First thing - I found and corrected an error in the Endless Knot Socks.  The mistake was in the decreases for the star toe and is now history :) The mistake, not the star toe…

Second, I finally finished the second sock.  I wouldn’t say that I have second sock syndrome exactly, but I have noticed that the second sock usually takes considerably longer to complete than the first one :) What can I tell you, I’m an ADHD knitter.  Once I’ve figured it out and executed the design, I’m bored with it.  Well, not always, but usually :)

I’m really tickled with these socks and expect to wear them often :)

I wrote about the Faun’s Eyes lace stitch pattern last week and I have to tell you - mastering the stitch has in no way lessened my obsession with it.  Sunday morning I got up with the image of it in my head and suddenly found myself thinking…

What if I combined this:

With this:





And maybe this?





Would that tell a story in a throw or blanket form - or at least create a setting, a picture?

I was pretty fired up but I had kind of lost the train of it by Sunday evening :( It bothered me that I couldn’t think of a way to make things fit together suitably.

And then, last night (I’m not actually sure, it could have been this morning by then!) I was looking through this:

One of the shawls therein contains a small chart for a lace evergreen type tree…

Now things begin to fall together!  I’ve got lace trees for a forest.  I’ve got lace fauns for residents.  Walker’s Gingerbread Castle is wonderful, but I bet I can devise something of my own that’s maybe a bit more delicate in construction? 

So now my head is teeming with numbers (how many stitches, how many repeats, etc...) and wondering about the mechanics of lace castle construction…

...and whether it needs a moat :)

See the “Knitting Chatter” button on the side bar for more information.

Bring your knitting :)

I admit to having been a little obsessed over the last couple of day, with this stitch pattern.

It’s called Faun’s Eyes and I found it in Walker’s Second Treasury. 

It’s a pattern multiple of 12 + 1 and is worked over 8 rows with patterning on both right and wrong sides.  It isn’t difficult at all except that I kept running into a problem.  Following the instructions exactly, what I was getting wasn’t quite like the picture - and I couldn’t figure out why.

Disappointed, I tried to create a similar effect other ways - twisted stitches, increases and decreases done in different manners.  I even tried to set it up so that the patterning was relegated to the right side only.  You would have a good laugh at some of the things I got - but I’m not going to show them to you :) Some things the public should not be exposed to!

Anyway, I finally figured out what the problem was.  It was my old and honorable nemesis, the yarn over on the wrong side row.  What I was doing was simply moving the yarn to the back and purling the next stitch.  This did give me the increase - but it didn’t result in an accurate representation of the pattern.  Perhaps it qualifies as a particular interpretation of the pattern - but I wanted what the picture showed.

Eventually it dawned on me that the yarn over could be done another way.  So instead of merely moving the yarn between the needles to the back, I brought it across the front of the right needle, around to the back and then between the needles back to the front.  That made all the difference - the stitch pattern now looked like it was supposed to.

I adore the little triangular faces this creates.  The name references fauns, but fawns, foxes, colts - anything with a triangular shaped face would work.  And something else entirely was ringing bells in the associative mechanism of my brain…

Thestral?

I finished the body of the shawl over the weekend.  You see it here in all its end trailing glory because I haven’t tidied the piece up yet and probably won’t until I get the edging figured out and applied and then get everything washed and blocked - at which point I will also post the pattern.

Saturday evening at Chatters, I was asking for suggestions for a border.  After doing some reading this weekend, I have to wonder if that’s the correct term.  I suspect it’s not.  My reading indicates that a border is something that goes between the shawl and the edging as in old-fashioned Shetland type shawls where there is a center design, a border design around that and an edging design around all.  I was thinking of a border in the general sense of decoration or demarcation.

I don’t think the shawl needs a border - but it does need an edging.  I used a variation on Hilton Lace on this shawl.  It came out very well and I love the way it looked.  I could do that; I have enough yarn and I know it would work beautifully but something keeps nagging me to find another design…

So for now, I’ll continue to look around and fiddle :) I have the security of know that if I can’t find something else reasonably suitable, the Hilton Lace will look great.

And, while it hasn’t made a big deal of itself yet, I have, in the recesses of my brain, been considering what my next big project should be.  I believe I even have the yarn for it and the idea is beginning to bubble and surface even as the shawl begins to fade into the sunset…

Sunset?  Hmmm....

Come on in and set a spell :)

See the “Knitting Chatter” button on the side bar for more information.

It’s been kind of a busy week :)

And I have a confession to make which won’t surprise anyone…

The knit-along - Secret of the Stole?  I’m not enjoying it much… I know, I know, I didn’t go into it to have a good time and didn’t expect it was going to Mardi Gras in Rio in any case… That’s not exactly what I mean.  I mean I don’t care for the stole much.  That may be an inherent problem with mystery knitting - how do you know it’s going to be worth the time and effort ?  Don’t misunderstand, the pattern writer has done an excellent job with the pattern; it’s presented very well and really isn’t difficult at all.  I just don’t find that I’m liking the pattern much :(

The further snarl in that particular situation is that I also don’t care much for the yarn I’m using.  It is very rough (which is only somewhat mitigated by washing and conditioning) and is not going to be something one can really wear over the shoulders and across the back of the neck unless, of course, one is also wearing a suit of armor.  To be fair, this yarn is more of a shetland type wool and is put forth as such so I have no excuse for not knowing better.  It’s far more suited to something like Fair Isle - or scrubbing pots.

On the other hand, I now, suddenly, have a good supply of dyeing yarn and that could be great fun :)

You may notice that I have rearranged the knitting patterns on the sidebar.  Hopefully, breaking things down into categories will make things easier to find.  Please let me know is something’s amiss - I did check it, but you never know - or if you can’t find something you know used to be there…

Finally, I wanted to thank last Saturday night’s Chatters group for helping me break through my knitting fug.  Monday’s pattern is a direct result of Saturday night’s “intervention” and I am very grateful :) It feels really good to be knitting again.

Of course I’m working on the same projects, socks, shawl, etc… But I’m enjoying them again and not feeling like I’m wasting my time or that there’s no interesting knitting in the world any more.

So thank you Chatters folk.  Chatters will take place, as usual, tomorrow evening - you know where and when :) Or see the sidebar! 

Have a great weekend!