Friday, September 03, 2010

Yes, I've been knitting...

It's The Beaded Diamond Shawl by Catherine Devine. The pattern was first published in the magazine Knit 'N Style, December 2006. I was able to purchase a kit from Earthfaire. The yarn is from Schaefer, called Andrea (100% silk) in the Margaret Mead colorway. Like I said in an earlier post, this project starts with a knitted band from which stitches are picked up along the side. So the band turns into the collar (of sorts). The band is continued on as you knit and becomes a border (very clever!). It becomes a 4 - part triangular shawl, with each row getting longer and longer. At first, a row would only take 5 minutes; towards the end, a row would take an hour! There is a bead in the center of each square. I used a crochet hook to put the bead on every 8th row.



This is a close-up of the stitches.

I purchased this fiber from a website in Great Britain called Fyberspates. It was a closeout called, "Sea Mist." It is a merino/silk/nylon/silver blend, I think because of the nylon it is for socks. But I will be using it for the pattern Aolian Shawl by Elizabeth Freeman from The Knitty.

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

"The time has come," the Walrus said, "To talk of many things..."



Good-bye my trusty steed - another symbol of my youth bites it! We haven't used this car, my 1984 Toyota Celica (named Sally) in over 2 years, almost 3. The engine ran fine - she was peppy to the end, but the electrical system was failing and became unreliable. The radio was down to 1 station in AM; the muffler was going; the clutch was almost going...