After much debate my Amazing Lace teammate has finally been chosen and assembled. See I’m knitting a shawl for my grandmother (shhh it’s going to be a surprise). She is my knitting guru so my teammate had to be good.
I thought briefly about doing the sheep shawl (she’s also a spinner, and a weaver and a lover of all things sheep related) but I couldn’t picture her in it. It had to be more… spectacular… and intricate… and well … amazing. Then I though of her other passion – her garden…. There are so many beautiful floral/botanical lace patterns out there! So then I focused on shape… I’ve wanted to try a circular shawl because I’ve never done that before and I’m all about the whole "challenge" part of this project. Plus I could see her using it as a lap blanket or as a regular blanket or folded over and used as a shawl. Options are good. So I started googling circular shawls and found this:
Isn’t it pretty! It’s the Cherry Blossom Shawl from the Spring 2002 Interweave Knits and my new teammate. It’s seriously going to be like knitting a giant flower.I couldn’t wait to get started.
But first I needed yarn.
Again with the challenge part of the project… Since this is going to be given to a fiber enthusiast no ordinary yarn would do. I wanted something unique… something one of a kind…and since she’s the one who taught me how to dye fiber in the first place… well… Sunday night I did this:
It’s 2 hanks of knitpicks dye your own… I used kool-aid in pink lemonade, pink lemonade mixed with regular lemonade, and pink lemonade mixed with strawberry to dye it. I wanted subtle pinky/peachy colors…. It’s a little brighter than I wanted but I still like it:
Now I just need to wind it (I have no swift or ball winder so that is not a small task) and my summer of lace can finally begin!
The yarn is beautiful! You're very brave to wind it all by hand. But may I suggest borrowing someone's winder?
ReplyDeleteThis is on my to-knit list too! I'll be watching to see how it turns out for you! (Also, before I got my ball winder, I would roll skeins onto an empty toilet paper roll so I had a nice cylinder of yarn.)
ReplyDeleteHey, just wanted to let you know that I got an email about River Yarns on Center ridge Road is going out of business. The sale is starting tomorrow saturday. FYI!!!
ReplyDeleteI love how the yarn turned out! And the pattern -- gorgeous! I can't wait to see the finished product -- and your grandmother will *love* it. I'm getting ready to do my next lace, too, so we'll be able to knit along again. :)
ReplyDeleteu can totally borrow my ball winder and swift, girlie...just let me know when u want it and we can get together :)
ReplyDeletethat pattern is gorgeous and i love the color of the yarn, by the way!!
I've been wanting to knit this shawl for ages. I guess some people ended up with the middle being a little poochy afterward so I was thinking of doing that part in a size smaller needle than the rest. Are you using the laceweight Knipticks or the fingering weight?
ReplyDelete