually, it drops and unravels - rows and rows! I was sitting looking at this enormous hole through tears, wondering if I could gather the errant stitches [now six from a secession of K2 tog.] with a crochet hook, re-knit them and secure them with a small sewn stitch when something caught my eyes - another gaping hole, another dropped K2 tog.!

Well, dear blogging friends, I tell you, I couldn't see any other way out - if it happened to those two stitches it could happen to any K2 tog. stitch and there are lots of them. It's for my daughter's wedding and I don't want a patched up mess! so, I did the only thing possible people - take a deep breath - I frogged the lot!!!

DD tried to talk me out of it - but I said I would do it and I've never been defeated a by knitting project yet! And I'm not about to start!!

Last night, at 10.30 I cast on a new old project - I am now six rows into the Myrtle Leaf shawl which I need to have completed and blocked in four weeks! I'm off to knit - if you don't hear from me for a while, I'm sure you know why!!

Happy "Long Lacy Summer" to everyone who's participating. See you in February!

*overly self-confident or self-assertive from Princeton Word Net Search

Knitted Lace - too scary!

I've been knitting for forty years and nothing much fazes me but knitting lace is the one experience that has almost made me give up on a project!

Firstly, let's all understand my terms. Lace knitting and knitted lace are two different things. Lace knitting I've done many times, though never with lace-weight. 3 ply baby yarn was used for my last lace knitting project. So what is lace knitting? And how is it different from knitted lace?

Lace Knitting has a pattern on only one side of the fabric; the reverse side is either simple knit or purl rows. This means that the holes created by yarn overs have two thread between them because they are two rows apart.

Knitted lace, on the other hand, has a pattern on both sides; thus there is only one thread between adjacent holes.

So, if I have so much experience and a modicum of knowledge - what's the problem? The problem is a combination of my aging eyesight and P2 tog in fine yarn. Let me give you an example:

Yesterday I dropped a stitch. Now that in itself is not usually a problem, I just pick up the stitch and carry on. Even if it unravels down a few rows I can fix the problem. But... the stitch I dropped was K2 tog in the previous row, and P2 tog the row before that, and K2 tog the row before that [you get the idea]. I saved that dropped stitch two rows back [while it was only four stitches!!] and now all I had to do was tink back 172 stitches [86 per row], right? No way, Jose! P2 tog has proved to be notoriously difficult for me to tink because a) the stitches are twisted around each other and b) the yarn is so fine I can't see where to insert the needle to tink! [I had my eyes tested two weeks ago but I'm still waiting for my new glasses. The optometrist said the prescription wasn't that much different!] So by the time I had tinked back one row I had dropped stitches which had unravelled way back - some three or four rows. Every K2 tog or P2 tog [there are fifteen per row] unravelled one way or another. Let me repeat, I am an expert tinker but this had me stumped.

So, close to tears, I put my knitting down and made my way to the computer. "What's a lifeline?" I wanted to know. So now I do know and I will use one every six rows for the rest of this stole - I have to knit it, it's DD's wedding stole and she really wants this one! Besides, no knitting will ever be allowed to defeat me!!

But first I had to unravel the whole thing; that had taken several hours of knitting because I knit the first eight rows three times - yes, my friends, I've had me some stinking tinking experience!

And another issue is I don't know how much knitting and unravelling this yarn can take - it's starting to look a little fuzzy!

One hint for those of you about to start on your first knitted lace: knit up a swatch in a thicker yarn first so you can see how the pattern works then you'll be able to understand what all those /, \ and O's do. You'll be able read your knitting and see if you are on the right track! Believe me, your knitting won't look like the graph! How can it? The graph has no way to show the results of knitting two stitches together.

Wish me luck in getting this finished by the end of January!

BSJ approaches the finish line! and lace prepares for take off

The BSJ has been completely frogged and reknitted so that there are no more M1 holes - I quite like the pattern the 'knit into front and back of stitch' increases made. All that is needed now are seams and buttons! Mind you, the buttons will be on the wrong side - I miscalculated which side was which and I'm not going to frog again! Instead, I'm going to call it the Lefty Mama BSJ 'cos lefties [like me] will find it easier to do up!

It's time to cast on for the wedding stole - I have 14 weeks to turn hundreds of metres of lace-weight into lovely lace: DD has chosen "Myrtle Leaf Shawl" from Victorian Lace Today [p.140ff]

A long, lacy summer - the Clayton's KAL

For those of you who don't know Claytons, Wikipedia describes it as

the brand name of a non-alcoholic, non-carbonated beverage coloured and packaged to resemble bottled whisky. It was the subject of a major marketing campaign in Australia and New Zealand in the 1970s and 1980s, promoting it as "the drink you have when you're not having a drink" at a time when alcohol was being targeted as a major factor in the road toll.

The word Claytons has passed into popular usage to mean "something essentially the same but going by a different name" - hence: the KAL you have when you're not having a KAL.

Lost? Bells has decided to have an informal KAL - no dedicated blogsite and no prizes - just a lazy lacy summer of knitting or crochet. Suits me fine: no pressure to produce and a chance to join with like-minded people to create beautiful objects of lace. Care to join us?

Clapotis and lace!

Here are some very belated photos - first, a close up of Clapotis which I forgot to photograph in full before posting to my friend for her 50th birthday. Aren't the colours gorgeous?

Second, the lace scarf which I designed [including inventing the edging] and made for a friend's 80th birthday.

Southern Summer of Socks Ready? Set? No go??

The Southern Summer of Socks KAL started on Monday 1 October. How many pairs of socks do I have on the go?

None! That's right!! She who was sock obsessed just a month ago has no socks on the needles. Why?

Three distractions:

First, there was Rugz4Kidz. The rug arrived here last Thursday. In theory I have two weeks to knit 7cm and I was considering using acrylic [to lighten the overall weight] and doing a lace pattern. Because I was still undecided, I paid her little heed. On Monday, her cries for attention could not be ignored; and somehow I knitted a stranded colour pattern in wool! I got her finished more quickly than I expected and she's impatiently waiting to strut her stuff for the camera before heading off to Donni in Wollongong.

Once Rugz was finished, Clapotis started to whimper, then started in with those long heavy sighs, and I just had to cast on! Even if it was late at night and time for bed! She wasn't giving me any rest until I completed at least section #1. On Tuesday afternoon I finished section #2. But, at bedtime, she whispered: "Just a few rows of section #3, you know you want to see what happens when you drop those stitches! It's only eight rows!"

Despite the thickness of the yarn, the weight of the wrap and the unseasonably hot weather [it's never too hot to knit remember!!] - Clapotis keeps calling, she won't leave me alone! Maybe if I took her off the lounge and hid her... LOL
Anyway, I have a deadline to get it from Penrith to Newcastle by 15 October.

Yesterday, it was the lace wrap - "block me, block me" she screamed from the lounge. I succumbed - and she looks wonderful. She's ready for a second blocking but, since she's quiet, it can wait till tomorrow.

Block more than once, I hear you ask. I'm told by a knitting guru [at the Guild] that blocking several times will teach the knitting what shape it's supposed to be so that it won't reduce to its unblocked size when the recipient washes it!

I'm off now, to cast on those socks. Online Supersocke Cotton is calling to be turned into a pair of toe up socks with short row shaped heels - challenges #1 and #2! Bring it on!!!!

Be quiet, Clapotis, or I'll put you in a cupboard!

Southern Summer of Socks KAL

I've joined the Southern Summer of Socks KAL. Shouldn't be too difficult, considering my current addiction to socks! LOL

I'm also hooked on lace at the moment, so lace socks? Maybe I'll try Lacy or Fancy Feet. Anyone know any other good lace sock patterns?

My first goal is to knit a pair of toe-up socks for me. Pattern? Probably my usual basic pattern from Lynne Vogel's The Twisted Sister Sock Workbook. I may consider knitting socks on two circulars, and perhaps two socks on two circulars. I've tried both these techniques at the Guild workshops but prefer my dpns.

I have only two balls of sock yarn in my stash but yesterday I ordered Cascade Fixation in two colourways [Plum and Wisteria] so soon I'll have four! Not that the amount of sock yarn I own counts, I knitted seven pair of socks for charity in 8ply acrylic between June and August! I can almost see the end of my acrylic stash but there may be one or two more pair of socks before it's over!

I've also [jokingly] told Bells that I knit sock dolls - they are knitted on dpns, include increases, decreases and grafting [Kitchener stitch]. Like socks heels, the face and the rest of the head are knitted flat and then joined again to continue working in the round. These dolls are socks without heels!! LOL

And, if you haven't seen the SSS KAL blog, tell me please: what's your favourite sock book and why?

Last night I had a strange dream - the strange effects of provisional cast-on

I dreamt that my [ESL] students and I were knitting provisional cast-ons! And, even more strangely, we were listening to the news: someone was in danger and our knitting could save them! [And then I woke up - the English teachers' pet hate at the end of a text!!]

Bizarrely, when I finally went back to sleep [two hours later] I dreamt about knitting again!
So, what's with the provisional cast-on? Last weekend I attended a lace workshop tutored by Raelene for the Blue Mountains branch of the Knitters' Guild and I learnt provisional cast-on. I've tried it before but became frustrated by the stretching apart of the provisional stitches when knitting the first row - apparently this is normal [the stretching not the frustration]. We knitted several repeats of a feather and fan stitch pattern and then learnt how to knit a border without breaking off the yarn from the body of knitting! Traditionally, lace knitting [and knitted lace] is not sewn together because sewing doesn't have the elasticity of knitting; however, it's easier to write patterns where x number of pieces are knitted and then sewn together. Knitting the border on is easy and I don't understand why it can't be part of the pattern explanation. Anything that involves less sewing up would be welcome by most knitters, I would think!

After the Guild meeting, we were shown the correct method to block. Blocking is essential to lace making - sometimes lace looks like nothing until it has been blocked but then it's revealed in all its awesome glory! Hint: If giving [not "gifting"] the lace project to a non-knitter, block it several times so that it is more likely to hold its correct size and shape.

Two things we didn't learn [and I wished I'd known to ask]: the best way to sew in ends and if there are any special techniques for joining in a new ball of yarn. Of course, the best way is to avoid joining yarn at all - buy yarn in big skeins!!

Since the workshop, I have cast on a scarf in white 3ply baby yarn (on 3.75mm needles) as a gift for a dear lady's 80th birthday. I'm knitting the horseshoe print stitch pattern from the Harmony Book of Knitting Stitches. I have not yet decided what border pattern I will use. Each pattern repeat [8 rows] measures about 28mm and I have done 15 repeats since Monday so I think I will easily finish and block it by 20th October. This is what it looks like so far.

Happy Birthday to me!

I had a lovely day. First I got to sleep in. Then WM and DD took me to the city. We had lunch at Sydney Tower Restaurant - a revolving restaurant with buffet-style "all you can eat" meals! The view from the restaurant is stunning, even on a grey day like today - we need the rain so desperately that there's no way I'd complain. This photo looks north-east over our beautiful harbour - yes, I think it's still beautiful even in these grey conditions.

After lunch we walked to the Art Gallery of NSW to see the Tezuka exhibition of Manga prints. He is most famous in Australia for Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion - both TV shows of my childhood.

When we arrived home, I opened my cards and presents. Three knitting books - yay! Well, in reality, two are yet to come - I was bit slow in ordering them so I will have to be patient and wait! (DD wasn't at our knitters' group so I had to do it myself). The two on order are from WM and DD - The Twisted Sisters' Sock Workbook (Lynne Vogel) and Victorian Lace Today (Jane Sowerby).










The book that I did receive arrived in yesterdays' post: Vogue Knitting: the Ultimate Knitting Book. I have had the 1988 edition of this book out of the library and used it frequently. Now I have my very own copy: thanks mum, dad, sis and family!

DD also gave me a 'gift voucher' for a family tour to Shark Island in Sydney Harbour. We will save that one for the warmer months - perhaps October or November.

Because this year is my 50th, WM's 50th, our 30th wedding anniversary and DD's 21st, we are taking a trip to the Northern Territory in August, part of which will be as Gold Kangaroo passengers on The Ghan - that's a shared present for all four events!

PS Please don't be a lurker. Is it possible to get 50 comments for my 50th? :-)

Knitting progress?

I think it's progress, sometimes it just doesn't feel like it!

I completed the knitting for another wrap on Wednesday, but I still have to sew most of the 112 squares (5 x 5inches) together and sew all the ends in - goal date: 31 March.

Since finishing the 5x5 inch squares for the wrap (afghan), I have knitted three larger squares (10x10 inches) for another wrap. This morning I woke up at 5.50am and couldn't get back to sleep (it's Saturday, for goodness sake!) so I got up and intended to do some knitting. I couldn't face sewing squares at that time of day and I was not in the mood for another diagonal 10x10inch square, so I decided to knit a baby shrug from the Knitters' Guild of NSW Friendship Crochet and Knitting book. Blow me down, it will take longer to knit than a square for the afghan. The body is 80 stitches per row for 200 rows and the cuffs are 40 stitches per row for 16 rows each. It doesn't sound like much but using baby yarn on 3.25mm (US 3) needles, it doesn't grow very much. Ah well, we live and learn and hopefully many babies will be warmed by the finished project as I am intending to give it to the local Tresillian Care Centre.

I found a couple of wraps/stoles that I liked on Knitty.com but since I want to use only one skein and these need multiple skeins I will have to modify a lot! So, in preparation, I have knitted a couple of swatches in my preferred lace pattern - one in 5ply (fingering) wool, one in 4ply (fingering) cotton. The wool, which knits up quite softly in the form of "that" cardigan, is very hard in a lace pattern, even when knitted on 5mm (US 8) needles! Perhaps because I was using the crinkled yarn I pulled out of one sleeve? The cotton looked good but I will not be able to knit a stole from a 50g ball of cotton! I'm going to have to use my March free day to buy the appropriate yarn as I haven't got anything in my stash (which is mostly 8ply - double knit - wool).

Now I'm going to try the yarn from the summer top in the lace pattern - I want to knit a short sleeved cardigan to put on when the airconditioning gets a little too chilly! If there's not enough yarn for that I will stick to the idea of a lapghan!

I'm off to colour my hair and do some knitting (and washing/laundry and shopping and voting ...)

I've got an idea!

While visiting Scarlet Purls blog, I read that she had knit a shawl for her friend because her friend found it cold sitting in front of the computer.

It's summer here so cold is far from my mind, but I was reminded that in winter, no matter what I'm wearing, my knees get cold when I'm in front of the computer.

Remember the sad saga of the frogged-knitted-frogged-knitted-frogged 80s cotton sweater? A knee rug (lapghan) is a good solution for that yarn. I can mix it with the Panda Regal Cotton I bought (before Stashalong), knit it on larger needles (perhaps in a lace pattern) and the 20+ year old yarn will have a new lease of life!

I'm really keen to try lace, especially when I look at the work of people like Anna and Monica at our knitters' group.

Watch this space!