GKAS Project Specs (and What's Next)

The Goddess Knits Anniversary Shawl specs:

Size: 62" in diameter

Yarn: Jojoland Harmony - Colorway 06
(I used 2 balls, plus a little more of a third. This is a cobweb weight yarn. The colors are spun in an ombre fashion where one color is mixed with the next before it changes completely into the next, like Noro.)

Needles: Knitpicks Options - Size 4
(I love the points on these. You also have the option of threading a lifeline through the tightening hole and drawing it through the stitches as you knit. I used it for drawing the crochet cotton through so I could stretch it out for photos.)

Pattern choices:
Clue 1: A
Clue 2: B
Clue 3: D
Clue 4: D
Clue 4.5: Doubled again. Clue 2/A Rows 1-16
Clue 5: Edging as written. 192 repeats!
(I was going to morph clue 2 A and B together for Clue 4.5 as an enlarging option. It was just too much for me though. I think if I had made Clue 4.5 wider, the diameter of the shawl would have been larger and my edging points would have had more room to be blocked out at a diagonal, instead of being pulled straighter down in long points as I had to block them. By that time, each row was well over a thousand stitches. There are 192 repeats of the edging.)

This is a great pattern and it was a lot of fun to do it as a mystery lace knit-a-long. I highly recommend trying a Goddess Knits KAL for yourself.

Check out the other beautiful patterns on her website.

So what to do after all the excitement it over? Well, after I knit a little bit with some heavier yarn to clear my head, I'm going to start another KAL!

The Mystery Stole 4 KAL! Yay! My first mystery lace KAL was the MS3, the Swan Lake stole. It turned out beautifully and had beads! This year stole will also feature beads. I've been trying to match up beads and yarn. Here are some photos. *Disclaimer*-These photos have not been through SAP, the Sister Approval Process. I couldn't decide which one I liked better of the top two so I put them both in, even though I am not using these beads.

When I bought these beads, they looked just perfect. They are matte, but have a rainbow effect coating on them. (Gnatly, what are these kinds of beads called?) They match the yarn perfectly, but too perfectly--they blend in and disappear. I didn't even try a swatch with them.

Pretty, with feather, no?
I was sad about this until I remembered that my mom had given me some beads many years ago. They were left over from when she made some gorgeous crochet beaded clutch purses. She made them when I was 5 or 6 years old! These are some old beads! She bought them when my dad was stationed in Okinawa. There are three different kinds on this swatch. From the top is clear turquoise, then cobalt, then black. They had a shiny rainbow/oil slick color surface coating. (What are these called, Knatly?)

Can you all see them well enough in this photo to help me choose? I was wondering if I could use them all, you know, start with the darkest ones on the ends and get lighter? Opinions, please!

GK Anniversary Shawl Photo Spread!

Ta DA!

Okay, perhaps if I had stayed up a little later and checked my e-mail, I would have gotten the e-mail from my sister. Did I tell you I have the best sister in the world? She got on my Flickr, oh, about midnight, and left me humorous comments. These are her top picks. Thanks, Amy! I love you, man!

The next one won in the "roundness" category. Heh heh.

I am so happy to be finished with this beauty. I wore it around the house last night for fun. I need to go grocery shopping and do laundry as well as other mundane tasks right now. I may post again this evening to give project specs and talk a little about this shawl.

The Lure of Lace

It's been so long since I've posted. Thanks to those of you that haven't given up on me and e-mailed. DH and I are settling in here and things are starting to feel normal again and not like I am on some extended vacation. For a time there was no knitting being done, though there was yarn buying, but I am making up for that, now.

I am in a state of finish-itis, which I suppose is better than being in a state of start-tis. But, perhaps, this finish-itis has come upon me because of the guilt I know I would feel if I let the start-itis that is lurking behind it come to the forefront before finishing some more ufo's! But, before I tell you what I'm working on, let me show you a few yarn acquisitions.


I had to find out what all the noise about Tofutsies was about. That was my first purchase. You can see it was around Easter time. This is from my new LYS in Knoxville.


On a trip to Lexington, I found some sock yarn for DH. He's a drab color kind of guy.


Back in Knoxville, I found some really gorgeous lace weight called Jojoland Harmony. The colors seem to blend like trekking in an ombre fashion. I can't wait to find the perfect lace pattern. I've seen some really pretty things people have made out of it on Ravelry. The other sparkly stuff was on sale. I know I'll find something to do with it one day.

So what have I been working on? I put away the wrap sweater for a little while, because I've been itching to work on some lace again. I made some progress on my Heere Be Dragone shawl.

I am actually, farther along than this photo shows. I've started the wings. This pattern is so much fun. Every part of the creature is made from a different textured lace stitch. I am not so much fond of dragons as I was interested in learning the techniques used in this kind of pictoral lace knitting. The horizontal stitch is my favorite thing I learned from this shawl and it's so useful.

I was almost tempted to use lifelines making this shawl, but being kind of lazy and never using them before, I've just been knitting happily (and sometimes frustratingly) along. I find fixing lace mistakes kind of fun and challenging, especially if you have to drop (on purpose or not on purpose) down some stitches to repair something a row or two down. What a weirdo! The most difficult thing for me is to remember while knitting this pattern is that on the even numbered rows you still have to pay close attention to the last charted row, because there are some stitches that have to be slipped and they are not marked on the even row.

Yesterday, I put this shawl (which I am calling, The Green Dragon, in honor of the tavern by the same name in, Hobbiton, from Tolkien's trilogy) aside in order to finish the Peacock Feathers Shawl that I started long ago. I am now on the border, and should be done with it tonight. This is that variegated mess that I will be over-dying in order to bring the gorgeous lace pattern back out to the forefront.

Next post, which will be very soon, maybe even tonight, I will show you what I have been up to with yarn purchased from Laura at Drooling Over Yarn.