Circle Mutable

Cap Shawl
From Victoria Lace Today
by Jane Sowerby
The Ravelry entry for this shawl is here.

Cast On: January 3, 2008
Bound Off: August 30, 2008
Finished Size: 99"
Weight and Yardage: 178 grams, 1958 yards ETA: A Raveller has calculated there are 89,214 stitches in the Cap Shawl. That's a lot......a lot of stitches.
Tension: ?
Needle: 4.5mm bamboo circular
Yarn: 3.2 balls Fiddlesticks Zephyr 50% silk, 50% merino, colour Ruby, 630 yds/2 oz (~56 g)
Yarn Source: Village Yarns, Cumberland, BC
Yarn Cost: $64
Modifications:
The pattern does not use directional decreases: that is, all the decreases are k2tog, even when the lace is sloping left. I used the left-leaning SSK decrease when called for as I felt it created a less choppy, more elegant line in the left branches of the crest o' the wave section.

Notes:
A word on blocking circular lace. What you want to do is this: take a huge sheet, folded 4 times and centre marked, and pin it flat to a carpet. Pin a measuring tape at the centre, or you could use string, and hold a fabric marker at approximately the radius measurement of your desired finished size. Mark a perfect circle. Block to the circle, or to a consistent distance away from it. Circle perfection, and no irritating measuring and repinning.

Also, use blocking wires.

At first I wasn't sure how I felt about this shawl. I wish it were a bit more complicated, both because I was bored while knitting it, and because I like intricate lace. However, the sheer size of this mammoth shawl makes it impressive.




As to wearing it, as Annalea asked yesterday, I think it will do well with the top third folded down. It will still overlap a lot in front, but I think it'll be okay. The real problem will be storing it. I don't necessarily want it folded up somewhere between layers of tissue, but because it's a circle there's no good way to display it, unless I want to run a bunch of pins into my wall. Anyway my walls are not big enough to accommodate it - I only have an 8 foot ceiling. I guess I could buy a 100" curtain rod and hang it, in half, from that...we'll see.




Practical considerations notwithstanding, I am in love, sweet sweet love, with this shawl. You can tell by the fact that when I went to put all the photos from the memory card onto the laptop, Photoshop told me I had taken 83 pictures of my shawl. News to me.



Here are some of them, with grateful thanks to the beautiful, angelic Jen for being a good sport and modelling for me. Do click on the pictures, as they look much better when bigger.



It was quite a windy day here, and the beach seemed perfect, but it did prove a little tricky to get photos that were even moderately well focussed.





I like the motion shots though.





After a half-hour at the beach, I went home and played around in the shrubbery, lying on the grass and crouching awkwardly trying not to get the neighbour's house in the shots. I was hoping someone would notice me and come over and exclaim over the shawl, but no one did.



Yes, for you I hung my brand-new lace on two apple trees and a rhododendron...




...and let it drag on grass.




Herb garden fence, ornamented.





Thanks for all your wonderful comments yesterday. I just meant that post to be a blocking update, so I hope you can summon up the will to comment again today, on the very same piece of knitting...I like comments.

Shawl by Paula Bunyan

Dude, seriously.

Ninety-nine inches.

Spitting Distance

Don't talk to me please. (Commenting doesn't count.)

Of COURSE I am.

Someone asked me the other day, "Are you still knitting?"

So it's obviously time to do a fibrey post...the last time I talked about knitting was on June 18. The thing is, as Kristine noted not long ago, people are interesting because they grow and change, and converse about more than one subject.

But here's some knitting for Annalea, who bemoaned the lack of knitterly content on the blogs lately.

My cousin had a little girl a while ago, and I knit her a sweater. But I knit the three month size and finished it when she was nine months old.

So I gave that to another, newer baby, and cast on another sweater. This time I knit the 1-2 year size.

And now she is two years old. And here is the sweater:

But it's a drop-sleeve, so I think I can have it finished by the weekend, if I try really hard. It shouldn't take me too long to knit two little drop sleeves - they are pretty short. Then next week I can do seaming and button bands and buttons and weaving in........

I have a feeling it's not going to fit her for long, if at all. Maybe I should start something else.

I like this pattern - it's a Sirdar, from book whose cover has ripped off so I can't tell you the number. This is the fourth sweater I have made from it - two of the others are here and here. The only thing I don't like about the patterns is that they are all written out. No chart in sight. It makes it very hard to keep my place, and very hard to spot a mistake in the pattern. (This sweater had two so far.)

The yarn is also Sirdar - Snuggly DK. I still like it even though it's all synthetic. It's incredibly soft, not too pilly, and washes well. It took me a bit of practice to get the tension right on the stranded bits though - it was quite tricky. By the time I knit this piece it was coming along, though, so it doesn't look too bockety.

I am working on getting my WIPs out of the way so I can knit the Rheingold Wrap. I have been resisting the temptation of swatching this project, but last night I fell and now this is on the needles:

The swatch is half-done - sorry about the unsatisfactory picture. (My tension is apparently unsatisfactory too - I can see white bits through that knitting. I'll have to go down a needle size.)

Can I just say I HATE this method of swatching fair isle? You are supposed to cut the yarn at the end of every row, knitting all the chart rows from right to left. The problem is, I'm such a cheapskate and a yarn-hoarder that I kept trying to find a way around Alice's directions. I tried knitting it in the round (messed with the tension), tried carrying long loose strands across the back so I could rip it out later (kept entangling my fingers) and tried snipping the ends really short (unravelled the knitted edge). In the end, bitterly defeated, I just did it the way she wanted me to. But I hate the trailey ends of yarn and I hate the waste...I have this horrible feeling I'm going to run out of yarn and have to order more, which will of course be a different dye lot. I did order extra yarn (I wanted an additional 30 centimeters) but I've grown pessimistic about my ability to eke out yardage.

Speaking of which, I have run out of yarn on the lace shawl. I am about 45% done the border, and have three inches of yarn left....just enough to spit splice the new ball in. It has arrived at the yarn store, and I just have to drive 40 minutes to get it.

I've read elsewhere that the yardage guidelines in Victorian Lace Today are unreliable, but I didn't know HOW unreliable until I ran out of Zephyr on this project. The book calls for 1700 yards and I bought 1890 yards. I should not have run out.

In other news, the visit with Ox and Ames is going so well. We are having an absolute blast. We are getting a lot of swimming, canoeing, and eating done...luckily the first two are so far balancing out the third. Until they leave for their new home at the end of July, posting here will continue to be spotty and unreliable. Hopefully there are still some readers when I get back...

Up-Freaking-Date

Somebody does WIP it Wednesday....maybe Jo? Anyway, here are some WIPs (WIP = Work in Progress).

The centre of the Cap Shawl is almost complete. The rounds are now 738 stitches long so one round takes a fair bit of time, especially now that I've got these six purl rows to do. Purling doesn't feel any slower to me, but when I look at the clock I can tell it is. It takes me almost half an hour to do a round on this, at the moment.



Lace in progress is pretty boring stuff to look at, which is why I've spared you too many progress shots. There you have it, though: round 170 of 172. Feels like these next 2.5 rounds will take for-freaking-ever. (Aside: thank you Megan for formally introducing me, all those years ago, to the concept of the expletive infixation. It has validated all kinds of linguistic outrage for me. By the way if you have the time, do read that entire article - it's hilarious.)

And as promised I am showing you a picture of Charlotte's stocking. It was kind of a knit-centric week (trying oh, so hard, to get that stupid Cap Shawl done) so I didn't do much......if it sounds like an excuse, it is.

Last week:




This week:




Is it enough, O most enlightened reader? Or does the sun appear dark in your eyes because of my slack-freaking-assedness? I know which one I'd choose.

I'll do better next week, I promise.

Here's the peony, in full blowsy bloom. This is one decadent plant: between its scent, its glorious plumage, its syrupy buds, and its almost instant progress from bloom to decay, it is the Roman Dinner Party of the perennial world.



And that's all we have time for today. Catch you on the flip side, my fan-f*cking-tastic darlings.

Growth - with photos.

Origami beads, strung with Czech glass (and yes, the odd plastic) for a friend.

Cap Shawl update - I'm on round 153 of 163. Once the main body is finished, I shall have the pleasure of knitting the attached border.

Stripey socks news: a disaster befell me while I was riding to knitting a few weeks ago. Due to a combination of careless sock-stowage and winds generated by incredible, super-human speeds, my sock-in-progress, along with its Addi Turbo, got sucked into the pedal thingy. Like, the place where the pedal is attached to the bike. The entire shooting match was wrapped so tightly around the pedal thingy (help me out here, Lizbon) that I had to cut the yarn free, and now my Addi Turbo is permanently kinked in several places. Dirty grease is immovably ground into the leg of the sock. And I have lost my mojo.

But look how good my dinner was.

Baby Yukon Golds, olive oil, butter, rosemary from my garden, Maldon salt and cracked pepper.

Pink hardy geraniums, and my first ever stargazer (I think that's what it is).

Chives, a very pretty plant that also provides highly popular bee and butterfly habitat. These are unbelievably hardy, fast growing, and you can cut them down after their first bloom to get a second one later in the summer. Hummingbirds love them too.

And with all this stitching, knitting, cooking and weeding, some things are bound to take a backseat.

(Hi, knititch!)

In Which I Show Fondness for My Readers.

I've been meaning to post a progress picture of the Cap Shawl for ages, but the whole process made me tired just thinking about it. You slip all the stitches on as many needles as necessary, being really, really careful not to drop any of them, and you pin the whole works out, take a picture, and slip the stitches all back on to your needle. It takes ages.

And you see, my darlings, how much I love you - I did it.

I used five long circulars for this, and didn't get the entire thing done, which is why you only see a photo of about 45% of the outside edge. The rest is all bunched up on one needle at the bottom of the frame.

I am on row 107 of about 170, which is deceptive because the rows get longer and longer as you go. Then there is the knitted-on border, which will take tons of yarn and FOREVER to do. A more accurate idea of my progress would be to say, I have used up almost one of the three required balls of yarn.

Pretty, though, isn't it?

And tomorrow, precious poppets, is Puppy Pick-up Day. Pictures forthcoming!

Listen, Bambi: Actions have Consequences.

I forgot to show you guys the socks I cast on instead of fixing my lace mistake (which is currently in the corner having a time out). I went for the Marina Piccola socks again - hoping to break the Sockapalooooza hex.

This counts towards stash reduction - and frugality, too. I got the yarn from Shelley at Fun Knits, when the Group was over there for the afternoon last year. Judy Maclean, the Sweatermaker dyer, had given several tangled skeins of merino/nylon sock yarn to Shelley. These skeins had apparently become partially unbound in the dyeing process and were a snarled mess. Judy told Shelley that if anybody wanted to go to the trouble of untangling the yarn, they could have it for free.

OF COURSE I took it. I spent two days untangling my skein and winding it into a beautiful, perfectly symmetrical, centre-pull ball. After having given away my first, aqua-coloured pair of Marina Piccolas, I was determined to have some of my own, and these are them. They. Those. here they are.



Again, I'm happy with this pattern: it's easy to memorise. I also like how the colour is knitting up. I'm getting about 10 stitches to the inch, magic-looping on 2.5 mm Addi Turbos.

Oh yeah: and progress on the log cabin afghan. It's now too big to take with me anywhere, so growth has slowed considerably. It's about 4.5 feet across at the moment.


It isn't easy to get good pictures these days, by the way. It's so dark here....I went out to take some garden photos and the camera saw fit to use the flash. Outside. At 10.30 AM.

Anyway, I was poking around looking for signs of spring. And I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but white-tail deer don't like crocus. Or bamboo. And yet?

Exhibit A

There were 100 crocus bulbs in here, evenly distributed and all about 1.5" high. It's hard to tell in this photo, but the deer have pawed (or pulled with their teeth) half the bulbs out and cropped the tops off of the remaining shoots.

Exhibit B

My poor bamboo. THE NERVE. What do they think they are, freakin' pandas?

Luckily, I am a member of a superior race. These opposable thumbs come in really handy for delicate work, and taxidermy requires some dexterity.

Exhibit C



Just kidding.

"Seriously. NOT!! NOW!!!"

Welcome to the End of the World. We hope you've enjoyed your stay.

It probably doesn't look bad to you, but I'll have you know this is my third attempt to fix this mistake. If I can't do it soon, it'll be frog time - and tinking four 370-stitch rounds is a prospect that daunts even me.

You can take the girl out of UVic, but......

This box arrived at my house today, long before it was expected.



Note the pattern on the tissue. It can only mean one thing:



There IS a Doctor in the house.



And not a moment too soon.



The handknitted socks feel right at home.

================================

Oh, yeah: here's some knitting. Progress on the Log Cabin (note the colour change - such is the nature of stashbusting) and the Cap Shawl.

Almost Forgot a Title.

Today is one of those coastal days that overwhelm newcomers and visitors by their sheer pervasive soakedness. But hey - it grows the trees that everyone admires so much. (Click to embiggen.)

Well, my respite from knitting lasted all of about 2 hours. Here is the Log Cabin Blanket, in progress:

And here are the first 18 rounds of the new lace project:

which will in time become this:

Gift certificate in hand, I went to Village Yarns' (no website) January sale the other day. I had a bit of trouble spending the money, actually - the vastness of my stash has been a weight on my chest lately, interfering with my enjoyment of it. One thing I hardly have any of, though, is laceweight. So I picked up three skeins of Zephyr Wool-Silk in Ruby, for the Cap Shawl, and also bought 15 skeins of Berroco Glace at 70% off. Yes, Please!

The Glace (the orange rayon in the picture below) will become a Clapotis - at last - for a friend. Then there is the celadon -....lime?.....celery?....whatever, it's green - Handmaiden Sea Silk, which is gorgeous, and which I bought for my mother at 40% off. She's trying to decide what to knit with it, and left me one of the two skeins to wind into a ball for her. Lastly, at bottom left, are the two balls of Naturally "Me" which is a 50% cashmere, 50% merino blend. I bought this at half price to make myself Odessa.

I've been spending some time on Ravelry lately. It hasn't cut into the knitting time, much, but I find the queue concept very motivating. It's not that I didn't have a list of things to knit BEFORE Ravelry, it's just that having them all in a line, with thumbnails clearly visible and yarn details noted beside the photo, keeps me enthused about casting on. I've already started three of the things in my queue, and have plans for at least two more.

What I'm hoping, then, is to revive my Stash Reduction Plan of last year. I haven't fallen off the wagon, per se, but I have not done as much actual knitting as I thought I would have. I haven't bought much yarn, either, but there is still Much to be Done.

Thank you for your encouraging comments on my very cheerful and zingy New Year's Day post. I think you all were right: it's bound to be better. Besides, in the end, really, there's nothing to do but go on - one has no choice but to hope for the best. I appreciate your words.

I also appreciate these.

They arrived in my mailbox today, and should go a long way toward cheering me up....which, if you are at all familiar with the plots, will probably strike you as ironic. Thank you so much, Joe and Dave, for your generosity.