All those teeny, tiny stitches...

Can eventually add up to something nice!  I am making progress on my two current projects both of which use fingering weight yarn, it's slow but they are coming along, Haruni & Isabella that is.  Just finished chart A on the Haruni, it has gone much faster than I envisioned (remember this is a Christmas present folks, wow did I overestimate the time it would take!).  For some reason I thought lace equaled many hours of frustratingly, painfully slow knitting, but not so!  I realize the next chart takes up about half the yarn yardage, so I'm guessing it'll take about half the time too, but I am quite happy with how this is going so far.  Based on my time assumption I may have Haruni done in another two weeks at my current pace.  I will admit to being officially hooked on lace and am pondering the next shawl already, maybe Gail?  With beads next time too?!  Wouldn't that be frustrating and bewildering fun!

Isabella is also moving along quite nicely, I have separated the front and back (remember, I have been knitting this in the round because I hate seaming!) to shape the armholes and am rapidly knitting up the back, I have about 3 more inches to go before the neckline shaping.  I am doing more decrease rows than the pattern calls for as I really don't like the extra wide shoulders most of the completed projects on Ravelry have (reminds me of 1980's shoulder pads, I barely survived that decade the first time, let's not do it again okay?).  The top of the shoulder seams stick out beyond the shoulder of the wearee as the pattern is written and to me looks a little goofy and ill-fitting, so I decided to narrow it up a bit.  Hopefully this doesn't backfire on me!

And yes, I am already pondering my next project.  I have yarn for several items in my queue (hats, gloves, a few winter cardigans that are pretty but would be hot to knit during the summer) but of course there is something else I want to make for which I do not have the yarn.  That something would be the Lilas cardigan by Hilary Smith Callis from The Yarniad.  It is beauteous, and from the pictures of finished projects posted on Ravelry it looks equally good on many body types.  Simple, chic, and versatile, this looks like the garment for me (as if I could ever actually be chic, now that's funny)!  I want to try some Spud & Chloe sweater yarn for Lilas, (yummy!) but do I really need to go buy more yarn when I already have stash boxes bursting at the seams?  Hmmm, have to think this one over...

Haruni, my oasis in the stockinette wastelands

Something that isn't stockinette, oh happy day!  Having just finished the Twirly skirt for Lil' Miss (which she is prancing around the house in as I type!) it is time to cast on a new project that doesn't require miles of knit stitch.  My new project of choice is the absolutely lovely Haruni shawl designed by Emily Ross for which I will use the fantastic new stroll tonals yarn in royalty by Knit Picks.  As I am not sure just how long this sucker will take (I have never done a whole lace shawl before, or even a partial one for that matter!) and it is intended as a Christmas gift for Chatty-Cathy I decided to get started on it now.

First off I needed to wind the skein of yarn into a workable ball so I can actually knit with it and I thought you all would be very intrigued by my oh so fancy ball winding accessory (can you smell the sarcasm?).  As I don't even have the luxury of willing little hands to hold my untwisted skein carefully, I draped it across their chair, ain't it fancy!  Who knew that the family heirloom built for Mister Vonkysmeed's great grandfather would come into use someday as a skein holder for me?

Funnily enough, after complaining about doing too much stockinette in an earlier post, now it seems almost all of what I am doing is lace.  My Hey Teach! has now progressed to the lacework section, and on Isabella I have started the all too brief interlude of the lace panel  in the midst of miles of stockinette.  So my Haruni that was cast on with the intention of being my oasis has very quickly become more of a quagmire rather than an oasis you could say!  Anyway, for some reason I found the Haruni pattern totally terrifying, let me be blunt, it scared the crap out of me!  But since I want to have it done in time for Christmas gift giving (did I mention that already?!), there was nothing left but to knuckle down and get started!

Now that I am a few rows into chart A on this sucker I wonder what my angst was all about?  I am familiar with using charts, having knit and crocheted with them before, and I have used all of the stitches required before so nothing new there, plus the yarn and needles are familiar to me having used both before.  Yet in spite of all this I was anxious to the point of sweaty palms while getting it started, why, I guess I'm just weird that way (or is that wired?!).  Of course now that I have essentially said the pattern really isn't that difficult I am probably going to make some sort of foolish mistake and have to rip it all out, I just know it!

I think I will use lifelines as recommended by the knitters in the Beginning Lace Knitters group on Ravelry (can I just say how relieved and happy I am to have this resource if I come across any trouble whilst making this shawl?) as a way to preserve my sanity.  When it comes to lace it seems to me that the difficulty factor comes in when you need to remember where you are in the pattern and being able to repeat that pattern correctly across an entire row of knitting, as I discovered with my Hey Teach! the other night.  I performed the S2KP incorrectly, so ended up having to frog out 6 rows of knitting once I realized it would take more time (and much more patience than I could ever claim to have) to fix each error one by one rather than just going back to where I messed up in the first place.  Maybe I should use a lifeline on that one too!

Here's to hoping I can get this Haruni finished and blocked in time for Christmas gift giving!   I know, it's a long way off but I am nothing if not a worrywart...