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....

Leaves of Lace

I had a lovely Mother's Day--received a very sweet card from Kristen, and Sam took me out for dinner and also washed the dishes on Sunday! I talked to my mother and my sister, as well as my daughter, so all family ties are firmly in place.

So on Saturday afternoon, I cast on for the realest of real lace: cashmere laceweight yarn from Sarah's Yarns, and Evelyn Clark's pattern for a triangular lace shawl knit from the neck down. All was going well, and by noon on Sunday, I had 3 repeats done and was feeling quite confident....until I took a close look.


After row 7, I had the number of stitches I was supposed to have after row 9. Which means that I had somehow added 4 excess stitches. Much hemming and hawing and counting and re-counting of sticthes ensued, culminating in ripping out 2 whole repeats.



So now I am filling the lace with lifelines and stitch markers every 10 stitches, which makes it less attractive to look at and slower to work on...but not as slow as actual ripping out of stitches!

This will keep me busy for quite a while, methinks!