If...

If you take one knitter with a set of 2mm needles and giver her just under 3 km of gossamer Cash Silk laceweight , add a few audio books (Brideshead Revisited, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Great Expectations, Tale of Two Cities and Little Dorrit) and mix in a few World Cup football matches (apologies again to all England fans) you could get one of these.

The Wedding Ring Shawl (designed by Sharon Miller).

In it's pre-blocked state it was a sizeable 4 feet by 4 feet.  Blocking took it to just under 6 feet square. 

As I discovered when I blocked the Blob last year I'm too old to be faffing about blocking things on the floor.  So a couple of months ago when I saw these square foam pieces on sale I picked some up - and they've transformed the process! 

These squares are each 2ft by 2ft and about 3/4 inch thick.  I put the foam pieces together on my dining table was able to block the shawl easily in record time.

As always the moment when I freed the shawl from the pins was a little magical.  The shawl is light and delicate and I wish that I had the skill to capture that in a photograph.

Of course this is the Wedding Ring Shawl so 'the test' was necessary. 

I ran into a hurdle here - I don't own a wedding ring and although my neigbbhours are lovely, I'm not convinced that my asking to borrow a wedding ring for an hour wouldn't step over the 'neighbourly' line.

Not being a great jewellery wearer myself I didn't have many alternatives to choose from - but eventually found a suitable substitute (well, it's a ring) and tentatively began to pull the end through the ring.

I pulled it through carefully and slowly.  And hurrah!  It worked!

The shawl lives up to its name.   (Well, I guess more accurately it lives up to the name 'Cheap Fashion Ring Shawl' - but that's almost the same.  A rose by any other name and all that....)

Progress..

Look - it's becoming more photogenic with each edging repeat!

No time to say more - I've got 90 minutes free before Thursday pizza and gossip with the goddaughter -- need to get knitting!

It might be my fault....

If you were in England this afternoon it is likely you were one of the millions who decided (or had it decided for them) to abandon the bbq, the stroll in the park or an afternoon of window shopping in favour of 90 stressful minutes watching England v Germany in the World Cup.  Normally, I ignore all things football - but for some reason this World Cup has captured my imagination and I've watched more matches in the past 2 weeks than I had in my whole life previously.

We might as well not have bothered.  England lost.  And at 4 -1 we can't even blame it on the goal the ref robbed from Lampard. 

But I fear they can blame me.  You see England have never ever won an international match that I've watched. 

Ever.

I think I might be cursed. 

Or it could be that England were rubbish.

It'll be interesting to see which the papers go with tomorrow morning.

In happier developments check out the latest Wedding Ring Shawl photo.

Do you see that?  Up at the top?  The edging is breaking out! Hurrah!

This is the final stage of the shawl and it's now that I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  

But it's still a dim distant light - I've done 3 repeats which means there are another 137 to go!

Oh Look - Another (yawn) Wedding Ring Shawl Update

The Wedding Ring Shawl continues to grow slowly but steadily. 

I'm almost afraid that I'll tempt the knitting fates by saying this - but so far this has been an uneventful project.  No snapping threads, no self destructing needles, no tipsy knitting sessions...just slow and steady progress. 

I'm afraid that photos (well, interesting photos) are pretty much impossible at this stage.  But here's one I attempted just to show I'm trying.

The work looks messy and the stitches are all bunched up on the needle -- it is only knitterly faith that keeps me believing that the end result will be worth it.

After 200,000 stitches I can confirm that this yarn - Heirloom Knitting's Gossamer Cash Silk is a pleasure to work with.  It is gorgeously soft thanks to the cashmere but the silk gives it a lovely strength which means that although it is threadlike it doesn't feel too fragile.

Innocent Smoothie Hats
It is that time of year again -- Innocent is looking for little hats to adorn with their Smoothies. As always - for each Smoothie sold with a hat Innocent will make a donation to Age UK (new charity combining Age Concern and Help the Aged) which aims to provide services and support to the elderly.  Innocent is still 'getting its hats in a row' - so no deadline has been set yet - but they have confirmed that the 2010 campaign is on - so get knitting!

Ma Knows Best (but nobody tell her)

I think I've mentioned before that my parents live in a house that the Internet forgot.  No broadband, no dial up, not even occasional internet access by mobile phone.  As a result my mother has never seen my blog - but she does get updates on it from my sisters.  When I spoke to her just after I posted about deciding  which sweater to make for gorgeous goddaughter Gen's birthday she asked if I had decided yet -- and then laughed and said "knowing you, you won't start it until the last minute anyway".

(It seems that my having to seam up her cardigan on Christmas day didn't go entirely unnoticed!)

Of course, my mom is right - I can be a terrible procrastinator -- and that little nudge encouraged me to cast on the sweater (I'd selected Arielle) sooner rather than later.  I was stalled temporarily by a search for 2.25 mm needles.  I have a gazillion (truly, a gazillion) sets of needles - but it seems that somehow 2.25 mm circular needles have never been acquired.  I had 6 sets (different lengths) of 2 mm circular needles, 5 sets of 2.5 mm needles but the only 2.25mm needles I could find were some 5 inch double pointed needles.  Hardly useful for a sweater.

After much cursing and muttering I took a look at the pattern (novel idea) and discovered that actually my short double pointed needles would be fine -- as the sweater starts with the lower edging which is knit on 23 stitches.

When the edging is done, you cast off all but one stitch and then pick up along the top of the edging to begin the back. (The body is knit on far more sensible 2.75mm needles -- which are easily found in the Soo needle stash.)

It's been a pleasant knit so far.  I like the Rowan Fine Milk Cotton - it's quite soft and easy to knit with. (Milk cotton  you ask?  Apparently it contains milk proteins -- weird!)

I'm glad I've started early -- the small-ish needles and fine yarn means this is going to take a little longer than my original optimistic 'no time at all' estimate.

In other news the Wedding Ring Shawl is growing - but slowly.  Each round is now so long that if I'm able to complete one in a session I'm pleased.  I'm still enjoying it, but motivation can be tricky.  It is in that middle distance stage -- too far from the beginning to be novel, and way too far from the end to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

Here it is - I've dubbed it the cloud.

Knitting on....and on....

The Wedding Ring Shawl is made up of three components -- the centre square, the wide border and finally the narrow edging. 

The centre square (which I've just finished) (WooHoo!) is knit back and forth on 250ish stitches for 362 rows.   By my reckoning that's about 90,000 stichest -- a third of the total shawl.

If I didn't have a lot of experience (and therefore faith) in the miraculous properties of blocking to turn this mess into something gorgeous when it's comopleted I think I'd have given up long before now.

But I haven't given up and now I get ready to face the wide border -- where knitting endurance is tested beyond all reason.

In preparation for the wide border I will pick up stitches along each of the other three sides of the centre square and begin to knit round the square.  To keep the corners 'corner-like' I'll be increasing every second row at each of the corners.

That means the wide border rows begin with 980 stitches per row/round, and grows to almost 1300.

All of that to say that for the next little while - Wedding Ring Shawl updates are going to be even duller than they have been!!

Knit Misty for Me

On Friday I stopped into John Lewis on the way home from work to buy something to store my shoes in and just happened (ha!) to wander into the yarn section.  I love the John Lewis yarn section - there is something reassuring to me about a department store that still stocks yarn. Most stopped by the end of the 80's but John Lewis and Liberty are hanging in there.

Anyway - I caught sight of the latest Kim Hargreaves pattern collection - Misty - and after a few seconds flipping through the pages I knew it was another winner.  I've made quite a few of Kim's patterns over the past couple of years as gifts - and each one has been really well received.  She has a great eye for detail and her designs are fresh enough that my 15 year old goddaughter loves them, but have enough style that my (slightly older than 15 years old) sister likes them as well.

I picked up a few skeins for Rowan Fine Milk Cotton and will be making one or the other of these for gorgeous goddaughter Genevieve's 16th birthday in July.  I'm leaning towards the first one.....

In Wedding Ring Shawl news I'm still knitting.
I still have a lot of knitting to do.
The end.

(I've just started the 5th repeat - so another 100ish rows and I'll be ready to start the wide border.)

Tea Cosies for the Family

A few weeks ago I mentioned that Marie Curie is doing some fundraising on a Blooming Great Tea Party theme - which includes a competition to design a tea cosy and win some goodies from Cath Kidston (who is also on the judging panel).  It turns out they also have a couple of very cute tea cosy patterns for sale -- so if you don't want to design your own (or even if you do) you can support the charity with these cuties....

Mom and Dad tea cosies! (Actually, I don't think the girl one is necessarily Mom - but it works for me.) I love them.  The balding dad makes me laugh.

(Copyright for both pictures belongs to Marie Curie Cancer Care - used here with kind permission.)

How perfect for a family gathering. You can buy the pdf patterns at the Marie Curie shop - here's Mom and here's Dad.

I still haven't started my tea cosy because I've been very busy knitting away on the shawl that'll never end.  My Mom is intrigued by the shawl and asks for progress reports each week -- I wish there was an interesting way to say 'still knitting'.  She's very sceptical that it will fit through a wedding ring  so now I've got the pressure to make sure I get that right as well!!

I'm about 15 rows short of the 3rd repeat - about halfway through the centre square.

When I did my sums last week I omitted 52 rows of the centre - so the 313,000 stitch total was understated by about 14,000.  Oh well, what's a few thousand stitches between friends.

I'm really enjoying this project so far -- even the fact that it'll be months (and months) (and possibly months) before I'm done doesn't seem to dampen my enthusiasm.  It took a while to get used to the teeny weeny yarn but now that I have, and now that the the pattern is familiar it's a pleasure to knit away while listening to Jeremy Irons read Brideshead Revisited.  I think I could listen to Jeremy Irons read the dictionary -- such an amazing voice.

The Shawl of a Gazillion Stitches begins with a Single Repeat

The war on moths continues.  I haven't seen any of the flying devils since last week but I understand from my research that you can't let your guard down.  About 90% of my stash was already in zip lock bags, this scare means now all of it is. Food has been banished from my little freezer - to make room for the yarn.  Each bag is being frozen for 3 days - it'll take a while to get through all of it!

In more positive news I've finished the first repeat of the centre of the Wedding Ring Shawl.

I was quite chuffed until I did the foolish thing of calculating the total number of stitches in the shawl.


My rough math says it's over 313,000 stitches.  So, my first repeat (16,926 stitches) is about 5% of the total shawl.

Phew.

I'm knitting the shawl with a cashmere silk blend gossamer yarn that is thread-like thin from Heirloom Knitting.  It's gorgeously soft and my only (slight) quibble is that it is a bit splitty sometimes.  I was amazed that yarn that thin could split - but it can!