Black Sheep

Flower Basket Shawl

I finished the Flower Basket Shawl over the weekend! That was a pretty quick knit.
Pattern: Flower Basket Shawl from Interweave Knits Fall 2004
Yarn: Suri Elegance by America’s Alpaca. Around 400 (or so) yards. Two strands held together. Color is 5011 Raku
Needles: Denise Interchangeables, size 7
Started: July 7rd, 2005
Finished: July 16th, 2005
Here are some other pictures:

A closer view. I love this colorway!

Here she is draped over my plastic patio chair.

Here is a shot of the back. You can really see the fucked up flower baskets in this picture. And I don’t know why my shoulders look so hulk-like.

Here it is tied around my shoulders. This is how big it is with one extra repeat ( 8 total) of the lower flower basket chart.

So..what did I learn from my first lace shawl? well, The first thing is that I can’t be lazy. I tend to be a lazy knitter. At the end of a row I would sometimes find myself short a stich or two. I compensated by doing an M1. Bad, bad idea. Because some of the pretty flower baskets are totally fucked up on the ends. I don’t know why I didn’t think you would be able to totally see these fucked up flower baskets. So I definately need to utilize the concept of the lifeline. Next shawl I will be much more anal-retentive perfetionist about, as lace requires this kind of attention.

I did enjoy this project, though. It was challenging, and I liked that. I love how beautiful lace shawls are, too. They are so delicate and pretty, regardless of how much you fuck up the pattern. I like that I made something so delicate and pretty. Definately more lace shawls in my future.

So right now, I am almost finishing up one of the little baby sockies from the Summer 2005 IK. Will post a picture of that in a few days, along with my progress on the sleeve of my lucky clover wrap.

Have a good Monday!

9 comments July 18th, 2005

Mid-week post

How’s your week going? Mine’s going pretty well. I’m getting really busy with my move to Spokane looming over me. I’m getting kind of stressed about finding a place to live out there and stuff. My Mom is helping me out, though, which is good. I don’t know what I would do without her.

So here is my Flower basket Shawl so far. Again, looking like a blog of nothing in the picture, but I can kind of see the flower baskets formed. I have just started the 7th repeat of the lower flower basket chart. I think I’m going to do 8 repeats. The directions say to do only 7, but I think I want mine slightly bigger. I’m ejoying this knit for the most part. There is something kind of zen about knitting lace, I’ve decided. This is all about process knitting. I am really enjoying the challenge.

So I bought some yarn. And a Rebecca Magazine. Hmmm..I wonder if I am thinking about knitting the Apricot Jacket…I don’t know. I’m thinking about it. I’m probably going to use some of the cotton ease I bought a few weeks ago if I do knit it. I also bought some sock yarn. The pink and blue is Lorna’s Laces shepard sock, as is the two blue hanks right next to it. The pink and blue will be for the cute little baby socks in Summer’s Interweave Knits. I also want to knit socks (thanks to Lolly and pixiestikz heather ) The two hanks at the bottom I got at Commuknity. The brand is “Claudia Hand Painted Yarn.” I had never seen this yarn before. Let me tell you, it is gorgeous. It is very similar to Koigu, in that it has that pearly, twisty, look. But the colors are better, I think. I bought this blue colorway that has shades of khaki and green in it. Simply beautiful. There were some luscious orange colorways, too. I should have gotten one of those, but I didn’t and am regretting it. I am going back next week so will pick some up then. I love it!

Regarding Audrey…I have prett much decided to knit this sweater at some point. Probably soon, like in the fall. So she has been on my mind a little bit. I happen to read the article on gauge in the (I think) Summer issue of IK. As I read it, I realized that I was doing something all wrong with Audrey. As I mentioned before, I was a having some issues making gauge on Audrey. My swatch had more stitches per inch than the required number. For some reason in my head, I thought that this meant that I needed to go down in size to reach the right gauge. That’s what i did and couldn’t figure out why I was not making gauge. The article stated that if you get too many stitches you need to go up in needle size. Duh! (I’m sure I’d read that somewhere before but for some reason I can’t wrap my mind around this concept. Even as I write this I can’t grasp the logic of it. It’s like I have a mental block or something). So I realized that I had knitted the back of Audrey, and I knitted it using a needle size that was two sizes smaller than what was called for. Why I started knitting this without getting the correct gauge, I don’t know. I probably just said, “the hell with it” and decided to start knitting. Sure enough, I measured it and looked at the diagram, and realized that my piece ended up waaaay too small. So I frogged it. I will be reswatching when I go to re-knit it in the fall.

Have a great weekend, everyone

5 comments July 14th, 2005

Could this be the One?

I bought a new bag. Yes, another new bag. This time it’s a custom-made Timbuk2 bag, classic messenger size small. What made me decide to get this bag? Well, I’ve been wanting one for about 8 years, since right before I started going to school at UCSC. They were just starting to get popular, especially with students. I kept deterring myself because of the cost. They are kind of expensive. But are worth it, if you believe the reviews they have gotten. Apparantly they last through all kinds of crazy things. I decided that I needed a bag to carry ALL of my crap to work. Everything. I’m sick of carrying three bags with me. And I wanted something big enough to carry my knitting project, my lunch for work, my little purse, and anything else I might need for the day. It was really hard to choose between the medium and the small. But I finally went with the small because then I could take it hiking with me and just take the essentials. So am I giving up my knitters purse and my Asian inspired diaper bag? For the moment, yes. I had issues with both. The knitters purse was not big enough to carry all of my stuff, and the diaper bag is not very good quality. It feels like it could fall apart at a moment’s notice.

I was also attracted to the “build your own bag” feature. I HAD to have a bag that I customized myself. So I picked out the colors that I wanted on the outside, navy and light blue (and y’all know how much I love those colors), and then I went with orange on the inside. Which i love. It suits my personality, you know? I’m navy and light blue on the outside, but on the inside I’m orange. If you know what I mean. I also got to pick the color of the little timbuk2 embrodered label on the outside. The default is yellow, but I chose orange to match the inside. Some other features I decided to add were a handle and a center divder, and I’m glad I did. click here to see what I have stuffed in there. here is a mirror-in-the-bathroom shot of it on me, so you can get a visual of how big a small is. Just in case you stumble on this page and are in the market for one of these bags. I know it would have helped me when deciding.

Here is Leonora. This is a terrible progress shot. Here is an example of how not to take a progress picture. I’m almost done with this, tho. I’m hoping to be finished with it today. It’s an easy knit. It’s just purled in the round with a bit of shaping at the ends.

I felt the need to start on something a little more challenging. So I decided to finally start the Flower Basket Shawl. I couldn’t wait anymore after seeing Cara’s. So I totally frogged the Widow’s Shawl (remember that project?), since I’m going to use that yarn for FBS. Casted on and knitted through to 1 repeat of the lower flower basket chart. So far, so good. No mistakes. It looks like a glob of nothing at the moment, but I will have faith that when it’s finished and it’s blocked it will be beautiful.

Have a nice weekend everyone!

6 comments July 9th, 2005