Here's Lady Jane Plus a Lovely Quilt!

All rightee, here are the promised photos of the blocked Lady Jane vest. It still fits nicely, but is longer than I thought it would be.

This first picture, above, shows you what disappointed me in the project the most--the sleeves really have no clue what they are supposed to be doing. They don't act like cap sleeves, they don't act like "sleeveless," they don't act like anything other than floppy fabric. I can't figure out what the heck to do with the sleeves. The other part I don't like is that where the v-neck starts there are loose stitches, or it's pulled away from the cabling...I dunno. I am going to have to fix that somehow. I don't know what to do about the sleeves.

It's also a bit longer than I thought it would be. That is not the end of the world, though, and the length is not that bad. But, I am a bit disappointed in this project. Which brought me a dilemma. My friend at church wanted me to make her a vest in exchange for a quilt. I was going to make the second Lady Jane out of the yellowish KnitPicks yarn for her.

But I thought and thought about it. I don't think she'd actually LIKE the vest. Then, look, she finished my quilt:


It's very nice! She used a strip quilting technique, and did a great job on it. The colors will go very well in our media room, too. I am enjoying looking at it sitting right where it is in the photo. I didn't want to trade this nice quilt for a cruddy vest.


Here you see a close-up or the quilting, which is a nice spiral pattern, using a long-arm machine. That sure works better than my machine quilting on my regular ole sewing machine (yes, readers, I did make quilts in my distant past). She used gold thread, which looks very nice on the back, which is the indigo fabric.

So, I decided to offer the friend my Dianna shawl instead of a vest. I happened to have it with me and showed it to her. Hooray, she loved it! Yes, that means I will give up the Dianna shawl, but since I happen to own to more balls of the same yarn, I realize that I can make another one. And I think I will! I think for myself I'd like a more brightly colored version, to wear at the office to keep me warm. It wouldn't need to match anything.

So, Dianna will go live with my friend, and I'll make another one. And I won't have to make another Lady Jane. That's actually quite a relief for me. One of those is enough. I liked the yarn, and I liked the cable and lace patterns. But, one is fine. I'll single crochet around the neck and arms and that may help.

I am going to sign off now and finish the final half triangles on Dianna. I'll have pre-blocking and maybe blocking photos for you next!

Succumbed to New Yarn Yearning

Hmm, maybe New Yarn Yearning, or NYY, is a new diagnosis knitters may have. I seem to have succumbed to NYY badly with respect to the yarn I saw at Hill Country Weavers a week or two ago and could not stop thinking about.



So yesterday, since my work is on some interminable hold, Beccano and I journeyed to south Austin and I got some yarn. We had a nice trip, even though there was a huge delay due to an accident--we listened to music and he analyzed it for me (including telling me exactly what guitars members of various bands use, etc.).

Above is the one I really wanted. I ended up not getting my favorite color, which was a red, just because I already have a lot of red laceweight. This is a natural brown, so it has lots of bits of other colors in it. The brand is Isager Strik, from Denmark (well, I do have one reader who can read the website, but she probably already has). This yarn, Tvinni Tweed, is so lovely, though. Not sure what kind of wool it is, but it feels nothern, like Shetland stuff. I see another shawl from it, though it could be a nice cardigan, too. I have two skeins, so more than a thousand yards. I just have never seen yarn quite like this, so I had to get it. The photo shows a very realistic depiction of the color.
Beccano begged me to get the one above, too. He loves the color, which is also very accurate in the photo, for once. It is called Almond Green, but it is really a heather of a lot of subtle colors. I would like to make a lace stole from this. It is softer than the other, and is Højlandsgarn, whatever that means. It is made in Scotland, though, which hints it might be Shetland yarn, too. But I think it says merino on it (or the other one does--I am not at home so I can't check). I have three skeins of this, which is about 900 yards or so.
Finally, here is the Knit Picks yarn I kept forgetting to show you, for a second Lady Janevest. I will probably do a swatch to make sure it blocks, over the weekend. The colorway is Creme Brulee (with an accent mark I am too lazy to put in, but hey, didn't my Danish look good?). It looks pretty yellow to me.

Speaking of Lady Jane, the author contacted me on Ravelry and let me know that she put the binding off instructions in the pattern, so if you want to make Lady Jane, be sure you get the most current version of the pattern! I am going to be sure I have it for the second one! I promise to get a photo made of the final product on that one for you, maybe this evening.

My Dianna shawl is going great. I am on the 9th teir and it looks really, really cool. I am enjoying it greatly. It is complex enough to keep me on my toes, but easy enough I can mostly do it in public (unless there is WINE involved). I would like to do a KAL at the yarn shop on this, if they could get in some yarn with slow striping like a Noro sock yarn or JoJoland Melody. I guess you could make it in thicker yarn, but I am not sure how good it would look.

A Rumply Lady Jane

A long US holiday weekend meant lots of knitting time. So, even though I had a couple of ripping out episodes, I managed to finish Lady Jane yesterday. As you can see, it is very purple! You can also see that I didn't bother to fix my hair for the photos--I am as rumpled as the unblocked vest!

What we see here is before blocking. The arm area will look much better once it is all straightened out, and the bottom lace edge (inconveniently cut off by my kind photographer) really needed a good straightening out to look its best. I think it won't be quite as form fitting once the blocking is done.

As you can see, it's quite tunic length. Used a lot of yarn. I'd say I have about one of my ten skeins of yarn left, and the instructions called for 9, so they were right. I just always buy extra. That was helpful at the end when I was knitting the two sides of the front at the same time.

There were not too many challenges with this project, though the instructions sometimes left things to be desired, and I wish it were finished off a little more neatly. In fact, I may do a crochet edging around the neckline and sleeve edge, because it simply divides at the underarm, leaving an unattractive space at the bottom where a stitch stretches out. There is also a stretched-out spot where the cable divides for the neck. We'll see. I may decide it's OK the way it is.

I am not sure why the pattern called for a seed stitch (or moss stitch) shoulder edge. But, I put one on there. I also was not thrilled that the instructions called for knitting the back to a certain length (hard to measure on a vest with an irregular edge), then had you knit the front by stopping when you had a certain number of decreases. Sure enough, the fronts ended up an inch or more longer than the back, so I had to re-attach yarn and lengthen the back. This was fine, because I thought the back armholes looked too short.

A final odd thing about the pattern was that, at the end, the instructions tell you how to do a three-needle bind off on one shoulder. They never tell you to also do the other shoulder, nor what to do with the back of the neck stitches, which were waiting on holders along with the stitches for each side of the shoulder. I guess you are just supposed to figure it out. What I did was three-needle bind off the right shoulder, continue and bind off the neck edge in pattern, then keep going bringing in the second shoulder and three-needle binding it off. I hope that's what the author intended! (And before you suggest it, yes, I am going to contact her, and will let you know what she says--she has been very helpful so far. I actually think I may be the first person to finish the project.)

EDITED July 9: The author has kindly let me know that instructions for finishing are now in the newest version of the pattern, so make sure you get that version if you decide to do this pattern!

Here you can see how lumpy the bottom edging is. This is what I am going to have to knit a swatch of in the cotton blend I got for the second one of these, to be sure it will block out. It's a lovely pattern when straightened out, though!

I washed the garment right after these photos were taken, and the yarn bled a little, but not too much. I then just straightened it as well as I could and put pins along the bottom and arm edges, to try to get the cap sleeve effect that the straight shoulder edge is supposed to give. This morning the top half was dry, so I turned it over and hope the bottom dries in time to take it to the yarn shop this afternoon and show it to a friend who is going out of town.

And Now, a Word about Noro

When I finished Lady Jane, I worked a bit on the Dianna shawl. I am still having a little bit of entrelac confusion, but I got another tier done. Not without effort, however, because there I was knitting away on a blue section when, BAM, there was a knot in my Noro Kureyon Sock yarn and it suddenly turned BLACK. This did not make for a nice transition. I tried knitting along, but the motif where the color suddenly changed looked bad, and it made way too much dark stuff all together at what will be the bottom of the shawl. Ick. So, I ripped that out and wound through the skein of yarn until I hit another blue section. That was about 200 yards. Sigh. I just want the beginning to flow nicely. Dang that Noro and their knots! I know it is hand spun, but sheesh.

I figure as the shawl progresses, and there is more spacing between squares, I will be able to end one motif before a knot and start the next motif with another color and it won't look so wrong. I did notice that there is a lot more very dark stuff in this colorway than I thought--a lot of black and blackish green. I will try to not have them overlap too much, but we will have to see. I think this will be a darker shawl than I had imagined. Good thing I have two more much brighter skeins I could try again with if I wanted to.

Final Glorious Aeolian Post

As the sun sets on another project, enjoy last night's sunset at the end of our block. I read something on a Ravelry group about how you sort of mourn the end of a project, and how blocking can be that final loving interaction with something you've shared your life with for weeks (or months).

So, here's how that blocking I did yesterday looks against a shirt. You can at least see how the beads look, or so I hope:

And here is the "money shot," the shawl in all its glory, free of pins and restrictions. It came out 98 inches wide, which is not all that much bigger than the size of the large shawl in the pattern. It is a large shawl, but not frighteningly humongous or anything. The bottom really looks pretty, doesn't it? And the top looks great when I am wearing it.


This is one idea of how I guess you'd wear it. The edging looks pretty draped that way. Mostly I am relieved it doesn't drag the ground or anything!

And now I am just being goofy, but it does look pretty, waving around that lovely edging. Aeolian is waving good-bye to you and I will focus on other projects!

I got up to the armholes on Lady Jane last evening at the yarn shop, but today I have work to do (yay) so progress will be slower. That's OK. Having money means I can buy more yarn.

Vested Interest and Blocking "Fun"

For the past couple of days I have faithfully been adding to the Lady Jane vest. She's moving right along!

This is my current progress. I got to the part where you join it and knit circularly, and make a really lovely cable pattern in the center front. It's lots of fun and a lot more interesting than just repeating the same pattern over and over. I am glad the project can be interesting, too, because the yarn for the second one showed up yesterday. It is quite...yellow. You'll see it in the next blog entry.


This is a close-up of the central motif. Isn't that a nice knot? It repeats again starting with my next row, then the pieces of the knot start moving over as the neckline happens. The armholes start as soon as they knot is done, too, so no more nice circular knitting after that!
Why, what is this lovely thing on top of a very flowery bedspread? It's the Desert Lilac Aeolian shawl blocking! Ah, what an adventure I had doing that! Washing it was easy, and rolling it in a towel was fine, but the pinning...well.

...let's take a break to look at the edging transition and agave patterns, why don't we? Ahh.

And here we have a nice shot of all the patterns. They do look a little odd with all those stripes and flowers under them, but the king-sized bed was the only place it could go!

So, pinning. I used blocking wires at the top, curving them as the shawl wanted to curve, and at the bottom, catching as many edges as I could. I seem to have misplaced a couple of wires, so I had to pin some of the edge points. Then, as I was painstakingly pinning 5 points on each edge motif, I ran out of pins. EEK! I'd actually bought a set of blocking pins from KnitPicks along with the (much too small and not used) blocking mats. Thank goodness for that! As it is, I used all my two boxes of t-pins, the blocking pins, some small t-pins I found at the bottom of a drawer, and then, because I could not locate the pins with nice colored balls on top of them that I just saw last week, I had to use things you are supposed to use in making earrings on the last few points.

Ahh, there she is in all her glory.

By the time I finished finding and placing all the pins, the shawl was completely dry. So I misted it with water. I just had to re-mist it, since I saw I hadn't balanced the points I put on the bottom of it well enough. I hope it dries in time to take to the yarn shop this afternoon!

I am pleased with how the body of the shawl looks now that it is blocked. All the lumps and weird places smoothed out nicely. Using the shinier beads instead of nupps looks fine to me (and my opinion counts the most on this!). The edging is simply hard to do. Everyone on the Ravelry group says they have trouble with that part, so I don't feel alone.

I haven't had any work this week, which is not great, but at least leaves me a bit of knitting time.

Aeolian Knitting Done, Trying New Things

Yes, I did finish the Aeolian shawl. A couple of irritating things happened on the bind off, such as a knot in the yarn, but it's all done. I got some pictures taken by John Francis of the finished blobby mess, and now that they are here, enjoy an unblocked photo:


Now, I will wait until blocking for the Big Reveal of it looking good! The blocking mats still aren't here, so it may be a few days.

In the meantime I have taken a little break and just for fun started a couple of projects. This is just a little scarf in a pattern called Modern Mermaid that I got from Hill Country Weavers. Suzanne the owner of the shop designed it. I knew what yarn I'd use on it the second I saw the pattern (designed for Berroco Seduce). I am making it from my precious skein of Tili Thomas Voile de Mer (silk and seacell). I am adding beads exactly the color of the yarn, and they are sort of tucked in next to yarnovers. I wanted them very subtle, like they just peak out. And that's what they do, so I marked them using my fabulous graphic design skills. You might be able to see them if you enlarge the photo. I was thinking of making this as a special gift. And I'm not sure how soon I will get to finishing it, since I will be back to the Lady Jane vest after my fun experimenting today.

The other new thing I couldn't resist trying is the lace entrelac shawl, Dianna, which I've been raving about for quite a while! I was all confused at first, but now that I have three rows done, I can see where the squares are supposed to go and I think it will zoom along now. I was also confused for a bit and thought maybe the shawl was just modular knitting, but now I am sure it's really entrelac. I can even knit backward on it, though I have to say purling backwards is not my best skill. It's rather heavy on the dark green at first, but the beads look nice. I showed you the yarn in my last post, some Noro Kureyon sock yarn. I think the beads add something to it, since it isn't as dainty in the sock-weight yarn. The thicker yarn is hard on my size 12 crochet hook--it keeps bending. I hope it makes it through the project!

Now that I got my urge to start new things out of the way (I spent three whole weeks totally dedicated to Aeolian!), I will go back to my lovely vest, in anticipation of the other yarn I ordered to make the second Lady Jane.

By the way, I am just putting in Ravelry links here willy nilly, assuming you all can see them. If not, I will always be putting in photos of my finished projects eventually, so you will see!

Keeping My Fingers Crossed

I am still plugging along on the Aeolian shawl. No more huge mistakes (or even small ones) in the past couple of days. In the meantime, more than one of the KAL members has thrown in the towel on this project. It does require some counting, but I think that if I had done it in a quiet place I'd never have made my first mistake, and if I'd tried the nupps out on a swatch, I'd have realized they didn't look like what I wanted, and I wouldn't have had the horrible issue from the weekend.

I think perhaps the KAL should have been targeted toward more "advanced" lace knitters and that would have saved some tears. Of course, at least one person gave up just because laceweight yarn didn't work well for his hands. And I can understand that! I prefer fingering weight, myself, but this alpaca is not too bad for me.

Of course, the border is coming up. And that is one fancy looking border! I just have four more rows until the border starts. I am not sure if I'll be able to work on that at the yarn shop this afternoon, so I will take my other knitting, just in case. I look forward to seeing how the larger beads replacing the nupps in the border look. I am liking the ones in the agave section of the shawl, so I have high hopes.

I've been working on Lady Jane the vest whenever I have to go out and knit, like to Beccano's guitar lessons, so it is growing slowly but surely. I look forward to finishing that--nice big yarn, LOL!

I am going to ponder what makes some lace patterns harder than others for a while. Anyone have ideas?

Aeolian and Such

Why, yes, I am here, and yes, I am knitting. I had a lot going on in my non-knitting life (which the five posts to my non-knitting blog will attest to--happy to send you the link if you give me an email address). My oldest boy graduated from high school, I had a lot of work to do (yay), and I was deeply involved in cleaning things (boring but good).

I did plod along on my Lady Jane vest, enough to where I can share a photo of its progress (the top in the photo is the bottom of the vest). The lace border along the bottom is very pretty, but lumpy, so it will need to be blocked well to look its best. I am loving the yarn. It has very subtle, but interesting variations in the color that give a lot of depth and texture. There are so many fibers in Mermaid that it's easy to take advantage of the fact that they take dye differently! I am assuming the darkest is the silk! Now I am up to the part where I have an easy pattern to knit away on until it is 14.5" long, so it is good car and activity knitting. When I get to the cable, I'll have to do that at home!

Of course, I have the second Hopscotch sock in reserve, ready to be my main portable project at a moment's notice. I got a little done on it, but am in no hurry. Still love the pattern.



Here's what's been keeping me going since Saturday. As I mentioned before, I think, the LYS started its knit-along of the Aeolian pattern from Knitty. I thought I'd do it with them to support the shop, and so I could answer questions when the person who's actually leading it is not there (I already have discovered that if she is there, even if someone directly asks me a question, she will answer--guess her name's Suna, too--I'm sure she is just anxious to get everyone going well). So, a couple of folks and I just spent the day trying to get it going, while the folks that needed hands-on help got that.

The most fun part of the day, though, was that the daughter of the owner of Sea of Beads came to the shop and brought a huge selection of beads to use in the shawl. It was really fun to see which beads people chose for their projects. I had a bit of a hard time choosing mine. As you can see in the photo (easier if you click), I got matte ones with a bit of iridescence in a color just barely darker than the yarn. I decided to not get the really shiny ones because I was afraid they'd be distracting from the pattern. There was also a completely matte possibility almost the exact shade of pale purple as the yarn, but that might have been too unobtrusive. I've been placing beads like mad ever since. I am glad I had a size 12 crochet hook, which works fine with size 8 beads.

I now have 7 finished of 12 required repeats of the "yucca" lace pattern that forms the base of the shawl. (There are four repeats finished in the photo.) I am using a size 4US needle and it's a bit loose looking but fine for lace. One or two people who knit tightly also used size 4, and theirs is a bit solid looking. Swatching is my friend.

Well, I have to get started with work, so I'll leave you until later in the week. Sorry for the lack of posting, but there was not much to show you!