Fresh out of the blocking pins is my Lacymmetry shawl reveal. It’s come through an antique flax wheel, madder dye bath, and knitting with 4 posts here on the Knit Knack, phew!
Wireless headphones on during Ty’s ‘quiet time,’ and I was smiling along to Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn’s music. More solid FO pictures may yet happen but this was a busy weekend and now we are getting our roof replaced.
The dots of shine in the larger lace holes (double yarnovers) are the gold 8/2 Miyuki beads that I mentioned in my post last month. In this design they are on 1 side of the asymmetrical triangle.
While still pinning the wet shawl on my mats, Ty came in, approved & added, “… it’s just like a pizza slice!” Kiddo sees negative space as pattern!
The beads are the cheese, and the big holes are the pepperoni.
Ty, age 7
Project is forever to be a.k.a. irieknit’s Handspun Lacymmetry aka Pizza Slice shawl.
In the last beading stitch, I used a ceramic starfish. It is pink and sits to the upper left of this image.
It took around 1.5 hours to secure the wet shawl in this hard blocking. The triangle type is different from the pattern sample for 2 reasons. First, I ran out of yarn with more than the recommended stitches remaining to the left of my marker. Those vertical stripes changed things. Second, I blocked for depth and did not match the pattern’s schematic.
Blocked to this obtuse type of triangle my Lacymmetry is a similar width at 61″ and much deeper at 49.5″ compared to Naomi Parkhurst’s sample. I used all of my yarn at around 646 yards. The pattern sample uses less at 610 yards.
Working with one-of-a-kind handspun also changed the ‘pepperoni’ side’s edge. In the grips of yarn chicken, I did a basic cast-off. It is straight and not scalloped as a result.
Handknit love: a handspun baby gift
A little over a half of the Mother of Dragons BFL yarn (mid-September 2018 TKK post in link) is for a bouncing baby boy cousin.
With 3.5 mm needles, I had 5 stitches per 1″ of garter. It was a big decision to use this yarn. Knitting a gift is a personal dicey affair for me the knitter with millspun let alone handspun yarn.
The subtle shift of the blues in Mandie’s colourway that I spun as a 3-ply yarn more than convinced me that this was a great use of my yarn. The new parents of baby E are thrilled but maybe on less geeky grounds!
Knits mostly but also some handwoven for babies/ kids has spanned the last decade here. Responses are all over the map, and I found there is nothing for it but to make them when prompted to make. Four days of avid knitting, more to get a card + cute HBC mitts for these US-based folks, packaging, pictures together and all for a baby you wish dearly to outgrow the jacket. It’s bananas!
When the parents weren’t really staying in your circle anyway (e.g. last December kid’s wool hat effort, sigh) the heart of it is that a little person has value added in the hands to use for that time of their childhood. If not lost & preserved for the memory of it as well. That’s the point. You hope for more but know it’s fleeting at best.
Let go; make more!
