Here she is...

Here she is reclining... during the 2.03 minutes of sun we've had in over a week :) In the background you can see the 2 other participants of The Amazing Lace. The Ladyslipper color (the light pink) looks pretty close in the pictures. The Dianthus is a bit less pink in reality... actually I should say a bit less red. I don't know how to fiddle around with pictures so you will have to make do with what ya get :)



This is what it looks like if you use a strand of Zephyr in Lady slipper and a strand in Dianthus. Isn't it gorgeous???

I love the fabric that you get so much that I'm planning to make a sweater out of Admiral Zephyr (a navy blue) and stripes of another color (mixing one strand of the blue with one strand of something else). If I make the sweater, I'll use needles in size 3 mm or 3.5 mm so that you get a nice fabric too. A sweater (probably more a vest... something sleeveless) doesn't need to be holey like lace.

Cheers Eva

PS: welcome to the new members we've had over the last few days.

*waves*

Hello! Have finally finished winding my shawl yarn (fingering weight wool by Lisa Souza, you can see it here), have printed the pattern, taken the needles out, and am basically ready to go. The trouble is that I am not only new to lace, but new to shawls, new to charts, and (seems like) new to just about everything but knitting stockinette in the round. ;) I am having trouble understanding just how the pattern will turn the yarn into the finished shawl I see in the picture and had really started to panic, but after reading through your posts and seeing the early-stages photographs, I feel more confident. This is truly what a knitalong is about. :) With luck, I can post a progress photo of my own in a few days!

Finished Seraphim!!

I'm so excited - Seraphim is fresh off the needles, and even unblocked it's lovely. I won't be blocking it til next week so pics will come then. I was just so happy I had to share.

Thanks to Mim for a beautiful pattern worthy of knitting again (but not right away - Icarus awaits!), and especially thanks to Mim for so much help via email when I got stuck. This was my first charted shawl and I had a few stumbling moments, but learned a great deal and I'm not so put off by charts now!

I will say, I am a big girl (3X) and unblocked my version (Frog Tree Brushed Suri Fingering Weight on size 5 needles) just barely fits around me. I'd have to use a shawl pin to hold it closed. I'm hoping the blocking will help, or I may gift it to my Mother (who was recently in an accident and might enjoy a warm shawl in the evenings). So if you're wanting a wider/longer shawl I would definitely suggest following the instructions for making it bigger.

Happy Knitting!!

A Beginning

I scanned the very beginning of my Seraphim Shawl to show the lovely color. It's the Cinnabar laceweight wool from handpaintedyarns.com. The two skeins are not exactly the same--one is somewhat darker and more orange, the other lighter and less bright. Held together the two strands create a very pleasing fabric. I am glad the color variations are subtle, as I would't want loud stripes in this shawl. It's a very soft yarn, even more so after blocking.

I hope that using an earthy color rather than blue doesn't conflict with the Seraphim theme! I'm hoping that in this color the lace pattern will have the look of autumn leaves.

Eva, I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures!

This is it!!!!

I'm in love :) :) :) :) :)

Last night I got my cakes of Zephyr out and I started using 1 strand of Ladyslipper and 1 strand of Mulberry, but I didn't like that combination. So next I used the Ladyslipper and the Dianthus and this is a match made in heaven LOL. I grabbed 3.75 mm needles, but I think I'll have to go up a bit and use a 4 mm or 4.25 mm needle. I tried with a 4.5 mm needle, but didn't like the fabric I got. What I have now is a bit on the heavy side. So I'll play a bit with different sizes of needles.

The fabric I'm getting right now would be great for a cardi though :) I love the look of the 2 colors together. I've been looking at my color card and have found some other matches that would look great together :) Guess I'll be mixing Zephyr more often hahaha.

I will make pictures this weekend. Right now it is very very grey outside. I hope that this afternoon the weather will be better and that I'll get some decent pics :)

Cheers y'all, Eva

Seraphim Update 5-18-06

Seraphim 5-18-06
Originally uploaded by Inky Knits.

Hi All! Seraphim is coming along swimmingly and I am ready to begin the final edge chart sometime today. It's only 10 rows so I hope to have this done by the end of next week (famous last words!).

Right now it's basically a big grey blob of Frog Tree 100% brushed suri fingering weight. I swear it's lovely in person :)

I do wish I had made it bigger, but I was unsure of how much yarn I'd need and played it safe. Turns out I will probably have an entire ball left over - hopefully my LYS will take it back if she still has the same dyelot in stock, which she should since I just purchased this yarn in April '06.

I do love this pattern and plan to make it again in a silk/wool yarn like Zephyr or something along those lines. Perhaps in that Dianthus that Eva mentioned in her last post! Happy Knitting!!

I...

changed my mind again :)

Yes, you read that right... I wasn't happy with the fabric I got using the Zephyr laceweight yarn. Then I was reading several of the lace knitting related yahoo groups I'm on and someone said that if you use 2 strands of Zephyr laceweight yarn you get fingering weight yarn. So I've been thinking about this... and now I have several options... 2 strands of Ladyslipper (pink), 1 strand of Ladyslipper with 1 strand of Ice Blue (light blue) or 1 strand of Ladyslipper and 1 strand of Dianthus (a fuscia color)... hmmm... and then before we even settle on this... should I wind the 2 strands together into a ball, or just use them pulling them each from their own ball...

decisions decisions... as you may have noticed, I'm not good in dealing with decisions hahahaha

Cheers Eva

Swatching

Hi everyone. I've just joined and am looking forward to making this beautiful shawl. This is my first time making a triangular shawl. I'm using laceweight wool from handpaintedyarn.com, a lovely cinnamon color, and I'm holding two strands together. That makes it slightly thicker than fingering weight, I'd say. I knit up a swatch this evening using first US4 and then US5 needles and then blocked it. The US5 are producing the right gauge. With the 4s I am getting 6 1/2 rows to the inch, which would make the shawl too small.

But my only long US5 is very slippery metal--I don't like it for lace. So my next step is to buy a bamboo circ.

I don't expect to finish this soon--it will probably be a long while, as I am also making the Kimono Shawl from Cheryl Oberle's Folk Shawls, Knitty's Mon Petit Chou, socks, washcloths and felted items to sell at a fair, and a Branching Out (which is almost done). I guess you could say I'm a little overextended! But I do enjoy having a variety of projects going at once.

I love lace knitting!

My first update...

Hello Ladies,

I started a few days ago and I'm ready to rip rip rip (written in green to symbolise Zee Frog)!!!

I'm using Zephyr in Ladyslipper (which is very pink for someone who doesn't really like pink, but hey, a girl's got the right to be inconsistent in her behaviour isn't she?) and 4mm/US6 needles. Jennifer (I don't think she introduced herself yet) e-mailed me asking how I liked the lace weight yarn so far. I told her that I'd just decided that it is way toooooooooooooooo open right now and that I'm going to rip. I already had 150-something stitches on the needles (am planning to go up to 300-something to compensate for the lace weight), but the stockinette is not looking very nice like this. I will use 3.5mm needles or maybe even change the yarn hahaha. No, I still want to do it in pinkpinkpink :)

I'm not going to share a pic of what I have as I'm going to rip it. Oh, and I'm going to make one change and that is making a 3- or 4-stitch garter border. I like that more than the 2 stitch I have now.

How's everyone else's coming along?

And then, just because a girl can not have too many projects on the needles, I've decided that I'll make Icarus next. I have some Zephyr in a buttery yellow color (I checked and the official name is Daffodil) which could symbolise the wax of which the wings were made. I think that would make a gorgeous Icarus.
I also just realised that I'd mixed up Mim's Mountain Peaks (which I had not seen until 5 minutes ago and immediately bought) with a stole called Mountain Stream. So I was moaning about this pattern on the knittyboard and when Mim replied and told me that her pattern didn't start the way I said I realised my mistake :)) (= big big big sheepish grin). Anyways, as I have the yarn used in that pattern, it will also get on the needles as soon as I finish either The Sheep Shawl, Knit-your-own-pi mystery or Seraphim (oh... darn I forgot the shawl I started last night... civil war shawl... but that one is ginormous so will take about a year to finish).

Okay, I'm done blabbering... hope to hear from y'all

Eva

Hi, My name is Inky

Seraphim 4-22-06
Originally uploaded by Inky Knits.

Howdie all!! I started Seraphim in April '06 and this photo is the status as of 4-22-06. I needed something to knit that wouldn't tax my brain while trying to knit in public and the first part of Seraphim did the trick. I'm now at the beginning of chart three so there's been no public knitting on her for a while :)

This is my first lace shawl and my second attempt at chart reading. I've also got about half a Kiri on the needles but I'm doing that from written instructions. Now that I'm getting used to charts I can see the value of them quite clearly! Mim's pattern is beautifully written and she offers terrifc support when a confused knitter writes to her.

The yarn I am using is Frog Tree fingering weight brushed suri. I chose this heathered, fuzzy yarn as this will be a casual house shawl and therefore subject to the fur of two white cats. So far so good, I can't tell cat hair from the yarn :)

I look forward to seeing the other Serpahim's as they come to life!! Oh, and be sure to check out Mim's new Icarus Shaawl in the Summer IK - I'm pondering yarns for her next!!

I am really glad to be here.
I have decided that everyone is getting shawls this Christmas! Am I crazy or what!? This is a beautiful shawl and I can not wait to start knitting.
I am going to use some Silk/Wool I had for another shawl that I just don't want to make. I think this will be a better pattern for the sky blue yarn.
Thanks for letting me join.
Leah ;0)

Introduction....

Hello,

I thought I'd get my introduction up so that people can get to know me :) My name is Eva (pronounce Avah) and I'm 35. I started knitting when I was a child, but never really took to it. I blame this on the "belgian" way of knitting... one long needle stuck under your armpit. It was hard to do. I was such a tight knitter that I had the hardest time getting the stitches off my needle. I would make any kind of yarn squeek. It also gave me the worst cases of tendonitis imaginable.

Then one day, one of my mom's polish friends was staying with us and she was knitting away and I was amazed. She used circular needles, and was only moving her hands and it was going fast fast fast. As language was a barrier, I just managed to learn how she purled, by copying her movements. Then for a year or 2 whenever I knitted a bit, I would knit in the "belgian" way (where you throw your yarn) and purl the "polish" way (picking). My stitches twisted were twisted and my gauge was horrible. The knit stitches were still so tight that the yarn screamed for mercy and my purls were sooooooooooooooo loose that I could nearly fit a finger through them LOL. So after a while I made my knit stitches by doing the exact opposite of what did when I purled.

I didn't do much knitting after that. Last year in January/February, I was very sick (and getting over my mom's sudden death). I was sooo sick that I couldn't do what I normally did: cross stitching. It was too much to count, to switch colors every so often and so on. I had some needles and some acrylic lying around and I started to fiddle around and loved the "instant gratification" of knitting.

In June I joined the first Mystery Shawl along (a yahoo group) and I've been in love with lace ever since. I have 5 or 6 shawls on the needles as we speak and plans for many more.

I am planning to use either some of my KnitPicks Shadow (maybe Lost Lake, Campfire or Sunset) or one of the many colors of handpaintedyarn.com stuff I have. As soon as I know I'll let you know :)

Cheers Eva