The cat is out of the bag…… As Knitgrrl/Shannon Okey announced on her site earlier this week, I’m working on a lace book for Cooperative Press. The book will be published in 2011, and I have been busy working on several new patterns for the book, as well as of course the actual writing. I still am not at liberty to share a lot of details about the actual book, but I can say that I’m very excited about this project, and the idea is something I’ve been working on for a long time.
This week I’m going to Rhinebeck to attend the NY Wool and Sheep Festival. On Thursday I will be attending a workshop with Galina Khmeleva on Orenburg Lace, which should be a lot of fun. And on Friday there is a workshop on Reversible Cables with Lily Chin. In preparation for the Reversible Cables class, I have been preparing a number of swatches. There are 5 different kinds of ribbed swatches with worsted weight wool and 5-6 mm (US 8-10) needles. Since I’ve been working with only lace weight and fingering weight wool all summer, the worsted weight yarn felt enormous by comparison. I am really looking forward to both workshops, and hope to learn some new and interesting techniques.
I will also be attending the festival on Saturday before I head home in the evening. I’m always scouting for new yarn for the KALs as well as the other designs, and I’m sure there will be lots of interesting vendors. On Saturday I will be walking around wearing the brand new Tanumshede Shawl. If you’re there, please say hello. 
Tanumshede is the second shawl in a series of three shawls on the theme of World Heritage Sites.
Tanumshede is known for its Bronze age rock carvings, with various motifs featuring longships, animals and people. These were carved into the granite rocks 1800-500BC. There are close to 1500 known rock carvings in the area, and more are being discovered. The Tanumshede rock carvings are in Bohuslän, Sweden – not very far from where I grew up. I’ve always thought they were quite beautiful in their simplicity, and have tried to capture the bold lines of the carvings in this shawl.
The original carving that I based the shawl on can be found at Massleberg. The picture below shows a longship carrying a dear with very large horns.
Tanumshede is a rectangular shawl/stole knit using one skein of Buttercream from Yarn Chef. I used the colourway Chateau because it looks like the gray granite in Bohuslän.
The pattern will be available on Oct 15 as part of the Seasons of Lace series.
This week I cast on for a cardigan for my daughter. I had this really lovely yarn from Turtlepurl – a light fingering MCN called Pillow Talk – that I have been meaning to use for a sweater for her, but she was very adamant that cardigans are better than sweaters. So a cardigan it is. Since the yarn is a light fingering, I decided to use 2.75 mm needles, which shows the lace pattern well, and still gives definition to the stockinette portion of the cardigan.
The bottom of the cardigan has three rows of lacy hearts. The hearts will also continue up the front along the opening. I haven’t quite decided what to do about the sleeves yet, but lacy cuffs and set in sleeves are the most likely option.
Pillow talk is really nice to work with, and the colour is a collection of different reds (of the colder variety), shifting from lighter reds to deep burgundy. I actually considered using this yarn for the Eyjafjallajökull Shawl as well, since the reds could also have made a good volcano.
Monday was the first knitting guild meeting for the season. I had made plans to meet up with Natalie Servant beforehand and we had a lovely Greek dinner at a nearby restaurant, while chatting away about design ideas and challenges. We quickly discovered that we are both very mathematical by nature, and of course this carries over to our design approaches as well. “Consider the relationship between rate of increase, and the slopes of…..” well, if your eyes are glazing over by now, I can’t really blame you. I think the fact that we both have an engineering background may have something to do with this.
We also realized that we draw our design inspiration from very different sources. Natalie has designed shawls based on both the Eiffel Tower and the Chrysler building. Marvellous ideas, and I really like how she’s translated the buildings into lace. I, on the other hand, have stayed clear of cities and looked towards the natural elements, forests, seas and rocks. And of course of late, my love of mythology and stories has played a part in the designs.
After dinner, there was just a small hop over to the Knitting Guild meeting. During the meeting we were introduced to the new executive committee, and got an overview of the new guild web-site. I was working on one of my new shawl designs in Serenity Silk from the Zen Garden, and I’m very close to finishing it. I thought I might be able to finish it during the meeting, but….. well, I think I was distracted by all the other things on people’s needles, and I still had about half of the bind-off to do.
The last part of the meeting included a show and tell with projects from a number of the guild members. We got to see all sorts of projects, including a lovely afghan, a couple of entrelac scarves, a few lace shawls, and two very lovely tops. One was a cabled tank top, and the other an entrelac/lace top. Both were so nice that I’m going to have to scour Ravelry for the patterns. It’s so inspiring to see all these projects knit up.
The first issue of Knitting Iceland was released today, and it includes an interview with me and a review of the Norns KAL (Seasons of Lace – Summer). Knitting Iceland followed the knit-along all summer. The interview also mentions the Eyjafjallajökull Shawl I designed in the spring – the one inspired by the Icelandic Volcano that erupted earlier this year.
L’Anse Aux Meadows is the first shawl in a series of three shawls on the theme of World Heritage Sites. L’Anse Aux Meadows is located on the north tip of Newfoundland, Canada. In the 1960s archeologists found remains from a Norse settlement – the only one in North America. It is thought to be the site referred to as Vinland in the Icelandic Sagas. Vinland was established by Leif Ericsson around 1003, and the Vikings were settled there for a few years until they returned to Iceland.
It is a triangular shawl knit using one skein of Nightfall from FibroFibers. I used the colourway Ivy to capture the idea of the fertile grounds in Vinland. The shawl shows grape vines since Vinland was named after the grapes (vinbaer) that grew there.
The pattern will be available on Sept 15 as part of the Seasons of Lace series.
Now that we are past Labour Day, it really feels like a new season is starting. Summer is over, and autumn is here. This of course means that there are plenty of new projects on the go. I’ve been spending quite some time this summer planning, and I figured I would have a lot of time to work on the new projects once the kids started school. I was off to a bit of a rocky start – school started on Tuesday, Sept 7, and instead of plunging into my new projects, I had to spend the day in court as I got called for jury duty/jury selection. After several hours I was excused, and was allowed to go home instead of becoming a member of a jury for a trial estimated to last several weeks. Instead I’m reading about the trial in the paper.
Anyhow, after all that excitement, I got the chance to start on some of the new projects and continue on some older ones yesterday. The best part was designing a new scarf using the CashSilk from Sweetgeorgia in Boysenberry. My scarf will use only one skein, but the pattern will be easily adaptable to a larger stole. I’ve been pondering the design for about two weeks, and finally charted it yesterday. I can’t wait to knit it up. I’ve got the first few rows done already…..
I also spent some time writing up patterns that I have been working on during the summer and are being released in other venues during the coming months. Formatting to stylesheets other than my own can be a little tedious, but of course the various publishers want their own formats for the patterns. I still have a few more patterns that need to be “massaged” this way, but I’ll try to space it out a bit, and work on a few other things in-between.
Getting my mail recently has been like Christmas. I’ve received a number of really lovely skeins of yarn, and I just have to share. So…. starting with the package that arrived earlier this week:
This is two skeins of CashSilk Lace from Sweetgeorgia. Sweetgeorgia is located in Vancouver, BC and makes some really amazing yarn. In the picture is Boysenberry and Botanical. Of course I managed to forget to take a picture prior to winding one of the skeins…… but that only means that I’m eager to start. I have a few projects on the needles right now, but this one is right near the front of the line after I finish those.
My plan is to use all 400 yds of the Boysenberry for a lacy scarf. The Botanical might just be the perfect colour for a winter project I’m cooking up at the moment. We’ll see. I won’t wind that before September. Really.
Slightly earlier, I received a package from Lisa Souza. It contained a few skeins of Sock! Merino – a light fingering weight yarn – in St. Valentine and Ice Ice Baby. The white yarn (Ice Ice) looks slightly blueish by itself, but when paired with the red yarn it looks like pure white. The two yarns are being used together in a double-knitting project. I’m actually almost done with it, although I won’t have any pictures to share for a little while, as it is slated for publication later. Suffice it to say that it’s a new type of garment to add to my designs, and that it is perfect for winter.
She also sent me this amazing Cashmere Silk Fingering weight yarn in Garnet. The picture doesn’t quite do the yarn justice – the colour was very hard to capture. But it’s a really deep, dark Garnet colour, and it’s amazingly soft. I have a new design ready to go for this one, and will be casting on as soon as the Sock! Merino project is done. This will turn into a lace stole.
Finally I received an amazing box of goodies from Bev of Land o Lace. Land o Lace specializes in yarn for lace knitters, and their colourways are designed specifically with lace projects in mind. This means no crazy variegation that might obscure the lace pattern. I don’t even know where to begin in describing the yarn she sent me so I think I’ll just go ahead and share some pictures. First up we have four skeins of ShaSha in Regal and Grant. This is a fingering weight merino yarn, in absolutely gorgeous colours.
Two skeins of LouLou – a delightful mix of alpaca, silk and cashmere in Royalton.
And 3 skeins of Krissy in Little Falls, Waconia and Bruno, as well as 2 skeins of Lady Katie in Jeffers and Andover.
This will keep me busy for quite some time. In fact – I’m so beside myself that I don’t even know where to start. They are all fabulous, and I sense a lot of Land o Lace projects coming my way. I’m working on a design for either Krissy or Lady Katie, and then we’ll see what comes after that. Fun, fun, fun.
First up, in September, is L’Anse Aux Meadows, a triangular shawl knit using one skein of Nightfall from FibroFibers. I used the colourway Ivy.
In October, we will be visiting Tanumshede on the west coast of Sweden. Tanumshede is known for its Bronze age rock carvings, with various motifs featuring longships, animals and people. These were carved into the granite rocks 1800-500BC. There are close to 1500 known rock carvings in the area, and more are being discovered. 
In November we’ll head south to Jelling, Denmark. Jelling is famous for its rune stones, erected back in the 10th century. One of the stones was erected by King Gorm the old, in memory of his wife. And the other one was erected by their son, Harald Bluetooth, in memory of his parents, as well as in celebration of his conquest of Denmark and Norway, and the conversion of the Danes to Christianity.
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