Cotton lace shawl

Recipient: Knitters Attic (store model)
Designer: Unknown
Pattern: Knitted Petal Doilies
Source: Celt's Vintage Crochet
Completed: July 17, 2007
Colours: White
Yarn: Some kind of very fine cotton
Completed status: Given to the shop mid/late July
Pictures:

completed


close-up of centre


close-up of petal


closeup of background

2007-Jul-19

Done! Blocked it out on Tuesday morning (132 pins - 4 in the middle and 128 around the edge - DD1 was extremely impressed with such a high number):



It was dry before DH came home in the afternoon. I wove in the ends, and I think it looks awesome. DH says that people who see this at the shop will either swarm the laceweight cotton because they'll want to make it, or will shun the laceweight cotton because they're intimidated at hell. I'm obviously hoping for the former!

2007-Jul-17

DH came downstairs Sunday evening to see if I was ready to go up to bed. "How's it going?" he asked me. In response, I cut the yarn of this project, having just finished the crochet cast-off. Triumph! At the moment it is your usual noodly mess of unblocked lace:



But I will be blocking it, hopefully today. I did some preliminary stretching of the piece, which gives an idea of what it will look like after blocking:



I like it.

2007-Jul-15

I am really getting somewhere on this. Yesterday I made a concerted effort to forge ahead, and it paid off. I'm now working on row #80 of 85. (After row 85, I bind off using a lacy crochet edging.) I will not have this completed, blocked and dried in time for this afternoon's SnB, but I am hoping to be able to hand it over to the shop on Wednesday when I go in to teach my class.

2007-Jul-13

I've now reached the stage where each row is a slog. If you've ever knit something which increases in size as it goes on, you know whereof I speak. It is definitely coming along, though - I've just finished off the 'petals' and am now working exclusively on the 'background':

2007-Jul-4

The other reason I'm going back to the shop tomorrow is that I left my pattern for the doily there. (Brilliant.) I could just print off another copy from the Internet, but this is one of those patterns where I've had to check off each row as I finish it, so I'd like to have my copy back if possible.

2007-Jul-3

Work proceeds apace!



I'm on row 60 of 86. Now, this is a circular piece, which means it's ever-widening, so being 70% finished the number of rows isn't really as impressive as it sounds. But I'm definitely getting there and the pattern taking shape is truly lovely. I think the shop (which is having a sale this week, I can't wait to go) will enjoy displaying it.

But I was at an SCA event on Saturday with the girls, and working on the shawl, and someone asked me if I was making a snood. And suddenly, I realised, hey, yeah, I could be! Now, this is truly a doily - I think it's going to come out far too big to be a snood. But I can always make another one in another lace pattern that is the right size - maybe even a lace pattern of my own devising. And in different colours. And maybe DD1 would like a small one for herself. And...and suddenly now I'm a bit obsessed with knitting snoods.

2007-Jun-22

Having given in and used someone else's pattern instead of making up my own was gnawing at me somewhat, so I've started an attempt at my own design. It is going both well and badly at the same time, if you can believe that. Some aspects of lace knitting design I totally get, but I'm woefully ignorant in other areas. I'm test-driving the pattern now, so I can see where I'm going wrong and figure out what is and isn't possible. It's certainly a very interesting process. Mostly the thing does look like what I wanted (so far), but I'm under no illusion that this happy state of affairs will continue. Stay tuned - watching me tear my hair out go through the learning process should be amusing.

Fortunately, my rank newbie status in designing complex lace patterns doesn't affect my ability to teach others how to knit lace, so I'm still mentally planning a class. (Carrie K, I suspect you are totally right that the yarn shop owner could see this in my eyes...but she also reads my blog occasionally, so I knew she'd figure it out sooner or later. :)

2007-Jun-17

Well, I hunted around the Internet for examples extremely cool lace designs that would look good in fine cotton. Stuff like this, or this, or this, or this, or...well, you get the idea. I figured I could take a look at all these examples and come up with something of my own.

Well...I realised I need a bit more experience actually doing lace 'medallions' before I can slap a design of my own together in just a few hours. (A few weeks and I would probably be able to do it...but I wanted to start soon so that the store would have a sample ASAP, since laceweight cotton makes such great 'summery' projects, and we are already over halfway through June.) So I said, to heck with (for now) the idea of designing my own, just go with something gorgeous and simple and not too huge of someone else's.

Therefore, this morning I cast on this vintage pattern. I didn't have five 2.75mm DPNs (I have three available in my needle caddy, which ain't exactly helpful), so I went with 3mms instead. It was of course rather tricky to start up with, but it's coming along very nicely now and I'm having fun with it.



When I went to the SnB at the shop this afternoon, the owner, June, said she was indeed keen on the idea of having it as a store sample, and encouraged me to keep going. She also asked if I'd be willing to teach a lace class after the sock class was finished?

Well, duh...I said yes. :) (I didn't admit to her that I had actually started to mentally plan a lace class while I was casting on for the doily.)

2007-Jun-14

Last week I was at Knitters Attic and Mercedes suggested that I do a lace shawl from the really lightweight cotton as a store sample. Well. You know I wanna. So I've been hunting through some lace patterns in my library, but what I think I really want to do is design something myself. That way I could help the shop push the yarn and have a design to sell at the same time.