Seasons of Lace

I started these pre-SoL… but had not finished the first sock prior to event. I think that qualifies as less that 50% complete and therefore I can count the last two foot repeats and toe of Sock One and all of Sock Two as part of my lacy summer. Not that I have any hope of winning any MOST YARDS competition when I see all the lovely, lovely lacy shawls and stoles and scarves being posted! You all ROCK!

These monkeys are being made with one of my first hand-dyed yarns. That sounds like I have a lot of hand-dyed… I took a class and did 5 or 6 colors with varying techniques. That is what I’ve got! This one was Wilton Dyes. It’s pretty bright, like cotton candy!

well, I didnt take a pictures of the cast on of this, but I cast on, got the first two clues done, and now just finished the 3rd clue last night. I love it. I am adding beads to it too, and really like the affect. I am hoping to put this in our County Fair, and it is for my grandmother for Christmas. I wish the picture turned out better though, it is so much lovelier in real life:)

<a href=”http://www.flickr.com/photos/21114864@N07/2661255949/” title=”Goddess Knits mystery shawl 2 by Kcatt79, on Flickr”><img src=”http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3128/2661255949_0caca46b33.jpg” width=”500″ height=”333″ alt=”Goddess Knits mystery shawl 2″ /></a>

After some tidying up of loose end projects around here I am jumping in to the Honeybee Shawl by Anne Hanson of Knitspot.  I’ve picked the beautiful lacewight cashmere “Sophia” from Poshyarn in the “Finch” colorway and it is a joy to work with.  The very subdued yellow dances through the green as I knit it on my patio.  I will be posting pics soon of my beginnings, but for now my yarn is on my Raverly stash page.

I’ve been lurking until now, reading and admiring everyone’s posts. No more! Here’s my additions for Summer 08:

The Springtime design by Marianne Kinzel. Started June 6th, so it was before the season officially began, but I am definitely working on it in earnest now! This is an easy design, but it does take a fair amount of attention until you get the hang of the pattern repeat. (This is the same pattern the Yarn Harlot did her wedding shawl as).  The yarn is Louisa Harding Angora Pure, which I am pretty sure is the reason the particulate count in my city is so high right now. This yarn is worse than a cattery in shedding season! However, it’s soft as all get-out, so I will wear a light colored shirt and just live with it.

The Casablanca Stole KAL on Yahoo! is going well. I’ve taken a breather from clue #2- I’m just short of halfway through here. I can’t decide if I like where it is going or not, but the color seems to match the stitch variations, so I may keep it even if I don’t like the FO.

Socks for Veronik from the holiday IK. The yarn is a new brand of sock yarn for me, of which the name eludes me at this minute. I’m actually quite farther down on this sock, having just turned the heel last night. The lace is a little tedious on such tiny needles, but it’s working out so far.

Other lace WIPs include Dem Fischer Sin Fru (which I will be knitting on until the day I die, I swear!), the Goddess Knits Anniversary shawl and a newly minted but unphotographed Odessa hat… small enough for a baby. It would appear that the gauge gnomes have been at it again with me!

Hey all, I hope I am doing this right. I just found this, and thought it would be so fun to join in with you all. I am working on two shawls right now, and a pair of lace socks. I love knitting lace, and have “A Gathering of Lace” coming in the mail any day! I cant wait! This will be a fun summer!

Katherine

Greeting lace lovers from the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee! I just received word that I can play along with SOL 2008 even though I missed the deadline for registering for the blog. Hey, I was on vacation I’m a confirmed lace knitting addict and plan to spend the summer knitting lace along with the Tour de France and the Beijing Olympics. To each his/her own sport!

I took inventory of my current & planned lace projects to identify those eligible for the contests and competitions. I keep a journal documenting the progress of all my knitting, so I know exactly how much knitting I had completed on June 21st, our official start date for this party. I also post fairly detailed notes on my project pages at Ravelry (ID: beadntat) Here’s what I have cast-on and in progress right now:

First up is Evelyn Clark’s Flower Basket Shawl (med. lace) knit in a powder blue Misti Alpaca Lace yarn on size 4 needles. I’m leading a summer KAL at my LYS for this shawl. The cast-on party was May 29th. I have lots of newbie lace knitters in the KAL so I’ve been helping more than I’ve been knitting on my own project.  I had 2 repeats of the Lower Flower Basket chart done on the 21st and I’m on the 5th repeat now. I still need to take photos of this project, but I’ll let you know when I have them ready to share.

Next is a pair of No Purl Monkey socks (wee, socks) knit in an almost fluorescent lime and turquoise shade of Colinette Jitterbug. These were cast-on at a KIP event on WWKIP day (June 16) at a gathering of the Rustic Tarts and Old Farts Lace Knitting group in Martinsburg, WV. We were sitting in the rockers at a Cracker Barrel before & after dinner–FUN! I had the cuff of one sock done on the 21st and I’m working on the foot of the 2nd sock today. Here is a photo of the 1st sock in my daisy patch at home: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beadntat/2628683492/

Like several other SOL 08 knitters, I’m also working on the Goddess Knits Anniversary Shawl. I’ve named my version Steph’s Geraniums (large) in honor of my sister as I cast-on on June 29th, the anniversary of her death 29 years ago. Geraniums were among her favorite flowers, so it is fitting that my shawl is knit from ColourMart cashmere 2/28 that matches the geraniums growing on my deck. I’m up to row 16 of Clue 4D –not bad for a late start! All the details are on Ravelry and the latest photos are on the SOL Flickr page and here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/beadntat/2643594109/

I’m thrilled to knitting lace with you this summer. I apologize for the long-winded post, but I hope I brought everyone up to date with what I’m knitting. Knit on!

Kristina

Now that my air conditioner is fixed (now that the wiring for the a.c. is fixed, actually–it only took 3 weeks, and about 8 man-hours, for the highly trained HVAC guy to figure out that the problem wasn’t with the out-of-the-box wall unit, but rather with the wiring in the breaker box), I’m ready to dive back in.  I’m working on my Madli’s Shawl–I had 14 center repeats done before the start, and have completed another 4 repeats since then:

I think I’m going to make it a little longer than called-for (35 repeats instead of 31), since I’ll have plenty of yarn.  The nupps are still moving along quite nicely, and I’m really pleased with how the shawl is turning out!

Although I have a number of lace projects going (you can’t have just one), I finally have two that I actually started after June 21st so I feel I can include them in this event.

Please bear with me because I am not a blogger (even if I did software design for more than 20 years and have used the internet almost as long) since I tend to prefer my privacy.

About my two Sesons of Lace projects:

The first is a lace mohair scarf made using Karabella’s Lace Mohair in a very light pink. The pattern is also theirs (written by Nancie M. Wiseman) - Diagonal Knit Scarf - but in my usual way, I am modifying it slightly.  I had to start this a few times because there were some errors in the pattern and because I kept changing my mind as to what I wanted to do in the middle of the scarf (besides a straight knit).

The second is a quick project. I am using some laceweight Tencel yarn that I have to make a lace edging to embellish some hand towels. I am almost finished with the first strip and will make two before I sew the edgings onto the towels. The yarn is predominately green with some brown/beige, light blue, and red contrasts.

My other projects (all started before the start date) are large shawls which will get the majority of my time. I did put up pictures of the new projects but there are none of the other projects I am working on. I usually don’t take pictures until the project is finished.

Teri

I’m getting a late start on my project for SoL. It took me quite awhile to decide on a project because their are so many gorgeous ones out there. I finally have settled on Laminaria from Knitty’s Spring ‘08 issue. I’ll be swatching using Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in Tide Pool. I’m in the middle of another non-lace cardi project which I’m designing. It’s my first garment design and I’ve had to rip back a few times to get it right. I should be able to juggle them though as the cardi I’m doing is easy- mostly stockinette and I can multitask with it. The lace will be a challenge for my “serious knitting” time, which I’ll be finding more of. Can’t wait to get started and have some pics to contribute.

As you may or may not know, I’m in the midst of an annual road trip to my mom’s in Maine. We’ve arrived safely after a week of driving and visiting and generally having a good time.

While I’ve been playing and driving, folks have been continuing to lend their support to our KAL.

Twisted Fibers has joined us as a sponsor (if you’ve not popped over to the Sponsors page, you really ought to do so. I’ll wait while you look). Please do take a look, and shop appropriately.

Meanwhile, my most recent hostess has also joined in, sending me along with a lovely prize . Again… if you’ve not looked at the Prize page lately… hop on over and drool a bit. I’ll wait.

I’ve been sneaking in a bit of knitting…. and even made some beading progress last night after the final leg of driving. (That four hour stint felt like it took as long as the eight hour leg…).

This is a bit of Willow, resting on Chrysopolis’ chart.

I know it looks like there’s a bit of uneven-ness in the beading.  I’d thought about beading EVERY decrease in this mesh, but decided that in the end, that would not only be too crowded, but I’d run out of beads.  Since I bought the beads at Stitches over 2 years ago, I’m pretty sure that more that match would be more of a challenge than I’m up to…  It WILL make sense once the section is finished though.  Really.  It will.

Besides, this section represents a running stream.  We can’t expect water to look uniform, can we?