Knitting In Public

Well, the MysticLight KAL is “over” although I’ve only finished clue 2 of 5. I’ve seen the beautiful results of those knitters who kept up with the KAL as the clues have been released, and I’m inspired to keep plugging on this one. It’s going so much faster because it is knit with fingering weight yarn.

I’m behind on posting (duh -what’s new) but here’s what I have:

This is (most of) Clue 1. Couldn’t quite manage to get the tips in, but you can see most of the design. There is a small cable that runs along the bottom (which will be the top, long edge of the finished triangular shawl), and a cabled braid (or braided cable?) that runs vertically through the center.

This is Dream In Color Smooshy, in Dusky Aurora colorway. This yarn is extremely hard to photograph and get an honest color rendering. In the skein, I thought I saw purple, blue, teal, some greenish color, etc. but I don’t see much in the knit up portions nor in the cake. (Although there is a photo further down that shows more color variation.) The yarn does live up to it’s reputation that it does not pool or do the funky, undesirable things that varigated/hand painted yarns do.

This is a close-up of clue 1, showing the center braid and some of the color but this shows mostly purple and blue. This is what it looks like as I’m working on it….although I occasionally see a patch of teal/bright blue.

This is clue 2 completed. I’m having far less trouble as I go along (less frogging) as the usual culprit is not on the chart but rather is every even row for the cables & yo’s and I’m finally getting to the point that those are second nature.

Here’s the photo where you can see some real color play, and that it is actually more than just dark blue and purple:

I hope it shows the colors on your monitor!

I’m starting clue 3 tonight - each clue gets a few rows shorter, but since you’re adding stitches on each row, the rows are longer so overall it’s about the same number of stitches.

For those of you who don’t know, the designer’s name is Anna Dalvi, and she also designed MysticWaters. I have only finished clue 1 on that, but the design is beautiful and I have every intention of finishing. When I discovered that Anna was doing another design, I jumped right in! While I often wait a clue or two to decide if I want to knit the surprise/mystery KAL, I knew after MysticWaters that I didn’t need to hang back on MysticLight. Anna plans to continue and will have an entire series of the elements: earth, wind, fire, and water. The MysticLight is the fire element, but Anna’s design has combined different kinds of light - fire and stars, too. I chose the Dusky Aurora because the color on their website reminded me of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) and because this was a colorway that I would wear. (While I am attracted to reds/yellows/oranges that others were using to represent the fire, I would likely never wear a shawl that color ….)

More progress as I complete this…. in the meantime, keep on knitting!

I have joined so many lace KAL’s (see sidebar - I finally learned how to add buttons to my blog!), I must be nuts. On top of the incredible work schedule I have lately (keeping me from doing much knitting), lace is something that is not very portable, nor is it group-friendly.  These patterns have really been giving me a hard time. I haven’t frogged this much for as long as I can remember.  I do have some progress to show, even though I am far behind in the KAL’s:

Mystic Waters KAL. This is a triangle shaped shawl. The group is currently on clue 3, this is slightly more than half of clue 1. I’m using KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud in Tidepool Heather, with size 2 (3.0 mm) KnitPicks fixed circular needles.

Here’s a close up of the yarn - it seems kind of greenish when you look at it in the skein and wound into a cake, but when you look at the actual stitches, it is really several different colors blotched together. This seems such an appropriate color for a shawl named “Mystic Waters” and I’m loving it! The pattern is very pretty (I get to see the finished clues of others who are current in the KAL). Seeing the clues inspires me to work on it, but this will end up being for me so I’m afraid it’s going to go to the back burner for now.

This is the Secret of Chrysopolis:

I’m using KnitPicks Shadow in Vineyard color (deep purple), with size 2 (2.75 mm) KnitPicks fixed circular needles. This pattern was going so slowly. I have ripped more rows than I have knit. Finally, I have finished clue 1! (The KAL is officially over, clue 8 was posted last Friday.) The edging was the worst for frogging, but I also ended up changing the needle size as this was so big. I intend to give it to Jenny for Christmas, but it seems pretty likely it would be Christmas ‘08. (We only have 36 knitting days left for this year.)

I also decided to add beads to this pattern (although the designer did not include any):

The beads are darker, but they are not as obvious as they are in this photo. I also ended up changing from a round, ‘grape’ colored bead to these which are hex beads and are longer than the size 8 rounds. I changed because I lost the tube of grape beads! I had put in the first row of beads so I had to frog back and insert these other beads in order to keep going.

Last, but not least, is the Hanami stole for Anne. I decided to use the size 3 (3.25 mm) Addi Lace turbos, as it will result in a stole closer to the size of the original design which I think will be a better size for her. I’m adding more beads than called for in the original pattern, adding one to the center of each of the solid diamond shapes. In addition, I’ll add some random beads in the blossom section as well, following Angela’s bead placement.

This is about 1.5 repeats of the basketweave section, which calls for a total of 7 repeats. This will be the last I’ll show of this project until after Christmas….I don’t want to ruin the “surprise” of the gift!

Despite not having a lot of time to knit, I have actually managed to finish a few (non-lace) objects, but I’ll save them for another post. I’ll leave you with this teaser though, and see how many of you will know what it is! (Mary, Sue & Jean, this should be a no-brainer for you!)