Recently in Lace Scarves Category

After the 100+ degree weather we had this week, 91 degrees today seems bareable -- at least, in the shade.

I've spent most of my day on this chair under the canopy of trees. Even the little blue berries that keep falling onto my head aren't enough to sway me. This is the first weekend since July 4th that I haven't had to work, and I'm soaking up every minute of it.

Betcha can guess what I've been doing with my precious spare time today. It's lounghing on the chair. Let's have a closer look.

It's my newest project -- a little lace stole that I'm making up as I go. I want to design a more complicated lace piece, and I think this one will be a good tutorial in designing lace. I've just completed the border and am going to start the main panel. I've swatched already so I'm crossing my fingers that I've done my homework and this is all going to work out.

The yarn is Schaefer Andrea -- 100% Cultivated Silk -- in the Rosa Parks colorway. It has a lovely sheen and a real silky scent to it. When the sun peaks through the trees and hits the yarn I can smell the silk, and this pleases me much more than it should.

Perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

For the past few weeks I've been looking for a project to get me excited. All this stockinette has led to me all but avoiding knitting! Well we can't have that, right?

lace *sigh*

It's Susan's Branching Out from the latest Knitty.

I'm using Artyarns Supermerino in color 110 on a US 7. The colors look pretty true on my monitor. I tried out this yarn before Christmas for a pair of socks for my Mom but I just couldn't get the yarn to look right for socks. They never seemed correctly sized -- either a bit big and droopy or too tight and stretched out -- so I frogged the sock and the yarn has been in my stash ever since.

I modified the pattern slightly. I started out with just 2 rows of garter and I eliminated the garter edge going up the sides. I was hoping the edges would scallop and they are! It's about 6 inches wide. I have 230 yards of the yarn and I'm planning to just knit until I run out.

Lace knitting from the stash on a cool spring day.

Ahhhhhhhhh

I've been busily knitting on my Philly Knitter's Secret Pal gift for the past week. Secret projects = poor blog content so I've been AWOL. I'm happy to report I finished the gift though.

I am really happy with the way this turned out! Although the picture would have you think otherwise, all the edges do V out in a nice pattern.

Specs

Pattern - Heartstrings Hanging Vines Scarf with 2 center panel repeats (73 stitches total). I purchased the pattern at Elann.
Yarn - Schaefer Anne, less than 1 hank
Needles - Addi Natura 4.5 mm (US #7)
Finished Measurements - 20"x60". It should really be longer and a bit narrower but that's as long as my blocking board goes. I'm going to have to either get blocking wires or an inexpensive rug runner if I plan to make more of these.
Comments - The yarn was a dream to work with. It didn't split and even behaved well on the K3tog's. Blocking took all of a couple hours. I washed it with Eucalan (the water did get pink but no noticeable color was lost), pinned it on my blocking board and turned on the ceiling fan.

As I mentioned above, I will look into buying blocking wires if I get the lace knitting bug. And since I have 3 more hanks of Anne in my stash I think there's a good chance I'll be making more lace scarves!