And now, to enjoy it.

Swallowtail Shawl
Originally uploaded by RenaissanceWomn

Absolutely, truly, finally done. Blocked. Dried. Ends woven in. Lifelines out, blocking unwaxed dental floss out.

I'm still in heaven.

Swallowtail Shawl
Originally uploaded by RenaissanceWomn

Done! Done, done, DONE!

Finished binding off the Swallowtail Shawl just minutes before leaving for hockey last night. I at least was sensible enough not to try to block her before bed (since I got back at 10:30). She is lovely, even unblocked. If you hold her up to the light--breathtaking.

And my mom says, this morning, well, it's more of a scarf... does she not KNOW about blocking? (This, with the added repeats.)

I'm going to have a block-o-rama: I'll block Swallowtail, re-block my Leaf Lace Shawl that got oddly fuzzy and smaller after its romp in the dryer with a dryer sheet (trying to get it less itchy), and finally block Backyard Leaves. Whee!

Soooo close.

I'm on row 15 of 16 of the Peaked Edging. Then I have one row of, I think K2togs and stuff, one row plain knit, then a special bind-off. Nearly stayed up to finish it, but I'm glad I didn't; I was tired.

I didn't really appreciate the Lily of the Valley pattern until Sunday, when I held it up to the light and found it is really lovely. Dharma was being tortured taught to spin at the time, so I don't think she was able to catch a glimpse.

After all I've put into this shawl, the fineness of the laceweight still stuns me. The fact that it is two-ply, of even finer threads, even more so. It is so soft that I'd love a bed of unblocked Budding Lace. People feel it, their faces register shock, and they go on petting even though they've passed the socially acceptable length of time for petting someone else's project.

I think I'll love this one.

(spluttering) 1 Week!?!

I was hunting around blogs last night to check up on modifications I might have to make to my Swallowtail Shawl (thought I had to decrease 2 stitches on Lily of the Valley Lace II; maybe not), and found one gal who finished it in one week.

I'm going on four months! Aaagh.

OTOH, I'm unreasonably pleased to have finished the Lily of the Valley Lace I as of last night. Gleeful, even.

But don't take that to mean I didn't put in another lifeline. I'm gleeful, not drunk. (I leave that to Rabbitch.)

The end is in sight!

Adding: I switched to the size 4 Addi Lace Needles for this. Am loving them.

Nearly 3 weeks with no update?!?

All right... I guess I haven't had much to update lately.

Working away at the Clapotis (which just enchants me every time I hold it up to view); I think I'm on the 2nd repeat of 6 of the "straight" section. Am toying with the idea of leaving the raveling stitches alone, so I can play with them while I wear the Clapotis.

Nearly done with the Budding Lace on the Swallowtail Shawl, so I'll need to decide soon if I want to do more repeats to make a larger shawl, or to leave the second ball of Misti Alpaca Lace alone and use it for another project, sell it, or give it away.

Finished the felted bowl and it is nice, though hairy (perhaps that's the mohair). Not sure if I posted on this: managed to knit it in circular on two straight needles, inside out! Daisy size 17s (13mm). After contemplating doing a seam, I realized there was another way: I cast on 34 stitches and, joining them in the round(ish), did sl 1 pwise, p1 across. And back. And again and again, only periodically having to fix a mistake (found by reaching up underneath). It made a lovely st st fabric on the inside! I had meant to bind off at the base and pick up stitches with my size 13 dpns (9mm), but feeling to lazy to get up and get them and also relishing a challenge, I dropped & picked up stitches to put two same-side stitches together and periodically did p2tog to decrease, until I had 7 stitches. I pulled the tail through them and voila! a pretty nice little gray bowl.

New project
Mentioned We Call Them Pirates to my niece and nephew on our weekend away, and they were enthusiastic. So I started a hat on 5/30 for my nephew with black as the background but a bright green for the foreground. It is eerie and wonderful! After doing about 17 rows, I tried it on... and found it tight. Checked my gauge, and it was too small: exactly matching KnitPicks' gauge but not OK for Pirates. Unraveled it all, did some math, and re-cast on 144 stitches so I'd get closer to the 21" the pattern predicts. Instead of adding a full repeat of the pattern (32 sts), I repeated the vertical bars twice at the beginning of each of the four repeats (4 more sts, total 16 additional stitches around). Because my row gauge was too small also, I added one more horizontal line and line of pluses at the bottom. I'm already back to where I was and it still looks great. In fact, I'm halfway through the second skull and it's only been 6 days since I started this project. I love quick knits, especially ones that look so cool. The one for my niece will be hideous in red and purple (she will love it).

Pattern: We Call Them Pirates
Yarn: KnitPicks Palette, Green and Black
Needles: Susan Bates Quicksilver in size 3, Silvalume in size 1
Gauge: 7 sts/in, 8 rows/in

Stop spitting on me from up there! (And UFO update)

I dug out this rainbow yarn that my mom had bought on behalf of my niece, whoah, more than 7 years ago? for me to make a scarf & hat for said niece. The niece picked it out, Mom bankrolled the operation, I was to knit it. I finished the hat first and sent it on. My sister said it was too small. When I saw my niece try it on later, I realized 'too small' was rather an understatement. Whoops!

I think I did finish a larger hat and send it on.

The scarf, though... even though it's a rather variegated wool (seems like every stitch is a different color), I chose a complex, 8-row lace pattern. Took forever and when I'd gotten maybe a foot done, I realized it was awful. Ripped it out, started a k2p2 rib scarf, but got distracted before I had a foot done. Put it away for several years and finally asked said niece if she still wanted it. She said no.

Then recently, I found a pattern for knitted, felted coasters in my set of saved 2006 "Knitting Pattern A Day" calendar sheets. What fun! I thought this rainbow variegated yarn would be just the thing.

So I started one last night, and knitted it up, finishing it this morning:
(modeled by my silly s0n)









Plopped it in the washer in a net bag with a little soap and very hot water, let it agitate, checked it, agitated, checked, agitated, checked and...

realized it's either not 100% wool or is superwash. Cause the danged thing pretty much looks like the photo above still, but damp. RATS! I was looking forward to some lovely coasters.

UFO Update
I couldn't actually find any other projects on which I'd made any amount of progress save these two. First, the Swallowtail Shawl:
Still in Budded Lace II








A close-up. Despite what I know were errors, it actually looks quite lovely!







And my patch-toe Meilenweit socks, one toe at a time:

Toe that starts out a little lighter







Other one

They look rather odd on the needles, because each needle holds the increased stitches from one side of the patch, plus a top, so the foot is skewed. But as I try them on, I'm quite pleased. Doesn't look like the skein, quite, but is really nice anyway.

New projects

I was given a copy of the Wonderful Wallaby pattern by a sweet KnitCamper (thanks, Witt!), so I'll use that to finish the hood on the Tigger sweater. Yippee!

Let's see... the Child's First Socks are languishing for now. I did start a simple pair of socks with the Patch Toe taught by The Fiberqat at Knit Camp, in my Meilenweit that still makes my heart race when I look at it. Yum. They're up to the foot portion, where I just knit around & around, and I love how they don't match even though they're from the same ball of yarn. It seems to have two strands of orange that goes from light to dark and two strands of green that do the same thing, making for different combinations of colors. Gorgeous. (I just realize they look largely brown; it must be the combination of the colors that does that.)

I also started the Swallowtail Shawl, in the hotel room, I think it was. It's another Evelyn Clarke, so well written, of course. I did think there was a mistake in the pattern, but that was just from my stitch markers needing to migrate on a certain row (row 5, I think it is). I'd end up short 1 stitch at the right, but have an extra one at the end. I'm on repeat 7 of 14 of the Budding Lace 2 chart, and despite some early mistakes, it really does look nice. I'm using the yarn specified (that was lucky), Misti Alpaca Lace, in a gorgeous Dutch blue color, on Quicksilver circulars. It is challenging for me, but worth it, so far.

I did some more rows on the Double Rose Leaf scarf, but not a lot. I am really enjoying having a simple pair of socks to work on at soccer games (and maybe church), as the Child's First Socks need a little more attention than is useful for this sort of thing. (And have you seen all the socks-in-progress over at Harlotville?

I did decide, on this trip, that my main objective in knitting in the near future is to have a drawerful of hand-knitted socks. I was so intrigued by everyone's!

I had SUCH a great time. Photos later.