This and that

[frualeydis]

I sewed some on the inner ceiling for my pavilion yesterday and also made most of a modern skirt. I have 20 cm hemming, the zipper and the lining to do. it is a normal straight skirt with three panels front and three panels back, except that there are c. 10 cm high and 10 cm wide triangular gussets inserted in each seam which makes the skirt flare out at knee level. I got the idea from a Burda magazine.
I got some more channels sewn on the pink silk corset while I was at riding school with Vendela. (I also cleaned the hoofs of a horse which I haven't done for at least twenty years.) I have also sewn the trim on one of the long hanging sleeves on my green silk bliaut and started on the other sleeve.
On saturday I also tried knitting the pattern for a lace shawl that myralea directed me to. I can say that it will take loong time. It uses needles number five and I'm not used to so thick needles, they feel clumsy and I have problems getting the point inside the loops, especially when I'm knitting two stitches together. I will probably have to knit even looser and I hope it gets better with practice.

Now I have just had 2 hours lecture on Greece and Rome. It went all right, but I talked too long about ancient Greece and had to hurry at the end. I have trouble getting back to "normal" work after teaching, but I guess I can do some reading and write more tomorrow.
It's just that I'd much rather fantasize about all the fabric I want to buy.

Comments

lace shawl and knitting needles

[myralea.livejournal.com]

do you use metal or wooden knitting needles? if you have wooden ones, you can always try to make them more pointy (without being sharp, aow!) with some fine sanding paper. then polish the surface with some polishing cloth! it usually helps a lot.

other than than i can only recommend Gepards rosewood/ebony needles. i know, one might think i'm an icky knitting snob. but believe me, it makes a HUGE difference to your knitting, if the points are perfectly pointy without being painfully sharp (!) and also if the knitting runs smoothly along the needle. this is especially evident when using circular needles. in this case there are also good Gepard needles as well as a type that is not so good. one does not want the needles with large metal encasements, one WANTS the ones with the tiny tiny gold plated encasings... really, this makes a bigger difference than one might possibly think. i was highly surprised when i changed from one set to the other on the very same project!

knitting with bad knitting needles are like sewing with a blunt and dirty needle!

excited you've started knitting the shawl! i put mine on hold for a few days, and knitted on the 19th Cbodice. but am back at it again since all my yarn is finished :(
what colour did you choose
/m

[frualeydis.livejournal.com]

I bought the yarn today, the try-out was only with some other alpaca yarn I had lying around. It's very baby pink. I was hoping for a softer, more muted pink, but this will be pretty too. I have a lot of other projects but I will probably start during the weekend. It's just casting on 299 stitches. Sigh.

Eva