Secret of Chrysopolis clue 1 (and a bit)

Here's my progress so far. I was hoping to get pics of the progress of all my team, but haven't quite got round to it. Will try in the future (that's Mum with Malabrigo burgundy - actually a reddy brown; Shelley with Azul Bolita - an intense blue like blue glass; and Nanny with a blue green, can't remember which). I gather progress is rather varied - as is experience; Shelley has done lace before, and Mum's been doing quite a lot of knititng recently; I think Nanny's progress is the steepest.

I realised that I'd used ~ 75g by the time I'd done 116 rows; I've got 4 skeins, 50g each, and there are 8 clues of ~ 90 rows each. I've ordered 2 more skeins in a delayed security anxiety! (Better check with the others). I think my stole will be huge, as the original using 4 skeins should be 2 metres long! However, I'm with Anne, of Knitspot, who likes a stole she can put round her shoulders and over her legs when she's chilling in the evenings. So I don't really mind.

Brenda Spoke

And I am answering her call to blog!


It's been ages, mostly because I've been busy and also not knitting that much, but now I have blue hands from the hand dyed Lopi I'm using for the Notre Dame de Grace sweater (Veronik Avery, Interweave Knits Summer 2007) for C. The back seems a bit narrow, and I'm getting 17.5 stitches to 4" rather than 17stitches; however, I know that when I washed and blocked my swatch it loosened up and flattened out considerably, so I'm going to assume it'll be ok!



I love the colour, which really glows, but I suspect will end up considerably lighter once washed (or C with a blue neck). I'll try additional vinegar in the rinse.

I've also started on the Secret of Chrysopolis stole - the first clue was out on Friday. I must check that my team are going ok! (That's my Mum, aunt and S-i-L). I noticed that the 2 garter stitches at each edge of the stole were only represented by 1 box at each side of the chart. the chart looks big for one week's clue, but it is all pretty straightforward stuff, and repetitive enough to use stitch markers if wanted. We'll see how we go! The Malabrigo is incredibly soft, I'm loving that.



I'm still hoping to do the Honeybee Stole in my Fyberspates yarn after the Chrysopolis one, and took this pic out of the passenger window in Moseley, Birmingham - it's on the wall of a business, ? solicitors' (attorney). Rather sweet, n'est-ce pas?

Mitred Rainbow

When I saw the Modern Quilt Wrap on Knitting Daily I knew I had the replacement I wanted for my beloved, lost River. And a use for all those part balls of KSH!

Unfortunately, lots of other people felt the same, so mine won't be the only scarf like this. Also, I actually have all the right yarns except I think my Rose might in fact be Candy Girl.

Of course, my squares are not terribly square, but WTF, I think it'll look great either way (and if necessary, I'll pick up all the way round to neaten it).

Secret of Chrysopolis swatch

I'm just not up there with cool names for my posts, am I? Anyway, here's the swatch, on 3.5 mm needles as suggested, using Malabrigo laceweight in Verde Adriana colour 117.

I've measured it (vaguely!). It's supposed to be 10cm for 3 repeats wide (it's 13cm) and 10cm for 5 repeats tall (it's 9cm for 3 repeats). Do I care? I think the stocking stitch areas may be a bit too open, so I might swap to 3.25mm without further swatching; we'll see how it looks and feels when dry. I might see what Brenda reckons when she comes to stay.

The colour is more accurate in the brighter, unblocked shot, and the stripes are a little less obvious in the flesh, as it were. They'll change with a larger stole, anyway - this is only 29 stitches wide!

Other than this, I've been a bit stuck with my knitting. I didn't do any while I was in Wales last week, too busy, and too much wet paint and small sticky kids. I have planty on the go, though I am keen to start on something with the lovely speckled Koigu P70726 sent by Selma. I need to go to work, so no pics of that now. I'm thinking about Pomatomus, I think that would show off the beautiful deep speckles floating in the muted background rather well. (See Wanderlustlost's version, if you're in Ravelry). On the other hand, I had also thought of this for some bamboo sock yarn I have. Hmmmmmm.

Mysterious Swan Lake unveiled

Here are a few pics of my MS3, completed. Mine is a less-delicate version than many I've seen, with my relatively-sturdy, lofty Shetland laceweight, which means it is warm. no beads for me, as I thought they'd irritate and not go with my yarn, and I'm pleased about that decision too. Looks way better on the boady than on the floor! Quite balanced, whereas near the end of knititng the wing I was rather hating the abrupt transition between the straight part of the stole and the wing.

Looking forward to my next lace project!

Here

The feathers blocking and draped...

**de-stash**

I'm sorting through my stash with a view to sorting myself out for Australia - make me an offer by email if you'd be interested in either of these.

1 Colinette Lasso Velvet Leaf
100% polyamide
tension 10 cm: 19 sts to 28 rows
Comes in 100g hanks
205 metres per hank
needles_4mm

(I've wound these into centre-pull cakes, but used none)

2 Hipknits Aran Silk in Citrus

500g

180m/100g

Bee Fields Stole

Fyberspates silk lace toffee chocolate, originally uploaded by GinnyUK.

This is an Anne Hanson of Knitspot design - in some ways I like the Bee Fields triangular Shawl better (I think the panels with the strips of bees and the otehr pattern between are preferable on that) but I'm not a great triangular shawl person - also can't bear those long rows!

The yarn is wonderful Chocolate Toffee from Jen at Fyberspates - and most delightful it is! Jen has *very* good customer service - she sent me 2 skeins that had conned her they were dry (silk will do this) but were in fatc just very slightly damp. by the time they arrived here they stank most awfully. I tried just drying them - no good - and ended up washing them several times, which spoilt the lustre quite a bit. I let her know - she said 'snap' the yarn and the sheen will return - and I think it is getting better! However, she also sent me two more skeins. The match is pretty good (I thought I'd lost lots of colour from the 2 I'd washed, but not so!)
And doesn't it have a honeyed look? Perfect for this bumble bee broth?

By the way - if you wonder why the yarn looks good - it's because I realised I have a perfect light box. It's the bath! There is a long window next to the bath, but it faces another building and north-ish, so almost never any direct sun,but very light. And the bath itself is white but slightly matt. What d'you think - better?

Secret of Chrysopolis

malabrigo verde adriana 117, originally uploaded by GinnyUK.

This is the LOVELY malabrigo laceweight I'm going to use - more or less Uru-wolle, as it is 400m in 50g and from Uruguay, just like the Uru.
Mum bought some bricky dark yarn to do the same secret stole by Moni. Should be fun!

A Wing'd Mystery

Here's the end of clue 5 - like a knitted on edging, we are forming a wing.
I would prefer it if there were a greater link between the first 4 clues and this one - but I am hopeful that there will be more linkage in terms of sitch pattern and arrangement in the last 2 clues. Perhaps more wing of swan as a knitted on edging with feathers off it? I'm one of those hoping agin hope for no frills!

I have a close-up pic, but blogger is declining - this is my first time using it on my new Mac using Camino as a web browser- mostly seems more successful than Safari, but.....

I worked it out! See above.

The Tale of a Swallow

Here's my swallowtail, completed and blocking on my new heirloom-knitting wires. They make it

so much easier!

Jaeger (sadly finishing) discontinued 4ply silk - the same yarn, different colourway, as Tuscany. The colour is closest in the first picture, above, it's a very pale silvery grey. I now have 1.5 balls of each colour left, and I'm not sure what I'll use them for.

Knit with Addi lace needles, 3.5mm. Lovely!

Goodbye, Little Orange

Oh, how I miss thee....... JKD's car was written off last week (as in - small accident - insurance company giving him a little money instead of mending it). We had discussed him maybe buying the car in January, as they have a GIANT people carrier (from S's work) and he wanted something with less of a footprint for him too-ing and fro-ing to work. C and I chatted - and we think we'll be able to cope with just one car. She'll have to commute sometimes by bike (14 miles) and we'll have to do complex swaps when I need it for work and she needs it to get to niights etc, but we'll have NO car in Oz - so good practice.

Every so often I just think - Orange doesn't live here any more. I've had it for 7 years (practically almost) - having bought it new in the first week of one of the first 5 Smart car garages opening in the UK. it is left hand drive,a s at that time there were no factory-made right hand drives. This was great for getting out straight onto the pavement on busy roads when visiting patients.

Oh well, sniff, at least Orange is still in the family!

Garden sculpture and a mystery contimues.

Friends have given us a sculpture for our garden - belated, for our birthdays (March and April, since you ask!). They came round in overalls and made us not look out the back window till they had placed all the parts. Lovely!
Anyway, I felt this - along with the hand-hewn bench, made by one of the same friends - made a great MS3 backdrop/vehicle.

Agree?

I think this unblocked pic really looks like a snake. It'll be totally different when I block it with my lovely new dressing wires from Heirloom Knitting (who couldn't have been faster or more helpful, by the way). I'm still loving it, and zipping along. Have checked out the local bead shop for seed beads for if I repeat MS3, too.

p.s. Word is that Getknitted will have stuff from Knitpicks imminently.

p.p.s. Melanie is getting more and more mysterious about clue five - not due out till next Friday.

p.p.s. Did I say I won a reduction on some yarn from Jen of Fybrespates? I chose the chocolate toffee in laceweight silk, and I think if Anne's Bee Fields rectangular stole is as successful as her triangular shawl of the same name, I might well use if for that. it is rather like a dark honey!

Mysteriouser and mysteriouser (to misquote the Cheshire cat)...

Clue 3 - finished it on Saturday or Sunday, surprisingly quickly, anyway! i'm very much enjoying this knit, finding it pretty straightforward so far. of course, I have the advantage of the Addi lace needles (3.5mm) and good yarn that's is a smidge thicker than the zephyr peoplpe seem so keen on.This will certainly be a more rural - not silk-shiney- version of Melanie's stole.

I found I couldn't wait till Friday for my next lace fix, so cast on the Swallowtail shawl from IK - 2006? in the other colour of Jaeger lace (discontinued) that I have. This is the yarn I used for the Amy Singer NSFY Tuscany shawl.

More Mystery stole

Well, I managed to finish clue 2 at lunchtime today, so only an hour or so after the third clue was posted. I'm really enjoying it, and not finding it too hard so far - someone's idea of writing the number of plain knit stitches in each batch of them in the right-most square of said batch is working very well for me - keeps me on target, and aware if I'm not as it doesn't all fit. Here's a couple of details - is that a stagbeetle to the left? And the start of honeycomb underneath - with a writhing edging?

My first ball of this Ultra by Jamieson's (about 188yds, I think, in 25g) has lasted j-u-s-t past the end of Clue two - should help me know later on if my 5 balls will mean a full length shawl or a shorter one!

More Sally Bowles...

So I went to my cousin Daniel's lovely wedding on Saturday, and wore my hat.

As expected it was a stylish do (the bride wore a halter-necked red dress, with LOTS of petticoats, and had red roses in her hair; the adult bridesmaid wore black with red petticoats and the 2 younger ones black with white spots! Daniel looked good, too). The ceremony was in a beautiful Council chamber in London.

Anyway, my bowler was much admired, and people were very surprised that i had knocked it up myself. It was comfortable to wear too, despite being filled with bubble wrap in order to keep it's shape! Folded up in my handbag nicely for the train home. BTW, I sewed narrow ribbon in around the brim with a sideways backstitch every 2cm or so, so as to have something for my hairgrips to grip, and this worked well, though it was a two person job in the loos of a bar nearby the town hall!

Tour de France...

This is BIG in our household - Clare's a mad cyclist, competing in 100mile cyclosportives around the UK (most recent: Devin - in diabolical rain) as well as 10 mile trials locally. So I was intrigued when I found there is a Tour de France KAL. Here's an amusing video of the Aussie contender in the dodgy shorts competition (aka the real T de F).

***ETA: JoVE has commented about the Tour de Fleece which she came across on Knitterguy Ted's blog - it looks like a great spinning challenge (for those of you who already partake of such things - I haven't *yet*).***

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnUqjEdfBC0 (might come up on a separate posting)

I don't think I'll join, but watch from the sideline - I am planning to do the Mystery Stole 3 from Pinklemontwist's Melanie. There have been 2 previous shawls, Leda's Dream and Scheherazade - I gather Melanie picks a theme and designs to that. So far the clues are that it would be most appropriately knit in black or white, and NOT an appropriate wedding stole. Intriguing!

I've ordered Shaela, a charcoaly grey in Ultra Shetland/lambswool yarn from Jamieson's,
which I hope will work with either my 3.5mm or 3.25mm Addi lace needles. Can't wait to get the yarn and start! I don't think I'm going to use beads, as I usually find they irritate me in a finished garment.

Sign-ups finish on Friday 6th July.

Sally Bowles

I decided I wanted to try to make a mini bowler hat to wear to my cousin's wedding (at a rakish angle!)

Here it is drying with bubble-wrap in the brim. And here's how I bodged it!

I started with Emily Ocker's cast-on and EZ's instructions for the start of her Pi shawl from the Almanac book. When I felt I'd done enough flat, I reduced slightly (one in every 9 stitches) and then continued to knit down the sides. Then I did a series of increases over several rows, with some plain rows inbetween - 1 in 3, one in 4, 1 in 5 stitches increased etc. (Probably overdid this! Hence the slight gathering in the base of the brim). I did several (/3 - ?4) rows plain, then started to do decreases in a similar way to the increases before. Once more, probably over-decreased. I tried to hand felt - not enough, looked like a beret for a Sacha doll!Washed in our front-loader on 90*C with some old trousers - and viola! I trimmed off the cast off )too tight). I'll try to get a pic of me wearing it (if it is stiff enough to work - that's my worry!)

Christmas 2005

C bought me this great bagful of yarns from Di Gilpin's shop in St Andrews (a wonderful den!) I was planning to make a coat, knit tight (nicking stitch patterns from Jean Frost's Jackets book) so it wouldn't sag, and arranged interestingly. Voddy kindly helped me to make a calico tacked version to use as a pattern guide, and I swatched then kind of launched into the left shoulder bit. Haven't done any now for about 15 months... I really must!

These (above and right) are some of the yarns - above is handspun Wensleydale locks; right is handspun baby alpaca and some Yorkshire tweed aran; the long swatch above is also yorkshire tweed aran, as is the above right start of L shoulder in YTA with a boucle from Texere held with it.

daftness

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Drapey

Just a quick extra post - I knitted this on biggish needles, on a deadline to wear it to a wedding in August 2005 - and just started knitting from the middle back out, leaving a big U out at one side where I later picked up the sleeve, increased the lower edge lots ot make a drapey, wrappy tail, then picked back up from the beginning to do the other side the same (ish, of course I made no notes).