Northern night sky

I'm in the habit of always having something a bit insane on my needles. Something challenging that will take a long time to finish. This one took a year and a half from cast on to bind off.

What: Celestarium / Audry Nicklin

How: Circular needles 3.25 mm

From: West Yorkshire Spinners Exquisite Lace, 116 g

I've been mesmerized by stars from an early age. You'd think I'd know a thing or two about them, but no: I can spot the Big Dipper but that's it. I've just always loved to stare at the night sky. When I was a small child, we lived in a two-storey house and our upstairs bathroom had this tiny little window. Every night when mom washed my teeth, I wanted to climb onto the water tank of the loo because from there I could just reach to look at the stars from the little window. I'm done climbing on the toilet but I still sometimes go out at night just to have a look at the night sky.

After that little story, it should come as no surprise that I gasped when I saw the Celestarium shawl on Twist Collection: it had the whole northern night sky on it! The pattern came out already in 2012 but some things take their time and this one waited for the perfect yarn and the perfect moment.

Few years ago, we were traveling on the isle of Skye and out b&b hostess told me that there was a little spinning shop just across the street! And what a lucky thing she would mention it because otherwise we would've never noticed. The shop was the cutest ever. They sold spinning fibres, handspun yarns and a few industrial yarns as well. The Exquisite Lace by West Yorkshire Spinners caught my eye right away. I knew I had finally found the perfect yarn for my Celestarium shawl. The color was the perfect ink, blueish black. And the combination of Falkland wool with silk wasn't too shabby either!

Once we got home, I took a closer look at the pattern. I knew many nerdy knitters had made their shawls with different sized beads for different sized stars. And thanks to them, the pattern page actually had a star map showing the different star sizes in color codes. So I ordered a bunch of beads. Unfortunately, some of them were way too small to use for knitting so in the end I ended up using just the plain old 8/0 and 6/0, and divided the stars into two different size classes.

If you've followed me for a while, you may know I like to not take it easy on my spare time. So when I saw this project on Ravelry featuring the Milkyway, I was sold! The star map linked on the project page doesn't work anymore but I think I used this one for help.

The Celestarium shawl pattern comes with charts pointing out beads at star locations. In addition, the pattern has a star map where the charts have been marked to help make sense of it all. I used all of these and spent half a day drawing lines between the beads to outline all the different constellations. I also wrote down the names so I could place them on the star map more easily. I marked the bigger stars so I'd remember to use the bigger beads for those. Finally, I outlined the Milkyway on all the charts.

Once I had sketched the outlines of the Milkyway I started randomly crossing out stitches inside the outlines about 4-6 stitches apart to mark down beads for the Milkyway. I used three different kind of beads: clear 8/0 beads with silver lining for the majority of stars, clear 6/0 beads for the bigger stars (I wish I had found silver lined big beads but no luck there), and clear 8/0 beads for the Milkyway.

The pattern uses beads, yarnovers and decreases to make these little holes next to the star beads For the Milkyway, I didn't make the holes so the constellations would stand out better. I think it worked out very nicely.

Since I really don't seem to be able to take it easy on my spare time, I did one more modification. The pattern gives instructions for a narrow garter stitch edging. I used a lace weight yarn instead of fingering weight and also smaller needles so I was scared the shawl wouldn't be big enough without  wider edging. Also, the star map was so delicate and beautiful it felt wrong to do just a rugged garter stitch edge. I used the edge pattern of the Evenstar shawl. The edge lace is 17-21 stitches wide, depending on the row and it's worked sideways, decreasing one shawl body stitch every two rows. Since the shawl ended up with over 800 stitches that meant over 1600 rows of edge lace. Did I mention the lace is worked on WS rows too? And did I mention, I used beads for the lace as well? 

This surely won't be everyone's cup of tea. But for me, it was a match made in heaven. I need to always have one project that requires insane amounts of concentration and patience. Something to pick up when I want to tease myself a bit. I know it doesn't sound like one, but this is a compliment. I truly enjoyed challenging myself with this shawl. There aren't that many techniques that feel difficult in knitting, so the challenge usually comes in the form of patience and concentration. Also, this shawl is one of the most beautiful things I've knitted.

Now, I need to come up with a new challenge to work on when I want to take a little break from designing.

Rakas

Sometimes I feel so romantic that I happen to designs socks with lace and beads on them. I guess that just happened.

What: Rakas / Own pattern

How: circular needle 2.0 mm

From: Vole's Nest Twist Sock, 75 g

Last spring, I was at the Crooked Needles knitting retreat and my dear friend was selling gorgeous yarns she had dyed herself. Of course I had to buy some. I fell in love with this high twist merino sock yarn and all those green shades.

When it came time to cast on, I was feeling everything! So I ended up designing socks with a stitch pattern that combines twisted ribbing with lace. And then, I added a few beads.

The socks are knit toe up and the lace starts right away when there's enough space for it. The heel is a round French heel that's worked with short rows.

My favorite part is the twisted rib heel and how the lace goes around the socks after it. The pattern includes detailed instructions on when to start the lace on the heel so that it will match the lace on the instep no matter how long legs you might have.

You can find the pattern on Ravelry. There's an introductory discount with the code DARLING (which happens to be rakas in Finnish). The discount is valid until Tuesday night September 10th.

A story of a knitted napkin

Let's start from the beginning: I adore Disney's Little mermaid! It is the best animated film ever, not mention the beautiful soundtrack. My favorite song, Part of your world, was even played at our wedding ceremony.

What: Part of your world / Lily Go
How: Circular needles 3.5 ja 4.0 mm
From: Ginger's Hand Dyed  Yaketi-Yak 4ply, 91 g

And what does that have to do with anything? Well, a few years back I was visiting Edinburgh and going through yarn shops recommended by Ysolda herself and ended up at Ginger Twist Studios. It was a teeny tiny space filled with more yarn than I imagined possible for that room. I spent an hour trying to pick out something as a souvenier for myself. When I finally started reading the colorway names, it was a no-brainer: the colorway was called Part of your world. And if the colorway felt like it was dyed just for me, oh, how lovely was the yarn base! I fell in love with the merino/silk/yak blend. It was springy, plump and slick all at once. And the gorgeous shine from the silk! This skein was to become the most precious treasure of my enormous stash. I wouldn't use it until I found THE perfect pattern, even if it meant waiting for an eternity. 

But alas, I didn't have to wait too long. This summer I was browsing through Ravelry when I came across a mystery shawl KAL named after that very same song. A match made in heaven! I would knit my 'Part of your world' treasure of a yarn into a 'Part of your world' shawl. I went through the designer's previous work just to be sure the pattern would be worthy of the yarn - and it looked very promising. Then, all I had to do was to wait for August when the fun would begin.

I always enjoy knitting mystery shawls but shall I say, this time it felt like the designer wanted to do everything the hard way. The shawl started at the bottom edge by casting on several hundred stitches. No worries, except that it used picot cast on. Did you think picot bind off is a pain? Try picot cast on. Nuff said. It was slow going but, hey, I got through it.

Right after the picot cast on, it was lace all the way. Lace and beads. I really like knitting with beads though it takes a lot of concentration. But who thought it would be a good idea to knit lace on thw wrong side as well? This one wasn't for social knitting. Nope.

Even though it took a lot of concentration, I managed with the WS lace. But then it started to bother me that the twisted stitches of the lace weren't twisted on the wrong side. I know a vast majority of knitters hates twisted purls but if you're already knitting lace on WS rows, why stop there? 

Another thing bothering me was the use of (sl1, k1, psso) decreases. I'm so used to do ssk decreases that these really annoyed my aestethic eye. Why I didn't just trust myself in that I can replace them by ssk decreases, I have no idea.

So the shawl started off with a picot cast on, continued with beaded lace and then moved onto alternating garter stitch and lace sections that were shaped with short rows. It was beautiful as ever.

Except that. Yep. I did mention in the title that this shawl turned out about the size of a napkin.

I take part of the blame; I did choose the smallest size so my one precious skein would be enough. But I have knitted one skein wonders before and they have always been of adequate size. Nothing big but enough to cover the neck. I can't say the same for this one.

That's it for my treasure of a yarn. Been there, done that. Wasn't happy. Luckily mom already announced she would be more than happy to take this beautiful napkin.