The Lady, She is DONE!

Oh, Happy Day! While I enjoyed every moment with my Lady Eleanor Shawl (from Interweave Press, "Scarf Style"), I am so happy to have her to wear and to hold and to fondle. She is everything I had hoped for - dramatic, classy, warm, soft and a true statement piece. That statement is, "I have arrived and I am a knitter - got a problem with that, punk?"

The fringe is outta control cool. The diamonds that the knots form, perfectly echos the diamonds created by the entrelac pattern. Whoever dreamed up this pattern is absolutely brilliant. The book suggests thick tassels as an alternative to the fringe. I think that idea is hogwash and should be ignored completely. The ache in my back from hunching over these endless knots was totally worth it!

I think I should get some outrageous fused glass shawl pin - wouldn't that be glamorous? Or maybe too much.... hum.

This is me trying on my best cool and glamorous expression. I plan to adopt this facial expression when I, someday, travel to New York wearing this shawl. Can't you see me as the hip urbanite having an espresso at a sidewalk cafe or some such?

Stats: Noro #243, 10 skeins plus just a few yards extra. #10.5 Denise needles. Started in June and finished in September (My longest knit, ever!)

The Lady E has consumed most of my knitting time the last week and half or so. I have made a bit of progress on the Tangled Fields of Gold, though. The garter ribbing was a bit tricksy for me. I kept making mistakes and froggin back half rows and even an occasional whole row. We are at the stockinette/increase portion now and things are going smoothly and a lot faster. I can't wait for the joining of the sleeves (already done, yea!) and all that fascinating new stuff (new for me, anyway). I've been reading ahead in the pattern and there are quite a few things I can't visualize. I am trusting that all will become clear when I get there.

A little Hand Dyed Fun

While the entire knitting population of Southern California converged upon the Yarn Harlot at the LA Central Library - I was forging my own path. (Sorry, Steph. Crowds and I just don't mix. I know you had so many neat and wonderful people to talk to that you didn't even miss me. Besides, what are the chances that you even had enough sleep last night to notice if I wasn't there?)

Little Boy and I went to Hissy Knits to dye yarn with Charles Lee. Since y'all were at the aforementioned event, we had the dyes all to ourselves and had a total blast! We used Knit Picks Bare and acid dyes to hand paint the yarn. With a plastic table cover, latex gloves and good brushes, this process wasn't messy at all.



Little Boy made 2 hanks of worsted in a camoflauge and an orange mix

And I tried to do and "over-dye" with Cherry, tourquise and orange with brown around and a little over on a hank of lace weight and orange, yellow and brown in a dk weight.

I have to say that we were a bit skeptical when our hanks were done. They seemed a bit garish and not like the beautiful hanks we've seen in stores. I mean, we think we are going to get professional results with our very first try, right? (Ai-yah...). BUT here's how they wound up on a ball...

Camo

Cirque du Soliel

Candy Corn

Petals on the earth

I have plans for the lace weight. I think it wants to be Muir

We shall see.

Going from Process to Project

Ah, my Lady E. So lovely, so luxurious, so delectable, so.... long.

I have never been a process knitter, per se. I want the product and I want to acquire the skill, but the actual knitting is mostly a pleasant byproduct, not the point.

Until the Lady E. Oh, the colors, the texture, the constant surprise of the unfolding mosaic. 7 stitches forward, 7 stitches backward, 7 times. The symmetry is poetic, the rhythm is tranquility itself. This is a process to be savoured.
(By the way, knitting backward on this project is must. Here's a tutorial How To Knit Backward)

But lately there has been a teasing chill to the air. A hint that My Lady could be worn, and impart just a touch of stylish warmth. I want her to be done.

I return as a product knitter. Hear me purrr.

It's My Birthday!

Just a quick little post to say Happy Birthday to me, yea!

I can honestly say that I am very happy with my age - and there aren't too many mid 40's women who will say that. But I know these are the power years, baby!

Gratuitous pic- Some birthday yarn that will someday become a U-Neck School Vest (Thanks, Liza!) And we got the sleeves done on the Tangled Fields of Gold







I'm off to dinner at Canele's in Atwater. That place is off the hook!

Canale Review

Ciao or Chow!

2 Sleeves or Socks at once on Magic Loop

As a fairly new knitter I read all sorts of brilliant ideas out there in blog-land and think "that's a good idea!" Trouble is, it's an idea - not a darn tutorial. Someone out there said, "I knit both sleeves at once on a Magic Loop so my mistakes will be symmetrical." Brilliant! A method for planning for mistakes!

I'm thinking my LYS goddesses will teach me. Not only had they never heard of such a thing, they thought I was nuts. They are no longer goddesses. The 'net also failed. One lone spot discussed cuff down 2 socks on a single circ, but there were assumptions that I knew way more than I did.

I duked it out with my two balls of yarn and one circular needle and voila - here is my tutorial for novices!

1. Using a long tail cast on, cast on half the total stitches needed for the first sleeve. Make sure your tail is long enough for the TOTAL number of stitches for each sleeve.




2. Starting from the same end of the needle and from a second ball of yarn, cast on ALL of the stitches needed for the second sleeve





3. Divide 2nd sleeve stitches in half and pull out a loop of cable between them.






4. Cast on the second half of the stitches for sleeve one. Make sure the first stitch you cast on here is snug up against the last one from the first half









5. Now you have all of your stitches cast on for both sleeves and you are ready to join in the round






6. Join and knit sleeve #1 (green). You are only going to knit one side of the round - as you are knitting your stitches in exactly the order in which you cast them on.





7. After knitting side one of sleeve #1, be careful to switch balls of yarn and you move on to sleeve #2 and knit one full round on that sleeve





8. Finally, you come to the second half of sleeve. Switch balls of yarn once more and finish the round.





Remember, the order of stitches is
1. Sleeve #1, first half
2. Sleeve #2 whole thing
3. Sleeve #1, second half.
Don't forget to switch balls each time time you switch sleeve #'s

The Silver Slink

A while back I went to my first major yarn sale. Suss Design in LA was moving and liquidating. I can honestly say that I did not have a "stash" before this time. A few piles of yarn that were for projects yet unmade - but not a stash.

Oh the siren call of beautiful yummy yarn that is ridiculously cheap! I bought hand dyed cotton and a cotton tape that reminds me of the ocean, Koigu and mohair and hemp. I have plans for none of it and dreams for all of it.

Amongst the yarns were 7 hanks of the softest, slinkiest, vaguely shimmery soft grey bamboo yarn. Like silk, but better.



What to do? I want something drapey with great shape but a simple stitch. It needs to be elegant. It needs to be.... Coachella.

After reading some great posts about Coachella experiences, most notably randomcyn's blog http://www.cyn.ca/knit/tags/projects/coachella/, I cast on for the 29" when I have a 40" bust. The knit was quick and easy with the DK weight yarn held double on #9 Audi Naturals.

In the morning this little top was sexy but not outrageous. By the afternoon the yarn had stretched and I had a binder clip holding the front together so as not to display the girls to the general public! Yikes!

A quick trip to Nordstroms and I am now good to go. I present to you the Silver Slink!

Fairly incendiary, no? For those of you on the WestCoast, I got the halter Cami from the Brass Plum section at Nordstroms.

We spent this week on the Tangled Field of Gold - Eunny's Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I saw on knitting spaz's blog that she did both sleeves at once and I thought that was revolutionary. I read somewhere else that they did the sleeves FIRST and that sounded great too! I love the idea of having the sleeves ready to roll as soon as the body is done. This will mean that all the amazing, magic stuff, like joining the sleeves and knitting the yoke and then those yummy cables, will all happen right away in one huge reward.

Anyway, I have about 3.5 inches so far. I am way too excited about the fact that I have two sleeves that will be done at once. I used the tutorial I found here: http://www.tostetoes.com/twosocksoneneedle.htm I had to fiddle with the cast on of the second half of the first sleeve - she takes no pics of this cast on and takes it for granted that I would know how to do it. If I'm not the only dummy I will try to recreate and document. Of course, it also means that I double my mistakes (already made one, but too far back from me to care) I have high hopes for this one...