Stage 3 (Warning: Picture heavy post.)

Chatelaine reached Stage 3, completion, last night. I've thoroughly enjoyed this exercise in design and will certainly undertake it again. I grossly underestimated the finished size and could have easily worked one less repeat widthwise and two fewer lengthwise.

It's harder than I thought it would be to part with this shawl. The fact that it will be raffled off to support two good causes for the Ladies of Auxillary of the Veterans of Foreign Wars makes it more special.

1. Operation Uplink which provides phone cards for our service men and women.
2. Cancer aid and research.

Specs:

Pattern: Chatelaine Shawl designed by Beverly
Sources: Chatelaine - Charted Knitting Designs - A Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara Walker
The Brand Iron Edging - Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller
Yarn: JaggerSpun Zephyr 2/18 in Real Red
Started: July 8, 2007
Finished: October 1, 2007

Modeled by the most wonderful mom in the world!

Stage 2

Stage 1: The Chatelaine shawl body was completed Saturday night.
Stage 2: The edging commenced yesterday as a picked up border. Today I ripped it out and decided to do a knitted on edging. I've done this type of edging only once and that was about 4 years ago. I couldn't make sense of it Sunday, but once I made up my mind that it was a better choice it seemed to flow.

I'm using the Brand Iron Edging from Sharon Miller's Heirloom Knitting. I thought this book was an extravangance when originally purchased. I've consulted it time and time again for this project. It has been a great resource for shawl knitting and I highly recommend it. I purchased my copy from the lys during one of the sales.


This project hasn't been without its' share of trials and tribulations. I am pleased with the look thus far and hope that stage 3, blocking, will bring out the true beauty.

I won't say that I see many more shawl designs in my future, but I feel more prepared for the challenge of actually charting out a shawl and writing the pattern. Next time I'll try my hand at either a triangular or square design.

GrowthThrough Travel

Still getting organized for the trip to KC, MO. I'm trying very hard to avoid weight problems with my luggage due to overpacking. Making sure all the necessary chargers and accessories are packed. I plan to see several museums including the Negro League Baseball Museum, the American Jazz Museum, the Nelson-Atkins with its' new addition the Bloch and the WWWI Memorial. Yarn shops scoped out, food binges planned, I'm ready to eat, drink and be knitty.

I finsihed the jacket backet earlier this evening. I can only hope that velvet-piping is easy to find this time of year. That's the one thing I didn't take into consideration. Around the Xmas holidays it's a cinch, but in the middle of 100+ degrees August, maybe not.

Donna asked about my shawl pattern. It's mine using the Chatelaine chart from one of the BW treasuries. More details here. It's still a work in progress design-wise. Slowly morphing from sketches, notes and calculations on a legal pad into to something tangible. The first of many designs making their way out of my head as I stretch my knitting legs.

Upward and Onward

Total project commitment. Sucks! I can do it but it truly is not my personal knitting style.


Stretched the shawl measures about 33 x 31 inches. My original plan was to have a finished length without borders of 60 inches. I calculated that I'd need at least ten repeats to achieve my goal and today I reached what would've been the halfway point. I decided that since the shawl/stole is for a raffle it might be best to err on the side of wider and longer so I'm adding two additional repeats.

Conspicously absent is my lifeline which didn't worked as planned. I kept weaving it through one of the fibers every now and then and ended up abandoning it about midway the third repeat. So far there haven't been any major problems. Knock on wood!!!

Things have been hectic all around for several weeks. Saturday I'm flying out for vacation and some much needed R & R. I have yet to cast on for the second pair of socks for SOS which will soon be over if I don't get my a-- in gear. I'll be knitting the River Rapid socks by Sockbug in Trekking XXL. I'm planning to take them and one other special project for a precious little boy that caught everyone by surprise coming 8 weeks early. His parents are friends of my youngest brother and some of the most wonderful people I've ever met. Does anyone know if they still have baby showers for early arrivals?

Humble Pie

Kathy of Irisheyes knitting blog nominated me a "Rockin Girl Knitter". My knitting hasn't been rockin so much lately, but I am deeply flattered by her nomination.

Sometimes you can get too confident. This weekend knitting buddy Calvin was over for a visit. He was working on a neat Artyarns hat pattern. I worked a little on Shedir then switched to the Chatelaine shawl. Neither one of us seemed to be accomplishing much except flapping our mouths. He asked me about using a lifeline when knitting shawls. I blithely told him I never use one and I continued to knit on after he left.

As I said previously, I have serious issues with talking or watching TV while knitting on this particularly shawl. About 12:00 AM I headed to bed smugly smilling and admiring my handiwork. Too much confidence will get you every time. I'm still eating my humble pie.

I had knitted rows 2 and 3 twice and had to manually undo 16 rows stitch by stitch. You can best be sure that I ran that lifeline in as soon as I got back to the correct row 3 early Sunday afternoon. I'm going to move it about every twelve rows. In a 48-row repeat that's a number I can live with and my belly is already full.

Two Tired

Two repeats. Between doing a computer set-up and organizing and printing photos, knitting has taken a back seat recently. I completed the second and started the third repeat on the Chatelaine shawl.



I finished the back of Nougat/Melon. With the sleeves cast-on gradually to the body, I'm not sure if they are wide enough after shaping the back neckline. Me of the extra-large upper arms didn't take that into consideration. It's cute, I'm in limbo. There may be a trip to the frog pond.

I'm need a vacation.

On Design - Lace

This week I've been swatching and calculating stitches and proportions for a stole. Not just a any stole, but a stole designed for a raffle by an organization of which I am a member. I've chosen the pattern - Chatelaine from Barbara Walker's Charted Knitting Designs A Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns.



I've done the calculations for the execution of the body and that part is pretty much a go for know. The difficult part is picking out the edging for which I've consulted Sharon Miller's Heirloom Knitting. (If you're interested in knitting shawls and other fine lace articles this book is a must have.)I've narrowed the choice to 6 edgings which are appropriate for the pattern and stitch count.

My brain is at present farting out on the technique for attaching said edging. This isn't my first time attaching an edging, I did it on the Shaped Triangle Shawl from A Gathering of Lace, but those directions were neatly written out for me. I'm going to plunge ahead and work on the body of the stole and practice the edging in the hope that by the time I'm ready to attach it my brain will have caught up with my reading and my hands.