Quantum Tea

This shawl had the longest cast-on I have ever done, 331 stitches, compounded by accidentally casting on an extra fifty stitches. I learned a new stretchy cast on (YouTube link) for this project that I'm going to keep using.

Pattern: Little Leaves (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Miss Babs Yet laceweight
Needles: US7 circular
Duration: 29th June to 19 July 2010
Ravelry project: Sparkly Little Leaves

I modified the border by switching to seed stitch near the end, adding a few extra short rows, and adding some rows after all the edge stitches were worked in. Most of the short rows were done at knitting morning in Borders, on what was apparently "appreciate the knit" day. Two separate women came up and glowed about our projects and wanted to see them all, and one older man walked past with a huge smile, then came back and said "It's great to see the younger generation taking up knitting." He must have some happy memories of knitting.

The shawl needed vicious blocking to bring out the points and lace pattern, and it was too big to fit on the yoga mat. This one required the spare bed in the basement. It's not totally even, but I think this will work.

Another day, another horribly tangled skein of yarn, this one much worse than the Malabrigo sock. My Jade Sapphire silk/cashmere 2 ply from the Loopy Ewe was the worst tangled mess I've ever encountered. It took about two hours to untangle it by hand. I put it on the swift, wound a little, threaded the ball through the tangles, wound a little more, and untangled again. Rinse and repeat for every turn of the swift for the entire 400yd skein. It was an utter mess from start to finish.

Several people on Ravelry have had tangling problems with this yarn. I emailed the company, and they offered to talk to the supplier about the tangling, and also send me a replacement skein that is already wound. Well done on the customer service Jade Sapphire, but please fix the tangling problem.

After I'd cooled down, I started a knitspot Campanula scarf with it. Used the same stretchy cast-on as the Little Leaves shawl, but didn't go up a needle size. It worked really well. The colour is Mulberry:

The yarn is thicker than standard laceweight, so I went up to US3 needles, breaking out the Blackthorns again. It is so nice to have needles that won't bend or warp, no matter how hard the death grip. It also snaps very easily. I'm a little afraid to work with it, especially on high-stress days. The fabric is very soft and the pattern doesn't require grafting, which makes me happy.

Working on Little Leaves, a beaded crescent-shaped shawl (Ravelry link). One point has a slight glitch at the centred double decrease, but it's not bad enough to rip out. The silver-lined root beer beads are perfect with the Roasted Pumpkin colour yarn:

Worked on this sat on the bleachers at the ball field on the Fourth of July while the Conwell/Forhan clan played baseball. The cast-on is perhaps a little too stretchy, I did it over a US8 needle, working on a US7 for the lace. Next time I'll do it with the same size needle as the rest of the work. I like the construction of a long cast on, a straight lace section, then short rows to make a curve. Several people have added garter or seed stitch edgings to prevent edge rolling.

It's not a perfect travelling project because every fourth row is beaded. For that, I'm using a 1mm crochet hook, holding the hook at an angle to the yarn loop, and sliding the bead down the hook and over the yarn. It works most of the time.

The yarn doesn't feel soft, it's almost scratchy to work with, and not tightly plied. I'm hoping it softens up when I wash and block it. It's 65/35 merino/silk, so I was expecting it to be nicer. Hopefully it will soften up in the wash. Also it has strands of plastic in it that I keep pulling out.

It's going to need a vicious blocking to pull out the lace pattern. I might have to get foam squares because my yoga mat doesn't look big enough for the curve. Planning to do an extra lace repeat, and extend the plain section with some seed stitch if I have enough yarn.

Finished the Medusa Cascade, a little shoulder-shawl for days when the AC is too enthusiastic in its cooling duties. This is my first knitting with beads in, I used a 1.3mm crochet hook and some Earthfaire 6/0 seed beads. I tried to put them in randomly, which is difficult because asymmetry makes me twitch. I compromised by mirroring the two side triangles, going free-form in the middle one, then fell firmly off the asymmetry wagon at the ruffles.

Pattern: Medusa Cascade shawl by Tabitha's Heart (Ravelry link)
Yarn: Malabrigo Sock in Violeta Africana
Needles: US6 circular
Duration: 14th June to 28th June
Ravelry project: Timey-Wimey shawl

The yarn was horrible to wind, and I don't intend to buy it again, something I told Malabrigo via their contact form. They sent me a replacement skein, already wound, and a second skein labeled "Test Yarn" that's a lighter colour and a shade thicker. So, kudos for the customer service, thank you for the yarn, but I'm still not buying it again. Though I do plan to use the mysterious Test Yarn for something once I've measured the yardage.

I modified the pattern to have a 3st garter edging instead of 1st, and skipped the garter stitch stripes. You go from 250 stitches to 700 in a mere 16 rows to get those ruffles, which is hard going. I put in a bead at the top of each ruffle increase point, and two more beads in each ruffle further down. I like the absence of a triangle point on this shawl, and the use of KFB KFB instead of YO K1 YO for the main increase lines.

Casting off 703 stitches took forever. Got halfway through on Sunday, finished on Monday. The shawl is a lot smaller than I expected, and needed serious blocking. I have a surprising amount of yarn leftover.

The next project is a Little Leaves shawl (Ravelry link) using Miss Babs Yet yarn. You start at the bottom edge, so the cast-on has to be stretchy enough to accomodate blocking out the points. I used this crochet chain cast-on by Scarlet Zebra, and it takes a long time to do 331 stitches. It takes even longer to cast on 381 stitches, curse your absent-mindedness and rip out the extra fifty... I hope to be actually knitting this thing soon.