Tag Archives: bookmark

Pictures, pictures everywhere

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I finally finished my lace bookmark for the Knitted Lace bookmark exchange. I blocked it last night, and it should be going out in the mail today. I used the diagonal lace pattern from Barbara Walker’s 1st treasury.


This was my first time adding beads to my knitting. It was an interesting experiment… trying to figure out which side of the stitch a bead had to be on to get it to show the way I wanted. I think it might be fun to try this pattern again, but putting the beads in the design… so they follow the diagonal.


The Sister Shawl is progressing and looks to be done in about a week… well, at least the main body of the shawl. Then, I need to do the lace border. I’m on row 96 and can currently get about 4 rows done in 2 hours. I plan on working on it tonight, trying to get to at least row 100. Then, I have a whole bunch of free time this weekend during which I hope to get at least one repeat section (16 rows) done.


I was very happy to come home last night and find not one, but two packages waiting for me. One package was from Inspirations Yarn containing my Surprise Sock Kit. I chose the warm colorway, which got me a really pretty coppery brown yarn.


The other package was from an eBay purchase I made… a pretty purplely and silvery superwash roving. I’m thinking socks… I like socks.

Do I have to go back?

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Back at work after a beautiful week off… if only the week had been longer… but we can’t have the week adding on extra days just for me, other people might get jealous… or pissed if they have to work. The unfortunate thing of the week off was I have come to realize that I need at least a month off from both work and school. The nervous twitch in my left eye actually went away for a couple of days; it was back this morning. *sigh*

I didn’t really get any knitting done… I finished my bookmark, so now I need to block it. I guess it will get into the mail eventually. I did get the spinning for my sister-in-law’s Christmas gift done… approximately 118 yards of fingering weight romney. I think I need to practice the whole spinning bigger. I’ve gotten damn good at spinning lace weight, which means I can’t spin anything else. Maybe if I got a lazy kate… just spin lots of lace weight singles and start making 3…5… 8-ply yarn… I’d be spinning forever in order to get anywhere.

Anyways, the yarn came out pretty nice; now I need to dye it. I don’t know my sister-in-law very well, so I have no idea what colors she likes. I was thinking of going with a green blue combo… everyone likes green and blue, right? Now to find a time my husband won’t be mad at me for making the whole apartment smell like vinegar and wet sheep.

Did I really say I didn’t get much knitting done a couple paragraphs ago? I did, look at that. *groan* I actually did work on the Sister Shawl at Thanksgiving. I can’t believe I forgot… especially since knitting seems to be one of the few ways I can impress my family. Knitted lace seems to truly amaze them, and it rocks my socks that it’s my skill they’re impressed with. I think it’s funny that my mother has told me more than once, “We never thought you’d be one to knit.” What she did think I’d do, I have no clue.

Sadly, knitting will be laid by the wayside for most of this week unless I need a stress break. Must get to work on the 15-20 page paper that is due come Saturday. Most of the work is reading all the articles and books I’ve been collecting… should have gotten started on it over the weekend, but laying around in my pajamas for a few days made me feel better. I’m such a procrastinator. At least I’m getting better… a couple years ago as an undergrad I would have just begun looking for sources right about now.

Now you know why I didn’t become a computer programmer*

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I fiddled with the math some more cause something didn’t seem right, but all is well. My math:

1 leaf pattern repeat = 16 rows

16 rows knitted = 1.5 inches = 10.67 rows/inch

16 rows blocked = 2 inches = 8 rows/inch

To get 18 inches in length with a blocked gauge of 8 rows/inch = 144 rows

144 rows at 10.67 rows/inch gauge = 13.5 inches

Of course, there is the fiddly little issue of wondering if my gauge swatch is over blocked. The lace is opened beautifully… but looks a little flat… I don’t know if this means I over-stretched it or if it’s because it’s a 5 inch gauge swatch.

“Bah!” I say. Maybe I should take a break and work on my lace bookmark that needs to get into the mail by the end of the month. I want to try something with beads… so I will need to plan a trip to the bead store. I going to go simple for the lace pattern itself; I’m planning on using the Diagonal Maderia Lace pattern from Barbara Walker’s Treasury of Knitting Patterns. I’m thinking of adding a bead at each yo after a sl1-k2tog-psso… the beads should then sort of underline the diagonal lines. The yarn I’m using is a pretty french blue color… so I need to figure out if I want lighter beads… darker beads… or something completely contrasting.

*I couldn’t get passed the 3rd semester of calculus, and I didn’t even want to try the 2nd semester of physics. I understand theories… they make perfect sense… it’s the implementation of them (especially in relation to exams) that I have trouble with.