The flame still burns

This is the last of the catch up entries I've been working on posting to this blog this week, and I hope I've saved the best for last.

Over the last month I've been working on my 'Candle Flame Shawl' quite steadily, and while I haven't been able to post photos of my progress due to some uncooperative photo manipulation software, I did take a few work in progress shots so I'd be able to share them once the problem was solved.

And here they are at last! :)

This first one is of the shawl at around the halfway point, and is one I promised to post for the benefit of the ColourMart Yahoo Group members, as it shows the size that could be knit with just one cone of the 2/28nm lace weight smooth silk yarn...


At the stage shown in the photograph, 360 rows have been completed, and I'm fairly certain there would still be more than enough yarn left at this point to work a border along the top edge if a single cone was being used to knit the shawl. The cones were included in the photograph to give some idea of the size of the shawl, although it should be borne in mind that when the shawl is blocked I'm anticipating that it will expand in width and become a much less pointy triangular shape. I think I can confidently say that a reasonable sized finished version of this shawl could easily be knit using the quantity of yarn on just one 150g cone of this yarn. :)

But as I've always envisaged this shawl as being a more substantial size and not just one which will drape across my shoulders, I have continued on from this point and I have a few more progress shots to share.

This is my 'Candle Flame Shawl' after 440 rows...


And after 470 rows...


... which is the point I'm currently at.

And as most people still seem to be preferring what is nominally supposed to be the wrong side of the shawl...


For anyone who is interested, the rows are now 753 stitches long.

David recently mentioned my shawl on his 'Sticks & Strings' podcast (Woohoo! :) ), and provided some estimates as to how many stitches I have had to knit to reach the point I was at when he last saw it, along with an estimate of the number of stitches I'm likely to have knit by the time I finally complete the project. As I was curious to know what the actual figures might be, I've just sat down and calculated the number of stitches I've knit to reach this point, and have arrived at a figure of 176,674. I have to say that I'm very impressed that the figures David quoted -- which he calculated in just seconds, I should add -- were most definitely in the ballpark.

And the good news for me is that the finish line is finally in sight after working all 176,674 of those stitches -- well, more than that really, as I've made a fair few mistakes along the way ;) -- as the yarn remaining on the cones has decreased quite noticeably now...


Judging by the weight of yarn remaining on the cones, I've used around 80% of the yarn I originally had. There will be a bit of a delay in finishing this shawl though, as I really need to work on the scarf for my ISE 4 pal so I can get it finished in time for the deadline.

The up side of this delay is that it will give me a bit more time to think about what I want to do to finish the top edge of the shawl. I'm still not keen on the look of the original knitted on garter stitch edging, but I do realize that whatever I do decide to use will need to have enough stretch to it to allow the shawl to be blocked out to its final width. I think I'll ask again on the 'Candle Flame Shawl Knit-Along' Yahoo Group for information on what others have done to finish the top edges of theirs, as I received an interesting response last time I asked which I really need to follow up on.

As I've already let it slip that I've been making mistakes while knitting this shawl ;), I thought I should also reveal the mistake I've found myself making most often.

Surprisingly enough, it isn't knit stitches where purl stitches should be, or vice versa -- that would be much too easy to fix by simply dropping the stitches down to the error and then working the stitches back up with the correct orientation.

The mistake I've found myself making most often is this...


Just in case it isn't clear from the photograph, there's an extra loop that shouldn't be there waiting to be worked on the right needle, which is the result of one of the various forms of 'yarn over' having found its way on to the needle while I was knitting the previous row. Why this would have happened -- and a surprisingly large number of times too, I hasten to add :( -- I have absolutely no idea, as 'yarn overs' aren't even a feature of this particular pattern stitch.

And as far as mistakes go, I'm finding this one a really annoying one to deal with when I suddenly come across one, as it's the kind of thing that's just itching to form a hole in the fabric where there really shouldn't be one...


Due to the smooth nature of the fabric of this shawl, the best solution appears to be to 'tink' back to the point in the row below where the mistake was made and then re-knit the row without the 'yarn over' -- something which was bad enough early on when the rows were short, but is truly painful when there are more than 700 stitches in a row and Murphy's Law inevitably dictates that the mistake will have been made near the beginning of the row and so won't be discovered until towards the end of the following row. I've now learnt to look back over my work for these errant 'yarn overs' at regular intervals while knitting each row so I don't have too far to go back if I do find one, and not to work on this shawl when I'm tired or distracted.

Finally, I'd like to congratulate knitabulous for the Highly Commended awards she received for the two shawls she entered in the Sydney Royal Easter Show this year. Judging by the quality of work displayed on her blog, I'd say the awards were well deserved, and I cant wait to see her 'Shetland Sampler Stole' and 'Peacock Feathers Shawl' on display at the Show.

Julie also had a couple of her projects entered this year, but unfortunately they don't appear to have received awards in their categories. :( All I can say is that there must've been some pretty spectacular competition in those categories as Julie's entries were amazing.

Future projects

First up, I recently bought four cones of ColourMart's 2/7nm DK weight cashmere yarn in the 'Bottle Jade' colour...


In real life, the colour is actually a bit darker than it appears in the photograph, but this was the closest my digital camera was able to get, as it always tries to lighten dark colours for reasons of its own -- maybe there's a setting somewhere I'm yet to discover that stops this from happening.

These four cones were acquired with knitting a variation of this in mind...


It's Miriam Felton's beautiful Woven Cable Wrap.

The 2/7nm DK weight cashmere yarn should be a perfect substitution for the original yarn, and is a much more affordable alternative. I now just have to decide whether to knit with it straight off the cone, or to wash it first so I have a better idea as to how the finished wrap will drape while I'm knitting it.

While I'm on the topic of washing coned yarn before knitting with it...

I recently purchased a couple of cones of ColourMart's 2/36nm 55% Cashmere 45% silk fine lace weight yarn in 'Teardrop'...


... with the intention of knitting Melanie's Hanami Shawl...


... for my sister, either for her birthday in July or for next Christmas. I sort of feel like I owe Debbie a hand-knitted cashmere and silk shawl. I gave her a woven cashmere and silk wrap which I found at one of the little boutiques at Birkenhead Point as a present last Christmas, but there was a miscommunication somewhere along the line, and my mother told her that it had been hand-knit by me. As my mother doesn't want me to tell my sister that she made a mistake, I think the best way to make things completely right is for me to just go ahead and knit a shawl for my sister so she really does have one of my hand-knitted shawls.

So where does the pre-washing come in?

Well... None of the available colours in the cashmere and silk yarn really screamed 'Debbie' to me, so I bought the colour closest to white to dye a more appropriate colour -- I'm currently leaning towards one of the 'Gaywool Bush Blends' dyes in either 'Iceberg' or 'Sugargum', as I think they'll suit the pattern well, look fabulous in the Cairn's sunshine, and, most importantly, will compliment Debbie's skin tone beautifully. I've been told that I will get a better end result if I dye the yarn before I knit it, so that's what I'm intending to do. I have to say, though, that I'm really not looking forward to loading several kilometres of this super-fine yarn on to my niddy noddy and subjecting it to the whole dyeing process. My fingers are crossed that I don't end up with a horrible tangled mess.

I've also gone ahead and renewed my Rowan International subscription for another year, although admittedly I did wait until after the reviews made it clear that Magazine Number 41 was a real winner...


... as the free gift this year really doesn't do anything for me.

Kim Hargreaves' 'Knitted Bag' from Rowan Book 30 is actually far more my style...


... than the 'Dolly Bag' is.

I wonder if the yarn from the free gift could be used to make a variation on this bag? I'm guessing that the fabric lining would help to counteract the tendency to grow that fabrics knit from cotton yarns often have and might keep the bag from stretching out of shape when it's in use, and the handles could always be reinforced by threading woven cotton tape through them. So maybe it's a possibility...

Recently, some of our little Rubi + Lana knitting group went along to a Knitters' Guild meeting in the Blue Mountains, where Kate is the convener. I took my 'Candle Flame Shawl' along to work on while I was there, and received quite a few positive comments about it from the members there. :)

Anita, from The Wool Inn in Penrith, was also there with lots of tempting wares for sale. When I found this on her table...


... I knew it would be coming home with me, as I've been searching everywhere for just this shade of red. It's Naturally 'Mist', and is a 1 ply yarn which is 80% super fine kid mohair and 20% nylon -- not quite Rowan 'Kid Silk Haze' or Madil 'Kid Seta', but this really was all about the colour. :) I've earmarked the yarn for a yet to be decided shawl from Jane Sowerby's 'Victorian Lace Today'.

Before the Knitters' Guild meeting, we stopped off in Katoomba, for lunch and to check out David's LYS, 'Katoomba Knitting & Needlecraft'. We all had a great time fondling the yarn there, and I came away with this...


Some Cleckheaton 'Studio mohair 8 ply' yarn. Yes, it's pink. But it's an icy pink, and I have a longstanding affinity for icy colours.

I also have an affinity for yarns which are almost liquid silver in appearance, and the yarn on the left...


... definitely qualifies. It's one of the new Italian 3/50nm lace weight 100% silk yarns available on the ColourMart website. The cones on the left are 'Pale Steel' and the ones on the right are 'Pale Navy 2', which despite the name is actually quite a dark shade. It wasn't until this yarn arrived though that I realized just how fabulous these two colours look together, so now I'm wondering if a truly decadent and luxurious take on the Hap Shawl might not be on the cards. ;)

And last but not least, there's a cone of 2/28nm lace weight cashmere yarn from ColourMart, the colour of which has the fetching name of 'GURLOD'...


Once again, the colours in this yarn are actually more vibrant in real life -- it's not entirely obvious in the photograph, but the yarn is actually made up of a bright purple and a loden green thread twisted together, which produces a look I think will go really well with the shawls in 'Victorian Lace Today' -- this book was definitely one of my better purchases as there's so much in it I want to knit. :)

Now I just need a few more hours in the day...

The many moods of colour #3032

As there's been some amusement and a comment or two on the colour of the yarn I'm using to knit my Candle Flame Shawl from people who know just how much pink really isn't my favourite colour -- not to mention the joy with which my daughter Amanda likes to point, laugh, and remind me that "That's really pink!" every time she comes over to visit -- I thought I might have a go at providing an explanation of sorts.

When I originally bought the yarn, the colour was described as 'dark red with a fuschia tint', and while the accompanying photograph was really red...


... the Colourcheck entry for it indicated that it was probably a bit more crimson than the photo indicated, so I was prepared for an interesting colour when I placed my order. Having seen the colour in real life now, I actually think 'fuschia with a red tint' would be a more accurate description of the colour as I see it, but then again I'm also very aware that colour perception is much more subjective than a lot of people think.

What I can say is that it has proved to be a difficult colour to photograph consistently for my work in progress photos for this blog, as varying light levels on different days have really made a huge difference to the way the colour looks in digital photographs.

But at least I'm not alone in this. ;)

Here, from the ColourMart website, is a photograph of a cone of the same yarn which has been plied to make a DK yarn...


... and a photograph of a washed skein of the same yarn...


Despite their differing appearances, in my experience all of the above photographs are actually accurate representations of this particular shade depending on the light source used, as different fluorescent or incandescent light sources, and natural light levels all bring different aspects of the colour to the forefront.

So... While I'm really not a pink person in general, the colour of this yarn is a real chameleon, and while it's vividly pink when it's out in bright sunlight, under most lights the red tint is evident to greater or lesser extents. I don't think I've had any other reaction from people when I've been knitting my shawl out in public than "What a fabulous colour!", so I guess it must be one of those shades with almost universal appeal -- a fortuitous purchase indeed! :) I do have to say that my choice of a project for this yarn which will mostly be worn of an evening and therefore illuminated by candlelight, incandescent or fluorescent lighting was a deliberate one as those are the situations where I think the colour is at its very best.

And for anyone who has been wondering about the absence of new entries here for the past several weeks... I've been having a problem with my photo manipulation software, which, after several attempts to correct it by re-installing the software from scratch, eventually turned out to be caused by an errant tick in one of the boxes in a setting window which has now been removed. How it got there, and why it persisted even after several supposedly clean re-installations, I still don't know. Anyway... Expect some catch-up blogging to occur over the next day or so.

Candles flaming brightly

Not long ago, I bought a couple of cones of 100% silk 2/28 lace weight yarn from ColourMart's new website. The price was particularly good at the time ($US12 per 150 g cone, including shipping anywhere in the world) as Richard was testing out the new website and was keen for people to test it out. The colour of the yarn turned out to be a bit less red and quite a bit more pink than I'd originally hoped it would be when it arrived on my doorstep -- one of the joys of buying yarn like this over the internet ;) -- but it was a really fabulous colour anyway, so I went searching for a project that would bring out its best.

And then Knitabulous, temptress that she is, posted about the 'Candle Flame Shawl' she has been working on using Debbie Bliss 'Pure Silk' and I was sold.

Now, Knitabulous can't be expected to take any of the blame for what follows, as it's really not everyone who would look at the work in progress photos of her lovely shawl, read about her safe, slow, languid knit which gets worked on when there is a need to meditate, and then immediately leap to the conclusion that a pattern originally designed to be knit with Lambs Pride Bulky yarn on US 10 knitting needles would be just perfect for some 2/28 lace weight silk yarn. That requires a very special way of thinking that most people would quite rightly refer to as madness.

So, out came the two cones of lace weight silk yarn, my 2 mm Addi circular needles, and the pattern for the aforementioned Candle Flame Shawl, and not too long afterwards I had produced this...


Just in case it's not obvious from the photos, I'm knitting with two threads of the yarn held together...


... which is producing just the right fabric density on the 2 mm needles.

And after a few more days work, my shawl looked like this...


... and I can definitely say that the cone spindles were one of my better knitting accessory purchases, as they are making it really easy to knit the yarn straight off the two separate cones.

To show some of the stitch detail better, here is a close up photo of the front of the shawl...


And of the back of the shawl...


Even though it isn't strictly speaking reversible, I think the reverse side of the candle flame stitch pattern used in this shawl is actually quite attractive too.

After quite a bit more work, my shawl had grown considerably.

Here is the front view...


And the back view...


It's entirely possible that this shawl is another one of the distractions which has kept me from posting to this blog over the past few weeks. ;)

At the point shown in the last two photographs, I estimated that I'd knit about 25% of the final shawl, and the rows were already 433 stitches long, which means there will probably be double that number of stitches on the needles by the time the shawl is finished. Eek!

I still have to decide upon the edging to use along the top edge of my shawl, as I really don't think the original 10 stitch garter stitch border is going to work well for this much lighter weight version of the shawl.

I've actually done a couple more pattern repeats over the past few days and there are now 467 little, tiny stitches sitting on my needles.

And I definitely need to wear my glasses when I'm working on this project. ;)

I'm really enjoying working with this yarn, and I'm so impressed with the way the knitted fabric is turning out -- it has a fabulous drape, and is as silky soft as lingerie fabric -- that I've gone ahead and bought some more of it for future projects. At $US16 for a 150 g cone with 2,300 yards of yarn on it, and with such stunning colours currently available, it really was impossible to resist. :)

And just in case anyone is wondering what has happened to my 'Swallowtail Shawl', it is now off the needles but is still waiting for me to clear enough space somewhere in the house so it can be blocked...


And yes, those black threads visible in the photograph are the life lines still in place -- I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to removing safety nets. ;)

For anyone who has been keeping track -- The last row before the shawl was cast off was 503 stitches long, and I had around 17 g of the 'Sea Silk' left by the time I finished. Unblocked, the shawl is approximately 74 cm long measured down the centre spine, and 152 cm wide measured across the whole top edge. I'm feeling quite confident now that it will block out quite nicely to the size I've been dreaming of.

I actually knit the final row and the cast off of my 'Swallowtail Shawl' after I had started work on the 'Candle Flame Shawl', and was surprised at how much like logs the 4 mm needles felt after the 2 mm needles, even though I'd only been working with them for a very short time at that stage.

There has also been some re-stocking at Purl Yarns, which prompted me to buy these...


Two hanks of Lorna's Laces 'Shepherd Sock' in the 'Lakeview' colourway, and two hanks in 'Blackberry', both of which I have been looking out for for a while now.

I also took the opportunity to order some balls of Kaalund 'Enchanté' in the 'Wisteria' colourway for myself when I placed the telephone order for Lois' yarn at Kaalund.


This is another of those colourways that my digital camera doesn't appear to be able to do full justice to, but I hope the photo gives at least some idea of what the yarn looks like in person.

While I was putting together Lois' final Secret Pal 9 package, I paid a visit to The Wool Inn at Penrith.


While I was there, I found some balls of Kaalund 'ClassicTwo' in the 'Tropical Berries' colourway, which I have earmarked to be used for knitting one of the shawls featured in Issue 2 of Yarn magazine. I was also shown some Mi Inca 100% Baby Alpaca yarn in a fabulous teal colour, which insisted on following me home down the motorway. And of course I had to buy a couple of the Colonial rosewood circular needles (a 4.5 mm and a 5 mm, both in the 24" length) to try out for myself too.

Just in case it isn't obvious already, I don't believe in the whole yarn diet thing which appears to be so popular at the moment. Call me crazy, but I'd actually like for there still to be some yarn stores around by this time next year. ;)