Minati's Girasole

My third Girasole has been a year in the making. Last April, when I posted pictures of my second Girasole, my online friend Minati asked if I'd be interested in making a black one for her in exchange for some handmade jewerly (she can make all kinds of awesome things out of metal and other materials). I said I'd consider it, but knowing how promising to knit something specific usually makes it feel more like a chore than a relaxing pastime, I said there was no guarantee. After I made the decision to knit 12 shawls in 2012, I figured it makes sense to combine these two plans, so I asked her what kind of yarn she would prefer. She said she would like it to be delicate, something she could wear to a fancy restaurant, which made me turn to something luxorious and laceweight. I had just ordered some yarns from the Cassiopeia line at Pigeonroof Studios' Etsy shop, and figured the delicate merino/cashmere/silk blend would be perfect for this purpose. She didn't have any available in black, but I asked her if she could custom-dye two skeins for me, and she did, in one of her regular colorways called Soot.

The actual knitting started in mid-February, and I've been working on it a little bit here and there, along with some other projects. I've been moving away from the monomaniac knitting of just one project from start to finish to a more relaxed and varied pace, with my time divided between several projects in various stages of completion. I never thought of myself as a "promiscuous" knitter, but so far I'm enjoying it. I don't as easily get sick of one project if I can switch to another one for a while and then get back to it again.

I think I prefer the Girasole in a laceweight and drapy yarn like this. If I ever knit a fourth one, which isn't out of the question, it's definitely going to be laceweight. After the third time of knitting this, I still think it is a genius pattern. It's easier than it looks, while never boring (except maybe at the end of the edging). Before you get bored of repeating one stitch pattern, it moves on to the next section. Each round is easily memorized, so you don't have to be looking at the pattern all the time.

The Ravelry project page

Nuvem

1559 meters of yarn and thousands of simple knit stitches turned into this delightfully modern shawl. It's basically a very simple pattern, Nuvem by Martina Behm, and the challenge comes from the sheer number of stitches, not from complexity. The size and construction also require more needle than your average shawl. It's started from the middle with Judy's Magic cast-on, which I did with two 40" (roughly 100 cm) circular needles. When the narrow ends were rounded enough, I switched to just one 40" needle, which was just enough until the beginning of the ruffle, which doubles the amount of stitches. At that point I switched to a ridiculous 80" (about 205 cm) circular needle which I custom ordered from Signature Needle Arts some months ago when I first started planning on this project. That many stitches meant that each round of the ruffle took about 1½ hours to complete, and the bind-off took almost 3 hours. Moving the stitches around that kind of a circumference started to be a bit of a drag, literally. I think a stiffer and more slippery cable would have been better suited for this purpose, but it was manageable.

The yarn is Wollmeise Lacegarn, a turquoise skein labelled Neptun dark under the We're Different sticker. The shawl took up most of the 300 gram skein with just 8 grams remaining. Tackling the 1600 meters of yarn in one single skein was a challenge on its own. I managed to wind it into one solid cake, but barely. The plastic yarn winder was making some sounds of protest, and, when tightly wound, the skein almost touched the yarn guide in the end. After that experience I placed an order for a more heavy-duty winder to cater to my growing collection of Wollmeise Lacegarn.

The Ravelry project page

Herbivore

Neither my favorite knitting experience nor favorite finished item, but the third shawl qualifying for the 12 shawls in 2012 challenge is finally done. I wasn't aware until I started Stephen West's Herbivore pattern how many purls through back loop it would require. Purling through back loop is one of my least favorite things in knitting, so I worked on this only a couple of rows at a time, in between working on other projects, which is why such a small shawl took over a month to finish. Since the usual way of doing a ptbl is practically impossible for me to perform, what I do instead is first twist the stitch on the left needle and then purl it the regular way.

At least I finally found a way to knit up the madelinetosh tosh sock I received from a sock yarn club last year. Of the three shipments in that club, this was the only one I could imagine knitting with, even though it, either, is not exactly something I would choose to buy myself. Based on that experience I made a decision that it's probably better for me not to take part in similar surprise yarn clubs in the future. As if I already didn't know it, I'm quite picky about certain things, of which one is yarn. I generally don't care for variegated yarn, and especially not self-patterning yarn, and I'm also particular about the kind of colors I like to knit with. Surprisingly, though, I have yet to be disappointed in the yarn in Wollmeise grab bags, but with those I'm at least able to specify I want semi-solid colors.

The Ravelry project page