Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Think it

It's tinking time, not great news just me being a knitting adult and sorting my mistakes in an adult knitter way. I'm knitting a shawl, a lovley lace shawl, in a beautiful cashmere and silk blend hand died and gifted as a present by M of Vintage Purls. I'm up to chart 4c - the last row section of lace before the boarder. And like any contemporary knitter I'm modifying the pattern in a small way - first by using smaller needles so the lace is a little denser - and secondly by replacing the nups with beads.

So far so good, until I realised that one of these things was not like the other, yes I had an'seasame street' moment. This is the lace pattern with beads instead of nupps, it's subtle but clear - each beaded row results in the bead sitting just a little out from the bead on the row two rows down.

It subtle - but there, the yellow oval has two beads sitting diagonal and slightly offset - the green oval shows two beads sitting on top of each other. Clear as day when compared to all the other bead spacing. When I worked that row - I discovered I had missed placing a bead two rows down and tried to repair the mistake - but I failed. Failed miserably - more so knowing that in a single nights knitting - with between 300 and 400 or so stitches I might only do one row of beading and the plain wrong side row.... I dropped down and tried to rework up with the bead in place but I got lost amidst the yarn goers and s1 k2 tog psso's.


This is the yarn from one row of 350 or so stitches after they were frogged, I have two more rows to go .... and then I can begin again making sure all the beads are in the right place.

Because the work is lace with 's1 k2tog,psso' and because there are beads - well it can't be slipped off the needled and ripped back - it's tink tink tink one stitch at a time and tug gently at each beaded stitch to release the bead and retain the stitch. Those beads make tinking slightly more tricky.

My night just got longer - my heart sinks that tonight will be tinking one stitch stitch looking at each one carefully to make sure I pick it up without splitting the yarn and orientate it on the needles correctly. Still it needs doing. Tonight is knit night - but a twist of fate means dinner will be later than usual and this frogging will take place at home ....with good lighting and no knitbased conversation to distract me.

If I don't fix the mistake - when blocked the two beads without a space between will stand out among the rest of the even spaced beads ...or at least at is my fear.

It is supposed to be a fun relaxing hobby - isn't it? In other news the yarn is scrummy- and I finally found a teeny tiny vintage crochet hook in my tool stash to use for beading - one that fits into all the beads.

Na Stella

 

Thursday, September 07, 2017

Hello ...remember me

So it's been a while, stuff happened, earlier this year my dad ended up in hospital, again and again. It's been a rough few months ending with a short stay in a hospice and a funeral. Life goes on without dad - and it's ok, but there is a dad shaped hole that is very very slowely softening.

There has been knitting, a few small items that I just can't find photos of right now. Simple knitting that was portable and did good, a DK version of Hope He Never each for my brother Andy and his son, a possum alpaca cowl for bear. And a lace edged shawl with beads that had languished in the wip pile for far too long ( 2 years!).

This is the current work, a lace shawl knit in a yak silk blend. Details Baltic blossom shawl by Evelyn Clark - there should be knupps, but taking a cue from M at Vintage Purls I've gone for beads instead. I've also chosen slightly smaller needles wanting a denser lace not an open loopy one.

It's slow progress - each beaded row clocks in at an entire night to work. And until it's blocked then it will look like this a soft scrunched rag.

The goal this year was to return to regular blogging - so I'm planning a weekly update to start and see how that goes. Thank you for hanging in with me.

Na stella