A little bit of catching up

So, I've been AWOL from this blog for a couple of months now as I got Lone/Maple Studio up and running, so I have lots of fun things to catch you up on.

First, the semi-secret project I was knitting for most of the summer was a beautiful pi shawl I knit for my sister's wedding which happened on October 5th.  Originally we thought it would work as a veil in her hair but it was too heavy (and the hair dresser though too delicate, although with 100% silk it is quite hearty) so she wore it as a shawl. 

She looked absolutely beautiful and my new brother-in-law looked suitably handsome. While we didn't have one of those bright autumn days, the weather was beautifully overcast and made for excellent photographs.

Blocking the shawl on my Queen-size bed.

I must say, knitting a 1000+ yd laceweight shawl was far less of a chore than I imagined.  While I have not (and will not) calculate the time it took me to make it, the quality of the yarn and the needles were such that even when a plain/resting round took me 45 minutes I was never really all that annoyed.  I will be certainly be making another in my future, although I'm not sure of the yarn or the occasion.

Taken immediately after binding off.

I'm really happy for my sister and brother-in-law, now I just needle to buckle down and start really knitting the Christmas stockings I promised them, guess I should get back to it.

Project Details - 

Project: Crossroads Wedding Pie 
Pattern: Heliotaxis Pi Shawl by Renata Brenner
Yarn: Handmaiden Lace Silk in Natural  (Which Carla picked up while she and Jim were on vacation in Eastern Canada in the summer of 2012.  I had to order a second skein to do the full project, but I'm saving the second portion for something special for her in the future)

Summer Slump

For the past couple of years I've found myself slowing down with my fiber habits and this year is no exception.  In the past I've associated it with different things, like a new job, always being on the trail, or just starting up with new hobbies, but I think after a third year of this I think I just don't have mojo in the summer. Work has been crazy and the last two weeks particularly so and while the heat from last week has broken, I've been totally listless in my fiber doings.

The one bright spot, is that I'm making some serious headway on Carla's shawl.  I was hoping to have it done by August 1st, but that's unlikely considering the week I have ahead of me, however I do expect it to be done in the next couple of weeks.

Also, my Dropcloth samplers have arrived, and I've been playing around with embroidery, which has been lots of fun.

I've been sorta spinning.  I got a new coffee table (and a television) two weeks ago and I haven't figured out the best spot to spin with the new furniture. But I'm making some headway on spinning Angel.  I want to have it done before our first guild meeting in September so I can show it off to Heather (the shepherd).  I don't think I'm going to make it back to the Rosseau Market this year, so I may have to email her to see if she has fluff for any other of her sheep because they are an AMAZING spin.  Also, there are little bits of VM (vegetable matter, mostly grass) in the fluff which reminds me of where yarn come from and makes me smile.

I also tried to distract myself with a bit of crochet and for some reason I wanted to make the African Flower hexagons.  They are fun to make but my heart just wasn't in it, so now I have some motifs with nothing to do, I might make a couple more and sew them together and give them to my friend Kristen's two-year old daughter Taylor who can use them for a doll/stuffed animal blanket.

I'm hoping to get Carla's shawl/veil done soon because I still need to knit myself a shawl as well as I haven't made a pair of socks in ages.  I've put most of my other knitting on hold to get this shawl done and I have a few things that have been taunting me for ages and stash that is just dying to be knit up.  However, my stash acquisition hasn't been too bad this year (and I've been destashing slowly) so I'm not feeling the relentless push to keep up with my stash this year, which is probably good for my mental health.

Six Months From Now

This little puppy, Toshie, is going to have married parents.  My sister Carla and her ... Jim ...  (I find the word fiancee a bit overwhelming and betrothed is just pretentious) are getting hitched on October 5th, and I'm so excited and happy for them.

So I have a big project ahead of me, I'm knitting her a wedding shawl. It is 100% silk lace custom dyed by Felicia Lo of Sweet Georgia Yarns and it showed up late last week.  I'm not sure of all the logistics from the dyeing, I'm just the knitter, but her shawl is a gorgeous gold color.  As a gift to me as her Knitter of Honor (and also I'm signing for her) she got me some silk lace yarn to make a shawl for myself in the other wedding color, aubergine.

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So I'm still finalizing the pattern I'll be knitting both these yarns into, but there are so many choices and I really want it to suit the dress (which is super pretty but a secret until the big day). So I will be spending a few more hours trolling Ravelry and deciding what I want the gorgeous yarns to become, but I will be casting on soon because I need this to be done by the mid-summer so I can finish up my own shawl and whatever wedding knitting comes my way.

FO: Rockberry Triangle

Sometimes it takes me a few tries to find the right pattern for a yarn, this was one of those yarns.  But once they found each other, this yarn a locally raised and spun yarn from Pondering Rock Farms and the Juneberry Triangle pattern by Jared Flood, it was magic.

I've been wearing this shawl pretty well non-stop since I finished it back in January.  It is quite scratchy by modern standards (ie. superwash Wools and super-fine merinos) but it has a delightfully rustic hand. The yarn is all naturally colored, and this yarn is from Valentine, and blended with alpacas from an adjacent farm in Rosseau, Ontario.

I can't wait for Heather to open up her stand this spring at our local markets to get more of her naturally colored yarns, which she offers in fingering through worsted weights and in different colors based on her flock, and a Lopi-style bulky weight she dyes in small batches in vibrant colors.  I have a few patterns picked out already, including Ashby by Leila Raabe, which is designed to work with Brooklyn Tweed SHELTER.  I find this to be the closest commercially available yarn to the Pondering Rock Farms worsted weight.

I'm looking forward to making more worsted weight shawls because they are fantastic in Muskoka winters, which are really not THAT cold and it is a rustic, fashionable, local yarn kind town.

Project notes on Ravelry: Rockberry Triangle

FO: Thyme

Doing FO posts has been a staple for me since I started this blog, however I haven't written one in 2013, despite finishing 13 projects, and two yarns, so far this year.  I've been finding the prospect of writing all those posts mightily overwhelming and so this will be the last FO post in this complete style I will be posting for a while.  I'm going to do some combined project posts, some mostly-photos posts and some of my usual blogging to get through my project backlog.  The only reason that this and the Tokyo Cream Cowl post, which went up earlier today, were formatted like this was because they were done back in December & January.

Another challenge I was having with my FO posts was the fact that I live in Ontario, the big windows in my apartment face north.  Which means there is very little direct sunlight with which to photograph my knits and that light is almost non-existant when I'm home (eg. evenings).

So this shawl, which I finished in December and I have been wearing happily ever since, only got photographed this past week, now that the days are getting longer and we are having more sunny days.  SO the lace isn't as perfectly stretched as it was after it's blocking, but it looks as pretty to me as when it was first finished.

- Details -

Project Name: Thyme

Pattern: Flukra by Gudrun Johnston from The Shetland Trader

Recipient: Mine, mine, all mine

Yarn: madelinetosh Tosh Lace in Thyme

Modifications:

• None - I actually followed the pattern.

New Skills:

• Shetland Shawl Construction - The center garter triangle is an interesting way to create a shawl and helps break up the monotony of shawl knitting by changing the direction fairly regularly.
• True Garter Lace - The way the lace section works you are essentially doing garter lace (rather than stockinette) and the patterning is on every row.
• Knitted on Border - LOVE IT!  As someone who has issues with tight bind offs the knitted on border is kind of genius and I will be seeking out other shawls that use this technique

Feedback:

• Yarn - This Tosh lace has been hanging over my head for a while, I first wound it into a ball almost 2 years and I made at least 3 attempts to knit it into the first pattern I picked.  However, after getting a chance to actually knit it, I really enjoy the yarn.
• Pattern - The pattern was great.  There are some tricky parts the pattern (mostly the Shetland construction that I wasn't familiar with) and the pattern gives all the information I needed to finish the pattern. I'm very excited to try more of her patterns, including more shawls.

Re-Knit?: No, but I have a very similar pattern by Gudrun in my queue and am on the lookout for a nice yarn to make it out of.