Now that summer is almost here, I really want to knit lace! Fortunately I have a couple of lace projects on the needles. I just wish the weather would feel more like summer. It hit a high in the mid-50’s today, and rained much of the week. Oh well, I can hope, can’t I?
Here’s the big lace thing in progress.
That is my Evenstar shawl, started over two years ago. I think it’s high time it’s finished, don’t you?
Here’s where I am. This is a round shawl, with endless rows then a knitted on border. I have 56 rows to go, then the border, which is a 20 row repeat done 28 times. There are 560 stitches on the needles. This may take me a while.
We’re leaving town on September 24th for a big adventure that I’ll tell you about later. I want to take this with me, finished and blocked. That gives me 108 days to finish. If I do “only” a row a day, I’ll still have 49 days to do the border.**
59 rows + 28 border repeats; 108 days. Let’s keep track, shall we? I put it in the sidebar over there on the right. And please, don’t calculate how many stitches that is. I might have to break out the bourbon.
In other news, our fabulous peonies finally bloomed. Peonies might be my favorite flower, and we planted several the summer before last. They didn’t do anything exciting last year except grow leaves, but they are going to town with flowers this summer.
This is where being able to add fragrance to a blog post would be helpful.
Last but not least, next week is the 125th anniversary of the founding of my home town. There is a big celebration planned that coincides with the annual alumni banquet (that absolutely every alumnus that lives in the vicinity attends every year!) I can’t make this one, though it’s scary to recall that I was at the centennial celebration 25 years ago. I think I even still have the t-shirt! In solidarity with all of my fellow alumni, I rummaged around in my jewelry drawer and found my class ring.
That ring was designed in 1930, and hasn’t changed since. Of course the Edgeley tribe mostly doesn’t need the ring to identify each other, since the town is so small. If we run into each other somewhere, it’s a good chance we’ll be recognized.
So who is with me on the lace bandwagon? If you are, let me know in the comments and tell me what you are knitting/finishing!
**Updated with the right numbers. Apparently I can’t add or subtract, not a good sign.
You know I’m on the lace band wagon! I’ve just started Fernglade by Dorothy Siemens (Fiddlesticks Knitting) and I’m seriously considering starting my second Evenstar, since I gave away the first. But I’ll make myself finish my son’s sweater first.
I was at that centennial celebration! that was a good time!
The project I am working on right now is getting through my stack of TBR books… this project may never end! : )
Hope you get the Evanstar done on time. I am about to cast on 400+ stitches of organic cotton for a lace shawl called Wandering Thyme by Anne Hanson. It is the May yarn and pattern for her Bare Naked Club subscription. I’ve been told this shawl is a challenge right from the beginning so I think it will probably take me all summer.
Speaking of…We started summer last month with several days in the 90’s. Now we are looking at the 80’s for over a week. Summer had definitely arrived in Indiana!
I’ll be spending my summer working on a lace shawl for my sister’s fall weddiing. Fingers crossed that we both make our deadlines!
If you break out the bourbon, you have to add a factor of .6 to all the calculations. Danger, will robinson!
Peony: beautiful. Class ring: classic. Lace shawl: far, far, far above my pay grade.
I’ve been tempted by Evenstar for about a year now–it is such a beautiful pattern. But I’ve decided to pretend the summer doesn’t exist and slog on with my Alice Starmore Fair Isle (Mara). Can I do it when it is 90 degrees and humid? Tune in in about a month. (Just in case I wimp out, I’ve pulled out a ton of lace yarn and an assortment of patterns.)
LOL at Laurie’s comment! 😀
I am in. Right now it’s a peacock feathers. More to follow.
Well, I’m kniting another N-O-Ruffle lace shawl by Beyebburgerin.wordpress.com. I alrady made 2 but they’re like potato chips. For major lace I’m working on a Fan Shawl off the crytal Palace website. They are modules that fit together like the tiles of an old Spanish mosque. I figured out a way to go from one to the other and not be braking the thread after every one. I pick up 25 stitches along the side (Which would have had to have been picked up at some point anyway), put them on a safety pin and then pick up the 50 stitches I need for the next fan. When i come to the safety pin again later and need the stitches I just knit them off the safety pin. No ends to weave in. The yarn is cascade heritage silk paints in a semi-solid purple/lavender. 85% merino and 15% silk. #7 short wooden needles.
Yummy to work.
Julie in San Diego
The uber lace bug hasn’t bitten me yet. I will be following your progress and living “la vida loca ala lace” vicariously through you.
Ahhhhhhh, peonies; nothing else smells so sweet. They’ve been my favorite flowers since a was a tiny (really – preschool age)m girl One of my cousins (she was just 4 years younger than my mother – I grew up with her kids) had a yard full of peonies in white & a couple of different shades of pink. I have been in a knitting slump the past few weeks. I think I may make a 5 hour baby sweater. I have a left over skein of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes hand dyed in a lovely opalescent colorway (don’t know why they discontinued it) plus about a quarter of the skein I used to knit a hat. So I think I have enough for a hooded 5 HBS. My older daughter’s best friend since junior high is pregnant (she was not happy at being referred to as an elderly primip at 39!) & I want to make her a few things. But every thing I start turns wonky. I just do not have the knitting fu.
Ok, so THAT is your secret!!! Had to zero in on that..and what did I find? Aromatherapy TALC powder! (unscented) Isn’t that a oxymoron (aroma/unscented)? I almost got excited there for a minute! he-he 😉
What a wonderful ring thanks for thinking to share 🙂 …and peonies have got to be my favorite, too! GORGEOUS!
I am knitting lace along with you. I am currently trying to finish the Queen Anne’s Lace shawl. I also have two skeins of handspun that want to be knitted into shawls this summer.