As you can see, I finished d’Azur.

I did manage to get the sides on each side of the front neck shaping to match pretty well.

Here’s a close-up of a sleeve, which is worked entirely in the bottom rib pattern.

I actually stayed up til about 2:00am to finish it. What can I say — I was on a roll and didn’t want to stop, and since today was a holiday, I didn’t have to get up early. Of course, I have now completely scrambled my sleep pattern so who knows what time I’ll fall asleep tonight. Tomorrow at the office should be interesting . . .

Anyhow, I did sleep a bit late and then spent the morning in household chores. This afternoon I started on this:

Lucy has continued her relaxing weekend.

Nothing interferes with her sleep schedule!

Here is the front of d’Azur:

I am a few rows away from doing the front neck shaping, so you can tune in tomorrow to see how the completed front looks.

There was a suggestion that I could steek the front neck to make the striping sequence match on each side. Yes, I could. But I won’t.

This is a fairly heavy cotton and in my opinion is not the type of yarn that really calls out for a steek. Number one, it would add a fair amount of bulk to the inside of the neck and even trimmed, would make the neckline look lumpy. Number two, the steek would have to be carefully stitched to keep it from unravelling, and that just sounds like too much work to me. 😉

So we’ll see how the front ends up tomorrow. Such excitement.

Lucy is oblivious. This is how she is spending the holiday weekend:

I have in my hot little hands Vogue Knitting Stitchionary Volume 5 which is all about lace knitting.

I’m pretty darn happy to have it because I have been all about the lace lately. You might have noticed . . .

I also have Volumes 1 and 2 which are knit/purl and cables. Volume 3, which I don’t have, is colorwork, and Volume 4, which I also don’t have is crochet (I don’t crochet if I can help it).

Volume 5 is the same format as the others — a large, beautifully produced hardcover book.  It is A “landscape” oriented book (11 by 8.5″ approximately) and I think this is what makes it lie flat in such an obedient manner when you open it.

Here’s the Table of Contents:

You have the usual introductory material and explanation of how to use the book. The stitch patterns themselves are divided into sections: easy/mesh, edgings, chevrons, allover, panels, combos, and motifs.

There is a list of abbreviations (on what I think is a particularly nice layout):

And a how-to section for yarn overs:

There is also a glossay in the back that explains certain techniques and abbreviations.

Here is a page I photographed at random:

As you can see, there is a photo of the stitch pattern knit in a sample swatch, a chart, and the pattern written out in words. This is particularly nice for people who have little experience with charts but would like more — you can follow along with the words as you work from the chart.

I particularly like the way the charts are done — they are very clean and use symbols that I think are pretty universal. The rows are numbered and the repeats clearly marked. And there is a symbol key for every chart.

While some of the patterns are familiar to me, some are not. All in all? A good investment for the lace knitter, in my opinion.

Yarnie Giveaway!

If Keri was wondering if people would like her yarn, I don’t think she need wonder any further, given the number of comments I got entering the contest to win the skein she so kindly donated. Keep an eye on her website — she will be selling her handpainted yarn soon. (And there may still be a few skeins of her “sample” yarn in her etsy shop.) The Random Number Generator chose Amy T. Congratulations to you, Amy! I have emailed you.

And as always, thank you to everyone who left a comment. While I am at it, thanks for reading my blog. 🙂 I am aware that lately content has been a bit thin on the ground and I appreciate those of you who stick around to read and comment. At the moment I have eleventy-billion different things going on in my life pulling me in eleventy-billion different directions, and that will continue for a while. But I am hoping that life will settle down into some semblance of normalcy by September so if you hang in there with me through the summer I’d appreciate it.

Lucy Sez

You know they are all coming to see me, right? It’s not about you.

I am knitting away on the front of d’Azur. At this point I am about halfway to the armhole shaping.

Something that occurred to me as I was knitting merrily along. For the front of the sweater the neck is lower, so you at some point put the center stitches on a holder and work each side of the neck separately.

Since the yarn I am using is striping, I need to figure out how to make it sort of match. I don’t care if it matches exactly, but it would be nice to be close, you know?

Fortunately I have plenty of yarn, so I ought to be able to make some sort of matching take place. Exciting to contemplate, isn’t it?

Lucy Sez

“I heart the a/c!”

It might not surprise you to hear that I brought yarnie souvenirs back from my trip to Minnesota.

Check this out:

This is Shepherd Sock from Lorna’s Laces in a special colorway called “Minne-Toe-Ta” that I loved immediately when I saw it in Needlework Unlimited. Don’t think it is available anywhere else so of course I had to have it. Isn’t it fun?

And here is a skein of Kauni that was calling out to me the entire time I was there. In order to make it shut up, I had to buy it.

I’m thinking this will make a great shawl.

I got some more stuff, too!

My friend Keri of 3AM Enchantments came down to see me on Sunday and she brought me a Petite KIP Bag:

And inside was this:

Keri is dipping her toe in the colorful waters of handpainting yarn and she did this colorway with me in mind, I bet. I think she has a good idea of my favorite colors. 😉

She brought a few more skeins to show me and because I was lusting over this one, she kindly let it come home with me:

And because she is just an all-round generous person, she also offered me this skein to give away to one of you.

Who wants it? 🙂

Leave a comment on this post by 4:00pm eastern time this Thursday, May 27 and at that time the Random Number Generator will select a lucky recipient. Unsure how to comment? Check out my tutorial here.

In Work-in-Progress News

I am working on the front of d’Azur now. I’ll wait til tomorrow to share a pic because there’s not a whole lot to see yet.

In Lucy News

Lucy has settled back into the routine of having her Momma home now. In fact, she seemed kind of pleased to walk me to the door and send me off to work this morning.

A girl needs her alone time, you know.