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?”

Yep, the Tilli Tomas Elsie yarn is 33% milk protein. I’m afraid I know nothing about fiber made from milk protein, nor have I ever had or knit with any before. To me the yarn looks like a silk wool blend.

I did find an interesting article about milk fiber, here.

And no, I did not think it was a coincidence that this yarn is called Elsie!

Weather

Yep, the 10-day forecast shows thunderstorms for the next ten days (today is just all-over grey and rainy). That’s typical for this area. It can be hot and sunny all day, but more often than not you can count on a late afternoon-early evening thunderstorm to roll through. We’ve been lucky so far this spring in that it hasn’t been too hot, but I’m sure we’ll be hitting 90 and beyond all too soon. I am not looking forward to that. Not a fan of hot weather.

Girasole

I’m knitting along and hope to be starting on Chart F tonight or tomorrow. Woo!

I’ve used up two 370-yard skeins and have just started the third skein.

What Lucy likes to do on rainy days:

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!