Gails Yarns, Hooks & Needles

Here we are in the middle of the stole’s most complicated lace pattern, and I am finally making progress.

Win!

So far are visible the diamonds and half a spiderweb. Since the yarn is now fading swiftly into white, it is less visible on the white  background, but you get the effect. I’ll do two repeats (unless I run out of yarn) and we can see the whole spiderweb.

Looking at the instructions in the Heirloom lace book, I see I have done several things “wrong” – all this stole should be garter stitch, not stockinette, but there is stockinette in all the sections that are not double sided lace. But as usual, I console myself knowing that the colors still show the same.

Here is the color named XEOC, knitted into the first bit of stole pattern. From right to left is Field of Flowers, Spiderlings, and Rosebud.

Here is the color XEC, knitted into that same pattern on the same size needles, but not quite as far along.

I am either getting used to lace again or the Rosebud pattern is much easier than the Field of Flowers. Isn’t it cool how Spiderlings is entirely black on one stole? When I get a few repeats of Rosebud into the stoles, I will attempt more true lace for Cobwebs and Spiderlings, a combination stitch pattern. Should be awesome.

The Spiderlings lace pattern continues to kick my butt. I have resolved to work on it during the day instead of late at night or when I’m otherwise tired.

Here’s the pattern as I am using it – all the single decreases are k2tog. The triangles are double decreases: slip 1, k2tog, psso. The O’s are yarn overs, and the blanks are knit stitches.

The point of this exercise is the color changes in the yarn as I knit. The pattern so far used and photographed is Field of Flowers from Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller. Here is the graph I made and used:

My photos are not done from the same background, but here they are so far. On the left, XEOC photo taken on a white background; on the right, XEC photo taken on a gray background.

The sample sizes are similar.               

The color changes are clearly different. XEOC on the left changes more quickly.

In case you are not familiar with this book, the subtitle is “A Shetland Lace Knitter’s Pattern and Workbook.” And if this is still a mystery to you, then let me say I have used the stitches in this book to design a simple sampler stole, and find that my second choice is far beyond my ability to execute.

My first choice is called Field of Flowers (page 49, and it worked up well, except that I knitted lots of it in the car, and the mistakes will be plain to anybody who cares to look. (I might be able to photograph mistake-free parts.)

The stole is not yet blocked, only pinned out for a better picture.

Looks like this particular photo got all the mistakes. Never mind, the point is to compare the two yarns and how the colorways differ, even though they are the same to look at. This skein might have been pieced in a couple of places so this will affect the color lengths, but I’m kind of impressed at how pretty all this gray and black is.

The second stole is underway, but no photo – there’s not enough to pin out yet. Same pattern.

Back to work on Spiderlings (page 133), more photos later.

Information is coming at me from every direction, and it’s great, but distracting. And then there’s the pollen which slows my brain down to molasses in January speed.  We have gone from daffodils and flowering Japanese Quince dotted about the landscape, to great swathes of azaleas.

No wonder so many of us choose to plant azaleas all over everywhere, they are irresistible at this season.

I have been working on a couple of shawls for the longest time, so when I finished my silk socks, what do I cast on? Another shawl. Although to be fair it is a stole and a shape I’ve never tried before. A relative is to undergo cancer treatments (after an operation that removed it all) and a comfort shawl will not come amiss. And truly, if my relatives are going to keep getting sick, falling down, and so forth, I need some heavier weight yarns so that the comfort shawls can be made faster! Two of my shawls are lace weight, a clue as to why they are taking forever, but also there is no deadline. The newest one is using sport weight – much larger than lace but slower than I’d like. Possibly the silk content and the bamboo needles are combining to slow me down – must find metal circs.

Next project will probably be a baby blanket – no telling when that might come in handy for younger family, and I got the yarn on sale. Only, this is so not different from a shawl! I’ll try to think of some smaller projects to make on big needles to intersperse and rest my hands.