It's about damn time...

Hey guys!  Sorry it's been a while since I've posted.  I've been fervently knitting, designing, frogging, re-designing, and knitting some more all summer, but unfortunately there are many projects of which I can't speak.  When you submit a design to a magazine, blog, company it's quite thrilling as you could imagine.  The first time, I felt validated and was no longer just this silly dude who played with his stick...um...sticks and string.  I was a "KNITWEAR DESIGNER!"  (Yeah, that'll get me a date)

The problem is whenever you tell people you are a knitwear designer the first thing you're asked is, "So what do you design?"  Logical question, right?  Except, that your balloon deflates a bit because you're going to have to answer, "I can't tell you."  Now you have a look on your face like your ice cream just fell from your cone onto the pavement and you sound a little crazy.  Then you get the bewildering smile/puzzled look and you know they are thinking, "Oh, so this only exists in your head?"  No, it's because I signed a gag order with the knitting Gestapo and if I utter a word about the design I'll wake up next to a felted horse head!  What's even worse, is that your design won't be published for another 6-8 months.  It's excruciating!  So anyway, that's why I can't talk about it.

Fortunately, however, I have completed some nice lace knits over the summer.  Summer is definitely for knitting lace--especially when you live in Southern Louisiana!!!  It's hot and sticky!  It's like living in a huge fish-scented, mosquito infested Cinnabon.  (Ya'll come back now, ya hear!) So, needless to say, during the summer months I stick to knitting lace, socks, mittens and hats.  This summer in particular, it's been all about the lace.  So, over the next couple of weeks I'll share some FO's I've completed by some other designers.

The first one up is the Aeolian Shawl by Elizabeth Freeman:

This shawl was an absolute joy to knit!!!  I've had the pattern in my queue for a couple of years, and I'm so glad I didn't wait any longer.  The pattern is impeccable!  I don't think that I've ever knitted from such a concise and detailed pattern, so KUDOS for Ms. Freeman.  The border is my favorite part and it looks much more complicated than it actually is.  In fact, while I wouldn't necessarily recommend this to a novice lace knitter, I would definitely encourage a beginner to give it a go.

I used 3mm pearlized, off-white beads in the last motif and the border which not only kicked up the sophistication, but added some weight that accentuated the overall drape.  This was knit with a lace weight merino wool on size US 5 (3.75mm) needles, and I used exactly 440 yds/50 gms.  The motifs are from traditional Estonian lace needlework for which I have a particular fondness and appreciation.  There are two sizes offered in the pattern and this is the smaller version (the shoulderette size) which measured approximately 46" in width after blocking.  You can read about all the knitting details on my Ravelry project page.