Monday, October 15, 2007

Wing of the Moth

Pattern: Wing of the Moth" by Anne Hanson of Knitspot
Yarn: Handspun Singles from Spritely Goods handblended batts in Arizona Sycamore colorway, combined with additional fiber that was blended by hand rather than by the carder.
Needles: US 6

the moth, pre blocking

Comments: Have I said recently how much I love lace? It's challenging to knit, and it has different "faces" to it at different stages of the process. Witness above and below - the moth, prior to blocking - it has such texture to it in its unblocked state!

another preblocking photo - of the moth preblocking

I love these bumps - they were formed on the backside of the shawl, in the fircone lace section - witness the fuzzy halo from the angora :)

The patten itself is well written, though due to my own peculiarities with how I use markers I had a little bit of a challenge figuring out just what I was supposed to be doing during the transition rows, but if you follow the instructions, you should be fine.

Blocking this baby wasn't too bad, and it didn't seem to take any longer than my other shawls - I ran blocking wires across the top edge, stretched her tight evenly across the top (7-foot 8-inch wingspan on this one - I'm rather aggressive with my blocking though), then pulled the midline tight and pinned it in place (46 inches tall if I remember the measurement correctly). From there, it was a question of pinning out the coronas - I did this the same way I did the points on my other shawls - I pinned the "center" point of the "center" corona out on both left and right sides, then I did the next midpoints between those coronas and the bottom point and top points, and continued in this manner until each midpoint of each corona was pinned out - then I went back through and pinned out each of the loops in the corona to get that nice scallopy edge. I will admit to getting a bit impatient at that point, and pinning away at will from left to right along each corona, which has resulted in some slightly lopsided scallops, but I figure it will do for now ;) I'll have to reblock her sometime in the future anyhow :D


Those that followed along on my regular blog might recall that the yarn spun for this project was prepared in 2 different methods. The main fircone portion (the portion in the lower right in the above photo) was spun from blended batts. The yarn used in the outer portion of the shawl was prepared by actually blending fibers at the wheel - resulting in considerably more striping. The fibers used in the preparation were the same as those used in the batts, and also in the same ratios - they just spin up differently depending on how thoroughly blended they are.

The Moth was a pleasure to knit, I just regret that I can't seem to capture the slight sparkle that is present in the yarn - The colors remind me of a Sphinx Moth, though up close, there is more earthy green visible. I'm looking forward to the weather cooling down so I can actually wear the Moth rather than simply gaze at it!

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Broadly Rippling

broadrippleside


My husband is winning out on the handknits...first he (finally) got Avast, and I just recently finished him a pair of socks! And before anyone comments on the length of the socks, he was consulted and that was the length he wants - and all the easier on me as I didn't have to knit on and on and on for the leg :P And yes, you might be noticing a loose tail hastily tucked in - all my hand knit socks have that characteristic. Something about finishing and weaving in ends - I believe almost all of my handknit socks have the little tail hanging loose at the cuff.

broadripple front
Pattern: Broadripple from Knitty
Yarn: Sock Landscapes in Cape Cod from Knit Picks by way of Janet (thanks Janet!)
Needles: US 3

Modifications: Toe up with short row heel :)

Comments: Easy pattern to knit and plenty manly in the right colors. The pattern stitch, once established, allowed me to happily knit away without having to reference the pattern at all. I'm getting better at short row heels, though I still had a little bit of a hole when I resumed knitting in the round. This even after I picked up an extra stitch in an attempt to close the hole. *sigh* perhaps that's another characteristic of a handknit sock (for me anyhow :P)