Lace

It is official: I totally love knitting lace.

This is my latest little project, which took only 2 weeks to knit, called Ishbel. I bought the yarn on July 3rd and spent a day fiddling with the pattern, and then it was just full-speed ahead.



The yarn is 100% cashmere, for which I paid $40 at Wildfibers in Santa Monica. I love the color, and of course it feels marvelous. $40 seems like a lot to pay for a skein of yarn. But it doesn't seem like too much to pay for something this pretty when I'm done! (I also have quite a bit left. I will stop by the post office and weigh the finished shawl and the remaining skein and see how they compare and figure out something else to knit from it as well.



I like that this design is small and wider than it is long (that's what made the pattern tricky at first--you have to do yarn-overs on both sides, between purl and knit stitches, which doesn't seem hard, but takes a little figuring.)

Summer knitting

To keep my hands occupied, I made two washcloths, which I really like. Sure, washcloths are silly. But they're soft and lovely to use, and fun to knit. And you can finish them in a day or two.


Kristen got some Cascade 220 on our fieldtrip to Wildfiber in Santa Monica, and is at work on a rippled cable scarf that I am in love with.


And I got some cashmere laceweight in a color known as Plum Rose (which already makes me love it) and am off and running on the shawl pattern Ishbel. It took em two days to figure out a method of increasing that I was satisfied with, but now I am very happy with how this is coming along. we'll see how the lace portion goes!

The Elwells in Torrance!

Kristen and Hannah


and Molly

and Lydia

and Emily

Hannah again

Abby

Caleb
Joanne

Caleb, Joanne, and Kristen

Finally finished the April in Chicago socks...

Which perhaps should now be called California June Gloom socks?

I have no idea why it took me 3 weeks to knit the first sock of this pair. the second sock went very fast, and I finished it in a week.

the shawl!

I am so happy with the results of my first lace-weight triangular neck-down shawl. The pattern is from Evelyn Clark's Knitting Lace Triangles, and although some points seemed mysterious to me as I read through it, once I started, each step was clear as I came to it.

I knit the entire thing is less than a month, even with stopping for a couple of days to make another small item. I expected lace to take a long time, but actually this was rather speedy. After blocking it and ironing it a bit, it is a very good size--about 22" from neck to point down the back, and 58" "wingspan." I used one whole skein of Sarah's Yarns mongolian cashmere, plus a small amount of a second skein.


The softness, the drape, the warmth are spectacular, if I may say so myself. And I have enough of the yarn left to make another scarf or small shawl. (I guess the yarn was $29 a skein, though it seems like I may have paid less than that. In any case, it was money well spent!)

Warehouse Sale

Oh dear, I am becoming one of those people! A local yarn store announces a 50% off sale at their warehouse, and I show up at 9 am on Sunday, and spend $78 on high-priced yarn! I bought 4 small balls of cashmere, 3 in maize and one in forest green, originally $26.50 each, now only $13.25! And what am I going to do with 4 small (mismatched) balls of cashmere?



Well, to ease my conscience, I decided that I could turn each one into a small Christmas gift, a sweet little neck-warmer. I liked this pattern better after I heard it referred to as a lotus-leaf design. In any case, it turns out that one 25 gram (80 yard) ball of cashmere is just enough to knit this, luckily. And it only takes a couple of days of pleasant and easy knitting. So I feel a little better about my extravagance.


I also bought 4 balls of Cashsoft, one of which is exactly the same dye lot and everything as the one I used for the baby hat I designed (Greenleaf). I now have 4 miscellaneous colors of this as well. More baby hats? I don't know.

A few more pictures of the lace

This is the actual way the lace will end up, while the previous pictures were actually upside down. There are now six leaves across in each section. This is about 18" across the neck and 10" top to point. I might be a little obsessed....