Instructions for week six from Claire!
We’ve said goodbye to the folks doing the regular lace leaf shawl and those of us doing Blackthorn or a bigger shawl plough onwards!
Blackthorn: knit Section 3, third repeat – 145 mins
Lace Leaf:
Medium – repeat 11 (70 minutes)
Large – repeat 14 and half of repeat 15 (130 minutes)
Loving all the photos you are posting on the Ravery page!
Week 5 instructions from Claire!
We are half way finished! Unless you’ve started late, bounded ahead or are doing the regular size Lace Leaf! If you’re sticking with the weekly prompt and doing the regular size then this is your last week!
Blackthorn: Section 3, second repeat (125 mins)
Lace Leaf:
Regular size – knit the border and cast off (100 minutes)
Medium – knit repeat 10 (65 minutes)
Large size – knit repeats 12-13 (155 minutes)
Don’t forget to post your photos on our Ravelry group page!
Week #4 instructions from Claire…
Well we’re nearly half way through! Here are this week’s instructions:
Blackthorn: it’s time to tackle section 3 and do the first repeat in section 3, which I estimate will take 100 minutes.
Lace Leaf:
Regular & Medium – repeats 8-9 (115 minutes)
Large – repeats 10-11 (135 minutes)
There’s been loads of great shawls coming together on our Ravelry group! Pop along and have a look:http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/lace-leaf-kal/topics
Hooray for Week 3 of the Lace Leaf KAL! Claire has posted our instructions here…
Blackthorn: Do the 3rd & 4th repeats in Section 2 – this should take you 155 mins.
Lace Leaf:
Regular & Medium: work 2 repeats of the pattern (this will be repeats 6 & 7). This should take you about 95 minutes.
Large: work 2 repeats of the pattern (this will be repeats 8 & 9). This should take you 115 minutes.
If you haven’t yet set up your project on Ravelry, or updated your photo, please do share – there will be a prize at the end!
Hooray for Week 2 of the Lace Leaf KAL! Claire has posted our next set of instructions…
I hope you have enjoyed getting started! Here’s this week’s instructions:
Blackthorn: Do the 1st & 2nd repeats in Section 2 – this should take you 110 mins.
Lace Leaf:
Regular & Medium: work 2 repeats of the pattern (this will be repeats 4 & 5). This should take you about 75 minutes.
Large: work 3 repeats of the pattern (this will be repeats 5, 6 & 7). This should take you 135 minutes.
If you haven’t yet set up your project on Ravelry, or updated your photo, please do share – there will be a prize at the end!
Today’s the big day, friends! The Lace Leaf KAL has officially begun!
My Co-Moderator (and The Brains Behind This Event), Claire, has posted our first week’s instructions…
Thank you very much for joining. Hope you have your yarn, needles and pattern and have set your project up on Ravelry so we can all see it in progress…
Instructions for week 1:
Blackthorn pattern:
Do the set-up and Section 1 of the pattern. This should take 135 minutes.
Lace leaf pattern:
Regular size – Do the set up and repeats 1-3 of the pattern. This should take 95 minutes.
Medium size – Do the set up and repeats 1-3 of the pattern. This should take 95 minutes.
Large size – Do the set up and repeats 1-4 of the pattern. This should take 130 minutes.
NB: Do use a stitch marker to mark the spine stitch!
With both patterns, your knitting should look like this after the set up and one repeat:
As I said previously, the time it will take will vary from…
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I admit, I’m a morning person. Always have been. I usually have more energy, can focus better, and get most of my to do list crossed off by early afternoon. After that, things just seem to drag for me; energy flags, and I’m working hard to finish out the day – especially the part where I cook supper once I arrive home… But I like evening too; the quiet, calm part, before bed. Perhaps because I know that evening is a kind of pre-morning – when I wake up, it’ll be morning again with all the potential and endless possibilities of a new day! I really like beginnings!
Though afternoons tend to be my less favorite part of the day, I do find that an early morning knit seems to help the whole rest of my day run smoothly, even the afternoon!
Do you have a favorite time of day? What do you like about it? What makes it special for you?
It seems Spring has arrived at last, friends!
Our cheerful herald, the robin, is proof!
Last year, I had such a hard time getting even one (not so great) photo of a robin…
I ran all over the yard for hours, chasing after robins (who were hopping happily to and fro) trying to get at least one photo in which you could tell it was a robin and not some sort of speck. You would not believe how fast those little buggers are! Nor how skittish! In the end, the only way I was able to manage even one meager shot was by hiding behind one tree after another as I hopped after the crazy robin… It’s a really good thing I live out in the country and don’t have any neighbors to wonder about my sanity…
This year, I took a much more intelligent approach. Or maybe it was lazy? I simply sat. In one place. On the back deck. And I waited. For the Robin to hop close enough… and then… I took his picture! Not the best robin portrait ever, but definitely an improvement upon last year…!
The first Crocus in my flower beds, still closed yet from the night’s chilliness…
Later in the day, when it got a little warmer, it opened out all the way!
There are buds starting on trees, folks!
And Daffodils pushing up out of the ground!
And it was even warm enough for a lovely afternoon knit on the back deck…
Miss Fox now has a head, a body, and one little shoe-with-sock! Hopefully there will be time for more out door knitting tomorrow…!
The Bunny is complete…
… and clothed!
Here is her little dress just finished…
I think her dotty pink dress is just the perfect final touch!
Although, when I make her a second dress, there is one thing I believe I will do differently…
… leave a hole for the adorable little tail!
Now, for a little fox…
Claire is making a gorgeous little elephant! Check out her blog for a peek!
I was so thrilled when my mother-in-law, Phyllis, asked for a handknit sweater for Christmas! The important thing to understand here is that I was longing to knit something for someone who would actually wear it. My dear husband, you see, refuses to wear anything I knit for him ever since the unfortunate incident of the black-hat-with-the-red-angora-lining. And who could really blame him?! But that’s another story for another time. He saves me time and trouble though, by telling me up front, not to knit him anything because he won’t wear it, so at least there’s that. This then, is why the excitement was impossible to contain when Phyllis asked for a sweater!
[Yes, I do realize that we are currently in the month of March, and that this fact makes my Christmas gift to Phyllis about three months late. Fortunately, Phyllis is a fabulously gracious person who didn’t at all mind opening a half-knitted sweater on Christmas, and who waited very patiently while I finished it. ❤️]
Since she was actually visiting at the time, we got online immediately and went virtual shopping to pick out the perfect yarn and pattern together! What a good time we had! It was even better than “normal” shopping because we didn’t get worn out and stressed from walking and driving from store to store and dealing with crowds and traffic. 😊
Phyllis settled on the Cable Down Raglan by Stefanie Japel. She wanted a turquoise color, and the sweater was to be warm, but not too warm in order to layer in Virginia’s mostly moderate winter weather. We decided to go with a cotton yarn, and settled on Knit Pick’s Shine Worsted in Aquamarine.
Once the yarn arrived, I could hardly wait to cast on and start knitting! It was really hard to make myself knit gauge swatches, but I’m REALLY glad I did!
When one is knitting a garment, especially for someone else, (especially if that someone else does not live in the same house or even what could be called reasonably close by) it is vital to:
1) Take said person’s measurements with care, ahead of time; paying close attention to his/her preferences regarding ease…
2) Note and plan ahead for any alterations in fit that will be preferred… (for example, my mother-in-law wanted the sleeves on her sweater to be full length rather than 3/4. This necessitated planning ahead by ordering more yarn.)
3) Find and maintain the proper gauge…
4) At least one or more fittings along the way to ensure the garment will be a success!
The Cable-Down Raglan, as the name suggests, is worked from the top down, circular fashion, raglan style, and all in one piece.
I love the cables. I really enjoyed knitting them, and I still enjoy looking at them! You can see the sleeve stitches on hold and the rest of the body in progress.
I put my Grellow & Gray Sirka Counter to excellent use on this project! Would have lost my head for sure without it! At one point I was using all three hands to track three different sets of repeats! What a lifesaver!
This was my first experience with knitting a raglan sweater, and also my first experience with knitting a sweater in the round – all in one piece!
I really like the idea of knitting a garment in one piece. Of the entire ensemble flowing along smoothly in an orderly and aesthetically pleasing fashion. Of not having to go back and sew up seams afterward.
But I discovered, as I worked on the sleeves of the sweater, that it became very frustrating to deal with the bulk of the body of the sweater while knitting around and around each smaller sleeve. I had to adjust the entire body of the sweater in relation to the sleeve four times per round. It really slowed me down. In the future, I think I may try holding the body stitches and working the sleeves first since they are so much smaller and could be easily pinned in place to keep them out of the way while knitting the body.
There were a lot of ends to weave in, but that just goes with the territory! Aunt Peggy had made a gorgeous bracelet that went perfectly with the sweater!
As a final touch, I sewed in a special label…
Phyllis loves her sweater, and it makes me happy to see her so happy!
She looks fabulous in it, if I do say so myself!
sarah inskeep designs 