Wow - Finals Week

The semester is officially over. Tomorrow we have the first day of finals, and in two weeks, I will fly to Germany. Wow! I cannot believe how fast this semester has flown by. I have my tickets and all, but whenever I realize how soon I will at the airport...

And then... I needed a new knitting project, of course. So I decided to cast my lot with the Peacock Feathers Shawl from fiddlesticks knitting. It was a long process getting there, because at first I was trying to do something else after Isabella.

I had bought the softest lambswool lace yarn at Angel Hair Yarn Co. in Nashville and made three or four attempts at knitting something from my Victorian Lace book. Unfortunately, so close to the end of the semester, my concentration was not on the knitting. So, after unraveling so many times, which did not do the precious yarn good either, I decided to stop. Then I ordered the perfect yarn for the peacock from Handpainted Yarn, where else, and when it finally arrived (and they are really fast), I had to start the shawl immediately. When I chose the color, I put a picture of a peacock on my computer's desktop background and kept looking at it while I browsed the online yarns shop. And I believe I found the perfect yarn.



The difference to the Victorian lace projects is that you do not do the YOs every row. Therefore each wrong side is a relaxing, mindless purl before you have to engage the brain again for an agonizing row of counting. But it is so worth it. The shawl is simply gorgeous. I am now on row 107, as they get longer and longer and still have not managed to go on pattern autopilot. But that is ok. I cannot wait to see the finished product.

Oh, and when I get to Germany, my mother has all her old knitting magazines from 30 or more years ago waiting for me. Yay to mothers who throw nothing away.

done?

I hate the neckline...

by the way

I am really frustrated with the yarn I picked, Sinfonia Cotton, which I bought at Hobby Lobby. I think, there was no skein that did not have at least 2 knots in the thread. Only in the rose-leaf pattern now, from the same skein, I have had 3 knots already. This means a lot of weaving in, and I am getting rather annoyed, really!

Isabella resisting

Well, it turns out that Isabella is not half as easy as I thought. I must have undone the right front twice and the left one just as many times. First I forgot some bindoffs. Then I had added some knit-togethers in order to make the front opening, which I felt went too high and straight, swoop away from the center a little. I finally got that done, sewed the shoulders together only to find upon trying it on, that, although I followed the measurements in the instructions to a T, it just did not look all that good on the stranded whale in the mirror. As a matter of fact, the top was way too short, and my belly button was quite scared being so exposed.

Since I did not want to undo the whole thing, I did the next best. I reached for a pair of scissors and cut off the hem I had been so proud of not so long ago:










So now I am knitting in the other direction, trying to make it longer. I chose the rose-leaf pattern from "A Gathering of Lace" to adorn the bottom of the top. I think it is going look really good - even on a whale.

Isabella

Isabella

Isabella is the next thing on the needle. I am trying to do it in one piece though. So far this afternoon, I have done the hem, i.e. 4 rows, piquot row and rows. In the 5th row after the piquot, I picked up the cast-on with a crochethook and knitted it together. No sewing needed in the end.

Yeah....

Doily???

For recreation and while figuring out what I want to do next, I practiced on the center panel of the Feather & Fan Shawl from "A Gathering of Lace". I still had a ball of lace cotton, from an abandoned crochet attempt of three years ago. So I figured I use it up and call it a day doily.

done done done done

Oh I'm so proud so proud so proud.

Yesterday, I finally finished the stole and it turned out beautifully. I immediately soaked it in Woolite and blocked it. Then I took a photo while blocking, but the light was not the best. So when I came home from campus today, I put it on the front of my beetle and the sun really brought out the wonderful colors of the yarn.

The size turned out to be much larger than I thought, so Eunny knows best, for sure! As far as the yarn went, if I had not lost some yards due to the failed first attempt, one skein would have been exactly right. Unfortunately I needed to start the 2nd skein for the last 6 rows of the outer edge. Unbelieveable!

So I ended up, knitting the center panel in one piece without grafting, because I did not like the visible line on the photos of other knitters, incl. Eunny's. This turned out just fine. The inner border was no problem, nor was the outer edge, once I figured out the error in the pattern and how exactly the edge was attached to the stole. It also took me forever, or it felt like forever knit the edge. But it was so worth it!