Heading Down the Forest Path

One of the first (if not THE first) lace pattern to catch my eye last year was the Forest Path Stole. In fact, I'd say it was the start of my lace obsession. I came across the pattern on someone's blog (no idea who it was) and immediately decided to make it. I tracked the pattern down at http://www.sandrasingh.com/ and ordered a copy (the pattern is also now available in Best of Interweave Knits). While waiting for it to arrive I cast on the Sarcelle Stole, and then Hanami, and then.... well, you get the picture.

So here it is 9 months later and I have FINALLY cast on for the Forest Path Stole. I'm using Cinnabar Zephyr WoolSilkand 3.25mm needles.

The needles were my first mistake. Addi Lace needles don't come in 3.25mm (well, at least not anywhere I could find) so I started the stole on regular Addi's. Bad move. The circulars were 30 inches and the cord was crazy coiled. It drove me insane. Obviously the cord could be straightened, but the bigger problem was that the tips were dull. Dull. DULL. Rubbish for lace. And double rubbish for NUPPS. And the pattern has lots of nupps.

Cue much swearing.

A frantic search through the knitting needle bag and I found some 3.25 dpns - KnitPicks metal and KnitPicks harmony. Although the metal needles are lovely and pointy, I find them heavy and was worried they'd be tooooooo slippery. So the harmony needles were called into action.

They are perfect. They are grippy enough that I can leave them as stitch holders on sections I'm not working and pointy enough for nupps. Hurrah.

The pattern itself is clear and well written. The border is seed stitch and each of the panels is one of 3 lace patterns. They are all pretty straightforward and only the nupps are likely to cause much difficulty. Not that nupps are difficult - just that they take some getting used to. My tip is to knit the set up stiches for the nupps crazy loose. That and a pointy needle make the purl 5 together much easier.

I'm just starting the 4th tier of panels. I'm enjoying the knitting but I don't think this will be completed quickly. The entrelac design gives the knitting a sort of stop-start feeling as you move between panels. I never seem to build up much momentum and so I'm easily distracted from it.

In other knitting news I've decided I need to attack my sock stash over the next few months as I've got a silly amount of sock yarn. Happily, my mom asked for some socks today! Being my mom she thinks my socks are tooooooo nice to wear, but she wants some to show off with. How cute is she?

The Last of 2007

Happy New Year! I hope you have all enjoyed the holidays as much as I did. I can't believe how quickly they've come and gone though.

After the successful completion of my gift knitting (yippeee!) I celebrated by casting on for what would be come my final knit of 2007. It is Ene's Scarf from Scarf Style and proved to be perfect knitting for the season.

The scarf is knit from the long edge (cast on 375 stitches) and decreases 4 stitches every second row. The advantage of this method is that it keeps your motivation up as the rows get shorter and shorter the closer you get to the end.

The disadvantage is that you have to cast on 375 stitches. And because I managed to mess up the first few rows 3 times before I FINALLY got it right - I got to cast on those 375 stitches 4 times. I was in fact convinced that there was a problem with the pattern and searched frantically for an errata to support me. Alas, there was none. I was just incapable of maintaing my focus on the scarf while David Tennant was saving the earth from destruction (in a tux) (gadzooks that man looks fine in a tux) in the Christmas episode of Dr Who. (The champagne with Christmas lunch probably didn't help either.)

But without the distraction of David Tennant the scarf is pretty straightforward, and once you are in the body of the scarf the pattern is very easy to remember. Perfect knitting to keep my mind occupied while I continued to gorge on Christmas TV. (The finale of Extras and The Old Curiousity Shop were particular favourites.) (Although I think The Old Curiousity Shop was over-abridged as the grandfather character had no redeeming qualities that I could see - but I felt I was supposed to like him. I am going to read the book now to find out what they cut out.)


I used Lucy Neatby Celestial Merino sock weight yarn which feels gorgeous. My only complaint with the yarn was that the dye came off on my hands throughout the knitting -- I had blue fingers for much of the holiday!

The finished scarf is warm and cosy and I expect it will get a lot of wear.

As it is the beginning of a new year I've been doing the usual evaluating of 2007 and planning for 2008.

2007 was a great year for me knitting-wise. Kicked off by finishing (after 18 years) the Kaffe Fasset Chinese Rose Coat. Completing the coat in itself was quite an event, but it was also the thing that led to my discovering the vast www knitting world. A simple search for Kaffe Fasett in google one day led to my discovering the UK knitting forum, Knitty board, the amazing world of knitting blogs, Ravelry and more patterns than I had ever imagined.


I went from total scepticism on the topic of socks to always having a pair of socks on the needles and am the happy owner of over 10 books on the glory of socks!! I've made 17 pairs of socks and demand for them seems to be growing.

Herbert Niebling joined Kaffe Fasset as a knitting god in my eyes. I became obsessed with lace knitting and completed 8 scarves/shawls/stoles and 2 lace table covers.

And for a bit of variety I made a few tea cozies, a couple of felted bags, a comfy throw and a lot of Innocent Smoothy hats. (Oh! and some mittens, hats and a cardigan.)

As for 2008 - well, I won't be surprised if I'm a little less prolific. Surely this mad enthusiasm has to wane at some point! Having said that I have a mountain of yarn and a list of patterns I want to make a mile long -- and every day I seem to find another must have yarn to add to the mountain or another gorgeous/challenging pattern to to add to the list.

Hope your 2008 is everything you want it to be!

Christmas - The Results

Finally unveiled for your blog-reading pleasure are the Christmas gifts of 2007.

This is the first Christmas in ages that I've knit so many presents. It seems that my re-energised knitting (thanks largely to my late discovery of the knitting world on the web last April) has reminded my loved ones that they like knitted things.

The first request came from one of my nieces in Canada who wanted to know if I could possibly knit her some mittens, preferably blue. She didn't know why, but she had developed a sudden longing for some knitted mittens -- and if it wasn't tooo hard (she asked) could I possibly put the initials of her high school on the mittens. After a bit of research I selected NHM #7 from Selbuovotter - Biography of a Knitting Tradition (lovely book). I knit SMHS (her high school) into one palm and 2008 into the other (they are New Year mitts I decided).


















When I completed these mitts I loved them - but I suddenly got worried that she might prefer some plain mittens. So I made these, very plain blue mittens (American mittens) from Folk Mittens as well.





Her sister hadn't asked for anything specific but when I saw this pirate mitten pattern I knew I had to make them for her.












My sister had requested some warm socks so I made her one pair of thick socks using Regia 6ply, a thin pair using Trekking XXL and just to amuse myself a lacey pair of ankle socks. The ankle socks are Hedera socks (but shorter) knit with Lucy Neatby Celestial Merino yarn. The fourth pair of socks -the very colourful stripes - went to the niece who got the skull mittens. I figured that although she generally just wears dark colours - who can resist colourful socks?















Quite pleased with this output I made some special labels for each of the gifts and shipped them off to Canada (with the famous Lyra).





The recipients were all very pleased, particularly my Mom -who reportedly teared up when she opened Lyra - and my niece who requested the blue mittens - she LOVES the selbuvotters.

Of course last Friday I decided to make a couple more gifts and began this hat and pair of mittens for S. The hat is a simple rib pattern knit in the round, and the mittens I just sort of made up as I went along. The yarn is cashmere from Posh Yarn and was a pleasure to knit with.










On Saturday I started the final gift - a cardigan for gorgeous goddaughter G. It's Tess from Kim Hargreaves Heartfelt collection. It was knit on 12mm needles using Rowan Big Wool.

It was a very quick knit, and was a good lesson in why blocking isn't just magic for large lace pieces. When I finished it I was less than impressed. My stitches were uneven and the bottom edging was a mess. A quick wash and a few hours drying time sorted both of those problems out. (A gigantic fan was very useful in speeding up the drying process, so the cardigan was dry when I wrapped it early Christmas morning.)


My decision to make the last minute gifts was a good one. S has been wearing her new hat CONSTANTLY for the past 3 days, and G immediately put on her cardigan (over her pyjamas) and wore it later that day to her grandmothers. It looks great on her and fit perfectly. In fact, it has proven popular with her mom as well. C has already borrowed it -- she wore it on her annual boxing day theatre trip with her family.

All of this has left me with a warm fuzzy feeling -- which is I guess what Christmas giving is all about. .... but I'm looking forward to some Soo knitting now!