Presenting Lily Ofthevalley

This is the time that I finished knitting Lily last night

Here she is free from the needles.

For blocking shawls I use the Orenburg Method so I’ll describe it the best way I can.

With a yarn or darning needle I thread polyester cording through each point. You should always put the needle the same way through each point. I always go down through the hole.

Make sure you have enough cording so that when you stretch the shawl it is a long enough length for the entire circumfrence.

I get my cording from the area of a discount store where they sell clothes line. I just buy the thinnest cording they have available.

I have now run my cording around the outside of the shawl and I’m heading to the laundry room.

Here she is going into the very hot water with a little bit of Kukaburra Wool Wash.

I have to let her soak for a while. not only to get out a year’s worth of dirt but also…

I need to get this kid back in bed. He got up when I had the final 8 stitches to graft together and he’s been following me around.

He’s asleep and I have her pinned to the floor.

She measures 74 inches across the top length and 57 inches in length down the center.

Here’s an up close shot of the bottom corner all pinned out.

I lost half of my T-Pins so I had to use my dressmaker pins. They worked just fine.

I’m done. I’m going to bed. I’m exhausted.

Here she is this morning being modeled by the
beautiful Miss Chelsea.

The ball of yarn on top is the one I just used. And for comparison of how much was used, the bottom ball of yarn is the same stuff, but a full ball.

The details of this project are:

Lily of the Valley from Knitter’s Summer 2004
Designed by Galena Khmeleva. I used a different border than what is called for in the pattern.
The yarn is from Skaska Designs Laceweight 30/2 Silk / Angora Rabbit (55%/45%) 100g
There were 1540 yards on the hank. I used size 0 metal needles which started out their lives as double points. I heated up one end on the burner of the stove and melted it into a vintage plastic button with a shank. (Something I learned from Galina)

I started this shawl last August. I put it down for several months and picked it back up seriously I think around the end of May or early June. When i started out and picked up all of the stitches along the first border it would take me a little over an hour to complete one row so it was very slow going to begin with. By May or June it was down to an hour for 2 rows which was a little more encouraging. It did get better though since you lose one stitch every other row and the pattern became ingrained in my mind.

I can’t tell you how much I love this thing. I am definitely going to enter it at Rhinebeck. It is so light and I can’t even convey how soft it is to you. Everyone will just have to visit me and touch for yourself. Yes, that is an invitation.

Now to decide what to do next. Finish the Wing Shawl from Shadow Knitting? I’m about halfway. Maybe start the coat/long sweater I promised Brittany last winter? Start the Tina shawl that I was given from my lace swap pal? Finish My Fair Isle Sweater from Jameison? How about the drop stitch sweater I started last fall? How about the pain-in-the-butt ribbed sweater I started for Chelsea 3 years ago? I can’t decide so tonight I’ll grab whatever’s convenient and go for it while I decide on the next big thing.

By the way, before I went to bed to knit last night I made these. I woke up early and got them out of the fridge for their final rising and baked them this morning.

They definitely are better if you do both rises on the same day that you bake them but nobody seems to be complaining.