August progress

August progress

As you see in the close-up, I have little thread markers for every pattern repeat. At first I tried regular markers, then yarn markers, but all were too big, so I went for thread, which was little-bitty to handle, but it works nicely.

The pattern is not that hard. My biggest trouble is getting the somewhat blunt Addi tips into the stitches without splitting them, or picking up in the purl bar below. That slows me down a little. And since I don't like to stop midway through a row, I don't pick it up unless I know I have time to spend.

But I LOVE how it feels, very soft and drapey. When I commented in my knitting group that I might get it finished by the time I was 90, someone commented that it would suit me at that age, implying that it was old-lady looking. Kinda hurt my feelings. I didn't think knitters thought in those stereotypes. O well. I love it, and it's a challenge to me!

First border plus a few more rows

Orenburg start, close up

August and September Progress

I started the border edging, did one and a half pattern repeats (16 rows each) and then ripped it out because I had started the repeat at the wrong place on the chart. Things are cruising along quite well now. If the shawl never materializes, I will at least have some lovely lace edging!

13 August 2004Remembering EZ's comment that one could SURELY use lace-knitting as a take-along project while traveling, I brought my lace edging on the plane with me on my trip to Minnesota. Since I knew the pattern so well by that point, it was really no problem to work on it. And I had purchased a size 1 bamboo needle ..love it, much sharper points. My airplane time plus one afternoon alone and I had the edging finished. I SHOULD have taken a picture of it at that point, but I was so excited, that I just had to continue along and pick up the 200+ stitches along the edging for the start of the shawl itself. Oops....I should have purchased that bamboo needle in a longer size. Drat! Now I'm back to the slippery, blunter-tipped Addi Turbo, but the join is so much smoother when dragging 200 some stitches along it! Hmm...wonder if I should try sanding the points a little to get a sharper tip? Well, here are two pictures of my present progress:

Cashmere Silk Yarn for Orenburg