Harebell Fichu: Finished!!

 The Fichu is finally finished and blocked!!

After blocking laying flat.

Against the light.

When I started it I thought it was going to be an easy project. Well, I was wrong. It took me a while to get it but once I did... everything went just smooth and fine.

Details:

* Pattern: Harebell Fichu.

* Book: Victorian Lace Today.

* Yarn: Einband (Icelandic lace).

* Weight: 62g (So it was one ball and a little more)

* Needles: 3.5mm

Pattern detail: I would say that these are flowers, aren't they?

Things I learned:

* How to make a picot edge.

Picot edge.

Picot edge detail against the light.

* Attatching the lace section to the band making joins along live stitches that lay perpendicularly to the direction of knitting (wow this sounds weird!). Look at this diagram I draw to (maybe) understand the idea a little bit better. The joins look actually really good. They are very even and somehow invisible.

Section. It is possible to see the joins that are right below the band (where the inverted V is)

Difficulties:

* First of all, to understand the pattern and the construction of the Fichu (Diagram).

* In terms of knitting I HATED making the S1K4togPSSO (Slip one stitch was ok. Knit 4 stitches together was TERRIBLE! And passing the slipped stitched over was a piece of cake :p)

* Blocking: This is the first rounded lace project that I knit and blocking it was a real challenge. The challenge was to have it even and nicely rounded and well proportioned. It took me over an hour to get it done (and a lot of sweating and pain in the knees and back!). I started by pinning the inner circle trying to have as rounded as possible.Then I put one pin in each picot trying to stretch it evenly. After having the outer circumference all pinned I just removed the inner pins... they were no longer necessary.

I think that the time, sweat and pain definetely paid off!

Blocking

Against the light.

Final thoughts: It was really nice to knit this piece even though all the difficulties (from which I learned a few new things :) The Fichu is very light and airy and the lace pattern is just beautiful. If you have the book... definetely give it a try!

The Liliac Leaf Shawl: Finally finished!!!

The Liliac Leaf Shawl is FINALLY finished!!

I love to see the pattern blossom after blocking. It looks so pretty!!

To had to put a little bit of thinking on how to block the stole. I usually use the bed which is normally big enough to hold shawls but this time this stole was way to long. I had to add a little piece to the bed. To do so I used a foam matress and my new Ikea bobbin lace pillow. It worked pretty well.

Blocking: wires and pins make miracles!

Grafting is like magic. It is barely possible to say where the grafting is. Isn't it?

The liliac leaf pattern. The pattern has so much movement  and that is thanks to the garter stitch frame around each leave.

Blocking has become so much easier since I got the blocking wires. Holy blocking wires. They don't only make the hole process easier but also the result is a lot better. The straight borders become really straight and the scallops look a lot more beautiful!

Notes about the shawl:

* Body pattern: Liliac Leaf Pattern 1 from the book The Haapsalu Shawl.

* Edge pattern: Taken from Madli Shawl from Knitted Lace of Estonia.

* 3 1/2  balls of Loðband (icelandic lace yarn) Each ball is 50g.

* Needles: 5.0 for casting on and off and 4.0 for knitting.

* Casted on 100 stitches using the knitted on cast on technique (my favourite for shawls).

* Made 34 repeats  of the 16 rows leaf pattern slipping the first stitch with the yarn in front of every row.

* Made two edges that I grafted to the each end of the body. When grafting watch the tension, it is ver easy to have an extremely tense graft with will be a problem when it comes to blocking.

*Final measurements: 62 x 230cm

The hole thing :)

It is too bright outside but I guess that it is still possible to see the pattern.

Folded, ready to be packed and given :)

I am very, very, very, very happy with the result. It exceeded all my expectations :)