knitting – Page 15 – Behind the Smile

July 12, 2009June 24, 2010

Cranking Out Shawls

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!

June 22, 2009June 24, 2010

Things I Make When You’re Not Looking

I totally knitted an Ishbel shawlette while nobody was looking.

(Least of all myself – this was a fast knit.)

I have turned into a chart knitter without noticing – if a pattern doesn’t have a chart, I won’t use it. The charts on Ishbel are great; easy to read and interpret. I will definitely be making this shawl again, probably in the bigger size.

I knit it in Malabrigo Sock in the Terracotta colorway, and this thing weighs nothing. I will have to show a pic of it modeled because wowza, this yarn feels so nice against your skin, soft and wonderful.

I knit this on an Addi Turbo lace needle in size US 6 that I picked up at Cottage Yarns in South San Fran a few weeks ago. These needles are great, and I really think that helped with how fast I knit this sucker up.

I also had an urge to crochet on my Babette squares, which comes and goes in fits and starts. But I’m almost done with the 49 4-round squares.

(Aren’t they purdy?)

Yesterday I cast on for an Aeolian shawl, also out of Malabrigo sock, plus beads. Pretty awesome!

And finally, I made sushi for the first time and it was great:

I am too chickenshit to deal with raw fish, so there was none of that, but I did use a variety of fillings, including avocado, cucumber, crab (fake), tuna, green onions, and tempura shrimp. Above you will see my practice sushi; I forgot to take pictures of the “real” sushi that I made for when my friends came over on Saturday to sample it.

Above all, my favorite was the spicy tuna roll, which was a mixture of canned tuna, mayonnaise, and sriracha sauce, plus green onion I think. I am not sure how my friends liked that one, but they did enjoy all of the different varieties and I was complemented specifically on the California roll, and also how “nice” they looked, which I thought was funny, but apparently some people don’t roll them very well.

Anyway, super easy to make, and now I’m going to have to keep tuna on hand for when I want a spicy tuna roll. WTF! I never eat tuna. UNTIL NOW, apparently!

…And I thought I was sick of sushi but I guess not because now I want a spicy tuna roll again. Go figure.

***

This weekend is my ten-year eleven-year high school reunion, which should be interesting. I am going to bring my camera to document the event. I am looking forward to it, but I’m going to be bummed if a couple people with whom I would specifically like to chat with don’t show up.

June 5, 2009June 24, 2010

Sockssss

It’s Design-Your-Own month at Ravelry’s Sock Knitters Anonymous group, and for the first time in months (February) I’ve been compelled to knit along with the group. Actually, I would have in May for the Anne Hanson KAL but I have been hit in the face at work, thankyouverymuch so I’ve been super busy.

Anyway, so I cracked open my Japanese stitch dictionaries and chose a really elaborate cable motif for some socks. I needed to invert it and convert to in-the-round stylin’, so it’s pretty involved. I also didn’t take into account the fact that because it’s basically all cables (1×1 and 2×2), the sock really tightens in on itself. Therefore, I had to add a bunch of stitches to make it fit!

And I had to choose a yarn that I thought would work. I first used some awesome Araucania Ranco Multy that is having a hard time finding the right pattern. And it looked awesome in the turquoisey-brown colorway, but alas, it was an original swatch over 68 stitches that was just too small! I’d also ripped out this yarn a couple of times, so I started to go fresh, and finally chose Dream in Color Smooshy in Flamingo Pie.

Yes, please, can I have some more?

Okay!

Yeah, it’s turning out pretty nicely. I’ve got some interesting design elements up my sleeve for the heel and toe, too. I hope I can figure everything out and keep track of what I’m doing because I hope to release the pattern eventually (if anyone wants to test knit it, that would be awesome) in three sizes. That’s the goal, anyway.

Here’s what else I’m working on:

Those are another pair of Hearts Afire socks (for Malvina, who expressed some love for the pattern) out of Shibui Sock, and a plain jane pair of stockinette socks out of some Cherry Tree Hill Supersock I had lying around. That yarn (in the Life’s a Beach) colorway, I had always intended to be a plain sock, but I’m not really motivated these days to knit a plain sock, even though they are nice to wear. But after all the last few socks that I’ve made (pretty much all the ones I’ve been working on this year) I needed a break – no ribbing, no pattern, no nothing. Now of course, I cast on for that ridiculously charted and complicated orange sock, but… whatevs. Heh.

I’m also working on an Ishbel shawl, but I apparently didn’t upload those pictures to Flickr. It’s out of Malabrigo sock in the terracotta (way orange) colorway. That Malabrigo sock is super fabulous. I don’t know how it will hold up for socks but it should work all right. I do have some plans for my other skeins in the stash, and since the shawl is knitting up so nicely, I could definitely see a couple more shawls in the future.

And, just for kicks, here is a pic of my current work space, that I finally more-or-less finished (I put up the cork board). It’s where I do all my jewelry stuff and computering (drawing/writing – I use my eee PC for internets).