just another raveller

I'm slogging through the Wave Lace edging from Heirloom Knitting. This photo shows where I was on Sunday morning. Now I'm at the halfway point. It is essentially the same as the wave lace used in the Rock Island Shawl. I'm not convinced that I will have enough yarn to finish the edging, but I can't tell yet. If I run out, then I will wish that I had done the Doris edging. That's because in the Wave Lace pattern , the first stitch of each inwards row is fortified with a yo paired with a decrease and this uses up more yarn. I might be OKAY. If not, watch out Marcia, who bought the same yarn at the same time last year at Hemlock . I may be plaguing you for a few yards. The yarn is Piggy Toes B Pot Luck Yarn . 65% Superwash Merino/35% Bamboo. Soft, but the bamboo adds shine and a bit of weight which is just right to hold a shoulder shawl in place.

On the subject of the ants, colleagues here think that there are more than usual this year because of the exceptionally wet weather we have been having. Apparently floating a blossom in a glass of water isolates the little beasts. Guess I'll have to admire them outside. I'm about halfway through the bead lace portion of the pink shawl. I haven't quite decided about the edging yet, but I'm thinking about the Wave Lace pattern from Heirloom Knitting. Love that book.

I tried to bring these peonies inside, but they turned out to be full of ants. When are peonies not full of ants? There must be some trick to getting rid of them. In any case, in my current project, I've decided to mix and match the Shetland bead lace border featured in the Rock Island Shawl with the leaf lace centre from earlier efforts. I'm not sure about the edging yet. I might use the wave lace from the Rock Island or maybe the wave lace from Heirloom Knitting. I think they're related. You can see my new pink knitting below. I start at the top, unlike Rock Island which starts with the edging. These pictures were taken this morning. By now I have finished the leaf lace and garter stitch transition and I'm about to embark on the bead lace. I'm doing it in reverse, increasing at the sides and centre as I knit, rather than decreasing as in Rock Island. I'm not quite sure how it's going to work.

Here is my finished Rock Island, before and after blocking. This was the first time that I knit with Madeline Tosh Lace and I must say that it was very satisfying. It is both strong and soft and it the colour has depth. It's a present for a friend who is moving away, though it's very tempting to keep it. It has been very hot, 33C or 92 F last I looked. My cucumbers sprouted today. In this weather, you have to keep an eye on the small plants and water them often. Sadly, the longer garden hose is set up to water grass seed on the front lawn so I've been hauling watering cans to my humble little vegetable patch. There are masses of strawberries too, not yet ripe but clearly enjoying the heat.

It's been a while. I'm barely keeping up with the seasons. Winter swam into Spring this year. There was a lot of purple in the landscape for a while. Now s ummer flirts with us; one day hot and steamy, the next cold and cloudy. Whenever we have a dry half day, we run outside and work in the garden. I never had a chance to turn over the soil in the vegetable plot properly. I just kind of mixed it up a bit and threw in a bag of fresh earth before adding 5 tomato plants and some cucumber seeds. In the this picture, there are strawberry plants in the foreground and rhubarb in the back. I've been challenged knitting wise too. I keep knitting simple shawls. Now that I look at them, they all have a lot in common. Here's the first one in brown Malabrigo Sock with a leaf lace centre... Next, a classic small sized Aestlight. The yarn is Pagewood Farms Denali....In these first two, you knit the centre first, then pick up around to knit the border and edging. And finally, I thoug...

Spring in Western New York has been recalcitrant and angry, like a spoiled child. We had snow in mid April, lots of high winds and rain. The Forsythia has just now come into it's prime and the lovely Red Bud trees haven't even bloomed yet. Some people say that their tulips are blooming. I don't know about that. I should be ashamed to post this photo, but this is what my vegetable patch looks like. It's awash with weeds, but you can just see the Rhubarb poking up. I've decided that the Rhubarb is the most important thing. I've been extremely busy at work, and it leaves me little energy to do much but knit in the evenings. I finished the Storm Water Shawl (2 skeins of Handmaiden Sea Silk) and found a fellow to model it. I finally knit myself a top that fits, though I'm having a hard time getting a good photo. This is Reid in purple. I managed to make a little logo, but it doesn't look good embiggened. Too little time, too little energy. I'm still on ...

I fell in love with the honeycomb pattern on those last mittens and went on to knit a matching hat with the remaining yarn. I started by typing "honeycomb" into the pattern search on Ravelry to see what others had done. I admired Mesi by Finnish knitter Suvia Simola. Here's a Flickr link to a photo. I really liked it but I wasn't sure it would suit me. I decided that I would just start knitting and see where it went. Maybe I'd try for a tam shape. A flat top in a solid blue would provide some good negative space. Anything to avoid the pin head look of a head hugging tuque. The honey comb stitch pattern has a multiple of six stitches. After some swatching of the Malabrigo worsted, I decided to cast on 102 stitches. I knit an inch and a half of twisted rib and contemplated increasing. I knew that I didn't want a tight hat that made my head like a pin, but how would I incorporate sufficient increases into the structured honeycomb pattern? I began by increasi...