Project 36: Dane Shawl

This project was completed in May, 2011.

Another lovely free pattern on Ravelry! This is called Dane Shawl.





It's supposed to be a shallow triangle, based on traditional Danish heart-shaped shawls.  I blocked mine to more of a triangle and less of a heart shape.



I think every comment about this shawl in person has started with the colors.  It's all in the yarn, Plymouth Zino.  It's a sock yarn, but it's a fingering weight single (just one ply) and it just seemed like it really would work well as a triangular shawl.



Pattern: Dane Shawl by Jane Tanner (free)

Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Zino in color "8", all 436 yards of it

Needles: Size 6 (4.0mm) nickel-plated Knit Picks Options

Rav Page

Mods: I liked the written bind-off but ran out of yarn with about 3 inches to go. So I tinked back a bit and switched to a very loose regular old knit 1, pass old stitch over new stitch, repeat bind-off. I had enough yarn left from that to weave in as the tail, and that was that.

Project 34: Lehmus-Huivi

This project was finished in April 2011.

The second leaf shawl component of my Nerd Wars dissertation was the Lehmus-huivi shawl, a pattern that had been translated from the original Finnish.

I'm not sure if this is a pattern modification or a mistake that I corrected, but I kept the three edge stitches on both sides and the band across the top at the bindoff in garter stitch throughout.  I found the chart a little confusing on those points, and garter stitch works!  So that is what I did.  I think it worked.

See?



I gave it sunlight and watered it regularly, and it grew into this!





Pattern: Lehmus-huivi (free pattern available in Finnish and English on the designer's website)

Yarn: Left Coast Yarns Merino/Nylon 80/20 blend in Forbidden Forest, 396 yards of a 400 yard skein



Needles: Size 6 (4.0mm) Knit Picks Options nickle-plated interchangeables

Rav page

Mods: I used fingering weight yarn and larger needles than the pattern indicated for a shawlette. Also, the chart only prints with the Finnish directions, and there is a small error in the chart that is corrected in the English instructions.  If you can get as far as I did in that first swatch, you've got it made.

Project 31: Emily Shawl

This project was finished in March 2011.

I love how this shawl came out.  It's an unusual construction, which is how it became part of my Nerd Wars dissertation last spring.  The yarn is a silky, drapey thing that I only regret I do not have more of. It blocked nicely and looks great as a yarn and pattern match.  I almost - almost! - wish I hadn't given it away!






Pattern: Emily Shawl by Mandy Moore, published in Knitscene Winter/Spring 2010

Yarn: Alina Shea Creations Grassy Feet (65% superwash wool, 35% bamboo) in Summer Fun, the June 2010 yarn club offering



Needles:  Size 7 Knit Picks Options nickle-plated interchangeables

Yardage: 324 yards

Rav page

Mods: none

I enlisted the help of then-three-year-old Spike to photograph the back.  He did it well!



Sigh.  I might have to make another one of these.  In addition to being part of my Nerd Wars dissertation, I turned this project in to the HPKCHC for Charms, March 2011.

Slight Monday madness

We're snowed in today, although the skies are now blue and the plows came through at last.  It's been a good day to catch up with ourselves and I've been busy finally catching up in all the things I like to do on Ravelry and of course a few things around the house.

One thing I missed was WIP Wednesday last week!  I have a good enough reason though - I even took a WIP Wednesday picture and explained it all, but I did it for an interview with the Ravenclaw Aerie!

So, here's my picture anyway....



Quoth myself from the interview:

Upper left, a blanket I'm seaming.  Continuing clockwise around the edge, the pink/green thing is my CoMC OWL that I need to frog back to 50%.  I'm making a crochet square sampler on the right, slowly turning in squares for classes here and there. (Part of that blanket was on a stop sign last weekend for Transfiguration's yarn bombing assignment.) The furry pink scarf is for a charity called Handmade Especially For You, which gets donations of yarn and they send out kits with the fur pre-placed all wound into a ball, and all you do is get to work with some chunky needles.  The pink and brown striped tube is about half of a Hallowed Hands fingerless glove, which is a Deathly Hallows Part 1 inspired pattern by Hufflepuff's Tiggersjp.  Finally, the green blob is a fingering weight version of Lehmus-huivi that is part of a challenge in another Ravelry group.  

And if you'd like, here's my interview!

I've since finished one of the Hallowed Hands mitts and holy monkey there are a kajillion ends to weave in!  I seriously considered not even making the second mitt.  But then I tried it on, and, well.  It's so pretty.  I'll keep chugging along!

Now, in my previous post I promised an avalanche of finished projects. They're still finished and I'm slowly getting my pictures added to posts to document them.  So for real this time..... watch out, here they come!

But first I think it's time for a cup of tea and maybe a little bite of brownie.  It is a snow day after all!

Nerd Wars!

I mentioned that I signed up for another crafting game on Ravelry, Nerd Wars.  The game runs through February, March, and April, and their three-month crafting prompts are called dissertations.

Competitors interested in taking part will post a proposalfor their project. The project should be expected to take a solid three months, like a cable-knit sweater or 3 pairs of socks, or spinning 1200 yards of 3-ply yarn or something.

I wrote my dissertation proposal in the scientific category:

Scientific
This category focuses on challenges of scientific knowledge.Samples: Complete a project that demonstrates some type of circuitry
Complete a project that demonstrates DNA, in structure, the letters, or double helix.

Wish me luck!

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Rav handle: needlesnswiffers
Team Dumbledore's Army
Summary of the project: complete three lace shawlettes
Patterns:
Emily Shawl in Alina Shea Creations Grassy Feet in Summer Fun



Lehmus-huivi in Left Coast Yarns Merino/Nylon 80/20 blend in Forbidden Forrest



Dane Shawl in Plymouth Yarn Zino in color 8



I intend to knit the three shawls as written until/unless I run out of yarn.

Category: Scientific.  This is a study in botany.  These three lace shawls all exhibit leaf motifs and have three different construction methods.  My experiment is designed to explore how the leaves react to growth in the three different directions.  Figure 4 illustrates the three shawls and the shading indicates the direction of work, from the cast-on at the lightest portion to the bind-off at the darkest portion.



Time justification: I am not very experienced at lace shawls, so I will be building a valuable skillset which takes time and mental energy.  To tell you a little about my life, I am a stay-at-home-parent to two little boys who are ages 3 and 1.  My family requires good food, clean clothes, and a passing attempt at cleaning the house once in a while.  I also spend several hours each day on administrative tasks concerning another group on Ravelry.  So, projects that move swiftly can be done with my eyes closed, are easy to pick up and throw down to mitigate the latest crisis in real life or online, and have easy-to-memorize patterns.  Otherwise, my time to sit and ponder lace charts is limited and fraught with peril.