Angelarae Knits

Happy 4th

Many thanks to our troops and their families for their service and sacrifice for this country. God Bless America.  I hope all of you have a safe and happy 4th of July holiday!

Hurting

Hi Everyone! Thanks to you all for the wonderful comments and support for my Pi shawl.  It was a great project and a wonderful learning experience as well.  I feel ready to start a certain little stole project I would like to do.  If I can, I will try to swatch for that later and post pictures. I will surely need your input.  Unfortunately, I have been sick of late. I am not exactly sure what is wrong, but I've been achy, like the flu, but no fever. I feel weak late in the evening and other weird symptoms have begun to pop up.  My neck is now sore and stiff, my skin is itchy, and now, worst for knitting, my hands are swollen and painful.  I visited my doctor, who told me to start the Claritan immediately and prescribed some anti-inflamitories. The Claritan took care of the majority of my symptoms, except the swollen hands.  I started popping B-Complex vitamins, as some of my friends say that it helps with the carpel tunnel type swelling.  Let us hope.  The swelling has gone down a little, but my right hand is still sore and difficult to use for things like opening jars or picking up anything heavier than a fork.  Still, I am going to try to cast on a swatch later and see how we do.  I'm thinking it may be wise to rest the hands as much as possible for at least a week. So little to no knitting, but who said anything about blogging?  A little typing, but mostly point and click.  I think that and maybe a little innocent online yarn shopping might just fill the knitting gap very well;-> "Sorry, Dear, I had to shop as I am not able to knit right now..."

A Banner

The new banner for my blog is up but not yet bearing my blog title.  I am working on that as we speak, but I wanted to tell you something about this artwork.  It comes from a little business in Sylva, NC called Bays Corner.  I and my cohorts used to frequent this establishment quite often on our lunch breaks.  Bay (pronounced 'Bi' like bicylcle) and her husband, a former green beret, run the place.  Sylva is a small town nestled in the NC Mountains.  We raised our family there but were forced to leave for Raleigh upon Hal's untimely illness.  So this little piece of art has a very special place in my heart.  I left a little piece of it in Sylva when I left. (Photo credits(from Left to Right: GuardianJay, Blakemjordan, Chris Cooper)

Main St. Sylva, N.C.

City Lights Bookstore and Spring Street Cafe

                                                       View of Sylva, N.C. From Pinnacle Mountain

The Pi

Li said it right, "I guess you'd need some time to catch your breath after that." Damn straight.  This is a beautiful piece, more intricate and, dare I say, mistake free, than I could have hoped for.  But I was one stinky, dirty, foul-mouthed B#*!h when I finally cast off the last stitch.  I actually got the stitch count wrong in a previous post.  I believe I said that it was 680 stitches.  It was actually 640 stitches, but it felt like the 680, believe you me.  Yeah, I actually panicked when I did a count check at one point and came up with 640.  Crap! Wasn't it 680? I ran to my Adobe Reader to check. Relieved to have got it wrong, I confidently started on the edging.  Only, I began knitting it in a similar fashion to the diamond pattern I had just finished, a mistake, but I decided that the pattern looked rather like leaves and that I could continue on correctly with no ripping out on my part, and that it would look fine. The result you see here...

It was really supposed to be the horseshoe pattern you see on the edge and toward the very middle.  Ah, well, Aspen Leaf and Horseshoe edging, then.
As I was blocking and the piece bloomed with every straight pin, all I could think was, Thank You, Liz.

I have blocking wires, but I really didn't need them, or Blogless Kitty's living room floor.  It blocked out to right at 48" across.  The perfect size for 5'3" little me.

And the color is perfect with my new dress, don't you think?

Pattern: Liz Lovick's Orkney Pi
Yarn: Jagger Spun 'Zephyr' Color: Teal
Needles: Addi Turbo Lace 24" Circular needles, Size 5
Modifications: Knit pattern as written, Section one and two.  Knit one pattern repeat of the diamond section and added the mistake 'Aspen Leaf and Horsehoe Edging.'
Final Measurement: 48" Diameter

Made it!

'

More later.....

Progression

Life is coming at me hard, these last few weeks.  As a result, sleep has come sparingly (I worry a lot) and I am running on fumes at this point. Still, I am thankful for my friends (all of you), my family and the fact that I am still breathing on this earth.  That said, I hope to post some pictures at the end of this coming week, of my Orkney Pi.  I have been knitting madly on the border in an effort to finish before Ian's graduation on Wednesday, June 11th.  I still have to finish 10 more rows (on 680 stitches, people) and block this sucker.  Keep your fingers crossed. My friend, blogless Kitty, has agreed to help me block it on her living room floor as mine is nowhere big enough.  The plan  is to do this on Tuesday.  I would love to hear from all of you regarding the proper care and keeping of a hand knit shawl.  Any thoughts here?  It is Zephyr, a wool/silk blend. Do I need a cedar chest or blocks? moth balls? tissue paper? a rack to hang it on?  I plan on handing this down to my daughters, granddaughters, great granddaughters. Y'all keep me in you prayers this week.  I'm going to need them:)

Ang

Orkney Pi Progresses

Well folks, if you've been wondering what I am doing, I'll let you in on a little secret.  I have a deadline for completion of my Orkney Pi.  Much talk has been bandied about regarding some lacy scarf project and a supposed Cotlin tank in the works, but all have been put aside and efforts concentrated on the completion of the Orkney Pi.  Here's how it looks so far...



This is a very close representation of the color and I am planning on wearing this with a new dress I have bought to wear to my Son's upcoming graduation. (June 11th, in case you were wondering) At this point, the shawl is approximately 4 feet across.  I am 5 foot, 3 inches tall, folks. I am not planning on knitting the entire pattern as it is well over 8 feet in diameter.  I have the diamonds section to knit which I am considering knitting about half. With diamond section complete, the shawl is approximately 7 feet across.  Still too big.  So I will knit half of the diamond section and add the horseshoe edging.  That's the plan, at least, though I admit to toying with the idea of adding one of the knit-on edgings.  My misgivings about doing this stem from the fact that I have never knit a shawl edging where the stitches are cast on apart from the shawl and attached to it as it is knit. Follow?  If anyone knows of a good photo tutorial for this procedure, I'd love to know about it.  Here is a picture of the completed shawl with the horseshoe edging.  I'd basically be skipping the largest tree section, but attaching the edging.  Do you think knitting only half the diamond section will look okay?

Liz Lovick's Orkney Pi

Luscious

Seriously, you gotta try this....

Pattern: Lace Ribbon Scarf

Yarn: Claudia Hand Paint (Begonia)

Needles: Size 2 Boye

Happy Mother's Day

Thinking of all of you, today! Hope you have a wonderful time!

Eye Candy And No Candy

I'll start this post will a little eye candy.  This is Claudia Hand Painted Yarn, color 'Begonia.' I ordered it from the Loopy Ewe with the Lace Ribbon Scarf in mind.  Isn't it the most gorgeous colorway?  What's that you say? Need a closer look?  Here....

Of course, the pictures can't really convey how soft and squishy this yarn is, so use your imagination.  I was very pleased with the very personal service I got from Sheri at Loopy.  You can see her hand written note in the first pic.   Fast shipment, too -  got my yarn in 3 days.   She included some color cards for Regia and two handy needle inventory cards. Very nice:)

Here is some Jaggerspun Zephyr I bought to knit the Auburn Camp Shirt. 

It's hard to imagine a nicer laceweight yarn than Jaggerspun Zephyr.  The wool/silk blend gives it such a nice sheen.  I am using it to knit the Orkney Pi, which I have not forgotten about, by the way. 

Now, re: the Auburn Camp.  I have reservations about knitting this yet, as I am trying to get healthier and loose a few pounds.  If you are my size and thinking about knitting a nice piece for yourself and you buy the yarn and sit down to get started, reality hits like a ton of bricks when you cast on all. those. stitches.  And, the longer you knit, as the piece progresses, it hits you full force.  This is huge.  Am I really this big? Case in point: Drawstring Chemise...

Love the yarn.  Like the top.  Hate that it is as huge as it is and is supposed to fit me.  Now I stop and think.  Do I really want to do this?  Do I really want to knit a top I will hopefully not be wearing for very long?  DH says, 'It's cotton...when it gets to be to big, shrink it.  You aren't wasting your time.' I'm not so sure, but I have decided to press on.  For those of you wondering if my gauge is right, it is.  It isn't the pattern, it's me.  I really am a size 48 in the bust. I guess I imagined myself looking smaller than I really am. Pooh. Reality sucks.