Echo Flower Shawl, Not Cat Barf

2012.04.19

 

Another gray day today.  The Fuji Cherry tree is starting to drop petals and put on its leaves, but because of the gloom, I don't think you can see much.

Life

This is a huge weekend for my family.  My youngest child, my son L, has the lead in his high school musical and they are performing this weekend.  The play is The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and my son plays the part of William Barfee who wins the contest.  He has been a ballet dancer with some tap/jazz/modern as well since kindergarten, and has performed in many ballets, especially The Nutcracker with the Pacific Northwest Ballet when he was younger (and much smaller and cute), but has never acted or sang on stage before.  One of his good friends has done quite a few of the school musicals, and talked L into auditioning saying, "you can get a small part in the chorus.  With your dance skills, they will love you."  So L got the ok from his ballet teacher to audition, and did it.  Of course, he did not get one of the minor rolls but is splitting the lead with another boy (the show is double cast to allow as many students as possible to participate.)  I can't wait to see him! 

My daughter, S, the talented writer who goes to school in Portland, is taking the train home tonight, and will be here for the weekend.  L will perform the final 2 shows, both on Saturday.  I will go to both of his shows.  My poor husband, the Doc, has to work during the day on Saturday, so he will attend the evening (closing) show.  My older daughter, Allifer, and her boyfriend A, will attend the matinee, since poor A works Saturday night.  I probably won't update this blog until Monday, but if I get any photos after the show, I will post some because I know all of you read this blog to see how my kids and cats are doing and not for the knitting and crochet!

WIP

Last week I posted photos of some new projects that I have cast on.  One is the Echo Flower Shawl by Jenny Johnson Johnen.

I am knitting this shawl with the help of the Beginning Lace Knitters Group on Ravelry.  I think this was the KAL for March, so I am a bit late, but I was BUSY. =)  And I will admit, a bit intimidated.  But I decided to screw up my courage, and take the plunge.

I am using Cascade Alpaca Lace in Cream.  OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO  I mean it!  OOOOOOOO!  This yarn is absolutely lovely.  I love the feel of it as it runs through my fingers while I am knitting.  Sometimes, I just stop and pet the ball.  I am using cream, because I let my Mom pick the color, and that was what she wanted.  I know she is not really a "shawl" type of person, what ever that is.  She lives in southern  California, and it is simply too hot there to wear a lot of knitwear.  But I miss her.  And I feel the need to show my love for her by knitting her something.  She may never wear this.  But I don't care.  She can just take it out and pet it occasionally.  I have seen that some of the people in the group put beads in the border section, and I am thinking of doing that.  I will have to find a bead color that does not pop, but just adds a tiny bit of sparkle.  I learned how to add beads with a crochet hook when I was making my 2011 Advent Calendar Scarf last December.  I remember the process as being super slow and tedious, but the beads as adding a really lovely touch to the scarf.  Perhaps I will be a tiny bit faster this time around.  Also, I need to practice this, because I fully intend to participate in the 2012 Advent Calendar Scarf this coming December!

I have completed the set up section, and 2 repeats of the main flower pattern in these photos.  It is simply amazing to me how much lace looks like cat barf before it is blocked.  I stretched it out just a bit so you can get a sense of what the flower pattern looks like.

The flower pattern is 8 rows and on the first row, there are some "3 into 9" and "2 into 9" stitches.  This is where you knit together 3 stitches (or 2) and do not drop them off the left needle, but yarn over the needle and knit into the same stitches repeating this again and again until you have 9 loops on the right needle.  On the way back, you purl these 9 new stitches.  In this way, the shawl grows by 2 sections every full 8 row repeat.  At first, I was stopping after completing row 8.  Now, I am going ahead and doing the row 1 increases before I stop, so that it will seem like easy fast knitting when I pick up the shawl to continue.  It's all a game to psych myself up for yet another repeat.  To make a real shawl and not a scarf, we are supposed to do 13 repeats of this flower pattern.  I have been reading the thread on the Group Page, and almost everyone who stopped short of the 13 repeats was sorry.  So even though it will take me (a VERY slow knitter) longer and longer to complete the 8 rows, I will do all 13 repeats.  I am determined to make my mom a beautiful shawl.

That's all for today.  I get to pick up my daughter, S, at the train station in Seattle tonight.  I can't wait to see her.

No bike trip again today.  I hope to restart it on Monday, even if I can only knit for 15 minutes before dropping with exhaustion.

Yours,
f1bercat
Shaping the planet one piece of cat barf at a time

Stitch Tutorials for Advent Calendar Scarf 2011 Spacer, Days 1 - 6

These are stitch tutorials for the 2011 Advent Calendar Scarf
I want to say thank you to Kristin Benecken for her gorgeous patterns, and for allowing knitters from all over the world to join together to knit this lace sampler scarf.

Spacer Section:



\  S1 K1 PSSO :
I think you can use SSK instead of this stitch, but I found that one harder to do with lace yarn.)

1. slip 1 stitch as if to knit

2. knit 1 stitch

3. pick up the slipped stitch with your left needle

4. pass it over the knit stitch and off the needle.

5.You started with 2 stitches on your left needle and now have 1 Left Leaning stitch on your right needle

Pattern Day 1

∆ sl2 as if to knit, k1, psso

1. slip 2 stitches as if to knit (you must do this one stitch at a time)

2. knit 1 stitch

3. pick up the 2 slipped stitches with your left needle

4. pass the 2 slipped stitches over the 1 knit stitch

5. you started with 3 stitches on your left needle, and now you have 1 stitch on the right needle

Pattern Day 2

↓ k1b   knit 1 stitch in the row below

1. Normally you would insert your right needle into the stitch that is ON the left needle

2. For this stitch, you insert your right needle into the stitch below the one on the left needle

3. wrap the yarn like a normal knit around the needle and pull it through like a normal knit

4. You will have the new stitch on the right needle, and the original stitch still on the left needle.  slip off (or let drop) the stitch that is still on the left needle 

5. the stitch looks a bit like it has 2 collars

Pattern Day 3 (nothing new)
Pattern Day 4 (∆ sl2 as if to Purl, k1, psso - see Pattern Day 1)
Pattern Day 5 (∆ sl2 as if to Purl, k1, psso - see Pattern Day 1)


Pattern Day 6
I0I  slip 1 over 3

1. Slip a stitch purlwise (as if you were going to purl)  from the left needle to the right needle

2. using the next 2 stitches on the Left needle, K YO K.  You used 3 stitches but now have 4 on your Right needle:

3. Pick up the slipped stitch with your left needle, and pull it back over the other 3  (the K YO K)

4. The slipped stitch is now wrapped around the K YO K and you have 3 stitches again.

5. when you come back on the WS, you will P K P those 3 stitches.

Ok, have to take my sons to the dentist.  I will post more of these tomorrow.

C. A. Losi

Advent Calendar Scarf Day 18, Sunday December 18, 2011

It is 10:36 am, and I am just sitting down to work on my scarf and listen to some Dracula, from Craftlit, and of course, my son, Luke, needs a ride to his girlfriend's house.  Luckily, the Doc wants to finish putting up the Christmas lights, so they are doing that first.  Thank goodness we have tall sons.  Luke is about 6'1".  Doc is not short, but also not tall.  Luke can really help put up those lights.  Oh well, maybe I can get one row in.

Today is going to be a running entry, with notes as I knit.

It is now 12:56.  Luke is on is way to watch C dance her final Nutcracker with the Olympic Ballet Theatre, I did a quick Dredgion on Aion, I'm back on Craftlit listening to Dracula, (I'm behind and trying to catch up), and ready to KNIT.

3:02  Finished one repeat and am taking a break to eat some soup I started earlier, and make some corn muffins to go with it.  My Aunt J sends the most wonderful Christmas gifts every year.  For years she sent all kinds of candy gifts, like this GIANT "Christmas Card" made of chocolate, and so on.  But lately, she has joined some kind of women's group, and for a charity fund raiser, they make these soup "kits."  This is what she sends now at Christmas.   So, tonight I'm making the Minestrone.  The package has the beans, peas, spices and pasta.  I added browned Sweet Italian Sausage, water, 3 cans of chopped tomatoes, and some onion, carrots and celery.  I can not tell you how yummy these soups were last year.  And, I am so happy that I don't have to do anything else for dinner tonight (and maybe tomorrow night as well! ). 

Ok, off to eat, then back to the scarf and more Dracula!

The soup was amazing.  I have to write Auntie J another babbling letter of thanks.  I want her to give me the spice recipe for these soups.  I am now at work on the 2nd repeat, but I'm going a bit slower.  I have started reading the "slow knitter" thread on the Advent Calendar Scarf Group and I can't knit and read.  But O!  I feel like I missed out a bit on the camaraderie of the group.  These are simply the nicest people. There are some who have posted, way back at the beginning, that they are knitting super slowly and are "afraid" that they can't keep up.  Wow, the support!  Some are explaining that they finished last year's scarf in the summer.  Some are explaining that it is the process and enjoyment of the knitting that is important.  And the learning, too, of course.  I think that I got a bit competitive with my self and my determination to "keep up," made me deliberately stay off the site.  Well, I don't "think" this, I KNOW this.  I stopped looking at other peoples' finished sections, since I wanted to see if I could knit without any crutches.  But really, it is the group that makes this so much fun.  I can make a sampler scarf any time.

That being said, BACK TO THE 2ND REPEAT!

YAY!  finished at 7:44 pm.  That is a record for me.  I'll show you what today's pattern looks like:

With yesterday's pattern:

And what the whole scarf looks like:

(with a little help from Selena)

And how big it is right now unblocked:

(about 49.5 in)

Then, I am going to have another bowl of my fabulous soup, and knit the spacer section for Day 19 and maybe even knit some of Day 19's pattern.

7 Days until Christmas!

Good night everyone.  I will be knitting (and blogging about it) tomorrow.

C. A. Losi