a decent day’s work

Posted on Posted in designing, lace/shawls, projects

yesterday i spent several hours blocking knits, but took photos too late to add to the already long post i wrote. so we get to see them today, with the added bonus of a few shots after unpinning.

first up is tudor grace, next in the little nothings series.

knit up in beautiful briar rose grace, a soft, luxurious bamboo/merino blend, this scarf is easy on the skin, yet has great stitch definition in the openwork vertical stitch pattern.

the motif is an easy 6-row repeat with a twist in the middle which is not hard at all to work on size US 4 needles; unlike some other bamboo blends, this yarn is virtually un-splittable.

the herbal green, gold, rose, and deep lavender washes of color have inner light that makes them play across the finished fabric like sunshine through stained glass

i overknit a bit on this one (i had to be sure!), so mine is a little longer than the pattern will say, but the skeins of grace have so many yards, you may be tempted to do the same.

we just finished taking some nice photos of it outside, so i’ll be posting the pattern for this scarf later tonight when i return from classes.

ok, now i know what you want to see . . . next up are some shots of lacewing blocking

above is a little peek of the corner that has a taste of almost everything—two edgings, the insect band, and the eggplant flower stitch. let’s review the details before we get to the money shot

the yarn, dyed by the brilliant catherine, was amazing to knit with . . . kitten-soft and full of beautiful color that shifts with extreme subtleness (the best place to see the color changes was in the airplane over the weekend).

it was worth working through several iterations of insects before deciding on just the right one—we all zipped through this section of the pattern just to see them complete and in flight

i didn’t talk very much about the edging while i was knitting it but it has long been marked off in my stitch dictionary as a favorite, must-use-someday motif. i love the number of holes in it—so light and airy, yet substantial enough to hold down the hem very nicely

creating an insect band that would flare just so around the perimeter of the shawl body was a concern, but it all worked out great . . . it neither cups, nor flounces—it’s just right.

i’ve been asked a few times how i block the shaped neck and shoulder area of this type of shawl, and here you have it. i just pin out the shapes that the fabric wants to make naturally. allowing some of the fullness to compress a bit just below the shoulder.

ok, now for the big one . . . ready?

hahaha! i know—it looks gigantic. but it’s not, i promise. it’s exactly the same size as irtfa’a in length with a little more circumference about the hem.

ok, now here’s a treat for waiting a day to see the blocking shots. this afternoon i dragged the dress form to the front window on the upstairs landing and took a few “modeling” photos (we’ll do some real ones, too)

i wanted to see if it fit, for one thing

score! it fits very well.

the folds drape lots better in back after blocking too—and will look even better on someone who actually has a butt (poor dress form, has no butt . . . i mean, it has none)

the front edges are plenty long enough to drape over the shoulder if you like to do that

and, of course, the real reason for blocking . . .

to let the sun shine in.

63 thoughts on “a decent day’s work

  1. Wow . . . the shawl is gorgeous! I can’t wait for it to go on sale so I can buy it. I’m going to be knitting a shawl for my mother – I’ve already got the fiber picked out whch I’m going to be spinning up.

  2. Ooooh very very pretty. You know, I really don’t like insects much but I’m still sooner or later making not one but apparently at least three bug theme shawls. You really are some sort of evil sorceress aren’t you. Well, maybe not evil but definitely some sort of sorceress.

  3. Cooee!!! Ann those are handsome things. I just love Tudor rose, probably because I am sort of a Tudor many long years and centuries ago. My family of Livingstons is a collateral branch of the Royal Stewart clan which means we can wear the Royar Stewart tartans, (and wouldn’t you love to have a yarn that had the colors of the Royal Dress Stewart tartan in it. Boy that would be gorgeous). I can hardly wait to knit it. Maybe I’ll even try to sneak in a skein of the same fiber past the gateman(Husband) who has instituted a general austerity program. Not that we don’t need one since the fridge has died as has the microwave, and the car is thinking about it and here we are living on SS. Maybe a good raise after the first of the year though. What a dog. But your stole(of little nothing) is a real beauty. BTW I’m not sure I’d call them little nothings. They don’t look at all like nothings to me.
    Ann Carpenter in Dallas, Texas

  4. Oh.

    Oh my.

    This is one of the loveliest knits I’ve seen all year. The drape, the color… wow. WOW.

    Anne, your design skills are just a constant revelation. You’re amazing.

  5. Both are absolutely beaut-i-mous. I don’t think the mannequin needs a backside to show the beauty of the lace wing shawl. Just beaut-i-mous. Tudor Grace with the pin is also just so lovely.

  6. both of those are amazing! great photos (as always). you’ve got to stop designing so i have time to catch up and knit them all 😉

  7. Anne, you just keep getting better and better. what an othstanding piece – can’t wait to knit it. thank you for all your hard work – you are a designing genius!

    love tudor, btw – it is blocking right now

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