Rose of New Mexico

PATTERN: Rose of England by Marianne Kinzel.

YARN: ColourMart 2/30NM Laceweight (100% merino, 2405yds/150g cone).

NEEDLES: US 0/2mm

NOTES: It is very hard to photograph giant lace objects by yourself.

The Magic of Blocking

How this:

becomes this:

 So magical.

State of the Lanafactrix: Knitting Edition

Now that you're all caught up on what I've been doing that ISN'T knitting . . . here's what is.

The Rose of England proceeds apace.  It's past where it was before I discovered my horrible error of the other day, even.  Not that you can really tell.  It's still a giant white blob.  But I have reached the final chart for the smaller size.  So "soon" (read: in another 30 rows) I'll have to decide whether I'll stop there or continue.  It pretty much depends on how much yarn I will have used, because the KAL requires a minimum of 1000 yards.  Heaven knows I have more than enough on the cone.

I haven't worked on them much since starting the Rose of England, but I do have non-blogged progress on my Animal Crackers socks to report--I'm past the heel turn.  See?  Still a nicely written pattern that's turning out a nice project.

Mostly this week I've been devoted to the piece I'm designing for Heather--everything but the very last finishing is in place, conceptually, so I've been trying to push through version one so I can take version two with me on vacation next week.  (More about that later.)  So really I'm going to be terrifically boring for the duration.  Sorry.

A Cautionary Tale

Never assume you know what the symbols mean.

On the other hand, at least it was twelve rows of mostly plain stockinette . . . 

Round and Holey

So I belong to a Ravelry group that is hosting a "Round and Holey" KAL.  (I.e., knit a big old piece of lace in the round.)  Now, you know me and KALs, but in this case, I've wanted to knit a Rose of England for ages.  I had the pattern, I had the yarn, and, having finished Moyen Age and finally blocked that damn Maplewing, I had a hole in my schedule.  (Never mind the piece I'm designing for Heather.  I wasn't talking to that for a few days because I knew I needed to rip it out one final time.  But now I have the initial shaping finalized, so all I have to do is knit for a few inches.  It's good TV knitting.  It lives downstairs.)

So I cast on my Rose of England.  It is the white blobby thing you see in the sidebar.  Here are a few earlier iterations--

Chart A complete:

Chart B complete:

Chart C complete: 

And Chart D complete:

Gets blobbier by the minute!