Tag Archives: Shetland Tea Shawl

STTS

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

Stitches was a blast and I am still recovering from the wealth of information and OMG! the market. It was a dark and rainy weekend in Chi town and the weather followed me home. I actually had to pull over twice the skies were so dark and the rain so thick. Mind you it was between 1 and 7 pm. Power was down in some areas of St Louis when I got home and my computer needed a reboot which didn’t occur til Thursday~ the radio silence really was all about timing last week.

During the interim I finished STTS. I keep thinking I should maybe block her before I show her but lets make it a before and after dealie…. Before:

Image431.jpg

There is some serious 3-D stuff going on in this shawl:

Image432.jpg

See all the bloops around first lace pattern~ before increase round? The epitome of peaks. Again near the increase round of second lace pattern and the third lace pattern is all lumpy bumpy. This probably means I will be blocking sooner than later to see how it all looks in the end. For the edging BO and sewing together I substituted the Russian Graft technique I learned at Stitches and I am gonna close up when it is blocked to decide how much we lurv it. OK I could go on and on about stuff from last week but then what would we blog about the rest of week hmmmmmmm? Til tomorrow~

yarny days and knitterly evenings ;^>

 

It’s All About Timing

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

First off a big Mwah to all who sent cards and notes. They really did help keep me in good cheer.

Being the bad blogger that I am I didn’t take pictures of all the work stuff I completed and sent off. No pictures of the Shell for LB or kid sweaters for Unique Colours. I didn’t mean to be a bad blogger. Yesterday I was thinking ok take some pictures for blog~ check. Look at clock hmmmmmmm bad time to blog lets wait til later tonight but I forgot. Then today I was ugh Friday already I might as well wait til Monday since there will be no progress by then leaving me blog fodderless. It really is all about timing over here. But I did have pictures and might as well. Hey don’t forget I am going to Stitches next week so dont expect anything Thursday onward OK? I will try really hard to find something of interest for beginning of week. Anyway the pictures with lead in….

Semi-regularly I get asked ‘Do you really wear shawls?’ Why yes I do. Actually I might stop wearing shawls cause I wear them to sit on my porch and smoke. The very glamourous reason shawls were invented I am sure. Don’t forget Im a SAHM of 3 wee ones so I don’t really have occassion to wear them and I do knit them rather obsessively. Oh so I might have to stop wearing shawls cause I am trying to Quit smoking. Day 5 here. But there is the shawl obsession which preceeds summer of or whatever other knit along you can think of. I am currently working on two shawls which you very well know if you have been paying any sorta attention. Shetland Tea Time was last mentioned when I had 15 out of 115 edging repeats done. I took pictures yesterday when I had finished another 25 repeats[40/115] so here she is:

Image421.jpg

Not very glam at all and I suspect one reason some people don’t knit shawls at all. I mean you look at a picture of some loverly gossamer bit of gauze and you get some crumpled up bit of bleh. We all know that the transformation occurs during blocking but since shawls are not gauge dependent some enjoy knitting them sans gauging and can get a teeny bit concerned Here is a picture of a semi stretched out shawl to reassure my temid self:

Image422.jpg

The second shawl? Spiderweb shawl. Just as I am a bit over a quarter done on the edging for STT I am also a bit over a quarter done with center panel:

Image423.jpg

Oh yeah baby that looks so gooooooooood. Natch. Grab kidlet and take another picture to reassure oneself before getting to end and get this:

Image424.jpg

Livin’ the vida loca~ yarny days and knitterly evenings to all, Elka

Thwarted

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

Hmmmmmmmm so I finished the shawl and had to decide on what to work on next. Consulting my WIP roundup with the knowledge that Colinette garment yarn was due any minute I decided upon Michelle’s Mahrvelous Dahrlink socks. I kinda wanted to work on the top down [ha ha ha] but figured that if I managed to get the sleeve pick up correct I wouldn’t remember how for the second with a project in between. Socks it was. I was about 20 rows short of toe shaping on first sock last Sunday night. Looksie where I was late last night:

Image409.jpg

Ummmmmmm thats the second sock~ I am not that slow. Do you see that? The kitchnering together toe stitches point and only a few inches of thread before a knot in yarn.  Well I spit spliced and can only hope this machine washable yarn holds cause I certainly lurv the socks:

Image411.jpg

Unfortunately the colors came out wrong. Super unfortunately cause I rudely mentioned to Gina that I loved the colors and asked if she could take the base and do a little sumthin sumthin for me. Oh yeah I am that rude but hey when you know a superior colorist and they offer to dye up some yarn for ya what are you gonna do? Oh there is one problem with the socks~ my gauge was looser than for my CTH and the sock a bit more roomy. I don’t think there is enough leftover for me to go down a needle size next pair out of this particular yarn….. Wild Raspberry Bearfoot sock yarn by Mountain Colours BTW.

Ok so being aggravated by le knot I couldn’t very well sleep so picked up Shetland Tea Time shawl aka the neverending knit of epic proportions. Thwarted again!  I couldn’t find my chart much less where I was on nowhere to be found chart. A trip to XRX corrections site and Thwarted yet again. The printer dies. Hmmm well it did print the page before the needed chart. I was up til 5 am staring at my screen and knitting…..

Living the vida loca and hoping you aren’t~ yarny days and knitterly evening y’alls