Bird's Nest Shawl is DONE!

I finished it last night - knit the last few rows, wove in the ends (and there were EXTRA ends to weave in, seeing as a couple of the balls of yarn had knots in them that I had to untie and then start the end anew), soaked it in lavender-water, and then set it out to block:



I'll post "action" shots of it being worn as soon as it's all dried - possibly this evening.

This was a fairly nice knit to do - not tiny little yarn, and a pattern that wasn't so complex you needed a whole bunch of tools to keep track of it. (I just used a row-counter and a post-it note on the pattern showing which row I was doing). It is also one where the patterns are "separate" (where they don't flow into each other) so I could set off each segment with a stitch marker to keep from making mistakes.

The yarn is Elann's "Far East Collection" pure camel hair yarn. The original shawl in the pattern was made using cashmere, but there's no way I could afford/was paying for cashmere. The camel seems like a reasonable compromise.

The shawl will be very warm; I could tell that when I had it spread out on my lap to tie in all the ends.

Of course the quizzes are bogus. There are a few, though, that are perhaps a bit more based on the old Myers-Briggs test (which I am not convinced is bogus, though it may hold some "Barnum statements") and may actually reveal something about a person. (Though I think some people take their "type" a bit too seriously and do tend to use it as a badge of identity)

But whatever. I thought it was especially silly that a test could (potentially) come up with statements like "you are a total rebel" and "you are a rule-follower."

****

I started the Bird's Nest shawl from Folk Shawls the other night. (For those who don't have this book: it's a shawl "inspired" by the cultures of the Himalayas. I guess the design is loosely based on a design used in some woven shawls from that region. The name comes from the (legend? fact?) that people living in that part of the world - where cashmere goats live - will sometimes find bits of the wool worked into bird's nests, and after the birds are done with the nest, pick it apart, wash the wool, and spin it. [I suppose the idea is that these are peasants who have no access to the cashmere other ways].) I'm using a camel yarn for it though and am greatly perplexed because the gauge listed on the ball-band is approximately double-knitting weight, but everywhere I've looked at descriptions of this yarn (Elann Far East Pure Camel), it's described as "fingering weight." Which means by rights I should be doubling it, but I'm not...it seems thicker than fingering weight to me because it's kind of lofty.

I don't know. I'm going to be unhappy if, after working the 12 rows of garter stitch (over 346 stitches!) and start the main pattern if the gauge is too small. But. I have it on my longest (like 44") size 6 circular needle and it's all bunched up, probably gathered almost double...so maybe gauge won't be an issue. (Yes, I should have swatched, but it's a shawl - as long as it's "long enough," it's OK.

I think this is the first "linear" shawl I've made where it's knit the long way rather than end to end. 346 stitches makes for a long row, even in just plain garter stitch. (Fortunately, when I get to the lace pattern, it's one where I can use stitch markers, so I don't need to keep careful notes of where I am in a row.)

I spent most of Saturday working on the garden.

I planted lots of zinnias in the front but the photos I took didn't look very good, I'm going to give them some time to grow and spread and try again.

In the back, I put in more tomatoes:



And also some basil and lemon verbena and a few marigolds to protect the tomatoes.

And I added some other herbs (and have been adding these past few weeks)


And even got a tiny (like 4" tall) garden gnome.

This plant's been in the garden for a couple years and has been spreading nicely. It's a cultivar of lavender (I forget the official name) but it has much larger flower heads than the typical lavender plant.



I also managed to finish Cozy. I could probably have added a few more repeats but I was just so sick of knitting on it (and so sick of the Summer Tweed - it is a yarn I will never use again; it just hurt my hands too much, it's very abrasive.)



And here's a back view. This came out much darker than I intended (I was farther from the camera and I guess it based its light-meter reading on the light from the window) but it does show the lace patterning nicely.



So now I have the fun of starting a new project.

As promised, a photo of the finished Clapotis:



(The colors are off in that photo; the shawl actually DOES match the skirt).

I used Cleckheaton Country Silk (Which should have the word "wool" somewhere in that name, seeing as the yarn is actually 85% wool and only 15% silk.)

Slightly strained smile because, in fact, it was quite extremely early when that photo was taken.

Here's a back view of the shawl:



This was a good yarn for this pattern - true, it's not a variegated, which seems to be the favorite choice for a Clapotis - but it knits up nicely and the dropped stitches drop easily.

It's also warm. Probably a bit TOO warm for today - it was already in the 70s when I left the house, which means I expect that once the sun comes up my office will hit about 30* C.

I finished the Landscape Shawl last night.



I haven't blocked it; I'm not entirely sure that I'm going to, because it looks OK unblocked.



(These pictures came out darker than I thought they had. It's kind of hard to see the detail of the shawl).



You can kind of see some of the stitch patterning here.



And here it is on. I'm actually wearing it today. (Today is one of my rare non-messy work days.) It's nice and warm, all that merino wool. For something so lightweight, it's kind of surprising how warm it is. (We're having cool weather again today, after a high in the low 80s yesterday).



And finally, the obligatory, Cheryl-Oberle-style shot showing the back of the shawl (and as I said before: it would take 2 to 2 1/2 of Cheryl Oberle to make one of me...)

Some knitters talk about "sleeve island."

I think working on long shawls, where you're mostly repeating the same thing over and over again, is kind of like being becalmed in the Sargasso Sea.



(Except it's a little more pleasant, and there's no risk of having to eat the horses that were originally intended for sale to caballeros on the Pampas.)

I spent yesterday evening knitting on Clapotis (Even though it's a raspberry color, it seems to blend awfully well with my wood floors).

Here's a truer-color picture, showing the six "ladders" that have already been formed.



For the non-knitters: I think this pattern is popular for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's fairly basic - once you have the pattern set up, you can motor along without too much thinking (although I think that also turns some knitters off of the pattern). It also showcases pretty yarn well - the original pattern calls for a (very pricey) hand-dyed wool-silk blend (I'm using something called Cleckheaton Country Silk, which is a considerably more reasonably-priced wool-silk blend). It's also pretty when it's finished up, and easy to wear well and look chic in.

But I think the main attraction, actually, are the dropped stitches. See, in knitting (this is still directed at the non-knitters in my audience), dropping stitches is BAD. It's something you don't want to do. Even worse, on this shawl you let the stitches ladder down - very much like a run in a stocking. Again, that's BAD. That's something you'd normally gasp in horror at if it happened - and either rip back the entire piece, or cry a little and go looking for a crochet hook to help you fix the problem.

But here, the BAD thing is supposed to happen - you get to do something a little bit bad, a little bit "naughty" almost. Kind of like getting the can of Reddi-Whip out of the fridge, looking around to see if anyone's about, and squirting a big glob of it directly in your mouth. Not something civilized people do (at least, if someone's watching).

And unless you're one of the original punk-rock knitters (which really, few of us are), you have few chances in your life to do something that's BAD, get away with it, and actually be able to show it off as a design feature.

And it is kind of fun laddering that dropped stitch down - it's a little bit like burning your Organic Chem notes after the class is over, or like going to the Goodwill and buying a cheap old set of china and using it for target practice in the back yard when you've had a bad day. I suppose one could even say, "This one's for....." and fill in the blank with any person or thing or situation that's been ticking you off, and as you unravel, imagining unraveling the bad that that person thing or situation has brought to your life. It's a little bit cathartic.

Got 920 yards of sock-weight yarn?

Want to make a shawl?

I can't remember how I came across this pattern from Thriftyknitter first, but I saw it a while back, and didn't bookmark it or anything, because I was in the middle of a bunch of projects and couldn't see the end of them. But now, as I'm beginning to wind down on "Start-over" and think about new projects, I thought of it again.

My mad search skillz helped me re-find it though: I remembered the author had said it had been featured in the "daily chum," and also that she had made hers out of Mega Boots Stretch. So I typed in:

"daily chum shawl pattern mega boots"

And there it was! Top of the list!

I'm contemplating what yarn I have in my stash that would work best. I have some really nice glittery Cherry Tree Hill yarn I bought a long, long time ago (I think when KnitPicks was closing out its "non house brand" yarns. I think I have just about the right amount of that, and I think it would look good with the pattern.

Another project that had stalled, which I have pulled back out and re-started, is the Landscape Shawl.



This will probably be the last in-progress shot - not because I am so very close to being done (I just started the Moss Stitch pattern, and that's only the next-to-the-last pattern on the shawl, and there are 60 sts of that to be made, and then 60 sts of, IIRC, reverse stockinette). But it will be the last in-progress shot because, if you look closely, you will see I have it on the very LONGEST circular I own (which may well be the longest size of circular that's available ready-made*), and very soon it's going to get all bunchy so it won't lie nice and flat for a photo.

No, I don't feel like using 2 circulars. I'd rather have it a little bunched up while I knit on it and only have to worry about two points where stitches could drop off (and besides: if you have two circular needles that "midpoint" where the stitches are is a perilous place - ripe for dropping stitches.)

(*And it occurs to me that if there are shops that could custom-make circular needles - it probably wouldn't be so hard if you could get the right kind of cables and whatever kind of cable-stickum they use to attach the needles to the cables - they could do special-orders. So they could make a 110" cable needle for someone. Or if a 24" needle is really kind of too short, but a 36" needle is ungainly long, they could maybe split the difference and do a 28" needle for the purpose. Oh, I know - there is Magic Loop where you fold the cord up and stuff, but to me that just feels really ungainly, and I worry that it might prematurely weaken the cable. And I'm just not into replacing my circular needles on a regular basis. ).

Happy all around

Happy feet:


(The Neapolitan socks)

Happy shoulders:



(Bloom, all finished).

The Neapolitan socks didn't come out 100% identical - I attribute that to the fact that the first sock was the one with the breaks and joins in it, so the foot part wound up with shorter repeats of some color. Still, it's close enough to please me.

More views of Bloom:



The rear view of the shawl

It's also a lot of fun to play with, to kind of swirl and twirl like it's a cape or a circle skirt:



Now I just need for it to get cool enough to be able to wear all these good things.

I finished the knitting on Bloom last night.



I know that neck edge LOOKS small, but when you put it on, it stretches because of the pull of the weight of the yarn (it is a very heavy yarn, weight-wise). It actually works up into a kind of a capelet, which is sort of nice, because it doesn't seem like it is so prone to slide off one's shoulders as true shawls are.

I also started the crochet edging:



It's pretty simple - a sc, dc, tc, dc, sc bobble. It doesn't look like much yet because this is something that definitely will need blocking when it's done.

The pattern, if you want to make your own, is here. I think it would also be interesting made out of a "plainer" but still ombre worsted-weight like one of the Auraucania products. Or I think something soft and cuddly (Noro Blossom is not particularly cuddly) would be very nice for it - especially as something to flip over your shoulders if you are reading in bed and are cold. (I'm trying to think of particularly cuddly worsted-weight yarns that aren't a pain to knit with. I'd NEVER want to do this one out of a chenille, that's for sure.) Perhaps a nice soft alpaca, or a merino-alpaca blend, or something like KnitPick's Andean Silk.

(I forgot to add: this will be the FIRST project that was re-started and ultimately completed because of "Start-over")

Hi! A'member me?*



(*10 virtual bonus points to anyone who remembers what SNL skit that's from)

Yeah, I decided to pick up Cozy again. I got some done on it last night (it's a bit more than 1/4 finished in that shot, at least based on the amount of yarn I have - I had just attached in the third skein). I didn't get as much done as I wanted for two reasons:

1. Somewhere a few rows back (I think it was when I was knitting on it while waiting for my allergy shot) I made a horrific mistake and I had to un-knit and fix it.

Un-knitting Summer Tweed is not fun.

2. I yielded a bit to neighborhood peer pressure. I hadn't mowed my lawn in about 2 weeks (well, the front lawn - the back, it had been nearly a month). I didn't worry too much about it - it's been brutally hot (surely no one expects a person to mow when there's a heat index of 110?) and besides, my next-door neighbor's lawn was even longer.

But last evening, while I was doing the necessary un-knitting (and watching a documentary on Typhoid Mary - a Nova repeat), I heard a lawnmower. "I should probably go out and do the lawn this evening, " I thought (calculating that it would be Friday before I'd have time again). Then I thought, no, I've had my allergy shot today, not wise to expose myself to all that mold and pollen.

But then I looked out the window and saw that the lawnmower was my next-door neighbor's teen-aged son mowing their yard. So, oh crud, I might as well do mine.

So I did. It's not great (the backyard, in particular, was almost too long for the old-fashioned reel-type mower I use), but it's done.

****

Some books I had ordered came yesterday. In particular the long-delayed Oxford Press order (There was a warehouse mixup but I won't go into more detail). In it was a book I've been eagerly awaiting, and am contemplating throwing over my other current reads (Gulliver's Travels, that book on the Crimean War, and a Guido Brunetti mystery) to read first - it's called "Jacquard's Web" (Essinger) and it's about, well, the Jacquard loom. But it's also about Babbage's Difference Engine (which is something I've been intrigued by for years), and silk, and a lot of other topics. It's one of those kinds of books I love - where the author ties together all these disparate strands and shows connections between things.

And also, there's the fiber angle: Jacquard's Loom (which, apparently, the author argues is the world's first computer. Heh. The first computer was made to make patterned silk. Take that, you rocket-scientist types.)

So it looks like an interesting read.

I've been working on things.

1. The sleeves of the Greek pullover. (No picture; they still don't look like much yet). I'm doing both at once, which is my MO when the sleeves are shaped identically - that way, I don't get one thing knit, and then having to knit the Exact. Same. Thing. again. I'm probably about 4" or 5" in.

Once these are done, I just need to knit the i-cord ties (I-cord, shudder - 2, 40" long ties for my size. I think I'm going to have to do that while reading in order to avoid going crackers.) I'll probably block it while knitting the i-cord ties because then it will be ready to assemble.

I'll be glad to have this done.

2. The Landscape Shawl:



I just started the "moss stitch" section (section 4). It has gotten slow now because it's so big. (The coasters are about 3" on a side, if you're trying to guess the scale. And that's a 47" long needle it's on.)

3. I cut the pieces for, and laid out the rest of, the current quilt top (the one with the bright patches and brown sashing). Didn't get a picture of it because I was doing it on my dining room floor while waiting on the service guy (who, as it turned out, I didn't need) so I picked it up and stacked them into piles by row (and pinned them, and attached a slip of paper with the row-number to each stack). I may get this done this weekend and then I need to study my pieces of large fabric in my stash to see if I have something appropriate for a backing.

4. I ironed the fabric for the next quilt top. (I'm going to do the Straits of Georgia quilt out of the autumn-print fabric I was talking about). This should be a fast quilt as it's mostly strip-pieced. (I'm thinking I will complete BOTH quilts and then take them to be quilted in a single trip.)

(Oh, and that Staples ad that they just ran, with the parents (mom AND dad) dressed up in cheerleader dresses trying to get their kids psyched up for school - seriously disturbing.)

I also have received, and perused, both the fall Vogue Knitting and the fall Interweave.

Pretty happy with the fall Interweave - lots of nice stuff in there (but generally, fall issues are my favorite). I really like the Hedgerow coat and I have some yarn in the stash that should work for it (some Ultra Alpaca bought cheap from Elann, in a nice green-with-gold overtones [Elann called it "Verdigris"])

I also think the cover sweater is really cute. And I have to admit I'm happy to see some of the familiar models back - both the "cover girl" and the possibly-mixed-race lady with the really tightly curled "fluffy" hairdo (I can't describe it well but it's really cute - if I had hair that would do that, that's how I'd wear it.)

Also a fan of the Cobblestone Pullover - it's the kind of simple thing that I'd wear a lot and probably enjoy making.

And there's a sock pattern, and lots of nice cabled things. If this is suggestive of how Eunny Jang's going to edit the magazine, I'm really glad she's editor. (And may she stay on for a good long while!)

Vogue Knitting I'm more mixed on. There are some cute things in this issue, and it seems they've finally taken to heart that a size 42" or 44" isn't really and truly a plus size to be relegated to only the ugly bulky weight designs (I think all the patterns I liked went up to my size). I liked 10 and 11, 40, 42, and 44.

They also re-ran the famous Enchanted Forest sweater but although I like it, I'd never make it - it's one size fits all and the finished size is like 58", and biggish woman + hugely oversized sweater is not a good look for me.

However, I could have done without the cover-after-cover trope that they did. (I was reminded of the old cartoon gag where a present is wrapped in a series of nested, progressively smaller, boxes.)

And there was a quotation in the (copious) interviews (again: it's kind of the celebrity-culture in knitting. Yes, I think Kaffe Fassett and others have interesting things to say but so much of the interviews seemed to be gossip, name dropping, and ego stroking) that got me:

"One of our biggest issues is the inundation of free patterns on the Internet, whether they're ripped off, or designed but poorly written, or not checked"

(emphasis added). Later in the quotation, there is the comment that "instruction writing [in the free patterns] is so poor."

This is from an editor of Vogue.

Now, I understand, 100%, protecting copyright - if a pattern is demonstrably ripped off, it should come down. And I agree that professional designers have every right to make a living from their work. And I do have a different level of expectations when I buy, say, a Fiber Trends pattern vs. printing one out off of someone's blog.

but this is coming from VOGUE. Do they know their reputation re: typographical errors in the knitting community? How many people have complained on Knitter's Review about the difficulty of locating errata for Vogue, or even getting technical assistance?

I'VE griped about it, and I don't use Vogue products all that much. (Their "Knitting on the Go" books are kind of known to be loaded with typos, and there's no online site that I know of that contains any kind of usable errata.)

I just don't like to see the slamming of the amateur designers - many of whom will go on to become professionals - because they share some of their work for free. If someone wants to share a pattern for free, they should be allowed to. And they shouldn't be subject to scorn from the "industry."

That would be like me, as a botany prof, complaining because some guy who spent all his free time out in the woods and knew the plants well was helping my students to identify plants. Or my complaining about all the books that "teach ecology for free" in the library.

I'd feel a little less snarky about it if Vogue patterns were always clear and typo-free. But they're not! So it's kind of a "kettle, meet pot" situation in my mind.

I think everyone who got questions has answered them - dragonknitter, Lydia, Diann, and Grace (Grace in the comments).

(Oh, and Grace - I didn't mention it before but I really like your quotations. Especially the Robert Frost one).

Other than that - I'm racing through a last bit of gradings (homeworks from Gen. Bio.). Tomorrow is exam day - I have the keys (they're to be machine-graded) already done, which makes it faster for me.

And Friday - well, I'm taking the entire day off but I am being at home. I can no longer be a cheapskate on dialup, as it turns out - my ISP is migrating everyone to cable internet (which I hope isn't too much of a problem to install; I realized there are no cable outlets in the room where I have my computer. I hope they won't have to go up into the attic and run a drop...). AND I am getting digital cable. (I have been thinking about it for a long time and I can get it without paying the cost of a service call if I have it installed Friday.)

Oh - and I bought a new tv. A Sharp aquos or however they spell it. It was shockingly expensive but it was time for a new television. (The one I was using was over a dozen years old and a few things were going a little wonky on it). This is a much larger television than I had, and its picture is much sharper, and I anticipate the digital cable will look good. (And I get BBC America, and Turner Classic Movies, and the Science Channel....and IFC, which I think still runs Zatoishi the Blind Swordsman (an old Japanese Samurai-themed tv show I kind of got hooked on last summer while visiting my folks). So I'm looking forward to that.

Been working on the various projects. Nothing to show because everything's a long-term project and they all take a while.


***

Added, around 4 pm: Well, it's done, except for machine-grading the finals.

Man, am I wiped OUT. This has been about the most tiring summer semester I can remember - I don't quite know why, except maybe that my classes were larger this year.

I think I'm going to bring the Landscape Shawl to knit on tomorrow while I proctor. That was what I worked on last night and it's getting to the big-and-impressive stage, where it's satisfying to work on, because you can kind of imagine what it will be like when it's done. (Oh, and I had to order a longer - a 47" - size 6 needle to contain it. I hate having projects scrunched up on needles that are too short for them.)

I have to admit I'm itching to start something new - I keep thinking about the Spirit of the Southwest shawl that I have yarn for in the stash (pretty, nice, buttery yarn in a particularly lovely color called Moonlight). But I also tell myself no, that I need to finish AT LEAST the Landscape Shawl and the Greek Pullover first (the Greek Pullover for the simple practical reason that the Susan Bates pegboard row-counter that I use for things with complex shaping or patterning is in use for it, and I think I will need it for Spirit of the Southwest.)

I find that I always get the feeling of wanting to start a bunch of new things right as a semester winds down or as a season changes (and somehow, oddly, it FEELS like the season is changing to fall here - I mean, emotionally - it's still hot out and still clearly summer, but there's something that feels fall-ish to me in the air).

I'm also still thinking about the Straits of Georgia quilt, and the nice fall-colored fabric I have to make it out of.

I really want to start something new, but the disciplined side of me is going to make me finish at least some of my ongoing projects first.

Some photos, before I start packing for my short vacation.

First - I have two shawls in progress right now.

First up is Cozy, which was my proctoring-knitting



(It looks like there's a mistake in the lower right corner but it isn't, the shawl just kind of got folded on itself and I didn't realize that when I took the picture)

I guess I never talked much about proctoring knitting. To be good proctoring knitting, in my opinion, a project has to not require TOO much concentration - shaping while working in pattern is out, even some complex patterns are out. Luckily Cozy is simple enough that after a few repeats I had the pattern memorized. It also has to be something small enough to easily carry around without it being too awkward - projects towards the end-stage are not so good, nor are things where you're knitting on neckbands or such. I also don't like things that require too much impedimentia - no toys where I'd have to drag along the stuffing and the eyes and all that, no intarsia with bobbins of fifteen colors.

I also tend not to do socks, because socks are a little harder to explain to a non-sock-knitter than a shawl is, and I'm not big into taking five minutes to carry out a whispered conversation with someone who wants to know what I'm making and why while others are still trying to take the exam.

Here's a closeup:



It came out looking a little too green here; the full-length picture above shows a truer color.

I'm about 1/4 done with it (eight balls of yarn, nearly have used up 2).

But I may throw Cozy over for a while, because I have a new love:



Yup, started Landscape. Aren't those little picots cute, along the edge? I was apprehensive about doing them at first but they are really not hard at all.

And here's the last thing:



The amigurumi bear I mentioned the other day. I used the Roxycraft "Emotional animals" pattern (but mine came out larger than the pattern said it would). The only real modification was that I did the face a little differently - I gave the bear "cutesy anime smiling eyes" rather than the closed, sleeping eyes specified by the pattern.

So she can look like she's sleeping or just smiling in a cutesy anime sort of way.

I had a hard time naming her - she's made of Soy Wool Stripes yarn so at first I tried Tofu, and then Miso, and then any other soy product I could think of but she seemed to resist all of those names. Then this morning, I thought of Huguette (pronounced the French way, "OO-zhette") and that seems to work nicely.

(And yes, I'm aware, there's a bit of a pun there: Huge Head - Huguette. Because most amigurumi do have huge heads, and this one is no exception.)

Bess is talking about knitting lace.

Coincidentally, this weekend I picked the Song of Hiawatha shawl back up and began (again) on the edging. I'm up to about 1/3 of the last side's edge done.

I hope I finally have the motivation to complete this.
I DO enjoy knitting lace. But it often takes me a while to get into the swing of it. Like many things in my life ("How you do anything is how you do everything," yet again), there's the issue of overcoming the initial inertia: the sense of "I'm tired." Or "I made a mistake last time and had to rip back." Or even, I've noticed lately: "But it won't make good blogfodder; people only like to read when there's something finished or something new - they don't want to hear, 'I knit three inches of the same edging I've been working on for six weeks.'"

I can complete one repeat (16 rows) in about 10-15 minutes once I get going on it. That covers perhaps an inch and a quarter of distance. But the stole is about 100" long - so you do the math. This takes a while.

I do want to finish it though; I'm looking at the other "shawl yarn" I have in my stash. Not sure which I want to start first - the "Bird's Nest" shawl from Folk Shawls, or the "Eliza Bennet" lace shawl (that will be done using a rather anachronistic yarn - Cherry Tree Hill's Super Glitz, which has sparkly bits in it), or maybe the Spirit of the Southwest shawl. Or the Landscape Shawl, which I've had Koigu in the stash for for like 3 years now? (Except I can't immediately find my copy of the Landscape Shawl pattern).