A Story in Pictures

When I went to put Fae in her kennel tonight before taking myself off to bed too, we found it already occupied. Emo had invaded. Fae was not exactly thrilled, but went in anyway.

It took some convincing, but I was able to get her to lay down. She complained a bit...

but once Emo settled down again, she seemed resigned to sharing the kennel.

So, she laid down her head and settled in. It looked like the two of them would be sharing a bed for the night.

But, as is the way with many things in this world, such was not to be. Whether it was the unexpected body warmth, the fur, or the dog breath, Emo decided that his choice of beds for the night was no longer satisfactory, and that his only option was to get up and leave.

Oh well. Fae likes her kennel better when it's feline-free anyway.

Shawl Catch-Up (picture heavy)

When I was putting links in my "Finished Objects (Knitted)" section, I realized I'd never posted photographs of certain shawls and socks. Most of these were knitted during a period of non-blogging, but some I simply never photographed, and they were gifted away (oops!). So, in the interest of correcting this oversight, I'm posting here about the ones that were finished but never blogged that have stayed in my possession. I will do another post shortly with some gifted shawls.

The Diamond Fantasy Shawl, by Sivia Harding:
I worked this in Fleece Artist hand-dyed 2/8 Blue Faced Leicester. The yarn was a Christmas gift from my Mom (who knows my colour sense very, very well), and this shawl used a little more than half the skein (I'm estimating around 650 meters). I will likely use the rest for mittens and a hat, as I adore the colourway, and think a matching shawl/hat/mittens set would be really cute.
Diamond Fantasy was an enjoyable knit - but I had to pay attention the entire time, as it was easy to get one row off on the pattern (yup, there was some frogging). I changed the top of the shawl from the pattern - I did a four-stitch faggoted band rather than the suggested finish. That made it really easy to block, too.

Hyrna Herborgar, from Three-cornered and Long Shawls (scroll down), Schoolhouse Press:
I'm not quite sure when I made this, but I remember loving the yarn, and hating the [k1, p1] into the back side of the double yarn overs. Ugh. The shawl is so lovely, though, that even remembering how much I disliked working the top portion, I think this will be a front runner on my "Patterns I'd do Again" list. Sigh.
This was worked in a heavy fingering weight 100% cashmere on-the-cone from Colourmart. It bloomed beautifully after washing, and gave the full, dense stitch pattern I was hoping for. This is a smaller shawl, and is perfect for when I just want a little extra warmth around the shoulders. Also, the softness can't be beat!

And, because I promised you, a photo of the latest shawl (Engeln Shawl A, the 2nd) dancing in the fading evening sunlight:

And, my photographer's assistant, Fae:

All together now: "Awww"

Engeln Shawl A (the 2nd) is Blocking

It took twelve days to knit this time (I slacked off a bit). This version is much larger (as I had hoped) - the yardstick in the photo is about six inches from the bottom edge (the length down the back is about 42").

This shawl was made with Lisa Souza's "Kid", which is 90% Kid Mohair with 10% Nylon, in the colourway Mahogany. The original skein was 1000 yards in eight ounces, and I have two ounces left over (roughly 250 yards). That is plenty to make a lovely scarf, or a wimple.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring sunshine so that I can do a decent photo shoot - the depth of colour in the mohair is incredible - golds, olives, russets and ebony, all wrapped in the rich background of mahogany brown. Delicious!

Yep ...

I'm making one for me now. I went with the Lisa Souza Mahogany.

More about Engeln Shawl A

I wasn't really happy with the photos of the shawl, so took more before Grandma left. This set shows the colour of the yarn a lot truer, as well as catching the mohair haze. The first photo is a close-up to show the matching jewelery (a necklace with rhodonite flat faceted oval stones and tourmaline chips, and rhodonite and gold shawl pin). I also made rhodonite and gold earrings, and a shawl pin with rhodonite and picture jasper, but these were done late, so didn't make it into the photo shoot.

I love the finished shawl so much (and have gotten so many great responses about it) that I've decided to do another (this time for ME!). Right now I leaning toward either a Lisa Souza mohair in mahogany, or one of the heavier weight mohairs from Blue Moon Fiber Arts or Fleece Artist. I'll have to go through my stash and choose. My shawl will need to be a bit bigger, as I'm four inches or so taller than Grandma, and I really liked the way her shawl sat just below her, umm, bottom. So, off to did in the basement in the temporary plastic totes that my stash is in.

Speaking of the basement, it is coming along nicely. The second coat of mud went on the drywall this morning, and the third coat will go on tomorrow, with (hopefully) painting this weekend. We're now discussing putting cork flooring down there, which I would love!

Enough for today, I should go clean up the kitchen and wash the guest room bedding. Ta.

Interlude

I joined, I saw, Midian interpreted, I shawled.

I joined The Lacey Shawl Yahoo Group because I was interested in knitting the shawl designed by Triinu Andreassen that had been posted on the Lace Shawl KAL blog. After the group's purpose (convincing her to publish the design) was completed, members opened the group up to discussion of various shawl patterns available.

A Swiss member named Midian posted a photograph of Spitzenstricken 58, an Erich Engeln pattern pamphlet, showing two shawls. The shawls were meant to be knitted on 2mm needles and worn like scarves/collars over traditional German costumes. I asked Midian for help with interpreting the pattern, and she got right back to me! She had a friend translate it from German to French for her, then she translated from French to English for me. So, I started right away...


In only eight days, 60 grams of Colinette Parisienne laceweight mohair (colourway Castagna) was turned into Spitzenstricken 58, model A, by Erich Engeln. I knitted the shawl on 5mm needles, and it took a little less than 550 meters!

Blocking it took a heck of a lot of pins, but it did block beautifully. The washing settled the halo a bit, which was good, as it had gotten really hairy with all of the handling during knitting.


We have Tom's Grandparents here right now for a visit, and I asked Grandma to model the shawl so I could take a few photos. She looked so natural in it that I had to give it to her! Plus, she wears a lot of pale pink, and the shawl is brown and pink, with small amounts of olive/gold and black (sounds hideous, but looks gorgeous).



Next we will be making a coordinating shawl pin, and maybe a pair of earrings to match. What fun! And the best part is that while we're doing that, Tom and his parents (also visiting) are in the basement completing the repairs to get my studio up and running after the spring water leak. Boy oh boy am I looking forward to getting my yarn and fabric stashes out of storage, and back on shelves.