September 2003 Archives

How not to photograph oneself: in a dark-ish room, facing a mirror, with a flash camera!

I thought I would take a photo of myself in my "Elizabeth" shawl to show you how much too long it is, but the photos are all of a very dark figure standing behind a round ball of light. Um... duh!

I'll call a friend and try again. But suffice it to say that the shawl was way too large to block out on the bed because it's also way too large (long) for me. I think I'm going to rip back a full repeat, do the seed stitch border again, and reblock. This is a learning process, right?

Audiobook I'm listening to: Death of an Expert Witness by P.D. James.

Um... I just posted that I think I'm on schedule for my Mother's birthday shawl (her birthday is November 10th). I was feeling good. And then realized I hadn't done my calculations very carefully. It took me ten weeks to knit "Elizabeth" and I have been estimating that it will take a bit longer to knit my mother's shawl. The yarn is finer and I'll be using slightly smaller needles (3.25mm versus 3.5mm). And I won't be on vacation. I knit pretty steadily on "Elizabeth" so I don't think it's realistic to think I will be able to do this shawl in a shorter period.

So I imagine I need to revise my goal. This shawl would make a lovely Christmas present, don't you think? That seems do-able and less stress-producing. But it still means I need to get moving. It doesn't give me much time to spare.

So next on the agenda:

• Measure my swatch again and check it against the desired dimensions. I can tell a lot from the finished "Elizabeth" shawl.
• Carefully check all the shawl charts that I've drafted with the original Kinzel charts to be sure I haven't missed anything.
• Put together the shawl element charts into the right format for a "Myrna-style" Faroese shawl.
• Draft a vertical mesh half-diamond to go along the sides of the back panel.
• Cast on and get knitting!

Here is a photo of my Kinzel "Springtime" swatch. This was knit on 3.25mm Addi Turbo needles with Skacel's "Merino Fine."

click for larger view. (will open in pop-up window)

Audiobook I'm listening to: Prime Cut by Diane Mott Davidson.

It doesn't fit! I blocked my "Elizabeth" Faroese shawl this morning, and did get the job done, but I need to find a better solution than blocking on my bed. I went over the edges on three sides. Putting a king size bed in this apartment isn't an option. Maybe some sort of foldable blocking board.

It took me an hour and a half to block the shawl, using my Zonta wires and a lot of patience. I laughed at my goal last week to block on Tuesday morning before work. That was never going to happen!

Here's a detail of the back panel, which I think may be just a little wide. If I could start over fresh, I'd make it four repeats wide instead of five.

And here's a detail of the shoulder shaping: That straight line down the middle of the somewhat leaf-like form falls from the neck the shoulder, and then the diamond at the end sits right on the shoulder cap. I'll get a picture of this on the body when I model the shawl. I had always wondered just what it would look like, and was impressed all over again with the ingenuity of this shoulder shaping.

This is a a not-so-great photo of some new blocking pins that I bought from someplace (sorry, I don't remember where). I remember looking around to find pins that would hold the Zonta wires but wouldn't catch on the threads of the lace (like my T-pins often do). I was most impressed with these, they worked brilliantly. I think I might have found them at Woodland Woolworks. At least I do know that they're "blocking pins" and made by Clover!

I'm anxious to try it on again now that it's been blocked and see how that changed things. I think in my zeal to get the shawl big enough, I may have gotten it a little bigger than it needed to be. This is especially good to know as I embark on my Mother's shawl (soon!), as her shoulders are a little narrower than mine. My next goal is to have her shawl started and ready for her to try on for a fitting when I see her the last weekend of September. That will mean having the shoulder shaping complete, and the back panel as wide as I'm planning to make it.

I'll start adapting my Kinzel charts for a Faroese-style shawl this coming week. I feel like I'm more or less "on schedule." Hope so, anyway!

My current audiobook: The Ponder Heart by Eudora Welty

I seem to be moving like molasses through this week. With the change of season here, I am sleeping amazing numbers of hours, and I find myself scrambling to get myself fed and bathed before work in the mornings, much less finding time to block (or dress) my "Elizabeth" shawl. Maybe Saturday. That seems likely at this point.

Listening to: Rumpole of the Bailey by John Mortimer.