Monday, May 07, 2007

SunRay Saga

Once there were a few skeins of Highland Wool in Violet Heather. That wool wanted to be lace. But she was thick, a worsted in fact....could this wool ever dance and float with the breezes? The wool's knitter, a crafty bitch with years of knitting expertise, decided to try knitting lace once more.

Even though the knitter had other chores that she ignored....(like painting the decking)...she cast on....with huge size 10 Brittany Birch needles...for the points you know. Soon, there were two repeats...and the beautiful SunRay pattern was beginning to shape up.



The knitter filled her straight needles and prepared for the transfer to her KnitPicks Options circular size 10s....but sometime during the transfer process, a Brittany was...well...sat upon...and a painful break ensued....



Not to be swayed from her mission, the knitter enlisted supervision....



Very close supervision in fact....



But there were interuptions...



Determined...the knitter knit on....keeping to the straight and narrow in every effort to avoid another Kiri debacle....and eventually, she finished....



The wool was stretched......and pinned....and threaded through in a form of blocking torture well known to Russian lace knitters....the picots were perfection....

EDITED: CLICK ON PHOTOS FOR LARGER VIEW ON BLOCKING!..
All I did was pin out my top to the width i wanted/liked...stretch my bottom point out to the length i wanted, then threaded a chibi with scrap yarn and starting with the edge point picot, threaded through each 5th picot. I then pinned out the threaded picot to make a point on the edging. Really simple and took 20-30 minutes tops! Truly Easy Peasy and no need for blocking wires and things like that, although i'm sure that would be fast and easy peasy too!



And at last....she was ready to rest.....



and 24 hours later....Voila! Thank you SK...for a wonderful pattern!



Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up!



Aaaahhh SunRay....I love you!

10 comments:

Suzann said...

Yeeeeeeeeeehaaaaa, Lisa it is so beautiful. And the color looks perfect on you. Love it, love it love it. I hope no one injured on the Brittany incident. You have inspired me to go back to my SunRay again.
You did a great job blocking out the points.

Svetlana said...

Lisa, it's gorgeous! Great generous size and beautiful color!

Grace said...

OH MY Lisa, I am so proud of you, its incredibly gorgeous, I love it, it looks wonderful on you, I can't wait to make anothe sunray, I finished the first one and gave it away immediately never had time to savor it but I could look at yours allday! I love it!!!

Joan said...

Those picots ARE perfection! How did you block them? I had a nasty time with mine. Huge congrats--you've transformed worsted wool into delicate lace!

benne said...

Lisa,

Fabulous story and beautiful shawl. The color is fantastic for you. Lovely, lovely knitting!

sk said...

Oh Lisa, your front view, lovely!

kellygirl said...

I love it! What a gorgeous color on you. Loved your narrative too. I'm curious about the blocking of the picots too--what did you string through them and how did you keep it taut? Awesome job and great photography.

junior_goddess said...

It looks beautiful. Must have been hard work for that supervisor.

jayne said...

Ahhhh, what a fabulous post. Love the pix and the story. (esp the photo called close supervision)

What do you mean "eventually"?? Girl, you knit that shawl in like, five minutes!!

Excellent blocking. I'll send mine to you, LOL.

smariek said...

Your shawl is gorgeous. I have never seen blocking that way with the yarn threaded through; I'll have to try that sometime.