Shawl and Birthday Update

Here's the birthday girl on her one year anniversary!

She was very excited about her new present, but it didn't take her much over 20 minutes to tear the top of the head, so she had to forfeit her gift until a bit of sewing can be done.

The shawl I have been designing progressed with fits and starts. It seems to be turning into a garden motif.

After an unpromising start in the upper back (bottom of the picture), I decided to go more geometric. There are three basic motifs, plus triangular insets at either side to allow for the increase of stitches on the sides.

There is a chevron motif, a leaf motif in the  center and a (vaguely) rose on a stalk kind of motif. The leaf motif gave me trouble yesterday and I had to redo the whole right side section (where the needles can be seen emerging on the upper left.)

This is a detail of the rose on a stalk section and has what has made me decide to call it the Rose Trellis shawl.

Happy Birthday, Aimee!

Happy birthday, Aimee!

Queen of the Mountain!

One year old today!

Experimentation

After having knitted so many other people's patterns, I decided I would play with making my own. Although it looks exactly like Myra Wood's free form lace, it isn't really. I actually drew up a plan and hoped that I would produce something organic and curvy.

The product however is less than pleasing to me. It looks very eratic and poorly planned.

Here is a larger version done with a flash. You can see the beads better and the "pattern".  The cabled movements of stitches to broaden the swing of the ssk / knit two together lines has not worked too well, and I will have to figure out another way to do this (Maybe try it on the purled row instead of the pattern row.)

I guess I still have a long way to go to become a Herbert Niebling:

Shawl Progress

So, I managed to catch the cold that is going around, so I am mostly sleeping and doing a little TV watching and knitting here and there.  Here is the progress on my shawl.  It was getting so large by clue 4 that I decided I would have to skip clue 5 and 6 and move on to 7,8,9 and 10 (because  it would have been more than 6 feet long after blocking if I had knit all the clues.)

Here is a closer view of the current pattern, which I am having to modify since it doesn't line up right anymore with the other motives.

You can see the beads a little better here. I put typing paper under parts of the shawl to show off the pattern a bit better.

Surprise package From Japan

What a wonderful surprise! We received a gift package from Japan and it was full of the most delightful treasures!  Don opened the box carefully in case a giant snake might jump out at him.

But there was no snake, thank goodness, there were delicious treats and toys!

Here are just a few of the exciting treats we received from our friends in Tokyo: Hajime, Naomi, Atsushi and Miki.

And best of all, all the treats were wheat and gluten free, so Don could enjoy them! The ones below were so rich and creamy - they just dissolved in your mouth!

These were crunchy:

This is the Japanese version of the gum drop, but their fruit flavors really taste like fruit and each drop is carefully molded into a tiny little fruit shape.

The rice crackers below were Don's favorite. They have a little bite to them and we think they are seasoned with persimmon seed. They came in a beautiful tin.

And these were my favorite. The Japanese make all kinds of wonderful sugared beans. These are fava beans that were absolutely delectable!

Here is a picture of the contents of the box. Some of the treats weren't edible, like the very useful back scratcher and the bamboo foot massager! The massager works really great! We also got an antenna pen and some white out (which I never have enough of around here!). I wonder if my friends got tired of seeing all my words that were scratched out in my cards to them! (smile).

The absolute best part of the package, though, was not useful or tasty, because it fed the soul. It was art. Our friends Hajime and Naomi had produced beautiful drawings for us.

This one from Naomi had a thank you message written in English.

Hajime's was a gorgeous seascape with fish and a really impressive eel.

Unfortunately the camera did not pick up the fineness of the details. Here is a closer shot, so you can see the eel and sea urchin a bit better.

On the back of Naomi's thank you note, she drew a lovely portrait of Don and me. She also appears showing us her expertise in ballet.

The place of honor in every American home is well known to parents. Our new pictures now greet us everyday where we can see them and have happy memories of our visit with our wonderful friends.

Yet another shawl update - still clue 3

Here is the Panama shawl as it now stands. Progress is slow and I still have 8 more rows of clue 3 to do! (Click on the images to enlarge as they are rather hard to see in detail).

You can start to see what I am calling the flower motif developing below. There is a yellow/gold bead in the center of each flower, but against the wood floor they are pretty much impossible to see.

Here are a couple of detail shots to show the pattern a bit better.

The copper beads show up much better in real life!

Here is the Panama shawl as it now stands. Progress is slow and I still have 8 more rows of clue 3 to do!

Panama Shawl Halfway through Clue 3

Here are a few shots of the shawl as it now stands (Halfway through the third clue).

I've ordered a longer cable for my needles. Unfortunately I can't stretch the shawl out any more because it has gotten so big.  I have a feeling I won't do all ten clues, because the shawl would be too big.

It is hard to see, but I am now using two different colors of bead.

The bottom motif is like a little flower or tulip. I put gold beads in the middle of the flower. The copper color beads are at the points of the diamonds.

Beads

Here is a picture to show how the beads are lining up (ahem).  You can't see them that well, but they are really shiny and pretty in  real life.

Started Over

Here is the progress on the restarted Panama Shawl - I wasn't happy with the apparent mistakes in the first effort.

This is the first clue (above). I decided to put the beads in a different place this time around. Here is midway through clue 2:

Here is a close-up of the beading.

Here is a side by side comparison of the old (right) with the new (left).

Mario Mystery Shawl

Panama Shawl

I ripped out a few rows of my shawl yesterday so I could put some beads in my Panama shawl to brighten it up a bit.  The designer is German and I think the idea of Panama is something warm and colorful and of course I chose a mousy brown boring yarn. The beads I chose are an orangey color to make things seem a bit warmer.

You can hardly see them in the picture above, so here is a closer view. The beads are much brighter than they appear in the picture.

State of the Parts

I  decided to just bind off the edge - It turns out the yarn is no longer available and I'm down to one tiny skein per sleeve - I may have to do miniature cap sleeves or do the sleeves i a different color.

Can't decide what to do about it yet.

For the first time in my life I'm caught up with a Knit along!! Finished Clue 1 earlier today. This is a very interesting shawl design, but it takes a lot of concentration!

New Shawl Project

So, I started my Mario Mystery Shawl knit along today - even though I couldn't find a heavier yarn like I wanted for the project.

My beads are also too big for the project - but they were what I could find.

It probably is figural, but I don't know what it is yet.