Blocking my Ravellenic Shawl.

So I mentioned in my Ravellenic Gold Post - Blocking is what you have to do to lace to make it pretty.  Yeah that was a terrible description.  Basically when you knit lace - anything with lots of holes made by yarn overs - you end up with a big fat mess:

So you soak it in water:

 Lay it flat, and pin the ever living crap out of it:

And when you un pin it the shawl will hold it's shape.  So you go from this:

To this:



 Yeah.  Or another close up view.  Here's an edge before blocking:



And on the blocking wires:



I actually messed up the blocking this time.  I had never blocked a crescent shaped shawl before so the first time I attempted it I did this:

Which resulted in a really wonkily shaped shawl.  Should have been obvious to me as soon as I pinned it down.  The knitting will take whatever shape you force it too.  Anyways I had to redo it:



Which resulted in pretty.  Lots of pretty.



I wrote out a whole How To Block a Lace Shawl tutorial when I blocked Adamas:

For tons of great Before/After pictures check out my Shetland Triangle Shawl Post:



For a description of how to block a circular shawl (hint:  INSANITY) check out my Cherry Blossom Shawl Block Party:

For blocking a Lace Hat there's my Ireland for St. Pats Hat (hint:  use a plate):

And finally for a more recent example of a couple of Sock Yarn Shawls you can check out my Citizen Shawl and Girl Scout Camp Post:

Yay for Blocking!!!

Ravellenic Gold.

So you guys.  It was a crazy mad dash to the finish line but I did it.  I earned a Ravellenic Gold:


I literally was casting off minutes before the finish of the games.  I didn't block it until the next day:



So a few of you new to this knitting game have asked me about the blocking thing.  I have a post set to go up this weekend on that whole topic... but first?  LOOK AT THE PRETTY:



LOOK AT IT:



SO. SO. SO. PRETTY.



Pattern: Fragile Hearts by Boo Knits

Timeline: Knit entirely during the Ravellenic Games - so August 3-12.

Modifications: I knit this with fingering weight yarn (aka sock yarn) instead of the lace weight called for.  Everything else is the same.

Yarn: 1 skein of Destination Yarn Silk Road - a 50% merino, 50% silk blend.  Colorway Daiquiri

The verdict: I love it.  I'm not a super-fan of the picot edge, though.  Just not really my thing - and I wish the picots lined up with the points a little better.  But I think with this shawl and this yarn it works:



I also feel the need to mention that I used 3 and a half tubes of beads on this.  Which according to a weight to beads converter chart I found is over 600 beads.  Yeah.



The combo of the beads and the picot edge made this project much, much more ambitious than I had intended.  But that makes the victory that much sweeter:

Yay for Ravellenic Gold!

NBC Sucks, Knitting Rocks.

So first of all the Ravellenic Games Social Media Link up is still going on!  I've very much enjoyed following all of the people who linked up.  So many fun knitters out there working toward Ravellenic Gold!

So I started a whole post about how upset I was about the Olympic coverage and how terrible it is.  But you know what?  Just go read this:

NBC Should Be Ashamed of Bob Costas and Last Night's Interview of Michael Phelps

That pretty much sums up how I feel.  Oh and there's also this:

The U.S. Already Had Gold Locked Up After This Disaster From Russia’s Floor World Champion, So NBC Didn’t Show It To You

Amazing omission on NBC's fault.  Especially considering they elected not to show us amazing footage such as this:

Their complete shock at watching the Floor World Champion fall.  Instead we just got lots of images of them crying afterward without the full context as to why.

However even that is not quite as glaring as the fact that we've seen exactly ZERO still rings performances.  To put it in perspective: Imagine if they didn't air 1/5 of the superbowl instead showing Ryan Secrest having dinner with one of the players.  Pretty ridiculous and awful, right?  And yet that's exactly what happened last night:

This was not shown on their coverage.  Even though this routine led to Danell Leyva's amazing comeback from a pommel horse disaster to claim a nearly impossible Bronze Medal for the USA.  Screw you, NBC.

I could go on.  And on.  And on.  But I'll stop there and move on to something that I am not frustrated with at all:



I decided on the Fragile Heart in the Daiquiri colorway.  You guys I am LOVING this shawl.   I've been trying to live post my daily progress via Instagram which has been a fun exercise in watching it grow:



At this point I'm almost through the second lace repeat.  Which I believe is about halfway through.  I have a pretty strong chance of getting a gold!

I love this picture, and this moment, so, so much.

Ravellenic Games.

So.  You guys.  The Olympics start tomorrow!  Which means the Ravellenic Games start tomorrow!  And.... I still have no idea what I"m doing.  We're about 24 hours away from cast on and I'm FREAKING OUT.  And maybe need some second opinions or a glass of wine or something.

Because I really wanted to do another Fiberman Triathlon.  I loved the idea of dying, spinning, and knitting.  I even had a pattern picked out and the fiber purchased and ready to dye.  But I've been training and I have learned that a spinning wheel and a 15month old toddler DO NOT MIX.  Seriously it's a disaster.  Trying to spin with him around is and exercise in frustration and woe.

Plus, honestly, it's a million degrees out there.  I have no desire to touch wool in a million degree weather.

So.... I got nothing.  I've been stressing about this all week... and I just... I don't.... I need to get over not being able to do what I planned and move on.  And I'm having issues with that.

So I've spent an insane amount of time cruising Ravelry for ideas and here's what I've decided so far.

I will be using Silk Road - the Destination Yarn silk yarn.  I won't be dying it during the games but it will be my handdyed so that makes me feel a little better about the situation.  And I don't think you can feel bad knitting with something so luxurious.  Not possible.

I haven't decided what color yet.  But that's another issue.

Probably this?  Or maybe Daiquiri - a bright pink color?

I want to knit a lace shawl.  The yarn choice kindof drove that decision.  Plus I think a one-skein shawl would be a challenge but not an unattainable one.  Part of being realistic about the whole thing is that I need to acknowledge that I am in a different place than I was for the last Olympics as far as other commitments go.  I can't just ignore everything else and knit for two weeks solid.  Sigh.

I want it to have beads.  Maybe lots of beads.  I'm realistic but this is still the Olympics.  Let's raise the bar a bit shall we?


I want it to have pointy bits.  So many of the shawl patterns I've looked at remind me of the gothic architecture in London.  Like this:

So that's the imagry I'm going with in this shawl.

On to the options!

1.)  Quite Continental by Boo Knits:

Love that it's a crescent shape.  Love that the diamonds would be easy to memorize.   But I'm not sure it fits my Gothic Architecture imagery...

2.)  Fragile Heart also by Boo Knits:

That lace looks like Gothic arches to me.  Perfect.  But I think I like the previous shawl better...

3.)  Lyrica Euterpe by Romi Hill:

Yay on the Gothic Arch lace - love the circular to triangle shape.  But the picot cast off of the previous shawl is just so pretty....

So.  What do you guys think?  1, 2, or 3???  Help?

Ireland Hat.

So you guys I am super excited about my new Destination Yarn Hat:

The pattern is the Cecily Hat.  I cast in the Ireland colorway while I was at the trunk show at Yarn Cravin'

The plan was to have it done by St. Patrick's day - Ireland for St. Pats?  Love it.  However  My mom mocked me for this knit a lace hat in two weeks plan so for a bit there I was on a mission to get it done.  Even with the nice weather the knitting was always with me:

And then they predicted it would be 70 and sunny in Cleveland on St. Pat's - not exactly wool hat weather.  So I didn't finish it on time:

It's done now!

Then of course I had the issue of blocking.  I've blocked alot of lace but never a hat.  I crowdsourced Ravelry and Twitter and the consensus was that for a lace hat the best plan was to block it over a plate:

Or, you know, a plate with two bowls stacked on top of it:

I forgot just how much lace can stretch!  I seriously could have kept going with this hat but decided that plate + 2 bowls was plenty big and slouchy enough.

I love this hat.

I love the way the lace pattern looks in this yarn:

I love the simple purl band to separate the ribbing from the pattern stitches:

I love how easy the pattern was to read and how clear the charts were.  And how the decrease chart at the top works all of the lines of the pattern together:

I love that it's big and slouchy and light weight.  I have a feeling it will keep me warm but not too warm - awesome for when I'm schlepping two kids around somewhere.

And I especially love that it used less than half a skein of Destination Yarn:

So.  Now the question remains.  What do I do with 57 grams of sockyarn?  Hmmmmmmm.....