Seasons of Lace

My daughter ran to tell my that Barbie had finally consented to marry the Prince. It had been a sore trial for the Prince as Barbie had even moved out of the country one time to escape his advances. As it was the wedding was happening today and she really wanted a knit wedding dress (please, please, please!). No, I do not have time to knit a Barbie dress, I have other things to do. When my six year old said she would watch the baby and do the laundry so I would have time to knit, I sighed my big sigh and went to the store to buy yarn. ( How can you have over 250,000 yds. of yarn and still not have the right kind?)

This is my interpretation of this pattern, knit with Bernat baby yarn (76 yds.). I made it longer and added pearls to dress it up a bit. I knit this in secret because I don’t want my daughter to know she can manipulate her mama, but she was very excited and surprised when she saw it. Of course now she thinks all Barbie’s sisters need a dress too.

I went to a friends house today to spin yarn for the first time since last year, when she taught me the basics on the wheel, which her husband built. Amazingly, I remembered how it went, and the creamy wool looks terrific on the bobbin. I’m fairly sure I’m going to be knitting these singles into a lace scarf one of these days–soon. It’s really nice yarn, just as it is. Eventually I’m going to spin fine 2-ply laceweight, but for now I’m happy with my singles. I’m glad about it also because my son has really been wanting to try the wheel out, and now that I have refreshed my memory I can get him started

On the knitting front, I’ve made progress on my MS9 and have finished the second chart on the mandala shawl and moved into section 3 on the veil of Isis. It’s nice not to have deadlines and downtime between pattern sections. After working on the KALs this way of working seems to go much faster for me. Who needs sleep?

I started this wrap at the beginning of the month but was interrupted by some socks and Olympic knitting.  I’ve just picked it back up and now that I have the pattern down a bit better, it’s knitting up quite quickly and I’m really enjoying it.  The Dream in Color Baby has such a beautiful balance of color tones. 

I just ordered a special book and some Mini Maiden for my next project that I’m really excited about.  Why is it so much more exciting to start a new project when it comes in the mail instead of from the stash?

This is a sort of a doily/table topper from an old Burda magazine ( E 903) called “Goldregen” It’s another Niebling pattern.  The thread I’m using is a Habu orgazine degummed indigo dyed Silk, 1,400 yards/2 ounces. I’m using US 0000 needles from Lacis in Berkley CA and I’m on row 48. You can’t really see the pattern yet but I will try to post a better picture once there is enough to go onto circular needles.  If anyone is thinking of getting some of this thread, you might want to consider paying the extra money to have it wound onto a cone. My sister bought me this beautiful thread at a Stiches West so no cone option available at that time, but it was very difficult to wind this into a single ball and I had to break it half way because of a tangle. I’ve heard from others that they were unable to wind it at all so had to throw out the entire lot.  It has been suggested that putting the swift on it’s side (like a ferris wheel) helps to unwind the skein smoothly so I may try that on my second skein. That’s right. I have two of them. In order to keep the silk from unwinding once it was in a ball, I have each encased in the leg of a cast-off pair of nylon ankle socks.  That holds the ball of silk enough so I can unwind enough thread to use as I knit without getting tangled up.  This silk has a slightly “crisp” feel to it but is still very slippery. Dropping a stitch using this would be bad. Very very bad.

I thought I had better check in to add my lace content to our blog. I am still knitting away on my Snowflakes in Cedarwoods shawl. I’m currently on row 17 of section G which means I still have a long way to go! I have 776 stitches on the needles and my rows are going slower. I’ll post a photo soon, my lace looks like a blueish white blob and I will not see the fruit of my labor until I take it off the needle and block. It’s been a long hot summer in my house!  Alison

I have to drop out. We are moving and I just don’t have time or patience to knit lace. I haven’t completed anything this summer, I barely have made progress on any of the three lace shawls I have on the needles. Hopefully I’ll be able to concentrate on my lace knitting by the time the Winter of Lace starts.

Well, I finally finished my latest pair of socks. These seemed to take a long time due to all the end of summer stuff we had going on. The pattern is  At the Catch Socks by Helen Waittes  and the yarn is from Mackintosh Yarns.

As the Seasons of Lace Began, I was knitting Boing!  A Little Nothing designed by Anne Hanson.

Boing was never my primary project.  But she seemed to go along with me everywhere.

She went shopping with me as we bought summer clothes for the girls,

She drove across the country, taking in the sights of Western New York en route, adn then hung out with me in MidCoast Maine.

She traveled to Canada — twice, but failed to catch the camera’s attention either time.

She listened to the DaPonte String Quartet play glorious music at the Botanical Gardens in Boothbay Maine.

She enjoyed visits to three cities/towns in Vermont.

She went on a cruise on the Niagara River:

She went out to dinner in Dayton…

And now… vacation is over.  The girls are back in school.  This week they even have an almost full week of school (1/2 day Friday).  There has been homework.

And Boing! is finished.  She shed her needles

took a nice long soak,

stretched out in lace’s version of a bound yoga pose,

and stretched out all of her lovely lacey bits (no cramped muscles here!)

and is ready for the chill breezes that are likely to start blowing before we’re ready.

Okay, maybe almost over…

One last chance for summer lace…

?I don’t really go on vacation, but I do go to DragonCon (biggest Sci-fi and Fantasy Con in the SE USA).  It is crazy and bizarre and fun, and this year I decided to add to the bizarre by…

making random people hold my lace scarf in progress and taking their picture (ala the Yarn Harlot and her socks).  I’ll probably have a ton of these by the end of the weekend on my flickr page, should you wish to see more, but I got two today that I thought were worth sharing with the group.

That’s a knitting rum-running pirate.

And that’s Professor Severus Snape (from the Harry Potter books).

Hope everyone else is enjoying their weekend as much as I am!

I finally finished my Heartland Lace Shawl by Evelyn Clark. I don’t know why, but once the Olympics were over it was a real slog to get this done. I knit this shawl as a tribute to my dad who passed away last May. He loved buffaloes and this is knit of 100% American Buffalo down which I hand spun. The pattern is supposed to be buffalo tracks and a river. This shawl is fairly large (78×34.5) and very warm. 609 yds.