Frost Flower & Leaves (after blocking)

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STATS: Frost Flowers & Leaves
Pattern: Frost Flowers & Leaves from the book, A Gathering of Lace
Time: Start - Sept 25, 2005 // Finish - Feb 02, 2006 (about 4 1/2 months)
Yarn: Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud, Peppermint --> not quite 4 hanks
Needles: Circular, size 3 US, (3.25mm) using a variety of lengths (16", 24", 29", and 40"); Inox for the first 3 lengths & Addi Turbos for the 40"
Cast-On: Magic Loop
Chart 2 Pattern Repeats: FIVE
Edging: Pattern change - right cable rather than wrapped stitch
Dimensions: 51" x 51"

Frost Flowers & Leaves - FINISHED!!!

As the header suggests, I have finished the FF&L shawl. It took a little less than 4 hanks of KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud and a little less than 4 1/2 months. The picture below is the shawl before blocking. It currently measure about 37" x 37". I'll probably do the blocking this weekend.



STATS: Frost Flowers & Leaves
Pattern: Frost Flowers & Leaves from the book, A Gathering of Lace
Time: Start - Sept 25, 2005 // Finish - Feb 02, 2006 (about 4 1/2 months)
Yarn: Knitpicks Alpaca Cloud, Peppermint --> not quite 4 hanks
Needles: Circular, size 3 US, (3.25mm) using a variety of lengths (16", 24", 29", and 40"); Inox for the first 3 lengths & Addi Turbos for the 40"
Cast-On: Magic Loop
Chart 2 Pattern Repeats: FIVE
Edging: Pattern change - right cable rather than wrapped stitch

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As far as what to work on next: I have a pair of Jungle Stripes socks OTN that I have not worked on because I was enjoying the FF&L shawl way too much to stop... So, I'll work on those for a while until next Friday, when I'll begin the Flower Basket Shawl for the Knitting Olympics. I'm going to use KnitPicks Essential sock weight yarn in dusk.

The Home Stretch (no pun intended)==>FF&L

I'm on the home stretch, the last side of the edging, fast approaching THE END... All that will be left is the "stretch" part - the blocking. I should complete the knitting by the end of this week, I would think, barring any major catastrophe. Then I'll have to figure out how to block this thing. I'm really not looking forward to that, as I am not that great at blocking.

Edging Along on Frost Flowers & Leaves

I am busy knitting away on the edging...still. I've reached the halfway mark. Hooray!!! The edging is extremely relaxing to knit - it just takes a tremendous amount of time. I'm guessing it will probably take me about 2 more weeks to finish up unless I miraculously get a huge chunk of time in which to knit (which I very much doubt). I started with a full hank of the Alpaca Cloud so it will be interesting to see if it will get me through the entire edging or if I will need to start a 2nd one.




The inspection committee was out in full force this morning...

Jazzy In-a Bag

Someone stole my knitting bag. Who can it be??? Well, it's my deliciously cute knitting buddy, Jazz-Purr -- my sweet, sweet devonrex.









Here's a picture of the edging for the FF&L shawl. I just completed the first side, and considering the fact that this is a square shawl, that means I am 25% of the way through.




I joined today. Opening ceremonies begin 02.10.06 and the games will last for 16 days. I chose to compete in the Flower Basket Shawl marathon. That means I have to begin, complete AND block the shawl in 16 days in order to be a contender. Let the games begin.....!

Edging for FF&L

I am now working on the edging for the Frost Flowers & Leaves shawl. If I calculated correctly, the edging will take about 21,600 stitches. For the rows where you are suppoed to PU a stitch for the wrap, I am doing a cable instead. I did the wrap stitch, but this did not look as clean as I wanted it to so I switched to a cable. This does not look that great either, but hopefully when the shawl is blocked, it will look close enough to the picture in the book.

FF&L shawl body complete

F&L: % Complete as of Sunday, 01.08.06

FINISHED CHART 3: BODY COMPLETE!!!!!

Thirteen rounds knit since my last update --> 162 total rounds completed.

• 91,016 stitches cumulative (14,408 stitches since my last update)
• 100% of body completed (16% since my last update)
• 81% of entire shawl completed, including edging (13% since my last update)

FF&L - 3rd hank

Just a quick update that I forgot to add yesterday. I started the 3rd hank of the Alpaca Cloud (peppermint) about a quarter of the way through round 138. That's at about 65,000 total stitches, so I am guessing that I will use almost 5 complete hanks (@ 440 yds each) by the time I finish this shawl.

FF&L Update: Working on Chart 3

FF&L: % Complete as of Tuesday, 01.03.06

WORKING ON CHART 3 (13 rounds to go)

Fourteen rounds knit since my last update --> 149 total rounds completed.

• 76,708 stitches cumulative (14,844 stitches since my last update)
• 84% of body completed (16% since my last update) {adjusted for 5 chart 2 repeats}
• 68% of entire shawl completed, including edging (13% since my last update) {adjusted for 5 chart 2 repeats}

Note: I ended up knitting only 5 repeats of chart 2, rather than the 7 repeats called for in the pattern.

FF&L Milestone

FF&L: % Complete as of Wednesday, 12.28.05

WORKING ON 5TH REPEAT OF CHART 2 (11 rounds to go)

Nine rounds knit since my last update --> 135 total rounds completed.

• 61,864 stitches cumulative (8,776 stitches since my last update)
• 46% of body completed (7% since my last update)
• 39% of entire shawl completed, including edging (6% since my last update)

I may only knit 5 repeats of chart 2 rather than the 7 suggested by the pattern. This is a huge shawl, and being only 5'1" tall, I really do not need a huge shawl. I think it will be plenty big with only 5 repeats. I'll make the final decision once I complete the 5th repeat. Of course, all my % completion updates will change because the % will be based on a fewer number of stitches. I would actually be more like 55% complete (before edging) if I cut back on the number of repeats.

THE MILESTONE
I have finally reached 1,000 stitches on the needles of the FF&L shawl (rounds 133 & 134). Now, each time I complete a round, that's AT LEAST 1,000 more stitches completed!! Here's some pictures of the shawl at the 1,000 stitch per round juncture.








In the middle of round 129, I switched to size 40" needles (addi turbos), mainly because I wanted to spread the shawl out a little to get some good pictures.








It was the third night of Hannukah last night.

NEW : Grey Stripes Sock Project (& FF&L Update)

On Saturday, very spontaneously, I decided to start a new pair of socks. It suddenly occurred to me that I needed a small project to work on when I was out & about. Case in point - I had a hair appointment Saturday afternoon (color, weave & cut) which would be about 2 1/2 to 3 hours long, of which a good bit of that time would consist of just sitting around "processing." So the light bulb went off in my head and voila!, a sock project was born. This would be real simple to work on under the hair dryer. The catch was, could I cast on & get started before it was time to leave for my appointment? (I use the magic loop, 1 circ-2 socks method and it does take a bit of time to get the cast on down pat). In addition, I had a skein that I needed to divide into 2 balls. I'm using Reynolds Swizzle, in a grey with red, blue & green stripes (#4042 colorway).

The 1 skein to 2 balls process took me about 45 minutes. I must admit, I did have help from the "peanut gallery," (Scooter & Cleo).










I first had to wind the skein into a ball. Then I had to divide that ball in half, trying to get two equal balls. Here are the 2 balls eye-balled for "sameness." The left one is good to go.




Because I want the yarn running in the same direction (ie: same patterning sequence), I had to rewind the right ball. Here are the two completed balls of yarn.



Now the hard part - casting on using the magic loop method, 2 socks at a time. The picture below shows 75% of the cast on completed - 32 stitches for the 1st sock and 64 stitches for the 2nd sock.




This picture shows the completed cast on. The remaining 32 stitches of the 1st sock are now cast on.




5 rounds of the cuff are completed. Basic ribbing for cuff: K2, P2






The cuff after 10 rounds and 20 rounds, respectively. Cuff now complete. Scooter likes what she sees.






I am experimenting with using the bamboo stitch for the leg. 3 rounds in the pattern have been completed in the following picture.




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FF&L: % Complete as of Monday, 12.12.05

WORKING ON 4TH REPEAT OF CHART 2 (4 rounds to go)

Four rounds knit since my last update --> 126 total rounds completed.

• 53,088 stitches cumulative (3,680 stitches since my last update)
• 39% of body completed (2% since my last update)
• 33% of entire shawl completed, including edging (2% since my last update)

FF&L: % Complete as of Friday, 12.09.05

WORKING ON 4TH REPEAT OF CHART 2 (8 rounds to go)

Thirteen rounds knit since my last update --> 122 total rounds completed.

• 49,408 stitches cumulative (11,016 !! stitches since my last update)
• 37% of body completed (9% since my last update)
• 31% of entire shawl completed, including edging (7% since my last update)


Here's the blob, looking at it from the underside.




It makes a convenient holder for my yarn & row counter!




••close up of the flower pattern••




••close up of the leaves pattern••

Splitz Top is "Splitz" (& FF&L Progress)

I decided to frog the Splitz Top I had been working on. I just was not happy with it and I found that there were too many errors in the pattern which I really did not want to deal with. (The errata did not catch one of the glaring errors, so I decided it just was not worth my time). Here it is in all its glory in the frog pond...



Besides that, I've got the Clapotis bug again so I started my second one last night using the yarn from the Splitz Top. I am using Patons Grace in Tangello, size 6 US (4mm). It's a 100% mercenized cotton and I like the way it is knitting up.



I'm only through row 109 on the Frost Flowers & Leaves shawl. That translates to only one row of the FF&L knit all week!!! I needed to take a break from it but will get back to it this weekend. Here are my usual stats on my progress...

FF&L: % Complete as of Friday, 11.18.05

WORKING ON 3RD REPEAT OF CHART 2 (5 rounds to go)

One round knit since my last post --> 109 total rounds completed.

• 38,392 stitches cumulative (792 since last Thursday)
• 28% of body completed (0% since last Thursday)
• 24% of entire shawl completed, including edging (1% since last Thursday)

FF&L: % Complete as of Thursday, 11.11.05

I finally switched to 29" circs, although I didn't need to. I think I could have gone several more rounds, but I wanted to be able to take some better pictures. These pics are with 2 circs - 1/2 of the sts on the 24" & 1/2 on the 29". I took the pictures during the transition round from the 24" to 29". What better opportunity to be able to spread it out a little bit for the camera...Pretty, huh????

WORKING ON 3RD REPEAT OF CHART 2 (6 rounds to go)

Three rounds knit since my last post --> 108 total rounds completed.

• 37,600 stitches cumulative (2,312 since Monday)
• 28% of body completed (2% since Monday)
• 23% of entire shawl completed, including edging (1% since Monday)

Pictures of FF&L (through round 105)

Due to popular demand, here are some progress pictures of FF&L. This is through round 105 (midway through the 3rd repeat of chart 2). It's still on the 24" needles and is about 2 rounds into the second hank of Alpaca Cloud-Peppermint.

I told you it was just a blob...although you can make out the center flower motif.

Alpaca Cloud Update on FF&L

For those of you keeping stats:

My first hank of Alpaca Cloud got me through approximately 33,500 stitches (about 3/4 of the way through round 103) of the Frost Flowers & Leaves shawl. If that holds true through out my shawl, that would put me at about 4.8 hanks needed for this project. Keep in mind that I am using smaller needles than the pattern suggested (size 3 us; 3.25mm). This is supposed to knit up to a huge shawl and I wanted mine to be somewhat smaller. I am, after all, only about 5'1" tall.

I'm still using the 24" length needles but may switch to the 29" soon. That way I can spread out the shawl a tiny bit more to get some pictures. I have the 29" in INOX, but I think that's the longest they go, so I'll have to use my 40" Addi Turbos once I outgrow the 29". The problem with the Addi's is that their tips are more blunt than those of the INOX. I like to use pointy tips for lace. Oh well, at least this pattern does not call for any K3TOG. It's at that point where you really want to use pointy needles. The only other problem I can foresee with the Addi's will be that they will be real slippery. That would be a complete disaster if my stitches fell off the needles.

I'll try to stretch out my blob of peppermint to take some pictures so you can get an idea of how things are coming along. As you know with lace, until you have blocked your project, you really cannot get a true picture of how things are progressing -- except by the size of the blob.

FF&L: % Complete as of Tuesday, 11.08.05

WORKING ON 3RD REPEAT OF CHART 2 (9 rounds to go)

Ten rounds knit since my last post --> 105 total rounds completed.

• 35,288 stitches cumulative (6,488 since last Wednesday)
• 26% of body completed (5% since last Wednesday)
• 22% of entire shawl completed, including edging (3% since last Wednesday)

FF&L: % Complete as of Tuesday, 11.01.05

WORKING ON 2ND REPEAT OF CHART 2 (2 rounds to go)

Eight rounds knit since my last post --> 96 total rounds completed.

• 28,800 stitches cumulative (5,180 since last Wednesday)
• 21% of body completed (3% since last Wednesday)
• 18% of entire shawl completed, including edging (3% since last Wednesday)

FF&L: % Complete as of Wednesday, 10.26.05

WORKING ON 2ND REPEAT OF CHART 2

Four rounds knit last night --> 88 total rounds completed.

• 23,616 stitches cumulative (2,400 last night)
• 18% of body completed (2% last night)
• 15% of entire shawl completed, including edging (2% last night)

FF&L: % complete as of Tuesday, 10.25.05

BEGINNING OF 2ND REPEAT OF CHART 2

Two rounds knit last night --> 84 total rounds completed.

• 21,216 stitches
• 16% of body completed
• 13% of entire shawl completed (this includes edging stitches)

I am still using the 24" needles. It's still comfortable enough so I do not feel I need to go up to the 29" needle yet. I am also still working on my first hank of Alpaca Cloud, but it's a small ball now.

I just recently learned how to put the % complete progress bars in the side bar and that got me to thinking about ACTUAL % complete for my FF&L shawl. This, of course, meant that I had to try to be as accurate as possible - therefore I created the spreadsheet (that I mention below). Now, I do not have to ballpark how much I have accomplished in the progress bar. I can get it is accurate as my little mind can make it.