Lady’s Circular Cape

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Deborah Cooke

And here it is!This is the Lady’s Circular Cape from Victorian Lace Today, finally finished and blocked.

I blocked this a bit too hard at the time, and later was disappointed that it came out so flat. The illustration in the book showed the finished shawl having some ripples in the main body of it and since I’d used the specified yarn, I wanted the same effect.

I spritzed it down with water and left it in mound to dry. I did that again, letting it relax into the shape it wanted to take, and think that this is a happy compromise between blocked and not.

This was the first pattern from VLT in which I ran out of yarn, despite using the specified yarn and having the specified quantity.

I’m thinking of adding a line of crocheted chain stitch around the collar. It seems a bit fragile to me there, given the fullness and weight of the shawl. I think that if I did it in the same yarn and chose the location well, it would never show and it would ensure there was no damage in wear. I’m probably over-engineering it, but I would like to wear it with a pin at the neck (which is comparatively heavy) and also the neck is a bit bigger than expected. Got to think a bit on that.

Baudelaire Socks

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Deborah Cooke

More socks from me. I guess they give me a fresh footing for the new year.The pattern is Baudelaire, which is a free pattern on Knitty by Cookie A. I’ve knit this pattern a couple of times before, but I’ve always given the resulting socks away. Even though I’m a very generous person (!) I’m not usually so generous with handknit lace socks. Those earlier socks didn’t fit me. I gave them to people with bigger feet. There. I’ve confessed. I finally learned that you start the heel for toe-up socks when the work reaches the front of the ankle bone. I did that this time, and these fit perfectly.

Which means they’re MINE!

The yarn is Viola Sock, from a handpainter whose website is Viola and the Moon. My crummy photograph doesn’t begin to do justice to her artistry. There are (roughly) zillions of purple and blue hues in this yarn and little flicks of colour, too – like hot pink. It doesn’t want to pool at all. It’s scrumptious.

These socks stalled last spring because I became so inspired by the yarn that I decided I wanted to make knee socks. (Why do I love knee socks so much? I can’t explain it.) I only had one skein, which wasn’t enough. The store was sold out of what they’d had when I bought the skein, so I contacted the designer. She didn’t have any more either, but – after warning me about dye lots – she dyed me another skein. It was and is just as scrumptious as the first, but it is also much more blue. Hmm. I tried to blend the dye lots with alternating rows, but no matter what I did, I ended up with stripes around the calves. Not good. So (big sigh) after letting them gather dust for a few months, in December I frogged back and knit regular socks instead of knee socks.

The good news is, though, that I still have a whole new skein of Viola Sock to knit another pair of socks! I also have an idea that I’ll make stripey knee socks with it. (This is very good news.)

Lace Jacket by Brooke Nico 2

Posted on November 25, 2011 by Deborah Cooke

I seem to be knitting a lot of projects lately that have knitted borders. Or maybe the borders just take so long to knit that they feel like endless projects. Not sure. At any rate, here’s another one.This is the lace jacket by Brooke Nico from Vogue Knitting fall 2010. I cast it on last fall in Kidsilk Haze, then put it aside for a while. I’ve been charging away on it lately – mostly because it’s so astonishingly pretty – and am now knitting the border. The jacket is constructed as a circle – well, actually, a pentagon – with a border all around the outside of the circle. You leave stitches on holders in two wedges of the pentagon, then go back and make sleeves there. I still have to do that bit. The red stitches toward the centre are those saved stitches.

But look at this border. On one hand, I think it’s really too wide for the circle and that maybe I should have substituted a narrower lace border. On the other, well, it’s just so pretty that I can’t stop knitting it. I’m incredulous that I’m knitting something so lovely.

What do you think?

Kidsilk Haze Circular Cape and Calienté

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Deborah Cooke

This past week, I’ve been plotting like crazy, which also means I’ve been knitting like crazy. Here’s what I’ve accomplished.

First off, I’ve been plugging along, knitting the border on that Lady’s Circular Cape in KidSilk Haze. The pattern is in Victorian Lace Today. I was making good progress on this last winter, until I realized that I was going to run out of yarn. I had two balls left when I started the border and didn’t get to the halfway point with the first one. Ooops. Naturally, this yarn had been aging in my stash so there was no more to be found in the same dye lot. I ordered a ball from the same vendor and it was really different – it looked like a different yarn, as well as being a different colour. I finally found a decent match in the old stock at my LYS – she said she thought Rowan must have changed mills for KSH, because she had also noticed that the newer stock looked different. (It’s shinier, as if it has more silk.)

So, with that solved, I’ve gotten back to it. Here’s a peek:

What you’re seeing here is the part of the shawl that has the border knitted on already. The neck is at the bottom of this shot, and you can see (at the pink thread) where I began to attach the border at the centre back of the neck. It then goes down one front and along the hem. There are 13 scallops in the entire shawl – you can see 4 here. I have 5 more to go, then up the other side and back to the centre back neck. Exactly one ball of KSH – 225m of knitting – to go.

The issue with this border is that I can’t knit it while I’m watching television. I have to pay attention. So, since we’ve been watching DVD’s of the first season of House, I’ve been knitting something else. Also Kidsilk Haze – but this is the new KSH Stripe.

This is my pattern, Caliente, which is free on Ravelry. I made it narrower than the pattern specifies, increasing only to four diamonds in width. I’m thinking this is about halfway, but am not yet sure how I’ll know when to start the decreases for the other end. I’ll likely guess, and if I’m wrong, I’ll be frogging KSH. Ick. I’d better make it a good guess!

Aeolian Shawl

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Deborah Cooke

I just FINISHED a lace shawl that’s been on my needles for most of the year, and yesterday I blocked it out.

The pattern is Aeolian, which is a free pattern from Knitty – you can download it right here. I made the largest size on the smallest needles, because I like how this yarn works up on smaller needles. It’s blocked out to be 33″ down the centre back, which is plenty big enough for me.

The yarn is 2ply lace from Wellington Fibres – yup, gotta get some goat in! – and the handpainted colourway (done by WF) is called Mardi Gras. The colours reminded me of pictures of the Grand Canyon, with all the layers of colour in the rocks. So, did the pattern. It’s quite exciting that the colours didn’t pool – it really does look stripey like those pictures.

The pattern calls for beads and nupps, but I just added beads. I also used fewer beads than instructed – most of the first chart I left without beads. I was worried that it might be too heavy otherwise.

And here it is. Just a detail shot because it’s too big to all fit in the viewfinder!What do you think?

Kidsilk Haze & Lace

Posted on September 8, 2010 by Deborah Cooke

I’ve ended up with two lace projects, both in Kidsilk Haze, on my needles. (Good thing I have too many needles.) No sooner did I cast on the Lady’s Circular Cape from VLT – which is proving to be an addictive knit – than the KSH for the Lace Cardigan in VK arrived. So, I cast it on, as well. Since I’m in the midst of a revision that is bending my brain (all good) I’m getting lots of knitting done as I think.

Here’s my progress so far on the Lady’s Circular Cape from Victorian Lace Today. (Which is a truly amazing book.) This one is cast on at the neck, then you work back and forth to the hem. At the end, you knit an edging around the whole thing. The colour of this one is Black Currant and it’s a very deep purple. I’ve worked about 25 rows of the pattern – of course, it’s lace so it looks like a lump right now. The little bits of sock yarn are my stitch markers – they indicate the pattern repeats:The other project is a Lace Cardigan from the current issue of Vogue Knitting. This one is knit outward from the centre back in a pentagon. I’ve used the colour Trance, which is a smokey blue. I’ve done about 30 rows from the first chart and again, it looks like a lump.So tell me – what’s on your needles?

Bitterroot Shawl in Kauni

Posted on April 12, 2010 by Deborah Cooke

I have been getting some knitting done this winter, so it’s time to show you a few things.

First is a shawl in Kauni Effektgarn. The pattern is a free one from Knitty.com, called Bitterroot by Rosemary Hill.

You can see that I had a hard time finding a big enough space to photograph it. As it was, I had to stand on a chair – and there’s junk in the corners. Photography isn’t my best trick! Here’s a detail shot of the centre tip:This shawl was a surprisingly quick knit – or maybe it was just too addictive to put down! I did add beads, as specified by the pattern. The beads are silver, so they hide (especially in the pictures) but they catch the light in a starry kind of way. I like how the outside edge is just barely black. That was a nice coincidence with the colour changes.

My Ravelry project page is here.

I’m really happy with this one, and just might have to knit another…

Spider’s Web Shawl

Posted on February 15, 2010 by Deborah Cooke

This is the semi-circular Spider’s Web Shawl from Jane Sowerby’s book, VICTORIAN LACE TODAY. One of these days, I’ll knit the full circle version. The yarn is from Fleece Artist Merino 2/6 which comes with a skein of Angelhair dyed the same colourway. I used the yarns separately, knitting the middle of the shawl from the merino and the lacy edge from the Angelhair. I used another Fleece Artist yarn, Somoko, in red for the band between the two sections and for the outer hem. See the gold beads?

The Queen Susan Shawl

Posted on December 4, 2009 by Deborah Cooke

I stumbled across this recently and am amazed, fascinated, and dazzled. Check out this blog post about a group project that evolved from a question on Ravelry – a knitter reverse-engineered an historic Shetland lace shawl and a group of Ravelry knitter undertook the test knitting so the pattern could be made available:

Fleegle on the Queen Susan Shawl

Isn’t that the most gorgeous thing you’ve ever seen? And a great story, too.

I think I need to both live longer and knit faster to knit all the projects I want to knit!

Peacock Feathers Shawl

Posted on April 13, 2009 by Deborah Cooke

I finished a shawl this weekend and am not sure how much I like it.

Last summer, at the RWA National convention in San Francisco, Pam and I went on a bit of a yarn crawl. We had searched online before going and had a list of potential shops to visit, and at one, I bought a skein of Aurora Yarns’ Whisper. It’s a 100% merino laceweight that is handpainted in northern CA – this skein was shades of fuschia, red, burgundy and purple. Very pretty. Very soft. The colours are incredibly rich, and there was 1250 m on the skein.

Once home, I had to figure out what to knit with it! I ultimately decided on a pattern from Fiddlesticks Knitting called the Peacock Feathers Shawl. And I decided to put some beads around each “eye” of the peacock feather. Here it is:It’s ENORMOUS, so hard to photograph. It has been blocked, and relaxed a bit when released. The first image (of the whole shawl) shows the actual colour best.

Here’s a detail shot of the corner:

It looks better in the photos, but I still think the lace is too open. Mr. C. says it looks delicate, which is another way of looking at the same issue. Since this yarn was so fine – much finer than the Zephyr specified in the pattern (now it specifies Exquisite) – I dropped 3 needle sizes, from 3.75mm to 3.0mm.

I think I should have gone to 2.5mm. I was worried about it being too small if I did that, but the finished shawl blocked to 80″ across the top. (The pattern has a finished size of 88″ across the top.) So, I could have gone smaller with the needles and still had a shawl plenty big enough.

But I’m not going to frog it!