Idella

I finally got around to taking pictures of my Idella. It is a faroese shawl out of "Stahman's Shawls and Scarves", knit top down. The yarn is Lonesome Stone 100% Alpaca knitted on a size 7 needle. I used my Denise needles with the 40 inch cord.

With only 665 yards to work with, I was trying to get the most I could. So, the top down pattern was a must and I chose to do a seed stitch border instead of the lace one. This let me stop in the middle of a pattern repeat instead of needing to get through all 16 rows of a full repeat. The pattern repeat is such that the one set of diamonds ends when the other set are in the middle. I decided I could stop after row 8 or 16 of the pattern. I believe there was about 2 rows worth of yarn left maybe less.

I ended up with about 20 inches for a back neck length. It ends at my elbows and just skims my waist in the back. This is what I was hoping for.

I wore it once around the house and it adds a nice bit of warmth despite the openness of the lace.

The Vote is in

Or so I hope. I finished filling in my mail-in ballot on Saturday and we dropped both ballots off at an early voting location. All of those TV ads and the literature that I keep shoving in the recycle bin is wasted if you are trying to influence me now.

I think the recycle bin is going to pay for itself this week. I hadn't realize just how much we accumulated between all of the candidates and the ballot issues. Just a note to anyone who might mail this stuff, this household only needs one copy. We share. Three copies is excessive. I have no idea why we needed four of a couple of things. Save the postage. Save a tree. Don't stuff my recycling bin. I can do that on my own.

In a couple of days, I supposedly can check a web site to see that my ballot made it in. Or far more likely, I will just declare that I did my part and want nothing more to do with the elections this year.

Bad Bad VCR

I finally got around to trying to record some shows off of the DVR on to DVD. Turns out I had forgotten that I needed more cords to attach the input. I borrowed the ones to the VCR.

So, when I went knitting yesterday, I stopped and got some really nice gold plated cords for the VCR. This way it could be hooked and still play tapes for me. Little did I know its plans for the day.

I got back, hooked it up, grab a handy tape, and tried it. There was no sound so I stopped the tape, hit rewind, and was going to adjust the cords. The tape didn't rewind. Instead of rewinding, the VCR ate the tape. Playing with the power button, I got it to release the tape. The tape had two nice crunches and was dangling out the front.

This is the same VCR that stopped recording years ago but has been playing and rewinding just fine.

It has been declared dead which is really annoying since I just spent money on cables. Also, it ate our StarShip Troopers tape. I like the movie but not as much as Rudy. Now, I need a another VCR and a StarShip Troopers DVD. Sigh. More money will be spent soon to get things back to normal.

Along Came a Spider

The shawl for class is taking most of my free time right now. The class calls this 'bird's eye' but Victorian Lace Today says it is the spider pattern for the stitch.

I am knitting the shawl in Kuni 8/2 effektgarn. The yarn has blue, purple, and black for colors. It is a fingering weight which is heavier than the pattern calls for. I figure I don't need 44 repeats, maybe 38. I will just have to wait and see. Currently, at 19 repeats and counting.

The last class is in just over a week. It would be nice to be ready for an edge.

Blocked

I finally blocked the lavender shawl. It takes time for me to get motivated sometimes. If it was any bigger I would have needed a bigger room. I decided not to pin it because it laid out nicely. The edges aren't as well defined as they could be. I figure the intended recipient isn't going to crawl around on the floor to block the shawl either.

So, here are the details. It is the Oregon Shawl pattern knit in JaggerSpun wool/silk blend. It was knit off of the cone using size 7 needles. I believe I started with 2400+ yards of yarn and have very little left. The cardboard of the tube is showing through some.

As you can see the corners haver the "Tree of Life". The corners about half as wide as the sides. The shawl isn't a true octagon as a result.

The center and border use variations on the "Print of Wave" pattern. The middle section is "Pine Cones" done my way. Which means I did the center stitch a bit different than the pattern called for. This is what I get for having two lace patterns going at once where the symbols were the same with slightly different meanings.

There are several small mistakes. I can't spot most of them. If you see them please don't report them.

All in all I am pleased. Rudy said it turned out bigger than he expected. I believe it is really close to the pattern measurements for the finished product.

Stash Enhancement

I really meant to post this last Sunday but got distracted. Last Saturday, a friend and I went to 'Alpacas On The Rocks' at the fairgrounds. The day got off to a much better start than I anticipated.

Turns out yarn can say your name and your friends know it is looking for you. The yarn was in Salt Lake City waiting patiently at store that I wasn't going near this year. My friend saw it and brought it back for me. It even comes in a cute little bag. The yarn is bearfoote by Mountain Colors. The reds look much better than in the photo. So, now I just need to pick one of my sock patterns for size 4 needles. Actually, the pattern will call for 2's or 3's.

And as you can see I got about 12 ounces of roving at the Alpaca show. I have eight ounces split between two zip locks and about 4 ounces of the variegated.

The alpaca are really cute. One of the owners mentioned that some people mistake them for big poodles. Somehow, I don't think anyone in my neighborhood would be fooled.

Class Sample

The first part of the class was deciding which of three ways to do Bird's Eye, we each get along with. And yes, there are four sections on my sample. The bottom section has an error consistently through out. So, let's just pretend it didn't happen.

The top section is part of what is used for the Curved Shawl in Victorian Lace Today. I found a nice rhythm to it. The intermediate rating is works for me. Others do differ with that rating.

The second section down, is out of Heirloom Lace. It has a nice symmetry to it and is a touch harder on my hands because of purling through back loops. This is to control the stitch slant.

The third section is the teacher's adaption of the pattern. It has a biological type of symmetry. If my memory services me, I think is called bilateral symmetry. If I am wrong, I am sure someone will let me know. It sort of mirrors around the center of the eye.

Appearance wise, the household vote is for the top one. So, spider shawl it is.