Monthly Archives: May 2014

Wall Shawl

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On Monday, I told you how I love making lace shawls.  You’ll notice that I didn’t say I love wearing lace shawls.  This is because I am a pretty big tomboy.  I love how lace shawls look, and I love making them, but I always feel like a monkey in a top-hat when I wear them.

So, I had a whole stack of gorgeous shawls that did nothing but sit in my closet, waiting for moths to show up and start munching.  Something had to be done.  How could I display them?  I tried hanging them over my closet door, but then I couldn’t open and shut the door without them falling all over the place. I tried putting one over a table lamp, but that looked like something from a palm-reader’s office (and I was paranoid about setting the whole place on fire).  And, so my lace shawls went back into the bottom of the closet again.

Until I realized something.  These lace shawls were basically great big art pieces.  And my house was full of empty walls, begging for art to be put up.

I grabbed my Panache shawl and a dowel I had laying around (because I am a pack rat and have dowels lying around, just in case.  You never know.)  I carefully sewed the flat edge of the shawl to the dowel using a little bit of matching scrap yarn, and tied a big loop from one end of the dowel to the other.  I pulled out a sticky hook, and I  had filled my wall with lacy, yarn-y goodness in no time.  (And yes, I know this is a terrible photo.  Apparently I have forgotten how to take a decent picture that isn’t a close-up…)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMy Panache is a medium sized shawl (about a 40 inch wingspan), but my Aeolian shawl, is a monster.  It’s at least 60 inches from point to point, so sewing it to a yard-long dowel wouldn’t fly.  I thought about it for a long time, and then the perfect solution came to me while I was doing yard work.

I cut some long (6+ feet) switches from one of the trees in my yard, and lashed them together with twine.  I added a loop of twine and hung them from a nail in my knitting studio.  Then, I looped the Aeolian shawl over the ends.  I really like how it turned out.   It’s pretty, and rustic, and if I ever want to display another shawl (or scarf, or sweater, or blanket) I can switch them out easily.

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Inspiration: Shawls

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Every year when the sun starts shining and the flowers are all in bloom, I get an itch to knit up something light and lacy.  It’s a particularly odd compulsion, since, as a rule, I am neither light nor lacy.  I’m usually dead practical and more a fan of cables and garter stitch than openwork.  But, there it is.  Who am I to judge the whims of the knitting gods?

Let’s feed the lace-knitting monster, and take a look around Ravelry for some pretty lacy shawls.

Indian Feathers by Alina Appasov features beads along the edge for extra drapiness and sparkle.

IMG_2224-1-1_medium2[1]Annis by Susanna IC is an interestingly shaped shawl, that’s actually closer to a scarf.  It’s a good mix between pretty lace-weight elegance, and the practicality of a scarf.

GA3a_medium[1]Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark is one of my favorite shawls.  I’ve actually knit it up a couple times.   The all-over pattern in the body of the shawl is to die for, and the lily-of-the-valley motif on the edge is just gorgeous (and it includes nupps, which are my absolute favorite specialty stitch).

www.interweave.com-swallowtail01_medium[1]

 

Stellar Jay Sweater: Gauge and Math

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It’s here! It’s here! Let’s all ooh and ahh at the beautiful yarn!

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERANext step is to whip up a swatch. I have been brainstorming this sweater, and I think that plain stripes are too boring, so I’ve decided to do a little scallop design between each stripe, so I’m going to include that in my swatch, to see how it looks. Two birds. One stone.

I knit up a square of fabric about six inches by six inches. And I’ve worked my scallop pattern both right-side-up and upside down, to see which I like better.

This is the upside-down version, but I think it makes the scallops look a little rectangular.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is the right-side up version, which I like better.OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This means that I will need to work my sweater from the bottom up, which is important to know when I start designing my pattern.

I pulled out my gauge meter (you could just use a ruler or tape measure) and measured out my gauge. I got 5 sts per inch and 7 rows per inch in stockinet stitch on size 8 needles.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASo, now that I know my gauge, and the general design I want to use (bottom up pullover), I do a little math and sketch out my pattern. I’m basing this one on Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Percentage System, to give me the bones of the sweater, but I’m tweaking it a bit to deal with an all-over stripes pattern, instead of only a yoke pattern.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERABelieve it or not, those chicken scratches make sense to me. I usually sketch out my pattern like this (on a drawing), before I start knitting. Then, as I knit up the pattern, I’ll make notes into a notebook or on my computer in more standard knitting lingo. But, for now, this will do nicely for me.

Now I get to go cast on! Woo!