One Down

1. My second Haruni, called Silver Leaves for the obvious reasons, is completed, blocked, and gifted.

2. In spite of my ridiculous mistake, resulting in a border of single leaves where pairs should have been, it was a quick knit.

3. Knitting the body was faster the second time around. The looped i-cord border was not.

4. My room is still overflowing with yarn.

5. I am knitting another shawl.

Diversionary Tactics

Friday evening, I realized my knitting had taken a dramatic turn for the worse. Where I should have been knitting pairs of lace leaves, I was knitting single leaves.

*gnashes teeth*

So--rather than dwell on a foolish mistake that is entirely my own fault, not the fault of a poorly written pattern, or uncooperative yarn, or any other uncontrollable factor, let's look at a pretty building!

The building above is the Luhrs Tower, which beats out both the Securities Building and the Old Courthouse as my favorite building downtown. The color! The ribbing! The way the blazing hot afternoon sun makes the stucco look like stone! Being able to see a building like that every morning almost makes up for losing a week's worth of knitting.

Not that I'm dwelling on that.

Shawl, Fast

Confronted with loads of laceweight yarn, I have taken the only rational recourse and started knitting shawls.

This is a new Haruni, in one of the *wince* three skeins of Silky Alpaca I picked up at So Much Yarn. The pattern is much more intuitive the second time around, and I am already halfway done!

Seeing beautiful examples of Estonian-style shawls with nupps and Shetland lace made me seriously consider doing something epically intricate and beautiful...but then I considered the facts that a) I intend this shawl to be gifted at the end of the month and b) Silky Alpaca comes in 460-yard skeins, not enough for a *big* shawl...or yarn-eating nupps.

So here I am with another Haruni. I have to say, near-instant gratification is pretty gratifying.

Lace!!!

Finished object!!!

Quick specs:

Pattern: Haruni, by Emily Ross.
Yarn: Alpaca with a Twist Fino
Needles: Size 4 Takumi Clover circular
Full details on Ravelry

This project combined most of the things I love about lace: a basic, organic motif for the body, a bit of fancy for the edge, and *blocking*. I am enamored with blocking. You begin with something that looks like a crumpled flower petal…



… soak it until it looks like something washed up on the beach…



… and then stretch it out as far as it goes & pin it down with half a gazillion pins (Note to self--get some more t-pins soon. Sewing pins appropriated from Mum's supplies were too short.)...



And voila! It looks amazing. From the look of the chart, I expected the second lace motif to be a bit difficult, but once I got past the first few rows and the leaf shapes were established (and less easily confused with lattice sections), it was quite intuitive & surprisingly simple. The i-cord loops were a trifle on the fiddly side to knit, especially as I kept losing track of how many rows I had done since the last join. They were definitely on the fiddly side to block, but the daintiness of the result was oh so worth it. This is definitely a pattern I would knit again, and very well may, as both Mum & Hermanita were rather taken with it.

Second Chart

I'm into the second chart & final of Haruni & I can't put it down. Being home sick is allowing me to indulge in my lace mania, but even if I was out & about I'd be tempted to sneak it out of my back & work one more repeat, then another, and another. There is something thrilling about switching from the soothing monotony (or boring repetition, depending on how fast you memorized the pattern) of the body pattern to another, more complex pattern which--miraculously!--lines up with the body pattern, growing imperceptibly out of it. And too, the final chart is usually longer, with less repetition, so each row brings something different & thrilling. With Haruni, I can't wait to get to the delicate lattice between each leaf tip. A FO post is on the horizon!

Monday

Monday again, and big surprise, I'm on the couch with the dog, my knitting, and a cup of coffee. And a tower of CD-Rs; this week's readings for my digital information class are all about short-term preservation risks and are sufficiently dire that I've been inspired to back up all my files. What's on your Monday to-do list?

Lace Time, Just in Time

Tulip the Hedgehog came off the needles Wednesday afternoon--just in time, as I learned when I dropped her off with Pinky at the Children's Library. Her little recipient came into the world safe and sound that same day. Huzzah!

Hedgie is the baby's (no tail to swallow, but lots and lots of nubby spikes to gnaw on), while Pinky will go to the Big Sister (who I think--hope--is past the toy-eating stage) to help keep the peace. Both are knit out of superwash wool from my stash and stuffed with polyfill. My inner eco-freak squirms a little at the thought of the synthetic fiberfill, but one cannot deny that little baby toys will need to be washed at some point in time. If you'd like more details, Tulip is Raveled here and Pinky is Raveled here.

And now it's lace time! I am making a Haruni shawl, using the 1/2 skein of Alpaca Fino that was left after I finished Mum's Swallowtail Shawl. There was a slight mishap involving yarn overs and a book club discussion, but that was easily remedied and I'm on my way to memorizing the leaf patterns on the main body. And did I mention there aren't any spikes to be knitted on?