Syrian progress

I have not had much work to do at work lately, so my Syrian shoulder shawl has been coming right along. I plyed up another 400 yds last Monday (took a sick day), but it wasn't dry until Tuesday. I was only a few rows away from the end of the base triangle, so yesterday I started the edging. I've only completed 2 repeats so far, but it should go fairly quickly. I'm not sure if I have enough yarn spun up to finish the edging, but I have plenty more of that roving.

I took the entire shawl off the needle and put it on a piece of string. As you can see in the bottom photo, this will be a sizable shawl for a norman sized person. I'm 5'9" tall and the shawl is wider than my wingspan. It is at least 36" from point to long edge and should block out much larger. My yarn is quite a bit thicker than lacewt, but that just means I get bigger things with the same number of sts. :) I appologize for the poor quality of these phtos, but they were done at work with one of the company cameras. It didn't have a macro setting for good closeup shots, so I'll have to take another picture when I get home.

I've been shopping for a new car the past 2 weeks and I'm just exhausted. I really ddin't want to buy another van, but I'm afraid that only a van offers enough cargo area for my walker and spinning wheel at the same time. Of course, the back seat is reserved for my Cherry dog, and I do need space for a chair and some fiber... I've been to almost every dealership in town, but I still need to visit the other Toyota lot to see the boxy Scion and I want to look at Honda Elements. My walker is 40" tall when folded up and takes up quite a bit of space. I just tie it to the back handle in the MPV and still have loads of room, so I guess I will probably wind up with another van. I just hope I can find one with a more comfortable seat than the Mazda!

Well, I have knitting to do and novels to read, so I'll write more later.

Lace Progress

I have been flirting with this shawl for years, ever since I bought the Folk Shawls book. It is, of course, the Wool Peddler's shawl and is shown in the book in bright red. I kinda like purple, so mine is knit from Jaggerspun Maine Line 100% wool and I've added a center section for better fit. The center will not be growing any more - I made increases until it would fit my back and after starting the Horseshoe Lace section the middle will stay the same. I'm still increasing on the two sides (the original part of the shawl).
I'm using my KnitPicks Options needles and this is the 60" length with size 11 needle tips. I have far too many sts to spread the shawl out, but if you can see both photos at once, you can easily understand the way I've modified it. I haven't a clue how many sts I have on that needle, but it's a LOT. :)
This is the Syrian shoulder shawl from Victorian Lace Today. The bottom half looks a bit wonky cuz I had started on the Harebell fichu and then decided I just didn't like it. So the yarn has been frogged and I didn't steam it before reknitting. The yarn will look just fine after the whole thing is blocked. OK, yarn - my handspun NZ fine romney in a lovely warm grey. This photo doesn't show the true color of the yarn, but it does show the true color of the towel. Strange, huh? Anyway, I've just changed to the 40" cable on my KP Options needle (size 9). I think I have 12 Vs done and the pattern calls for 18. Then I'll start the edging. I need to spin some more of this yarn to finish the edging. I've got about 4 oz into it - the yarn is a 2ply about 16-17 wpi. I love endless garter stitch and that's what this little shawl is. Wonderful, mindless garter stitch. And so pretty... We wont talk about the place I forgot a YO and the "fix" is visible. I'm hoping it will disappear when I block.

spindlitis ornament exchange

Hi, again. Last year (or perhaps the year before) some of us on spindlitis (a yahoo group) decided to use Easter Egg dye on our handspun and make something of it. Well, I got as far as the dyeing and spinning, but never made anything from that lovely yarn until this year, when the spindlitis group had an ornament exchange from our handspun. Teri Pittman, list owner, graciously allowed me to participate, even tho I'm a wheel spinner and only demo briefly on spindles when out in public. These tiny mittens and socks are from the Interweave Press book Christmas


Stockings, way in the back. Actually, they
are just "regular" mittens and socks done on 24 sts around. This last photo is to show the difference in size between the mini-sock and one to fit my foot. It's just a trick of the camera that the colors look the same - they are really quite different.