Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Lyra

A while ago Lacis reprinted Lyra (that's Jane's - beautiful), a Herbert Niebling pattern that had become very rare and hence very expensive. Naturally, I had to have it. I started it a few weeks ago on a 2mm circular Addi that is three metres long. I snapped that up at the KCG last March, egged on by that arch enabler Sue, who, as it turns out, is also knitting Lyra.

I used Emily Ocker's circular start and I'm using the magic loop technique - no wrestling with a few teeny, tiny stitches on skinny (tt) dpns for me. A three metre long cable does mean that I have rather a lot of cable flapping about but as she grows things should settle down. The bonus is that she won't be all scrunched up (tt) on the needle and I'll be able to take some pictures so you can all see how sad and crumpled and just plain horrible lace knitting looks before blocking and then you can all marvel (as I do, every single time) at the transformation blocking brings about.

A close-up of the central flower:




Overview of the whole thing so far:



Here's the cable coming out at the side:



For some reason, it doesn't seem to pull the stitches so much if the cable crosses when it emerges (as you can just about see here).

The weather forecast was, in part, correct. It did, indeed, snow, just not quite so much as we had been led to believe (at least not here).

This was the back field yesterday, looking very grey and wintery:



and here it is today, looking bright and sunny:



Of course, the whole country just about ground to a halt and school was closed today. We have been revising Religious Education with #1 son. Net result? #1 daughter and I have a firm grasp of the seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church, #1 son, less so. Maybe I could put in to do the exam for him?

2 comments:

allisonmariecat said...

Oh, I love your back field. Our backyard is so dinky and the view is of the neighbors' rather unkempt yard beyond their rusty fence.

Wow, Lyra is stunning. Jane's is absolutely drool-worthy, and yours is well on its way. What yarn are you using? I have a "Mustn't start a new lace shawl before I dig out the Irish Diamond and finish it" rule, but I'm very tempted to snag the Lyra pattern anyway...

Kat said...

The back field looks picturesque, even with little snow! Your Lyra looks great. I want to knit some lace soon, any suggestions on an easy pattern?