Field of Nupps

It turns out that the Trinity stitch produces a field of nupps. Massed together, like plants in a garden, I think it looks very good. Knitting this stitch is great practice for knitting the nupps in the Estonian lace knitting patterns or in the Swallowtail shawl. You have to relax and knit loosely. And look at this Icelandic yarn - even though the shawl is very fine and light, the fibers have bloomed. When you hold it up to the light you can see how this increases the warmth of the fabric. Click on the photo to see the spaces between the stitches up close.

Here, you can see how far I've gotten with my Mystery Einband. It's definitely going to be a stole rather than a curtain. When I couldn't knit a another row of Small Trees to save my life, I knit a few plain rows, then a row of holes and swtched to the Trinity stitch for the centre. Then when that got boring and I thought I'd better check on the length, I soaked and stretched it out again. The border is 25 inches and I think that the centre will be about 20 inches so the whole thing should be about 70 inches long in the end. It's still about 20 inches wide.

The Trinity stitch is on page 49 of Martha Waterman's Traditional Knitted Lace Shawls

I'll finish the centre very soon and put it on a spare needle. Then I'll cast on for the other border, knit it up and graft the two pieces together.

Jean, if you don't mind, I'll just pretend to myself for the time being that you might actually borrow this to wear to the wedding. With this bit of self delusion, I'll have a better chance of actually finishing it and not setting it aside like the poor Pine Tree Palatine (I swear I'll get back to that soon) or the Wedgette cardigan. I carry huge feelings of guilt about the Wedgette.

The weather here is still on the cool side for June. The shawl has been warming my lap as I knit and I continue to wear my renovated Lopapeysa. The cool temps mean that the tomato plants are very slow to develop though the radishes and lettuce seeds have sprouted, no surprise there. And I really do prefer the cool weather to the heat.

Let's see. What can I really complain about - oh yes, my neighbour used his power washer for 12 hours this weekend. It was non stop yesterday - just to take the finish off his deck. Then four more today. Plus, we had to arrange to return our new fridge because it makes an unrelenting and piercing high pitched noise as well. Not to mention having to select another one. And rather than try to do it all over the phone from the comfort of my own home with the machines in the background, I went to Sears twice. Grrr. 'Nuff said.