Progress on the pink blob!

I've picked up my grandma's shawl I'm working on for Christmas and I'm plugging away on it again. A refresher... this is the 1840 Sampler Shawl from the fabulous book Victorian Lace Today (Jane Sowerby). Here's my ravelry link (clicky-clicky).



I'm still enjoying the sampler format, it keeps it fresh. I've made enough triangular shawls to get a bit bored with them and want a change. I'm enjoying the rows that all stay the same length, instead of getting hopelessly and impossibly long as the shawl progresses.

To celebrate being 1/2 way done with the body of the shawl (that's the shawl excluding the knitted on border) I decided to lay it out on the carpet and see if I could get it to stay stretched out so I could have a look at it. I love lace, it's like magic when you get it all stretched out, and seeing it like this makes me that much more anxious to get it finished and blocked. I hope the enthusiasm sticks for a while. :)

Bonus, it looks like I might have enough yarn to do the border in this yarn, but if not, I'm OK with doing it in a different shade. I am, really, so, you know, I'm not tempting fate with my optimism. Not at all. Really.

Here's a detail on one of the lace patterns... it's so delicate! Two of the sampler patterns are patterned on both sides (instead of all purls on the wrong side). It's much more fiddly to do decreases like that in purl, and reading the knitting is a little harder for me that way because I'm less used to it, but the results are well worth it...



How many knitting days till Chrsitmas?

dishcloths complete!

Remember that thing I said about weaving being much faster than knitting? I can't believe those dishcloths are DONE already. Wasn't it last week that I was just finishing up the first one? Anyway, now it's a matching set of four, off the loom, finished, washed, etc. Here is the Weavolution page for it!



I think I will always be surprised at how much unmercerized cotton shrinks, although it really wasn't all that much. The finished dimensions were about 15 X20 (not including a bit of fringe on the ends). Before taking them off the loom, they were measuring in at just over 17 wide by 22 inches long. I set everything up at 15 ends per inch and 18 inches wide, so overall I lost about 3 inches of width, but I still think I have some nice dishcloths in terms of size and porportion. I almost always forget to account for shrinkage, in pretty much any craft. You'd think I would have learned better by now. Ceramics should successfully teach that lesson to anyone, I must be really stubborn.



These were super fun, and I'm already planning the next project. Hopefully one that really lets me sink my teeth into something a bit more complicated. Given that I've been making everything in plain weave that shouldn't be too much of a stretch :)

I have to get back to knitting that big pink shawl for grandma, and there's my sister's christmas present to get to (from last christmas... doh! good thing I made a substitute fair isle hat when I gave up on finishing the sweater on time), and that pair of socks out of noro kureon sock I'm making for myself... perhaps weaving only goes fast because I am forced to stick to one project on the loom at a time?

speed weaving!

OK... so I just recently started weaving, and I'm probably not that fast at it as far as weavers go... but I'm coming new to the craft after knitting and crochet. Man, does it seem to go fast. Two weeks ago I decided to make a set of dishcloths (probably for my sister, but I'm not sure) and after spending about a week on and off getting the warp measured and on the loom, a few days with a few on and off hours of work now have me almost done with the first cloth. It's plain weave with a bit of plaid/stripe at the edges. I like it. Eventually I'll have to do something with this fancy 8-shaft loom except for miles of plain weave (and a little bit of point twill) but for now I'm still thinking this is pretty awesome.



here's a little preview... I measured enough warp to make four of them. I think I'll use the inkle loom to make little hanging loops that match perfectly.