Playing with Silk: Rock Island.

Last December Hiro sent me a package full of delicious things... among those things there was a skein of 100% lace silk from Greta and the fibers (along with another skein of undyed alpaca).

The yarn is BEAUTIFUL and it is hand dyed! The color she sent me was a very bright red/pink almost fucsia (uff, it is so difficult to describe colors!!).

I had been so busy that I hadn't had the chance to put my hands on it and start a project until a few weeks ago when I decided that it was time to try to knit a shawl with silk.

Before I start knitting a shawl I usually have the inspiration coming from someone, usually a friend, to knit for. This time was different. I just wanted to try this wonderful yarn and I was also very curious to try the Rock Island pattern which seemed so different from all the triangular shawls that I had knitted so far. So, I made this without having someone who will get it as a present...

So, no more words for now...

Just blocked.

Details:

* Pattern: Rock Island by Jared Flood

* Yarn: 100% lace silk by Greta and the fibers (100g)

* Needles: 4.0mm

* Weight: 60g

Detail of all the sections.

Notes:

* This shawl was a challenge to my patience in many ways: trying a new yarn, some boring sections, some mistakes, some unravelling, etc.

* This was my first time knitting with 100% pure silk. It was a whole new experience. I must admit that it was a bit frustrating at first. The yarn is so slippery that it was very difficult to catch the stitches to knit them, especially if I had to make a K2Tog. I had to start the whole thing 5 times until I got the hang of it! So, there was a lot unravelling at the beginning.

* Then, when I was already done with several repeats of the first chart  I couldn't believe how ugly this was looking! It was HIDEOUS! While knitting most of the shawls I have done I could have more or less an idea of how it was looking... but with this one I was even getting a bit worried. I had to ask around to make sure that this would change later on with blocking (I must thank Franklin Habit and Marga from Greta and the fibers for the good advice and encouragement!)

The join where the stitches are picked up to begin the body of the shawl looks pretty neat.

* The pattern, oh the pattern: I have mixed feeling about it. It was very interesting to knit from the border and not from top down as all the triangles I have knitted and also for the fact that there is NO PURLING!! BUT it was terribly boring to knit that long, almost endless 71 repeats band of 12 stitches wide. I was really going nuts!

* I got a huge relieve when I finally picked up the stitches and began with the lace section (the Rock Island pattern). In general, I would say that the pattern is pretty simple and easy to memorize even though it is patterned on both sides. The lace section was knitted pretty quickly.

* Then, another tedious part! The garter stitch section was ENDLESS!! Very simple but extremely boring!

* Blocking was rather easy and YES! Silk blocks WONDERFULLY! It holds the shape so well! It is very light but at the same time it has a beautiful drape.

The shape is so nice and it drapes wonderfully.

* After I removed the pins I thought that the patience and perseverance did pay off: The shawl is really pretty but I think I should have made maybe 2 more repeats of the lace section so the garter stitch triangle would have been smaller.

* I am not sure I would knit this again... but if I do I will add those repeats I mentioned above to make it more "lacy".

A bit closer.

For now I will keep it for myself... too bad I can't wear it! hehe.

Folded and ready to be given :)

Fichu: A learning experience.

After finishing the wedding shawl I felt that I needed to knit something small, not so complicated and especially quick to get some instant satisfaction. A few months ago i bought the book Victorian Lace Today and I still hadn't try to knit anything from it. So this was the perfect opportunity to do so!

After checking the book several times I decided to go for the Harebell Fichu.

Taken from Victorian Lace Today

It seemed to be the perfect project for the pink einband that I had in the stash. So, I read the pattern, the beginning seemed ok even though I had no idea how to make the  picot border that the pattern calls for. In the end it wasn't anything so terrible, at least nothing that reading some forums in Ravelry and a good video in Youtube could't solve.

So, for those who don't know how to make a picot the things is a simple as casting on two stitches (at the beginning of the wrong side) using the knitted on cast on method and then casting those two stitches off using the basic knit bind off. This video is very clear.

The real problem began after completing the garter stitch band. Now I had to knit the lace section and attach it to the band on the go following a set of instructions that tell what kind of join has to be made. This was a bit challenging. The way the edges are made in the patterns of this book are totally different from everything I had made before: picking up stitches and knitting or knitting separetely and sewing or grafting to the body.

Before starting it was even hard to see or imagine the structure of the Fichu. I made this simple drawing to show how it is worked:

Fichu schematics

In this technique the edge is knitted perpendicular to the border where it will be attached instead of parallel as I had always made it. So, in this case I am knitting the lace section which is only ca.30 stitches wide and every 2 or 4 pattern rows I am joining the lace to the garter stitch band following the pattern which tells what kind of join to make in order to avoid holes.

This is the way the joins look like. Pretty neat, isn't it?

At first I wasn't very sure about how this would work but now that I have already made almost half of it I must say that this works perfectly well and the joins look great! I am really enjoying the process of making this fichu. And one funny thing: I wanted to make a simple and quick project, ha! I was reading about this Fichu and it is apparently one of the most complicated patterns in the hole book, hehe.

This is what it looks like while knitting it.

A couple of weeks ago I received a message/surprise on Ravelry from Asun. She wanted to give me a couple of skeins of silk that she had left after finishing a project! How generous is that?! I felt really flattered about becoming the owner of those two skeins especially because I have never knitted anything with silk!

Well, the envelope arrived at the end of last week. I got this cute blue box with a little card, two skeins of black silk and two pens! I still don't have enough words to thank Asunción for this!

Now I already know that my next project will be made with silk... the question now is what. I still have some time to think about it since I am quite busy with the Fichu :)

About bobbin lace. I am almost done with all the excercises. So I decided to begin with the patterns section. I started with pattern number 1. I didn't do much of it because I thought I was doing something wrong and also because I think that the thread I am using was too thick for it. Anyways, I want to show you what it looks like:

Then I made the pattern number 2. For the color section I used embroidery thread. It was the only color thread that I had at home. I think it looks really cute:

Details: Cotton thread n°20, blue embroidery thread, 16 bobbins

And I also made number 3. But I think that this one was a total DISASTER. The thread is definitely too thick. It is cotton n°20. I think I should have used n°30 or 40 for this. Too bad I realized so late that tt was getting to chunky. For this pattern I got some help from Eva (thank you so much again!) because I was clueless about how to hand the bobbins to begin. Well, this is the chunky result:

Details: Cotton n°20, 30 bobbins.

I also got a new toy! Yes, another camera. This time a Zenit E which is very special because this is a version that celebrates the Olympic Games in Moscow  1980. The camera is beautiful: leather body and perfectly working, even the selenium cells for the lightmeter work like new!

These are some pics of the first roll I used with it:

Grótta

Hveragerði

JB

HF

And one last thing: Yesterday I went to Heimilisiðnaðarfélagið Íslands (Society of handcrafts of Iceland) to check some threads for bobbin lace because according to their website they had materials to make lace there. Well, they had some threads but only linen and just one number (and the price was not very nice: 17€ (2.800 ISK) for 500mt). They were also selling a pack of 50 bobbins and a bobbin lace pillow for 485€ (80.000 ISK). TOTALLY out of reality! I got my 50 bobbins for 25€ (4.000 ISK) in Spain and I made my own pillow with an Ikea table for only 30€ (5.000 ISK). So I saved 430 € (71.000 ISK)!! Unbelievable! I will DEFINETELY have to buy threads online!! What is it with prices here! That is something I really cannot get used to!