Lovely Lace

Who better to model my mom's beautiful (and finished!!!) shawl than my closest friend, Jackie? Not only was she a very helpful model, but she is also the person who found the pattern for me in the first place. Three cheers for Jackie!!!



Now that I'm done with this lace stole, I feel MUCH more free and less stressed. It's not that the actual knitting with unenjoyable (it was a nice simple pattern), but it was the stress of moving from part to part of the pattern and feeling it would never get finished.

Running my hands over this lovely, lovely lace is worth it and, once I see my mom wearing it, I will be really HAPPY.



DETAILS:

Pattern: Large Rectangle with Center Diamonds from Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby
Needles: Size 7 for lace and size 6 for knitted on lace border
Yarn: Jade Sapphire Lacey Lamb in Black colorway (2 balls, knitted double standed)
Size before Blocking: 15" by 45"
Size after Blockinng: 22" by 78"
Time: The border took 11 hours of straight knitting and the lace panel was about 19 hours...a total of 30 hours.
Dates: May 16 to August 6, 2007
Tips: If you are using this specific yarn, make sure to pull the yarn from the OUTSIDE and not the inside of the ball. I spent many hours untangling very, very tiny laceweight knots when pulling from the center. AND the balls very easily fell apart when I had gone through half of it. Also, writing down the pattern on paper made things easier for me...line by line to go with the chart. It may not work for you, but it certainly helped me. In addition, I used paper and a pen to keep track of every single line I finished and wrote down comments along the way....it was invaluable when I had to get up for a second or rush after Ben and thought I would remember where I was.

Here, take one more look at the detail....



I'm so thrilled that I can now go onto other lace....woo-hoo!! Tell me what you think!

Frantic FO Friday!!! (and fiber!)

Whew!! I can't tell you how absolutely friggin relieved I am that the center panel of my "Large Rectangle" lace stole (from Victorian Lace Today) is done!!!

THANK, THANK GOODNESS!!! I thought I was going to go insane knitting those 10 rows over and over. I have some serious knitter's elbow and I was thinking maybe I'd snag Sarah and see if she'd work her magic on it. (Pretty please, Sarah??)

Here is just some idea of the agony of my lace knitting (though I did enjoy it overall...just not in parts here and there):

1. 360 ROWS!!!

2. Such fine, fine yarn (have I mentioned this already????? LOL!)

3. 18 non stop hours of lace knitting (approx. 1/2 hour per repeat)

4. There is one horrid mistake in the whole thing that I just noticed and it's near the beginning....and, no, Laurin, I am NOT frogging this baby!

Am I happy with it? Yeah, I have to say that it is incredibly soft and really beautiful despite the agony I mentioned above. If I can figure out the knitted on lace border and blocking, I'll be good to go. (I think.)

So, what else have I finished, you ask?

Well, I finally finished my Wavy scarf!!! (It only took 9 months to finish....nothin' to it! LOL!) Here is Tim modeling it for me:



I'm super happy with the outcome, but not sure if I'd ever make another one. If I did, it would be for some kind of payment (money or yarn) and definitely in a different color. Not sure how lovely Blogless Amanda has knit 3 (!!!) of them, but she must have nerves of steel or something.

Also, I dyed some Knit Picks Bare Laceweight yarn in a slightly varigated purples/blues/lilac colorway and will be using that for a special project soon. I was thrilled with this yarn! It is super, super soft and dyed very nicely. Only $3.99 for 880 yards!!! I'll definitely buy more. (one tip, though....this yarn is slightly thicker than laceweight, but not quite fingering.)



What do you think??

Here's my progress on spinning the bamboo I got from Cayli, who bought it from the fab-u-lous HollyEEQ. I WUV BAMBOO!!!



I can't believe how wonderful it is to spin...when they say it spins like "buttah"....it is SO true! It's like spinning tencel, but without the burn....shines brighter than silk and is so much easier to spin than silk. When drafting, it just floats out of your hands like ribbons of shiny clouds. I'd love a bed lined with bamboo fiber! Mmmm.....



I've only spun half the fiber so far, but I'm planning on spinning the other half and making a 2 ply fingering/sportweight yarn. If I get the yardage I think I will, I'm thinking of making a lace shawl out of it or mini Clapotis.

Hmmm...what else am I up to?

Oh, guess what I bought from Loop? An absolutely BREATHTAKING fiber called, "Kimono"....it's a handcarded 3 oz batt of alpaca, merino, sparkle and silk. You would not believe how gorgeous this is from my pic...click HERE to see better pics. It's driving me crazy....I don't know whether to just admire it, spin it or marry it. (I would. I really would.)



Oh, before I forget, my TWO NEW PATTERNS are now available in pdf form (free!!) on the right sidebar under Sleepy Eyes Patterns. Please check them out and print them out (full color makes them look REALLY awesome) and tell many, many people about them, okay? It's the "PicSock"....a cozy for your small digital camera or cell phone... and "Sweet Leaf" toddler hat. Comments?? Hugs??

Since Ian is still away in New Mexico, I am trying not to go insane. Tim is out of school now and....he is bored. My sons are both driving me to drink (well...just maybe some tonic water with lime).....all day long is bicker, bicker, bicker. No matter who I put in which room, how many hours they are out playing, or swimming or eating. Ahhhh!!!! (Jackie knows my pain.)

Speaking of Ian....

well, he loves geocashing. And he brought his GPS to NM with him. He tells me this morning that he went out after work yesterday TO THE DESERT with only 1 bottle of water and his GPS to hike.

No buddy, no extra food, no cell phone, no hat, no sunscreen, no first aid kit or supplies and.... no one he knows for hundreds of miles knows where he is.

K.

He tells me that he didn't really feel like following any trails (UM....am I the only one who thinks he is more insane than me?) and might have gotten lost for a bit. Um...yeah.

Luckily, he found a trail and was able to make it back without dying and raced into a Subway to get some food and water. He was so dehydrated that he could barely talk to order his food.

OMG.

You know, I TRY not to be a worry wort, but when he tells me things like this, I can only think that I may have to kill him for doing such dangerous things.

(sigh)

Anyone wanna trade three fertile males for a female alpaca or llama or something??

Lace'm Up, Cowboy!

Okay, so that's not REALLY a well-known expression, but who cares! I've got lace updates!!

So, you see above how it's going...at the moment, I am 2 repeats short of the halfway mark. I can't believe I've made this far!!! (remind me to put in a lifeline, PLEASE!.

Details...if I forgot to add them last time.

Yarn- Jade Sapphire Lacey Lamb (used doubled)
Colorway-Black
Needle Size-US 7, 32" circular needle from Knit Picks.
Pattern-Large Rectangle with Center Diamonds from Victorian Lace Today.

This is marked as an EASY lace 10 row pattern and it is. Very quick to memorize and every other row is just purling. It seems easy, but looks much fancier than I thought it would. I wouldn't take it to knitting group, but it's easy to work on if you have some time to yourself. It takes me 30 minutes to knit the 10 rows and I knit fast...just an idea of the time it takes, if you were wondering.

Here is the project 1/4 finished:



And then also spread out....how do people block only partial lace for pictures? I tried to do it, but it never worked. Hints?



I'm very happy so far and I'm even thinking of trying to make another lace stole after this is done. This year has been a lot of lace knitting for me! (socks, 2 headbands, tablerunner, this stole and something-that-shall-not-be-named.) May I dare and go so far as to design my own lace stole??? Not sure yet.....we'll have to wait and see....

As for the Headband Contest, which ended last night, I have some good news....everyone who sent me pics of themselves in their headband will receive gifts!!! I will be sending these gifts to you this coming week....so congratulations!!!!

I want to thank wholeheartedly everyone who bought the pattern and completed it during the contest time. Also for anyone who tried to knit it and get it done in time. I can only hope that you enjoyed knitting the headbands and will continue to wear them. I bet they look great on you! Please keep sending me pictures for the gallery, too.

Special thanks to:

Cayli
Jackie
Sonya
Lora
Daisy

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend....I know I will....going to Spunky Eclectic's new shop tomorrow!!! Woo-hoo!!! Amy, here we come.......!