"I'm so sorry baby, it's just you drive me crazy"

-from a Bittersweet song.

In a desperate attempt to stop my brain from running itself into the ground, I figured I'd do an update here. I've finished my first ever hand spun, hand knit shawl that I designed from scratch!



It's not blocked yet, more teaser photos this weekend.

Why yes, I will sell this pattern, but first there has to be a pattern to sell. Which is what I've been working on for the last 3 hours or so. I was dreading writing up the pattern, because even though I took copious notes I forgot to record with meticulous detail how I negotiated the increasing edges. Yeah. About that. Oops.

Gamely, I plugged away at the shawl, getting the basics in. I was proud of myself, I had at least charted the main section repeats so aligning the different motifs was done. I was figuring my stitch counts for each section, determining how I would start the shawl; and, of course, writing this all down. Because no one else lives inside my head and if other people want to knit this pattern, I have to give them something that resembles cohesive instructions. I figured out a wee little short cut and I have high hopes to get the shawl out to test knitter(s?) in a week. Wish me luck.

TL;DR - the handspun shawl is knit on size 6 needles using a yarn that's approximately sport-weight. (No, I did not count wraps per inch. I was too eager to knit with it.) I had about 345 yards of handspun total, and after the shawl was bound off, I had 1 yard and 3 inches left. Talk about a nail-biter!

There's a first time for everything

Even running out of yarn it seems! So shocking, especially for me! I'm notorious among my friends for having more lace scraps than I know what to do with. One particular ball of yarn lasted through a hat, a crocheted rose, AND the choker, Asphyxiation. Seriously.

I think I finally jinxed myself, though. As I finish the last few rows on the Panache shawl, I feel trepidation building as the ball of yarn shrinks and shrinks an shrinks... I'm cutting out something like 20 rows and I'm STILL not sure I'll have enough yarn. I unravelled the swatch for more yarn, and I'm still not sure I'll have enough. It's a very unsettling feeling, and one that I am entirely unfamiliar with.

I'm trying to see this as an opportunity, because I really like the mods to the pattern that I am making in order to adjust to a lesser amount of yarn. I didn't like the final 3 repeats of additional feather and fan that happened before the crochet cast off. That's going away. I didn't quite like the look of the "eye" of the feather, so now it's going to be much smaller. I may even have to use some of the alternate bind-offs I saw in ravelry, because they seem to use less yarn. Seem to. I'm not sure. I do NOT look forward to frogging back 12 rows because I ran out of yarn AGAIN.

In some ways, I can't shake the feeling that this is what I get for trying a style of yarn I usually don't like. That's right, I usually find the rapid color changes of hand-dyed yarn far too busy for my tastes. Other people like them, and that's fine, I've never really been one of them. Then I found the lovely semi-solid lace work by YarnAddictAnni, and thought I could give it a shot. 1200 yards of lace weight is more than enough to make anything.

Or so I thought.

About 600 yards later, I look at my doubled yarn and wonder where it all went. I'm actually a combination knitter (read: my purl stitches sit backwards compared to "normal" knitting styles.) and I've heard that it's a style that uses less yarn. My history of projects and scraps have most certainly been a testament to that fact. But now, the fickle yarn gods have laughed at my hubris and ensured that I will run out of yarn JUST once. Just so that I will live with the taste of fear of yarn shortages and be humbled. I have to wonder what do I need to sacrifice in order to appease their fickle nature? I'd gladly burn my DPNs as a sweet sacrifical incense if it meant that I wouldn't run out of yarn. But I'm not sure bamboo wood makes for good incense.

Damn yarn gods.

Obsession...

So, I have to say, I'm totally obsessed with the panache shawl. It's the fastest shawl I've ever knit. If I had left the border out of this pattern, I would have been done with it within a week, that's how easy it is to knit. I added a border on the sides and around the neckline to give it more of a collar. The original pattern only included the scalloped lace edging at the tips of the feathers. Here's what it looks like all laid out.


And here's a picture of me wearing it.

Now, I normally don't love variegated yarns, as some of you well know, but in this shawl it wasn't too busy at all. I used knitpicks shimmer lace yarn in their sherry colorway to make this shawl. I actually only needed 2 skeins! I even have a little bit left over! I didn't double the yarn, either, just held it singly. Because the yarn is alpaca and silk, it's actually quite warm, and the lace lets the fabric breathe so you don't get too hot. I actually really want to try this in another of their colorways, possibly hush or or blue glass. The feather and fan body of the shawl really lends itself well to variegated yarns, it lets the colors show itself off in the oh-so-simple stitch pattern. Actually, I think that's why I finished it so quickly, for the first 85 rows, it's all feather and fan - which only has one row of lace stitches followed by 3 rows of stockinette. Yeah. LOTS of mindless knitting, it's wonderful.

Honestly, it's such a wonderful pattern that I couldn't help myself. I started a second one. I'm making it out of another Etsy Seller's yarn, dreamy lace by YarnAddictAnni. The specific blend which I had bought doesn't seem to be carried by her etsy shop anymore mostly because she has a NEW SHOP!!! Check it out, she has absolutely wonderful lace yarn at amazing prices and mind-bogglingly long yardage. I'm seriously tempted to buy a blue-ish colorway to make the shawl again as a present for the wonderful boyfriend's grandmother.

I have to say, it's a ridiculously quick knit, which makes it such a great present pattern. I think I may have said that before, but it really is. For his grandmother, I'd want to double the lace yarn, just so it has a little more warmth and make it out of alpaca. For the pattern, I'd recommend going with a fuzzy lace-weight like alpaca or a heavier yarn because it's knit on size 6 needles and larger. I'm also contemplating sock yarn, which would be a good weight for the pattern and seems to be really common on ravelry. Also, the original shawl/veil pattern it was derived from was knit entirely on size 6 (4 mm) needles, so you don't have to follow the recommended changes in needle sizes, it will work just fine on a single size. Much love to Lankakomero for writing up her variations on the pattern.

As you may have noticed, I made a few small changes like the border. I also cast on 39 stitches and started on row 13 to create an opening at the neckline. After I knit on the border, (which is from the babushka shawl in the best of knitter's magazine shawls and scarves book, btw) I added little ties at the neckline to hold the shawl closed. I doubled the yarn and crocheted it to the sides about 3 inches down from the neckline of the shawl NOT 3 inches down from the edge of the lace border, in order to make a lapel collar. Oh, and I only used needle sizes 4 mm, 4.25 mm (I have weird 6's), and 4.5 mm.

Awakening the Halo

So, to celebrate the paper being accepted for publication (wow, I'm writing in passive voice already?) I bought yarn to make a commemorative project. Yarn really is the best way to celebrate, honestly. I got two skeins of misti alpaca lace, in their beautifully heathered purple colorway. It's just gorgeous, honestly, with this blue that just pops. And there's this really subtle pink hue that peeks out every once in a while that I just wasn't expecting.

To celebrate, I started swatching. I've been swatching alot lately, it seems. I've started swatching for the infamous lace circle jacket from Feminine Knits. I'm going to use the misti alpaca lace for the jacket; I'm hoping the alpaca has enough halo to substitute well for the mohair. I don't think I could stand that much mohair next to my skin. The pattern states that it should have 16 sts for 4 inches on size 9's. What I got on size 7's was 4 stitches to the inch after washing and blocking. Have I mentioned I'm a loose knitter?

I'm not entirely sure what I want to do next. I'm spot on for gauge... at two sizes SMALLER than what the pattern calls for. I'd like the jacket to be a little more snug than what the pictures show. The pattern says it's 19 inches from armhole to armhole, at best I'm 16 - 17 inches at that measurement, so I definitely need it smaller. For now, I'm just going to see if I can bring out the halo of the alpaca more. So far, I've wound each ball 3 times, and it's starting to get more halo. The third time, I held a very fine grit nail file to the yarn as I wound it in a ball, which seemed to bring out more halo. We'll see.

In other ADD project related news, I started the panache shawl. I'm using knit pick shimmer, in their sherry colorway. Oh my god, it's gorgeous. I decided to do the 9/16 version, mostly because I want a capelet look instead of a wrap-around shawl. Using the picot cast on, I started on row 13 which has 39 stitches. I wanted something that had a defined neckline, where I could attach a shawl pin or ties to hold it closed. It's totally mindless lace, I'm on row 27 already. I'm using size 6 needles, and I won't change sizes until row 63.

It's nice to have mindless lace, though. Currently, the older projects are languishing, mostly because they're being annoyingly complicated. I've somehow made the sleeve too big on the hourglass jacket, so I need to rip back about 4 rows and figure out how I want to change the sleeve cap. So that's changing pattern short rows in broomstick crochet = NOT easy. I think I'll probably tackle it this weekend.

The swatch for the lace bolero is done and hanging on the wall right now. This is more for me to remember than anything else. I did half the swatch in the centered double decrease, and the other half with the traditional sk2p stitch to see which one I liked better. So far, I like the centered decrease. The traditional stitch reminds me of varicose veins, a not attractive look. Now, why is it hanging on the wall, you ask?

I'm hanging it on the wall to see how much drape it will develop. I picked that trick up at a talk I went to at Knitter's Connection, where they hammered into my head the importance of swatch. A great way to check how much a fabric will grow is to wash and block a swatch - and then hang it on the wall for a week. Simply pin it to a bulletin board (cork, foam, whatever) but ONLY pin the top row. This leaves the weight of the swatch to hang from the top row, so you'd get an idea of how much the knitted fabric will grow when you wear it. Leave it there for a week, and check gauge then. Don't forget to include row gauge, because it can change! It's interesting, like a minature experiment for me to do at home, so I'm excited about it.