Helen is the next of the wonderful women to post her WIP project here. She was an absolute life-saver at the photo shoot. I knew that a dancer mom would be the perfect “wardrobe mistress.” With incredible grace and good-humor she steamed all the clothes and made sure that each model was ready and waiting for the next shot. It made everything very smooth!
She was knitting this at the photo shoot (although not in the above picture with Alison left and Nancy right) in between getting models ready. I loved seeing her shawl progress and I think you will, too! – Lauria
Hi everyone! Up here in New England, we (or at least I) have been knocked on our behinds with crazy amounts of hot, humid weather. Growing up I remember there being about a week of it in late July or August, but this year it started early and has being going on FOR-EV-ER. And the afternoon thunderstorms (and tornadoes!!) are clearly not doing their job and cooling things off.
When it’s this hot, I start searching through lace shawl patterns to see what strikes me. This time, I picked a pattern that I’ve had in my faves for a while now, the beautiful Kiwassa Shawl. After reading the back story, I knew I wanted to knit it in a woodsy color. I thought I was going to knit it in a shade of brown, but then I remembered JMF’s Findley in the Malachite colorway. Isn’t it beautiful?? Isn’t it perfect??
The Kiwassa Shawl is a triangular shawl with a lace pattern that is mirrored on each side of a center “spine” stitch. I love the construction of these kinds of shawls because once you get the flow of the pattern, you really don’t have to look at the chart. That means I can take my shawl with me when I go to work and pop off a row on the shuttle ride and a few more on break. I love knitting lace so much that I get a little addicted to it, and am really happy when it’s just complicated enough to be interesting, but not so much that I can’t knit it wherever I am.
When working with Findley, take my advice. Resist the urge to pull from the center. I know it seems like it should be a center pull ball, but in the interest of your sanity, RESIST. They are NOT center pull balls, confirmed by the distributor. I learned this the hard way. Thankfully, my friend Nancy was kind enough to detangle my mess while I was working at the photo shoot and when I got home, I promptly cut my yarn and wound that baby into a ball. Sanity intact!
Since Findley comes in at a generous 798 yards per ball, and the pattern calls for at least 700 yards, I’m NOT knitting a swatch (gasp!) and am just going to see how many repeats I can get before I need to bind off. The pattern gives me a few options on where to bind off, so I have a lot of wiggle room when I get there.
Look! It’s lace!! You can see the center spine has been established, as well as the garter stitch edge. Isn’t it exciting when you can see the pattern starting to emerge? This is when I have a really hard time putting my lace projects down…I just want to keep knitting and knitting so I can see more and more of the pattern. Before I know it, one more row turns into 20, it’s after midnight, and I have to get up in the morning for work.
Next up for me is the main repeat section of the shawl, which I will knit until I go crazy (well, crazier anyway) or run out of yarn. I can’t wait to show you how far I get!
Helen lives in Western Massachusetts and longs for the day when she can knit while at work. When she’s not knitting or spinning, she enjoys running, hiking, and hanging on Rav with the rest of the Aunties as realhelen.
