Squeal!

So I'm finally going to post Laminaria. The reason I haven't is that I wanted to get some photo's of the shawl being worn, and I just kept forgetting to get it done. So here it is at last:

And of course the knitter's perv shots:

And the details? Okay.

The pattern is Laminaria by Elizabeth Freeman from the Spring 2008 edition of Knitty (although I changed part of the pattern, which I now think was unnecessary).

The wool is Bendigo Woollen Mills 2 ply in Guava. It's 100% wool and incredibly inexpensive for what you get. I used 4mm needles because I wanted a nice open loopy lace.

So the pattern? I loved it absolutely and completely and utterly. It was an adventure for me, although of course the middle pattern which repeats 17 times did get a bit repetitive, but never dull, because each row of the pattern repeat is so different. Every type of double decrease that exists is in this baby: k3tog, sssk, sk2p and s2kp! There are subtle differences between all of them! We have turning 2 into 9 sts, 3 into 9 sts, and if you do the star pattern of the first part of the pattern, 1 into 3, 3 into 3 and 3 into 2! Having said all this, it certainly isn't difficult if you keep your wits about you. With the BWM 2 ply, the shawl has such a lovely drape and is quite elegant. Highly recommended!

I notice that Elizabeth Freeman has published another shawl pattern on Knitty, Aeolian. Looks beautiful too.

So I finished Laminaria quite a while ago now, and I haven't stopped knitting at all. I finally picked up my Sexy Guernsey again, which had been sitting 60% done in the stack for about 2 years. It's now 95% done:

Here's a detail shot of the cable and moss stitch:

This is a Frankenstein sort of a design. I love Elizabeth Zimmermann's seamless sweater with the percentage system, and have adapted it to several different patterns. My grandmother has been knitting traditional fisherman's guernseys and jerseys for many years with lovely complex patterning on the chest and upper arms. I suppose when I started this guernsey it was to give her ideas a go, except that I didn't want to do it the proper way! The proper way is to start at the bottom of the body working around and around, work up to the armpit, work the chest front and back back and forth, join at the shoulders, pick up stitches at the arm holes and knit the sleeves down from there. The result is of course a dropped sleeve, and I forgot to mention that there is an armpit gusset too. Well that's all well and good, but I just adore EZ's seamless raglan system, and I also like clothes to be fairly well fitted, so this is the result of this mish-mash. I stuck with a simple 2 by 2 cable on moss stitch background panels firstly because I wouldn't wear it if it was too busy, and secondly because there is a photo of a fellow wearing a guernsey with this pattern in Gladys Thompson's wonderful book Patterns for Guernseys, Jerseys, and Arans: Fishermen's Sweaters from the British Isles and for some reason the lovely texture of the moss stitch with the small cables really caught my eye. The idea of my particular design is that the body, 180 sts, worked plain up to just under my bust, would be about the right circumference to fit my lower torso, and the moss and cable design, which is only worked on the body over the boob area, not on the back as it is in the traditional design, would expand to fit my boobs since moss stitch creates a larger fabric per stich compared to plain knitting. Does that all make sense? Hopefully after a couple of reads!

I'm just coming up to the collar in a few more rows, then I'll graft the armpits together and away we go! I can't quite decide about the collar. I keep changing my mind between plain round collar or a square opening with a lower front. I think circular is the way to go. There are a couple more details of this particular jumper where I have tried to be a smarty pants, but I'll discuss them another time, because my brain is dissolving as I write. Just can't seem to work at the computer very long.
I have had so many ideas for knitting, all my own designs, and I can't seem to stop the ideas flowing, which is painful because I'm too busy! Next I have to make hubby's Norwegian sweater, as Winter is approaching. There won't be much in the way of design going into it, because it's modelled on a cardy he already has which his (Norwegian) great aunt knitted for his father many moons ago. It will be fun, as it will involve steeks and other such craziness, and it won't get boring because there'll always be colour patterns to keep track of, but I can't wait till that is over because I have so many exciting ideas I just want to squeal with excitement when I think about them!

Lace Love

Firstly, congratualtions to Bells for her winning knitting in the Canberra Show! Couldn't have gone to anyone more deserving I say!
So the Long Lacy Summer is over, and what have I achieved? Where to begin? I'll start with tangible achievements. Finished items were Swallowtail Shawl #1, Coronet #1 and Coronet #2. All happy achievements. I particularly enjoyed the doilies. The rows are constantly changing, so there's always something to keep you on your toes. Swallowtail was good, but a little simple, especially once I had the pattern repeat drummed into my head through repetition. The nupps were a new challenge though, and I'm certainly not frightened of them any more.

Now unfinished items. Swallowtail #2 languishes miserably on the bottom shelf of my knitting shelf. I had accidentally done more repeats that I needed to, so I thought I would just make it a bit bigger instead, and then of course I ran out of yarn. I found more of it for sale on a few sites, two in Germany and one in France, but as it was just before xmas I just thought I'd wait till after when I would have money to spare, but whaddayaknow, I can no longer find those websites! So, either I'll be ripping it back to the correct number of repeats, or attempting to re-write the pattern again to fit in the yarn I have. Sigh. I'll just put it back on the shelf for the moment...

And the other unfinished, my beloved Laminaria! Oh I love this shawl so much. I did get a little tired of the seventeen repeats of the eight-row blossom pattern, which of course expands every row, but I am on the edging now and just loving it. In fact, I am only 9 rows away from the end!

I wish I could have had it finished by February 28, but of course life gets in the way. I love this shawl so much. I just can't wait to wear it. I'm planning to make a shawl pin to go with it. Have I mentioned that I'm a gold and silver smith? Well I am. I'll do a full blurb on the joys of this pattern when I finish it as well as what my next lacey plan is.

I have had so much fun knitting lace this Summer. I have learned amazing things and feel confident that I could knit anything now. I have been searching around for more challenging patterns and have started developing my own lace patterns. I'm hoping, when I find the time, to write up some patterns for people to try out. Lace knitting makes you really feel knitting. Individual stitches are like words in a language describing the shapes in the lace, and they all come together to form this apparently effortless whole. I really can not emphasise enough how much charts make life easier. I know there are people out there who refuse to use them; I used to be one of them! My god, charts are the most fantastic invention since dpns. I would never bother to knit lace without a chart again.

So, thanks Bells for motivating me to finally knit some lace! I'll never look back now. Let's do it again next Summer!

Now, while the lace will certainly not end with Summer, Winter will be upon us in no time, and I really must get on with some jumpers for me and my man. Our house is going to be freezing, and I never have enough Winter clothes. I'm also planning some nice felted house booties to keep us cozy through the icy months. So much knitting to do. I'm sure I'm not the only knitter who has been irritated at only having two arms. How much more knitting could be done with just one extra pair!

Needs

I don't usually do this, but it seemed like a good laugh. I found this idea on this blog. Type your name followed by "needs" into Google and see what you need.
1. Disquina [not her real name] needs to be prompted to see a reproductive endocrinologist.
2. Disquina needs someone to buy her debt.
3. Disquina needs cheese.
4. Disquina needs to stop living vicariously through her daughter.
5. Disquina needs officers or will cease to exist.
6. Disquina needs to get her priorities straight.
7. Disquina needs to die.
8. Disquina needs to shut the fuck up [pardon me, just quoting Google].
After this they start to get dull.

Yummy

I forgot a couple of things yesterday, a couple of tasty morsels.

Morsel #1:

Noro Kureyon Sock yarn. 4 ply, pretty colours. What on Earth am I going to do with it? So many possibilities. Lace? Perhaps. Hmm.

Morsel #2:

Terrible photo. It's actually chocolatey in colour. Lovely 8 ply Perendale from the guy at the Bus Depot Markets for hubby's jumper-to-be. One day. I just like to cuddle up to this stuff.

I have big time cat envy. All around me people are cuddling cats, and yet I am catless. My boy passed away in 2007: That's a little cat treat he's interrogating there. 15 years old and then bitten by a snake. Then when we moved into the share house we currently live in, we adopted the resident cat Kujo (as we re-named him) who had been abandoned by previous tenants and was unwanted by the current ones. He had lived at the house for several years, but about three weeks after we adopted him, and he was starting to enjoy sleeping in my armchair, he died from causes which looked suspiciously snake-biteesque. It's terrible, but I pine for a cat. I dream about them all the time, mostly my old boy coming back. I see them on just about every blog I look at, and I can't resist looking at them in the pet shops. The other week on the radio I heard an interview with a man who wrote a book about the grief he had resulting from the death of his cat Blackie (also the title of the book) who died from a brain tumour. Sometimes I think the universe is trying to punch me in the face. My boy died a month after my brother's death from a brain tumour. I feel so silly getting sad about not having a cat when life is so precious and beautiful!

I'm not always a miserable sod you know!

Universes

Now I know that it would seem that I am slack, and if knitting is truly the centre of the universe, as I often suspect it is, then that would be entirely true. However, the world tells me that knitting is not in fact the centre of the universe, and that knitting is in fact a distraction from what one ought to be doing (which is why it is so enjoyable). I have been working quite hard on my research lately, and until an hour ago had not knitted a stitch for two weeks.
The knitting in question is Laminaria. I am perhaps a quarter of the way through it:

I decided not to do the star stitch repeat in the pattern because I wanted a more open lacey look, so I replaced it with honeycomb stitch. I'm not sure if it matches the look of the rest of the pattern really, but of course you can't tell until it's finished and blocked:

I'm sure it will be fine. I'm looking forward to having a lovely lacey shawl, especially now that the weather has gone mad here in Canberra. I have a lovely blue and green silk dress which this shawl will look spectacular with. I'll have to make hubby take me out for a fine meal at a respectable establishment so I have an excuse to wear them together.

I have been going a little mad. Well, I can't put it into words. I have "issues" which I won't bore anyone with, but I can be fine for a couple of months, quite happy and working well, and then within half an hour one day for no reason I turn into a mess. I panic, I can't sleep, I can't assess anything rationally, every dark thought becomes obsessively turned over and over in my mind. I know a lot of people have these sorts of problems. I think reading stories in the papers about the deaths of so many people in Victoria is bound to set these things off. Since my brother died, I take every death I hear about personally, and to see photo's of these people is heartbreaking. Grief is so incapacitating, and we are not allowed to talk about it openly. I don't know why. What I wanted to get to is that I think that knitting plays a large role in the control of my mental health. I knew when I woke up this morning that I couldn't possibly work today, so I finally picked up Laminaria again, and I really do feel better already. Perhaps it's the familiar comfort of one stitch after another, or the enforced rest and contemplation. Maybe I've been working too hard. I won't go on about it. Knitting good. Working bad.

Back at Last

Well I'm back from the Victorian countryside. So much green it hurts. It's always brown or grey here at home. I didn't knit a single stitch! I had Laminaria with me the whole time, but I was so busy or exhausted I didn't even cast on. I did however finish the second Coronet for hubby's grandmother. 'ere 'tis:

I'm quite happy with it, more so than with the purple one. The mercerised cotton looks lovely and shiny. It's got me so excited that I want to knit doilys for everything! I've never understood doilys, what the hell you're supposed to do with them, but now I realise that it doesn't matter what you do with them, they're just fun to make! I'm keen to do the Primula design in the same book now, but I really must start Laminaria. I'll cast on tonight! I've been so busy since I got home making jam and jelly and beer, because it's the season for these types of things! So much fruit around so cheap. The blackberries will be out soon, and I'm planning blackberry jam, blackberry wine and whole blackberries in syrup for winter desserts! Last year me and hub picked two buckets, and that was only one day. We didn't get around to going back for more. Anyway, these are topics which probably require their own blog, but since I'm so slack about updating this one, I'm not sure it's a good idea to take on another.
Well I did have a little bit of a fibre-lover's holiday, thanks to hubby being such an angel who thinks that knitting is cool rather than boring. We stopped off at an alpaca farm in West Gippsland called something like Candeleraine. They were very nice, and even offered me work handknitting shawls from their 2 ply to sell in their shop! I said yes of course, although I'm not sure that I can really fit knitting shawls for money into a full time PhD schedule... We also stopped at the National Wool Museum in Geelong. Unfortunately it was a real disappointment. Especially since we went to Geelong especially for it, and paid $110 for our motel room and everything. It could have been so good, there was so much potential. I guess wool museums don't get much funding hey? There were definitely parts I liked, like the carpet machine demonstration, and some of the demo knitting machines. I think the shop could have had a lot more stuff too. I was expecting to have to make painful decisions about what wool I could and couldn't live without, but they didn't actually have any wool I wanted to buy at all. There were some lovely jumpers and shawls and things though. Australia is the biggest exporter of wool in the world. Surely there could have been more Australian wool products? (The little toy sheep were made in China, the second largest wool exporter). I did buy a handy little wool directory though, which lists heaps of wool-related companies and organisations. We were going to stop at Bendigo Woollen Mills, but they were closed. In the height of holiday season. We almost considered staying in Bendigo overnight so we could go the next day, but then I found out from the tourist info place that you can't actually see the mill itself, just the shop, and I thought well I can buy from them on the internet. I know about the famous back room and everything, but it wasn't worth staying a whole extra night, especially since funds were low by this time (thankyou Geelong). However, I learned about the Australian Sheep and Wool Show held in Bendigo in July, and I thought that would be a good opportunity to see BWM instead. I think I might saving now for that trip!