Sunday, July 27, 2008

International Shawl Fini (Hard to give it away)












As promised, here are the pictures of the International Shawl now that it's off the blocking pins. To re-cap-
Yarn: Black Bunny Fibers superfine alpaca lace weight yarn custom dyed in a semi-solid teal color. Needles US 0 needles
Center pattern: "Chrysantheme" German Niebling pattern but in a Japanese knitting book, "Knitted Lace Designs OF The ‘Modern’ Mode" Book 2 by Naoko Ichida. (up to row 53)This book comes with a stitch key in English.
Border:I placed stitch markers in the corners and selected one stitch as a center corner stitch. I increased on the plain knit row on either side of this stitch to make the corners. As my stitches in the corners increased, I extended the patterns to fill in those spaces. No system. Just eye-balled it.
First set of leaves in the border : Estonian leaf pattern, page 49, chart # 114 from the book "Pitsilised Koekirjad" by Leili Reimann (as many times as you want to make the border as deep as you want with the understanding that there is one more border pattern to go) Stitch key in English available on the internet.
Second border pattern : Shetland Lace pattern, Madeira and Diamond Chart on page 90 of "Heirloom Knitting" by Sharon Miller (as much as you want until you like how it looks)
Edging: Danish edge pattern from a doily page 74 "Rosa" pattern from "Knitted Lace" by Sonja Esbensen and Anna Rasmussen. Unlike some edges, this one is knit directly on the needles with a crochet cast-off at the end to finish.
Pretty. I'm having a hard time giving it away but it's packed now and I'm off to the post office tomorrow. I have one more skein of this color yarn and I'm going to knit myself something I will keep this time! Just a few shots of what I've been spinning. The brightly colored ball of yarn is the Wensleydale fiber that I got from Black Bunny Fibers in colorway "Waltz". Looks like a Hawaiian snow cone. I'll have to think really hard what to do with this one. Below is the Polworth I got from "A Verb For Keeping Warm" in the colorway "Butterfly Wings". Once again not sure what to do with it but sometimes the best inspiration comes with things you've spun for yourself. Short post. Must Knit!