Pine Trees and Smoke
Two more Hiawatha sections done:
The Pine Trees
(well, upside down pine trees, I guess)
The Smoke of the Peace-pipe
So far, the Pine Trees pattern is my least favorite. It was a pain to knit, because it was so vastly easy to make an error, which I did many, many times. And while I like how it looks all blocked out, it's just not my favorite, visually. I think it looks nicer from a longer distance, like in the photo that comes with the pattern.
I ended up liking the Smoke pattern more than I anticipated. It's kind of chaotic looking, and different than lace I've knit before. It's not charted out because it just doesn't work well in chart form. It's got some plain rows, and areas where it's patterned (decreases and yarnovers) on both the right and the wrong side. The pattern repeat is 9 rows long. If you take a moment to think about that, that's a little weird. It means that, if you do more than one repeat in a row, you'll get some reverse stockinette. In fact, you start the reverse stockinette before the end of the repeat, on row 7 of 9. (The pattern tells you to repeat row 6 on row 7, then do rows 5 and 6 again.) I was very unsure of whether the pattern was correct, and if so, whether I liked it, as I was knitting it. But I plugged away, since I'm certainly no lace expert, and since I had a lifeline in place before the craziness started, in case I had to rip out the whole deal. In the end, I'm quite pleased with the look of this section. It's a bit chaotic, but so is smoke. And there's a delicate balance and symmetry to it, too.
Next up is the starlight pattern, again, and then the side sections. We have some houseguests this week, so progress may be slow. And I'm tempted to finally finish up my second Hedera sock, because I got some goodies in the mail this week:
In the center is the skein of Schaeffer Anne I got with my Red Bird Knits gift certificate, from the Amazing Lace contest. Rebecca also sent me some yarn goodies. There's a skein of soy silk, which will probably be used for a fun little weekend project sometime soonish. And she also sent me a little ball of Beaverslide yarn to swatch with. How fun! Free yarn delivered to one's doorstep is a good way to at least temporarily lift the spirits. :-)
Oh, and also getting in the way of lace and fair isle knitting may be putting together my entry for the next Amazing Lace Challenge. I won't say too much right now, but I have a very fun idea for it. It will be a bit more labor intensive than I ever imagined I'd make a knitalong contest entry, but if I go through with it, it will also be a lot of fun.
(well, upside down pine trees, I guess)
The Smoke of the Peace-pipe
So far, the Pine Trees pattern is my least favorite. It was a pain to knit, because it was so vastly easy to make an error, which I did many, many times. And while I like how it looks all blocked out, it's just not my favorite, visually. I think it looks nicer from a longer distance, like in the photo that comes with the pattern.
I ended up liking the Smoke pattern more than I anticipated. It's kind of chaotic looking, and different than lace I've knit before. It's not charted out because it just doesn't work well in chart form. It's got some plain rows, and areas where it's patterned (decreases and yarnovers) on both the right and the wrong side. The pattern repeat is 9 rows long. If you take a moment to think about that, that's a little weird. It means that, if you do more than one repeat in a row, you'll get some reverse stockinette. In fact, you start the reverse stockinette before the end of the repeat, on row 7 of 9. (The pattern tells you to repeat row 6 on row 7, then do rows 5 and 6 again.) I was very unsure of whether the pattern was correct, and if so, whether I liked it, as I was knitting it. But I plugged away, since I'm certainly no lace expert, and since I had a lifeline in place before the craziness started, in case I had to rip out the whole deal. In the end, I'm quite pleased with the look of this section. It's a bit chaotic, but so is smoke. And there's a delicate balance and symmetry to it, too.
Next up is the starlight pattern, again, and then the side sections. We have some houseguests this week, so progress may be slow. And I'm tempted to finally finish up my second Hedera sock, because I got some goodies in the mail this week:
In the center is the skein of Schaeffer Anne I got with my Red Bird Knits gift certificate, from the Amazing Lace contest. Rebecca also sent me some yarn goodies. There's a skein of soy silk, which will probably be used for a fun little weekend project sometime soonish. And she also sent me a little ball of Beaverslide yarn to swatch with. How fun! Free yarn delivered to one's doorstep is a good way to at least temporarily lift the spirits. :-)
Oh, and also getting in the way of lace and fair isle knitting may be putting together my entry for the next Amazing Lace Challenge. I won't say too much right now, but I have a very fun idea for it. It will be a bit more labor intensive than I ever imagined I'd make a knitalong contest entry, but if I go through with it, it will also be a lot of fun.
posted by Rebekkah at 8:38 AM
5 Comments:
I've been eyeing up the Hiawatha pattern for a while now. Yours is looking great. Can't wait to see it finished!
delurking to say... neat! i had no idea you were knitting the hiawatha stole. (i've been away a bit lately and have apparently missed some posts.) anyway, i did that last fall and it was great. funny, though - the smoke was my least favorite pattern. :) i liked doing the side sections best. enjoy!
Wow, that is going to be such a cool shawl! Your friend is very lucky! I, too, found myself liking the smoke panel after staring at it for a few moments. It's a very unusual lace pattern!
I noticed you were thinking of sending something to a fair. I've been thinking about that myself, and would be very curious to hear about your experiences, if you have a moment to drop me a line. My e-mail is knitternutter at gmail dot com (if you're too busy, that's ok, I won't feel offended :)
How lovely a shawl that is! Great job!
Your Hiawatha stole looks amazing!!! I am about to start working on it, and since my eyes do not let me read charts very easily, I am currently writing the charts out in written instructions. I have a question about Row 7 of The Pine Trees chart. How exactly do you interpret the "4/7" in the first box of the repeat? Does that mean you knit 4 sts on the first time, and then knit 7 sts on the remaining repeats? I AM SO CONFUSED!! :-) Any help would be very much appreciated!!! THANKS!
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