Hi everyone, my name is Abi - I just got approved to join this knitalong today, I'd seen Froggy Dear's post that she's tremendously busy and swamped at the minute, so it's much appreciated!

I got my IK on Friday night at Borders. I was immediately entranced by the beautiousness of this particular shawl.

I had just the yarn - laceweight that I dyed at my local spinning guild with indigo last weekend

I also had some brand spanking new 3.75mm Bryspun circs that I'd bought from Webs for my Log Cabin before I'd realised that I was using 3mm needles on that project. I was absolutely faithful to my Log Cabin for 5 whole weeks - and still not quite 1/3 done with (it's very insistant that it must become a queen size bedspread). I've never tried the Bryspuns before. I'm not entirely sold on them, but then again I haven't started on the fancy part yet. They seem to slow down my purling.

Resistance was futile. I rationalised that I really needed a better take along project than the scrappy Log Cabin which literally had me schlepping garbage bags full of yarn everywhere. I cast on Saturday, and spent literally all day knitting. And lo and behold Icarus arising: This picture was taken fairly early Sunday morning. I was able to knit a fair amount on Sunday and Monday as well.

I've decided that I really really want to try to extend the fancy section. I think I have it sussed out. I will share more details as I get closer to it. But basically it involves doing a shorter version of Chart 2, and a shorter version of Chart 3 (truncating the pattern repeats) before I start knitting Charts 2 and 3 for real. Clear as mud? Sorry, I'm still trying to get it to gel in my head as well!

This is where I'm at as I type. I just love it so far!

Hi, I'm starting the lace!!!!!!! Yep I moved on to chart 2.

I'll take some photos of the lace when I get something to see. To get this photo I had to use two circular needles. Even then it is a bit smashed. If I knit this up again I think maybe a different yarn. I still have how many more stitches to add????????? Will they all fit? I know they will but it will be a bit tight.

Back to knitting.

Hi everyone,
I don't have a picture for this post but the shawl is coming along slow but sure. I have learned the hard way that I can't knit lace during an exciting movie or when I am tired. I think I have tinked about half of what I have knitted. It goes something like this, "knit four rows, tink two". Maybe I just suck at lace.

But I'm enjoying myself and that's the important thing I guess. Keep up the good work, everyone. Soon we'll get to the more interesting charts.

Yay for lifelines.

I don't usually use them. But since I had already frogged the start of Icarus twice, I figured I better cover myself. So dental floss lifelines it was. I've only gotten the first of the five repeats done, and today I had worked about four more rows while sitting in the library with my boys.

And then it happened. I went to pull my knitting out of the bag at our next stop, the park, and I snagged a stitch. And pulled a snag about 8 inches long out, still attached, but with little puckered stitches on either side. I tried to work the snag back in slowly and patiently, but who am I kidding? Slow and patient aren't on my list of attributes.

Luckily the snag was past my most recent lifeline. So I happily frogged four rows! Putting it back on the needles wasn't super fun, but way more fun than trying to unwork that snag. Yay for lifelines!

I'm plugging away doggedly at my shawl in 85+ degree weather. Lots of staying indoors in the dark watching movies. I'm just past 25% done. I think I'm having more fun figuring out where I am than actually knitting it. (As I stated in my blog, I conveniently forgot before starting that I need handy pattern-change points to stay motivated, and the increasing width isn't exactly helping!.) It's been long and it'll just... get... longer... but I keep going. It's hard to gauge the final size. I started thinking my yarn supply was actually quite excessive, but given my little lump of yarn I hope I make it 19 more rows to make sure I'll have 1/3 per ball.

Just finished the third repeat of Chart 1, plus the first row of repeat 4. 251 stitches across now.

I do think I should start another project, though, to stop feeling like this is the project that will never end. Anyone else in that boat?

I'll stop whining now.

P.S. I'm not actually sucking at the lace, though :)

Oh so great progress...not so much. I am one repeat away from starting the second chart.

I love Misti Alpaca yarn....love it!

I know the shawl looks like not so much but that is the beauty of lace.

I do have one question, it said repeat the first chart 5 times BUT when I count the "lines" in my shawl vs. the finished shawl, it seems like I need to do an extra repeat. Am I just bad counting????

I have just ordered yarn to begin the Icarus Shawl KAL....It should arrive on Tuesday. My most favorite yarn shop recommended Rowan's kid silk haze which I am quite fond of. I chose a nice medium pink. I will let you know when it arrives and I have cast on. I am looking forward to the sharing of it all!

Another first-shawl knitter...

This is my Icarus, now just starting the third repeat of Chart 1 (those are lifelines marking each repeat). I'm using 100% laceweight "baby fleece" alpaca from Peru, though I bought it (cheap!) in Moscow. It's divinely soft, and I'm so glad to finally have a good pattern to use it on (though to be honest I was first hoping to use an alpaca/silk blend in a darker red, also purchased on the cheap in Moscow, but it turned out I only had 600 meters of that, sob). My #3 circs are Addis, which are too slippery, but I can't justify buying bamboo circs right now, much as I'd love to. I'd give anything, too, for some very small, plain stitch markers with nothing hanging off them. I'm using coil-less mini safety pins now, but they're driving me nuts. I think I'll go to a jewelry-making store to find some tiny metal rings.

Other than the slippery needles and the stitch markers, this pattern seems a breeze so far. It's easy to memorize this first part at least, so it's been requiring much less attention and angst on my part than I expected (and than was demanded by the much smaller but less obvious lace patterns I've attempted so far). So far, knock wood, no mistakes. This is probably because for the first time in my life I'm using lifelines -- Murphy's law. Although actually it turns out I like them -- I like marking my accomplishment every time a finish a repeat, plus I can tell at a glance how many I've done. So far I've worked on the Icarus while watching a movie, and while going through the tedious process of backing up all my data from my laptop, wiping the harddrive, and re-installing everything (a whole day of sitting and waiting while the little blue bar moved from left to right on the screen...perfect knitting opportunity!)

Someone asked about changing from one skein to another: this will be a major problem for me, as my yarn comes only in 100-meter skeins!! I just did the first change, and I did it by spit-felting the two ends together. It seems to work well, and the join doesn't show (though let's see what happens when I hold it up in sunlight tomorrow).

I'm in full agreement with "froggy_dear" about the healing power of alpaca: my semester ended a couple weeks ago, but regularly fondling this yarn has been a major part of my recovery since then! It feels like butter. It's a good thing I'll likely be working on this shawl all summer...I know I'll need the fiber-therapy!

Interweave Icarus, beginning

Interweave Icarus, beginning
Originally uploaded by Sophie_vf.

I just started this last night, and already it's kicking my ass. I've never knit with laceweight before, and you'd think that knitting a multitude of socks in fingerweight would prepare me for this, but nooooo. It's a whole other fiddly ballgame.

At first I thought, oh sheesh, miles of stockinette, but now that I've started, I've realized that it's perfect for me to get used to the feel of the laceweight and recognizing my mistakes. I had to fix a multitude of missed yarnovers yesterday and am not completely sure I've fixed them to my satisfaction. But I have kind of weird knitting dysmorphia, in which I tend to fixate/obsess on minor imperfections, and if I put the damn thing away for a few days, when I come back it looks all better.

yarn is Zephyr wool silk in Mahogany, needles are size 3 Boye needlemaster circs. Loving the pointy ends, not loving the non-addi-smooth join.

Also, loving the yarn. After only 2 square inches of fabric, I had to hold it in my hand and pet it, and make everyone else in the household do so as well.

Alpaca makes everything better.

Knitting gives the alpaca a purpose.

I have one more week left in the school year, and it's that time where everything that needs to be done comes crashing together and makes one's head explode. Tonight I was working on a paper, a paper I'm not entirely committed to, a paper which has a thesis I feel ambivalent about. So it was hard. I got most of the way through it and took a break.

A knitting break.

And I worked on Icarus a little more. A row and a half.

And it was wonderful. The softness of the alpaca and silk blend, the movement of the bamboo needles working together to make a very complicated and beautiful knot.

After that I managed to wade through the rest of my footnotes and concluding the paper.

(forgive me if I wax a little poetic. I just did several pages of less than inspired history argument)

-----------------------------------------
Business:

If you would like me to change your sidebar name or bloglink, please let me know. Also, given the mountain of work I have in the next seven days, I may be slower responding to KALsters wishing to join up. Some of you have already experienced my slowness. But just one more week, then there's a long glorious summer light at the end of the tunnel.

Happy knitting all.

My First Lace Project

My name is Wendy and this is going to be my first-ever lace project! I'm not doing the Amazing Lace, though - I'm hoping to focus on my knitting this summer. :)

I haven't yet cast-on for the shawl, but I did wind my yarn tonight! I'm using Skacel mohair lace weight in a reddish color - it has pink undertones rather than being a true red. I'm looking forward to starting this over the weekend - my hope, however, is to finish up my Clapotis.

One question I have already is that, as you can see, my yarn is in two separate balls. Will this be an issue? I figured I'd just switch at the end of a row and use... a knot! Any thoughts on this? And does anyone know why the post template doesn't have room for a title?

Here's a little Icarus progress, held up to the light because the pics I took trying to spread it out on the floor turned out awful! It's a deep plum from Misti Alpaca, and I *love* it. However, it has become very humid here over the last few days, and the alpaca just felt sticky in my hands last night. That's probably a good thing, though, because I have a cotton log cabin baby blanket to finish and Icarus was keeping my attention away from it!

Before the new Interweave hit the stands, as soon as I saw the online preview, I knew that Icarus was going to be my summer project. I was entranced by the butterfly-like wings -- I've always related to the butterfly - starting out as an icky caterpillar - emerging as a pretty, fluttering, teasing thing. My high school years were spent suffering through a nice Jewish girl afro, glasses that turned dark when I went outside, and took like a half hour to go back to normal once indoors, braces, and pudginess. Now, my brother says I'm the most improved person he knows - thanks bro!

I originally was going to knit Icarus in this yarn:
that I bought at Stitches East a couple of years ago from some Russian woman. I had bought it for the Forest Path Stole, but the yarddage was short, and even though the Russian woman assured me that it would work out fine, I was too nervous to cast on. But, I don't know - I didn't really see myself as a peach butterfly. I wanted to be a lilac butterfly.
So, I put away the peachy laceweight yarn for another day, and cast on in Lilac Zephyr -and I am now all set for both this knit-a-long, and the Amazing Lace. I'm about 3 repeats into the first chart, and I'm find it, well, a bit boring - this is the caterpillar part. I can't wait to get to the next chart!

Hope everyone's knitting is going well!

Hi, I'm Elizabeth from CT, and my yarn of choice is the dark purple suri alpaca from the Alpaca Company. So far I've gazed at it lovingly, taken pictures of it posed with the flowers, and contemplated winding it. If all goes according to plan, I'll start knitting this weekend.

I had to frog the whole thing! Well, I was only on row 27 but it still hurt. I dropped a stitch in one of the open laddery spots and it was just too obvious. I fiddled around for an hour trying to make it work but in the end I couldn't live with it so I ripped it out. This time I will be more careful.

I think I'm going to do a lifeline so this doesn't happen again. This is my first project of this type. How many rows should I do before I move the lifeline? 5, 10, 20? I don't want to be too obsessive.

I just wanted to stop by and say hi.
You should be seeing a photo of my shawl. It didn't work. Sorry about that. What can I say I'm a knitter not a computer person can't ya tell.
More knitting less grumbling. I started the 5th repeat. Icarus works up nice. If you click on Michelle I posted about it on my blog, there you can see the photo I wanted to put here. Maybe next time I'll be able to show you my work. Happy knitting.

icarus_1

Hi Everyone! My name is Kim and like Jennifer I chose the Jaggerspun 50% merino and 50% silk. This is the finest yarn I have ever knit with and I am having a little trouble getting used to it. I may need a little guidance from the more experienced lace knitter among you. But it's fun so far. I love the softness of the piece.

This is a Boring Post Without Pictures, because honestly, I couldn't think of any interesting things to do to make a picture of my progress look like anything other than a pathetic little shriveled thing. I think lace KALs are at a disadvantage, don't you? I mean, if you are knitting an aran or fair isle, it looks like Something while you're knitting it. But not lace. Lace looks like a poor beleaguered little pile until you have finished and blocked it and it becomes a swan.

Okay, now that I have the purple prose out of the way, here's my dilemma: I have a thing about the number 9. I want there to be 9 columns of yarn overs on my Icarus. There are 8 (my younger son's favorite number) in the pattern. Do I have enough yarn? I ran out of the first ball four rows shy of the last full repeat of rows 19-42. I suppose I could figure it out mathematically, but where's the fun in that?! ;) I'm using Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud, which has 440 yards per ball, so I have 880 total yards. What do y'all think?

In answer to previous comments:

Miriam wrote that straight needles hurt her wrists. I find myself getting more used to them. With the laceweight, I have it all scrunched down to the tips of the needles. So far, so good. :)

And Miriam and Eva both posted their Alpaca Cloud wrangling tips. Thank you! I've gotten more used to it and haven't been pulling off as much at a time. And I can add in one more tip: it doesn't seem to respond either to swearing or begging.

And Sarah, truer words were never spoken. I also am amazed I have killed neither myself nor anyone else with the straight needles. Yet.

So...Carol in NoVa, when do we get to see your pretty forest green Icarus? Hmmmmmmm? :)

Well, I'm off to try to enable some more victims friends into knitting Icarus. Hee.

Hello, everyone! I'm Emily, and I just thought I'd introduce myself, even though I don't have much progress to report. I have only finished 4 rows of the first chart. While I don't have pictures of my progress, I do have a picture of the yarn I'm using, Novita Kid Mohair.



Well, I'm off to go put the button on my blog!

Buttons!



I made a button for this KAL. You can find it in the sidebar. Please right click and save the image to your computer instead of hotlinking. Just in case you weren't already doing that. :) Show it off on your website and be the envy of all your friends.

If anyone else would like to make a button, feel free! I don't see any problem in a multi-button KAL.

Rosemary (Romi) here! Whew. My first blog post ever. Okay, so maybe I'm a little late to the whole blog party. :)

I received my IK this past weekend and was immediately in love with Icarus. (Lisa, if you are reading this, now is the time to avert your eyes.) So, of course, I went right to the stash and dug up some Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud in Sunlight.

Okay, so it's not a heavenly blue, but it was there and I was there, and there was no way I was going to wait to start! It doesn't really look much like sunlight to me, but it is a very pretty soft yellowy tan, so when I finally got over the name not fitting the color, I was very happy to have it. Two skeins. Perfect. I wound it into balls and started. Yikes. The first half of my progress was difficult until I got used to the tangles. Whew.


I don't know if all of the Alpaca Cloud is like this, but mine twists back on itself really badly and ties itself in knots. Gaaah! (I can hear Lisa saying that you get what you pay for; but, but but...it was already in my stash and I promise I've learned a lesson! I was saving your alpaca lace for another project. Honest!)

I started it on bamboo dpns and the bamboo was pretty nice with the alpaca! So, having no bamboo circs, I decided to knit it on straights. I've never used straight needles on lace before and I haven't used them for, um, years. They have a really different balance. A little difficult to get used to after using circs for so long. At any rate, here's my progress with the twisty twisty yarn. And yes, that *is* purple carpet. Hee.

Don't you love how lace looks like a shriveled piece of crap until it's blocked? It makes me want to knit faster so I can see how it will look. :) I've just finished the 4th repeat. I'm really wishing I'd used Kidsilk Haze in Heavenly. Maybe I'll do a second one...

Hi, I'm Jennifer and I'm here too. Here's the yarn I'm planning on using for my shawl (unless I change my mind and dye some). This is Jaggerspun in 50% silk/50% merino. It's nice to work with and I think the right weight for this pattern. I plan to cast on tonight. Who doesn't love a pattern where you only have to cast on 5!

Hmmm, for some strange reason I don't have a title bar to title my post...

Anyway, hi, I'm Kristi!

I finished Miriam's Seraphim shawl recently and knew right away that Icarus would be a nice progression. An easy first half or so that would give me a chance to adjust to lace weight yarn. So I waited with baited breath for the arrival of my summer IK. I had the yarn - Alapaca with a Twist's Fino (70/30 alpaca/silk) in Twilight (1002 if I remember correctly) that I gotten for my birthday last month.

When it arrived I didn't have US3 needles! A friend lent me US4s and talked me into knitting on those saying that I'm a tight knitter, but I'm undecided. I'm usually on gauge-wise and my friend almost always has to go down 1 or 2 sizes because she knits so loosely.

I've been mulling it over since Saturday night when I started it whether to continue or not... I'm not sure if I'm just not used to laceweight and how it looks unblocked or if I need to find money in my budget to purchase US3s... If that is the case it may have to wait until June. I think I'll probably run a life line and steam block it at this stage and see what I think before I knit any farther. I just haven't had time this week because I'm knitting like a mad woman for a baby shower for twins that will take place next Wednesday. It was a last minute thing for a woman in my water aerobics class.

I do love how this (and Seraphim) can be knit in front of the TV. Other lace shawls that I have started have languished due to the inability to either visit with DH or watch TV/movies with him. And, to those that don't know how to knit, these shawls are still very impressive!

:-) Kristi
http://blog.designedlykristi.com

Hmmmm...

Well I started on my icarus and I'm a bit worried.



Number one, I seem to have already screwed up. A few times. Well, not bad screw ups, but I seem to have twisted some stitches in the stockinette portion and they are screaming at me! And I am not so good at the dropping back to un-twist.

But my real worry is the boredom factor. I'm afraid making these rows is gonna put me to sleep. Of course I guess it's nice to be able to knit lace while watching Lost.

Oh and yeah. Hi! I'm Corrina (rincaro). My icarus is being worked on size 3 crystal palace needles in misti alpaca. Color #8105 which is listed as Periwinkle Blue. It's actually a very pale blue with hints of silver and lilac. But it's pretty. Reminds me of angel wings.

Hello, hello! I started Icarus over the weekend, and have been a bit obsessed with working on it ever since. I'm very glad to hear about this knitalong, because my husband is getting a little bored hearing me gush about the pattern. This is my first project using lace-weight yarn (it's Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud, color Horizon)--and it took experiments with four or five patterns before I found one that I could handle. The K7's are much more approchable than a busier pattern, and it's easy to see if I'm putting the yarn overs in the right place because of the simple diagonal lace lines. Hopefully by the time I hit the fancier edging I will not be intimidated by a more complicated chart!



I'm through the setup and two repeats of the last half of chart one--which seems like a lot, but I'm noticing the rows are getting longer! I think the next three repeats will take much more time.

I usually don't knit this fast, but my classes just finished a week ago, and I am enjoying the extra knitting time. Hopefully (for my wallet at least) I will find a job soon, and then the knitting will slow again.

Hi everyone! I'm Marie and this will be my first shawl. I was so excited about this pattern that I cast on as soon as I got home from the lys with the magazine and the yarn. Like Sarah, I'm also using Misti Baby Alpaca, though in the sea foam colorway. It's a lovely pale blue with a ting of green...somewhere between robin's egg blue and pale, pale teal. The color is actually a bit more intense than my camera was willing to replicate but in any case, here is my Icarus thus far: (don't mind the red thread that is my lifeline...)


I've made it to row 27 of chart 1 with only a slight mishap in stitch number (turned out I had just skipped a row, not forgotten to do a few YOs...). I'm really enjoying the knitting so far and am quite enthralled with how soft the yarn is. Immensely pettable.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's progress!

Hi there KALsters!

This is froggy_dear, your friendly hostess here. A couple things that I would like to say:

- I am so excited about this KAL. It's lovely to see all of you knitters knitting along with me. :)

-This is my first time coordinating a KAL and, really, my first time fussing around with Blogger. So if you have any suggestions or constructive criticism, I welcome it.

-I had the brilliant idea to start this KAL a couple of weeks before the end of the school year, so I am currently entrenched in schoolwork... just a little. I think I've kept up with those of you who've contacted me about joining. If you've emailed me, you should have recieved an invite and see your name in the sidebar. If I've missed you, please try again and forgive me. :)

-I know some of you don't have Blogger blogs, so I don't think you're able to post. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this. If you are one of those nonBlogger types and would like to post your progress, feel free to email the post to me and I'll pass it on. Edit: Miriam informs me that once you accept the invitation and create a log-in id, you can post! Hooray!


I think that's all on the business end of things.
--------------------

On the knitting front, I'm only at row 30. The first time through. This isn't helped by that pesky schoolwork and my tendency to be a multi-project knitter. I'm using white Alpaca With A Twist Fino - and I love it. It's so soft and lovely, but I am a sucker for alpaca.

Happy knitting!

Hi there! My name is jess, and I just started this shawl last night.

First, this was ripped out.



Lorna's Lace's Heaven, the shawl pattern on the band. I lost interest and lost count and this lovely yarn was lonely in the bottom of the bag next to the couch. Too horrible a fate for this loveliness.

Right now, it looks like this:



I forget the name of the color, but the top picture is reasonably close to accurate. Because of the mohair, I'm knitting on much larger needles, but I think it should work given that there is more yardage in the hank than called for in the pattern (though I may need to re-assess as I get closer to the fancy part on the edge.)

I'm excited to see everyone's progress!

My name is Sarah. I live in Arizona where there is not much of a need for knitted sweaters BUT shawls, now those you can use.

Here is the beginning of my Icarus in Misti Alpaca lace weight yarn.

She is destined to my Mom in Minnesota for Christmas.

The pattern is going along swimmingly, at least it was until my little boy (age 3.5) decided to pull the needle out of about 25ish stitches. However, I was able to get her back on track.

I am loving this pattern. Now that I "get" the body pattern, I should be able to knit it without a lot of concentration.

BTW, I am addicted to lace. I finally mastered lace on lace weight yarn so I feel a bit lost when I don't have lace on the needles in some form.

Looking forward to everyone's progress!

Hi there! I'm Madam and I stink at lace, but I was very intrigued by the Icarus pattern. I had barely asked my good pal Froggy if she'd seen the pattern before she told me about this KAL, so I thought I'd join and give lace knitting one more try. My previous attempts ended in disaster: the Mystery Stole (had a terrible time trying to figure out what it was supposed to be like... but the yarn turned into Froggy's gorgeous Feather and Fan shawl, so yay!) and Eunny Jang's Print o' the Wave Stole (despite her patient assistance, I doomed myself by losing count and moving my stitch markers where I shouldn't).

I have high hopes for this one, though :) I'll be using the same yarn I was using for Eunny's stole, which is a watery greeny-bluey mix (laceweight wool from Woolgatherers) that I got from my SP several months ago. It's so pretty that I KNOW it'll look lovely... once I get it going.

So hello, and I'm glad to be here.

P.S. If anyone hasn't seen this before, I found a triangular shawl percentage calculator at Rose-Kim Knits (in the sidebar -- it's an Excel file). If you know how to make it appear in a little bar down the side of your blog, you're one step ahead of me, but it's a start :)

Hi all, my name is Inky and i'm a KAL-a-holic. Well, not really, but I did join the Seraphim KAL, but i'm almost done with that shawl. I've been impatiently waiting for Icarus and I can't wait to start it. Because I'm on a yarn "pause" I would like to either use some blood red laceweight merino that was a Secret Pal 7 gift, or I have some wine colored Shadow from knitpicks that would work as well. Or....I could break down and get some Zephyr silk/wool. They have some lovely colors. What to do, what to do?

The designer of the Icarus Shawl has passed along a couple of bonus photos of the original Icarus. So lovely....

Full length


Point detail

Welcome to the Icarus Shawl KAL!

The pattern can be found in the summer issue of Interweave Knits.

There is no specified start time and no specifed end time for this knitalong. It's more of just a place where we can hang out and show off what we're doing and get the opinions of others.

If you would like to join this KAL, please send an email including your email address, your blog address, and your name (or how you want to be identified on the webpage) to froggy_dear at hotmail dot com.

Thanks!