Summer Knitting

Photographing lace in a dark, hot, humid apartment full of boxes is a challenge. See below.

Yesterday was the hottest day in Seattle history, and it felt like it. It hit 107F (41.7C) in Bothell yesterday! In the evening, 90F felt almost comfortable! So I haven't been knitting much. I wanted to cast on for an Aeolian Shawl, since I spun some yarn for it in the Tour de Fleece challenge.

I dyed the 6 oz (170g) Wensleydale top using the block method, and spun the top directly from braid into 1100 yards (1100 m) of laceweight singles.

My inspiration for this was a project I saw on ravelry, and I think I did a pretty good job with it.

But it has been so hot, and the idea of knitting hairy, slightly coarse wool was not very appealing, so the the skein is sitting in my basket while I work on my unfinished projects.


So I have been knitting some cotton. I finally finished my lace cardigan!


I call this project the Black Widow (spiders, y'know!) :D This is another one of my top-down seamless concoctions, and I absolutely loved every minute of knitting this. It has no seams, so when I cast off it was done! And I added some short rows and side shaping to make it fit better.


And the cherry on top - the set-in sleeves.


The yarn is Mandarin Petit, and I had 6 balls of it. (I think Terhi from Mustaa villaa sent it to me years and years ago.) The original idea was to knit a short bolero to go with a summer dress I bought, and I wanted to use all of the yarn. By the time I reached the bolero length, I still had 3 balls left, so I kept going and ended up with a full-length cardigan.


I'm sure this will be a summer favorite! I've worn it a few times and I like it a lot. The cotton yarn feels cool and soft and comfortable, and the simple arrowhead lace makes it rather girly. And the vintage buttons my MIL gave me, they give it a touch of elegance.


Needless to say, I am extremely happy with this project.


Now, the moving business is getting more and more hectic every day, and it hit me I should probably dig out my UFO bin and finish my projects. Don't want movers accidentally poking themselves with stray needles sticking out of half-finished sweaters, you see. So I dug out my Hyrna Herborgar Shawl.

I cast on for this shawl in the plane, over Greenland, on our way to Finland last summer. I needed a simple project for the trip, and this pattern is really very easy to knit. Fast too, unless you forget it in your UFO bin.

I grew so fond of the middle stitch pattern that I accidentally knit too many repeats. I didn't want to tink back (lifelines, bah!) so I kept going until I was ready to knit the border.


I am glad I made the little mistake, since finished, this measures some 66" x 33" (168 cm x 83 cm) and I used maybe 3 oz of KnitPicks Bare lace-weight. It is just the right size for wearing around your neck with a winter coat.

Before blocking, I dyed the shawl in light blue, because since it was begun over Greenland, it needed to be glacier blue. It's a little too warm blue for my taste, but it is still light blue so it'll do. I think the color is closest to truth in this picture.

All in all, a nice project then. I may knit another one of these, in Icelandic yarn, as I liked working the pattern and it turned out very nice. But that will have to wait until winter!

No pictures of the finished T-shirt yet. We're expecting cooler weather this weekend so maybe I'll shanghai MrHairyFeet to photographing again! Until then, stay cool everyone!