Then I unravelled the seven or eight rows from my shawl, got all those stitches put back on a circular needle, and proceeded to reknit (and rebead) the edging. I think it was worth it.
Thursday, August 30, 2018
Why the Yarn Chicken Crossed the Street
Remember a couple of posts ago I wrote about a shawl I’d played yarn chicken with and lost? It always irked me, that black cotton edge. I know it was very dramatic looking, but I didn’t like the way it hung, how the cotton didn’t have the same drape as the bamboo. So when I was at the Knitters Frolic in Toronto last April, I went in search of the Dye-Versions booth and sought out another skein of 100% bamboo fingering in Vampire’s Kiss. I found one, among other lovely things.
Then I unravelled the seven or eight rows from my shawl, got all those stitches put back on a circular needle, and proceeded to reknit (and rebead) the edging. I think it was worth it.
Then I unravelled the seven or eight rows from my shawl, got all those stitches put back on a circular needle, and proceeded to reknit (and rebead) the edging. I think it was worth it.
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
A Mashup and a KAL
I have been busily knitting away, so much so that I think I have injured my right elbow. But that isn’t enough to make me stop. No siree.
In December I completed another test knit for Mary-Anne Mace, my favourite NZ designer. She has created yet another absolutely gorgeous shawl, which she calls “Lace Eater Mashup” as she incorporates lace from various of her other designs to create something new. I made it out of two different yarns, Manos del Uruguay Lace (70% alpaca-25% silk-5% cashmere) and Estelle Yarns Baby Silk Lace (70% alpaca-30% silk). The story behind those two yarns is worth telling in itself.
An internet friend of mine was getting married, someone I had never met in the 3D world but whom I had come to know through an online RPG I subscribe to. We were clannies and I shall hereafter refer to her as Delmaya, that being the name I knew her by ingame. I wanted to do something for her and, after seeing a photo of her wedding dress, knew that she needed long gloves to cover her bare arms. I had already fallen in love with the Kensington Mitts pattern from the first Jane Austen Knits magazine, and she loved them too once I showed her the picture. So, now that a pattern had been chosen, I needed appropriate yarn.
That proved more difficult than I thought it would. On a visit to Toronto, and many many wool shops, I came away with fine lace, even though the pattern called for fingering. It meant that I ended up holding the yarn double, and the finished mitts turned out quite beautifully. However, let me tell you about my shopping expedition. At one point I found myself in the basement of Romni Wools on Queen Street. If a bargain is to be found, that is the place to find it. My gaze fell upon this skein of Estelle Yarns lace, marked down to $6.00. It was all by itself, not enough to do anything with on its own, and the colour was just not white enough for wedding mitts to be worn with a pure white gown. I dithered. I hemmed and I hawed. The old guy who haunts the basement of Romni Wools came around to give advice, which was, “It’s only $6.00; buy it!” So I did.
At EweKnit (in its old location in Mirvish Village), I engaged the help of the salesgirl, who scoured the store for something suitable. We could find nothing in a fingering weight yarn. It was pretty disappointing. Then she remembered that they had Manos del Uruguay Lace, which was absolutely perfect in every way except for the thickness. But, as I said, I could hold it double. So I bought two skeins. The colour wasn’t pure white, but a creamy white, warmer than the wedding dress, but sufficiently pale to match.
Because Delmaya lived at a distance from me and wasn’t around for actual fittings, I used the Estelle lace to make parts of the mitts in different sizes, which I mailed to her and had her try on, and then mail back with copious notes about fit. In this fashion, I was able to determine that she was a combination of sizes, and I could proceed accordingly. The mitts turned out beautifully. I was pleased, she was delighted, and the photographer captured them for immortality.
Aw.
Since I’d unravelled the Estelle lace from the test pieces and still had a quantity of the Manos left over, I decided to use these for the Lace Eater Mashup test knit. It meant separating the doubled strands, which took a fair bit of time and no small amount of frustration; but at last I had yarn to knit with. For the top of the shawl I used the leftover Manos, and for the rest the Estelle. I figured that the colours were similar enough that the change wouldn’t show, especially as it’s very lacy. I was right.
Nice, eh?
So, while you’re admiring the lace there, Mary-Anne is having a knitalong of this very shawl on Ravelry at this very moment. Feel free to join in. You won’t be sorry.
In December I completed another test knit for Mary-Anne Mace, my favourite NZ designer. She has created yet another absolutely gorgeous shawl, which she calls “Lace Eater Mashup” as she incorporates lace from various of her other designs to create something new. I made it out of two different yarns, Manos del Uruguay Lace (70% alpaca-25% silk-5% cashmere) and Estelle Yarns Baby Silk Lace (70% alpaca-30% silk). The story behind those two yarns is worth telling in itself.
An internet friend of mine was getting married, someone I had never met in the 3D world but whom I had come to know through an online RPG I subscribe to. We were clannies and I shall hereafter refer to her as Delmaya, that being the name I knew her by ingame. I wanted to do something for her and, after seeing a photo of her wedding dress, knew that she needed long gloves to cover her bare arms. I had already fallen in love with the Kensington Mitts pattern from the first Jane Austen Knits magazine, and she loved them too once I showed her the picture. So, now that a pattern had been chosen, I needed appropriate yarn.
That proved more difficult than I thought it would. On a visit to Toronto, and many many wool shops, I came away with fine lace, even though the pattern called for fingering. It meant that I ended up holding the yarn double, and the finished mitts turned out quite beautifully. However, let me tell you about my shopping expedition. At one point I found myself in the basement of Romni Wools on Queen Street. If a bargain is to be found, that is the place to find it. My gaze fell upon this skein of Estelle Yarns lace, marked down to $6.00. It was all by itself, not enough to do anything with on its own, and the colour was just not white enough for wedding mitts to be worn with a pure white gown. I dithered. I hemmed and I hawed. The old guy who haunts the basement of Romni Wools came around to give advice, which was, “It’s only $6.00; buy it!” So I did.
At EweKnit (in its old location in Mirvish Village), I engaged the help of the salesgirl, who scoured the store for something suitable. We could find nothing in a fingering weight yarn. It was pretty disappointing. Then she remembered that they had Manos del Uruguay Lace, which was absolutely perfect in every way except for the thickness. But, as I said, I could hold it double. So I bought two skeins. The colour wasn’t pure white, but a creamy white, warmer than the wedding dress, but sufficiently pale to match.
Because Delmaya lived at a distance from me and wasn’t around for actual fittings, I used the Estelle lace to make parts of the mitts in different sizes, which I mailed to her and had her try on, and then mail back with copious notes about fit. In this fashion, I was able to determine that she was a combination of sizes, and I could proceed accordingly. The mitts turned out beautifully. I was pleased, she was delighted, and the photographer captured them for immortality.
Aw.
Since I’d unravelled the Estelle lace from the test pieces and still had a quantity of the Manos left over, I decided to use these for the Lace Eater Mashup test knit. It meant separating the doubled strands, which took a fair bit of time and no small amount of frustration; but at last I had yarn to knit with. For the top of the shawl I used the leftover Manos, and for the rest the Estelle. I figured that the colours were similar enough that the change wouldn’t show, especially as it’s very lacy. I was right.
Nice, eh?
So, while you’re admiring the lace there, Mary-Anne is having a knitalong of this very shawl on Ravelry at this very moment. Feel free to join in. You won’t be sorry.
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