Pattern: Haruha Scarf
Yarn: Joseph Galler Superfine Prime Alpaca 3-ply, Black, 1 skein
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 7 (4.5mm)

The Haruha scarf had been bound off for months and just needed a good blocking before I could add it to the list of completed projects. The problem is that the only real blocking surface in my apartment is the floor. And while my apartment is carpeted, the padding underneath the carpet is virtually nonexistent and I suspect that I often wind up pushing pins directly into the wood subfloor.

Which: ouch. Blocking lace with straight lines requires an obscene number of pins. I tried, but gave up after pinning out maybe a third of the scarf because my fingers were red and sore.

So at the same time I splurged on yarn at WEBS, I also hit up KnitPicks and grabbed a set of blocking wires.

Much better. I only needed about a dozen pins to block the long edges of the scarf, and a few more to secure the ends.

Pattern commentary and lace porn after the jump.

Continue reading Haruha Scarf (96 words) »

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© 2008 Yvonne Kao for CogKnition. All rights reserved.

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Pattern: A curved shawl with diamond edging, from Victorian Lace Today
Yarn: Jaggerspun Zephyr, color Cinnabar
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 3 (3.25mm)

The finished shawl is about 5.5 feet at its widest point and 2 feet deep in the center, which is slightly bigger than the dimensions given in the book.

Pattern
The construction of the shawl is pretty simple. You cast on 49 stitches, increase steadily until you have 301 stitches, and then do a picot bind-off. Then you attach the edging. The shawl isn’t so much curvy as trapezoidal.

This is a true knitted lace pattern, with patterning on every row. Both the main body of the shawl and the edging are garter-stitch based. My other lace projects have been stockinette-based with patterning only on right-side rows and I found this to be a step more difficult.

This is one of those projects that requires too much attention to knit while watching TV, but is much too mind-numbing to just sit and knit. In other words, it’s perfect podcast-listening knitting.

Continue reading Curved Shawl with Diamond Edging (135 words) »

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© 2007 Yvonne Kao for CogKnition. All rights reserved.

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Pattern: Print o’ the Wave stole, from Eunny
Yarn: Rowan Kidsilk Haze, #590, 3 skeins
Needles: 1 set 32″ Addi Turbos, US 4 (3.5mm)

This was my first real lace project, with actual laceweight yarn and an actual picked up edging. It was fun. It was time-consuming. And they ain’t kidding when they say blocking lace is like doing crazy voodoo.

Continue reading Print o’ the Wave Stole (432 words) »

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© 2006 Yvonne Kao for CogKnition. All rights reserved.

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