Wednesday 17 August 2011

WIP Wednesday - actual progress!

I've actually made progress on things this week!

Ok, so I'm lazy. This is Sunday's picture. I haven't taken a new one.
Jane Austen Shawl is motoring along nicely. I can work on it almost without looking, which is a real step up for me in terms of crochet skill. I'm loving everything about this project; the colour, the feel of the yummy alpaca/silk yarn, the speed it works up, everything. Yesterday evening I ran out of my first skein, halfway through the 23rd row (out of 32). The second skein isn't wound yet and I'm not sure I've got the time to do it in the next few days, so this one may be taking a seat on the back burner for a little while.

Again with the laziness, this is an old progress shot too. Sorry.
My Easy Lace Stole is actually going really well. It sat unworked for some time, as it was my go-to knit for roleplay night and we haven't roleplayed in a few weeks as people have been on the other side of the world (damn them, and their holidays!). But this week I picked it back up, and surprised myself with the ease at which I got back into the rhythm of knitting it. I know the pattern off by heart, can recognise just by looking at it which row I'm on (although I am not trusting that entirely, and keeping on with my row counter just to make sure). It's now 10 inches long and growing fast.

And a third really lazy photo in a row! Go laziness!
Victorian Scarf could be considered finished, as the pattern says to do 18 repeats, which I have done. But it seems a bit short, so I've decided to keep going for a little while. I only used 30g out of the 50g ball, so I've got plenty of spare yarn to just keep on going until I think it's long enough. It only just wraps around my neck as it is (36" long, unblocked), so I want it longer. I'm not sure how much it will grow when blocked either, as it's a cotton/acrylic blend. Mostly I think it will just even out and get a bit wider, so knitting it longer has to be the only answer.

Now, on to exciting things. I mentioned on Sunday that one of the reasons I didn't instantly dive back into my existing WIPs once I'd finished reading A Dance With Dragons was because I started designing my own intarsia charts for the various heraldic devices of the major noble houses. I have shared some sneak previews of my initial graph paper charts on Twitter this week, but I doubt all of you will have seen that. So, here's a couple of snaps (apologies for poor quality, they are iPhone photos):

House Tully and House Stark
House Lannister and House Baratheon
For some of the houses, I've been able to find images already charted that I've used for inspiration, but the rest of them have been designed from scratch (the House Greyjoy kraken was a bit of a challenge, as was the House Targaryen three-headed dragon). The charts are all done, and I've got a swatch on the go where I'm testing my gauge, measurements and the chart for the name STARK.

I've not done any intarsia work before, so this is going to be a rather exciting experiment. I'm going to do the blanket in Stylecraft Special DK acrylic as it's cheap and comes in a startling array of colours. I need 11 different colours to do this, and I've already picked them out from the Stylecraft range. Next step will be ordering the yarn, and testing out the charts for real.

I've also downloaded some free cross-stitch charting software, to help me generate colour charts for ease of working. If it all works out, I'm hoping to write up the patterns properly and upload them to Ravelry. Although, because of the sheer amount of work involved, I don't think these will be free patterns.

For more WIPs (with more up-to-date photos!), head on over to Tami's!

23 comments:

  1. A variation of projects you have going.  I love the purple.  Charting designs isn't easy, I don't blame you for charging for the patterns.  I used to chart quilt squares onto graph paper for cross stitch back in the 80's, no computer programs back then.

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  2. Just one thing about the intarsia charts. You may want to use knitting chart paper that takes into account that knitting stitches are not square but rectangular. They are taller than they are wide, so if you create a chart using square paper, when you knit them up your intarsia will look stretched.

    You can download knitting chart paper that corresponds to your gauge from knitonthenet.com (at least I think it's there).

    I maybe preaching to the choir here, but I thought I should mention it as the photos look they are designed on normal graph paper.

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  3. Ah yes, you make a very good point! However, in this case I think I will get away with using normal graph paper as this blanket will be crocheted, not knit, so the stitches are more square. Certainly my test swatch using the letters is looking ok at the moment.

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  4. Oh great. My brain must have skipped the word crochet! Glad it's coming out well, as this is a huge project. I look forward to seeing photos as you progress.

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  5. I love the Jane Austen shawl :)

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  6. Wow that blanket is going to be amazing! And Stylecraft Special DK is an excellent choice (not just for the colours, but it's also really quite soft yet hardwearing). 

    Your knitting is so neat and even, love how the easy lace stole is looking and the colour is so pretty :)

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  7. I love the Jane Austen Shawl. Good luck with your blanket! I hope it all works out easily for you.

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  8. LOVE your Jane Austin!

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  9. I love all your lace work.  I'm overwhelmed just reading about your all your projects.

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  10. The purple color is lovely :-) I've made the Victorian scarf, and in the end, I felt it was too narrow ....

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  11. I had a nose through the finished projects on Rav yesterday when deciding what to do, and quite a few people have modded it to make it wider. I think at this width it fills a neat hole in my scarf collection though, as I don't have many skinny scarves!

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  12. I agree that the scarf looks a little short.  I think it's a good idea to keep going.  And the  Noble House charts are awesome.  I just really hope that certain characters finally meet a painful demise in the fourth book.

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  13. Wow, that Jane Austen shawl is just lovely, and the colour of your yarn sets it off beautifully :)

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  14. I think your right to keep going with the victorian scarf, it is so pretty! I really love the Jane Austen shawl too, the pattern and colour are gorgeous!

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  15. Paula @ KnitandSeek17 August 2011 at 15:13

    I'm so impressed that ALL of your WIPs are lace -- My brain's limit seems to be one of those (or less) at a time.  The charts look outstanding as well.  Go you!  I'm looking forward to seeing them all crocheted up.

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  16. the shawls are so beautiful! i'm not sure my crochet skills are up to it, but i just queued the jane austen one. it is breathtaking in that purple yarn you're using.

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  17. You'd be amazed at how easy it is. If you can chain and double crochet (US) then you'll be fine!

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  18. They might all be lace, but they are easy lace! I don't think I could manage multiple insanely complicated lace shawls at once!

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  19. Beautiful, well done.  Even though I saw these pictures before, I can imagine that they have grown.

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  20. Love the charts, well done! Looking  forward to seeing them knitted up

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  21. Can you post the website of that free, cross-stitchin' software?  I'm trying to design now and then and boy it's a  pain to transfer a drawing to graph paper.
    Your projects are coming along nicely :O)!  Great job you're doing.

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  22. The yarn for that Jane Austen Shawl sounds so amazing!!!!

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  23. Any chance that Lannister chart is on Ravelry yet? :)

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