I'm not sure what the next challenge should be. I really should finish the Galaga hat. I'm still working on the Kyoto (finished with the body pieces, now about a quarter of the way through the two sleeves). But having partially finished things has never stopped be from beginning something new before.

One possibility is to do something lacy taking advantage of the color properties of Noro's Kureyon sock yarn. I couldn't leave Wild & Woolly (in Lexington, MA - my favorite yarn shop) without it because these colors latched on to my magpie self and refused to let go.

I've been told that some folk think this yarn is too twisted and just a little bit harsh for socks. While not Regia smooth, it's not particularly harsh to me. I suspect that like most Noro yarns, while they never achieve Merino softness, washing will make a tremendous difference. And for my purposes, rewinding to reduce twist and in the process increasing loft, isn't optimal. I like my lace yarns to be tightly twisted.

But there remains the question of what to do with it. Something directional might work well with the repeat lengths, but so many other people have done Entrelac in these yarns. The same method I used for the Kureopatora's Snake might be an idea - upping the number of stitches across to yield the same finished dimensions in the smaller gauge - but I want to do something else that's more airy. Mating lacy stitches with the riot of hues is always a big challenge because textures tend to fight with the patterns produced by the yarn's transition among colors. I'll have to do more thinking on this one.

My other looming temptation is one of two tightly twisted little knots of Malabrigio Merino laceweight. I bought two - one in Emerald Blue (blues and teals) and one in Amoroso (a stunning garnet/cherry blend). I wound the blue into a ball last night.

The super-soft single-ply yarn relaxed and got considerably more lofty in the process - a bit of a disappointment for me, but not fatal. It just means I will have to use a much larger needle than I originally anticipated. Also some teasing apart was necessary because the thin strands were in the process of mating with each other, and some were slightly fulled into their neighbors. Thankfully I did not have to break the yarn to tame it. This slightly variegated yarn presents a smaller color challenge than the Noro, but a larger one due to skein length. 470 yards should be more than enough for a small scarf. To be sure that I will not run out mid-project, I will need to work it differently than the pieces I've been doing. I would revert to the method I used for Kombu - first knitting a narrow width of edging (the bottom), picking up stitches along the top and then knitting both the body and the left and right edgings at the same time. That way I could see how much I had left at all times, and maximize the scarf's length by continuing until I had just enough yarn left to do the small strip of edging at the top. Or perhaps I'd chart out something with two decorative ends and included borders...

In the mean time, going back to a single color world - I can report that Elder Daughter is making excellent progress on her Walker Learn to Knit Afghan Book project. She's using Cascade 220, all various greens and creams, bought one skein at at time from the orphan end of dyelot bin. She is going more or less in order, with skips ahead dictated by how much of what color she has on hand at any one time. I suspect that she'll soon start improvising because she's beginning to accumulate a stash of little leftover balls too small to use even for the book's two-tone squares. Here's the collection to date:

and a few close-ups (unblocked):

1 2 3
4 56

So far she's covered basic knit and purl (4 above), twisted stitches (1), simple directional decreases (2), yarn-overs (2), simple increases, cables (5), mosaic knitting (3,6). All in easy to digest aliquots and explained well enough that she's been able to noodle it out all on her own. To be fair, I did show her a couple of tricks for 1x1 twisted stitch cables, but that was just a hands-on for the same methods described in her book. If you're an experiential learner and you're looking for a nice survey course in basic knitting, you might benefit from this classic bit of instruction. My only criticism of it is that it was written before Walker moved to charting - a vital skill these days as more and more resources rely heavily on that technique.

Needless to say, I'm quite proud of Elder Daughter and her ongoing project.

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As promised yesterday, pix of the Doodle Scarf - finished and visible on a light-color background:

The whole thing blocked out to be nine feet long, and point to point, about 17 inches across. I combined lace patterns from the Duchrow series (as described before), one edging and one insertion strip. I mitered the corners on the fly, not bothering to graph them out until after the fact. I am quite pleased with the way it turned out, and will probably keep this one for myself.

There's some clear congruity to be seen among patterns in these books. Here are some other things I've done from insertions and edgings adapted from these books - another scarf and the big shawl from laceweight, and two baby blankets worked at DK gauge:

(A couple of the edgings were cribbed from Heirloom Knitting). I seem to have taken my inspiration so far from the family of diamond-based patterns. There's lots of other stuff in there, including some in-the-round pieces. I think it's time to branch out and try some of the patterns based other motifs.

Is anyone else out there playing with the Duchrow books? Or combining other older or traditional patterns into original lacy pieces? Or might be interested if I were to issue some or all of these in a leaflet?

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I'm still chugging my way through my blocking pile. Here's my Jang Print 'o Wave piece, finished and blocked. I admit I could have done a better job blocking the thing, but it's not horrible.

Due to the yarn and needle size I used, it ended up being stole sized rather than conforming to typical scarf dimensions. As I noted in my earlier posts, the endorsed rate of attachment is a bit ruffly. I prefer a flatter piece. The corners however turned out better than expected. The ease factor I used was (for the most part) enough to flare nicely around the corner in my non-stretchy linen, but "going round" rather than mitering does make the ends of the stole flare out a bit. If I were to knit this again, I'd work out a complementary mitered or fixed piece corner instead of just easing the edging around.

If you are thinking of working this pattern, too, I did post a minor bit of errata for the original pattern. My own Jang Wave will be headed out as a present for a family member.

And on presents - a great pal of mine, co-conspirator, sometimes employer/sometimes co-worker/sometimes employee, fellow Kim, leader of the pack, and all around kindred spirit deserves a pair of fingerless mittens:

These were adapted from my previously shared Fingerless Whatevers pattern. Although they've missed the worst of winter's weather, they're on their way.

The blocking joy never stops. (Perhaps that's why I put it of forever). Here's the most current piece, pinned out and drying:

This is the Black Lace Doodle scarf I was working on a month or so ago. To be fair, it's not entirely black, it's more of a deep gray/tobacco color, knit from leftovers from my big Woven Diamonds shawl. Better pix away from the checky blocking sheet in the next post (promise!)

Finally - a private note to friend-from-elder-days, Wendy. I tried leaving a comment on your blog about your offer of the ancient photo, to no avail. I'd love to see the thing. I might even have one of you (of similar vintage) in trade. All my best to the family, two and four-footed, alike.

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As you can see from the traditional String blurry pictures, the Zig-Zag Baby Blanket is done. Although it's acrylic, I blocked it out to stretch the lace and flatten out the edging. And I spare you from squinting only at the Peter Max image of the thing mid-block on my checked sheets:

Now you can see what I was talking about in the last note - I took the single zig-zag insertion framed by diamonds as presented in the text, used one column of diamonds as a center "spine" and mirrored another zig-zag on the other side. I also improvised a matching edging adapted from the main design's zig-zag and quad eyelet motifs. The thing is a square approximately 37 inches across from point tip to point tip - a useful size for a travel or basket blanket, although at tad small for a crib blanket. It's knit in a DK weight yarn and sports a stockinette gauge of about 5.5 stitches per inch. Stitches used are knit, purl, K2tog, SSK, and YO. If you can manage them and read a chart, you can knit this thing. (While keeping place in the admittedly large chart can be a minor challenge, given sufficient sticky notes or magnetic bars, that problem is very manageable.) If anyone is interested in making one like this I'll consider writing up and posting a pattern. One caveat - this piece is a gift and will be leaving the house within the next two weeks. Requests made after that time will have to rely entirely on my shaky memory.

Because I had the blocking sheet out and had some room, I grabbed another piece from my done-and-waiting pile and blocked it, too. Here's Red Doily #3, knit last year, pinned out and presented done (but with some ending off still on the horizon)

To embarrass myself, I went back through blog archives looking for when I knit this third red doily but didn't find it. I think was knitting this piece back in the fall of 2006, and it has been sitting in the blocking pile ever since. That's so long ago, I'm not sure where the pattern is from, but I think it might have been from Patterns for the Art of Lace Knitting: The Complete Works of Rachel Schnelling, compiled by Gloria Penning.

Only three more items in my to-block stack...

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