flyinmysoup

the Sagittaria Shawl is off the needles, blocked, and finished! here are the requisite photos and information.

Pattern: Sagittaria Shawl by Vilma
Needles: Addi Turbo Lace circs, size 9 US
Yarn: Kauni Effektgarn 8/2, colorway EG
Start: 15 May 2008
Finished: 26 May 2008
Notes: i love how this yarn looks knit up. it's just freakin' gorgeous. it is however, super duper scratchy. the pattern is super simple and quite pretty. i love the shawl's name and inspiration--i myself am a sagittarius. this shawl is garter stitch based, which makes it extremely stretchy. here's a before blocking photo:

Ready fro the close up

and then after blocking:

Wanna see it more clearly?

the shawl ended up being about 6' across the wingspan, and 3' from center top to the center bottom point. pretty big, actually.

i won't be getting more of this yarn for the Goddess Knits Anniversary Mystery Shawl--i have some other yarn that will work lovely and isn't nearly as scratchy. don't misunderstand me; i will knit other shawls (and perhaps a cardigan or something) with the Kauni, even with it's harshness. you know, cause even though i'm not so much of the slave-to-fashion-type, i will wear scratchy ass wools if they are pretty enough ;)

and now, a couple more pics. some people take pictures of their completed shawls draped artfully over bushes, in tree branches, and what not. but not this knitter. nope. i like the dog-wearing-shawl shot:

and let us not forget the shawl-in-action shot:

bushes? we don't need no stinkin' bushes!

Posted by kate at 27 May 2008 | Permalink | 2 People spoke up | TrackBacks (0)

there's been lots of lace knitting here in the land of kate. in fact, the only projects i've been working on are lace. so, would you like some updates? and pretty pictures? pleased to oblige ya!

The Peacock stole is, i believe, on hold until i can suss out whether or not i'm frogging it and starting all over. i don't normally completely frog lace if i screw it up a bit--i can usually figure out (at least close enough) where i went wrong and drop things back to that point. but this time, i fear the worst. i can't seem to get the stitch count to be correct, and i feel it may be a lost cause. i'm not too terribly upset, though, cause i think that it was going to end up too small anywho. more of of scarf than a shawl. so, frogging it will be alright cause i can start it over with some slightly larger needles. it's all a learning process!

When i started to suspect that the Peacock shawl was heading strait for the crapper, i cast on for the Juno stole from Knitty. the utter simplicity of the bulk of the pattern (stockinette columns separated by eyelet columns) appealed to me greatly. and, it seemed like just the thing to use up some of the Malabrigo lace i had in the stash. so i cast on, and it seems to be going swimmingly thus far. here is a shot:

Clicky for Bigness
so far, i'm quite liking the pattern...it's pretty great television knitting (too bad Torchwood has ended for this season).
i've signed up for the Goddess Knits Anniversary Mystery Shawl knit-a-long. it officially starts June 14th. the format is different from any mystery shawl i've ever been apart of: it reminds me of the Choose Your Own Adventure books from when i was a kid. for each section, you get to pick from several different options--how cool is that? According to the designer, the pattern is based on the Mandala. While looking on Ravelry for inspiration for yarn choices, i stumbled upon a yarn that made me stop in my tracks.
HAVE YOU SEEN THIS YARN?!?!

Kanui Effektgarn 8/2 is freaking amazing. i love love love the looooooonnnggg gradual color changes. (just perfect for the whole mandala idea.) My LYS just happened to have a couple of different colorways, so i decided to pick up a small one to try out before jumping buying enough for the Mystery shawl. I snagged up some of the EG colorway, and then started looking for a pattern.
I've settled on the Sagittaria Shawl. here's what i've got so far:

Click it for more detail
see how gorgeously the yarn flows from one color to the next??? it's just lovely. it's not all lovely goodness, though, at least not yet. right off the skein, this yarn is SCRATCHY. like Shetland scratchy and rough. it also seems to have some oil on it. i can barely wait to wash the FO to see if it makes a difference. and i hope that it does, cause i would really like to use this yarn on other projects, but i don't think my skin will let me if it doesn't soften up!

Posted by kate at 17 May 2008 | Permalink | 0 People spoke up | TrackBacks (0)

ah spring. it's one of my favorite seasons (right behind fall), and i'm so glad it's finally here after the terribly dreary winter we just had in Indiana. i can take a snowy, cold winter--that's just lovely--but rainy, just yucky ones get me down. so, here it is, just into the first strains of spring. too early to start on the gardening i'm itching to do now that we have an actual, honest-to-goodness house and yard, but the switch to Daylight Savings Time means it's now not getting dark until 8 or so. what's a girl to do? knit lace. that's the answer. the knitting project that spans this sloppy, still slightly frosty gap. whoot!
i am still diligently slaving away on the Fir Cone shawl that i started, oh, two or so years ago. really, i'm beginning to suspect that it shall be never ending. as guilty as i feel about it, i had to start a new project.
enter the Peacock Feathers Shawl. after browsing on Ravelry one night and seeing many lovely examples of this shawl, i picked up the pattern at my friendly LYS Stitches & Scones. JOY!!! though i have the most perfect color of the called for yarn (Jaggerspun Zephyr in a delicious teal-y blue) i decided to use some Skacel Merino Lace in colorway 669 (another lovely teal). i also downsized from 3.5 mm needles to 2.25's. i'm hoping that these two changes will leave me with a shawl that is itself downsized from the 88" monstrosity it is written as.
anywho, i've gotten through the first chart.

Posted by kate at 24 Mar 2008 | Permalink | 1 People spoke up | TrackBacks (0)