So, having pretty much lost the sock mojo currently (except for a single sock swap I’m doing with a pal back east – no pics till we swap, though!) I am fully invested in shawls, shawls all the time. Except for the one sock. Heh.
And so I present the Aeolian Shawl:
Some closeups:
It’s pretty much the best thing I’ve ever made, really.
Stats:
Pattern: Aeolian Shawl from Knitty
Needle: US 6 Addi Turbo 40″ lace needle
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in two different dye lots of Solis
Beads: Lots
So, major props and a huge thank you to my friend Malvina who I asked if she could maybe get me some more beads at the bead store in her city, where I do not live and couldn’t get to when I needed them. If she couldn’t, I would have totally understood but no. She went to the bead store WITH A FEVER and got me my beads and handed them off at the reunion.
I have the best friends, you guys.
*tears up a little*
ANYWAY:
The pattern uses way more beads than you might think. I used almost three whole tubes of Size 6 glass Czech beads in a fabulous turquoise color. (Hence the needing 2 more tubes from U Bead It in Sacramento!) As a result, when I make my sister’s version, I will be a little more prepared. Hers I will make a little differently so they aren’t completely identical.
The pattern is Estonian Lace which is so pretty. It’s constructed in an interesting way in that there is the first lace pattern, Yucca, which can be knit as many times as you want as long as it’s an even number of repeats. I had decided to knit the shoulderette version which has 4 repeats, and then I decided that I wanted it a little bigger so I decided to knit 6 repeats. But then I noticed how the beads were getting eaten up just by the first lace pattern, so I went back to 4.
The shoulderette version calls for 4 repeats of the Yucca pattern and NO repeats of the Agave pattern, which comes in between the Transition chart and the Final Agave Chart. You can actually knit as many Agave patterns as you want, though they are not technically part of the smaller pattern. Since I had decided on sticking with the 4 Yucca repeats but I wanted a longer shawl, I added an Agave repeat.
By the way, I LOVE nupps, so I totally used them. Some people replace nupps with beads, but not I!
Anyway, so last weekend was my birthday and I got a bunch of yarn – my mom ordered a bunch of stuff from Knitpicks for me, including some awesome Gloss lace yarn, which is a merino/silk blend. She also got the blocking blocks (there has to be a better name for that!) and blocking wires that I used to block the shawl. I liked using the blocks a lot, and lord knows that block wires negate having to use so many pins.
Up next is the leaf lace shawl from Evelyn Clark’s Knitting Lace Triangles. I’m knitting that out of Rio de la Plata Merino Sock in “dusky green” which is kind of a bright (almost neon) green mixed with turquoisey bits, really fab. I’ve had it in my stash for awhile.
So, summer of shawls continues! Plus, there’s still enough left of the second skein of the Malabrigo sock used in the Aeolian shawl to use for another Ishbel I think.
Mostly I need to finish the swap sock because I’m going on vacation in two weeks to Las Vegas and also my sister and I are going to see King Tut’s treasure at the De Young that week.
Fun times ahead!