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)

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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.