Thursday, April 24, 2014

white lace black hap





 meadow lace

shetland triangle lace


it seems as if it's been one extreme to the other here, we've had dense fog (when i had time for photos, haha, oh well) and then cloudless sunshiny days. when i look at my recent knitting it looks about the same. from black to white, or, the other way around. i made two smallish shawls, out of two hanks of jade sapphire cashmere, in a very pretty natural cream colour, ivory. the shetland triangle lace shawl in the fir cone pattern i shared before, and now here is it's sister shawl, meadow lace, both patterns by evelyn clark. the fir cone lace took approximately five hundred yards, and meadow about three. the jade sapphire had 400 yards per skein, so it worked perfect! the meadow lace is such an interesting knit, it's made to have extra long ties, for staying on. in order for that to work, it is made using six or seven different charts (i just counted, it's six charts, seven pages) and binding off in places, knitting on in others. it is a simple knit, but when it came with several pages of directions for such a tiny shawl, i said eeps! the picot edge is my favorite part. and the garter stitch. and the tiny little flowers. oh it's all my favorite, i love it! raverly notes:

the very opposite from white, my all black hap shawl is growing. stitch by every single stitch, this is so far, on a scale of one to ten, ten being most enjoyable, a ten plus! i was fearful of the black. having knit with it before and saying, never again! two things have contributed to making this a positive experience. first this wool is extraordinary. oh my goodness. if you would like to try the softest, springiest, woolliest organic shetland wool, visit lorraine at cottage craft angora. you will find along with the shetland, luxury fibers such as angora, cashmere, qiviut (musk ox) and blends of all these. and the second reason to not fear black anymore... 



knit with a headlamp! yay! i've knit for years using one, camping, night driving, chuck, not me ;) when traveling and light is poor (or non existent like in africa when the generator lights are turned off after a designated hour). but at home, knitting with black, why didn't i think of it before? it's fantastic. haha, chuck cannot resist making comments. i guess it is pretty funny. but i can see. yes.





outside, everything is in bloom! our wedding roses (a very favorite post), and hollyhocks, seeds i planted last year, remind of my grandma rose. i rescued a flat of plants at the nursery, they were so sad looking, marked down to a dollar apiece. hopefully they'll like it here. i bought a strawberry plant and it's already producing berries. which the raccoons already ate off. these all need to be in the ground soon. and the sweetest pink roses from my love, i said eeps again. :)


thank you for always leaving such kind comments, they are so appreciated. 
happy almost weekend! xxx lori


39 comments:

  1. a lovely post to start an early weekend for me ~ thanks for sharing all the goodies ~ beauty always abounds at lorix5

    happy weekend to you as well :)

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  2. Gorgeous knits. Enjoy your weekend!

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  3. Such pretty knits! I'm finishing up a mystery KAL and all my pattern pages and charts are stacking up. I love your flash light. That totally counts as a knitting dork moment. I'll have to post a picture of my flash light. It is fancy and goes around my neck. My husband just shakes his head at me :)

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    1. you should try a head lamp andee, it works really well!

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  4. I love the head lamp idea!!!!!! Really clever!!!!
    Your shawls are so beautiful Lori!!!!
    xxxxxxx ale

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  5. lovely knits and beautiful flowers. <3

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  6. Dear Lori,
    I love your posts, your knitting and everything. It is such a pleasure to be able how someone who loves knitting as me, lives on the other side of the world. I have visited California in 2001 and your blog always reminds me of this visit and bring me such great feelings. I wish you your trip to Shetland, it will be great! Meeting Gudrun Johnson! Me and my friend are going to Amsterdam in summer, we hope to spent whole time in Penelope Crafts shop, and imagine we might meet Stephen West there.....it is such a great thing blogging and knitting isn´t it? :-))) Love xxxKaterina

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    1. dear katerina, thank you so much for your lovely comment. i'm so happy to hear you have good memories of here. how exciting you are going to amsterdam, i hope you do meet stephen west, that would be amazing! i love the time i spent there, and hope to go back again, i only found one knit shop but i don't think it was called penelopes, i want to go there now. and yes, blogging and knitting and meeting lovely people is GREAT. xxx lori

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  7. Dearest Lori,

    It is always such a treat to come visit you and bask for a few minutes in your beautiful sense of aesthetics. And yes, I too have considered a head lamp although I've been worried it might not be too good for my eyesight if used frequently. Have you come across luminous knitting needles before? They do exist!

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    1. thank you dear stephanie. we've used headlamps for many years camping and adventuring, i've never heard they could cause harm? i have seen glowing light up needles, they are brightly colored plastic straight needles, but don't come in circular as far as i know. i'll look around, thank you!

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  8. What an amazing idea about the lamp...I avoid knitting black too. Now my problem has been remedied. Both scarves look lovely and will be really useful. My grandmother used to grow hollyhocks in her garden too. What nice memories they must bring back to you.
    Happy days.
    debx

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    1. thank you deb, i hope you give the headlamp a try! it's changed the way i feel about dark yarns :)

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  9. Lori! Everything is so beautiful!!! Where to start... I love all the lace you have been knitting, love the contrast of black and white. Love your great ideas:) that head lamp is perfect (I will have to remember to steal my son's next time I'm knitting with black wool, my kids use them to read at night). Love the pink and reds in the garden, the geraniums especially. Glad to hear you are keeping the raccoons happy:)) Love pink roses and the ocean. Love, love, love!

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    1. hee hee, those rascally raccoons. thank you so much leigh! i love that the boys use headlamps to read at night! i am so relived to not dread dark yarn anymore (mostly ;) i hope you give it a try!

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  10. love the shawl and eep, knitting with black and lace is quite the challenge! I love the head lamp and I know that it would illuminate those pesky tiny dark stitches.

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    1. thank you karen! yes, exactly, the pesky tiny dark unseeable stitches are no more!

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  11. Lori, I loved the flow of this post. Your completed cashmere shawls are both so lovely...that yarn really does show the lacy designs and your very fine knitting so well. I agree that when I see a multi-page pattern, I can initially think uh-oh, what am I beginning!

    The black hap is going to be a treasure. Your headlamp is a clever accessory, a variation on all those 1960's headscarves. Let the sun shine, etc!

    It looks as if the sun will be shining on some spritely plants in your garden. Funny to think of raccoons liking strawberries. A variation on that classic William Morris design called The Strawberry Thief.

    Having had a peek at the new Brooklyn Tweed look book, I have ordered Gudrun Johnson's beautiful shawl pattern...lots of pages in that pattern, but everything looks so very clearly explained. Now I have to figure out which yarn or yarns to choose from the skeins around this apartment. I'm also working on two other scarves. xo

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    1. thank you dear frances, hee hee, my headlamp is cuter than chucks ;) i bought gudruns pattern too and am fighting every urge to cast on, too much on the needles right now. but i really love it! can't wait to see which yarn you choose....

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  12. Hehe, I love the head lamp idea! And how lovely the shawls!
    This weekend, I will try to put my vegetable plants into the dirt😊 Dear husband just have to build me the beds!
    Have a wonderful weekend!

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    1. thank you karin-ida! have fun gardening this weekend! i need to spend some time in mine too.

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  13. I am drooling over all the beautiful knits and yarns on display! Look at your beautiful creations. You are amazing.
    Love the rescue flowers. How could they not love their new home. :)

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  14. Your knitting is so very fine and beautiful, dear Lori! I love the shawls and can imagine how soft and delicious they are to wear. I love your dress too! And beautiful pink flowers :)
    Wishing you a wonderful weekend!
    Helen xox

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    1. thank you so much helen! the dress is a very comfortable well loved tunic, almost as soft as the shawls :)

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  15. What beautiful shawls! And the image of you knitting wearing a headlamp...brilliant! I am inspired in so many ways! Happy weekend to you and happy knitting xx

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    1. thank you so much emily, welcome welcome! it's lovely to see you here! :)

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  16. Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant! Knitting with dark wool is difficult, but a headlamp must make it so much easier. I must try that.

    The lace shawl is gorgeous, but six charts? seven pages?... I don't think I would even try to do that :-)

    Such sweet roses! Happy weekend!

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    1. yes irene! you have to try the headlamp, i don't want to be the only one hee hee ;)
      you should try it if you like the pattern, it isn't difficult, just sweet garter and a bit of lace and picot. but it had to be charted (and written) out this way to incorporate the construction of it. you can do it!

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  17. Moc krásný šátek a velmi zajímavý vzorek, velmi se mi líbí váš celý blog Lori. Taky miluji pletení a háčkování a mnoho dalších prací. Ještě, že ty blogy máme a můžeme se vzájemně potěšit. Ráda koukám i na ty zahraniční, i když jsem z České republiky. Hodně inspirace beru z Ravelry a od Vlněných sester Kateřiny a Helči (Vevka, Helča). Mějte se moc krásně, jste mi velmi sympatická, i když vás znám jen prostřednictvím tohoto blogu. Nevadí. Milena :-)

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  18. hello milena! welcome! thank you very much, such kind words! you are so right, there is endless inspiration from blogs and ravelry, what an amazing time we live in, happy knitting! :)

    courtesy of google, milena said:
    Very nice scarf and a very interesting pattern, I really like your entire blog Lori. I also love knitting and crocheting and many other works. Still, that those blogs have and we can cheer each other. I like to watch those foreign, even though I am from Czech Republic. I take a lot of inspiration from Ravelry and wool from sisters Catherine and Helena (Vevka, Helča). Have a very beautiful, you're very likeable, even if you only know through this blog. Never mind. Milena :-)

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  19. lovely lovely shawls....and i'm quite smitten with that dress, too!!!!
    I had to giggle just a bit----I rescue sad looking plants at the nursery and grocery all the time!!! Occasionally I find a very grateful one....my latest orchid rescue from the throw-away pile at Lowes has been blooming for two months!!!! (I got lucky!)

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  20. Well you said you were going to make the Shetland lace shawl and you sure made it beautiful. The creamy colour really lets the structure and stitch shine.

    As I have got older, I crave light, lots of especially at night for knitting. My man likes watching movies in the dark. You may have just solved our tussle between the light and dark in that wee liitle head torch!

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  21. Very pretty shawls. I know what you mean about black. I can't crochet with it unless I have a lot of light to guide my stitches. Happy planting! Our growing season is definitely dwindling since temperatures are already at 100 every day. Has been rather muggy of late, too. Have a great new week. Tammy

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  22. Oh my, Lori! I need to raid your knitting closet for sure. You nail this knitting thing every time and wind up with the most beautiful finished objects.

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xoxo lori