Tag Archives: lace

by

Four of a kind

This is my fourth Ishbel in less than 12 months, if you count this one that I eventually frogged. I’m bartering with my lovely and amazing friend Natalie for some family photos next month. She likes the pattern, happened to like this lovely shade of Araucania Ranco (#108) in Teal. She also knits, but is more of a beginner, so she requested something she couldn’t make herself. I happen to believe she will conquer anything she sets her mind to, but I also don’t mind making her a little bit of lacy shawl.

ishbel 4

I’m making the smaller size, as I have on this one and this one. To me, smaller shawls are a little more wearable, because they can serve as a fun neck accessory more often in the year. It gets very warm in the south! Ok, really more like scorching. The lace repeats are a little like “potato chip knitting,” according to the Knitmore Girls. It’s hard to put down when you get going.

I cast this on when I came to an impasse on the Ellybob Cardigan. Since the designer responded so quickly, I can work on both! The other night I had both in front of me and I would switch off every couple of rows. It’s nice to have projects with different needle sizes going to give my hands a break if they fatigue on one size of needles.

I’m putting this out here on the blog, so I’ll do it, really. When I finish either this shawl or Z’s cardigan I will finish the sleeve caps on Matt’s cardigan and block the pieces so I can seam and pick up that shawl. I at least want to get the sleeves and blocking done before I move on to another project. It doesn’t bother me to have so many UFOs going at once, but I know as the weather warms I will not want to touch heavier sweaters.

I love getting into the rhythm with this lace pattern. I’d better get back to it.

by

Damsel in Damask

I love this pattern. I love this yarn. The two had to meet or I think my personal universe might have come unhinged. The yarn is Artisan Sock by Hazel Knits in Saffron. The pattern is Damask by Kittman Figueroa.

As many people have said on Ravelry, the lace is much easier than it seems. You get into a rhythm and the lace is easier to read as you go on. I knocked this baby out in about four days. Luckily, newborns do sleep a lot (especially during the day).

I anticipate wearing this all of the time. I really don’t like making scarves, but shawls charm me. I made the small size. The straight long end is meant to block out to about 40 inches, but it easily blocked out to 52 inches. I used about 372 yards of the 400 yard ball, about 8 less yards than the pattern called for. The pattern doesn’t have a gauge on it, but I went down a needle size automatically since I’m a pretty loose knitter. I was sad that I didn’t have the 440 yards needed for a medium size in the skein, but now that it’s been blocked I’m very happy with the size. Superwash yarns tend to expand really well.

The mornings and evenings are getting much cooler so it won’t be long until this gets extensive wear.

by

Witty knitting

I’m starting to get some knitting groove back. I placated myself with simple stockinette socks for my brother and the Featherweight Cardigan mindlessness for a couple of days. Then, this gorgeous Saffron yarn in Artisan Sock by Hazel Knits kept bugging me. It was on the shelf in the living room whispering about how wonderful its color is, essentially taunting me. I had earmarked it for a Damask shawl. I was a little scared to undertake this because it seemed like some serious lace. Like, lace that you always have to keep your mind on or you’re left in a crying little puddle when you mess up over and over.

Well, I started it and I adore it. It’s actually more intuitive than you think. I was first intimidated by the 17 pages of pattern. This is because Kittman Figueroa gives you a chart and written out version for every pattern row. I am not a huge fan of knitting the purl-seven-together nupps, but I think they look nice. So far, I’ve only made tiny mistakes and I’ve caught them on the same or next row. Thank goodness newborns sleep so much.

I’m on row 47 or 124 for the small size, and the rows decrease as you go, so I might even call myself halfway done. I wish I’d had 40 more yards in this skein to make the medium size. I thought about trying it anyway, but it seemed like most Ravelry folks did use more than 400 yards, so it was deemed too risky.

It’s nice to know my brain is still up to this kind of performance.

by

Keeping calm and casting on.

The Featherweight Cardigan has been blocked. I still need to weave in the ends, and take a picture of course. It’s a little snug in the arms, but that’s to be expected, given that I made my non-preggo size and preggo-arms are bigger than that.

What’s next you say? Well, as much as I should be plugging away on the baby blanket (which is now somewhere in the 720+ stitches in a round range), I have decided I must cast on for something lace. I’ve decided on Ishbel, a lovely shawl that has 11,355 Ravelry projects. Whoa.

I started making this a couple of years ago and then quit on it for no good reason. I’ve chosen a different yarn, because I was previously knitting it out of some Araucania Sock that was a gorgeous color, but didn’t feel that great to knit with. Oh, and if you ever try to wind a ball of that stuff by yourself on a swift and ball winder…BEWARE. At the shop we’re always joking that it had to be put together by children. It’s a tangled mess. I even wrote the company about it once and got no response, after I struggled to wind three balls of the sock yarn and had to cut them in order to make them useable. I still haven’t knit up a single one of them.

Regardless, it seems I’m fairly long-winded this morning. This is the yarn I’ll be using for Ishbel.

It’s Lorna’s Laces Solemate. It’s color 310, Catalpa. The fiber content is 55% Superwash merino, 15% Nylon, and 30% Outlast. This is definitely more synthetic than I normally use in a project, so we’ll see how that goes. I was charmed by the color, and it’s definitely still very soft.

Since it’s a project with a good amount of lace, I wanted to check and see if the color changes would outshine the lace. An easy way to do this is check the color contrast in a black and white photo. I saw this a couple of years ago in the book Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarns and was reminded of it again in this post.

From the picture, it looks like there won’t be hugely dramatic color changes, so I’m going to forge ahead.

by

Lolita

I completely forgot that I had knitted this and hadn’t documented it anywhere yet. I can’t even remember now if I mentioned it on the blog. It was started and finished pretty quickly, so the details are a blur. The pattern is Lolita by Jamie Thomas. The pattern is very straightforward and easy to follow. The lace takes no time at all to memorize. I don’t remember having a single issue with it.

I used Tussah Silk, by Sublime, in Mulberry (color 264). This yarn has the most gorgeous sheen. That doesn’t show at all in my pictures, but it’s fantastic in person. It’s half silk, half viscose. The viscose part of the yarn has a tendency to snag on things, so I have to be careful about bumping into sharp edges (but shouldn’t I be careful of that anyway?) and watch that it doesn’t get fuzzy on me. I’m not sure if I would use it again. The sheen makes it look amazing, but the feel is not particularly special, and the snagging bugs me.

I’m headed to Little Rock for my fella’s high school reunion. Have a great weekend everyone!

by

NaKniSweMo 2011!

Future Still Light Tunic

This year I am joining the ranks of the ambitious knitters that dare to knit a 50,000+ sweater in the month of November. I have chosen the Still Light Tunic by Veera Välimäki. I have been captivated by the Ella Rae Lace Merino shown above (color number 9) for over a year. I was toying with the idea of buying it last fall, but I didn’t have a project worthy of it yet. After continuing to drool over it for months, I decided to just buy it with the idea that I would knit a lightweight cardigan. Then I saw Still Light, and I knew they had to be paired.

Though this yarn is technically categorized as a lace, scores of knitters on Ravelry say it’s more like a fingering (which the pattern calls for), so I decided to just swatch and go with it. I have more than enough yardage. I decided to cast on provisionally so that I can have a sturdy seam at the top as advised by this post. I think the stockinette will be conducive to studying as the end of the semester looms near. Now, can I actually knit a tunic out of fingering weight in a month and not lose my mind?

by

Summer Slice

Summer is coming to an end. Many knitters rejoice in this since we get to pull out our delicious wools to knit with or wear. I am a fan of summer, and though it has been an intensely hot one, I’m still sad to part with it. As a Labor Day holiday/end of summer gift, I have a FREE sock pattern! I call this pattern Summer Slice. The lace reminds me of a slice of watermelon, but really it could be any luscious summer fruit.

I used Classic Elite Summer Sox in Seagrass (for the toes and cuff) and Coral for the rest. The fit is customized as you go, so you can use your preferred sock needle size and different yarns as well. I think the lace would look best with other solid or semi-solid yarns. The lace is a 12-row repeat that becomes somewhat intuitive after a few times. The socks are constructed two at a time, using the magic loop method, from the toe up. This is my favorite method of knitting socks. I love the satisfaction of finishing both at a time.

You can find the pattern on Ravelry here. Hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day weekend!

Photos taken by my awesome bf, Matthew Petty.

by

February Lady, I’m not in love with thee.

Ha, bloody, ha
Lady February post blocking, originally uploaded by casystotyle.

Grrr. This picture is a little blurry, but I’m lazy and angry at the moment. Of course I didn’t block a swatch of the lace or anything. That would have been the responsible thing to do. This ended up a bit longer than I wanted. I wanted it about 2 inches shorter on the body and the arms. I’m happy with the width. I’m going to sew on the buttons and think about it. I will either rip back or convince myself that I like it. I’m not sure which.

I wanted the sleeves a bit shorter so that I could potentially wear long sleeves under it occasionally, but at the length they are it looks a bit silly. I normally love long sweaters, but I was thinking this one should hit more at the top of the pants as the original does. I don’t love the creases at the armpit, but I don’t think that can be avoided as they seem to be present even in the original pattern. I don’t think that will bug me so much later. I wanted this to be done. Oh well. At least it won’t be that hard to fix.

by

Lady February Doth Grow


Lady February doth grow, originally uploaded by casystotyle.

Yep. Too lazy to clean the mirror. This is closer to the actual color. It’s not as yellow as it looks in the first picture. It’s going pretty well at the smaller gauge. I think it will block the way I want it. I bought a blocking board from WEBS and I can’t wait to use it.

I am being fairly monogamous with this project. I started those socks last week but haven’t knitted a stitch on them since the picture below. I thought the socks would be good for the portability factor, but I’ve been knitting solely at home watching trashy ol’ episodes of America’s Next Top Model online. I love the drama and the bitchiness. Drew and I have been watching Sopranos off and on a bit too. I get why everyone loves it now. I hated the very first episode, but it definitely grew on me after that one.

In other news…I’ve been buying all kinds of cute clothes for my counseling internship, including two very professional lady j.crew suits. I love love love them. I had to shorten the pants about an inch and a half. I’m hopeless with sewing, so I sent them away to someone who knows better. Today I’m extremely excited because I found out next week I get to start doing intake sessions with REAL clients. I’ve been observing others’ sessions for the past couple of weeks and all last semester. Now I will be unleashed. I’m not as nervous as I was a few weeks ago when thinking about it. Everybody’s got to start somewhere… I’ll let you know how it goes.

by

Lady February, How I Love The

Here is my February Lady. I just want to call her Lady February because it sounds so regal. I thought about a semi-solid yarn, but then found this Berroco Ultra Alpaca, liked the feel and the price and off I go. It’s been breezy so far, with one minor irk about evenly placing the eyelet increases around the body. I don’t like it when things don’t divide evenly and I’m easily frustrated. I eventually started reading the Ravelry February Lady KAL discussion about this pattern and someone provided a link to this wonderful site that does the math exactly for you. I’m doing this on a size six needle instead of the eight. I’m a fairly loose knitter, and I also wanted this to be a bit smaller than the 35″ bustline. We’ll see if it bites me in the ass or not.


Striped Shibui socks, originally uploaded by casystotyle.

Unfortunately, I’m not capable of knitting monogamy right now. I started a pair of socks with Shibui solid and variegated yarns. I’m just going to alternate them every five or six rows or so. I hope they turn out like i want. I’m going to roll with the plain stockinette because I want something mindless for work breaks and reading.

I broke down today and bought some Hunter Wellington boots. I’ve been oogling them forever and just decided to go for it. I got them in chocolate brown. I think that or navy would be most versatile with my closet, but brown appeals to me more. I ordered them from Zappos this morning and within an hour and a half they had shipped, and upgraded my shipping for free. I’m so excited!