Ready for Another one?

Some things I am never ready for another of.....but some things, like knitting things, I am always up for more!

Today's trip down memory lane (for me at least, remember it takes a long time from concept to published book) is Blue Dahlia!

Well, sort of, mine is Hollyhock Dahlia, and if I remember correctly this is actually in Madeline Tosh Light.

As you might have guessed it is another piece from the book that Andrea Jurgrau has out, called The New Vintage Lace.

This one was inspired by a German Doily and has bold leaves and beads.

I love the shaping of this one, it sits perfectly on your shoulders without needing to be pinned to stay put, even when teaching financial education to 30 middle school students in the basement of a building downtown.

In other knitting news, there seems to be a run on baby blankets at work again this year.  Although I have not yet finished my Fractured Fractal in grey and white, I might have cast on another version in pink and white for a baby girl.

If I ever get a lunch break again, maybe I can actually do some knitting on them!

~M

Happy American Mother's Day

For all the mothers, sisters of mothers, children of mothers and mothers of mothers out there....Happy Mother's Day! (I stole those words from another knitter, Thanks Jeri, I loved the way you phrased that and couldn't resist borrowing it, I changed it a little but it is still your sentiment!)

Mine has been mostly quiet, with a little knitting time and some help with yard work.  TDQ made me a bracelet (that's her thing these days, bracelets and necklaces, then running around selling them to her friends.)  It was a rough week so I needed a little peace and quiet in my life before Monday rolls around and rough week the second begins!

As I have mentioned before, Andrea, of Bad Cat Designs has a book that is soon to be at a bookseller near you (or available through Amazon as a dead tree version and Interweave as an e-book.)  As one of her faithful test knitters, I of course got a sneak peek at the designs when they were still in the charting and initial knitting phases.

It takes a long time to get from there to publication date, and I did not keep very good track at all of what yarns I used, which beads and needles...but I did manage to dig out some of my finished object photo's that I shared with Andrea when I was done with the knitting portion of each project.

Just to be different I am going to move right to the ending chapters of the book.  Where Andrea discusses and demonstrates how to take a vintage doily and turn it into something new!

We start with an 8 wedge doily.

Just like this one!

 Add some particularly luscious yarn (Lara's Creations Majestic in Your Highness)

Slightly larger needles, with a slightly adjusted chart gets you....

A pretty Purple Shawl!

TDQ hasn't had hair that long in quite a while, which helps to show just how long the process from ideas to book has been!

Of course, being a purple shawl it was immediately stolen by that sassy little model!

There are 22 patterns in the book, various shapes and sizes of shawls, doilies and hats. Pretty much something for every knitter, from beginners (The Purple Shawl is a good one for that) to the expert who wants a bit of a challenge.

~M

The Problem With Test Knitting

Now don't misunderstand me, I love test knitting for some of my favorite knit wear designers.  When my hands were doing their own thing and I found knitting difficult (some days impossible) it broke my heart that a couple of designs got knit by people other than me first (well second, the designer usually does get first go at things!)  But, occasionally there is a problem with test knitting.

You see, the timing between coming up with a great idea, charting it and knitting it, knitting it again, sending the pattern to your testers, getting input, making corrections (or changes to the design), sending it to the publisher, edits and more edits, to publication is a long (and if you are the designer, harrowing) road.

Part of the commitment with being a test knitter is you have to be able to keep a secret, so things get knit, photographed to show the designer and then packed away until they can be shared. (Ok, maybe I cheat on the packed away part sometimes and wear the things, or use them, which is probably why I have the small problem I do now!)

The New Vintage Lace, by Andrea Jurgrau is hitting a book store near you very shortly!  For those that can't wait, Interweave has an e-book version  and for those that want a sneak peek Amazon has a Look Inside feature.  Andrea has started putting the patterns on Ravelry so that we can link projects, and suggested that her test knitters could post a few of their finished object pictures.

Herein lies the problem!  First up she has posted the hats and some doilies, and while the hats were easy to get my hands on, and I know I knit the doilies I have no idea where I put them all!

So until I do, here is a small sampling of some of the test knits!

Clematis Doily

and hat




 Peaseblossom Hat


 


And finally, Giverny Beret
 

In other knitting news, the second fractal blanket went through a few more modifications and is one quarter the way through the border.  I haven't been getting much knitting time lately so it is pretty slow going.  Maybe one day soon I will post pictures of that too!

~M

Quiet

I suppose I have been a little quiet recently.

Mostly I think it has been a case of somebody (and I will be bold and name names here, Lara) allowed me to obtain some of the knitters equivalent to crack cocaine (she conned me into it, I tell you!) and then somebody else (again naming names, Andrea of Bad Cat Designs) showed me a way of using that drug, a way that used all but the barest fraction of a gram of the crack, and told me to go play with my new toys!

So that is exactly what I did.

I sat in the corner (well not really, my knitting station is pretty central to the rest of the house) and got out some pointy sticks, and tubs of beads, and a teeny, tiny little crochet hook, and I stayed quiet for simply ages!

But, not being the monogamous type with my knitting, there was more that one thing going on in  my corner, and before I knew it nearly a month had slipped by and a parade of finished objects had been put on wires and molded into shape.  (But not all of them will be shared today).

First up we have the crack cocaine project.....aka Martinique.

In my rush to put this one on the needles, I actually grabbed the needles I had out for another project, which were bigger than what the pattern called for, so this version is just a little longer and drapes a little more than the original version
 
 that I knit using some cheapo lace yarn from Joannes Fabric and Crafts (Patons Lace for those that are interested.)

Of the two, obviously my Crack Infinity (the greeny-to-teelish) one was my favorite to knit,
 
 even with the rows of beading which really slow me down...first you have to catch the pesky bead with the crochet hook, then put it on the stitch, yarn over, purl two together and start bead wrangling again.....but the yarn itself more than made up for those slow going rows by being such a joy to knit with.


If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend the yarn, not to mention the dye job, that Lara sells on Etsy.  The base for this one, Soft n Single is exactly what it claims to be, very soft, single ply lace yarn with just a little bit of grab to it, which helps stop things from sliding too quickly off the needles!  I center wound my hank and, against all advice, worked from the center of my ball without any problems.  If singles aren't your style, check out some of her other yarns, I haven't met one yet that I didn't fall in love with at first touch.

Once the Martiniques were off the needles I was a bit at loose ends for what to knit next.

There are always test knits waiting in the wings, but nothing that had to be knit "right now, the deadline is looming".  And test knitting doesn't give me a lot to put up on the blog to show I am still alive and kicking for those that keep track.

So I decided to Fracture the Fractal Blanket and turn it into another Baby Blanket for my stash o baby blankets that grows and dwindles through the year.

Now I have Fractal Blanket Version Two ready for it's border.....


While I had the camera out I also took a better  (comparatively) picture of my fractal blanket,

which got a lot of use over Spring Break as the weather was not very springlike (cue really bad picture of spring break snow when it was just getting started, we ended up with a light covering of snow over ice pellets on everything!)
 
and we had a movie binge.  Which just goes to show, that being quiet is contagious!  We all were quiet and still for the break.

In other Knitting News, the look inside feature has been enabled for Andrea's book.  I can tell you that the patterns in there are gorgeous and her explanations about how things work in knitting lace and deciphering older lace doily patterns will be well worth the price of admission!

Maybe I will be back sooner than a month from now......we'll see!

~M

Fractals

Today was a special day for my Fractal Blanket, she finally got a good long soak in some wool wash in the sink....it was a long enough soak that we shoveled the driveway and the sidewalk before she was done with her spa treatment!

But, before we get into that, I have a confession.

I was trying very hard to be good and not give in to temptation.  We all know that temptation sometimes leads us down precarious paths, but Andrea posted the new infinity wrap on the group site last week and every time I turned around a little voice was telling me that really I needed to cast it on!

I thought I could push that tempting voice away, but it had other ideas.

I tried to sway the other ideas with some Paton's Lace, as I wouldn't be adding beads to that yarn (the mohair and my crochet hook to bead don't get along really well and I end up yanking the hook so hard to pull the yarn through that I break the yarn!) it would make a good travel project.
 
 But that little voice kept on at me.....reminding me of the fabulous yarn that Lara had dyed that moves through a yellowy green to a brilliant teal blue.

As the pictures show, I gave into temptation.

But still managed to pin out my blanket (too tightly as it is drying it is bending the floor mats I use as a blocking board so I am about to go and move the pins!) before I needed to put dinner in the oven!

 So what's on your needles, or whispering in your ears?

~M

Doldrums

The doldrums is a colloquial expression derived from historical maritime usage, in which it refers to those parts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean affected by the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a low-pressure area around the equator where the prevailing winds are calm.

In other words, take your own risk sailing there, you could be stuck for days without making any forward motion.

Doldrums are also that place in your knitting where you knit and knit and knit, knowing by the decreasing amount of yarn in the ball you are using that you have to be making great forward progress, and yet, somehow, when you look at your knitting you have barely made a dent.  Some people also call this edging!

I am in the Doldrums of my Fractal Blanket!

I have used up all the partial balls that were left over from making squares...when there wasn't enough yarn to knit another complete square without joining I put it aside and started a new ball.  And, I have used a huge chunk out of another ball of yarn and the end is not in sight.  Which isn't really made any better by Andrea hinting that she will soon be posting the next project....in the doldrums of edging I would leap at the chance to cast on the next thing instead of working yet another pattern repeat.  Although, the pattern repeats are very pretty and the wider edging I picked from our choices does look ever so nice with the rest of the blanket, at least as far as I can tell with it still on the needles!

As with all lace, really, to know for sure how great it looks I need to finish it up and block it!

Wanna see how it looks so far?

Other than working on that edging my only other knitting has been repair work!  Seems like children at my house are getting to be a bit hard on their hand knit socks, two replaced toes (from different pairs) a heel and I still have some repair work to do.  At least the toes were easy, I just ripped out the old ones and knit new ones in their place rather than trying to darn them. And quicker than my usual holding them over the garbage can, saying "Darn you sock" and knitting a whole new pair!

I suppose it is back to the doldrums for me....anything exciting on your needles?

~M

Gray and Brown

Over the past few weeks the Yarn Harlot has blogged about how knitting in nice, bright, cheery colors helps to offset the grey and white world that we seem to be living in right now. Grey skies, white snow, grey slush on the roads, mounds of white stuff with salt, garbage, dirt showing through to make things really ugly in the mundane world.

Pity I didn't listen to her, all my knitting this week is shades of grey and brown!

This week the group files for the Infinity Knitalong included all the final instructions for the Fractal Blanket.  After sewing my 12 squares together I picked up the loops all the way around and started in on Border One.  As I didn't knit as many squares, and as I knew that Andrea actually used very little of her contrast color, I knew going into it that I would be making my border deeper than hers, my plan is to knit as long as the yarn holds out and then kick myself because there will be miles of edging to go beyond that....

But in the meantime I read through the rest of the instructions and realized that next I will have to do some fudging.  The edging is a multiple of 10 rows, so any multiple of ten stitches per side of the blanket will work, my problem is I went with both an odd and an even number of squares (3 which is odd, by 4 which is even) and that means I will never have a multiple of 10 on both the long and the short sides at the same time!

Friday was Valentine's Day, and I made out like a bandit!  Which is even nicer as I didn't expect to get so much as a card from anyone! I didn't even get it all photo'd for the blog, there was another box of truffles that seems to have disappeared somewhere between Friday and today!

 


TOB wanted to show you all his yarn stash too.  At least it will be easy to tell apart from mine!

I have many more rows of Border One to knit, so I am off...with this view out my window knitting is the only sensible thing to do during my bank holiday!

~M