Wednesday 22 March 2006

Lady Eleanor, she is finished


Pattern: Lady Eleanor by Kathleen Johnson from Scarf Style
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden colourway 88, 9 balls, from Angel Yarns
Needles: US 7, 24" bamboo circular, Webs own brand
Dimensions: unblocked 45 cm x 120 cm, 50 cm x 150 cm blocked
Gauge: unblocked 8 st, 15 rows = 4cm x 5.5 cm (i.e. one rectangle), blocked 8 st, 15 rows = 5 cm x 7 cm (i.e. one rectangle)

I wanted to take you some beautiful photos as it's been a glorious day today, but her ladyship was not being very ladylike today and refused to perch nicely on a shrub, so hopefully I'll be able to take some after she has been wrapped and given away (and I have worked out how to use the timer mode on my camera).

I owe many thanks to my neighbours who lent me their spare room to block her in (as well as to Ashley for suggesting the colourway). I wanted to finish knitting this weekend, block in my own spare room and get Rich to bring her when he comes to Mum's birthday party, but happily my sister cane to stay on Saturday night and took me on a long architectural walk on Sunday, so Plan B was put into action and I crept across the road yesterday with an armful of towels, my stainless steel pins and a bucket holding the damp heap of knitting.

I'm not sure if the shawl is long enough; I thought it might grow more than it did on blocking and eagerly finished at the end of the ninth ball when I found I could make purple triangles at the end to match those at the beginning. I'll see what Mum thinks when I give it to her and maybe unravel a bit and knit onwards. She also isn't very well blocked as you can see but I was eager not to take up too much of my neighbours's time, and I haven't added a fringe either because Mum's not really a fringey kind of person (when I once suggested knitting her a Clapotis, she told me it was 'too dramatic', and she thinks lace of any kind is for old ladies), so I'm going to give it to her as it is and see if she'd like me to change anything.

In the meantime she is mostly finished in time for Mum's birthday, so all is well and I can think about knitting something else and my coursework for a little while.

4 comments:

Ashley said...

Yay for finishing! It looks lovely, and I like finishing with the same color triangles that you started with. you mom will love it!

Re: the length, if she does feel tha it's too short I'd recommend giving it another block before you start knitting again. I didn't have any open spaces long enough to block mine out to the length it seemed to want to be, so I folded it in half and pinned the daylights out of it. Took a little longer to dry, butit still went pretty quickly.

Elizabeth said...

Great job! I think it looks lovely - and I'm sure your mom will be very pleased.

Marie said...

She is absolutely beautiful! What a wonderful present! I hope your mom has a lovely birthday!
Kudos to you too for finishing it on time. (Unlike yours truly here who just gave up :P Hurray for there being addtional days to celebrate moms, that's all I have to say)

Anonymous said...

Your lady eleanor is amazing...I love those soft colors. Truly stunning. I kind of like it without the fringe, too, it makes it something that can be worn more on a daily basis.