FO: Aeolian Shawl

It's finally finished! It took less than a month, but it still feels like forever.

Pattern: Aeolian Shawl by Elizabeth Freeman, available here.
Yarn: malabrigo lace in azul bolita, just over one and a half skeins. Maybe 800 yards?
Needle: US #7
Finished Size:  60" x 30" 
Notes: Since the shawl is modular, I changed the charts up a bit: one set-up chart, then six repeats of the yucca chart, then one agave chart, then one final agave chart, ending with the alternate narrow edging, as I didn't think I had enough to complete the original. I definitely made the right call; the last few rows of the edging and the bind-off eat yarn. 


I'm pretty sad it'll be a while before I can wear it. I got hot just carrying it around and posing it on my arm outside.

Casting off forever and ever and ever and ever...

...and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever.

I've finally arrived at the end of my Aeolian shawl. All that stands between me and bright blue totally out of season shawl-y bliss is 439 (note: I'm about halfway through. All said and done, the shawl had 877 stitches at the end) stitches of stretchy purl bind-off. I guess it goes without saying that the dull repetitiveness of the bind-off is causing me to lose my ever-loving mind, and I'm therefore having to force myself to work on it, lest it sit in a drawer forever. Not that it really matters at this point. It'll be months before I'm able to wear it.

Hark! An Edging!

Now with 50% more Satan's Nipples. Twelve more rows...

Knitting Progress: ish.

 So, despite having been at the beach for several days now, I have yet to accomplish much knitting. I've only managed to work on my Aeolian shawl. That's partly because I don't want to sand-ify my projects by knitting on the beach (and hauling looseleaf patterns around is problematic for obvious reasons), but mostly because I've found I prefer reading books to be a more enjoyable pastime. I'm on track to have finished all of the books I brought with me by the time we get back Monday afternoon. I'll have Tuesday off to pick up any slack, but we'll probably be spending that day looking at more houses.


The first picture is of the completed Transition Chart, which I finished in the car. The second is of the agave charts: I did one regular, and one final agave. They took a pretty long time thanks to all the nupps. The Ravelry fora are correct: nupps really are Satan's nipples.

I've started on the edging, and I'll hopefully finish it today or tomorrow so I can either continue working on the omelet shawl (or maybe the Juneberry) or start something else. I'm really pleased with how it's turning out, even though it's taking longer than I anticipated.

Beach Knitting Docket!

So, my list of what I'll be knitting at the beach has been finalized:

• Complete second attempt at an Aeolian shawl
• Complete Omelet shawl
• Start and finish Orchid Thief shawl
• Work on second Juneberry shawl (may not have enough yarn with it to finish, don't want to pack more)
• Generic fingerless gloves (may be posting a tutorial)
• Second iteration of Idiot-Proof Sideways Scarf

I seriously doubt I'll be able to finish it all but it's worth aiming high. 

Remember the Omelet Shawl?

Yeah, I finally finished Chart B. It's funny how four and a half repeats of the same chart can take forever and kill your motivation. Given how easily distracted I am, I have to be careful which patterns I select, because nothing sends a project to the UFO pile faster than near endless numbers of chart repeats. I suspected that the Omelet shawl would do this to me, and I was right. I managed to finish Chart A and the first two repeats of Chart B fairly quickly, but after that? It went into a drawer and stayed there for about three weeks.

This is why I never finish anything.

I was finally motivated to get cracking on finishing it by the arrival of Brave New Knits* from the library. I've had it on hold for about six months now, and it's finally my turn to borrow it. I would like to knit the Orchid Thief shawl, but in order to do that, I need the size six needle that the Omelet is currently occupying.** So, I've managed to knock out the last two and a half repeats of Chart B and all of Chart C (easy enough: it was only ten rows) over the course of the past four days. I'm pretty pleased with myself, even though I still have Chart D (twenty rows) and Chart E (thirty-four rows, plus the bind-off) to complete.

Hopefully, my beach trip will be fairly productive, knitting-wise. I will, after all, have to return that book to the library when I get back.

*I very rarely buy knitting books. 95% of the time, there are only one or two patterns I really like, so I just check them out of the library (or, if they're available a la carte online,. I'll buy them). The exceptions tend to be stitch guides and Cookie A's sock books.
**In order to keep the number of projects in the to-finish pile at a slightly less horrifying level, I only buy one of each needle size.

Aeolian redux, deux!

Yucca chart: COMPLETE! I did six repeats:

I flew through this chart-- probably because this is the fourth time I've knitted it. Hopefully, it will take this time.

Same Song, Second Verse

I'm taking another crack at the Aeolian shawl. This time, I'm using some malabrigo lace in Azul Bolita. (I'm repurposing the Lacey Lamb for something else.) This is the set-up chart, completed!

Oh hey look another one!

So, I started my second Juneberry a few days ago. Now that I've gotten the hang of doing two-side lace, it's coming along much faster than the first one did. 

I figured out how to modify it to make it smaller (more on that once I've finished it), and am currently working my way through Chart D. Sadly, it probably won't be finished until early May because I have a bunch of stuff I need to complete before then, but it's shaping up quite nicely! 

FO: Juneberry Triangle

It's finally finished!

Pattern: Juneberry Triangle, by Jared Flood
Yarn: Jamieson's Soft Shetland in "Wood Nymph," 5 skeins, 600 yards
Needle: US #8
Finished Size:  65" wide, 35" deep. HUGE-NORMOUS, in other words. It's like a blanket, almost.
Notes: I should have blocked it in the bathtub. The wool grew a ton once it was wet and blocked; I think the size close to doubled. 

I've started a second one that I'm going to make smaller by changing the lace pattern. Once I figure out the nuts and bolts of the alterations, I'll post them here.

We'll call this one "Down to the Wire"

It looks like my knitting luck has changed: I finished my Juneberry Triangle with three or four yards to spare!

Now, onto the blocking! It'll probably take a few days to dry. This thing is going to be GIGANTIC.

And on to Shawl #4 of 2011:

Now that my Juneberry Triangle is getting close to being finished, I've decided to start on my fourth shawl of the year: an Omelet.I have a giant skein of Zephyr laceweight in Pewter, a misty gray that's the color of egg whites when they hit the skillet, that has juuuust enough yardage to cover it (hopefully, I will not run out of yarn at the end. I will cry). I've finished Chart A, and am pretty sure this shawl is going to take forever to complete. I have to do four and a half repeats of Chart B, and then there's still C, D, and E.

I'll probably start a second Juneberry in the meanwhile. I have some blue yarn that it would look great in.

Turning a Corner

I'm now officially more than halfway through the edging on my Juneberry Triangle, and it's becoming clear that this thing is going to be freaking huge when I finish it. I think my gauge is a bit larger than what the pattern called for, given the pre-blocked size and the amount of yarn I've gone through.

Chart D Is the Longest

All of those bobbles took forever.

The Shortest Chart is Chart C

It's not much different from the last picture I posted, but yay for 3/4 charts being finished!

I suspect that Chart D will take forever. Lots of bobbles, and I'm fast approaching Critical Stitchcount, in which each row seems like an eternity. 

Juneberry, deux.

Chart B: COMPLETE!

So far, I've used juuuust over one skein. I may have leftovers.

FO: A Pogona for me!

After finishing the one I made for Abby, I decided to make one for myself:

I used Sanguine Gryphon Little Traveller yarn in the Valparaiso colorway. Since it has more yardage than the purple mystery yarn, it turned out a little bit bigger.

Neglect.

In the last few weeks, I've been spending so much time reading that I haven't gotten much knitting. Part of that is due to a certain lack of new episodes of my favorite TV shows (and the fact that you can only watch old episodes of Daria so many times), and the rest of it is that my motivation to make warm things kind of goes out the window when the weather finally starts to warm up again. I've been working on a second Pogona for weeks now, and I still have a fair amount of yarn left:

I will try to be finish it. And will work on it while watching old episodes of Arrested Development.

"I thought he just really liked cutoffs."

In Which I Knit with Worsted Weight Yarn

I don't do a lot of that (knitting with needles bigger than US 7-8 makes my hands hurt), but I was recently gifted a giant box o'yarn by a local knitter who was downsizing her stash (thanks again, Emily!) that contained five skeins of Jamieson's Soft Shetland in a light mossy green. I had no idea what I was going to do with it until I saw Jared Flood's Juneberry Triangle design, which can be knitted with both light and heavyweight yarn.

I'm using size 8 needles, and though this yarn is more aran than worsted, I still think it will block out nicely once it's finished. So far, I have completed Chart A (leaving B, C, D, and the edging). The way the charts are written, however, I will need to have a printed hard copy in order to knit them without losing my mind. So it's going on hold until tomorrow, or whenever I can get Matt to print it for me. It's looking like it will knit up fairly quickly, which is exciting, even though I likely won't be able to wear it for a while. It seems that spring has arrived early this year (*knock on wood*).

FO: Pogona Shawl: SPECIAL BRIBERY EDITION

Dear Abby,

I made you a scarf-y/shawl-y thing for your birthday. I know, I know, it was two months ago, but hey! Better late than never. Hopefully, the purpley awesomeness will make up for the tardiness.

There is a catch, though: you have to come here to claim it. This is your shiny new incentive (apart from French food and wine tastings) to come see me!

Miss you and love you,
Lauren

PS: About the shawl:

Pattern: Pogona, by Stephen West
Yarn: Purple Mystery Yarn
Needle: US #6
Finished Size:  14" deep at the longest point. Not that long, but it's meant to be a neck wrap.
Notes: Blocking was an interesting process due to all the angles.




Overall, I am really happy with it. I'm going to make one for myself next.