I took a vacation last week and went to visit a friend in Riviere du Loup. This is a beautiful area of the province, about 400 km from Montreal. I’ve had a very eventful and stressful year, so when the opportunity came to visit my friend, I jumped at it. I’ve been camping in this area before and just love the region. You don’t see sunsets like that in the city.


This waterfall is within walking distance of the downtown.

I had a wonderful, relaxing time and even got some knitting done.

I completed the center and one border of the Spider Queen. At first I was going to pick up all the stitches and knit the border circularly, but I changed my mind. I didn’t want to have to complete all four sections of the border in order to see what it looks like. I decided to knit each section of the border separately. So I’m going to knit the top and bottom borders first. Then I’ll pick up the stitches on the side edge and knit and attach the border at the same time. This way I don’t have to do any seaming but I’m also working on only one border section at a time. There will be far fewer stitches to undo if I make a mistake or drop any stitches.







If you have the pattern, you can see that I’ve rearranged/modified the elements and changed the crown. I’m quite pleased with the results. I don’t know about copy right issues but I don’t think it should be a problem if I provide this version. You will have to have the pattern because I’m only going to provide the border chart. All instruction provided in the pattern will still apply.

I just have to clean up the chart a bit and then I'll make it available.

Happy knitting.

Spider Queen Trials

This lump of silk is headed for the frog pile. The Spider Queen is proving to be quite the challenge.

Sometimes you have a very clear vision of what you want. That was the case for me with this shawl. I knew I wanted it in silk and I knew I wanted a shade of grey. I ordered some silver grey 4/56 silk from ColourMart UK. When my yarn arrived I did something unusual for me. I swatched!



Since I wanted something very web-like, I used 3.00 mm needles. I liked the look so off I went. Only to discover that my cone was defective. I contacted Richard and he promptly sent me a replacement cone. Now, back on track, I started again, but halfway through the first repeat I really hated the look. I decided to go down to 2.75 mm needles.

Off I went again. It was looking really good but something was bothering me. Something just wasn’t right. I kept thinking, this is small; really small.



A third of the way through the first border, I dropped several stitches. At this point I gave in to my nagging doubts and concluded that the yarn/needle combination just wasn’t working. So the silver grey silk will be saved for something else.



I’ve cast on again. This time with Henry’s Attic 2/20 spun silk (from my stash) and 3.25 mm needles. Two repeats of the center pattern are done and I'm very happy with the resulting fabric. I may dye the finished shawl but for now I’m just glad to be finally knitting it.



For those who are curious, here is the new crown pattern. I like it a lot more than the original one.

Happy knitting

The Kindness of Strangers

I’ve wanted to knit the Wedding Ring Shawl (WRS) and thanks to Heather, I am finally able to. She was kind enough to trade me the pattern for a knitted lace scarf. She let me pick the yarn and pattern, which was very difficult. Thanks Heather.

I started swatching for the WRS right away. I’m having a hard time finding just the right gossamer yarn.



Top Left: Habu 1/20 bamboo. I used green tea to dye the yarn and really liked the resulting colour.

Top Right: Bamboo and Heirloom Knitting gossamer cotton. I love the sheen that the bamboo adds. I'll definitely consider this for a future project.

Bottom Left: Bamboo and Heirloom Knitting gossamer silk. I really LOVE this combination, just not for the WRS. I would love to ply the bamboo and silk together. It's something to consider for a future project.

Bottom Right: Habu 1/80 linen, double stranded. Again, not for the WRS.

I must confess that I'm using the WRS as an excuse to play around with some of the fine yarns I've collected. I’m going to experiment a bit more before making my final selection. All I know is that it will definitely be a silk or silk blend.

Happy knitting everyone.