Monday, August 28, 2006

comfortably seats 3

Hiawatha_060828


I'm working on the second side section of Hiawatha. I think I'm about halfway through the 2nd of just under 11 pattern repeats of that, and should finish that section this week. That means that I'm close to doing the edging. I've never done edging on a lace shawl before, so this will be quite the learning experience for me. I'm going to try to learn how to knit backwards, so I won't have to flip the shawl around over and over again. I'm not sure how I'll like knitting backwards, but it should at least be a good wakeup exercise for my brain.

I haven't yet figured out whether it would be a good idea to weave in ends and do a preliminary blocking of the shawl before doing the edging. I was planning to leave the ends until after the edging is done, because I think having the edging there will give me a tiny more wiggle room when it comes to hiding woven-in ends. I'm really 50-50 on the blocking thing, though. I'm not sure whether knitting edging onto a blocked shawl will make it easier or harder to get a feel for whether the edging is coming out correctly, in proportion to the shawl body. Input on either of these issues is more than welcome. I'm sure things will turn out fine whatever I do, but I have a feeling that I could save myself some headaches by doing things one way or the other.


Completely unrelated to this project, I must again sing the praises of the wonderful people at Schoolhouse Press. On Friday, I had a few hours to kill in Concord, and found myself in a yarn shop. I wasn't overly impressed by the shop for the most part (overpriced, and too much breadth and not enough depth), but was very happy with their book selection. I drooled over a few books, including a wonderful book published by Schoolhouse Press. (When I say I drooled, I mean so figuratively. But the book was slightly water damaged, and I don't doubt that some other patron with excellent taste actually did drool all over it.) There was a particular sweater and sock pattern that I concentrated on for a good while. So much so that I kind of forgot to make note of the title of the book. None of the books on the Schoolhouse Press site rang a bell, so last night I sent them a desperate email, describing the patterns I fell in love with, hoping that the book was actually published by Schoolhouse Press. (How embarrassing would that have been if it wasn't actually one of their books.) I received a reply from Meg Swansen this morning, 10 hours after I sent the email. (And well before business hours even here on the east coast, an hour ahead of Wisconsin.) She thinks the book was Latvian Dreams, by Joyce Williams. That book does appear on their website, so I obviously didn't remember much about the book at all. Thank you Meg, and your amazingly quick psychic powers! The book is now at the top of my Amazon.com wishlist, and the only item there listed as "highest" priority. But I will remind my boyfriend that, if he chooses to purchase it for me this winter, he should buy it directly from Schoolhouse Press. We must support the absolutely amazing folks who produce books that are water damaged by our knitterly drool.

Speaking of Schoolhouse Press (I swear they're not paying me for this...), I will be doing a Sweaters From Camp Knitalong update sometime this week. Most participants seem to have dropped their projects for the summer (I hope only for the summer...), but there are a few women who have exciting updates, so it's time for me to do a post. If you're one of the knitalong participants and have progress you haven't blogged about yet, it would be great if you could get something up in the next couple of days, so I could include you in the update.

7 Comments:

Blogger trainlady said...

I've ripped my Vertical Stripes out for the third time. I don't feel like blogging about it. I'm disgusted.

I do plan to get back to it once things cool down a bit more.

8/29/2006 1:10 AM  
Blogger LaurieM said...

I've done a couple of edgings on shawls and always did them on an unblocked piece. Mostly because the edging used or started with live sitches from the body of the shawl. It worked just fine and wasn't difficult at all.

I also tried knitting backwards for edging, but I never liked how my knitting looked. And I didn't want to risk having a beautiful center shawl with an eding that was less than my best. May be I was doing it wrong.

Also, if you weave in your ends now, don't cut them until after blocking.

8/29/2006 6:10 AM  
Blogger Theresa said...

Definitely knit the edging unblocked and block it all together. Works great.

8/29/2006 6:44 PM  
Blogger Tipper said...

Latvian Dreams is incredible. When I saw it, I thought of you! I hope you get a copy soon, because I'm sure you'll create beautiful things from it.

I knit one row on my Crichton cardigan while on vacation! Unfortunately, I forgot the little tiny side-bit chart that I can never memorize and was dead tired so that's as far as I could get. It will be continued, though! I spent far too much on yarn not to finish it. ;)

8/30/2006 7:53 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My advice is not very sound, but I say block it at the end. I like to keep blocking (and the attendant revealing of the awesomeness of the lace) as a motivator -- if I give myself some of the reward too soon, I'm more likely to abandon the project. Of course that's just me.

That's a very cool Schoolhouse Press story. I will keep them in mind.

8/30/2006 5:09 PM  
Blogger AnneB said...

Your shawl is gorgeous! Also Latvian Dreams is on my wish list. I'm in high hopes some of the other SFC KALers are still active as I'm stuck and need steek help. Just posted tonight to the group and hope someone is still there.

Anne

8/30/2006 7:48 PM  
Blogger Heather said...

i love!!!! school house press. meg called me like, you early one morning, when my order wasn't right. and when she sent the right book, signed the order slip. "the" meg swansen called my house. it is very cool. this weekend i am gonna hang with medrith at the wool room. she just came back from camp with meg. so maybe i will be inspired to join you.

8/31/2006 5:01 PM  

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