Daily Archives: January 16, 2012

Aeolian Shawl – And We’re Done

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I have been avoiding writing this post for the last three or four days. I find that I enjoyed working with this group of women in Elizabeth Freeman’s Aeolian Shawl Knitalong so much that I don’t want to write that this was our last session. But, alas, we did meet for the last time last Wed. night. And didn’t we have a wonderful time? It was my birthday and these lovely women brought cookies (LACE cookies, no less) and mochi (like Crystal Palace Mochi yarn!) and we had some sparkling wine and tons of fun. I will miss seeing you all as a group on a regular basis, so you better just come in the store more often.

What a great bunch gals

Okay, so this was the first time we did an Aeolian Shawl Knitalong and we found out it really will take 4 meetings, not 3, to get to the end. Fair enough.

Tita finished her shawl – the only one to do so by the end of the fourth session. That is not to say that everyone else wasn’t far behind. A couple of these women were only 5 rows from the end – but that doesn’t really give you the full picture. Tita said towards the end, a single row including beads and nupps took her almost 3 hours to complete. A single row.

Tita (hiding) and her shawl

Do you see why I said finishing this shawl is a major accomplishment? Tita used a lace weight silk/merino blend with purple beads. This shawl is stunning. Simply stunning. I want it.

Something very interesting Tita shared with us – when she was making nupps, she used a locking stitch marker  to gather and hold the 7 stitches and yarn overs of each nupp until she returned to purl them all together on the next row. This insured that she always purled together the right strands of yarn for form her nupp! This is an awesome tip. Thank you, Tita.

Emily’s shawl was also a jaw-dropper. She did it in Centolavaggi in an off-white, creamy color. She was the only one of us to choose a light color for her shawl and the effect was dramatic . . . .

Emily!

Emily used frosted glass beads and OH BOY was this pretty. I can’t do it justice in a picture taken with an iPad. Just drop-dead gorgeous.

Here is Lisa’s shawl, made with some Girl on the Rock lace weight . . .

Lisa's Aeolian

Something Lisa did that was quite interesting is that for one repeat of the Yucca chart (it was Yucca, wasn’t it Lisa?) she changed bead colors, from a coordinating teal to a contrasting mix of subtle jewel tones. This gives the effect of forming a V of different colored beads across the back of the shawl. Very chic, very individual, very subtle. I love it.

This is Ruth’s shawl, but I don’t think the picture reflects the true color, which is more of a burgundy, isn’t it Ruth? I apologize – again, it’s what you sacrifice for the ease of shooting with the iPad. But looks at the great impact of her beads – they really draw the eye to the shapes formed by the stitches. Just lovely.

And Dale’s shawl . . .

Dale's Aeolian

Can you believe how beautiful and how different all of these are? I love the color of Dale’s shawl and how color of beads, because it is close to the color of the yarn, just gently punctuates the lace. Gorgeous.

And Jan . . .

Jan's Aeolian

I cannot remember what yarn this is, Jan, but I do remember you are not using beads. Here’s what I love about Jan’s shawl – this pattern was a struggle for her. But she never gave up. She had to restart the whole shawl at least once, but she did it. And now she gets the pattern and is well on her way. This shawl will be a milestone in her knitting life.

Cynthia would not let me take a picture of hers because she did not feel she had come along far enough. I say the fact that she’s got it on the needles and continues to work on it is accomplishment enough. You go girl, and bring it in to me whenever you need help. You rock.

We also discussed blocking out shawls, and how lucky for us that just a few minutes ago I came across this great post about blocking lace triangles by Michelle Miller of the fabulous Fickle Knitter Designs. Michelle will be jointing us for a trunks show on Feb. 22 with Lorajean Kely of Knitted Wit (see link below). Thanks for this, Michelle.

In between glasses of bubbly and bites of cookie, we talked about some of our favorite lace and fingering weight yarns, both in the store, and elsewhere. With Stitches West coming up, we made a long list of luscious yarns we look for. Here they are, in alphabetical order . . .

A Verb For Keeping Warm,  especially “Shimmering”

Blue Moon Fibers, especially “Socks That Rock”

Claudia Hand Painted Yarns, especially “Silk Lace”

Girl on the Rock

Knitted Wit

Lisa Souza, especially “Silk Lace”

Madeline Tosh, “Tosh Lace”

Schaefer Yarns, especially “Anne” and “Audrey”

Sincere Sheep

Skaska

Snicklefritz

Tactile Fiber Arts, especially “Larkspur Lace” and “Bolinas Sock”

And Dale and I shared our wonderful interactions with Asciano FiberArts Tools. I purchased a pair of size 5 lace tip circular needles from them several years ago, they broke, and were replaced immediately for free! They rock!!! They’re a local company – based in Marin – and if you’re looking for an indulgence, you can’t do better.

And that, ladies, is it. I will miss you and our class. Please stay in touch – and as you block your shawls, take some pics and email them to me and I’ll post them here.

Traveling Eyelet Socks – Make the Gussets

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Are you still with me on the Traveling Eyelet Socks? I am almost at the toe of the first sock, so thought I would write up the pattern through the gussets. Here you go . . . .  (You should have completed turning the heel, described in my last post on this pattern)

Here you go . . . . .

Gusset - the triangle between the heel flap and the top of sock

Make Gusset:

With RS facing, k9 sts on dpn 1. Place marker for new beginning of round. K remaining 9 sts on dpn 1.

With new dpn (dpn 1), pick up and knit 18 sts in the slipped stitches along the left side of the heel flap. (If you have a different number because you made your heel flap shorter or longer to fit your foot, just pick up and knit 1 stitch for each slipped stitch you have). Transfer the first 9 sts on this round to dpn 1.

With a new needle (dpn 2), work stitch pattern across next 2 dons, combining them onto the new needle. This should be row 1 of the stitch pattern.

With a new needle (dpn 3), pick up and knit 18 sts along right side of heel flap (or as many stitches as you picked up on the left side) and then continue knitting to end of round.

You should now have 82 sts spread across 3 dpns. With the RS of the sock facing you (the bottom of the sock) the needle immediately to the left of the stitch marker for beginning of round is now dpn 1 (26 sts), the one with the stitches working the pattern is now dpn 2 (30 sts) , and the one with the right side heel flap stitches and the last 9 stitches on the turned heel is dpn 3 (26 sts).

Knit 1 round even, knitting all stitches on dpns 1 and 3 and working stitch pattern as established (should be row 2 of pattern) across dpn 2.

Decrease for gussets:

Rnd 1 (Decrease round): K to last 3 sts on dpn 1, k2tog, k1. Work stitch pattern across dpn 2. On dpn 3, k1, ssk, k to end of round. 2 sts decreased.

Rnd 2. Work round even, knitting all sts on dpns 1 and 3 and working stitch pattern on dpn 2.

Repeat these two rows until there are 62 sts remaining on needles – 16 sts on dpns 1 and 3, 30 sts on dpn 2.

Now the easy part – continue working stitches as established across all needles until the sock hits you at the beginning of the cleft between your big and second toes. Yes, go ahead, try it on, needles and all. You want the last row before the toe to be either row 9 or row 18 of stitch pattern, so work until sock is long enough and you’ve just finished one of those row.

And now we do the toe – in the next installment.

The sock so far!