SSS testknitter

It's time to introduce my Spring Shawl Surprise testknitter Purplejen.

She has had the lace bug since childhood and it's all because of her I am infected too. I think it sneaked into one of the Secret Pal 10 surprises!!

Throughout the Spring Shawl Surprise (and afterwards aswell) you can find all kind of advice about lace knitting at her blog. What yarn to use, which cast on is best, how can you do the side edge, how to use a lifeline and so on.

Check her out (and her beautiful Thistle Shawl too)

http://purplejenknits.blogspot.com/

She might even drop a few hints about the SSS -she is a great teaser, belive me, I know!

Meet her cat Kenny :-)

All posts about SSS

SSS synopsis and a little Melon

The Spring Shawl Surprice group is still growing and there are now close to 800 members. I am very excited and honoured about so many joining.

I am trying to get as many nationalities as possible to join the group. It's all part of the theme but you will not know why until the of the knit-along when the theme and name of the shawl is revealed.

If you would like to translate the pattern and notes into another language it would be wonderful. Just send me a mail : lul1971 at yahoo dot com

Des modèles et les notes seront traduits en Français.

Muster und Anmerkungen werden ins Deutsche übersetzt.

-

After a long break I continued on the Melon border last night while at a 95 yo birthday. Someone in the Victorain Lace Today group had finished hers and that made me want to finish mine too.

Spring Shawl Surprise theme poll

Spring Shawl Surprise Theme Poll

255 votes

and the winner is

Secret theme

who got 41% of the votes

A total of 29% would have liked to know the theme, I'm afraid you just have to wait :-)

And 8% don't really like secrets at all (you are welcome anyway)

Thanks to everybody for the help!

Want to sign up? Go ahead

SotS hint 4

In this clue you had the opportunity to shorten or lengthen the stole and I desided to shorten it as much as possible as it is already getting huge. So I only had around 16 rows to knit.

Someone in the group suggested Fireworks as the theme. I quite like the thought of that and even if it ends out to be something else Fireworks is way better than earwigs ;-) No matter what it motivated me and somewhere there will always be alittle bit of fireworks in it to me :-)

Pwew

Spring Shawl Surprise sure is keeping me busy. So far 250 have signed in, welcome to you all!

To get some knitting done (swatching a small detail on the shawl -now it looks just perfect) I had to close down my computer -I kept getting distracted by e-mails (and that is the best way to mess up your lace knitting)

So far it seems like you are all a bunch of secret loving knitters -and that I have to keep the theme to my self (he he he).

I came by this old tree the other day -the roots reminded me of lace knitting. But I guess right now I could see lace designs in a cat's behind!

Spring Shawl Surprise

I hereby officially announce the group:

Spring Shawl Surprise

open for sign ups.

You can find the Yahoo group

HERE

Don't forget to vote...right hand side :-)

Secret of The Stole #3

This stole is going to be looong. I finally remembered to take measurements while it was pinned out.

53 x 110cm.

110cm!!!

If someone has finished hint 3 I would love to know how big theirs is!

My secret for the spring

A few notes about the stole I am designing!

The secret KAL will start January 1st 2008

Depending on the results from the vote (right hand side) I'll make it a secret KAL or publish the theme of the stole.

The pattern will be suitable for those who would like a bit of challenge. I am using quite a few different stitch types and there will only be very few repeats with plain knitting. Parts of the stole wil have pattern on the wrong side rows as well as on the right side rows.

Everybody are welcome to join no matter if you are new to lace or very experienced -we will all help each other and with a bit of patience (and lifelines) anyone can participate.

The stole will be rectangular with no fancy addings but the two ends will be different (so you don't know the rest of the pattern halfway through)

I don't know the exact size yet -nor the amount of yarn needed.

I suggest lace weight yarn (800m/100g) in a solid colour.

-

Lidt om det sjal jeg er ved at designe.

KAL'en starter d. 1. januar.

Afhængig af resultatet af afstemningen til højre bliver sjalets tema holdt hemmeligt eller oplyst ved KAL'ens start.

Mønsteret er velegnet til folk som gerne vil udfordres lidt. Jeg bruger en del forskellige masketyper og der er kun få områder med ren glatstrik. Dele af sjalet vil have mønster på både vrang- og ret -siderækkerne.

Alle er velkomen til at deltage hvadenten man er nybegynder eller erfaren indenfor lace strik. Vi hjælper hinanden og med en smule tålmodighed (og livlinier) kan alle deltage.

Sjalet bliver rektangulært uden sære påhæftninger, men de 2 ender vil være forskellige, så du kender ikke resten af mønsteret når du er nået halvvejs.

Jeg kender endnu ikke den præcise størrelse på sjalet -eller den nødvendige mængde garn.

Jeg anbefaler ensfarvet garn med et løbelængde på 800m/100g.

200 rows of SotS

A picture to celebrate the first 200 rows of Secret of the Stole.

For the last couple of days I have been so busy with my own mystery design that I feared I might give up on SotS. But as soon as hint 3 was out I was hooked again :-)

PS Take the vote on the right hand side!

Swatching for stole

Trying out various patterns for my so far secret stole

Designing

I haven't touched my knitting projects for several days! Why? I am in the middle of designing a stole.

I wanted to make something very lacy and a little more complicated than usual. Maybe, in the end it will end up as a KAL, but not for a while, right now there seem to be plenty of KALs that have just started or are about to start. Or maybe I will just make it available for everyone who wants to do stole that involves several stitch types (not just the usual yo an k2tog) and parts with pattern on the wrong rows too.

I meant to post a picture of some of my swatches but blogspot is playing tricks on me.

Calorimetry

Todays accomplishment, Calorimetry from Knitty. "Slightly" huge!

I meant to make a headband with cables but frogged the whole thing halfway through. I still have over 1 skein left of this gorgeous baby lama wool that was a present from Purple Jen. I'll make something that matches the headband. Maybe a scarf or fingerless gloves.

Secret of the Stole -clue 2 finished

May I present, Secret of the Stole Hint 2. Once again I forgot to measure how wide it is!

Theme guess. Well, earwig!!! ;-)

SotS -hint 2

I just finished Hint 2. It late, so I'll not pin it out until tomorrow!

Secret of the Stole -halfway through hint 2

So far so good!

Swallowtail

Offcourse I wasn't able to control myself but casted on for the Swallowtail Shawl the other day. I kind of felt it was ok after I had finished Anne's Garden Stole -ignoring the fact that I still havn't finished The Melon Shawl and still have 7 hints left of Secret of the Stole.

Tomorrow it is SotS-day. I am very much looking forward to the next hint!

Anne's Garden Stole - The final result

Now that everything has settled I feel much better about the final result of Anne's Garden Stole. Maybe I have just gotten used to how it looks (slightly felted), besides, I have nothing to campare it with.

So here she is, in all of her glory

Anne's Garden Stole

Yarn: Knit Picks Bare merino wool -lace weight

90 grams. 880yards (805m)/100g

Dye: app 9:3 Navel blue:Moss Omega dyes

Pattern: My own inspired by A gathering of Lace

Started: Sep 7th Finished: Oct 8th 2007

Now I just have to give it to Anne!

Anne's Garden Stole -The Rescue Mission

So, here she is. I guess that on these pictures it doesn't look that bad, but the stitch definition just isn't perfect. Oh well, maybe I feel better about it tomorrow. At least I got the colour right;-) though it doens't come up right on these pictures. It's petrol.

@#&&&¤X¤&

Shit!

Left the wool + dye on the stove for a second and when I returned it was boiling like crazy.

It had started to felt!

Sigh!

Sigh cry sigh moan shit

Anne's Garden Stole -done -almost

Almost done.l There's just dying and blocking left!

Anne's Garden Stole -welding wire

One good thing about finishing clue 1 in a hurry -I have time for finishing Anne' Garden Stole within a week or two.

I have been looking for blocking wires for ages but it just doesn't seem to be possible to get it here in Denmark. I bought these huge cobber poles for The Cap Shawl -they worked jusy fine but can only be used through large holes. Then someone told me to use welding wire! So today I went shopping at the local DIY market and bought a huge amount of it. And it works!!! Makes blocking a whole lot easier

Secret of the Stole -clue 1 finished

Clue 1 finished!

Too crazy to do this in one day, that won't happen again (I hope)

Perhaps I should mention I am using Knit Picks Bare 100% merino lace weight and 3,75mm needles.

Secret of the Stole -here we go

The first clue for Secret of the Stole was released today. You start out with 2 points that are joined at row 51. According the the pattern you knit both points at the same time using 2 strands of yarn. I would mess that up in 5 min! So I do them one at a time.

And this is what the right point looks like!

Silk for Swallowtail

My new stationary arrived last night and I still have lots of things to install. But I managed to get a picture of a Purple Jen present I just opened. Part 2 of a bad day (bad week so far) and it sure cheered me up 'cos inside was a skein of beautiful beautiful lace weight silk in the most fantastic turquoise-blue colours. Just enough for a Swallowtail.

THANK YOU!!

Anne's Garden Stole - the edging

The last pattern surprice. Leaves seemed very appropriate to all these flowers. But they take a while to knit. Anyone who again find it familiar from somewhere?

The final surprice will be which colour it ends up with -not to mention what it will look like in the end after The Big Block.

Todays present

I always feel like planning something -I just don't have time for all my plans. Anyway, that was my excuse for opening one more Purplejen present.

The cutest little books covered with blue flowered cloth. Maybe it's even homemade?

You sure make a difference too and soon you have to watch out for Postman Pat too ;-)