By Wendy on January 11, 2010
Well, I sat down yesterday afternoon after posting to my blog to knit the first row of my Enchanted Woods shawl and after knitting across approximately 360 stitches (out of 375) discovered that there was an error in the first row of the pattern. I emailed The Unique Sheep and alerted them to it, and they corrected the pattern on the pdf that you download.
(By the way, they posted about this correction in the Ravelry group but did not send out an email for this error as they did for the previous error in the cast-on. So if you downloaded the first clue within about 14 hours of it being initially posted, you need to download it again to get the corrected pattern. The latest pattern as I write this says “updated 2:04pm 1/10/10 at the bottom of each page.)
Anyhow, I sat down to tink back and discovered my work was pretty much, well, un-tink-able. 
The combination of the somewhat “sticky” yarn — I was using the Luxe, which is a wool/silk blend — with the lace cast-on used in the pattern meant I had to suck it up and pull it off the needles to rip it out completely.
At that point I lost interest.
I was planning on doing this knit-along purely for entertainment, and I loathe ripping out, so I decided to set it aside until such point as the pattern is complete. Hopefully all errors will be caught by then.
(There was a question in the comments about the lack of beads on my cast-on — I was doing the unbeaded version as I’m not a big fan of beaded knitting.)
Anyhow, I conveniently had a draft pattern of one of my own designs waiting in the wings, so I dug out the yarn I’d bought for it and cast on something different.
The yarn is Madeline Tosh sock yarn in the “Baltic” colorway. I believe made a brief appearance on my blog after I purchased it a couple of weeks ago.
And the pattern is going to be for a shawlette. I seem to be on a shawlette kick lately, don’t I?
Speaking of shawlettes, my Aestlight accompanied me to work today. I wore it over my coat like a big scarf — this is one of my favorite uses for shawls. It was pretty darn cold today so I was happy to have it!
Lucy sez:
“Darn right it was pretty darn cold today! It’s a good thing you got me this sheepskin!
Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged colorway, first clue, shawls, silk blend, waiting in the wings, yesterday afternoon
By Wendy on January 10, 2010
Yesterday I finished my Aestlight Shawl.
When I finished the body of it and looked at the edging chart, I decided I really didn’t care for the pattern as written, so I subbed my own edging. It’s actually the edging I winkled together for The Exonumist’s Shawl (Ravelry link).
Before blocking, my Aestlight had a wingspan of 54 inches and measured 22 inches down the center back.
After blocking, its wingspan increased to a whopping 84 inches and the length grew to 36″ down the center back.
It looks a little lopsided in the blocking photo — that’s due to the angle. After crawling around on my hands and knees to pin it out and adjust it I felt a bit woozy and was disinclined to stand on a chair to achieve a proper bird’s-eye shot.
I made the larger size from the pattern and it used just over 1.5 skeins of Dragonfly Fibers Dragon Sock.
It’ll no doubt shrink a little after I unpin it, because I’ve stretched it out to within an inch of its life.
And a couple of minutes past midnight last night, I started the cast-on for the Enchanted Wood Shawl.
But I’ll talk about that tomorrow.
New Book
Thanks for all your kind comments about my upcoming book. I’m so pleased that so many of you have pre-ordered it! I do hope you are going to love it as much as I do!
For those of you who were concerned because there are no photos of Lucy in the book, rest assured that she is not being ignored. In fact, she has been immortalized by a famous painter and her likeness is where it belongs, in a museum, where she can be admired by millions.
See?
Lucy Sez:
“No comment.”
Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged enchanted wood, famous painter, hands and knees, kind comments, shawl, skeins
By Wendy on January 7, 2010
A bunch of you asked for more information about my upcoming book, Toe-Up Socks for Every Body.
Part One of the book contains basic information for sock knitters, including tools you need, knitting socks to fit, and essential information about the patterns in the book, tips on reading charts, ans some information about creating your own socks designs.
In Part Two, there are twenty-one sock patterns, divided into 3 sections: lace, cables, colorwork. Each of these sections includes step-by-step instructions for techniques used for its patterns. There is a section about adapting patterns to knit knee-socks, and a couple of the patterns are written for multiple options for length. With a couple of exceptions, there is a wide range of sizes for the patterns. There are designs exclusively for men, women, and children, plus a number that are uni-sex and . . . um . . . uni-age.
And there is an appendix that contains step-by-step instructions for toe-up techniques.
No, there are no photos of Lucy in the book. Sorry. But wait til you see the models — they are gorgeous. The little girl who models the children’s socks is absolutely adorable.
SallyA asked how it is different from the first sock book. Well, for starters, twenty-one new patterns. And instructions for techniques that aren’t covered in the first book (lace stitches, cabling without a cable needle, and colorwork techniques). And it contains an all-new set of my tips and tricks.
The patterns are, to my mind, more sophisticated. They range from pretty easy to knit to challenging. I look at the first book as a more basic “how-to knit toe-up socks” with fairly easy patterns.
So there you have it. My take on the new book. I am very very happy with it and I hope those of you who buy it will be too.
Because I read it cover to cover last night (twice), I did not do much knitting. But I did make a little progress on Aestlight.
And hopefully it will be close to finished the next time you see it!
Lucy appears to be ready for the weekend.
Me too.
Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged cable needle, knee socks, knitting socks, men women, sock book, sock knitters, sock patterns
By Wendy on January 6, 2010
Not the brand of vegetables, the lace pattern.
I finally made it to the Bird’s Eye Lace portion of the Aestlight Shawl.
I would have made more progress had I not done something stupid halfway through the first repeat. As I knit I realized that the holes in the pattern weren’t lining up properly, so I had to backtrack and see where I had messed up. I’d dropped the second yarnover on one of the motifs so I was off by one stitch. I managed to repair it without having to rip back, so all’s well that ends well!
I’m trying to time the completion of this shawl to coincide with the start of the Enchanted Wood Knit-Along. I’m too lazy to read the posts in the Ravelry group, but L-B tells me that the first clue will be emailed to us just after midnight this Saturday night.
I guess I could wind up some of my yarn in preparation. 
But at the moment I’m too distracted to even think about such mundane tasks. Look what I got today:
On preview copy of my new book Toe-Up Socks For Everybody, which is coming out on March 23rd. I am very very excited but Lucy doesn’t seem to be too concerned about it, does she?
Bonus shot — the back cover!
Lucy seems a bit more interested — I guess she likes colorwork socks better than lace.
Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged backtrack, enchanted wood, first clue, lace pattern, preview copy, ravelry, shawl, vegetables
By Wendy on January 5, 2010
Several of you asked where I got the little pillow pictured in yesterday’s post. Mine was a gift, but by googling the phrase “no outfit is complete without cat hair” I found this. Looks like there is only one in stock as I write this.
I am woefully short on knitting progress today. I’m working on something unbloggable as my commuter project, and I did very little work on my Aestlight Shawl last night.
I did do the first row of the lace, though.
Because I have little knitting progress to report, allow me to distract you with a birthday gift I received, from the very thoughtful and generous Anne Marie in Philly:
This is a lovely quilted knitting bag that Anne Marie had made especially for me for my birthday! (Anne Marie sure knows what my favorite color is 
)
The bag is from My Sister’s Bags, and I love it. Thank you, Anne Marie!
Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged birthday gift, cat hair, favorite color, knitting bag, lace, phrase, shawl, stock
Aestlight Shawl
By Wendy on January 10, 2010
Yesterday I finished my Aestlight Shawl.
When I finished the body of it and looked at the edging chart, I decided I really didn’t care for the pattern as written, so I subbed my own edging. It’s actually the edging I winkled together for The Exonumist’s Shawl (Ravelry link).
Before blocking, my Aestlight had a wingspan of 54 inches and measured 22 inches down the center back.
After blocking, its wingspan increased to a whopping 84 inches and the length grew to 36″ down the center back.
It looks a little lopsided in the blocking photo — that’s due to the angle. After crawling around on my hands and knees to pin it out and adjust it I felt a bit woozy and was disinclined to stand on a chair to achieve a proper bird’s-eye shot.
I made the larger size from the pattern and it used just over 1.5 skeins of Dragonfly Fibers Dragon Sock.
It’ll no doubt shrink a little after I unpin it, because I’ve stretched it out to within an inch of its life.
And a couple of minutes past midnight last night, I started the cast-on for the Enchanted Wood Shawl.
But I’ll talk about that tomorrow.
New Book
Thanks for all your kind comments about my upcoming book. I’m so pleased that so many of you have pre-ordered it! I do hope you are going to love it as much as I do!
For those of you who were concerned because there are no photos of Lucy in the book, rest assured that she is not being ignored. In fact, she has been immortalized by a famous painter and her likeness is where it belongs, in a museum, where she can be admired by millions.
See?
Lucy Sez:
“No comment.”
Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged enchanted wood, famous painter, hands and knees, kind comments, shawl, skeins