just another raveller

I went to work early this morning because it was freshman move-in day, and we had to park father away than usual. Turned out that I had some extra time so I walked around campus looking for statuary to use in my modelling shots of the Wild Orange. I think this guy needs someone to manage his image. Here's a closer shot: It was really hard finding a cooperative statue... So I gave up and hung it on a tree. Meh. I only had 15 minutes, after all. It turned out that an ordinary office table was just what was wanted. Now it's back to the Purple Island. Stay tuned!

It's drying. I can hardly wait to unpin it and take it out in the light of day. The pattern requires knitting two Crest of the Wave borders and a smaller lace centre. For the borders, I just knit the yarn as it came, but for the centre I tried to control the colours, clipping out the orange and knitting blues, turquoise and purple only. Orange lace mohair throughout. Better pictures soon. Oh yeah, these are actually cucumbers and they taste good too. Not sure about why they are orangey yellow. Could it be because they were planted between tomatoes and strawberries?

I've managed to maintain slow but steady progress on the 20 row repeats of the Queen's Lace edging around the Purple Island despite a major distraction. It just happened, I tell you. I'd been walking past the same pile wild orange coloured balls of Karabella Lace Merino in the LYS for months. Last week it came to me that this yarn would perfectly complement and in fact give a boost to the 5 skeins of Jojoland Melody that I have been stashing for a few years. Now Jojoland Melody is a fine yarn, somewhere between sock weight and lace weight. it has nice slow and subtle colour changes. People on Ravelry have made lovely things with it. But I adore combining mohair with other yarns. It adds such depth. I've done it before with mohair and alpaca in the same pattern, Cheryle Oberle's North Sea Shawl from her book Folk Knits . It's a fun and easy knit. For most of it there is just one lace row so you can knit it without looking at the pattern too often. Gotta go!

I started a purple garter diamond because I needed some mindless knitting for the car. I selected the yarn (Malabrigo Sock) just because I like the feel. I figured I'd knit the diamond centre and choose a border and edging later. It has 162 stitches at its widest. I finished this centre just after completing Rock Island Canopy, when I still had the itch to continue with Shetland Bead stitch. So that's what I went on with. In a way, it's an extension of the last several projects. If you embiggen, you can see the Shetland Bead stitch right next to the purple, though you can hardly tell that's what it is. I used the same needle size throughout. I persevered through 20 repeats. I did wonder, while knitting the border whether or not I should change to a larger needle. It felt a bit tight while I was doing it but I just kept going. Blocking should fix it. The edging, similarly unrecognizable at present, is Queen's Lace Edging (Heirloom Knitting page 129) with Small Be...

We have been and gone to Wakefield for our summer week off. It was quite hot and we swam every day often more than once, and as it turned out, right alongside a beaver. Once Nadia saw him pass by as she floated in the water, we switched to swimming at my sister's dock on the other side of the river. It was near the end of the week anyway. The latest pink shawl has been sent off to an elderly and housebound friend who has a hard time dressing stylishly and loves something pretty to throw over her shoulders. I also finished off this La-La made by holding the Noro lace yarn along with a strand of grey Karabella lace weight Mohair. Someone commented that he wood really brings out the grey in the scarf in this picture. That made me laugh. While in Wakefield, I made my annual appearance at my friends' knit night. It was held at potter Maureen's with my sister Tina, friends Julie and Kathryn, and a couple of others in attendance. I don't remember their names but they had d...

To re-cap - I started at the top with 11 repeats of leaf lace motif from Forest Canopy. On the last row, I increased one stitch for every yarn over in order to transition to several rows of garter stitch, maintaining the openness of the leaf lace. Then I knit the bead lace chart from Heirloom Knitting, a few more garter rows. I finished up with the Wave lace chart (also from Heirloom Knitting). It's sort of a Rock Island knit backwards with leaf lace instead of garter for the centre. Purists will insist that my edging is backwards but frankly, it's not a problem for me. Here is our local feral cat, Cleo. She's fixed and has had her shots, thanks to our neighbours. Here she is lying on the cat pedestal, under the birch.

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.