Shawl Emergency

It finally happened to me. A hole appeared in my shawl. I always thought this was one of those things that happens to everyone else, but not me. Never me. Well, here it is. My Shetland Garden Shawl got an owie somehow and it showed up in the blocking stage. Ow, ow, ow. Doesn't it hurt just to look at that hole?


I put the shawl away for a couple of weeks to let my feelings settle. I knew it had to be fixed. Furthermore, I knew I could probably fix it. But sometimes it takes courage to step up to the plate.

Today I did surgery on my shawl. See the clean sheet underneath her? Here is a closeup of the damage.


And a closer-up, pointed the way the shawl was knitted this time (top-down). I picked up the live stitches and placed them on a double pointed needle. Yay... just three stitches to be fixed! It could have been a lot worse.


I was able to follow the chart and just knit that baby right back up. Phew!


After it was done, I had one live stitch, which I anchored with a spare piece of shawl yarn and wove the ends into the back of the shawl. I think it's almost undetectable now (hint... it was the middle leaf).

All congratulations gratefully accepted. May your shawls never sprout holes...

No Sheep for Me

Last Monday I showed up at Three Bags Full to teach a lace class and what did I see????



Be warned... this is going to be a shameless plug for the new book, No Sheep for You by Amy Singer, just out from Interweave Press.

If you haven't yet heard about it, this book is a compendium of gorgeous projects, none of which contain wool or animal fibers. Which leaves... let's see... silk, cotton, bamboo, linen, soy, tencel, and probably lots more that I am forgetting. Glorious stuff, right? Right.

I happen to have a piece in this book, the River Rock Scarf. The pictures below won't be in the same colorway or have the same beads, but I hope you can get a good idea.





Yarn: Silken by Handmaiden. Beads: 6/0 Matte silver lined gold beads. Design: My own.

This design is based on a simple 2x2 rib with a little lace openwork at the edges. The scarf is meant to be like a freely running river with beads simulating the little rocks that interrupt the stream from time to time. It is freeform in that you can place your "rocks" anywhere you please, and put in as many as you like. For those who like to follow a pattern, I have included a plan that will give you rocks just like the one pictured in the book (which will be different from this one...every one I have made has been quite different from the others. Lots of room to play in this design!)

River Rock Scarf. In the book, No Sheep for You. Play in your river...

The Squares Have It

Thanks to all who responded about my square/triangle conundrum. The squares have it! As a matter of fact, the center square of the shawl is finished, now on to picking up stitches for the border and knitting in the round - yay! I am just putting off knitting on this for today so I can use the shawl as it is to demo adding on a new ball with Russian Join for my lace knitting class tomorrow night. I normally find this join just a little fussy but it will be perfect for the sea silk I am using for the shawl.

Want to see a crumpled up piece of knitted lace? Here 'tis so far...



I like what the ivory sea silk is doing - kind of pooling but so subtly that it looks like sand dunes. I don't know if the sheen of the yarn comes through the photo, but it is really really nice. I am kind of hooked on this project even though I have several others I could/should be working on...

Well, actually I am working on one other thing, a scarf based on the Gothic Leaf Stole that I re-configured for the new lace knitting classes I am teaching now.

Want to see a semi-crumpled up piece of knitted lace?


I blocked out the scarf after the first three repeats to demo blocking out a swatch for the class, then just kept going. To tell the truth, I am becoming quite enamored of crumpled up lace knitting. See what I mean? So organic, and the beads are fascinatingly random in their crumpled state too.


I think a crumpled lace project may be coming soon...

For your information, the yarn used for this lace scarf is Sweet Georgia Yarn's merino superwash sock yarn in the afterglow colorway. Beads are silver lined crystal megatamas from Earth Faire, placed in with a crochet hook as I knit.

Thanks to a very generous knitting friend, I now have sock blockers for the very first time! I finished the second Journey Cable Sock last night and washed the pair. Now they are very happily resting on Smokey Jo Sock Blockers from chappy, who makes these at home with her husband in a multitude of sizes and patterns. I am now a convert to using them as they do smooth out your socks and make them dry faster too. Please go and give her online store a peek.

In the meantime, here are the socks:


Journey Cable Socks. Pattern to be published soon.

Bloggers (silent) poetry reading

In honor of poets, long may they inspire... This is one of my all-time favorite poems, and I think the reason I have always loved handpainted yarn, and any art inspired by the inner spirit of nature. Enjoy... Pied Beauty
by Gerard Manley Hopkins
Glory be to God for dappled things-- For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow; For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim; Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings; Landscape plotted and pieced--fold, fallow, and plough; And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim. All things counter, original, spare, strange; Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?) With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim; He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change: Praise Him. This is part of the Second Annual Brigid in Cyberspace Silent poetry reading. Please join in...

Pink Eyed Lady of the Morning

I am sick, y'all. This came about because I boasted to people that I haven't been sick in ages and ages. Instant karma, whammo. Now, I am in coughy, wheezy, sneezy, drippy-ville. We're just having lots of fun.

But there is some news on the knitting front. This swatch will soon become a shawl. It is now formulated as a square, but the thought entered my foggy brain last night that it might be better as a triangle, not a hard transition to make... a triangle is half a square, right? Please give me your comments on this. I shouldn't have to rely on my own judgement right now... have pity.



Yarn: Handmaiden Sea Silk, ivory colorway. Potential title: Norwegian Woods (see the little branches in the middle section and the leafy edges?

Whaddya say... square or triangle?

Beautiful Butterscotch

...Cables, that is:



Yarn: Louet Gems Sportweight, handpainted by Indigo Moon, a local and very talented dyer, Needles: 2.75 mm
Design: My own

Beautiful yarn does inspires me!

I gave today...

and a nice, round $284.00 is now in the hands of MSF! Thank you to all who contributed. I am so proud of our little group fundraiser.

Now to answer a comment that was left a while ago under the post about my Mooshie and his yarn-bringing obsession... yes, I am extremely careful not to allow him to chew on yarn. I am very aware of the dangers of yarn twisting around a cat's insides and the thought horrifies me.

Fortunately, both my husband and myself work from home so we can watch him pretty much all the time (we don't go out much), and I don't leave tantalizing bits and bobs of yarn lying around, believe it or not. Moosh pretty much just likes to carry yarn balls around in his mouth, and deposit them in certain places. That seems to be the main thrill. And he does have lots of regular toys other than yarn. In case you wondered.

Awwwww...

Thank you for all the nice comments about the FOs. I am pretty happy about them myself! Today I am getting some sock samples done for the class on Monday. This class will be teaching heels and gussets, so I am doing one sock down to the start of the heel flap, and one sock down to the heel turn.

The yarn is my lovely mediumweight Rare Gem from the lovely folks at Blue Moon Fiber Arts, makers of Socks that Rock and purveyors of the Rockin' Sock Club. If you haven't yet heard about the events that these ladies have been going through for the last couple of weeks, please read about it here and here and here. They have now updated their website and are open and ready for business, so please support them. Their sock yarn is legendary, and they are absolute peaches.

Knitting has happened

And we are pleased.


The beaded brocade sock. In its just finished state. With what was left of the ball of koigu. I was nervous all the way up to the end.

Closeup of beaded pattern.


The Shetland Garden in Nature’s Palette seafoam, she is done.

Giving is getting

The yarn is all spoken for! Thank you, each and every one of you, worthy knitters!

The contribution tally is still being counted as a few packages have yet to be sent, but I am one happy little camper tonight...

And as for proof that giving is getting (as if the good vibes from this weekend's charity event weren't enough!), I went to a benefit this weekend that was actually a sale of yarn and books from a knitting friend who recently and very sadly to me, passed away. One of these books is one that I have been looking for for ages, and thought I would have to pay dearly for, Tudor Roses. Yet there it was, waiting for me as if it was a gift directly from my friend to me. It shall be treasured. Finding that book was enough to keep me sailing along yesterday and today. Small things like that speak big in my world.

Somehow I feel as if the yarn I let go of this weekend "made room" for the universe to bring me this new gift. Makes me want to let go of more and more...

Thanks to you, and you, and you...

Knitting content promised soon.

No Time Like the Present

... to join our charity yarn sale event!

You can get involved by choosing yarn and making a donation to Knitters without Borders, a division of Medicine without Borders. All you have to do is:

1. Email me that you want a particular yarn (with your email address so I can get back to you about your purchase) at the following address: siviaharding AT shaw DOT ca (replace the AT and DOT with symbols).

2. I will email you the cost of shipping your yarn to you, and you ADD your donation cost to this amount.

3. Paypal this amount to the above email address, or tell me the amount and I will send you an invoice. You will need to have a Paypal account already in place for this to happen smoothly.

4. I will be mark the yarn(s) you want as "sold" so make sure you want your choice!

I am offering very nice yarns from my private stash. I am donating the boxes/handling/my time. ALL proceeds will be going to charity. Please be generous in your donations. A report will be posted on this blog, and will be sent to Yarn Harlot, who by the way thinks this is a great idea! Let's prove her right!

Now for the good stuff... please click on photos for full descriptions.


*Gone*


*Spoken for*


* Tencel is spoken for*


*Shimmer is spoken for*


*Noro Shinano is spoken for*


*Gone*


*Gone*


*Gone*


*Big purple skein is spoken for*


*Spoken for*


*Gone*


*Gone*


*Spoken for*


*Gone*


*Merinos Lamé is spoken for*


*Gone*


*Gone*


*Gone*


*Gone*


*Pink vintage yarn is spoken for*


*Gone*


*Spoken for*


*Spoken for*


*Gone*


*Gone*


*Spoken for*


*Gone*


*Spoken for*


*Spoken for*


*Gone*


*Gone*


*Ambrosia is spoken for*


*Spoken for*


*Gone*






*Gone*