BadCat's Wonderful Adventure (Week One!): SOAR

ROAD TRIP!!! Mary and Kelley were taking Friday off and driving the two hours to Pennsylvania. To SOAR. To the market. To see Steve and Connie. They invited me, and at the last minute I was able to take the day off and hop in the car. Steve and Connie are SpindleWood. Mary and Kelley have exchanged many an email with them, but they have never had the chance to meet them, and here it was. It was great. Can't you tell? Steve Connie and Mary... And here are just a few of the spindles they brought with them. This doesn't include those that the three of us liberated. I'll show you mine later... These are wonderful spinners, and also beautiful to look at and hold. Yup.
We also took a look at the SOAR gallery, and I was thrilled to see this:
If Sandra reads my blog, please send me a note! I just love your work, and was so excited to see that you used your hand spun to knit Isis. In fact, I feel honored.
And here she is. Trust me, this was really lovely!
And I share with you a few other amazing pieces from the SOAR gallery. I am sorry I didn't get everyone's name and the pattern source, but enjoy anyway.

I'll be back in a day or two with some pictures of my warp in progress and new spindle(s) from SOAR. Rock and roll!! Adventure (Week Two) is only one week away.

Showing off my grandchildren!

Here I am today, just like a proud grandmother seeing her new grandchildren for the first time. Several people have finished my Veil of Isis and Saigon designs, and I collected some pictures for you to share. It gives me a large amount of pleasure to see my designs crafted so well by these skilled knitters, and I hope you enjoy them as I am.

The first two pictures are from Kathy, who knit Isis using Skacel Merino Lace weight. You can see her piece blocking and worn by a darling model. You can visit Kathy and see more of her work here:
http://thepointofknitting.blogspot.com/

The next Isis is from Jane VanDenburg. She used Alpaca/Merino yarn. I love the contrast in her photograph.

The next three pictures are from Mary. You can see her Isis blocking and also worn. The third shot shows her corner. She added extra beads to the edging and I love the way it looks. Mary used Valley Yarns Alpaca/Silk. You can visit Mary and see more of her work here:

http://beads-n-lace.livejournal.com/


The next two pictures show Susanna's Isis. She used Malabrigo Lace, and the color variation works very well. I wish I could wrap myself up in those purples.

These are Susanna's guys, from left to right, Solomon, Zachary, and Nicholas. They are visiting with LucyFur in a virtual way today. Such a content looking trio, eh?
The next picture is from Susie, who knit Isis using KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud yarn. More beautiful work from Susie... I would like to mention that Susie made an extended chart for Isis and many people have praised it. You can find her chart in the files section of my Yahoogroup.
Last, but certainly not least, Judith Gilbert sent me this picture of her Saigon Scarf, still on the needles. I would like to wrap up in this one too!
If you are interested in knitting either The Veil of Isis or The Saigon Scarf, you can find company at my YahooGroup or on Ravelry. You can link to my YahooGroup on the left hand side of the blog. If you are on Ravelry, you can find people knitting Isis here:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-veil-of-isis/people

I will be back with a look at what is on my needles, and some fine show-and-tell, later in the week. Until that time, knit on!

The Fiber Frenzy Report from New York State Sheep and Wool Festival 2007

So let's start with the serious stuff. Deep fried pickles? My friend Jane tells me she had deep fried Twinkies at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, and they were scrumptious. I can almost imagine that, but pickles? Am I too much of a New Yorker to deep fry my pickles? I think so...
Here is Isis, languishing with her second place ribbon. She looks fetching, yes? She was slightly wounded, but upon looking closely at the piece who beat her out for first place in her class, she grudgingly conceded that the best lace knitting won out.
I understand this piece is a design from A Gathering of Lace. It is knit in very fine Merino yarn and I am totally embarrassed to say I forgot to write the knitter's name down. If any of you know her name, please leave it in my comments. (Melody Parker Navarez is her name, I just found it; added 8:30pm) It is some high-end gossamer knitting.
The edging pattern is lovely. I need to buy me that book! It is one of the few lace books I don't have and I don't know why...

Not to be totally without blue, I did win a blue ribbon in another class, for my take on Evelyn Clark's Estonian scarf design. It appears the knitting judges liked cobweb-weight yarn this year. The yarn I used is from YarnTreehouse, and is one of the Chinese wool lace yarns with very long color repeats.
More blue, I show you the winner in the crochet class, made by my good friend Mary Harrington. Way to go! This is a delicious alpaca yarn. It looks even better on a person, if you can imagine that.
And last but not least, the blue ribbon in the youth class went to my lovely daughter, for her weaving. That kid can really weave, and her color sense is pretty good too. The fibers are a mix of cotton, wool and silk.
The weather was spectacular, the crowds were enthusiastic and the selection of goodies was as expected; tempting...Later this week I'll post with pictures of MY new goodies and knitting progress. Until then, knit on!

Yahoogroup it is...

The poll deadline is not here yet, but the numbers have spoken. The Yahoogroup will be a focused group to knit The Veil of Isis and other BadCatDesigns. Most people want to knit Isis, but other designs are fine too. I will copy all the Isis files to the file section of the list in the next week or two. There already are several lists for lace knitters to chat on, so this will be mostly knitting and minimal off-topic stuff. If you want to join us, send an email request here:
BadCatDesigns-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
I'll moderate lightly and it won't be intensive tutorials. Just some low key support!

Wrap it up!

Just some Veil of Isis house keeping here! If you are new to the party and interested in knitting Isis:
1) Read all the posts (including the comments) with The Veil of Isis label.
2) Print all the instructions in these posts and read through them.
3) If you leave me questions in the comment section, be sure to include an email address so I can reply. Otherwise I will reply in the comment section (which I will do anyway, because if one person has the question I imagine other people do too!)
4) I would consider opening a Yahoo group if there are enough people interested in knitting The Veil of Isis who would like a focused group to knit with. I put up a poll on the left side of the blog, so take it if you are interested!

The veil is lifted...

Here she is, as promised. The light wasn't great today, so you can't really appreciate the beads. I'll take better pictures when the light and location are just right. In the mean time, these pictures show the basics.
The shape is a square with rounded corners. As a shawl, it is best worn with one corner folded over to make a collar. The beads give her a decent amount of weight and therefore drape.
I am leaving you with one more page of notes, where I review the materials I actually used and my blocking instructions. I can imagine this as a wedding veil, in cobweb silk and beads only in the border. I can imagine this as a christening shawl, in fingering weight cashmere without the beads. I can imagine this as a bedspread, in sport weight cotton without the beads.
My final comments are to bring us back to the original idea of starting with a simple stitch pattern and making a design. If you recall, the stitch pattern The Veil of Isis is based on is just a few rows and very straightforward. With some basic manipulation, we got that simple pattern to grow in a very organic way. I hope you enjoyed the process as much as I have.

I haven't decided what new project we will work on, but there will be another process project next month. I will post about what is on my needles and in my kitchen in a few days. In the mean time knit on!

The Home Coming

I didn't finish Isis before I left last week. I had hoped to take a new (and smaller) project on my carry-on only trip, so I agonized about taking Isis or forsaking her to finish when I returned. I gave in to my deep yearning to finish, and took her along. Those last few rows were sleep-inducing long. I knit a little, but slept most of the way to London. I started the final cast-off at Heathrow and finished it on the second leg of my trip, from London to Alexandria, Egypt...and it hit me. Isis was born as we landed in Alexandria, as the sun was setting. She was home. It was meant to be.

As I folded her up I realized I had lost my one stitch marker. Silver and amethyst. Probably on the New York to London plane or at Heathrow. The flight was British Air and if anyone finds it passing through London let me know!

Here she is, after a cool bath. I soaked her for about 60 minutes, to make sure the fiber was really wet before I blocked her. She didn't need to be washed, but if she did, I would have done it at this point.
I rolled her in a towel to remove as much water as I could before starting the pinning process. I block on my living room floor and I use a large bed sheet on my ancient Persian rug. I can't do much damage, because the rug is already pathetic. I use stainless steel T-pins.
I blocked out the corners first and used three pins per corner as this detail shot shows. I blocked each of the corners, making sure the lines that run from the center out to each corner are even. I did this by eye, but you can also use a yardstick.
After blocking out each corner, I blocked the center point along each edge. You will notice that the border forms points at each"flower" which each become a place to put a T-pin as you block.
Here she is blocking until tomorrow. I will try to keep LucyFur off by putting another thin sheet over Isis until she is dry. I will post some better pictures and my final notes over the weekend.

I will also post some travel pictures when I can unload them from my cell phone. I didn't take the good camera in the interest of keeping my load light. And you are thinking "If she finished Isis before she even got to Africa, what else did she knit while she was away?" All in good time...

Chart glitch???

So I can't tell why, but when I checked the chart I posted yesterday, I noticed a line of decreases on the smaller chart was gone! Where it went I can't say...it is on my original chart, but the conversion to a jpg file (so I could post it here on the blog) scared the decreases away. Go figure...

I am leaving later today directly from work, so won't have another chance to update things until I get home. I hope those decreases stay put this time!

And another thing! The row numbering appears to be off (thanks Susie.) There should not be a row 16, and so there are 31 rows in the border and not 29. Just pretend I can actually count...

And in case you want a chart key...

I refuse to leave you without the information you need to keep knitting without me! I am off to Africa. My dad gave me this cool book...
Until next week...

Time is not on my side...

I knit when I should have been sleeping. I knit when I should have been packing. I knit at all my meetings. I knit in the car (but not when I was driving.) I didn't finish. I can only try to describe the length of the rows right now, when I say that I have four rows left and I haven't finished packing.

I said to my daughter "I have to finish Isis, make dinner, pack and change the cat's litter box. Which isn't getting done?" She said "Dinner?" A girl after my own heart, I tell you! Alas, she was wrong.

So here we are...I will have a finished picture, blocked and all, next weekend. I show you the border progress and what is left. I used almost all of three skeins of my yarn. It is possible I will just dip into the fourth skein, but I don't think so. Stay tuned on that. I am on my last beaded row and still have some beads remaining. I am posting the final charts with confidence that they work well. Chart D:1 of the border is the continuation of chart A:2. Chart D:2 is the continuation of charts C, A:1, C.

Enjoy! I will be back in New York on 9/20/07 and post again on 9/21/07 or round and about there...Peace.

Vacation is ending...

and I have a long list of things to do. Today is my last day to relax before the whirlwind begins. I canned some local heirloom tomatoes. I caught the BadCat (also relaxing) on Isis. I knit more Isis...and here is where I am today! Until tomorrow...

The Veil of Isis page three clarification!

It thrills me that people are paying attention! Susie is keeping me honest once again. On the original third installment, my item 11 instructions were confused by the fact that I got stuck in a chart vortex. I hope the added page posted today pulls me out...until later, knit on!

Swatching for The Veil of Isis border: concept 1

These pictures give you an idea of what I am thinking about doing with the border designs. This swatch shows one corner. I didn't place any beads yet, which I will along the top of the "flowers." The central "flower" motif will be repeated along the sides, with smaller "bud" motifs on either side of each corner. I haven't decided if this is what we'll use yet. Feel free to send me comments, pro and con. I'll post more of my progress later this week. I am on the final sequence through the charts. Knit on!

The Veil of Isis Chart B correction

So after putting the schematic together and exchanging a few emails with people who had questions, I realized that I left the "corner stitch" on chart B, even though it had already been used after Chart A:1 was completed the first time (at row 17) and restarted at the very corner stitch that should not have been on Chart B! Use this corrected chart. Most of you did not get caught up on this, but just in case some of you stumbled at this glitch, I hope this moves you on.