I am actually going to finish this* one of these days. Ravelry says I started this in 2018. Of course, I haven’t been working on it all that time. Even I’m not THAT slow. I have about 50 rows left, then a single crochet edge along the long sides, then blocking. It’s not really a complex lace pattern, but does require that I pay attention to the chart, so it isn’t TV knitting.
Here’s another photo. It’s a bit hard to get a good picture of unblocked lace, especially red unblocked lace. Most of the photos I’ve taken inside suggest that it’s tomato-red, when it is really a deep ruby-red color.
I’m off to knit a few more of those 50 rows. I’m ready to finish this thing and wear it.
This monster is slowly but surely getting done. I’m past the halfway point, but still have 172 rows left, plus the crocheted edging along the long sides. I clocked myself a couple of days ago, I’m averaging 10 minutes a row, so I still have a bit to go.
Because lace-in-progress photos always look like crap, here’s the photo from the pattern with what this will look like.
I bought this yarn years ago, it is handspun yarn, spun by women in Tajikistan as well as Afghanistan. This particular batch was spun by a woman in Afghanistan, named Maliknoz. The fiber is 100% kid mohair, aka cashmere. This is still marketed by Cashmere People Yarns, and you can buy similar yarn here. They also sell a cashgora blend in several weights. Go buy some, you won’t be sorry you did.
And a photo of my remaining skein. I’ll have at least a bit of this left once I’ve finished the shawl, but this surely won’t go to waste.
I’ve been knitting away on my Cathedral Stole lace shawl for months. My Ravelry project page says I started this in 2016, which is true. This is what it looked like since then.
I pulled this out of hibernation in mid March and started working on it again. This is a rectangular shawl, started in the middle with a provisional cast on. You knit for miles, bind off, then pick up the provisional stitches in the center and knit for a few more miles. Fortunately I’m happy knitting the same thing for miles and miles. This yarn helps. I bought this yarn in 2014. Here is what I wrote about it then. *
Peace Fleece got in some lovely lace yarn hand spun by women in Tajikistan. They had a nice little story to go with the yarn about how these women spin yarn to help feed and clothe their families. One skein provides enough money for them to buy a chicken, a loaf of bread, or a kilogram of potatoes. Tell me you could resist that. Let’s just say I bought enough for a nice chicken dinner complete with potatoes and bread for the whole family.
I’m not sure exactly why this sat unloved for so long. At any rate, I am just finishing the first half. I decided to do a fancy schmancy crochet loop bind off. It isn’t hard to do, just fidgety. And trust me, you do NOT want to have to undo this, so make sure it is what you want before you wade in. You can always put in a lifeline before you bind off, but where’s the fun and adventure in THAT.
It makes pretty little loops along the edge. Here’s a birds eye view of the lace.
Have faith. Lace knitting always looks like crap until it’s finished and blocked.
*The links in the quote don’t work, Peace Fleece only carried this for a short time. This, my friends, is why I buy yarn that I love when I see it.
Whew. This is a LOT of seaming. I have the shoulders joined, the sleeves in, and one side seam done. I’ve been mostly estimating the fit until I got to this point, but I’m quite relieved to be able to try it on. I think this will be a wardrobe keeper once done.
It should hang better once the lace collar is knitted and sewn down, that will stabilize the shoulders better. And those clips holding one side together make it heavy on that side so it looks lopsided.
I finished another couple of rows on the Endless Winter Solstice shawl. My remaining little ball of yarn is starting to look, well, little.
Out comes the trusty drug dealers scale.
After the previous row, I weighed it as well.
17 rows left, 33.4 g of yarn left
Now I have 16 rows left, and 32.3 g of yarn. So a little more than a gram of yarn per row. But remember, the rows get longer. I add another 28 stitches before the end.
I didn’t do the algebra, though it likely wouldn’t be difficult. 28 stitches isn’t going to weigh much compared to the 665 I already have on the needles.
I should be OK. But it wouldn’t be Chez Knitting Doctor without a bit of drama, would it?
And no, that isn’t salt in that shaker. I buy unscented talcum powder in bulk for my hands to use if things get sticky while knitting. This isn’t uncommon when knitting with lace weight, especially when it has silk in it. The big jar is unwieldy, so I put it in a mini salt shaker. It fits nicely in my knitting bag.
I’m finally getting close on this one. I have 19 rows left. The pattern has 344 rows, the last row has 693 stitches to bind off. The last section of lace has lace stitches (increases and decreases) on every row, not just the public side rows. So no easy purl rows to count stitches and make sure I haven’t screwed up.
Which I have, plenty of times with this one. Mostly I’ve caught them a few repeats later, and can either go back and fix them, or fix them on the return row. A few times I’ve had to go back a whole row, but at this point, I’d avoid that like the plague, given the number of stitches in each row. It’s taking me close to an hour to knit a row.
The yarn for this would cost over $60 plus shipping to replace. The pattern costs around $7. I have probably $30 worth of supplies that I’ve used with this, including needles, markers, scissors, etc. Of course those will be used again, over and over.
I have no idea how many hours I’ve put into this shawl. People ask me that all the time—“how long does it take you to make that?” Since I always have multiple things going on at once in the knitting sphere, it’s impossible to say. But I will say that if I got minimum wage for the hours to make this, the cost would be astronomical.
Sure, I can go buy a nice shawl for $70-80. But it wouldn’t ever be like this one, which will be one of a kind, made carefully by my own hands.
Someone remind me of that when I’m complaining about the 693-stitch bind off.
Which will be at least 20 knitting hours from now.
It is just time to finish this one. I understand if you’ve forgotten the details, since it’s been on the needles since March of 2018. I’m down to one repeat of the second to last chart, and one repeat of the last chart, then I’m done. Of course that amounts to 72 rows, with increasing number of stitches each row, and at the end there are 693 stitches to bind off.
These last charts include a few rows with cables. Though I do know how to knit cables without a cable needle, I’m not a cocky enough knitter to attempt that trick in lace weight silk/merino. So those rows are a bit fidgety.
It does make some very pretty little cables, though.
The pattern name is Longest Night, I’ve been calling it Winter Solstice, and I want it done before the solstice gets here. I think that is doable if I exercise a bit of project monogamy.*
*Remind me of that if you see me casting on any new lace projects before you see this one done.
I am making progress on my Winter Solstice (aka Longest Night) shawl. I “only” have 80 rows left.
Here’s what it will look like when done. Photo shamelessly copied from the pattern page.
And 45 minutes? That’s how long it is taking me to knit each of those rows. And they keep getting longer by 4 stitches every other row. The shawl should be named Longest Knit.
I’ve wanted to knit the Wool Peddler shawl for a long time. I finished the garter stitch part and started the lace section earlier this week. It is just not doing it for me. In this yarn it just looks like a sloppy mess. I gave it a bit, since crappy looking lace can sometimes block into a thing of beauty.
I’m going to take it back to the garter stitch and do a modification I found on Ravelry. Well, it’s not really a modification, since it leaves off the lace altogether. When the main garter part gets big enough, you do an increase row (knit, increase in the next stitch, do it over and over to the end), then keep knitting more garter stitch on twice as many stitches for a ruffled edge.
I know, I know. I said I was tired of garter stitch. I guess I was wrong.
Now to get that mess unraveled and back on the needles.
One repeat of the edging left to do, then graft the beginning to the end, and block. This might actually get finished.
We're on the Oregon Coast with my sisters and spouses this week. Here are a few photos, all phone photos. The car was packed so full that there wasn't room for the camera bag.
The Oregon Coast is a yarn shop rich environment.
And there has been a little studying going on. I'm hoping Sweetpea remembers it all.
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