Aloha again

I am back from Hawaii, and I am thrilled to say my grandmother loves her shawl.



She kept stroking it and admiring it, saying how soft and lovely it is. I told her how I think of her every time I see that color and she said "Yes! It is so me!" It suits her wonderfully, and she kept saying she feels so elegant in it.

She wore it often while we were there, and she had it on her bed or draped over her chair when she didn't. Whenever she had it on, she told me how perfect it was, and she showed it off to family and friends. My aunt washed it once, and I was relieved to see it held up perfectly - the lace didn't even need to be reshaped.

It is incredibly gratifying to see how visibly happy someone is in a hand-knit. I'm definitely inspired to make more gifts, and I hope every recipient is as pleased as my gram.

FO - Sun Ray Shawl

I absolutely LOVE this shawl.



I hope my grandmother feels the same.



Pattern: Sun Ray Shawl by Shui Kuen Kozinski, from elann.com
Size: approximately 80 inches wide x 40 inches long
Yarn: Knit Picks Shine Worsted 60% Pima cotton / 40% Modal, color Wisteria; I used a little more than 10 balls, each 50 g and 75 yards, for approximately 770 yards total.
Needles: Knit Picks Options size 10, crochet hook for cast-on
Modifications: none

Started: October 6, 2007
Finished: January 12, 2008



I got the idea to knit a shawl for my grandmother early on in my knitting career, and I'd actually purchased this yarn for a Cozy that I started back in November 2006.



My requirements for the yarn were not easy because my grandmother lives in Hawaii and is afraid of bugs getting into wool or animal fibers. I chose this cotton because it is machine washable and easy care, with a lustrous sheen and gorgeous feel. It should be said: I officially have a crush on this yarn. It is a pleasure to work with, and I think the results are stunning. When I had this shawl around my shoulders, it felt like heaven.



I chose the color because my grandmother often wears brights and pastels, so I know she's not afraid of color. Her favorite scent is lavender, and I always think of her when I see soft purples and lilacs.

I also wanted something a little more casual than a crisp white or ivory because I want her to wear it often and get a lot of use out of it. I worried a more formal color would make her think it's only for special occasions and thus relegate it to the bottom of a drawer. I want her to grab this shawl when the sun goes down in the afternoon and her house gets chilly, bring it to restaurants, or just drape it on her lap when she wants a bit of softness and warmth.



After the initial pattern sequence, I completed an additional six repeats, to give seven total, 154 rows. This gives it a really comfortable, substantial size and used up almost all of the yarn I had for this project.



The picot bind-off took me ages, but I think it gives a really nice edge. The pattern called for pinning out each fifth picot to give a scalloped edge, which my boyfriend enjoyed helping me with. I dug that effect. It looks very much like my grandmother's style.

I really recommend this pattern for a great beginner's lace shawl. I love the symmetrical progression of the pattern, which becomes easy to memorize in 10-stitch repeats across the rows. I strongly urge using a row counter to keep track of the 20-row repeat, and for my part, I found it easier to read the written instructions than to follow the chart. For peace of mind, life lines were a big comfort as well.



I will most likely knit this pattern again, as it yields a surprisingly large, comfortable, and elegant shawl with a comparably small amount of yarn.



As my first time blocking lace, it wasn't too bad, though I found even a queen-size bed was a tight fit. I pinned it out on towels and had a fan oscillate across it to speed drying time. It came out feeling soft and lovely.



I packaged it up with fiber content and care instructions that I printed out. If I know my gram, she'll keep the whole kit together, so I got a non-acidic tinted plastic portfolio at a local art store to protect it all. I will of course encourage her to keep the shawl bunched up in her purse or haphazardly thrown over the sofa, but we'll see.

I'm thrilled with this shawl, and as I've said previously it is the largest project I've ever made. It feels like a real knitting milestone, my first big shawl, and I just hope my grandmother loves it as much as I do.

I will try to get photos of the shawl in Hawaii, which is incidentally where I will be through January 26th. I'm looking forward to lots of plane knitting and hope to have my Hederas close to finished when I get back.


Previous Entries on this Project:
- The Finish Line
- Organic Growth
- Executive Decision

The Finish Line

I finished knitting my grandmother's Sun Ray Shawl!



It is blocking this very moment, and I will have it dry and packaged to come with me to Hawaii on Monday.



I thought the picot bind-off would kill me, but I did it. This is the largest project I've ever undertaken, and I can't wait to see how it turns out after blocking.

Sockdown: January

I decided to participate in this month's Sockdown on Ravelry, since the featured designer is the brilliant Cookie A.



I've had the Hedera pattern printed out and ready to go for months now, so I was very exciting to cast on for them last night.



I'm using Knit Picks Essential in Grass, and I love the way it subtly matches the gentle green of my Susan Bates Silvalume size 1 DPNs.

Now I just have to finish my grandmother's shawl (just a few days left!) so I can devote myself completely to these while on vacation.

Oh happy day

Today has already been a really great day. First, my boyfriend is home from a month-long trip around Asia. I've missed him quite a bit.



I brought our cats back from my parents' house in New Jersey, as well as their cat Oreo, who will be staying with us for a bit. While my boyfriend was out of town, I cleaned and organized the apartment top to bottom, and I think the cats are really relaxed to be here now.

Or Smokey is helpless against gravity. Or both.



We walked to Bergen Bagels for breakfast (Brooklyn's best bagel), where I got a toasted whole wheat bagel with basil cream cheese. It was insanely delicious.



Seriously. Unbelievable.

And lastly, the thing that actually has to do with knitting (because what is this blogging about my life stuff?!), I got a delicious box of yarn which I was afraid had gone missing. It's actually been sitting at the post office since December 19th (thank goodness).



Oh, it was worth the wait. This was the last yarn that I purchased in 2007 (and it was all at close-out prices!), thus kicking off my no-yarn-buying year of 2008. I gotta say, if I'm only knitting from my stash, I've got some brilliant choices to work from.



Rowan Big Wool, 100% merino bulky, color 24 Cassis



Elsebeth Lavold Chunky AL 50% FS alpaca / 50% Peruvian Wool, color 010 Turquoise



Classic Elite Alaska 50% alpaca / 50% wool super bulky, color 1515 Hot Springs (heathered teal)



Classic Elite Alaska 50% alpaca / 50% wool super bulky, color 1503 Mogul (light gray)



South West Trading Company Gianna 50% soysilk / 50% wool bulky, green

And then a whole bunch of Regia 4-ply, all 75% superwash wool / 25% polyamide, about which I am officially nuts. (All these photos enlarge).









Now I just have to finish some stuff so I can start playing with all this beautiful new yarn!

Handmade Ornaments

Since my mother likes to keep the Christmas tree up through Epiphany, we get extra time to admire the decorations and ornaments around the house.



The tree was beautiful this year, but unfortunately my father's puppy Smooch has taken to chomping up ornaments daily.



Including the baby Jesus from my mother's DiGiovanni Nativity set. Whoops.



Inspired by some sense of posterity, I decided to photograph some of the cross-stitched ornaments I'd made when I was a child, lest they end up like Smooch's other prey.

My mother bought me fabulous Christmas ornament kits when I expressed an interest in counted cross-stitch. They came with cute little frames, cardboard backing material, a square of Aida fabric, a tiny little pattern, the right-size needle, and generous lengths of all the DMC colors you'd need. I kept the whole kit in a sandwich bag while I worked on them and thought they were just the most charming things.



This church ornament was the very first cross-stitch project I ever did. I love its painted wood frame, and I still have to smile at those cute little stained glass windows.



My mother and I were admiring this ornament, and she asked how old I was when I made it. I turned it over, saw that I'd clumsily embroidered 1991 on the back, which I showed her. She looked at me, perplexed, as she tried to count back from 2007.



We both got a good laugh when I rolled my eyes and said "Mom, I was born in 1981."





This cat and mouse were my two favorites (even though I can see an error in the cat now) because they were the cutest designs and also in part because they used a very fine-count Aida cloth.



At that time, I usually worked on 12-count, and I think these were 14 or 16 count, so I felt terribly sophisticated.





I was kind of a snot about this swan because I felt it was too simple and easy, stitched on 12-count fabric.



I also wasn't as wild about the rocking horse because it had almost no back-stitching, which at the time was one of my favorite parts.

That was my 10-year old sensibility, of course. Now I think they're all adorable, and I admire them fondly. I love having something that I made more than 15 years ago so well-preserved and cared-for.

Then again I shouldn't be surprised. My parents have kept ornaments I made at a very politically-correct kindergarten: a geeky snowflake,



and their personal favorite, my star of David.



Lastly, while I'm admiring my favorite ornaments, I had to post a photo of this one, which I did not make, but which we bought many years ago from a basketry artisan at a Pennsylvania Dutch folk festival in Kutztown, PA.



I just love this weaving, and I want to learn how to do it.



When I return to Brooklyn, I may take a stab at finishing some of the other cross-stitch pieces I have had "in progress" for 10 or 15 years. I was really into stitching way before knitting, and I actually got quite good at it, so it'd be nice to pick it back up again.

Ahh memories.