My Charcoal Quill

Tags

brooklyntweed, lace, shawl

Here’s Quill (by Jared Flood) take two – a dark grey shawl just for me. I actually started knitting this shawl before I decided to knit the Quill Baby Blanket, but put it on hold to finish the blanket in time for the baby shower.

I was already well into the Old Shale lace when I decided this pattern would make a beautiful baby blanket in white, and I loved the pattern so much that I didn’t mind starting on another one right away. That meant a delay in finishing my own shawl, but it was well worth the wait.

This version is knit in the lovely Debbie Bliss Rialto Lace in (you guessed it!) color number 4 – Charcoal. I knit this one on size 3 needles and made the small size again. I used a little bit over 2 balls of yarn – each ball is 50 g and I used 103 g (approx. 878 yds).

I just love this pattern – the simplicity of the Old Shale lace and the beautiful knitted-on edging. The Rialto lace is so soft, and the finished shawl has a beautiful drape and sheen. I can’t recommend the pattern and yarn enough!

I was visited by an interloper during my photoshoot, so I recruited him for modeling. He didn’t really enjoy it.

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Quill Heirloom Baby Blanket

Tags

alpaca, baby blanket, brooklyntweed, heirloom, lace

One of my best friends from high school is having a baby in about a month. They are not finding out if it’s a boy or a girl until the big day, so I was a little bit unsure about what to knit! While there are a lot of great gender-neutral patterns out there, I tend to like baby sweaters that fall in the “super-girly” or “little-man” camps. Once the wee one is here, I may make him or her a little outfit, but before that I wanted to get something ready for my friend’s shower.

Then it occurred to me that my friend has always had a love for the traditional. I started thinking that maybe I wanted to knit a beautiful heirloom baby blanket – one that could wrap up all of her future children as well – in a traditional pattern and in a beautiful natural colored yarn. Admittedly, this realization was probably brought on by the fact that I was knitting a Quill shawl (by Jared Flood of Brooklyntweed) for myself out of a gorgeous gray yarn (almost done, pictures soon!), and the pattern suggested that the shawl would work well as an heirloom baby blanket. So, I ran out to the local yarn shop and picked up a couple of balls of Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace, a lovely mix of alpaca and silk, and started knitting another Quill!

This is a beautiful pattern with the traditional structure of a Shetland Hap Shawl. I knit the smaller size, which ended up blocking out to about a 40 inch square. I love the Old Shale Lace pattern, which I happen to think looks like rows and rows of little tiaras (like the one Kate Middleton wore?), and the edging is just gorgeous – takes a while – but is just gorgeous! Here she is blocking.

The Silky Alpaca Lace worked really nicely with this pattern. I bought two balls initially, but had to run back to the store to get a third ball (the day I had to finish it for it to make it to the shower!) because I just didn’t have quite enough yarn to finish the edging! I weighed the third ball before and after, and determined that I used about 35 yards (out of 440 yds in the ball). Anyone need a mostly unused ball of Silky Alpaca Lace? :) It was all worth it in the end, though, because I think this blanket is beautiful. The fabric is light and delicate, but very warm thanks to the alpaca. We’re all excited for your arrival in the world, Baby O, and I’m so happy to contribute something to keep you warm and snug.

Poor Stockinette

Tags

cardigan, knitting olympics, lace, ravelympics

This space has been seriously neglected in recent weeks, and I only have one excuse – lighting! That’s right, I blame light for my lack of blog posts because it hasn’t been around lately for me to take pictures. I can’t make it home before it’s too dark for photos, and although it’s been sunny during the week, each weekend seems to bring back gray cloudy skies, cold temperatures and even a little bit of rain! Total bummer when you really want to take some knitting pictures to share with your friends.

So I’ve decided that, in the absence of new pictures, I will just give you an update on what I’m doing and continue to stockpile handknits to show later (once I can find some natural light)! : )

Since opening ceremonies for the Olympics, I’ve been working on Sabbatical by Connie Chang Chinchio (Twist Collective Winter 2009) in my Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool from Stitches.

photo from Twist Collective

I really like the combination of the lace pattern and the yarn, but, man, is it slow going for me! This is a pretty complicated lace pattern (you even have to think a little bit on the wrong side!), and I’m using small needles (US 3). Combine this with the fact that I cast on the wrong number of stitches about 50 million times (ok, 4 times, but it felt like more), and the result is me only having about 10 inches of the body finished (I’m knitting fronts and back all at once) – which is way less than I should have if this project was going to be finished by the end of the Olympics. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that I started knitting this sweater as part of the Knitting Olympics and Ravelympics? I. Am. Delusional.

Despite all of my setbacks, I’m still really excited about this sweater and I can’t wait to wear it. The lace pattern is gorgeous and I love the generous length.  Here’s a sneak peek in the best lighting I could manage (I promise it will look different after blocking) . . .