Here it is pre-blocking.

It measures 22″ wide by 50″ long.

The b locking photo is sort of boring because the lace does not show up well on my black foam blocking board. But here you go.

It now measures 26″ wide by 66″ long.

When I unpin it I promise better photos.

I knit this from two skeins of MadelineTosh Tosh Sock with this much left over:

As I mentioned before in the blog, I will offer this pattern together with the Chevron Stole pattern that I completed last month. Just have to get the final pattern details done.

You gotta love a Two-fer.

I have started said stole and here it is.

This is more Madelinetosh Tosh Sock yarn, this in the “logwood” colorway. The stole will take more yarn than the shawlette, so I bought two skeins. But it is great fun to knit. The rows seem to zip by quickly because they are not growing. They are all x number of stitches, so I know exactly how long each row will take me. I find that somehow comforting.

And Check This Out

I did a guest post for the Potter Craft “Crafter News” blog that is posted today. Check it out here. And as a bonus, you can download a pattern for Bouquet Socks, one of the designs from my upcoming book!

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Lucy hasn’t murdered any more of her toys.

She looks very ladylike, doesn’t she?

As soon as this baby is off the needles, I will cast on for the Chevron Stole. Conveniently, the yarn I have planned to use for the Chevron stole arrived in my Loopy Ewe order today.

I do so like it when a plan works out well.

This new yarn is once again Madelinetosh Tosh Sock, this one in the “Logwood” colorway. I have two skeins of it, because I think the stole will take more than one skein.

From time to time people ask me what I do with all these shawlettes. A girl can only wear so many shawls, right? I always keep a couple at the office for starters. and the smaller ones I’ve been making lately make great scarves. I do give some of them away. And right now, three of them (Argus, Seaside, and Miss Woodhouse) are visiting for the next few weeks over at fibre space.

Lucy has indicated that her own fluffy fur coat is sufficient for her, thank you.

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.”

A cellphone beanbag chair!

Here is Lucy’s favorite new toy:

A tear strip from a box. Gotta love kitties!

Right before Christmas I put my Talisman Shawl pattern up for sale on Ravelry for $5.00 for a pdf download. Here is the direct link.

And I finished Ishbel. Here it is on Gwendolyn, shown draped over the Talisman Shawl, which is draped over my Exonumist’s Shawl:

A close-up:

And a floor shot:

I knit the larger size and used Dragonfly Fibers Dragon Sock in the Green Riptide colorway, on a U.S. 6 needle. It used about 1.5 skeins of the yarn. I didn’t wet-block it — just steamed it with my trusty steam-iron.

And I started something new.

Can you guess what it is?

Lucy sez:

“Now where is my tear-strip?”

A couple of you asked when the pattern would be available. I’m working on it as we speak.

And a couple of you were spot-on about what my new project is:

Ishbel, by Ysolda Teague.

Yeah, I don’t knit a lot of things by other designers, but this is my Christmas break knitting. I’m not designing, just happily following a pattern.

I am using a lovely lovely yarn from Dragonfly Fibers called Dragonsock:

The colorway is called “Green Riptide.” It’s pretty much heaven in a skein for a lover of all things green, like me.

I bought two skeins of it when I visited Fibrespace last month, with the thought of using it for a shawl or shawlette. So I’ve got 780 yards, which is plenty for the larger-sized Ishbel.

I’m using a U.S. size 4 needle and am loving the fabric that makes on the stockinette section.

In other news, I went into work today. The government was offering unscheduled leave for today, but today was my last day at work before my holiday leave — I’m off until January 4 — and there were a few loose ends I needed to tie up. The commute went fine as the streets around me are pretty much clear. The only issue was the train station parking lot. Black ice on asphalt in the dark makes me extremely nervous. I crept along and got to the sidewalk without any slipping or falling, so all is well.

And now I’m home, home, home. Not that I’m happy about that or anything.

Just for fun, here is a photo of a chair full of stuffed animals.

Or is it?

I did make some good organizational in-roads into the stash yesterday, but got sidetracked by switching my closets from summer to winter. Still, I can see the bed in the stash room, so that’s a start.

But all this industrious organization means that little knitting got done. However, I’m about done with my first skein of Mini Maiden on the Two-Thirds Shawl.

I’ve got two skeins and each skein is about 550 yards. So at this point I’m more than halfway done with the shawl because I don’t anticipate using the entire second skein.  The shawl is measuring about 15″ (unblocked) down from the center back at this point. I don’t plan on blocking it too aggressively, and I don’t think I want it more than 22 — 24″ long. So I am poised for last minute adjustments to my pattern.

I did actually knit a bit on my Bamboo sock.

It is knit from Wollmeise 100% merino superwash, which has 575 yards per skein, so I can pretty much knit this baby with as long a leg as I want. I think I’ll keep going for at least a couple more inches.

I may finish this sock before I leave for Oklahoma on Thursday, in which case I’ll cast on the second sock and take just that one along for travel knitting.

The suspense is killing me.

When I got home from work today and picked up my packages from the condo office, this is what they handed me:

It was just one of those days . . .

Meanwhile, Lucy is showing off her fluffy little “cataloons:”

You can tell by the vacuum cleaner tracks in the carpet that my cleaning lady was here today. I love her.

The pre-blocking dimensions (unstretched) are 44″ across the top and 21″ down the center back.

And here it is pinned out and blocking:

After blocking, it is 66″ across the top, and 30″ down the center back.

It’s a more-than-a-triangle shawl — extra increases on the top/front edge make a shape that stays nicely on the shoulders.

It took 2 skeins of Tempted Yarns Luxe Grrl yarn (a total of 500 yards), knit on a US size 7 (4.5mm) needle. I started this on September 29, and finished it yesterday — so it took me 5 days. I was working on other projects at the same time, so as you can see, this is a very quick knit! And fun too — nothing difficult about it. If you can work a k2tog, an ssk, and a yarnover, you can knit this shawl.

The pattern will be available soon — as part of a shawl kit from Tempted Yarns. Stacy asked me if I would do a design for her Luxe Grrl yarn — that’s the yummy cashmere blend — so she could put together shawl kits. This shawl is the result. I think this would be a great item to knit as a holiday gift — it’s a quick and fun knit so you’ll be abe to whip it up in no time.

Stacy is busily dyeing up a bunch of colorways in the Luxe Grrl yarn, so the kit will be available soon. I’ll keep you posted here on its availability, and Stacy will be posting in her Ravelry group as well.

Lucy is worn out from supervising the blocking process.

The Exonumist’s Shawl is now available for sale via download from my new Ravelry pattern shop. It costs $5.00, payable via Paypal and is delivered to you as a pdf download. If you are not on Ravelry, you can purchase it here:

I’ve put the link to the “Buy Now” button over in the left sidebar for now. If I add more patterns to the Ravelry shop, I’ll need to add a “patterns for sale” page, methinks.

To recap, this shawl is knit from a light fingering weight yarn (Ella Rae Lace Merino) on a US 4 (3.5mm) needle, at an unblocked gauge of 5 st/inch. I used just under 3 skeins at 460 yards per skein. I’m estimating 1380 – 1400 yards for the pattern.

Unblocked it is 45″ in diameter. You can block it out to at least 60″. To make it a bit larger, you can knit more rounds of the last body pattern (adjusting of course your yarn amounts.)

It is knit in the round, starting from a longtail cast-on in the center of the shawl.

On to the Shawl at Hand

Last night I transferred the Order to Chaos shawl from my 32″ needle to a 40″ needle, and took this photo mid-transfer.

Ah, roomier!

I am hauling this bad boy to work with me every day to work on during the commute and during my lunch break. Bow down and worship the mighty air-conditioning, for without it my knitting progress would be almost non-existent.

So.

Last night I was ensconced on the couch, knitting along, and happened to glance down. This is what I saw:

It just cracks me up when she lies like that.

Lucy sez:

“Hey! What’s so funny?”

I wasn’t terribly productive yesterday — a bit of laundry, a blog post, and a lot of naps interspersed with a bit of knitting. That’s the day that was. I did, however, write up the pattern for The Exonumist’s Shawl, so that will be available soon — I’ll let you know when.

And I’m knitting along on Order to Chaos. Each round is now over 500 stitches, so it does take a while. But I’m enjoying the process.

I finished up one skein and joined in the second skein yesterday. I’m using Dream in Color Smooshy, which has 450 yards per skein. I bought 5 skeins, but I think this baby will take 4, probably. After the last increase it will be 720 stitches around, and then there’s a knitted on edging. This shawl will be a bit bigger in diameter than The Exonumist’s Shawl, which ends up 576 stitches around before the edging.

Oh look– a picture of a big blob o’ green.

Just for Fun

Have y’all seen this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX1E8nSD_YI

That must have taken quite a pile of yarn to knit!

Gotta Love Those Baby Blues

Before I left for Philadelphia on Friday, I was sitting on the couch in my living room with Lucy. For the past few weeks there have been workers on a scaffold on the front of the building, putting sealant on the facade. Well, Friday morning they power-washed the front of the building. Here’s the look on Lucy’s face when the water hit my large living room window.