Pics aren't great but...

this gives you an idea.

Please excuse me while I do my happy dance.

I can’t believe I’ve actually almost finished with this beautiful shawl. This is the Paisley Long Shawl from Fiddlesticks minus the fringe which will take a little bit to do but I’m so pleased with it. I did find one mistake as I was blocking it but I can live with it. Ain’t it purty?


If I get a picture of it tomorrow with the fringe I'll post again. It's huge. I can't find my tape measure (yeah, I know, I can't find any of the 50 or so tape measures that I own) but I reckon it's about 7 feet long and about 30 inches across. And I didn't even block it hard. The fringe will add about 11 more inches to the overall length but I think it will set it off beautifully. I have to reiterate that if you want a challenge knitting lace with the best instructions, this is the company to go for. Here's a link to the designs page. I actually bought the kit, something I don't normally do and I made the pattern in the garter stitch it called for, something else I rarely do. I will end up with almost a whole skein of yarn left over. In all fairness, they did recommend 2 skeins if you're not doing the fringe and 3 if you're doing the fringe. I got 3 skeins because I didn't want to get caught short. Nevermind. I think I already know what I'm going to do with the 3rd skein - about 600 yards' worth.

I’ve started a sweater with some yarn that I bought from Stitches a couple of years ago. It was on sale on a cone so I’m hoping that there will be enough for the sweater. Because it was on a cone, I was advised to skein it and wash it before I started working with it, which I did. I also decided I wanted to dye it. It was an oatmeal color but I thought this red might be pretty so I broke out the old kool-ade and dyed away. The red came out a real rustic color so I’m going to just do a basic, rustic pattern and I think I'm going to borrow heavily from the Portuguese Fisherman's sweater I found in the old magazine from the 70's.

Lace Class

On Satuday I finished the last of 3 sessions in the Beginning Lace Class at Lincoln Land. Although we ended up with just 2 students, they were so lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed the class. Both students made great progress on their scarves. Both ladies expressed interest in a knitted doily class and a sock class. If you're in the Springfield area and would be interested in either of these classes, please give Lincoln Land a call at (217) 786-2432 or email the Program Assistant at amanda.willis@llcc.edu to let them know. These are not the classes I proposed for the Spring semester but if there's enough interest, I'm sure they'll get it on the roster for the Spring or perhaps the Summer session. It helps them to know what people are interested in doing and they really do their best to accommodate. If you've never taken a Community Education class with them, you should have a look at their catalogue (click on the link above) because you're sure to find something interesting.

Progress continues on my Paisley Long Scarf. I didn't take another picture because I'm just on the second half, which is a repeat of the first half that I pictured before. Unfortunately, the section I'm on right now is a relatively boring repeat of a filler pattern which has to be repeated 6 times (making 12 repeats in all). The good news is, once I finish these repeats (I have 2 left to do) I'll be on the homestretch. Can't wait to finish and block it although I'm not quite sure where I will have room to block it!

I'm on my way

Halfway, that is. On my Paisley Long Shawl. I’m loving this pattern. When the Yarn Harlot bragged at how good these patterns are, she wasn’t just whistlin’ Dixie. It’s lace knitting with the pattern on both sides and a yarn that is a bit splitty. The pattern is as clear as clear with the addition of text directions when something different is going on in the pattern out of the ordinary. It’s been a pretty quick knit, too, so far. This picture isn’t really blocked, it’s just lightly pinned out so I could take the photo.

Tomorrow is the first of the 3 classes for the beginning lace course I’m doing for Lincoln Land and I’ll have 3 knitters. I’m very excited as this is the first time I’ve done this in an extended format like this. We’ll be doing a sampler scarf with fingering weight yarn.

Round and Round

It’s been a while since I’ve had this kind of weekend. Of course, I always knit on the weekend but this weekend has been overdrive – in circles and circles. Remember the old mommy, mommy jokes? Mommy, mommy, I’m tired of running in circles. Shut up or I’ll nail your other foot to the floor. Seems kind of crude now but at 8 years old, that's funny, I don’t care who you are!

I’ve been fleshing out my 2-hour program on lace knitting to a 9-hour course and have been having a ball. But the overflow of that is that I’ve been a lace knittin’ fool. I’ve got 3 lace projects that I’ve had on the needles, one since February. This weekend, two of them got the business, especially the Shetland-style one. I worked 18 rounds on it in the past 3 days and considering it’s got over 600 stitches, I’d say that was a feat. Then I also worked about 35 rows on my Paisley shawl. Of course, that one’s only about 80 stitches but it’s patterned on both sides.

I’m nearing, I won’t call it the end because I still have the knit off edging, but I’m nearing the point where I can start knitting off the edging. I have to make the final determination about what edging I’m going to use and, at this point, I’m tempted to use a crocheted edging or small knit edging but I’ll have to take a breath when I finish the border to see what’s what.

The Paisley shawl is getting a little boring because you have to repeat this same pattern 6 times before you start the more interesting bit but I’m still enjoying it. We’ll see how I do when I have to join the middle and do 6 more of this pattern repeat. Maybe there will be enough between now and then to get me ready for it!

Oh, and one more thing. I did a class on knitting with jewelry wire and beads a couple of weeks ago and wanted to show you this. It’s something new I did as a sample because I didn’t really have a necklace to show. I love how it came out and it was a big hit with the class. I knitted over 3 stitches, passing the beads on every row and then, when I was finished with the necklace part, I took this wire disc I’d found somewhere and wove the blue wire I’d used in the necklace through it to pull it into the overall design and also to tone it down a little bit. I just want to wear it all the time!