I can knit lace after all!

Pattern: Forest Canopy Shawl by Susan Pierce Lawrence of I'm Knitting as Fast as I Can

Yarn: Dream in Color Smooshy, Black Parade, one skein (29 grams left over)

Needles: Knit Picks Options circular needles, size 7

Mods: Knit 13 pattern repeats instead of 10 for a total of 243 sts before beginning border

I never thought I would be able to do it, but I've actually successfully completed a grown-up lace project. The designer is absolutely correct - this is the perfect beginning lace project. I made a couple of errors in the very beginning, and then at the very end (the errors were due to my own laziness in not paying attention, not due to the pattern, which is wonderfully written), but other than those minor stumbles, it was smooth sailing and an enjoyable knit! I'll definitely knit this one again.

In other fiber news, I paid a visit to Pittsburgh's newest yarn shop, Natural Stitches, on Friday. It's a marvelous store - huge and well organized. They have the largest selection of Malabrigo that I've ever seen in a shop, and they carry Dream in Color yarns, and what's not to love about that? I did a little shopping, of course, and brought home these goodies:


Two skeins of Dream in Color Classy (worsted) in "happy forest"


One skein of Malabrigo Lace Baby Merino in "bobby blue"


One skein of Trekking Hand Art in "tundra"

The Trekking has already been wound and cast on for a new pair of socks for Mark.

Wicked is also coming along, after I ripped and restarted the collar. The cables were looking a little wonky, so I re-knit the collar, this time loosely, and now the cables look better, but I am afraid that the collar will be too loose. I'm going to finish the raglan increases and try it on before I decide whether to rip and start again.

Neglecting the blog.

Thanks to some hardcore (for us, anyway) DIY re-landscaping that has sucked away our lives for the past few weekends, I have very little knitting to show. But there is this:



I know what you may be thinking, but I wasn't skinning Muppets while I was away from the blog. This is a chemo cap for a friend of a friend of a friend, knit using this pattern in Plymouth Furlauro. I have now filled my quota for knitting with novelty yarns for, oh, the rest of my life. I love the concept of a "hair" chemo cap, but this stuff is seriously a nightmare to work with.

I've worked a row here and there on the FCS as time allows, and am on my 13th repeat of the pattern, which I think will be my last. I'll spare you yet another photo of the big black blob since it looks exactly like the last photo.

I also picked up Wicked tonight and worked a couple of rows. The cables are looking a little wonky to me at this point. Hopefully they will look a little better once there is a little extra length to this section.



Hope to see you Pittsburgh knitters tomorrow at the Waterworks Barnes & Noble for Hurricane Knitters at 7 p.m. My big black blob and I will save a seat for you.

On a parting note, I wanted to share an email that I received a couple of weeks ago from a local knitter named Chelsea, who is knitting for a great cause:

hey, my name is chelsea, and i'm working with a few other local knitters and crocheters to gather scarves for womansplace domestic violence shelter in mckeesport (http://womansplace.org). i know this is a busy time of year, especially craft wise, so not everyone has time to make a scarf to donate (although if you can make time in the next few weeks, we can always use more scarves of course!), but i am hoping that you'd possibly make a blog post, or even just link to our blog for the project, to continue spreading the word a bit. the holidays are coming up quickly, and we're hoping to still get a few more donations from anyone interested, in addition to the knitting we're still doing. this is just a last-minute kind of email to help involve anyone else in the community who might be interested.

if you do want to exchange blog links, or get involved, just email me to let me know that you've linked to us. the knit locally blog is here: http://knitlocally.blogspot.com. i'll be more than happy to link back to you if you want. info is on the blog in case you do want to make a donation of a handmade scarf or supplies, but even just spreading the word is a huge help.

thanks,
chelsea

Ravelry is dangerous.

Somehow, Wicked has suddenly jumped into my queue. The yarn for it arrived over the weekend ...



... and I look forward to winding it tonight and casting on tonight or tomorrow. After all, I've got to have something that requires less attention than the Forest Canopy Shawl to take to Hurricane Knitters this week!

As far as the FCS goes, I have gotten a little better, and after some humiliation* encouragement from Yvonne, I have taken to using only one lifeline after a pattern repeat (and taking the onld ones out) rather than lifelining after every repeat. It still looks like a big black blob:



Hope to see you all at Hurricane Knitters this Wednesday, 7-10 p.m. at the Waterworks Barnes & Noble!

* I should clarify: Yvonne's "humiliation" was more good-natured teasing than anything else :)

What to do now?

I worked on Lady Eleanor for so long that I wasn't quite sure what to do when she was finished! Luckily, some friends of ours had a baby boy just a month ago, so I stitched these up to send to them:



I always forget how great baby socks are to knit. They are so quick (even for me!), and they are absolutely precious. This pair was knit up using my regular recipe with 40 sts cast on. The yarn is leftover Claudia's Hand Painted in the "walk in the woods" colorway.

With the socks finished, it was time to start in earnest on the Forest Canopy Shawl. I cast on and completed the set up rows last Wednesday with no problem, then made the mistake of taking it with me to last week's Hurricane Knitters. I was chatting away as I worked on the first pattern repeat and, of course, screwed up right away. Since I wasn't very far along, I ripped out the whole thing today and restarted:



I thought it wise to use lifelines as I knit this one. It's probably overkill to use them after every pattern repeat (as you can see here), but this is me we're talking about. So far, so good, although I needed silence to work on this today. I hope that, in time, I will actually be able to watch television while I knit this, but so far, it doesn't seem likely!

Show and tell.

Since I've made no real progress on Lady E as of late, today will be for show and tell. A few weeks back, Yarns By Design held a sale in honor of their first anniversary. Even though I needed to buy yarn like I need a hole in my head, I was there with bells on as soon as the shop opened and procured the following:


Four of thirteen balls of Noro Silk Garden in colorway 84


One skein of Alpaca With a Twist Fino in color 98

The Fino is a laceweight yarn, bought in a fit of optimism. Fresh off of my dubious success with the lace pattern of the Dream in Color Shrug, I was emboldened to try another lace project (and have you seen how pretty that Fino is?). It was only after the purchase and talking to some other knitters that I realized that I should probably crawl with some heavier weight yarn before running with a true laceweight one.

Since I surely did love that Dream in Color yarn and had been wanting to try their fingering weight version (Smooshy), I did a little digging on Flickr and found this lovely completed version of the Forest Canopy Shawl. I am armed with the pattern (which the designer swears is perfect for beginning lace knitters), and the yarn arrived today:


Dream in Color Smooshy, colorway "Black Parade"

Though I want to cast on for the shawl right now, I am not allowing myself to do it before I complete Lady E, or else I will never finish her. I guess I'd better get to it!

In other knitting news, my Jitterbug socks are coming along slowly as I sneak in a row here and there when I can get a seat on the bus:



I might have them finished by the time that it's cold enough to wear them!