Done!

All the frogging, all the tinking, all the frustrations are over! I get to wear this beautiful, soft, unique shawl. Although I had my issues with this project, I know that they were just that- my issues. The pattern is perfectly written and challenging.

Here's some photos:

It's done with Jaggerspun Zephyr in colorway Bottlegreen, with size 10/0 glass beads. I started it on July 19, frogged same day, restarted on July 20, 22, and (finally) 23rd. I got it off the needles on August 1, but had to tink the bind off and reknit on the 3rd. The photo above is me with the shawl. I wanted it for a wedding and was able to proudly show it off to everyone. That was last night, Aug. 4th.

All in all, I love this shawl. I might even enter it into my local fair. Thanks to everyone who answered my questions. You were a huge help.

My blog- Sunflowerfairy Knits

On To The Beads!

Thanks for the extra help in the comments of my last post.

I'm up to the second repeat of chart b. Coming along very nicely. So far only one mistake...not bad. I would correct it, but it's a yo one stitch off about 10 rows back. Not even going to attempt it. lol.

I may be brave enough to knit lace in front of an attention-seeking 20 month old, but I'm not stupid.

New Member Questions

After a few false starts, I'm finally moving along. This shawl has kicked my knitter's butt repeatedly, let me tell you.

Anyways, I'm on chart b. I purchased beads yesterday and plan on doing them, but I'm wondering where they should be placed- either at the nupp or at the p5tog.

Any help?

I use the crochet hook method, so I think the bead automatically drops down to the row below. I think it should go where the p5 tog is. Suggestions?

Also, I should omit the P5tog, correct?

FYI, I'm doing the shawl in Zephyr, colorway is bottle green. Lovely yarn.

Thanks for the help.

Finally finished my first shawl

Well, I finally finished my first of, no doubt, many Spring Things Shawls. I wasn't going to make the wedding deadline unless I ignored absolutely everything else (including personal hygiene) for a week when I couldn't afford to with too many things going on, so we did a different wedding gift. Then everyone was sick for a while. I finally finished this week. Here's a fairly lame live model shot. Lame because I've never done this before.


It seems a bit small for me (it would have been perfect for the petite young lady it was intended for though, I think) and which I am debating sending to a favorite relative who has been ill. I just can't decide if it looks good enough to send to her. I'm leaning towards it because I do think it is pretty and I also think I managed to avoid any mistakes. Or if I made any I made them consistently. And she's petite too so I think it would be ok size-wise. But she's an awesome knitter so I'm nervous.

Next up I think I'll do one in silk for me. But I've got an awful lot of socks on the needles at the moment and I'm not sure it is wise to start another shawl right away. I doubt that will stop me though. And starting another while the pattern is still in short term memory retrieval might be a good idea. Right?

Beads, Beads Everywhere

Looks like quite a few of us are choosing the beads option. I just completed the first repeat of Chart B and am having to force myself to work today rather than trying to complete just one more row. This is the first "real" lace project that I've been able to stick with and I'm so excited to see this beauty blocked and being worn. I have a wedding to attend on the beach next weekend so hopefully I'll be able to share modeling shots with an ocean background!

More details on my blog.

Spring Things and Cherry Tree Hills

I just finished up my Spring Things Shawl last night. I haven't decided if I want beads on it or not. I love how it turned out without them so I may opt to skip that. I really enjoyed this pattern and the final result.

And I even tried it on for ya.

Want the details?

Started: April 17, 2007
Finished: June 4, 2007
Pattern: Spring Things Shawl
Yarn: Cherry Tree Hill Supersock - The colorway is from one of their potluck batches

Number three

I finally started a third one! I know I'm supposed to be doing one in red but I need a shawl to match this dress I've got. It's black kidsilk haze and I'm hoping to have enough to finish it the right size. I've only got two balls of it, so we'll see! Here it is a few repeats in. Slow going because my needles aren't pointy enough and the fuzz makes it hard to see. Plus I'm taking my time on this one as I've got a few other things to focus on as well. Sorry it's a tad blurry, I had to take it without flash or the pattern wouldn't show at all.

Any suggestions on what color beads I should do? I am thinking I might just do more silver ones since I already have them but am wondering what else might look good...

Finished again!

Finally I finished mine tonight, and it's being blocked! Here are pics.


I also have enough of this color left to do a second one. I did 15 repeats of the first part instead of 13, that's the only change. It's zephyr in teal, (the color is off in the pics) and silver beads.

I'm done!

I finished the blocking yesterday. I love this shawl! It ended up small, but just right for a shoulder shawl and I'm happy with it that way. There are a few more details on my blog, not much but a few. I didn't get a great shot of the beads, but they are really pretty, they are green with a subtle difference in color here and there. I think I will knit another one in green, but I'm going to take a little break first. Thank you Susan for such a great pattern!

My Progress

I started my shawl on 4th May and wasn't too happy with it - I just didn't seem to have the pattern right. I persisted with it but on Thursday 10th decided enough was enough and ripped it back. I started again on Friday and despite dropping a stitch and having to go back a full pattern repeat on Saturday afternoon I have actually managed to make it to 9 pattern repeats of the upper body pattern. The shawl looks quite small although it does stretch out quite a lot. I've decided to knit 17 repeats of the upper body pattern instead of 13 because I am using 3.25mm needles instead of the recommended 3.75mm ones and feel it may turn out very small otherwise.

Angie

More pictures on my blog.

One down, one to go!

Yayyy I finished one of my shawls. The one for my mom, I was further on that so I finished it up first. It's blocking right now and I'm sooo glad it stretched out as much as it did because it seemed tiny when I finally got it off the needles. It probably blocked out to almost twice it's size. Thannnnk God. Ok so here's pictures!

Here is the whole thing blocking, the dark spots are where it's wet on the towel, sorry that it's green lol, the only clean one left in the cabinet (note to self, do laundry!):Closeups of the edges where the carpet makes the pattern easier to see:


I'm sooo thrilled, I'll take an action shot tomorrow if it's dry before sending it off to my mom. Now I'm off to finish mine!

Beads!

I got tired of waiting for my hook. I discovered that some of the beads have larger holes and I managed to get my size 10 crochet hook through them. When I couldn't find any more that it would fit in, I fashioned a sort of lasso out of wire and used that lol. On my teal one I found the silver beads have square openings and if I turn the hook diagonally, it will just fit through! SO I started beading. I am on the second chart B repeat on the green one, and on the teal one, I just finished the first beading row. They look so much prettier in person but it's night so my pictures suck because of lighting. I can't wait to finish! I want to start my red one, and I'm going to do one in black Kidsilk Haze.

Finished!

I finished the shawl today, and it's blocking right now. I'm so happy with the finished product, but it is smaller than I expected. I guess I didn't visualize what the size would be. I want to knit another and will use several more repeats of the charts to make it larger. Here's a couple of pics of it while it is blocking.


PS - if anyone sees an error in it - please don't tell me!!! LOL

I'm looking for some other beaded shawl patterns if y'all know of any nice ones.

We have beads!

I have finished Chart B and I'm moving on to Chart C! I was so happy to put the beads on and I'm kind of sad now that I'm done. I guess I could do another repeat, but I'd rather just finish the shawl. I'm already plotting another one in Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud. I should be able to finish this over the weekend and then I'll just have to find time to block it.

I'm getting there

I finally made it through Chart A! I've done 2 rows of Chart B, and while I did enjoy A because the continuous lace kept it interesting, I am glad to have a change of pattern. Even better it will soon enough and I will be adding beads - yes!! Here's my little girl helping me take a picture of the shawl :)

Started another one!

I love this shawl so much I already started a second one. I am almost to the next chart on the teal one, but I want my crochet hook before I start, so I started another. I am doing it on size fives since I don't have another size 4 and it's in the zephyr, color Emerald. I traded for a big ball of it and it's such a pretty color! This one will be for my mom since she loves green. By the time I get to the next chart on this one, my hook should hopefully be here and I can knit these together. I also much prefer knitting with my bamboo needle too, but I don't have one in a size four unfortunately.
Oh yeah, and just in case anyone else wanted to know. In the pattern it says that your shawl might turn out smaller (obviously) by switching to the size four needles with the zephyr. I didn't want it smaller so I emailed our lovely designer to see if one 60 gram ball would be enough to do extra repeats. She said there was almost 200 yards leftover, so there is more than enough to do extra body repeats before moving on to the next chart. So I'm going to do one or two more on my teal one to make up in size. Just thought I'd share in case anyone else was wondering also.

Started!

I finally started yesterday. I first tried it on the size 3 but it wasn't coming out with a fabric I liked. So I switched to the four and it's much better. I am doing my first one in the teal color and looove how it's going. This first stitch pattern is so easy and I memorized it very quickly, which makes this go a lot faster. I am probably five repeats in, I can never keep track of that, I'll just count my stitches later on when I'm closer. The bigger this gets the more I love it.

Here is my progress from last night: And my progress as of right now:I also found a tiny crochet hook on ebay pretty cheap so it should be here in a few days and I'll be able to do my beads!

Yarn!

I got my yarn yesterday! Very exciting. I wanted to run home and cast on right away. Unfortunately I had errands to do. I did get my beads as well but I need to find a way to put them on. I don't have a crochet hook small enough for the beads. I will probably just bend some wire to do it or something. I plan on making two of these shawls. One in the teal because that's the color I originally wanted, and one in the garnet, because the more I looked at the shawl, the more I saw flames in the border. They just scream to be made in red. Oh and I couldn't find teal beads in the right color for the yarn so I got silvery ones. I don't mind them standing out so it's ok. I can't wait to start this today! I will probably also use a size 3 needle because I almost always knit a little bigger than gauge.

Finished Before I Started

I didn't get much of a chance to participate in this KAL since I finished the shawl so quickly. I started the shawl on April 12th and finished it on April 25th. Like many others, I had a few false starts, but that was more due to needle size and yarn choice. Once that was settled, I was able to really get into the rhythm of the pattern and zip away!

I used Jaggerspun Zephyr in Sage and size 3US Addi Lace needles. These needles made the nupps really easy to manipulate and were worth every penny. Here's a gratuitous close up shot of the lower body pattern.


The finished dimensions came out to approximately 61" wide and 21" long from the longest point of the shawl. I plan on giving this shawl to a friend and even though I had some qualms as to how tiny the shawl is, she's reassured me that it's the perfect size for her.

Opal
the Akamai Knitter

I finally started again

I decided to rip out my small start on size 5 needles and go for it on size 4s. It really wasn't that much to rip having only 99 or so stitches, but it was still a bit painful - lol. I now have about 83 stitches and I'm liking it a lot more on the smaller needles. I'm hoping to give it a lot more attention than I have been so I can make some good progress - I want to put beads on, badly!!

Hello from Liverpool

Hi everyone, I've just joined this knitalong. I live in Liverpool, UK where we are currently having the hottest April weather for 300 years. I have chosen my yarn. I am going to give the pattern a try in some undyed laceweight yarn, which is 96% blue faced leicester and 10% nylon. I'll probably also make the shawl in mohair as well but thought I'd try the pattern out with a smooth yarn first.

Angie

Aloha

Ok so after seeing this shawl I just knew I HAD to make it. I had some lace weight alpaca but just found out a few days ago that I'm extremely and horridly allergic to it. Sooo after a tip from Deb, I ended up buying some of the zephyr wool silk, even tho I'm on a yarn diet...actually I bought three different colors (teal, aegean, garnet). I justified it by the fact I'm going to be destashing all my lovely alpaca...so it's like a trade. :D

I plan on doing this shawl in teal, and am going to do beads instead of the nupps. I can't wait till my yarn gets here! I should have it by wednesday and then I'm diving in! All the pretty finished ones here are really inspiration and I can't wait to get started!

Made it to the 2nd chart!

Yahoo! - I made it to the 2nd chart. The last few pattern rows caused a little trouble for me - again, I don't know why. At any rate, I am putting in a lifeline before I start the new pattern chart in case my knitting handicap rears its ugly head again. Here's a pic of it so far, doesn't do it justice without blocking, but I do like the color and think it's gonna look great with the beads.

I have 2 colors of beads, unfortunately the battery on my camera died after taking this pic, but one is a pinkish purple color and the other is purple with an irridescent bluish cast.
When I get to that point, I'll thread yarn through both colors of beads and decide which one works better.

Ditto on the Frustration

I'm with Deb in the frustration department. I have cast on and knit the first section of this shawl so many times now I could scream. My mother came home with a new froggy to decorate the deck for summer so I turned him ("Jeremiah" is the dubbed name of said froggy) into my Spring Things Frog Pond! I haven't liked the yarns, the needle size, the gauge, and most of all the 1st stitch pattern. Whew, there I said it! I confessed the truth. It looked great in Susan's pictures, but it's a stitch pattern I've battled with before. I just didn't realize that when I purchased the pattern. It's not difficult to knit, mind you, I just don't love how it looks up close >:-( (picky, picky, picky--that's me!)

So, what to do. Being a member of this KAL has motivated me to stick with it. The fact that I just finished my dissertation and completed my requirements for graduation just yesterday is a factor too. I'm so tired I look at *everything* cross-eyed right now. That's when tincture of time is the best therapy I suppose. Right now I have gone back to knitting the pattern as written (yes, I tinkered with that too) using some white Zephyr and Size 3.25mm needles. I'm up to 11 or of the 16 total repeats for chart A. I've decided to press on for now in the hopes that I will be happy with the next lace pattern. I really wanted a light weight white shawl to wear this summer, so I'm hanging in there along with Dab and any other lurkers who are finding unexpected challenges.

Frustration!!!

After 2 weeks, I finally got my yarn! But the pattern was giving me fits - I have no idea why, it's not difficult, but I had to tear it out and begin again at least 3 times. I kept ending up with the wrong number of stitches, not enough to complete the pattern for a row. I tinked so many times I was almost in tears. I was using the Zephyr yard in a beautiful pink Ladyslipper color. I suspect that the stitches were melding themselves together and that's why I was having the problem, I was missing or accidentally knitting 2 together in spots.

Anyway, after almost getting to the 2nd chart and finding that it was horribly messed up again - I ripped it off the needles and started all over again with Zephyr in Lilac this time. Same needles, same yarn, different color.

Completely different results - it's now going smoothly and beautifully! Go figure. Picture coming soon.

Help - which beads?

I feel like the little engine that could. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. I've finished the first chart (A) of the Spring Things Shawl. I'm still behind schedule but I still hope to make it.

Now I just have to decide which beads to use. The young woman for whom I am knitting the first one of this shawl (I've already got plans for at least 1 more) for her wedding has square crystal beads on her wedding dress. I hunted a while back (somewhere around repeat 3 of Chart A) and couldn't really find the "perfect" crystal bead so bought three "not perfect" ones and tried them today in a sample of the first section of Chart B. I can't decide for sure which I like best.
If you have an opinion, please share it. The cubes in the middle are, I think, closest to what is on the wedding dress but I'm not sure what I think about them in this shawl. I think the clear with silver on the right is out but I'm not sure between the pearlized rounds on the left and the crystal cubes in the middle. The cubes have a nice opalescence or something which isn't showing in this photo (and this was the best photo) and they match the dress beading more closely I think. But I have to admit if it were for me I'd go with the pearlized rounds.

I'm going to cogitate for a few hours while I do something else and then if anyone has offered opinions I'll read them before deciding what to do. It's tempting to leave the sample laying around and see what the young lady herself says since I'll see her tomorrow but I kinda wanted this to be a surprise when all finished. Plus I'm not sure I can delay until tomorrow night since I am already behind and I think it's going to take me several hours per repeat of Chart B (and C and the edging at this point) to knit the rest. Which makes it unwise to dawdle much. Or be indecisive for that matter but somehow that isn't enough to make me just grow up and pick one.

Started Last Night

I came across this pattern being knit up for the first time on On the Needles and couldn't resist getting a copy. I had the perfect yarn in my stash already so I cast on last night. I am using two skeins of Cherry Tree Hill in a Blues/Greens potluck colorway. I plan on putting beads on it since I think the variegation of the yarn will hide all the loveliness of nupps. So far I love the pattern and the yarn. I can't wait to see everyones progress. I love how differently a shawl can look just by being knit in different yarns.

- Michelle
http://sittinhereknittin.blogspot.com

Nupps Schmupps

Who's afraid of the big bad nupps?

Not me.

Nupps are easy. And in saying that I mean that nupps are just as easy or just as hard as any other stitch you might be asked to do in knitting. They are really no "harder" than anything else.

And this is probably also an instance of how hanging around in blogland has really helped me with my knitting. On the one hand, I learned that nupps are often feared, despised and shunned. On the other hand, I learned a few tips for dealing with the dreaded nupps.

I'll share them with you!

First Tip - maybe obvious but it bears repeating - get yourself some pointy tipped needles. I used my Knit Picks Options needles because they are the sharpest tipped needles I have. They worked out fine for me but I probably would have appreciated having some of those new Addi Lace needles which are even sharper. (In fact, I think I'll go order some after I finish this post.) You really need the sharp point for digging under all - in this case five - of the sections of the the nupp.

Second Tip - splitty yarn will probably drive you into nupp despair. I didn't have this problem with the Hand Maiden Sea Silk so this is just an observation.

Third Tip - and this is probably the most important - when you are forming the increases that make up the nupp, make them VERY loosely. More loose than you would ever think you might need. This will help you to have the room to be able to get in under the stitches when you are purling them all together on the back side. It will also give the nupps a nice, fat fullness which makes them look good.

Another observation - let's call it the Fourth Tip - it seems like the middle stitch of the increases for the nupp (in this case the third stitch out of five) seems like it is the most difficult to pick up when you are purling them together on the back side. This may just be due to my knitting technique but I don't think so. So the tip here is - watch out for that middle stitch. Make sure you are actually getting under ALL of the nupp stitches. If you miss one it could get ugly. And chances are it will be that middle stitch that you missed.

So there you go - armed with these Four Tips, go forth and conquer The Fear Of Nupps.

Sure, nupps will slow you down a bit and you do have to pay attention to what you are doing but that doesn't make them "hard" to do. In fact, I kind of thought they were fun and a clever little technique.

As an aside here - I had a couple of emails asking me if I thought two skeins of the Sea Silk would be enough for the shawl. Well - I have completed through the first repeat of the second chart and I still have a little less than half of the first skein left. I think (knock on wood!) I'll be fine.

I'm such a slacker

I have not knit another stitch on my shawl since I started. I want to knit on it, but I just have no time! Also, I just looked at the pattern where it says if you use the Jaeger you may want to use size 4 needles - I didn't see it before and I'm using 5s. Now I have to decide whether to frog or keep going, what a dummy!

Fate

On a whim, I picked up several skeins of the Karabella mohair in exactly the color used for the pattern picture. When I came across the pattern while searching for a project for a summer wedding, it seemed like fate to give this one a try. I'm fairly new to lace and looking forward to this challenge. So far, so good...

Here's my shawl....

Hand Maiden Sea Silk in Glacier:



The Spring Things Shawl in situ:



The Spring Things Shawl in close up:



Ahhhh, Spring!

Waiting for yarn to arrive

What a beautiful shawl, can't wait to begin and join the fun! I'll be using Zephyr, and since I couldn't decide on just 1 color, I ordered 3, and 2 different colors of beads.

I have 3 wonderful daughters-in-law, and I'd like to knit a shawl for each of them. Perhaps 2 with beads and 1 with the nupps. I love knitting lace and prefer working from charts, so I'm looking forward to beginning.

Hurry up, mailman....bring my yarn!

Shawl Progress

Here's a pic of the progress on my shawl . For some reason , I had a few problems at the beginning ; either not enough stitches or too many . Once I was able to " read " the pattern it all seemed to fall into place. It's been smooth sailing and I've almost completed the repeats for Chart A . Thankfully I'd decided to knit this with the Zephyr as I think tinking mohair yarn would have driven me to drink !

Please wish me luck

Thanks for welcoming me into the group. I'm working away at the shawl. I started the shawl on the same day as Kate, I think. But I'm nowhere near done. (Kate, you were fast!) I've just finished the 8th repeat of those last 5 rows of Chart A. I think I can manage to finish the shawl in time but that "each row takes longer than the last" thing is making me very nervous. I'm making the shawl as a bridal gift so I need it finished before last time I see the bride before the wedding (which is at the end of this month) so I'm knitting as fast as I can.

But I find if I don't take the time to count stitches every row, something happens and I end up having to fix a mistake. I'm not sure why I keep making them, because it's actually a very straightforward pattern. Apparently, I can't walk and chew gum though. If I try to do anything else, except maybe listen to music, while knitting I invariably make a mistake. At least I'm catching them sooner now. Any suggestions for how to keep from making mistakes? I've gotten to the point where I won't even acknowledge an interruption until I've finished the 5 stitch repeat I'm on. Am I the only one who has to pay this close of attention this far in? Or, you know, at all? I'd hate to find out I'm lace-impaired. I love lace shawls and I have plans to make lots of them.

I'm Ready for Spring

After enduring the coldest Easter on record here in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, am I ever ready for it to be Spring for good! And I can't think of a better way to celebrate spring than to knit a beautiful lace shawl. I'm delighted to be joining ya'll in knitting this great design--this will be my first time knitting one of Susan's designs. I finished knitting Miriam's Hidcote garden shawl several weeks ago.

My name is Kristina and in addition to being addicted to lace knitting, I'm currently on the home stretch of finishing my dissertation. In a few short weeks I'll be graduating with my PhD in Nursing after *many* long years of work. Tatting, beadwork, and knitting have kept me sane through it all :-)

I'm still playing with yarn ideas for Spring Things, but am leaning towards using a pretty butter yellow cashmere/wool blend called Gentle purchased from the YarnPlace in CA. This yarn is really a cobweb wt. so I'll be doubling it for this project. I swatched with a size US5/3.75mm needle but I thinks it's a bit too lacy for my taste so I'll go down to my favorite for lace size 4 needles. My size 4Addi-Lace needle is on a WIP that has only 6 rows left to go, so I'll knit that off before I cast on for Spring Things so I can use my new favorite needle for this shawl too.

I look forward to meeting everyone and knitting and blogging with you. I'll be blogging here and on my own blog at www.beadntat.blogspot.com as I go. Thanks for welcoming me!
{{{hugs}}} Kristina

Now I can Start ....

I have been welcomed to join this group and am so thankful! The shawl is gorgeous and now all I have to do is purchase the pattern . I have lots of lace that I have spun myself or purchased. I am thinking of some spring green (turquoise is what I was expecting) easter egg dyed fingering yarn - just need to check and see how much yardage is needed for this shawl.

Love seeing what others are doing!
Vanessa in Upstate NY
www.butterflyjo.blogspot.com

Gosh, I'm finished

This one is big, but it is beautiful. The yarn is a mohair/acrylmix, from Coats Schachenmayr. I used needles no 5, and I feel really satisfied right now. So now I guess I have to knit socks. The colour is blue with some beige, purple and green in. I'll take a better photo outside tomorrow, in the snow. There are a couple of more photos in my blog.

My shawl in progress

This shawl is a beauty, and so funny to knit. I'm almost done at chart B.