Short, Dark and Surreal

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Karabella Lace fir cone shawl center, blocked

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I just love blocking lace! And whatever others may say, I do enjoy knitting lace with this yarn. While it has shrunk back a bit, I think it is no more than I would expect. I used a 3.5 mm (3 US) needle. Before blocking, the piece measured about 16x16 inches. Here it is in a field of Veronica... Pinned out, it measured about 29x29 inches. I left it to try overnight, unpinned it in the morning and it immediately shrunk 1 inch to 28x28. I left it undisturbed for another 8 hours. It shrunk back one more inch in that time, to 27x27. When I returned from work, I could resist no longer and took it for another whirl in the garden. I just measured again and it is now 26x26 inches. The bumps that you can see in the first picture show no signs of re-appearing. For now, I have a 60% increase in size from the unblocked state. Quite respectable, but I will check again in the morning. Now, I'll get back to the pink blanket. PS. No one has guessed the answer to yesterday's question correctly
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Swatch

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Thanks for your consoling remarks. I really should have swatched before I started this. I was ready to press on and finish until I read Halla's comment about the needle size that her friends use with Einband - 4.5 or 5 mm which is considerably larger than the 2.5 mm needle I am using. I ran my knitting upstairs, plunged it into a sink of water and Eucalan and left it there to soak for 20 minutes, needles and all. Then I remembered that I am not knitting with the regular Einband that is sold by Alafoss, which is probably what Halla's friends are using, but with a the much finer mystery Einband from the Handkntters Association sale bin. Remember that I was getting 50 wpi with it. Compare that with 37 wpi from the Alafoss Einband. Maybe the green yarn isn't Einband at all. Anyway, the 2.5 mm seems to be just fine. I blocked it and while it isn't wide enough for a curtain, check it out....beauty, eh? Did you click to embiggen? At any rate, I am now in love with this yarn. T
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In the Vortex: yes we can!

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It's almost a month since I wrote here last, that long dark month between November and December. I've been humming and hah-ing, writing and re-writing and finally conclude that if knitters near the Arctic Circle Lene and Harpa can present a good face during the short days, then so can I. Love is an old pair of black gloves; at least it has been for me this past week. I knit them a year or 2 ago for my husband and he only recently complained in his mild way that the fit on the baby finger wasn't right. Don't worry, I won't torture you with photos except for this one which shows the fingers after I cut them off. There's an article about gloves in the most recent issue of Cast On . It has now finally sunk into my brain that after you have knit the cuff and thumb and built up the hand, it's best to knit the baby finger first before building up the hand with a few more rounds and completing the other fingers. I don't like the way they tell you to close th
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