Back for Round Two

Just after I posted yesterday Pam sent me photos of her Elder Tree Shawl. Here it is just off the needles and needing to be blocked.

Pam's flawless first shawl

As you can see her shawl takes on a triangular shape typical of ones knit from the top down, just like mine. You can see the spine down the middle and the lovely picot edging she used to bind off. Pam also added beads there; take a closer look to see them.

A picot bind off is accomplished by adding a small number of stitches (2-3 or so depending how deep or long one wishes the point to be) at the start of the row and then binds off the added as well as a couple more of the regular stitches. You repeat this process across the row. Watch this video for more details. Of course the tricky part for Pam was figuring out just where in this process to add the tiny little pearl bead. She said it took a bit of fiddling but once she had it under control everything moved along quickly. I can't wait to see her shawl when it is blocked.

As for me, I've been happily wearing my Ashton outside and inside the house. Today I paired it with a light coloured blouse so the design can really been seen. The beads, located at the points and embedded in one set of leaves, and shawl pin are really the star of this photo.

Ashton #1 in use

Enough now about my first lace shawl. I have moved on to another. For reasons even I cannot explain I have been purchasing good lace yarn on sale for some time. It seems consistent with my personality with intentions getting ahead of reality at times. At any rate, there was a lovely hand-dyed dusty rose coloured lace yarn purchased this spring with the hope to use it to make a shawl for a friend who is particularly fond of pink. (Yes, you know who you are.) This lace weight is finer than the fingering used in my first shawl. My friend is a petite person so this shawl made with finer wool will also be more petite than the first. And the beads will be placed on this shawl just like mine. I did like doing that technique.

Ashton #2, pretty in pink.

This one seems so easy in comparison to the first which is a left-handed way of saying learning took place the last time around. I am approximately one-third done and have yet to make a single mistake, or at least that was the case when Pam and I talked this morning on the phone. I was bragging about how I hadn't used a lifeline and wasn't counting either because things were moving along so fine. After that conversation I knit two rows and have done something wrong. (The price one pays for being a braggart.) But I do have a sense this second lace shawl will be completed in much less than one month's time. There should be more space in my day for writing and knitting other things as well.

What is the old adage about learning a new word? If you use it three times you will be able to add it successfully to your vocabulary. I'm hoping this also holds for knitting skills, or at least that is my intention in making a second shawl so quickly. I want to add the ability to successfully knit lace to my knitting vocabulary. So I'm back for round 2 in pink.

Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing. I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away. Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close. Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening. As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend. Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration. I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned out finished, and

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time. One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock. So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep. Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot. And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms. (BTW

Yarn Barf

It's back to quirkiness and time to step away again from the cuteness for a while. But as you see I'm someone who slips from one to the other without much effort so anticipate this back and forth to be my new normal. A dramatization of me in the midst of my startitist frenzy Yarn barf . I'm willing to bet you hadn't thought of putting those two words together, had you? It just so happens yarn barf can be a reoccurring pain for those of us who use yarns that come in a skein instead of a hank. (No pun intended regarding the current Noro virus, well maybe a little pun.) Skeins of yarn wound by the manufacturer These are hanks which need to be wound into balls If you look closely at the picture on the right you'll see the start on the millet yellow skein at the centre right of the photo. Its start can easily be seen coming from the centre of the skein onto the violet skein to the left. Easy to find, right! Sure but what about the remaining 4

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