Knitted Bees and New Shell Stitch

Pattern: Violets by the River Shawl by Hazel Carter

Yarn: Blackberry Ridge Silk Blend Lace weight, two-ply, 25% silk, 85% wool.

Yarn Color: Medium lilac

Needles: #6

Gauge: 6 stitches/inch, 8 rows/inch

It's done! That is, the knitting is done. The shawl still needs to be washed and blocked and worn. The washing and blocking is on my list of things to do tomorrow. The wearing will probably be Sunday, or maybe sooner if a nice cool day comes along and the shawl is dry.

This is a shot of the "bees" and faggoting along the upper border. They were fun to do. They're pretty cute pinned out and I expect them to be even cuter after blocking.

All the while I was knitting this shawl, I was wondering if I was going to want to wear it. Now that it's done, I can hardly wait to get it on.

There will be one more picture of the shawl later, blocked and on my shoulders.

In the Shetland Lace Workshop, our current assignment is to play around with five different stitch patterns. In our notes, they're presented as scarf patterns. I don't know if I'll end up with a whole scarf, or not.

This is the New Shell stitch knit in Lorna's Laces sock yarn, a fingering weight yarn, with US #7 needles. New Shell is a two row pattern, the simplest of the five.

The purpose of what we're doing with the five stitch patterns is to learn to "read" our knitting and play with different yarn and needles to see the results and learn what type of openness we prefer in our lace.

Teacher Liz recommends a US #10 needle with fingering yarn, but she understands that some of us just aren't ready for such loose fabric yet. We've been encouraged to start with a needle size we're comfortable with and then maybe later move up in needle size.

Sunday evening I started this swatch on US #10s, and wasn't enjoying the feeling at all. I frogged it. So I'm taking Liz's advice and using #7s for now. I have doubts that I'll ever be ready to knit fingering weight yarn on #10s, but I'm trying to stay open minded.

Now if you were a legalistic friend and wanted to hold me accountable to my Guidelines for Knitting Peace, you would ask, "Marguerite, when are you going to sew the Hanover jacket together? Wasn't that supposed to be done before you started the Violets by the River shawl?"

I would smile and ask you to please understand that I'm having fun playing with lace right now but I'm sure I'll be getting back to the Hanover jacket soon.