Laminaria and Print o' the Wave, or why I love lace even when it's completely insane-making

[astro_noms]

I was just going to post links to my posts on the subject, but in keeping with the rules of the community, here's a few pictures *and a link.



Pattern: "Laminaria" by Elizabeth Freeman from Knitty, Spring 2008 [Ravel it!]
Yarn: ColourMart Cashmere/Silk 3/45NM Lace Weight in Indigo (discontinued).
Needles: 3.5mm (US 4) KnitPicks Options, 40in cable.
Finished size: 41" down the middle, 75" across

Start date: Feb 23, 2009.
Finish date: Apr 26, 2009.

Knitting blog entry with more pictures.



Pattern: "Print o' the Wave Stole" by Eunny Jang from See Eunny Knit! [Ravel it!]
Yarn: KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud in Horizon Heather (color discontinued).
Needles: 3.5mm (US 4) KnitPicks Options

Finished size: 31" x 80"

Start date: Mar 18, 2009.
Finish date: May 8, 2009.

Knitting blog entry with more pictures.

Comments

[ames]

:c The entries appear to be locked. But these pictures look gorgeous. I've only done one major lace project, but I've been pondering doing another. These are definitely helping me move in that direction.

[astro_noms]

Aw, crap, I forgot they're locked. Um. I will change links to my knitting blog.

[laughingrat]

Very cool! Hey, with Laminaria, I was always a little put off by the way the shawl was photographed at Knitty--do the side points really curve forward like that, or is it really a simple triangle shape?

[astro_noms]

It curves up a bit, yeah. It's not really noticeable when someone's wearing it, they just drape a tiny bit differently.

I read something about there being a way to fix that--by knitting the star chart on larger needles (or the rest of the body on smaller ones), but I'm not sure if it would work.

[anatsuno]

Gorgeous!

[astro_noms]

Thank you!

[crafty_packrat]

That Laminaria is rather pretty. Now I'm considering it for the dusky lavender Helen's Lace I have...

[astro_noms]

Ooh, the colors of that yarn are gorgeous. I think it would look amazing, given that they're all nice and subtle and the colors aren't too bright.

[alias]

That is a beautiful stole.

[astro_noms]

Thank you!

[labellementeuse]

Print o' the wave is so beautiful. I was looking at it the other day and thinking about how the idea of picking up that many stitches makes me freak out, but... man, yours is so inspiring!

Wonderful pics, thank you for the lace porn!

[astro_noms]

Heh, lace porn. That's a good name for it.

The picking up of stitches was certainly a daunting task. I'm pretty sure I fudged it somewhere, but it all turned out all right anyway. I suppose one way to do it would be to alter the number of repeats so you end up with the same number of edge stitches as you're supposed to pick up (as it is, you pick up 7 stitches every 10, or something like that), or to do a vertical lifeline as you go, and then pick up that way.

As for freaking out, don't! You'll never know how it goes until you do it. And hey, once you get started, just keep going, one stitch at a time. :)