Finished Frost Flowers and Leaves!

And here's my finished shawl (the silver thing at the bottom is a 12-inch ruler):


Here's the usual closeup:


The specs:
Pattern: Frost Flowers and Leaves from Gathering of Lace
Needle: Size 6
Yarn: Lane Borgeosesia Baruffa Cashwool; 2 skeins, so under 2920 yards, light blue
Size: about 70 inches by 70 inches (in other words, really, really big!)

I've wanted to do this shawl ever since I got the book Gathering of Lace. So, I've finally finished it. I started it at the end of October and finished yesterday, so it took about 4 months. It was a repetitive knit, but not so much that I could do it completely mindlessly. I did really have to pay attention to where I was. I love it as I usually do. I still need to sew in some ends which I should be able to do tonight at my weekly sit 'n' knit.

So Close!

I was getting exasperated at how slowly FF&L was growing and I was planning to start a series of pictures (thanks to a conversation with Chris) of a "ghost shawl". I was going to drape it over objects and demonstrate how very slowly it was growing. Then all of a sudden it started growing at an alarming rate.

I have just four rows left before beginning the edging. Just four more rows. I'll get some really good pictures when it's all done and blocked out which shouldn't be long now. Unless, of course, our Xbox gets returned to us soon. Oh, I may have forgotten to mention that the reason so much knitting has been done is because I've been bored out of my mind because the stupid cd drive on the stupid Xbox decided to break and it had to go in for repairs I've been taking a break from the Xbox. It is truly amazing to realize how many hours I've wasted enjoyed in the land of Oblivion and Halo 3.

WIP Wednesday

Yes, I've been out of blogland for a while. It's not that I haven't been knitting; it's that the knitting doesn't look much different.

As much as I keep knitting on Frost Flowers and Leaves, it just doesn't seem to grow. Okay, it actually does grow, just very slowly. Anyway, that's what I've mostly been working on. Doesn't really make for great blogging when it just looks the same week after week though.

I've also been spinning a bit, but it's also going pretty slowly. As it's going to be a two-ply laceweight, that's not a big surprise. And because it's black (along with reds and purples) I can only really work on it when it's sort of sunny outside so I can see what I'm doing. That's not going to be today since it's cloudy with a possibility of bad weather.

I'll try to hang out in blogland a little more and catch up on some blog reading!

WIP Wednesday - Frost Flowers

I moved Frost Flowers and Leaves to a 60" cable last night and I'm able to stretch it out a little more to get a picture today.

It's really going to be pretty. I'm enjoying the pattern now. Parts of it are fairly easy to memorize, but the pattern really does need to be handy because of little tricky parts. The yarn is Lane Borgosesia Cashwool which is the same yarn I used for Cap Shawl (both purchased from The Loopy Ewe. It really is a nice and soft yarn.

As for the percentage done, I'm not stupid enough to go and figure that out again. I did that with Cap Shawl and it just served to discourage me. Let's just say, I know I've got a long way to go and it's easier to plug away at it than figuring it out.

Happy Halloween!

This is Witch Hazel. She says hi.

I crocheted her about 12 years ago for Halloween and she sits out front every year with her cauldron full of candy.

Sunday night I started a new project and Monday morning we woke up to the first frost of the season. How appropriate that the new project is Frost Flowers and Leaves?

It's not that it's a difficult pattern, but it certainly requires full attention. Lots of yarnovers and knit togethers in weird places. I know it looks white in the picture, but it's actually a very light blue.