Wendy Knits

I was interested to read y’all’s comments about milk protein fiber as a component of yarn. As the Tilli Tomas Elsie is my first experience with a yarn that has milk protein as part of its makeup (it’s equal parts moo, silk, and wool) I did not have any pre-conceived ideas or opinions about it. The yarn is very pretty and feels nice, and has no unusual aroma that I can detect. When I start knitting with it I will report my experience.

There were a few Girasole questions yesterday:

Lynne E. left this comment on yesterday’s blog post:

I have a question about the Girasole pattern. You mentioned before that you were up to the maximum stitch count, but you seemed to have the entire border left to knit. How is it possible to knit a circular item from the center out, without having to increase at regular intervals as you move outward? Is the border lace pattern so stretchy that you can just block the border ferociously and get a circular piece?

This shawl pattern is based on the same principle as the famous Pi Shawl, by Elizabeth Zimmermann. Having knit a Pi Shawl in the past, I can tell you it works. However, I am no mathematician, so shall not attempt to explain the underlying principle.

Laura asked:

What kind of join do you use for a new ball when knitting lace?

When there are a few inches left on the current ball of yarn, I simply hold the “old” yarn doubled with the strand of the “new” yarn and knit a few stitches with this double strand.

Timmie asked:

My prediction was that you’d finish Girasole by weekend–are you going to make it?

Absolutely not! But barring any knitting atrocities, I will be on Chart G by the weekend.

However, I did make some good progress on Girasole today. We had a fairly major train delay this morning that tacked 45 minute on my morning commute. Forty-five minutes of extra Girasole knitting time!

By the way, have y’all noticed that I have no socks on the needles and haven’t for a full week? Am I going through sock withdrawal? Or am I sick of socks and renouncing them as the devil’s playthings? Have I taught Lucy to knit socks in my stead?

Tune in next week for answers to these burning questions and other inanities.

Lucy sez:

“Wait . . . did she just call me an inanity?”

The weather report for the foreseeable future:

It’s thunderstorm season!

And here is Girasole, being worn as a hat.

It’s looking pretty much the same as it did yesterday — just a few more rounds done. (The color is off because of the lighting in the room.)

Meanwhile, check out this yummy yarn I got in the mail yesterday:

This is Tilli Tomas Elsie, which is a silk/wool/milk protein blend. I purchased it last week at kpixie — they had it on sale. Isn’t the color yummy?

I’m toying with the idea of putting together a circular shawl design. This is a worsted weight yarn, so it’ll be more of a blanket or throw than a shawl. I’ve got ten skeins of the yarn — 1350 yards, so it’s enough to make something fairly large.

And here is Lucy, looking somewhat Sphinx-like:

She reiterates that she loves the a/c!

I cast on Girasole Thursday night.

Rather than use a circular cast-on like Emily Ocker’s cast-on, I simply did a regular long-tail cast-on on three dpns and joined them into a circle and began to knit. Because this is a lace piece, I don’t mind having a hole in the middle. Rather, I like the little ring that’s formed by this cast-on.

That’s what the piece looked like Saturday morning. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can see how nice it looks with the little ring in the center. I was transferring it from a 24″ circular to a 32″ and was able to spread it out nicely. I’m loving the yarn I chose to use — Indigo Moon fingering weight merino in the “MyroGreen Lite” colorway. The lighter variegation sort of look like the sun is shining on it.

Here’s what the piece looks like right now:

Obviously, I can no longer spread it out into a nice circle. I’m a bit over two-thirds the way through Chart D and zipping along nicely. Said zipping along will screech to a halt at the end of Chart D, because at that point you double the number of stitches to 640. Yeah, that’ll slow things down!

I estimate (judging from the amount of yarn I’ve used so far) I’m about one-third done with my Girasole. I’m really enjoying knitting this. It’s very easy lace and the pattern is very clear and easy to follow, so if you are a lace wannabe or newbie, I encourage you to give it a try.

Meanwhile, Lucy is busy being inscrutable.