Lace and drinks

No, I don't recommend drinking and knitting, especially not lace. When I was preparing to write this post I discovered that all the lace shawls I'm working on have colours named after drinks. The first two are finished, and this is how yummy they looked before blocking:















Let's start with the green one. It is designed by Jane Sowerby and it is a variation on a pattern from her book Victorian Lace. This version appeared in Knitter's Magazine summer 2008. A free version will be on their website, but it isn't up yet. The original is knitted in Zazu by Twisted Sisters in a colour called Blue Curacao, but I'm more familiar with the green version of the drink so I made it in a nameless green lacewool from Fyberspates that is hereby named Green Curacao. As you can see it is very thin and transparent, but the yarn feels strong and when I wrap it around my neck it is warm enough. I like the shawl and it was fun to make, but there is one problem. I knitted it during the Olympics, from opening until the closing cermony. Then it got stuck because the ruffle meant there were 1925 (!) stitches to bind off, and with added picots there were 2053 actual stitches. Then a thread had to be sewn through all the picots for blocking... I don't think I will make more ruffles for a while.















The next drink is Sangria, which tastes very good on a warm Spanish night. Red wine with slices of oranges is also a fiery colourway so I thought it was just right for Icarus from Interweave Knits. The yarn is Suri Blue from Fleece Artist and it turned out to be more pink and less red than what it looked like on the skein, but it is still beautiful and so soft. This was all quick and easy and since this will be a Christmas present I might make one for me as well. I used larger needles, 4mm, and the shawl measures over 2m across the top, which made it almost to big for the bed I use for blocking.















Last night I cast on for my third drink. This is Rosé by Färgkraft, a soft pink dyed on a light grey yarn. When I bought it I thought it would be an Icarus, but when it came home it wanted to be Hyrna Herborgar from Thrihyrnur og langsjöl instead. I've loved this pattern since I got it in 1991, but I had a bit of a problem with the table cloth look of the pattern and it was hard to find a yarn that could counteract that. I think this will be just right, and it will look great with my coat. The skulls in the background is my table cloth in the kitchen, left from my son's Halloween/birthday party last week. I hadn't planned the picture, but it is sort of right with the pink and the lace.