Age of Brass & Steam Kerchief from The Wool Cabin—Day 4

Giftability...

While I tend to favor full shawls over shawlettes or kerchiefs like this, they do have one attribute I like: they’re giftable.

A full shawl represents a serious commitment of time and artistry.  And, often, the expense of  multiple skeins of yarn.  This project takes one skein of just about anything—so you can go simple or sublime.  And while it’s not something you could just knock off in an afternoon, you don’t feel like you’ve given a month of your life to its creation.  That’s not to say I don’t choose to give lavish gifts of knitting now and then, it’s just that some knitting is easier to gift than others.  

This pattern, with it’s perfect balance of simplicity and style, its modest size, and its flexibility to be basic or luxurious, makes ideal gift knitting.

With the last of the eyelet sections completed, I’m nearing the final steps of this pattern. Nothing is more enjoyable than finishing up a gift project and getting ready to delight the recipient.  Here’s hoping your experience of knitting The Age of Brass and Steam does the same for you.

Edie's Shoulder Wrap from The Knit Shop - Done...sort of

Feather and Fan and Frustration...

I’m guessing you knew how that was going to end up.

Restored--no, I won't let you't see the botched version

Yep, turned out I had to rip all the feather and fan out and start over. 

Good thing I wasn’t alone. My friend (and April 2012 Author Who Knits feature) Camy Tang was there at the writers conference where I was.  Not only is Camy a talented writer, but she is also ninja-level knitter and a master of the feather and fan.  If anyone could save this shawl, it’s Camy.  Conversely, if anyone knew it was beyond saving, it was Camy.  

The verdict was pronounced, and Camy and I began to rip.  And rip.  And rip.

We were sitting in the hotel lobby, and you could divide those who walked by into two distinct groups:  non knitters who wondered what the heck we were doing with all that tangled yarn, and knitters who stood in sad solidarity as we pulled irredeemable tangled mohair from its place.

To add to the pain, I didn’t have anywhere near the right number of stitches I should have had to start the feather and fan portion.  Again, Camy to the rescue!  That dear friend sat there and recalculated/rewrote the pattern for me so I could move ahead with the stitches I had.  Because that’s what a knitter does for a knitter in need.  When a fellow knitter comes to you heartbroken, moaning “fix this!,” you dig in your heels (and your needles) and lend a hand.

It’s not done.  It’s close, but I can’t bear to make you watch further.  Just trust that I made it out of the pit alive and am clawing my way toward the finish line.  

For everyone’s mental health, we’ve moving along to Austin for our next episode.  Don’t worry Edie, I promise I’ll stick it out until the end and post a photo one of these days!

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?

Autumn Scarf - DONE!

Autumn is here...

...around my shoulders if not quite yet on the calendar.

The scarf is like the sheep--cute, but wooly.  It’s a bit shorter than I like my scarves, but that may be more a function of my mistake than the pattern...I have a feeling my small miscalculation made the piece shorter and fatter than it would have been if I’d used the same amount of yarn and knit correctly. Still, it’s a smart and versatile cross between a scarf and a shawl. I’m still flat-out in love with the color.

It reminds me a lot of the other garter-stitched shawls I’ve done, the Pimpelliese and the Davis Street Shawl.  Garter stitch makes for a warm and practical garment, but I need a bit of panache to make it work for me.  Like the other two, this scarf gives the border a bit of pop.  The asymmetrical design takes getting used to, but offers several clever tying options that again take the style up a notch.

These photos were taken pre-blocking, so I’m curious if the piece will change dramatically when it takes a bath. I’ll keep you posted.  

Even now, it’s a lovely keepsake of a great trip to Raleigh and the Carolina Fiber Fest.  Yarn always makes the best souvenirs, don’t you think?