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!