Blocked

Pictures of Icarus!

(Disclaimer: the pictures aren't great, due to a combination of poor lighting in my apartment, an uncooperative camera, my lack of a dark-colored towel to block on, a nosy cat and the fact that I was teetering on the edge of the bed to take the shots. But the lines in the shawl really are straight, I promise; they're distorted because of my weight on the bed the shawl's laid out on. And the yarn is actually a natural cream color, despite the fact that it looks almost gold in some of the pictures.)

Click on the pictures to see them bigger.


I couldn't get the whole thing in the shot ... I was too close. Darn my height (or lack thereof)!
I had to settle for the arched look on top in order to get the points pinned out correctly. If worst comes to worst, I'll spritz the top part with some water and re-block just that portion. I don't know. Maybe the scallops won't be noticeable when I unpin it, or maybe I'll even like them. We'll see.
I love how this picture really picks up the yarn's sheen. It's not that noticeable in real life, sadly, but it's still pretty.


Another shot showing off the silky sheen and the pretty points. (Yeah, so I like alliteration, so what?)


Detail of the bottom point. I thought this turned out especially well. Again, the points are even and the lines are straight when I'm not standing on the bed.


And the bottom from another angle, showing how the straight stockinette lines branch out into the feathers along the edge.

I'm pretty proud of this one. I love the way it turned out.

Vital statistics:
Pattern: MimKnits' Icarus, originally printed in Interweave Knits Summer 2006
Yarn: Jaggerspun Zephyr laceweight in white
Needles: Size 3 Knitpicks fixed 24" circular (nickle-plated)
Mods: Cut out two repeats of chart 1 because I'm only 4'10" and didn't want my shawl to look like it was eating me
Finished size: 60" across the top (My target size! Yay!)
Pros/cons: In general, I love this shawl. However, the yo4s in the next-to-last row were overkill, in my opinion. I understand that it makes it easier to block the points out, but even after tugging and adjusting as much as possible, I ended up with a big loop of yarn just hanging there on each point. (You yo4, and on the next row you purl into one loop and drop the other 3.) I'm not sure what I'll do about those loops yet, but the yo4 just made an excessively big, loose stitch. I think a double or triple yo would have worked just as well and wouldn't have left all that excess yarn hanging.

Now I have to find something to make with the leftover Zephyr. I definitely got my money's worth out of that cone. I bought it from Sarah's Yarns for $50, and so far, it's produced two stoles, a wedding garter and now Icarus. And I probably still have half a cone leftover. I definitely recommend it.

I'll try to get pictures of me wearing it eventually, but no promises. It's cold and snowy out there, and I'm cold-natured! Plus, I'm really not even a shawl person. I just wanted to knit this.

More photos and progress details on Ravelry.

FO!

Finished!

I finished pinning out Icarus at about 11:45 p.m., meaning I finished in about 3 weeks and 22 or 23 hours. I'm satisfied with that.

I'm also pretty satisfied with how the shawl turned out, too. It's exactly 60" across the top, which was my goal, and looks very pretty all stretched out there.

I'll get some pictures tomorrow before I unpin it.

Yay for FOs!

Now, on to Luke's gamer gloves/hat set. Which I'm already frustrated with because he decided the already-finished glove "doesn't feel right" even though he had previously given it his approval. Grrr. This is why I don't knit for my husband. He is way too indecisive. It would have nice to know that the glove's thumb gusset didn't feel right before I finished the rest of the stupid glove!

I just want to get this project out of the way so I can move on to the fun stuff. I ordered yarn for another hat and two sweaters today, and I have plans to order yarn for another shawl whenever the girl gets back in touch with me. And I have yarn stashed for a hat and gloves for myself. Plus I have to knit Zane a plush toy. I probably don't have the right yarn in stash for that, but psh, it's a toy ... Walmart yarn will do just fine, and I can pick that up any time.

Almost finished

I finished chart 4 of Icarus tonight. Just 4 rows of edging! I figure I can work at least 2 of those before bedtime tonight, the other 2 tomorrow, bind-off and wash/block on Tuesday. At the latest. Yay!

Icarus progress

I haven't blogged much about Icarus, but I've been posting occasional updates on Ravelry. I decided I needed at least one WIP post about the project, though, so here it is.

I just finished knitting row 8 of chart 3. That means I'm halfway through the chart. I have 8 more rows, then one more 24-row chart, then 4 rows of edging. Then I'll be done.

I cut out two repeats of the first chart. You are supposed to work the entire chart, then repeat the last 24 rows 5 times more. I only repeated those rows three additional times. This is a huge shawl. As written, the pattern makes a shawl that's 72" wide, which is way too big for a 4'10" girl. And my shawl got big fast. I was aiming for around 60" wide, and I think I overshot that. Even without the two extra repeats.

I guess we'll see once I finish it.

Reference pictures for those who may not have Ravelry or be familiar with the pattern can be found here and here as the book cover.

And mine, as of tonight, looks like this in crappy pictures taken with my webcam because I can't seem to find the real camera:



Close-up of the feathery portion:


I have to say, these rows are taking forever to knit now, but I am really enjoying the project overall. I love seeing the pattern emerge. I check it every other row to see if it's changed. And I can't wait to get it finished and wash and block it so I can move on to my next beautiful, exciting pattern.

I think it has finally happened, folks. I, product knitter extraordinaire, have been transformed. Now I knit more for process than product.

I probably won't even wear Icarus more than once, if even that. But that isn't the point, really. I love the way it looks!

Just an update

Jess and I are both working on the Icarus shawl as a mini KAL. I started first, but she's catching up quickly. As of yesterday, she was almost finished with her 3rd repeat. As of right now, I've just started my 5th repeat. I'm almost positive I'll be stopping and moving on after 5 full repeats (unless I change my mind when I get to the end). I'm not sure about her, but I think she'll probably end up cutting out one repeat as well, to conserve yarn.

I don't feel like hunting down my WIP photos to post them here, but I'll post photos later. In the meantime, we both have project pages on Ravelry (mine; hers)with all the pertinent details.

I will say that I'm impressed at how quickly this shawl is going. It's a laceweight shawl on size 3 needles. Every other row has 4 stitches more than the previous ones, so it grows pretty quickly. I'm already up to 400-something stitches per row, I think. But I just started on ... Jan. 11? And I feel like I'm nearing the end. I just have to finish this repeat, do one more partial repeat and work the edging. Granted, the edging is pretty big, but I still feel like the end is near.