O is for Object, finished

The pattern: Madli's Shawl, from IK Summer 2004. (This is a really hard-to-find issue, but I think the pattern will be reprinted in Nancy Bush's new book, Knitted Lace of Estonia, which is coming out in October.)

The details: School Products baby camel lace weight, just under 2 skeins (I have 5 grams left in the second skein, plus a third that I didn't touch!). The pattern calls for 1092 yards of laceweight; I used about 725, and added in two repeats of the center panel. I also went down a size for the needles (US 4 instead of US 5), but the finished size was fairly generous--24" wide by a little over 62" long.

The verdict: I love this shawl. I'd originally earmarked the yarn & pattern for myself, but when my mom (my mom, who keeps telling me she'll never wear lace and so there's no point in making her anything) really really liked it. What's a girl to do except give it to her mom? Which is exactly what I did. But I'd make this pattern again (in a while, because even though all those nupps were fine, I think I'd like a break from them!) and I'd definitely use this yarn again. At $9.50/skein, it's a beautiful, soft, warm, and slightly exotic; since I go to NYC a couple of times a year, I'm planning another trip to School Products.

M is for . . .

Madli's Shawl.

18 repeats of the body done, and I'm almost done with the first skein--I've probably got another 2 or 3 rows worth of yarn. I should have plenty of yarn to lengthen it--35 repeats instead of 31--using only 2 of the skeins, which will leave me with a third skein of this lovely camel yarn to knit up into something for me--a lacey scarf, maybe?

L is for . . .

Lace. Lots and lots of lace.

The Summer of Lace officially kicked off yesterday, on the first day of summer. As of Friday, I was 14 repeats done with Madli's Shawl. The pattern calls for 31 repeats, but I may make it a few repeats long. Even with 14 repeats, I've still go 9 grams (about 68.5 yards) of the first skein left. I haven't been tracking how much yarn each repeat takes, but I'm hoping that I can get another 3.5 repeats out of this skein. That way, I can use 2 skeins, rather than all 3, and get 35 repeats in. Right now, the unblocked shawl measures about 24" x 15"; the pattern says the final blocked measurements should be 62" x 19". I think that if I add another 4 repeats, I should get about those measurements--maybe a little longer--without too much heavy stretching.

And it would leave me one more skein of the baby camel yarn--381 yards--to play with.


Yesterday, however, I cast on for a brand-new lace project:


I was aiming for a repeat of the Waving Lace socks from IK's Favorite Socks book, but had a complete failure to read the actual chart. In the chart, the yo's stay on the sides of the pattern repeat, but for some reason I moved them over with the paired decreases. I think the effect of this is that the knitting doesn't pull from side to side in a bias, making them way less wavy than the first attempt. But I still like the way they're coming out, so I'm going to stick with it and knit up some not-so-waving lace socks.

Summer of Lace warm-up

I've joined the Summer of Lace Knitalong (Ravelry Group here). The official start date is June 21, but in the meantime, I'm warming up with some nupps:


Madli's Shawl, by Nancy Bush, from IK Summer 2004. Size 4 needles (knitpicks Harmony interchangables). The yarn is a Baby Camel laceweight from School Products, in NYC; I bought it about a year ago and have been looking for the right pattern for it. Raveled here.

I've gone down a needle size from the pattern, since I tend to get widely open lace when I use the recommended sizes; I'm happy with the way it looks. (I also tend to run out of yarn that way.) I'm on the 9th (out of 31) repeat of the body; so far, the nupps are going remarkable well and have been surprisingly easy. I'm not sure if I'm just getting the hang of them, or if the Harmonies are simply sharp enough to make it simple. Either way, I'm just going to enjoy the ride.

I really like this pattern--I saw it on Ravelry almost as soon as I joined (13 months ago today!), and spent several months searching for a copy of the Summer 2004 IK so I could knit it. I managed to purchase one from a fellow Raveler, via the ISO/Destash board, and I'm glad I did.

My mother also really liked this pattern when I showed her the shawl, so (even though she's been telling me for years that she really doesn't want a shawl, she doesn't know where or when she'd use it, blah blah blah) this may wind up as a present for her rather than for me. We'll see how it turns out.


In other knitting news, I'm almost done with a pair of socks--just one toe left to graft. Eventually I'll take pictures. My Pi Shawl is waiting for a good blocking; the size and shape makes that more of a challenge than I'd realized when I first started. The heat wave is over, though, so maybe there will be more knitting soon.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Happy Friday the 13th, by the way! It's Colgate Day, although I'm not wearing any Colgate gear.