Uliuli Wai Shawl from Needlecraft Cottage - Day 6

Almost ready...

The final steps of any shawl this lovely are always filled with anticipation.  Like any lacework, I’m only barely glimpsing what this piece will look like in her final form.  Right now the color is still spectacular, but the design, drape, and weight of this fiber have yet to be revealed.  This darling still needs to spread her wings.

Yes, it took an hour and a half to bind this off.  Part of that was because knowing my lack of skill at good bind-offs, I opted for my go-to technique: Jenny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off rather than the standard bind-off written in the pattern.  When I project such as this will undergo serious blocking, I need the elasticity Jenny’s provides.  

The shawl is currently curling on the edges, and that makes me nervous, but experience has taught be a little bath can work wonders on things like this.

Here is the Uliuli Wai in her bath.  The color deepens in the water—very apt, don’t you think?

Then came the meticulous blocking process.  Wires are definitely the way to go here in order to get stretch and definition.  Now, however, we get a glimpse of how beautiful the final product will be.

Stay tuned—the fantastic finale is just days away!

Edie's Shoulder Wrap from The Knit Shop - Day 6

Doubt and faith...

I’ve installed a lovely system of black stitch markers for the pattern repeats and colored ones for the “corners” between panels.

Only I’m not so sure it’s working.

I'm just a bit worried I've made some kind of colossal error.  I have knit feather and fan before; I know what it is supposed to look like.  I'm pretty sure the yarn overs should be stacked on top of each other, and right now they seem to be leaning to one side like a drunken sailor.  Considering that I went to all this trouble to mark the repeats, it should be hard for me to mess up.  Should.  You've all had a front row seat to my ability to mess up things that should be easy.

Here's the grace in all this.  I could actually have messed it up, and I still might like the results.  This is lace--you can never really call it finished until its blocked.  The garments essential shape is there, it's jus the lace pattern that seems to be off kilter.  And, it bears saying that I don't really know it's off kilter--it just looks like it right now.  Here is one of those places where I set my fiber faith in the saying "Everything will be all right in the end. And if it is not all right, well, then it is not the end."

Worst case scenario (and I am not at all saying we've achieved this), if I don't care for the finished product, I can always find someone who loves it, and loves that it has been handmade.  Knitting is like hope:  it is never wasted.

Even if I end up ripping the whole lace pattern out (and no, I won’t make you watch—you get one more episode on this and then I let you move on to my fabulous trip to Austin TX), I still have a nice shawlette that just needs the last part to be redone a third time.  

And third time’s always the charm, yes?

Edie’s Shoulder Wrap from The Knit Shop - Day 2

Adding in the accent…

Now, a few rows into the pattern, the shape begins to really show itself.  It’s fun to watch—rather like when you turn a sock heel, and the straight line of knitting begins to take on a new dimension.  

There is a definite switch in texture from sock weight wool to lace weight mohair.  I’ve always found Kidsilk Haze to be a bit on the tricky side thanks to the “fuzz factor” and the non-elastic nature of the fiber.  At first I was worried that the accent would be too subtle, but I found I rather like the way these colors interact.  The light green adds a bit of interest without the full-scale sparkle Edie showed me in her sample.  

And isn’t that the sort of “I think I’d like it better this way” customization that gives knitting its endless appeal?  Provided you’ve got the skill (or can learn it) and the fiber suits the pattern, you can have anything exactly how you want it.

At the moment, this project is marvelously portable, fitting in the smallest of my knitting bags stashed in a corner of my handbag.  I’m not sure it will stay that way, but right now it’s perfect.  A small project with an easy stitch that still brings beautiful results.

Holden Shawlette from The Artful Yarn - Day 4

Ripples of ease...

All these lovely ripples really do remind me of a shoreline—especially in the aqua-blue color that I’ve chosen for my shawl.  The simplicity of this pattern truly is charming—it’s not mentally taxing at all, yet gives a fabulous effect for the piece.  

As I said before, I think this would make an excellent first lace project for any knitter.  As pretty as it is now, I know it will take on even more beauty once blocked.  My experience has been that any lace piece you like before you block, you will love once you block.

I have not felt the need for any safety lines.  The pattern is an easy one to comprehend and, with the exception of the rows that are made up completely of yarn-overs, going back to fix a major error would not pose much of a problem.  The good news is that with the stitch markers providing multiple “check-in” points, I’ve not had any major disasters since row six.

Of course, I’m not done yet, so I should take care what declarations I make, yes?

Darjeeling Shawl from Yarning for Ewe - Day 5

Getting edgy...

Now we switch one last time—changing directions, even—to finish off the edge.  It’s pretty now, in the lumpy, unfinished sort of way lace knitting always is before you block it.  The edges don’t have that crispness and the material hasn’t achieved the drape everyone loves in a lace shawl.

The trouble with end-to-end edges like this is that I invariably botch the first repeat of the pattern.  Because it is the first one, it’s right there on the point where I feel like everyone looks at a shawl.  What should be a pretty triangle looks like a dislocated thumb, sticking out round and ugly where it should come to a delicate little point.  I’m pretty sure I can block it to look better, but I’ll always know it’s there.  

Go ahead, tell me I should have worked my way back and started over.  I know that.  But by the time I figured out what the edging was supposed to look like, I was a couple of inches into it and it seemed like too much work.  One half of me rationalizes “No one’s going to notice a tiny detail like that” while the other half moans “Everyone’s going to stare at it!”

Lace perfection continues to be out of my reach.  And that’s okay.  I’m an eternal optimist (even if I’m not a Cubs fan—Chicagoans you know what I mean) and I always tell myself “I’ll get it next time.”

As for what you get next time?  You get to see the other half of all this edging.  It goes sl-ow-ly—two rows of fifteen or so stitches to every single one of the 208 stitches across the shawl.  That’s a lot of knitting, even if the “Polar Vortex” is keeping me indoors.

Darjeeling Shawl from Yarning for Ewe -

What I like about Ewe...

As I start this Darjeeling Shawl from Yarning for Ewe, it has occurred to me how this piece reflects a variety of my knitting preferences.

I’ve made no secret of my displeasure with triangle shawls that start at the narrow end.  Those final rows feel insufferably long, and the bind off becomes a test of my all-too-lacking patience.  This has a bit of that, but not entirely.  The triangle you create is only the center of the shawl.  Further on in the pattern you get a fascinating lace trim that goes around the two sides of the triangle (called the “legs”—I looked it up).

Pondering my resistance to the “point-up” shawl (the opposite of a “top down” sweater, I suppose), I did come up with a silver lining.  With only a single stitch to cast on, you get underway right away. I’ve done shawls where step one was casting on hundreds of stitches, and that’s no fun, either.  At least this way you’re off and running from the very first minute you pick up the needles.

It’s a good thing this is a marvelous feeling fiber, because even the lovely loopy yarn overs at the end of each row can’t save me from the monotonous yards of garter stitch.  I’m desperately thankful for my continental skills here.  And just as grateful there’s no purling involved—I’d be no end of grumpy if I had to create this triangle in stockinette.

Still, I stitch on.  I’ll probably look back fondly on the simplicity of this first section while my brain is hurting from the lace pattern.