Swallowtail shawl - done!

I love love love this piece! I wore it today (sorry, no pics of that - but would you believe a judge at the Divisional Court offered me $500 to make her one?!?!)

This is the Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark, featured in Interweave Knits Autumn 2006 issue.



I made some modifications to the shawl, inspired by the Yarn Harlot. That is to say, I added beads.

I'm not sure you can tell from the photo, but the beads I used were in four colours: mauve, bright orange, dull orange and red.

The yarn was Handmaiden Mini Maiden in the Sangria colourway (although a bit more muted than the last Sangria I used).


Specs:
yarn: Handmaiden Mini Maiden (silk/wool laceweight blend) - 100 g/ 500 m (most of the one skein)

needles: 3.75mm addi turbo lace

beads: 4 colours of seed beads from Arton Beads in Toronto
notions: 0.75 mm crochet hook (to string the beads)

Notes:

* I added beads to every motif in the Budding Lace 6 row repeat pattern - one bead each at rows 1 and 3. For more details, contact me if interested.

* I also placed a bead at the centre stitch (missing out one every seven - this started as a mistake which I choose to call a design feature).

* I abandoned the picot edging (partly because I couldn't figure it out, but largely because I didn't personally care for it anyway). In its place - I bound off at the 14 row of the last repeat, and then crocheted a half-double crochet row on the edging.

At any rate, I'm very proud! And this project definetely reinforces my interest in lace knitting.

Now, all I have to do is get back to the SOTSii. (I'm writing this on Monday evening, having had a few pints and awaiting dinner delivery from Swiss Chalet). Manana, manana... or shall I start the Icarus instead? Hmm...

shiny happiness

Good morning!

(Don't you hate people who are chipper on a Monday morning?!?!)

I'm in a good mood today because:

(a) I finished knitting my Swallowtail last night!

It's currently being blocked. Proper pics tomorrow...

(b) I found some Treasures from Trash in the laundry room!

Just what I needed to brighten up during the grim weather!

(c) I got to watch the Oscars last night!

Now, I have no idea what attracts me to the Oscars like a magpie to the Crown Jewels. But speaking of which, here is a photo of my favourite Queen:

Helen Mirren. I have such a crush on her, really!


I wish I looked that good now, never mind at her age!

However, I didn't even see any of the main movies last year! So why bother watching? It must be all the eye candy:

Daniel Day Lewis!!!
Javier Bardem!!!
(move over, Daniel Craig! You are now way down the list in my affections... today, anyway).

And how could I not resist checking out all of those marvellous costumes?! Here's my favourite:



So, all in all, a decend end to the week. Roll on, Monday!

the Brouhaha cure for the flu...

...why, yarn, of course!!

(It won't get rid of the flu, but you'll feel much, much better psychologically. Trust me!)

Now, I am down with a cold or the flu. Really. So in this regard, I had to drag myself out of the house to get to Shoppers Drug Mart for some meds and more orange juice (given that JJ was home from work and even sicker than I. Sigh.

Well, as it happens, Shoppers is only about one block away from Knitomatic. Since starting the Swallowtail, I have been on a mental quest for more Handmaiden Mini Maiden. So, I mustered up some additional energy and headed down there.

I found some of the Mini Maiden in the Woodland colourway:

...and could not resist snapping up some Lace Silk as well, in Buttercream:
...and a coppery shade that I can't find on their website:

The relatively subdued range of colours I bought are probably a good indication of how under the weather I feel. Sigh.

I think I will use the buttercream for the Icarus shawl from Interweave Mag Summer 2006 issue:

Or, maybe the Woodland? Or one of the other two million colours of Lace Silk I have in the stash? Sigh.

I did also manage to make some progress on the Swallowtail and last evening completed through the major pattern repeat sequence:

(I had actually willingly frogged back from what I last posted here as I didn't care for the bead placement. Here's my new scheme:

Pretty, eh? I also introduced some clear purple-lined beads).

Well, obsessing about lace helps me feel a little bit better. I may be able to start the SOTSii Clue 6 today as well... I got a printout while at the drugstore yesterday.

I've also decided to order some Sivia Harding lace patterns so that I can start plotting uses for some of the lace stash... I had best win the lottery soon, as I'm thinking I'm coming pretty close to a lifetime worth of lace knitting in the stash.

If you see a crazed-looking woman wandering the streets of Toronto dressed only in lace stoles, please come up and say hi. I don't bite!

Cheers, and happy Sunday!

mad for lace... or driven mad?!

Very recently, one piece of lace I was working on almost drove me around the bend: the Storm Water scarf. This is the second time I have endeavoured this pattern, and must have ripped it back in its entirety at least 50 times by this point. I managed to get this far the other day:


...and then everything went to hell.

So, just call me:



(yes, yes, I know - I'm dating myself. This was the first video game I ever played. Coincidence? I think not!)

It's now frogged and GONE (at least it wasn't tossed over the balcony!

I don't understand why I can manage to do this type of lacework (after, mind you, lots of frogging!):

...but just can't seem to get my head around a relatively simple pattern.

So, I decided to throw over the (lovely) Pewter Sea Silk for a while. In its place, I've found a new favourite - Handmaiden Mini-Maiden! (sorry for cheating, sea silk. And with your sister to boot! I have no morals, obviously.

Half silk, half wool, all luxury. If you've ever used Belle Berger du Nord, it's like a laceweight version of that. Swoon.

This is my start on the Swallowtail Shawl

Check out the fancy beads! The colour reminds me of a sunset (or at least my very dim recollection of a sunset...it being February and all).

Mind you, the sun is shining today for once. I think it was also shining yesterday for a while but it was hard to tell as there was a huge fire downtown yesterday, which rendered the sky black and caused fumes in our office building several blocks away. We all went home early as a result and by the time I got home it was overcast again. SIGH.

But today is a new day. This morning before leaving for work, I read a post on frogging by Nautical Knitter on the Secret of the Stole II website. How timely!

She calls it "knitting backwards", which makes it sound far less tedious! I love the following quote in particular:

I am not sure that being proficient at working backwards is something to actually aspire to, but it is a necessary part of knitting and if you do not ever do it, then you are either perfect or not really knitting. Have confidence in the knitting skills you have already mastered, attempt those you feel comfortable with, and every once in a while try something you think might be beyond your skill level with the attitude that working backwards will be part of the whole experience.

This post was inspirational enough that I decided to get out my Pewter Sea Silk this morning and start the Storm Water Scarf as a transit project. By the time I got to work, I had finished 20 rows without incident! Please wish me luck.

(And so, the person who said a year ago "never, ever will I knit lace" is working on three consecutive lace projects. Hmm.)

Happy Thursday...

spring has sprung!

Really! It has! And just in time for Valentine's Day! Yippee!!!

Although a peek out the window belies this statement...



it is a fact.

(Unaccountably right now I'm reminded of a little ditty my friend Bronwen came up with when we were in high school:

Spring has sprung
Here come the turds
Where the hell
are the goddamn birds?

Man, the brain does work in mysterious ways...)

Anyway, here is my evidence that spring is here:

!!!! And not before time.

I picked this up at Romni Wools yesterday.

But it's not even PayDay yet, you say? What was I doing at Romni? Weeeeeell...

I had been doing some work at home in the early morning and was leaving late for the office. Late enough, in fact, to catch the 10 a.m. opening time at Romni on the way in. Where I had to go, by the way, because I needed some fine-gauge crochet hooks with which to string beads.

Good Kristina then made an (increasingly rare) appearance and reminded me that Amy had proffered a very good suggestion involving fishing line as a solution to this issue earlier this week.

Hardware store... yarn shop? Hardware store... yarn shop? What a choice!

But Romni is right near my streetcar stop closest to work (if by "closest" one means "5 blocks further west than the stop which is really closest, but a more scenic route by far"), so the choice became clear. Only for crochet hooks, of course.

You might well ask. It's that time honoured game in which my pocketbook (and any hope of ever buying property in this town) are always the losers.

As soon as I stepped into the shop, this leapt into my hot little (well, cold by that point - it was well below zero yesterday and I had been knitting in the street) hands:

Handmaiden Mini Maiden! Look at the pretty colours! The colourway is called "Blackberry" (I assume after the real thing, not after the obnoxious electronic rudeness-sanctioning device). How could I resist?!

Besides, it will be perfect for the Swallowtail shawl that I plan to start tomorrow at the weekend one of these days.

(Good Kristina: But I thought you already had this stuff for the Swallowtail?!?


Evil Kristina: Ah, shuddup.

I am always astounded by the efficacy of rudeness, even against myself. Maybe those Blackberry-wielding urban warriors have a point?! Hmm. Not one I wish ever to understand, mind you.)

I also scored the perfect buttons for my Bespoke:


...and some other very flashy vintage buttons besides.
I then left the shop, glowing with the satisfaction of shiny new purchases. A block and a half later, I realised that I had forgotten to look for these!

SIGH. I found 1.0 mm and .75 mm hooks (and whoever actually crochets with these and reads this blog, please contact me and I will send you a medal. Really. 3.00mm stretches the limits of my patience, which is admittedly not a hard thing to do).

All in all it was a productive day. I accomplished all this in my commute to and from the office:

Sleeve No. 1 of my Bespoke. (Did I mention before that I have found the cure for the dreaded SSS?! Take your sleeves with you wherever you have to wait in line/sit on a train, bus or streetcar, etc.)

I also reviewed some pressing legal research materials:

...and did a little light reading over the lunch hour:

(Dang. Did I mix up those photos again?! Bad habit).

Now it's off to work - but spring has sprung!! Does this mean all the snow has melted, d'ya think?

Er...nope.

Oh well.