Sweater Gift

I'm making a gift for a good friend of mine--a sweater in Mellowspun (Mary Maxim), peach, sportweight yarn called the "Easy Lace Cardigan." I found the pattern in the March 2009 issue of Creative Knitting Magazine. It's like the ones I made a couple of years ago from my own pattern, only with knitted lace trim at the bottom of the sweater and the three-quarters length sleeves. Here's what I have done so far:




It looks straightforward enough, but of course, since I so wanted it to be perfectly done--I flubbed up a couple of things. I forgot to knit the last four border stitches (not seen in photo) on a purl side, and remembered four rows of 235 stitches each later. I didn't want to take the rows out, so, one by one, I let the last four stitches drop and rewove them with a crochet hook. Yuck! I hate doing that, as I'm forever knitting instead of purling, and vice versa. Got that done. Then, since the skeins of yarn are only 1.75 ounces or so a piece, there's the weaving the ends in--and I messed that up, even though I was painstakingly following the knitting as I wove them in. Honest I was. Made the border look terrible. So I unraveled the weaved in ends and did it again. I almost threw the whole thing out and said forget it when the last part happened, but now it's almost unnoticeable, so it will be worth it in the end.

Thankfully, I already have great patience because of raising a son with mental handicaps and autism, so I can stick with that sort of thing. Though it's a bit frustrating to hit the snafus on a gift, and also, when you only knit about one hour a day--for relaxation.

Otherwise, I've been working really hard on a new proposal for Steeple Hill LI Suspense while I wait for the copyedits on Mistletoe and Murder, due out in November. Deadly Reunion (w/a Florence Case) is still available.
Happy knitting!

Brave new worlds

If Barbara is brave enough to show you her socks (which are not butt ugly) then I can publish the above photo. Ignore the model -- the purpose is to show off the little lace top I knit from the Knit N Style pattern sent to me by Elizabeth Delisi.

You may recall that back in June I put out a call for this pattern. I wanted to knit the top to be part of a belly dancing outfit. Yes, when I'm not writing or knitting, I belly dance.

This is knit with a shiny Viscose/Polyester Yarn from Italy called New Smoking. Very odd name, I thought. The photo doesn't do it justice -- the yarn is a brilliant blue with shiny blue flecks. Almost metallic. As much as I tinked this thing, there are still a few mistakes, which is why I won't be posting a close-up. But the shiny, sparkly blue yarn and intricate pattern distract from any errors. The top turned out very nice and my dance class is very impressed. The top is comfortable and doesn't ride up when I raise my hands -- another big plus.

I have 3 1/2 balls of this left over. It was a special order from my LYS. I'm debating what I could make with that amount of yarn. Not lace, I don't think. At least not right away. I found the process very nerve-wracking and frustrating.

Right now I'm knitting another pair of socks. Comfortable, easy and portable.

Lace Knitting in Paradise

That's my Arctic Lace scarf draped over a sculptural piece of driftwood on the North Shore of Oahu. Beside it is the gorgeous lei I was presented with at our hotel's luau.

I am happy to report that my No. 3 bamboo needles passed the airport security inspection and accompanied me on my looooooooong flight to Hawaii. Lace knitting is a perfect way to pass the time on a ten-hour flight; it requires just enough concentration to keep your mind off the fact that you're 36,000 feet up with nothing between you and the ground except very thin air (can you tell I'm a white-knuckle flyer?) but doesn't tax the mind overmuch the way revising a book proposal does (can you also tell that I took the book proposal on the flight and didn't touch it?)

I wasn't sure if the needles would get through so I had my lifeline threaded through the last row, ends securely tied together, just in case I had to sacrifice the needles to the war on terrorism. But the screener didn't even flinch.

One evening I was so exhausted by the delights of Hawaii that I even sat and knitted on our lanai overlooking the blue, blue sea. Mostly though I was out on the beach or kayaking to a volcanic island or eating sushi so fresh it practically swam off the plate. Can you tell I really liked Hawaii? There will be more on that later, after I sort through all the photos I took (over 700, but, don't worry, you won't have to look at all of them).

Because I love you guys on RTY, I thought of you even whilst immersed in paradise. I couldn't find a knitting shop but I did find these beautiful earrings which are based on a Hawaiian quilt design and brought them back as a prize for some lucky knitter.




If you'd like to enter the drawing to win them, send me an email at nancy@nancyherkness.com. I'll draw a winner on Monday, August 11th. (I don't want anyone to miss the drawing due to a vacation!)

Aloha!

11 Inches of Mobius Scarf

There it is: all the progess I've made so far on the (somewhat altered) Mobius Scarf from Arctic Lace. It's not quite 11 inches' worth.

My husband keeps asking me how many man-hours have gone into it (he listens to a lot of cursing when I have to rip back to the life lines) and I tell him he's missing the whole point of knitting: it's not about the product, it's about the process.

I think a lot of people don't get that about knitting. It would be vastly cheaper and more efficient for me to go out and buy a lace scarf but that wouldn't give me the pleasure of making something beautiful with my hands. It also wouldn't keep me entertained through endless innings of Yankees baseball.

Writing is the same sort of thing. I could write faster and more efficiently than I do but then I wouldn't enjoy the process itself. Nor would my books be as good. Good books need time to percolate in my subconscious, for the characters to fill out all their dimensions, and for the plot to thicken. I love spending time with my characters and I don't want to race through to the end because then I have no excuse for hanging out with them anymore.

So this started out being a post about lace knitting and somehow changed completely (just like my books do).

So tell me what knitting is about for you: process or product? Or both?

Contest Time!

Because I am evil and because I believe lace-knitting misery deserves company, I invite you to enter a drawing for 2 sneaky little balls of KARABELLA GOSSAMER in a particularly devious shade of purple.

OCEAN BREEZES recommends KARABELLA GOSSAMER as the yarn of choice for the SEA FOAM scarf and we all know how that ended up for me. Maybe you'll be luckier. Probably you're a better lace-knitter than yours truly. Definitely we'll be dying to see the results.

Just send me an email right here with KG in the subject header and I'll announce the winner on Monday morning.

Beware, knitters: ahead lies a giant frog pond!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Branching Out (giving up)

That's my last attempt at Branching Out. (Patternworks Bretton yarn, KnitPicks Options US 6)

I was very distressed by the ripply cast-on edge, decided I was a worthless lace knitter, and quit my umpteenth attempt. Then I went to Ravelry and looked at some other examples of Branching Outs in progress and saw quite a few ripply versions. I'm not quite sure what it means but I was glad to see I'm not alone.

Strange how seeing it in a photo as opposed to seeing it on the arm of my sofa makes me want to try once more.

The trick would be getting it right this time.

Lace comments and helpful hints welcome. (Liz, your lace work is breathtaking! And Nancy, based on your photos I bought the Druchunas book.)

Wherein I Get My Butt Kicked

I'm almost 58 years old and I allowed an ounce of mohair to kick my butt clear across the state of New Jersey.

And I'm still not sure exactly how it happened. I mean, I still have all my faculties. I know my way around US9 Knit Picks Options and a ball of Karabella Gossamer. I've knitted with mohair before. I know the drill.

I can't even say the pattern is difficult because it isn't. Sea Foam is fairly common and Sheryl Thies presents a lovely variation in OCEAN BREEZES. There's no reason I should have had to frog three times and then abandon ship quicker than First Class abandoned the Titanic.

Okay, so I did one really stupid thing. I wrote up a little cheat sheet so I could keep the pattern in front of me and I made a wee mistake. (I left out two YOs . . . don't ask.) Which definitely screwed me up. But it's more than that. It's some basic deficiency in my character that turns me into a whimpering, snarling, psychotic mess by the time the first pattern repeat is finished.

I mean, I bailed on Branching Out and nobody bails on Branching Out. A five year old could knit Branching Out.

I love lace. I stand in awe of knitters who turn out yard after yard of whisper-fine lace. Lace-knitting is as close to magic as I'm ever likely to come. But I hate knitting it. Remember how much Nancy hates knitting socks? That's me with lace. My shoulders tense up as soon as I cast on. By the end of the first row, those shoulders are up around my ears. That mushy messy lump of fabric that may or may not block into something fabulous makes my heart beat faster . . . and not in a good way. In a panic attack kind of way. Invariably I lose count or drop a stitch or do something idiotic to throw a monkey wrench into the works and I walk away one more time.

To me, knitting lace is the fiber equivalent of root canal without anaesthetic. Pure torture. So why, I ask you, am I incapable of turning away from it? I actually made a Charlotte (with Ritratto instead of Koigu) late last year (and forgot to photograph it in my Christmas rush) but I'm not sure that counts as real lace. (Nobody has troubles with Charlotte. Nobody but me, that is.)

I hate not being able to do something. I want, just once, to knit a beautiful piece of lace and then walk away from it, back into my happy land of swirling cables and sturdy rectangles.

Hope really does spring eternal.

Your lifelines saved my life...

...or at least my sanity! Here is the beginning of my Mobius Scarf from Arctic Lace. See the white strings? Those are my dental floss lifelines. I've used them twice already and I can't thank all of you enough for the brilliant suggestion! I put them in every eight rows (on the straight garter stitch row) because that's the full pattern. I keep three in at a time because that seems like a magic number. The dental floss pulls out really smoothly when I'm ready to use it for the next lifeline.


The fact that I've needed those amazing lifelines tells you something about how well I'm doing with lace knitting. Clearly my powers of concentration stink. I think I have the pattern pretty well under control and then all of a sudden I'm short a stitch. I carefully tink back to the beginning of the row and I'm still short a stitch. I examine my stitches through a magnifying glass and I'm still short a stitch so then I curse and rip back to the lifeline. I don't foresee alot of lace in my future.


A lace question: this scarf isn't as open and airy as I thought it would be from the photo in Arctic Lace. Would moving from Size 3 needles to Size 5 needles make it more the way I want it? Or would it just look stupid? (Please don't tell me to knit a swatch and see; that's just torture for me.) Or can I stretch it enough when I block it to make it lacier? I'm using Kraemer Sterling Silk and Silver yarn.

Thank you all again for throwing me the lifelines!