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Little cakes of yarn

I'm improving in my ballwinding skills, although the 'interface' between yarn swift and ball winder still sometimes breaks down.

The light grey is recycled Rowan 4-ply tweed - I think it may be Donegal tweed - that I half knitted into a jersey for my eldest son when he was about 2. Now he's 18... I have some more part skeins and some unused skeins, so this could be the basis of a fair isle project.

The dark grey is Malabrigo laceweight merino in the Paris Night colourway. I fell for this at Stash a couple of weeks ago but they only had one in stock. Dawn came to the rescue: I bought her two skeins of Purple Mystery and we did a swap! I have plans to make a Gerda stole with this (free pattern pdf). It is the most deliciously soft cuddly yarn; I like slightly thicker laceweight.

The greeny-brown is Dream in Color Classy (Lucky Jade) that I bought in the sale at Socktopus (sadly, this yarn is no longer at a reduced price, but others are). I have seven of these to make into a top-down cardigan (but I'm not even swatching until I finish the fatigue).

I'm making good progress on T's fatigue. The body is done to the armholes and I am half way up the first sleeve. Unbelievably swift progress for me - only just over a week so far!

Old grey fatigue

No, not my mental state! Here's the original fatigue that I described in the previous post. I love the little black spot on the right sleeve. It's not dirt; it's a fleck of black wool in the heather grey.

Some semblance of order

Here is my collection of knitting books and magazines. We have been sorting, emptying the loft, emptying shelves, moving shelves - and still this isn't their final home. However, I think everything is in one place. There's a slight hitch - the room is also used by my sons to play their electric guitars so I can't call it my own, but I'm encroaching gradually...

I've had a scheme for a husband jersey cooking for quite some time and actually got started on it yesterday. I suddenly developed a violent sneezing cold on Saturday night and spend Sunday firmly at home, so I had enough time to really get going on it.

About three or four years ago I knitted T a fatigue - his favourite kind of jersey. Unfortunately I think he must be wearing it today because I couldn't find it to photograph it. It has been a very successful garment so I want to repeat the magic if possible. The original yarn was Jo Sharp dk and it has worn brilliantly. Not a pill in sight. I'm using the same yarn again (bought a couple of years ago from Get Knitted in a sale, so a good use of stash there!), this time in beetle brown. So, the yarn has been maturing and I have been reading Elizabeth Zimmermann on the subject of percentages and hybrid yoke techniques. The two came together spectacularly when I saw this at Knitspot (25 December entry). Mine will be quite similar, but without the ribbed sleeves. I'm already on the third ball (50g)!

Kisiizi

Crossing the Thames by one of the big crossings always makes me feel as if I'm going abroad (Essex is like another country ...). Today I actually gathered my courage and drove through the Dartford Tunnel and then back again over the Dartford Bridge (in high winds, 30 mph speed restrictions - yuck). It was all fine, of course, and I was at last able to fulfil my obligation to get the Kisiizi baby clothes packed up and delivered.

Here are the statistics. We made:

121 hats

52 cardigans

36 pairs socks/bootees

6 blankets

2 dresses.

Now they are all safely packed up and awaiting shipment in the warehouse of Medical Missionary News. It will be a little time before the container is full enough to make up the shipment, and I will pass on news of progress when I have some.

It's funny how, all through the autumn it just seemed impossible for me to drive to Essex. Then suddenly, last week, I knew that I could easily do it! I think I'm emerging from a bit of a low - not depression, just a loss of motivation. Hope so, anyway!

More lace knitting

A week or so ago I started the Trellis shawl by Evelyn A. Clark from Interweave Knits (Spring 2006). I'm using the Baruffa Cashwool I mentioned before. It is a very fine laceweight yarn and I'm not so comfortable knitting with it as with the yarns I've been using recently. It's quite a fiddly, though not really difficult, pattern - including a k7tog! Fortunately I bought some lovely Addi lace needles from Stash Yarns and I'm managing them OK. It isn't really TV knitting, though.

A detail:

I'm hoping it'll look a lot better when it's blocked.

I wanted something a little less mindful, so I'm doing a melon stitch scarf (adapted from Victorian Lace Today) using some Drops Alpaca that Dawn gave me when I was collecting for the Kisiizi Hospital (more anon on that). The yarn wasn't used for the baby knitting in the end and in the interests of using up stash, I thought I'd make it into a scarf, which can be saved for some good cause.

It's almost the perfect stitch for knitting in front of the telly: interesting but easy and grows quite fast. The reverse is quite nice too:

Phew! Just the Knitwitches silk Print o' the Wave stole to block and then I'm up to date! I have been single-mindedly knitting lace for about four months now, but the other day I found myself looking more favourably on my fair isle cardigan, so perhaps colour work will be back on the agenda soon.

Evelyn Clark triangle

I finished my triangle shawl that uses patterns from the excellent book by Evelyn A. Clark, Knitting Lace Triangles. There are four main patterns in the book and I've used three of them - flower, ripple and leaf - plus the edging. They all work together so that you don't have to make any calculations about the increases for shaping.

Here's a blocking detail. I love the way the patterns grow out of the mid-line increases (the nearly horizontal line of holes in this picture).

And, just for fun:

Although it's bigger than the last shawl I posted about, it's not a very big shawl, which is what I wanted. I think very long triangular shawls need hooped petticoats and flounces to show off to advantage. The yarn is from Patricia Roberts's shop in Knightsbridge. It's lambswool and really nice to knit with. However, it wasn't sold as lace yarn. I bought a skein of double knit (or similar) which was really two or three of these double plies wound but not twisted together. It was a real pain to separate them but gave a nice result.

Forest Canopy shawl

This could be classed as my first FO of '08. I actually did all the knitting in October and November, but didn't block it until this week:

My rather unscientific method - a towel on the floor. Here it is freed of pins:

It's quite a small shawl - really a scarf - because I used just one skein of Jade Sapphire Mongolian 2-ply cashmere. It's wonderfully soft against the skin of course and the lace shows up well after blocking. Like many other knitters, I heartily recommend this pattern. It's downloadable here.

My lace craze shows no sign of abating. I have finished my Evelyn Clark triangle and it is blocking. I've also finished the main part of my silk Print 'o the Wave stole and have knitted one and a half end borders. That will be fun to block...

I was lucky enough to have some money for my birthday just before Christmas and I ordered some books and a ball winder. They arrived the other day. I'm happy with all the books: Victorian Lace Today, Barbara Walker's second stitch treasury, and Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitting Around. The ball winder frustrated me a bit today. The firm I bought it from sent no instructions and I had to fiddle around a bit to get started. I wound up a skein of Lane Borgosesia laceweight merino (confusingly called cashwool but there's no cashmere in it) and the fine, soft yarn and clumsy operator caused a few snarl-ups, but all's well that ends well! I'll report back on the yarn because I haven't seen it anywhere before. It is being sold by Janette's Fine Yarns (an eBay store) and it's very reasonably priced. I'm planning to use it to make the Diamond Trellis Scarf from Interweave Knits (another Evelyn Clark design). At least I do seem to finish these lacey things!

ETA: the new (to me) laceweight yarn is on Ravelry as Baruffa Cashwool - lots of lovely projects...