Introducing Team Chaos!!!!!!!!!

Hello everyone!
Welcome to Team Chaos! and we hope to live through this summer adventure.

Let's introduce the members:

• The Rose of England (ROE): She is British, and has been giving me a bit of the stiff upper lip. The pattern is from The Second Book of Modern Lace Knitting. And the end dimension aim is for 7oish". Yarn: unknown make as I picked up the cone of 2ply laceweight wool at a Local Knitting Guild Stash Bash for $5.00. It is a lovely shade of lavender. We are now officially on V4.0 of ROE, as we have gone through changes in needle size, dropped stitches, and the horrid experience of the lifeline that broke. Who knew that could happen? *shrug*

NOTE: The pictures of completed ROE are from members of the yahoo Folk Shawls group.

Now for the rest of the team. To pick just who would be on the team in case ROE and myself have a temperary falling out, I have picked the lace in my Frog Pond. I think the Pond is starting to become a BOG it's so crowded with over growth!

• Meet Muffy! She is from Oat Couture, Spiral Petal shawl. We met at last year's Maryland Sheep and Wool festival. I choose her because she reminds me of a Lotus Blossom. Thought she would make a wonderful meditation shawl for myself.

I couldn't leave well enough alone, I got creative with the yarn. The pattern asked for only bulky weight mohair. I chose some mohair/acrylic blend I bought off a fellow knitter in the area. 2 skeins each the largest balls of mahair you have ever seen! on the left hand side you can kinda see the ball that hasn't been used yet. The color is reddish, pink, burgundy. I am also carrying with it, Red Heart in Cranberry. It was the best color match i could find. Thought it would give body. haha!So I now have a shawl at least 75% done that weighes alot.

How did the beautiful Muffy end up in the frog pond? Denise Needles. I was connecting all my cabled together reather than buying the newer long sizes. the sheer weight did it in. While at SnB, she gracefully slide from the needles and floated onto the floor. So there I was on the floor of Border's Bookstore Cafe picking up any stitches I could see, of course this happened on a pattern row so there were yo's involved.

It is Muffy time to become a FO! She deserves it

Note: Picture is from Oat Couture's website of the finished item

• Next up: The Lacey Prairie shawl!

What we have here is a miscount within the pattern repeat that only happens within the first 20 or so stitches of any row having 200 or more stitches. Thinking I was going to one day unknit all the way back, it is still a UFO.

There is also another dialema: I've learned that varigated yarn, even when it is of one color does not do any justice to lace. Yes that is a lace shawl in that picture! Also I am a tight knitter, I went up in needle size. Being more experienced now, I think the pattern needs to be on even larger needles. Do I just finish it and have done with it? Or Rip and start over? Or ***Drum Roll***completely rip and use the yarn for something else? Don't be shy, give me your opinion!!!That's what the comment section is for!!!

Well, here am I being the smart ass that I am, modeling with ROE V3.0. Known by many names as I seem to have a personality that makes people want to nickname me. Currently sticking with Jennifer and Pumpkinhead, either one is good!

Was in a hurry to get the pictures done and posted, hence me playing with the bellybutton start of the shawl! lol! Ever elusive, not liking my picture taken. This will be a very challendging event for me. as you can see i have a lot of ufo's around, and am currently matching wits with ROE. If you look at some of the pictures you will notice that crowding the background seem to be books. I felt they needed to be in there as they will be traveling with the team. You might consider them part of Team Chaos! I am currently starting the 3rd week of a 10 week summer semester of college and carrying a load of 13 credits!

With almost everyone introduced, I would like to sign off at this time. Hope everyone is rearing to go! Can you please remember to check on me every so often to see if I'm alive with all this yarn and textbooks while having pointy sticks easily availible.

Jennifer

Sorting the UFO pile for team backup

May 17, 2006

While organizing the stash, I have made a point:
# to pull aside any yarn that belongs to a project on the needles.
# place found yarn with the project otherwise known as a UFO.
# I have pulled the LACE UFO's aside.
They are now competing with one another on the dining room table to see just who is worthy of stepping up to the plate if ROE is unable to fulfill it's duties as a co-teammember.

Currently the Wool Peddler Shawl is being smothered by Princess AKA "The Dirty Butt White Cat" (Pretty Angora from the front but gawd help your eyes if she turns around). Thankfully, I had planned on washing the shawl as soon as it's off the needles.

Knitting Operation

May 15, 2006

I need to go check out the Amazing Lace web page to see the first clue......AND GET MOVING ON IT!!

I hope anyone who is a mother had a great Mother's Day. If you are like me, you have furry 4 legged babies, so happy mother's day to you ALSO!! Giving a cat or dog from the shelter or the street a chance for a wonderful life, is a special thing. You have touched a life.

Currently ROE and I am not doing well as a team. I made a miss count in the pattern, but caught it while still on that specific DP needle. A knitting angel was on my shoulder at the moment. Then she decided to play a joke on me for the heck of it! Thus she shall be called a Knitting Faerie rather than an ANGEL. I unknitted back half way towards where I had skipped a yo or something of the like. Well! the yarn jump off the needle and what is supposed to be a contained open circle in the pattern has come undone. It involves maybe 3 rows total. I spent yesterday trying to repair with extra knitting needle and crochet hook. So far no luck. Just can't get it back up the right way, or at least in a way that looks ok. Figured I could cheat on that portain, and no one would know better.

Wish me luck. I will sit down again with the instruments set out like a dentist, and will rig this baby back to being proactive! :)

Rose of England Reborn

May 12, 2006

Restarted the ROE last night, this time i did a provisional cast-on. Am I trying to plan ahead? Maybe, I have a vision of being able to do a nicer belly button in the center of the Rose when i have finished knitting. Also I changed the size of needle i am using. Figured that since I've had to completely rip, might as well change the needles......it was tight on size 1's. Unable to find my #2's, I grabbed my 3's. Talk about a method to the madness. It's the Oh Well! method. I'll see how it looks in a few more rows and decide if the 3's are just abit too big. Keep your fingers crossed for me on this one.

Have been able to make progress. Last night I was able to knit abit and hope to be almost up to where I was before the ripping started this evening. maybe I'm just wishing, but who knows maybe I will be able to do it.

Yesterday I was on the Lace Knitters yahoo group looking for any hints on if I had made a mistake or not. A year or two ago they sponsered a KAL on the ROE. It appears that I might be in over my head. This beauty took some of the knitters 8 monthes to finish. I hadn't even thought of that. Will have to make sure I write down exactly where I am in pattern everytime i put it down, just in case I don't get to pick it back up in a few days, weeks.....monthes. ;) Would hate to get to the point of over 1000 stitches and not know where I am on it. UGH!

Murphy's Law: Once You Rip Will It Ever End?

May 11, 2006

We are currently in a doomed phase with ROE. Got to row 7 discovered a mistake in Row 3. Ripped again

Merry Ripping......

...originally posted on WIKI
May 11, 2006

ROE has met with misfortune. I made a mistake in how I was doing the m.3's. Thus ripping happened, and we are now starting over.

In Training.....

....originally posted on WIKI

May 11, 2006

For the last few days my partner R.O.E and I were training, getting ready for the Amazing Lace. We have suffered a set back. I had a misunderstanding over the directions for part b of the pattern.
The pattern called for (K.1,M.3)3 times. I did the increases the way I normally do a make one, by lifting the bar between stitches and putting on the left needle.then did a k,p,k into the the loop.

It appears *clears throat* that as this is an older pattern, they have different knitting terms. The book is British and from the late 50's maybe early 60's. It appears they wanted me to take the next stitch on the needle and increase by doing k,p,k into one stitch.

Thus by doing my boo-boo I was increasing by 3 stitches each time I came to that part of the pattern instead of only 2 stitches. in just a few rows rapidly approaching 100 extra stitches.

So frogging insued, and we are trying to get back to our former row as quickly as possiable. Now on row 7, I might of made a mistake on row 3. faints


The pictures are of a rare breed of goat that when startled falls to the ground in a full faint.

The Infamous Rose of England

....This post was moved from the ugly WIKI May 27, 2006

The Infamous Rose of England

May 07, 2006

My name is Jennifer, sometimes known as Pumpkinhead. My partner for this competition is The Rose of England
Please note this is a picture of someone else's completed ROE
The pattern is from The Second Book of Lace Knitting
Currently ROE has been cast-on using size #1's and stash yarn.
The yarn is of unknown vendor, I purchased it at the local knitting guilds stash sale.
It had on brand name on the cone, paid $5.00 for 1 lb. of 2 ply lavender lace weight.
Currently on Row 22, which completes Part A of the pattern which in the photo is the center center section.
I have made modifications in regards to the published:
* The pattern called for crochet cotton #60 ''No way in __Hades__ am I knitting with sewing thread!!!''
* English needle # 12, might be using the same size....can't seem to find my needle size comparison chart
* Pattern is aiming for a 72 in. diameter...we will see how big this baby is gonna get.