Dragone Details

In answer to a few requests for more info about the Heere Be Dragone shawl:

As far as I know, at this point it is only available from the designer herself, Sharon Winsauer at Aurora Alpacas. The pattern is not yet up on their website, but you can write to her -- web2@aurora-alpacas.com -- and ask to order it. She gives very prompt and courteous service. No affiliation, yada yada.

The pattern itself appears to be well written and the charts are clear, although I think I will have to enlarge them to actually use them. There are 10 pages of body chart, and two pages of border chart. The background in the pattern appears to be a simple mesh pattern, but the Dragone hisself involves some manipulation on both wrong and right side rows and uses a variety of twisted stitches as well as your more usual lace stitches. The edging is knitted on after the main portion is completed.

My attention was first drawn to this shawl when I saw it on Rae's blog, Extravayarnza, where she chronicles her knitting of it. The pattern calls for two 100 gram skeins of Alpaca with a Twist, 70% alpaca/30% silk, 875 yards/skein. Rae advised me that it actually only takes about 1 and 1/4 skeins, which leads me to believe that one hank of Helen's Laces should do it, as long as I don't screw it up too badly, but I think it would be *totally amazing* in the alpaca/silk.

In the sock knitting category, it appears that we really are taking over the world one knitter at a time ;-)

Amazing Lace - le Grand Finis!

Turns out this has been rather a busy weekend.

The Amazing Lace has finished, and I won the Grand Prize!! Thank you, Rachel and Theresa! I'm still a little bit in shock. I'm glad the results were determined by a random number generator rather than based by skill or, ahem, completion, because I still haven't finished my Swallowtail shawl. I've been stuck on a certain fives row, having reknit them now three or four times. But I will finish it -- and now I'm even more motivated. I got to choose which prize I wanted, and I picked the Helen's Laces from Lorna's Laces! I'm not going to tell you which colour I chose - yet. But I can tell you that a certain pattern arrived in my mail box not too long ago that I think will be perfect for this yarn. It's a bit of a stretch for my skills at the moment, but if I can conquer the butterfly, I can conquer this:


Yup, it's a dragon! I guess I have a thing for pictorial lace. This was designed by Sharon Winsauer of Aurora Alpacas. I am a bit scared of him, though, because the pattern is labelled "challenging." Yikes! Having read over the pattern, I can understand why. Well, we shall see. After all, it's all just one stitch after another one, right? But no starting him until the butterfly is done. No, no starting. Done first. Butterfly, finished. Completed. Blocked and all. Do Not Start Until Butterfly is Finished.

Now that The Amazing Lace and the Trek-a-Long are finished, all sorts of new things are starting up this fall.

Suzie has started Round 2 of the Knitters Tea Swap. This was a lot of fun last time, and I'm delighted to join up again. Sipping tea and knitting away on a dragon butterfly -- what could be more fun?

I've also signed up for a brand new swap started by the energetic and industrious Abigail -- the Chocolate Swap. Yummy!! Chocolate, in either solid or liquid form, and chocolate-coloured yarn -- this one sounds like a lot of fun too.

I've also joined a new knit-a-long, the Black Bunny Hopalong. You can make anything you want, using any of Carol's beautiful yarns. I just might be making yet another pair of socks.

So, what are you up to this fall?