Friday, March 18, 2005

Help!  I’ve been seduced by Lady Eleanor!

I caved :) I was determined not to start this for a while but I couldn’t resist the temptation to try it.  This is the beginning of the Lady Eleanor entrelac stole from Scarf Style.

This has taken off like a house afire and I’m, so far, very pleased with the results - not that there’s much to see just yet :) If you haven’t tried entrelac yet, all I can say is that it’s simple, simple compared to the way it looks.  I learned how to do it from Stanfield and Griffiths book The Encyclopedia of Knitting.  The explanation and directions were so clear and uncomplicated that I just sailed in without any difficulty at all.  As I recall I made a huge swatch (in hideously mis-matched scrap yarn) with which I then went around boring everyone I knew.  It was just so awesome to see the complex looking finished product and have the inner smirk of knowing how easy it was to produce.





This is the yarn I’m using.  It’s Caron’s Simply Soft in their new Brites color line.  These aren’t the venomous neon oranges, greens and yellows that usually show up under that sobriquet, but a collection of clear, mouth-watering, saturated, shades.  The ones in the above photo are (from left to right) Blue Mint, Papaya, and Berry Blue (in Caron’s parlance) or Turquoise, Coral and Periwinkle (in mine).  Along with this, I am stranding white, Red Heart Soft Baby sport weight to both get gauge on the 10 1/2 needles recommended by the pattern and to somewhat soften the impact of the brights without leaching off any of their clarity.  I’ll know better once I’ve worked several color repeats, but I think it’s going to look pretty cool :)





I took that polar bear picture down at Roger Williams Park Zoo many years ago.  It amused me, this morning, to imagine Goldie staring at the desk top monitor and wondering who the hell this guy was!

Notes: Crochet patterns (not that there are that many - heheh...) now have their own section on the sidebar.  So do recipes :)

Have a wonderful weekend!

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1. Those Simply Soft colors are yummy!  I havn’t seen them in person yet though.  I love simply soft.  It is probably my favorite acrylic yarn.

   ~ DAWN

   Posted by Dawn  on  03/18  at  03:52 PM
   Location :



2. Dawn - It’s really nice to work with!  I found these at WalMart, of all places, and hadn’t seen them before either.  There’s also a spectacular red and a really knock-your-eye-out pink.  Just gorgeous colors :)

   Posted by Robbyn  on  03/18  at  04:45 PM
   Location : Where the woodbine twineth...



3. Those colors are FRESH! It’s awesome to see you taking such advantage of scarf style, since I’ve had mine for months and just browse through it.  Not that I don’t want to make everything in there, but you know.  That pesky time concept. 

   Goldie is probably thinking that’s an awfully small cat with no tail!  My cat enjoys screensavers, what can I say, she’s easily entertained.

   Posted by Laura  on  03/18  at  10:19 PM
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4. Laura - Fresh is a good word for it.  I’d seriously like to do something with the splendid red as well!

   And I guess I just like the book.  It’s got some really nice ideas.  I’ve been meaning to get beck into the entrelac for a while anyway and that stole seemed like just the thing :)

   Posted by Robbyn  on  03/18  at  11:30 PM
   Location : Where the woodbine twineth...



5. Love the colors of the Caron Yarn. The scarf looks very interesting. I have not tried entrelac as of yet?I was very touched by your post yesterday. It was the anniversary of my brother’s death. You helped me through the day.

   Posted by Maureen  on  03/19  at  01:35 AM
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6. So I a thinking about doing “Ruffles” and a few days later, read your post on Scarf Style.  Reading through SS and see this crazy looking, bobbley scarf thing and wondering how the heck ya do it and BINGO, read your post and you’re doing it (nicer than the book one) then as I am contemplating “Lady Eleanor” and what the heck is “entrelac” and how is it that people seem to stay sane knitting it, and there you go again.  Wow, must be a planet alignment thing.  Or you just have phenomenal taste.
   

   Posted by Lisa  on  03/19  at  02:22 AM
   Location :



7. Maureen - (hug) I’m glad it helped.  If I believed in that sort of thing, I’d say it was fortunate coincidence, but I don’t believe in coincidence :)

   Posted by Robbyn  on  03/19  at  10:32 AM
   Location : Where the woodbine twineth...



8. Lisa - LOL - my mother used to say my taste was all in my mouth :) I think it’s just that the scarf book is that good, taking lots of different ideas, style and approaches to what is, basically, a very simple garment.

   And entrelac is great fun!  Sanity is overrated anyway :)

   Posted by Robbyn  on  03/19  at  10:35 AM
   Location : Where the woodbine twineth...



9. *periwinkle* do i see periwinkle there? umm, i love those ‘island colors’ you’ve got going on there-

   i’m eager to make a ‘lady eleanor’ too (lemming, lemming here) and hope i can break out of my wildly exciting cream, beige, and khaki or white, grey, and black mold to make mine colorful-

   p.s. encouraging words from houston today-

   stay happy-

   Posted by  on  03/19  at  07:36 PM
   Location : still here



10. Barb - Well, if you’re a lemming then so am I.  But I refuse to think that wanting to make something that you like is lemming-like activity.

    After all, knitting the Lady Eleanor isn’t going to cast you off the edge of a cliff :)

    Posted by Robbyn  on  03/19  at  07:58 PM
    Location : Where the woodbine twineth...



11. Wow, what a burst of color! I haven’t seen those colors before. I might just have to check them out.

    Posted by Joanknits  on  03/20  at  04:42 PM
    Location :



12. Joan - They’re pretty cool :)

    Posted by Robbyn  on  03/20  at  06:38 PM
    Location : Where the woodbine twineth...

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