Mother Daughter Sweaters

Or why my daughter in law is the best mother for my granddaughter!

I’m probably going to make some people mad with this one…

A young mother in our area was arrested after leaving her baby in the car while getting her hair cut. Sounds awful right? The story reminds us of other stories of babies left in a car with the engine running and doors unlocked, babies left in the car while their mothers were inside drinking or partying oblivious to the child, babies left in a hot car with the windows rolled up. Some of those babies died.

But this mother thought she was taking care of her child. She was following the advice I remember reading from La Leche League when I was a new mother, “Never wake a sleeping baby.” The teething baby had had a rough night, had fallen asleep in his car seat and she didn’t want to wake him. She locked the car and cracked the windows on a day when all agreed overheating was not an issue. She was in a chair twenty feet away and reportedly could keep her eye on the baby. A well meaning stranger saw the baby, called the police and mom was arrested.

The women in my book club agreed with the district attorney’s decision not to charge the mother but thought the mother had been stupid. Someone could have abducted the baby before the mother could get to her car. While she watched, a child abuser could break the lock, open the door, and grab the baby strapped into the car seat secured to the car, all before she could get there. Really? If she were watching from only 20 feet away?

I remember being left in the car as a child. In other ways my parents were very protective, overly protective even. But leaving their children in the car didn’t feel neglectful. I was left in the car while my father went into the bank or the grocery store. Once I awoke in what felt like the middle of the night locked in the back seat of the family car with my two sisters in front of a restaurant on Highway 99. My father had tired while driving and needed a cup of coffee. Did they leave us alone in the car too much? Perhaps. But the danger we felt was abandonment not any being abducted by strangers. Parents didn’t worry so much about child abduction then and locked car doors was thought adequate protection.

When a child was abducted in northern California when I was a child, my parents held us tighter, watched us more closely for awhile. As the horror slipped from the front pages of the newspaper and the front of their consciousness, they relaxed. Today there is no relief for a parent. A child is abducted in Michigan and it is headline news in California. But how many children really are the victims of the scary stranger abduction that is every parent’s worst fear? More than in the past? So many more that a parent can’t leave her child twenty feet away from where she is getting her hair cut?

I needn’t worry about my daughter-in-law leaving Clara in the car. She is the best of mothers and I have none of the criticism I hear from other mothers of sons. And my son is a wonderful father. But he is a worrier and hovers too closely over three year old Clara.

“Relax,” I tell him. “She’s fine.”

And she is. But Clara is a bit of a worrier too. It runs in our family. My own father, yes, the one who left us in the car, was overly protective and fearful for our safety. “Don’t do this.” “Be careful of that.” I’m a bit the same way and my son undoubtedly learned it from me. Thank goodness for my daughter-in-law whose calm, assuring protective encouragement is exactly right for both my son and my granddaughter.

Clara, of course, is very attached to her mother and wants to be just like her. So, for Christmas they will get mother daughter sweaters. Everything has to be pink for Clara these days! Preferably hot pink. But, although she would probably wear it to please Clara, I don’t think Mom wants a little girl’s hot pink sweater. So, the sweaters won’t be exactly alike, but close enough. Clara’s Helena will be knit with Berroco Comfort DK in a warm pink. Mom’s February Lady Sweater will bea slightly muted pink in Cascade 220. I’ll modify the February Lady Sweater to use the same lace pattern that is in Helena.

Thoughts on Ene’s Scarf: It's too much work!

During my week in the mountains I finally finished my Ene's Scarf. And, if I do say so myself, it is a beautiful shawl and will make a lovely gift - unless I keep it for myself.

The Nancy Bush pattern printed in Scarf Style from Interweave Press begins with casting on 375 stitches with the yarn held double. I didn’t realize that until I started to knit. It is a bottom up pattern and I’ve always done top down. I was ready to quit before I started! 375 stitches!

I started out with blue lace weight yarn but the 375 little stitches in blue lace weight yarn are very difficult to see on KnitPicks Harmony wood needles. The 750 strands of yarn, scrunched together on the needle were impossible to see against the variegated colors of the wood needles – especially when knitting in the evening with my older eyes. I started over with heavier yarn, Elsebeth Lavold’s silky wool.

My suggestions for a beautiful Ene:

Cast on with a larger needle. I knit the shawl with a size 6 needle but cast on with size 7. Cast on rows tend to be a little tight and I needed a little give. Using a larger needle for the cast on also allowed me to block the edging to a sharp point rather than to a soft curve. The edging, with the candle flame like points, is what sets the Ene apart as a beautiful scarf.

When casting on, I placed markers every 25 stitches and counted each time I placed one. I also placed a hook-on marker in stitch 188, the half way point.

The first row sets up the pattern and the only way to make sure to get it right is to count and count again. There is nothing to look at to tell you if you have miscounted or not. I put a marker in every double decrease and counted to make sure there were 14 stitches in each pattern repeat. And counted again. I used a 41 inch circular needle. After the first row was knitted I laid it out flat, noted where I thought the center was and matched up markers on each side to make sure it really was symmetrical and I hadn’t ended up with 12 repeats on one side and 10 on the other. That would have been very easy to do. Fortunately, with the marker in the center stitch, I got it right the first time.

Chart 1: The outer border of the shawl, is not difficult, indeed after the first two rows, the pattern is visible and mistakes would be easy to catch if they were not hidden in the sheer mass of 375 stitches. Just keep an eye on the yarn overs and all will be well.

Chart 2 is very easy, four rows of garter stitch, followed by a row of yarn overs and knit 2 togethers, followed by four more rows of garter stitch. But watch out for the additional decreases in three of its ten rows.

Chart 3: Enjoy! The rows are getting shorter fast and the knitting is easier. Just enough concentration is required. Although chart 3 is 23 rows, it is really just two different stitch patterns, each with two alternating sets of three for a 6 stitch repeat. I counted out the pattern to myself as I knit and checked myself by saying it backwards on the purl row. I sometimes dropped a yarn over or became distracted and knit one of the three-stitch halves of the repeat twice. But any mistake was easy to see. The double decrease sits neatly in the middle of a set of three stitches, either between 2 knit 1s or between 2 yarn overs.

Bind off: This is wonderful! I had never done a three needle bind off before and was thrilled. It came together easily and perfectly!

If I were to do it again…

I’d pull out Evelyn Clark’s Knitting Lace Triangles, pick a nice lace pattern for the body of the shawl, start at the top and when I had the right number of stitches add the two borders from Charts 1 and 2. No more casting on 375 stitches for me!

Finally, why is it called a scarf?

According to Merriam-Webster on-line the difference between a shawl and a scarf is subtle:

Scarf: A length or square of fabric worn around the neck or head. Probably based on Old Northern French escarpe, probably identical with Old French excharpe ‘pilgrim’s scrip’.
Shawl: A piece of fabric warn by women over the shoulders or head or wrapped around a baby. From Urdu or Persian, probably from Shaliat, a town in India.

The Ene is a shawl.

Linen Ponchette - This one is for me!

“What are you going to do with all those shawls?” my friend, Nancy asks me. She would like to see me knit pieces to include in my quilts and wall hangings. Nancy's quilts were always works of art. Now after years of perfecting her piecing and quilting skills, she is flourishing as a fiber artist making art quilts.

Yes, I’ve knitted a lot of shawls, scarves and ponchettes. And I’m knitting more. But I really don’t have too many because after I knit them, I give them away. When a daughter, sister, or friend admires something I’ve made, I might give it to her right then. Or I might wait until her birthday. I am happy when my work is admired, when I know it will be worn. It is what an artist feels when her work is hung in a gallery. As a knitter, having my work worn, is having it displayed. Isn't that what every artist wants?

And giving one away gives me reason to knit another. So, when my daughter admired the Cool Hemp Ponchette knit in Allhemp6, it was hers. I had another planned.

This time I knit the pattern in Euroflax sport weight linen. It was the color, willow, that first drew me to the yarn. This was my first experience knitting with linen and I found it behaved very much like the hemp although the linen wasn’t quite as rough and itchy on my hand. Once again this was a quick, easy to knit pattern. After knitting the basic rectangle that forms the ponchette, I tossed it in the washing machine with a load of whites (no bleach!), then into the dryer. I took it out while still damp, blocked it to the size recommended in the pattern as I would any lace project, stretching out the points as much as I could. When it was dry I seamed it. The linen and the hemp both biased quite a bit but the pattern seemed designed for that and the ponchette hangs with a bit of swing and a casual elegance to dress up a warm day.

I’m going to wear it.

A Week In the Pines with Friends and Fiber

Sunday after dinner we covered the dining room table with felt and plastic table cloths. Nancy and Kay set up their machines at each end of the table and I laid out my appliqué supplies in the middle. We set up an ironing board in the kitchen.

Monday morning we got right to work. Nancy is the most disciplined of the three of us. She finished three traditional two colored quilts from blocks she had pieced at home and had ready to sew together.

Kay sewed the blocks of what will be a beautiful batik quilt and I started work on my appliqué. Kay and I took frequent knitting breaks.

My appliqué was not a success. Although I thought I had started it 10 years ago, Nancy corrected me. I started it 5 years ago when she and I went to Asilomar together. In any event, my skills have declined and my fingers have stiffened since the last time I picked it up. The first day went well. I stitched the long smooth lines of the trunk and branches of the tree of life and remembered how much I enjoyed appliqué and had ideas for lots of applique in my future. But the second day I worked on one of the flowers and couldn’t get the petals or the leaves to point, the v’s between the half circles in my scallops turned into curved u’s. I wasn’t at all happy with my work. The third day I ripped out what I had done.

I have two choices: give it up and never finish or find another way. I’ve decided to try the machine. I’ll free motion stitch around the edges of each floral piece. This will give them a slight frayed edge when the quilt is washed. After the pieces are all down I’ll free motion quilt with colored thread, silk or sulky, repeating the shapes of the appliquéd motifs. It should work. And, this way there is a good chance it will be finished someday and it won’t ever be finished if I stick to what I started.

After I put the appliqué away, I spent the last days knitting. More on that later.

Getting To Not Getting Away

I’m off to join two friends for a week of sewing in the mountains.

In the past the three of us attended Empty Spools seminars at Asilomar together. The location, right on the Pacific Ocean, the activity, working with fabric, the company, other quilters, was wonderful. The Asilomar Conference Grounds, part of the California State Park system, with buildings designed by Julia Morgan, sits directly across from the beach in Pacific Grove. The rooms range from cozy and rustic with a fireplace to dorm like. The food was plentiful and good. And five days with no work other than that I chose to do with fabric was wonderful.

But when the Empty Spools schedule came out this year we couldn’t find a session that worked for all of us. We’ve decided to try a private retreat instead. We are going to my sister’s mountain home, snuggled in the Sierras between Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks, surrounded by pines, away from traffic and internet service. Only the squawking blue jays will interrupt the silence. We’ll take our fabric, machines and notions and get to work.

We’ll eat well too! We are all good cooks who enjoy cooking. Nancy is making her special triple ginger cookies, Kay promised oatmeal cookies. I just finished baking a dozen vanilla cupcakes, put together premeasured packages of ingredients for baking a cherry upside down cake and chocolate chip cookies. Three nights we are having main dish salads. Tri tip and curried tuna are two on the menu. One night we will have chicken curry. We’ll be driving south through farm country and intend to stop for fresh fruit and vegetables on the way. We’ve also packed nine bags of microwave popcorn.

I used to look forward to going to Asilomar to get away. To get away from the long hours and responsibilities of a demanding job and all that went with it, a commute that had me in stop and go traffic for an hour in the morning and again in the evening, an inflexible schedule. I looked forward to getting away from those things that stifled the inner artist I wanted to nurture.

I don’t look forward to getting away anymore. I don’t look forward to getting way from what I do everyday because today I do those things I choose to do, knitting lace shawls, baking cupcakes for 2 year old Clara, meeting a friend for lunch and volunteering that fits me so much better than the work I used to do. I don’t look forward to getting away from the husband who supports and encourages me. And I don’t look forward to getting away from the pleasant community where I live.

Instead, I look forward to getting to. Getting to the mountains, the pine trees, the quiet. I look forward to getting to the hand appliqué wall hanging I started in an Empty Spools class taught by Pat Campbell 10 years ago. I worked on it for 5 restful days with Pat's help, sitting with other women, talking quietly as we worked. I was pleased with my piece, the colors and fabrics I had chosen. I was happy with my stitching. But I brought it home, set it aside and in the distractions and busyness of life, never picked it up again. It still sits with my hand traced pattern basted to the front, many pieces are only pinned in place. Others haven't even been started. I’m looking forward to getting to it.

I’m not looking forward to getting away, I’m looking forward to time spent with friends, with nature and fiber. I’m taking my knitting too!

4th of July Heartland Shawl

Mine was a quiet 4th of July. I cleaned the house, prepared food for family arriving the next day, and cast on Evelyn Clark’s Heartland Lace Shawl.

The Ravelry Knit Along for Evelyn Clark’s Heartland Lace Shawl started in mid June but I had too many projects on my plate and, after selecting sport weight Misti Alpaca in a brick heather, knitting a gauge swatch and selecting a size 6 needle, I set the project aside. When one of the other knitters said her goal was to cast on July 4th, that worked for me.

Honoring the buffalo who once roamed strong and free seemed a fitting celebration of all that is good about my country. The bulk of the shawl is done in Clark’s Bison Tracks Lace depicting "the buffalo’s heart-shaped hoof prints alternating with small diamonds that point to the four directions on earth.” The shawl’s edging is called the River of Life. The shawl is a celebration of the buffalo’s return, she says.

I hope the buffalo are returning. Five were born this spring on a small ranch near my house. The herd of 12 graze on a hill cheering commuters on their way home from work in Sacramento. Twenty-five years ago there were only two.

My husband hung out our flag as he does every Independence Day. I hunted for the marches of John Philip Sousa on the radio to cheer my work. Instead I found myself singing “We Shall Overcome” with Bruce Springsteen.

Deep in my heart
I do believe
We shall live in peace someday.

Cool Hemp Ponchette

I’m wearing my new Cool Hemp Ponchette made without deviation from the Lanaknits pattern. And I like it! The design in the lace shows up clearly, the opening folds into a slight cowl and the hemp has a lovely drape. It is a fun little cover up to add just a touch of style to my tee shirts. Later I’ll be meeting a friend for lunch and the ponchette will dress me up just a bit. And it's always nice to have a wrap in a restaurant with the air conditioner running on high.

I’m very impressed with the way the ponchette drapes. You can see this on many of the project pictures other knitters have posted on Ravelry. After knitting, I washed it in the washer and dried it in the dryer until almost dry. Then I laid it out on the blocking mats and blocked it to size, stretching out each of the points in the lace border.

This was the first time I’d knit with hemp and I’m curious to see how it wears. I know it will be both soft and strong. I know it will be soft because after I redid the seam three times to get it to meet my standards, that little bit of yarn was soft as silk. And I know it’s strong because as soon as I put it on this morning I caught a bit of the lace on the sharp edge of a house fan and pulled out a big loop of yarn. I gave it a good tug and all the strands were nicely back in place.

Knitting with hemp was like knitting with kitchen twine. It seemed to make my fingers itch and its resistance to being manipulated exacerbated my early arthritis. After I was done I read on the Lanaknits website a suggestion to soak the hemp in hot water and hair conditioner before knitting. I’ll try that next time. The end product is so nice I don’t want the stiffness of the yarn to keep me from using it.

Ene’s Scarf: I’m half way!

I stuck out the Ene, didn’t frog it after all. I figured out where I made mistakes, decided they didn’t show and carried on.

I’m halfway done! Thank you to Madorville for showing us how to figure out what percentage of a triangle we have already knitted. Her excel spread sheet is very useful if you are wondering whether you have enough yarn. She uses the Ene as an example and reports that Row 55, the last knit row of the first time through Chart 3, is the half way point. The rows are gradually getting shorter, the pattern is easier. I can see the triangle taking shape from the double decreases running down the middle.

Now this is pleasurable knitting. There is an easy rhythm to the stitches, alternating three stitch repeats. It requires just enough attention to be interesting without being frustrating. I can relax and feel the steady flow of yarn through my fingers. This is the knitting I have in mind when I say I like to knit. In my mind’s eye I see myself one with a long line of women knitting through the centuries, sitting quietly in a sunny window, our needles moving smoothly as something beautiful takes form from the yarn in our hands. This is the way knitting should be.

I might be tempted to check Madorville's formula at the end of each knitting session, to be ever mindful of my progress, of how much longer I must knit before I will be done. But I won't! This time I refuse to rush in anticipation of reaching the end, anxious to begin the next project. I’m going to let go of my timetables and let the knitting set its own pace. I’ve worked hard to get to this point in my Ene journey. I’m going to savor it.

Ene's Shawl - to frog or not to frog

I am knitting Ene’s Scarf as part of a Ravelry knit along. And I’d like to quit.

The scarf starts with a horrible 375 stitch cast on! Yuck. It took what seemed like forever but I carefully counted out the cast on stitches, placing a marker after every 25 stitches. When I was done I double checked, so going into the first row I knew I had the correct number of stitches. The first row is full of double decreases. Again, I counted carefully, placed markers after every pattern repeated and at the end of the row checked carefully that there were the same number of markers on each side of the center stitch. Everything worked out.

The scarf begins with a 22 row lower edge in a simple diamond pattern. The rows are so long, it took quite a lot of knitting before I could see the pattern taking shape. No instant gratification here. Eventually I had the 22 rows knitted without too much unknitting. I counted it out as I went and knew when I’d made a mistake in time to correct it within the row. But with a 375 stitch row, if I discovered a problem because the count didn’t work out when I arrived at the center stitch, and the problem was toward the beginning of the row, there was a lot of unknitting to get back to fix it.

When I got to the end of the diamond border I realized I was one stitch off on each side of the center stitch. It was perfectly symmetrical. I’d made the same mistake on both sides. I think I missed a decrease on either side of the center stitch about 8 rows back. It looked fine, wasn’t throwing the pattern off so I decided to fix it in the very straightforward 10 row chart that followed. This chart is 9 rows of garter stitch with a yarn over knit 2 together row in between. However, there were also some decreases at the beginning and end of the rows. As simple as the second chart was, I made more errors and had 2 extra stitches on one side and 1 extra on the other. I’ll blame it on the long rows again. By the time I’d get to the end of the row, I’d forgotten what I’d planned when I began the row. Fortunately, these are the rows in which errors can be compensated for without throwing the pattern off and I ended chart 2 with the right number of stitches on both sides of the center stitch.

You’d think I’d be eager to go on to chart 3 and finish this shawl. The rows are getting shorter. I’m down to 313 stitches from the original 375. Chart 3 continues for the bulk of the shawl, the rows getting shorter and shorter all the while. So, once I get the hang of the new pattern, finishing should be easier than what I’ve done so far. In fact some knitters have called it boring.

So, why am I not eager to keep going? I don’t like the fact that I compensated for mistakes instead of correcting them. And I’m not sure I like my yarn. Yes, I know a lace shawl always looks like a crumpled mess before it is blocked. And other knitters have used the same yarn and been happy. I know this yarn will make a warm cozy scarf when it’s done. But the real problem is, I really don’t like a bottom up triangle shawl. The long lower edge is just so unruly I’m not convinced about the finished product.

I’m not going to quit! The way I see it, my choices are to frog it all and start over in another yarn or stick it out and finish this one. It would probably go much easier the second time around and I do have some beautiful slightly variegated merino lace that would be perfect for this pattern. But I really don’t want to cast on those 375 stitches all over again. I guess I’ll take a break and then later today, lay what I’ve already done out flat, pin and try to see what the yarn will look like blocked, make sure my mistakes really aren’t visible, and decide what to do next.

Swallowtail #2

Swallowtail Number 2 is done! And that is a good thing because I’ve signed up for two more shawl KALs on Ravelry. I’ll be knitting another Evelyn Clark design, the Heartland Lace shawl, and Nancy Bush’s, Ena’s Shawl, found in Scarf Style from Interweave Knits.

This one was done in some Morehouse Farms Merino Lace I had in my stash for several years. I'm not real happy with the yarn. The thickness varied a lot! In places it was as thin as thread. When I finished binding off and pulled the yarn through the last stitch, the yarn broke. I had to undo about 20 stitches of bind off, attach new yarn and bind off again. And then when I pulled the yarn through the last stitch, it broke again!

But it blocked out beautifully and the color is prettier in the shawl than it was in the ball.

Blocking Lace

What happened here?










Some knitters say they hate to block. I’ve even heard a few say they refuse to block, limiting themselves to patterns and yarns that don’t require blocking. Not me! I love to block because I love what it does for my knitting. I am not as good a knitter as I would like to be. My stitches are not perfectly even. My edges are not perfectly straight. This is particularly true of lace. The intricate stitches don’t lie flat and neat, the pattern is lost is a rumple of yarn that looks nothing like I intended. Blocking turns that unruly pile of yarn into beautiful knitted lace right before my eyes.

As soon as I bound off the last stitch of Swallowtail #2 I set out immediately to get it blocked. I am a fan of wet blocking. I want every bit of fiber thoroughly saturated with water to insure the blocking can work its magic. I soaked the shawl in lukewarm water in the bathroom sink with a little bit of shampoo and rinsed it with a little bit of conditioner. It is hair! After about half an hour, I drained the sink and squeezed out the excess water, first by pushing the shawl against the side of the sink and then rolling it in a big towel and squeezing the towel.

The magic comes when the shawl is laid out on the blocking boards. This time I had new soft linking mats purchased at Lowe’s. These are 24 inch square plastic mats that fit together like a jig saw puzzle, sold as a play surface in the flooring department. They come four to a package. I bought two packages and fit 5 squares together in a triangle shape on my cutting table. One side of the mats has a gridded surface. I put this side up and the grids seemed to grab and hold the damp shawl in place as I worked. Pins went easily into the pads and, because of the grip, fewer were necessary. In short order Swallowtail #2 was drying, pinned tightly on the pads.

And that’s when I saw this conspicuous hole, impossible to ignore against the playroom yellow of the blocking mat! It looks as if I tried to pick up a dropped yarnover several rows later and somehow ended up with the right number of stitches without getting all the stitches in their proper places.

But I know the shawl won’t be stretched out like this again until I have to wash it some day. And blocking had done for the shawl what I hoped it would, revealed the beauty of the pattern, evened out my stitches and gave the shawl a beautiful drape. The hole will disappear into gentle folds falling over my shoulders. I’ve decided not to see it!

Of Nupps and Bobbles

Until you get the hang of them, nupps are difficult. That’s the bottom line. There are a lot of nupps in the Swallowtail and a lot of discussion among Swallowtail knitters about easier ways to make them. But I struggled through them, doing them exactly as Evelyn Clark wrote them and it wasn’t long before they were slipping easily off my needle and most of them turned out pretty well.

If you stick with Evelyn Clark’s method, here’s some advice:

· Give yourself some extra yarn for the purl 5 together. Don’t be afraid to stretch out the stitches in the k1 yo k1 yo k1 stitch. This allows you to get the right needle under all 5 strands and pull them off easily without losing one.

· When you insert the right needle under the 5 strands for your purl, pull the needle out just a bit to put a little tension on the 5 strands and smooth them out. Getting them all neat and orderly at this point will give you a nice neat, orderly nub. At this point you can also clearly see whether or not you have 5 strands on the needle and when they are all lying neatly together you are not as likely to lose one.

But now that I know I can do them Evelyn’s way, I wanted to know if there is an easier method that looks just as nice. And I wanted to know if the bobble used in the Lily of the Valley pattern in the Stitch Dictionary in Vogue Knitting would work just as well. It is done all at one time on the right side of the fabric. If I didn’t like how it turned out, I’d know right away and could redo it without having to unknit a row or more to fix it.

I made a swatch with three ways of making nupps. Reading from right to left, the first column are the nupps as written in Evelyn Clark’s pattern, that is purl 5 together; the second column are made by Slip 2, K3 tog, pass slipped 2 over; the 3rd column are Slip 3, K2 tog, pass slipped 3 over. The left most column is Vogue’s bobble, K1P1K1P1K1 in same stitch, then pass the 4th, 3rd, 2nd and 1st stitches over the last stitch made.

There isn’t a lot of difference in the first three columns. I do think the purl 5 together, when done well, is the most attractive. However, the other two are significantly easier and for me that means more likely to be done well. My overall best results were from Slip 3, K2 tog, pass slipped 3 over. The parallel threads lie neatly over the top of the nupp and are supported by a nice fullness underneath. This will be my method of choice for next time.

I rejected the Vogue bobble although it was easiest of all. It opens up in the middle, giving the button a quite different look.

Swallowtail Shawl: Blocked and Beautiful

It’s done! Although I’ve done lace before, I’d done nothing more difficult than neatly aligned yarn overs and knit 2 togethers. The Swallowtail was a challenge. I devoted many hours to knitting and unknitting.

I struggled through the three patterns, the budding lace, the nuppy lily of the valley border and the relatively easy peaked edging. After the bind off I looked at the heap of knitted yarn that was the shawl with mixed relief and dismay. This wavy, unruly thing did not look at all like the shawl I wanted to make. Had all been in vain after all? What made me think I could do this?

I knew every fiber of the yarn needed to be fully saturated if blocking were going to tame this mess. I put the unblocked shawl to soak with a little shampoo and left it in the sink and left for the hairdresser. A haircut could only help. After dinner I was ready. I squeezed out the water, stretched the damp shawl on a large towel, pinned carefully and the pattern began to pop. Success!

I should sit back, relax and enjoy the satisfaction of a challenge met. Take a walk, clean the house, read a book maybe. But there is never a time I want to knit more than I do right after one project is done. A second Swallowtail is already taking shape on my needles.

Swallowtail Shawl: Humility

I have a tendency to take on too much. And so it was with the Swallowtail Shawl. I needed a project to take on vacation, something I could easily finish during a two week road trip. Knitters on Ravelry reported the Swallowtail Shawl was an easy, quick knit. One knitter said she finished it in eight hours. Not me. The vacation is over. The shawl is not finished and I’ve done more unknitting on this than on anything else I’ve ever knit.

I’d like to think I’ve been knitting for 50 years. After all, my aunt taught me when I was 9 or 10. But I don’t remember knitting more than a few inches then. I knit a few scarves in college, a blanket for my first born, two ponchos in the late ‘70s. I gave away my needles and yarn in the ‘90s and started all over again 4 years ago when I retired. I’ve knit a little lace but this was my first time to knit from a chart.

The pattern begins with a crocheted chain of waste yarn. Two stitches are picked up and knit for 6 rows, then the garter ridges are picked up, the chain is unzipped and the exposed stitches picked up. Simple enough. It took me 3 tries!

Clark’s Budding Lace, a simple 6 stitch, 6 row pattern, makes up the body of the shawl. The owner of my LYS suggested I knit a swatch of the pattern so I could see how it works. I didn’t. Instead, I knit at least 10 pattern repeats before I understood it well enough to identify a mistake in time to fix it. Once I finally got it, it was indeed simple, easy to see and follow. I did an extra five pattern repeats as suggested by Littleberry here so I could enjoy knitting once I finally understood what I was doing.

Onward to the Lily of the Valley border. I knew from posters on Ravelry that the nupps could be a challenge. A nupp is created by K1, yo, K1, yo, K1 in the same stitch on the right side and then purling all 5 together on the wrong side. Done correctly the five strands lay parallel to each other in a neat little button. I’d read all kinds of suggestions of how to do them, work on the cable of the needle, use a crochet hook, slip 2, knit 3 together, pass slipped 2 over or slip 3, knit 2 together, pass slipped 2 over. The bottom line is that they are just plain difficult. It is hard to grab all 5 stitches, hard to grab all 5 without picking up the yarn over that follows and there is no way I could figure out to fix an error from the next row and keep the button looking neat. If I found a mistake, and I found many, I had to unknit all the way back to the right side of the nupp and do it and everything after all over again.

I think I finally have the hang of the nupps. I’m working them just as written, stretching out the yarn in each of the K1s to give me lots of room to insert my needle when I purl 5 together. And so now I’m going to frog back to the Budding Lace and do them all over again.

Hopefully my next post will include a picture of a finished, Swallowtail Shawl.