3 More rounds done since yesterday—but
a plain round, a pattern round, and a plain rounds. Which hardly
advances the pattern at all! Today, the final round of the smaller
feather will be done, and no longer part of the chart. Then there
are slow but steady decreases for the remaining rounds of chart 3. These small changes in stitch count really help--the count has just dipped below 800!
So, since there isn't much to
show...some feed back from a comment.
Gayle (6/7/12) commented about
blocking...
Yes, indeed, it will be a whole 'nother
project. Because I not only intend to block it, but to hand paint
the finished shawl!
First I have no cat or children, and
can just clear some space in the living room—and put down some
newspaper. Top that with a drop cloth, and the drop cloth with my
big (but thin) styrene foam insulation blocks--(each is designed to
fit between 16 inch centered studs—I have six (and 6 more wouldn't
be a big amount of money ($10?)so if I do need a bigger than 60
inches, (and looking through finished projects—I think I will! Most
are blocked to about 7 feet (84inches/ 2 meters) across!) I have
both the room (but just!) and ability to buy more of these blocks.
It's so thin and fine the wool should dry overnight (if not in just a
few hours!) and I can manage to block off the a portion of the living
room for that long. I might have to slide across the couch to move from one side of the living room to the other--(since
there won't be an inch of floor space left uncovered!) but I should
have enough floor space.
I have a thousand pins too.
(literally—several boxes labeled “200 pin count” and even if
the count is off by a pin or two...well I should have enough (the
final chart will have 120 feathers (points) so I figure I will need
about 720 pins--(or about 6 pins per point of the shawl)--I think I might need a padded finger cot (pushing in all those pins will get old, fast!)
Once the shawl is blocked (that is
pinned out) I will paint it with silk paint. I want the paint to
blur...so like water colors, I will work wet. If it is too hot, and
the wool drys out too quickly, I'll have a handy bottle of water to
spray the shawl. Silk paints are more expensive than simple dyes,
but they don't require heat to set them—so I think paint is the way
to go.
I want to add color to make it look
more like actually peacock feathers. I got the idea from this version--(which also has beads).That's a Ravely link--and may not work if your not on Ravelry.
OK—I am going to cheat. I plan to
make a small (6 inches by 8 inches or so) panel (for my purse) and
practice hand painting on it, before I go to work on the whole shawl.
The small palel will be on one side of a felted wool purse; the other side will covered with real peacock feathers (I have already bought 3 ready
made medallions for just this purpose). The lace panel –which will also likely feature some beads as well (no way I
was going to pre string 3 million bead and bead the shawl)—my hat
is off to the few knitters who also knit and beaded the thing! It will be bigger than the purse, and hang free. I just plan to made the pattern (with some blank space (stocking knit) in between to make a rectangle, not a wedge).
My Dr appointments went fast
yesterday—just a half dozen rounds worked on the gussets of May's
secret socks, but good reports all round. The Dr.'s scale was in
cohoots with mine, and too, registered no change in my weight—all
the other test yielded positive results.
