Fiber weekending/worrying about weather

I've reached the "nupps" portion of my Swallowtail shawl. I don't find the nupps a problem -- but more an annoyance in the Handmaiden Sea Silk.

So I'm diverting the strain from the purl 5 togethers and started the Shoalwater Shawl in my Helen's Laces seaside colorway.

The pattern is interesting as it is all knit -- something I haven't done in long time. The yarn is lovely and soft, but thin, although it doesn't look like it wound up!


But it is amazing: after constant whining, when the time comes and one can do "nothing" , how strange it is.

You wander around looking for stuff, even though you only have two suitcases and things can't be far.

You worry about extended relatives in the New Orleans area. You install yet more widgets on your sidebar to track weather.

And then to take your mind off the storm that will hit that area on Monday, it's time to put something in the "tags" section of all the things you've queued on Ravelry so you can find something when you want it!

Progress progress

When you pack your suitcases in preparation to move, you really know
1) you couldn't care less right now about most of your stuff
2) you can't put nearly as much as you thought in the suitcase
3) it's just time to "let go"

so ... that was this weekend. Packers next week. In between, I'll work on my newly started Swallowtail shawl from Handmaiden Sea Silk and say goodbye to a favorite tea pot for a while~!

Lace Leaf Shawl

by Evelyn A. Clark now finished in beautiful Norwegian (thanks!) Rauma Inca Alpakka -- the wool is soft and almost silky.

But I can't wait to get some proper blocking wires or that puzzle blocking board -- anyone know what that is called and where I can get one?

Empty spaces

exist in my office/sewing room which is now cleaned up, although you'd never know it considering I have a shawl blocking on the floor and wool strewn around the table by the ball winder trying to figure out which yarn to use for this year's


I never did the other stoles by Pink Lemon Twist but they are available for pay download if I am so inclined.

See Pink Lemon's Twist Aug 1 posting for details about the Yahoo group for the Mystery Stole 4.


I like the ideas of these KALs -- they are given out in 6 sections. But I'm still deciding what yarn to use -- I tried a swatch of the Russian cobweb and it felt a little coarse, so I may just have to use some of my Misti Alpaca. I just can't do the beads -- we'll be in suitcases, hotels, cars, planes and automobiles -- so beads would just be asking for a meltdown from moi. And knitting is not supposed to be stressful, right?

P.S. LATER: It looks like I'll be using cream Misti Alpaca, but plain ... I just think it would drive me crazy. So I found some beads, found some tiny crochet hooks -- we'll see! (the instructions use dental floss to help with the beads/stitching -- can't wait to find out what that's all about! )

When in doubt, pick up a book

I have this book but haven't read it yet.

I think I'd better look at it, as I am continually intrigued about the "origin" of some knitting patterns. I just saw a reference to "cat's paws" being a Shetland tradition (according to Evelyn A. Clark in her new Knitting Lace Triangles book(let). Cat's paws designs are also very common in Russian Orenburg lace shawls, and I think Donna Druchunas Arctic Lace book also has some shawl patterns with the "cat's paw" in the designs.


Jean Miles in her blog Jean's Knitting often cites this book as a good reference on knitting traditions.

There is a a different "edition"/cover on another blog, and the book is also available from Knitting Out Loud audiobooks in an abridged format (which I can't stand -- I want the whole thing if I am going to listen to a book).

Otherwise, Amazon.com has it for some wild prices
(scroll to the bottom of the page for the "new" price)

When you can't knit

because you have a new PT doctor and your shoulder is too sore, you at least can read a couple of new books:

Getting things done

Evelyn A. Clark Heartland Lace Shawl: done (it was great)



husband's closet: gone through.
Bags from BOTH our closets ready for charity:

String blocking

... what you do when you should be cleaning out your closet.



Knit Picks has a nice page on lace blocking: this time I decided to try the string method. As I only had my two hands available, I fiddled with it quite a bit and then gave up -- I probably could have stretched it more.

Now my husband says he'll clean his part of the closet out -- so I get another diversion! Blocked shawl pictures to follow.

What are you reading this summer?

After long weekends, Tuesdays seem to become "Mondays" on things that have to get done or rectified from the weekend. Today is no different, and I'm so tired I feel jetlagged. I don't even seem to be able to "cruise" on the internet or Ravelry (gasp!) but I am listening to podcasts and knitting as chaos swirls around me.

This morning's podcast is "Books on the Nightstand" -- blog link here. There are lots of good book reviews, and in one podcast a list of "new classics" from 1983 to 2008

1. The Road , Cormac McCarthy (2006)
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling (2000)
3. Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)
4. The Liars' Club, Mary Karr (1995)
5. American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)
6. Mystic River, Dennis Lehane (2001)
7. Maus, Art Spiegelman (1986/1991)
8. Selected Stories, Alice Munro (1996)
9. Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier (1997)
10. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami (1997)
11. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer (1997)
12. Blindness, José Saramago (1998)
13. Watchmen, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (1986-87)
14. Black Water, Joyce Carol Oates (1992)
15. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers (2000)
16. The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood (1986)
17. Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez (1988)
18. Rabbit at Rest, John Updike (1990)
19. On Beauty, Zadie Smith (2005)
20. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding (1998)
21. On Writing, Stephen King (2000)
22. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz (2007)
23. The Ghost Road, Pat Barker (1996)
24. Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry (1985)
25. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan (1989)
26. Neuromancer, William Gibson (1984)
27. Possession, A.S. Byatt (1990)
28. Naked, David Sedaris (1997)
29. Bel Canto, Anne Patchett (2001)
30. Case Histories, Kate Atkinson (2004)
31. The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien (1990)
32. Parting the Waters, Taylor Branch (1988)
33. The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion (2005)
34. The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold (2002)
35. The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst (2004)
36. Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt (1996)
37. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi (2003)
38. Birds of America, Lorrie Moore (1998)
39. Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (2000)
40. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman (1995-2000)
41. The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros (1984)
42. LaBrava, Elmore Leonard (1983)
43. Borrowed Time, Paul Monette (1988)
44. Praying for Sheetrock, Melissa Fay Greene (1991)
45. Eva Luna, Isabel Allende (1988)
46. Sandman, Neil Gaiman (1988-1996)
47. World's Fair, E.L. Doctorow (1985)
48. The Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (1998)
49. Clockers, Richard Price (1992)
50. The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen (2001)
51. The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcom (1990)
52. Waiting to Exhale, Terry McMillan (1992)
53. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Michael Chabon (2000)
54. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (2000)
55. The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls (2006)
56. The Night Manager, John le Carré (1993)
57. The Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Wolfe (1987)
58. Drop City, TC Boyle (2003)
59. Krik? Krak! Edwidge Danticat (1995)
60. Nickel & Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich (2001)
61. Money, Martin Amis (1985)
62. Last Train To Memphis, Peter Guralnick (1994)
63. Pastoralia, George Saunders (2000)
64. Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)
65. The Giver, Lois Lowry (1993)
66. A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, David Foster Wallace (1997)
67. The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini (2003)
68. Fun Home, Alison Bechdel (2006)
69. Secret History, Donna Tartt (1992)
70. Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell (2004)
71. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, Ann Fadiman (1997)
72. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon (2003)
73. A Prayer for Owen Meany, John Irving (1989)
74. Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger (1990)
75. Cathedral, Raymond Carver (1983)
76. A Sight for Sore Eyes, Ruth Rendell (1998)
77. The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro (1989)
78. Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert (2006)
79. The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell (2000)
80. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (1984)
81. Backlash, Susan Faludi (1991)
82. Atonement, Ian McEwan (2002)
83. The Stone Diaries, Carol Shields (1994)
84. Holes, Louis Sachar (1998)
85. Gilead, Marilynne Robinson (2004)
86. And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts (1987)
87. The Ruins, Scott Smith (2006)
88. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (1995)
89. Close Range, Annie Proulx (1999)
90. Comfort Me With Apples, Ruth Reichl (2001)
91. Random Family, Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (2003)
92. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (1987)
93. A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley (1991)
94. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (2001)
95. Kaaterskill Falls, Allegra Goodman (1998)
96. The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown (2003)
97. Jesus’ Son, Denis Johnson (1992)
98. The Predators' Ball, Connie Bruck (1988)
99. Practical Magic, Alice Hoffman (1995)
100. America (the Book), Jon Stewart/Daily Show (2004)

When I get a "brain" back, I'll try and figure out what the criteria were for this grouping.

Meantime, I think I will call Evelyn A. Clark the new knitting and sanity guru. I've started her Swallowtail shawl, and it's just like the other two I've made -- easy to follow repeats that one can actually get into a rhythm with. I think I'll be doing her stuff all summer.

I'm trying Peruvian alpaca silk (Baby Silk by www.orlis.ru 70% alpaca 30% silk for 2.5 - 3 mm needles)made for the Russian market. It's wonderful -- I'll definitely get more. The Knit Picks needles are a tiny bit slippery, but I still have to invest in bamboo ones.

Hopefully I will get a few quiet moments in the next few days to block the Heartland Lace shawl that came off the needles yesterday.

Just a quick soaking left to do ...

We're finished with the 4th of July, and today we had a real day off. It was a good day just to sit and listen to podcasts and get this done and off the needles.

The pattern is brilliant, and thanks to a nice rhythm that eventually comes, I was able to cope traveling around with it in cars, on airplanes, and in hotel rooms. The Knit Picks needles REALLY helped. I originally was going to make the shawl quite a bit bigger, but stopped the repeats at the end of the 100 gram ball and went into the second ball to finish up: I used 114 grams total.

Tomorrow hopefully I'll get a chance to soak and block the shawl, although "work" might get in the way. My next project will be to do something small so I can try the local Alpaca Silk to see if I want to get any more before we leave.

rectangular shawl listing

Just found this great list for rectangular shawls -- you could spend 1/2 a day going through all the links.


This came in the mail yesterday -- I'm dying to try the needles but that will probably have to wait until the weekend. (off on a 2 day trip starting after lunch today) This is also the first time that I've ordered any Knit Picks yarn except for the Palette stuff. I think next time I'll order the "solids", but this will make a nice Twinings stole from KnitSpot.

If I lose my suitcase and don't have internet ...

We have spent a good part of the weekend setting up and downloading data and special "programs" for my Palm Centro. We have finally gotten KnitAble to work (and take the data AND sync) so I want to put some future wish list projects in it.

As it's easier to type all the stuff first someplace, I thought I'd make up my "wish list" for shawls while we are traveling/waiting for stuff to arrive -- I can always find a yarn store for needles and wool.

Working on + 3/4 finished:
Evelyn Clark's Heartland Shawl

cast on, first repeat of many:
Voyager, in Classic Elite Provence (cotton)

"beauties" I want to eventually do and that are on my computer in documents download file:
Print o the wave Stole
Juno Regina Stole
Laminaria
Swallowtail Shawl
Hanami Stole have paid download
Woodland Shawl
Luna Moth Shawl
Orenburg Triangular Shawl have scan from personal copy of Pieceowrk Magazine
Clapotis
Shetland Triangle from IK Wrap Style book; have download
Lace Leaf Shawl from Fibertrends leaflet (need to scan)
Icarus have paid download
Muir
Adamas Shawl
Kiri
Japanese Feather Stole or Scarf
Twinings have paid download
Candle Flame Shawl (looks like it is for heavier type yarn; errata on Ravelry
Blue Jeans Lace Leaf Shawl
Bleeding Hearts Stole Spring 08 IKnits scan
Mountain Peaks have paid download
Ostrich Plumes Stole or Scarf don't have yet
Sea and Shell Stole
Starlight evening wrap need to buy

is that enough? I'm sure .... LOL I will be lucky to get two done, maybe. But it's fun to think about.

Finds when you are cleaning up

Amidst old winter clothes with shoulder pads, I found an older Orenburg scarf that is 72cm wide and 102cm long. It's mostly all silk, so I could actually wear it right now.

I can tell the scarf is hand made -- there are 2 joins and the usual almost- invisible sewing-up last part of the border. The bottom photo shows part of the center panel.

Summer for shawls

I'm a really slow knitter but have become enamored with shawls and am constantly
thinking about them now -- probably because they will be such a good "packing" project (one circular, one ball of wool, one pattern). I don't have to be reminded that they are not necessarily a good "knitting" idea when traveling, but that's what "lifelines" are for!

I still have the second Latvian mitten to work on, but otherwise, no more summer projects except shawls. Everything else has to be organized to be packed.

I'm working on a great pattern -- Evelyn Clark's "Heartland Lace Shawl" in a local wool that will block up nicely and seems to be going along at a reasonable clip for me. The colors seems "cool" to me so it's been fun.

Now .. just to wonder why the center stitch is so wobbly?

Today is a normal Monday with the normal things to get organized, and then go to a jazz concert this evening.

Knitting in Public day came and went -- next year hopefully I'll get to participate in one. But we'll be in CA -- so I am sure I'll be able to get to a "stitch and pitch" too!

Summer of shawls

When I'm not moving piles around for the next couple of months, I'm going to work on two shawls:

the Voyager lace shawl from elann.com


I'll use this Classic Elite Provence cotton yarn



it's the perfect pattern for what I need -- something to wear over my shoulders, throw into a car, drop on a chair ... BUT working with cotton reminds me why I really prefer WOOL. I originally purchased the cotton for a short sleeved summer cardigan, but with my loose knitting habits it's much better made up into a stole that has "wonky" stitches even at the beginning of the pattern (6 rows of garter stitch, uneven sides, sigh)

The other shawl I'll work on is Evelyn Clark's Heartland Lace Shawl in a locally-acquired alpaca wool in sky blue --- it will be very pretty.

There is a KAL on Ravelry for the Heartland Lace Shawl and here are SOME of many other shawl groups:
Shawl Lovers, Year of Lace 2008, 2Klace, and Summer of Lace.

And don't forget the Knitting Olympics -- my countdown timer on my computer says only 60 days to go! It will be fascinating!

Pavlovsky Posad factory shawls

 

 

When in Russia, one tends to take these shawls for granted. I already had the orange paisley one below, and then was able to buy another one here at the local haberdashery: "Atele Elegant".

 

 

Pavlovsky Posad factory shawls have been made since the middle of the 1800's. The shawls usually have a floral center, come in different color themes, and are extremely warm, in spite of being thin.

Due to its size, it is hard to get a total shot. This shawl is 140cmX140cm -- about 55"x55".

This is my new shawl, bought as an early Christmas present.

 

I was so pleased they had it in the "bolshoi" size -- it is 180cmX160cm, about 71in by 63in. I wanted one large enough to wrap totally around "and back" to keep my arms draft free. I love the "not so bright" floral pattern on this one: I think I even might have a Russian tray similiar to this pattern.

 

Another shawl I got out: this is at least 10 years old, or even from the 80's!

 

(Another link for these shawls)

Time for Shawls

I'll be posting a parade of shawls as I get them out for the winter:

below: square Orenburg style shawl with the cat's paw pattern in "coarse" mohair -- sheds! (needs to hibernate in the freezer to shrink the fibers some)

 

 

true square within a square Orenburg shawl, fine silk and mohair: