What, again??

So, what did I do last night after I got home and finished dinner? Did I sit down with my beloved PR2 and work on the edging? Nah.... I decided it was too large to schlep back and forth to work and that I needed another smaller project. heh. I wanted to try the next shoulder shawl from VLT - the cherry leaf shawl. I dug around in my weaving yarns for something variegated and came up with this lovely rayon/silk slub (that I have two big cones of!) and started right in. Well, sadly my eyes were just not up to reading the tiny chart in the book and I messed up right away. Made a copy of the pattern and tried writing in stitch counts so I wouldn't get lost. Didn't work. Phooey - I wanted to watch this movie and get started on the new shawl. After about 45 mins of frustration I gave up, ripped back to nothing and started another Syrian shoulder shawl.
I have had a few minutes to work on it this morning at work and got a few rows done. I borrowed one of the cameras here and took a couple of shots, one against a light background and one against a dark background, hoping one of them would show the colors correctly.
Under the office fluorescents, the bottom photo looks closer, but I don't know about in natural light. We have rain today, so it's grey and ugly outside. Bummer. Anyway, I just knew you all would be thrilled to see more pix, right? {G}

Pi Are Square progress

I made up an edging pattern for my Pi Are Square shawl and am off to a great start. The edging is only 8 sts by and 8 rows so it goes really fast. I've gotten quite a bit done in just 2 evenings. I think I'll take it to work with me tomorrow since I haven't anything to do. :)

Here is the full shawl view - this is my Calif King size bed and the shawl is just off the needles - not blocked yet. I think it will be plenty big enough for me. This was my first big project with my handspun and I really enjoyed knitting it. Lots and lots of soothing garter stitch. Mmmm... Not that I was stressed or depressed or anything like that...

Above is a long view of the edging - big, very big YO holes. :)

And here it is close up - REALLY big YO holes! (LOL) At first I was afraid I wouldn't have enough handspun to finish the edging, but now I'm sure I'll have plenty. May even have enough left over for a cap or wrist warmers.

Victorian Lace Today - Syrian shoulder shawl

Yes, DONE!! Well, not done as in washed and blocked, but definitely off the needles. Ends woven but not clipped, mistakes repaired - sort of. :) My handspun yarn is thicker than that called for in the pattern, so I truly got a shoulder shawl for a larger person. Good thing, since the recipient is a larger person, as I am.
The shawl is spread out over the bottom half of my Calif King size bed and takes up a good portion of it. I imagine it will be quite a bit larger once blocked. I intend to do that in a couple of weeks - I need the bed to block it on and it has to be dry and removed so we can sleep in the bed.
I've folded back a corner here - which side is supposed to be the "right" side? The attachment of the edging leaves a definite line of sts, two rows of them in fact. I like both sides, so I suppose it really doesn't matter which side winds up showing.
Fleece from NZ Southern Alps natural colored Romney ewe, washed by me and processed by Wooly Knob into easy spinning roving. 1st skein spun at my friend's house in Burbank on my Joy, the rest spun at home on the Reeves frame wheel. It took 4 full bobbins of singles plyed up and I had only a very small amount left over. Plenty of roving, tho, so I can make lots more of this yarn. The color is very hard to photograph - a warm grey leaning towards light tan.

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.