my humble beginning

It's taken me months to get started, but I finally settled on a yarn for this project and have gotten underway. The yarn is Jade Sapphire cashmere and silk in Blueblood Red. I chose this yarn and started my knitting before I saw Dana's red in Zephyr! Gotta love the reds. :)

First Swallowtail

I love this pattern so much! And using Sea Silk didn't suck either. I took a few pictures of the finished shawl at the Missouri Botanical Garden and posted them on my blog. Now I want to do another one, but I can't decide what yarn to use. I'm so glad there is this KAL so I can see so many possibilities!

Nupp tip

Hello everyone! I am new to this KAL--I started the shawl a couple of weeks ago as my first lace project. I am using JaggerSpun Zephyr (silk/wool blend) in color Real Red on a size US4 Inox Express circular. I just completed row 6 of the first border and, whew--I'm kind of glad I started without reading this KAL--I think the nupps would have scared me off. Now that I'm there, though, it's exciting to learn a new skill. (You can read more on my blog should you be so inclined!)

I wanted to share the technique I'm using for the nupps just in case it helps anyone else in my situation.

After all the swearing and the poking and the feeling desperate, I discovered a method for nupping that is less painful and more efficient, for me at least. Each time I come to the p5tog, I carefully slip the five stitches onto a metal tapestry needle and hold it to the front, sort of like using a cable needle. I then purl the stitches together from the tapestry needle rather than the left knitting needle. The smaller diameter of the tapestry needle gives me the wiggle room I need to clear all five stitches, wrap the working yarn, and purl it through. It's still really fiddly, but the nupps look great. There are a couple I could have done better, but even my perfectionism balks at ripping back to my lifeline unless I really have to.

Nupp said.

Mine is finished too!!

Hi, everyone.

I also managed to finish my shawl some time ago. About a month or so. And yes, it did not take too long to knit even though I've been so busy lately that I did not knit as much as I would have liked and it has taken me even longer to find some time to blog about it and upload some pictures.

I used under one skein of lace wool from handpaintedyarn.com on 3.5mm needles and may make another one in the same dusty pink colour.

Finished!!!

I finished knitting Sunday evening, then overdyed & blocked it Monday and I love it..... You may remember I was not happy with the yarn colours, it wasn't so much the colours but the fact they fought against the lace pattern and won.... so the plan was to overdye the shawl once complete and I absolutely love the result.....

so we have gone from this....


to this...


and finally (the above photo reflects the true colous)...


There are more photos and details on my blog. But I would definitely do more of these in the future....

Nupps, Nupps & More Nupps....

I have now finally finished Lily Border 1 and have progressed to Lily border 2.... the Nupps are getting easier

Lily of the Valley Border 1

I finished working the Budding Lace on Tuesday and last night started the Lily of the Valley Border 1 last night..... The photograph doesn't really show anything too well. The yarn is beautiful to knit with, very soft but a lovely even yarn; no lumps or bumps. I have decided that once the shawl is finished I am definitely going to over-dye it in a pink as it's far too busy....

MMM Yummy Yellow

Hi all you lovely knitters! Your shawls are ALL beautiful!

I got the pattern from my LYS and some fabulous yellow yarn. I can't wait to start.

Last night I tried to cast on and was totally stumped.I'm a slow learner,so I will need lots of help, I just know it!

How do you decide what size needles to use? I see some of you have used really large needles and your shawls are soooooo pretty. Anyway love it , love it, love it !!!

My First Post....

I cast on yesterday afternoon and got a couple of repeats done of the main pattern. I love the colours in this yarn I dyed myself but don't think it works for lace, so I think when the shawl is finished I will over-dye it to unify the colours or I feel it will detract from the pattern......

The yarn is from Yarn Treehouse on ebay and is 100% wool, quite fine, so I have doubled the yarn before dying to give the correct weight for the pattern.... I am using KP Options 3.5mm

First Post Here

I joined this KAL quite a while ago, but I didn't start the actual knitting of the shawl until just last night. Here's a picture of what I've accomplished so far just to show that I'm really doing it! I actually started it the other day using Misti Alpaca like the pattern shows, but I wasn't falling in love with that yarn so last night I switched over to using some Elann's Peruvian Baby Silk in a really pretty pink that I had laying around in my stash, I really like that yarn! And I'm using some KnitPicks Options needles that I had too, they are pretty nice. I can't decide which I like better, those or the new Addi lace needles (I have already acquired several of those). This is a pretty easy pattern so far, I can't wait until I get to the dreaded nupps! I might do the bead thing instead, I think this pink would be really pretty with some beads. I'll have to think about it when I get there. I will probably post more about my progress on this over here on my blog.