Humming
Not a lot of knitting pictures lately, and not for lack of knitting activity. Or I should say knitting related activity, as a lot of what I’ve been doing in the past couple of weeks has been refining Riva based on feedback from my testers on Ravelry. This public testing is proving a more valuable and enjoyable experience than I had anticipated and I am getting excellent feedback on the charts and written instructions. Between my friends’ feedback on structure, logic and presentation and now the step-by-step testing and corrections, I am confident that the final pattern will be in good shape. The learning for such a simple pattern has been fenomenal. At the same time I am working on the next project, a lace stole or scarf. Yes, I am getting back to lace —
who would have thought? At the moment I am finalizing a lace motif that has kept me busy swatching variations, charting, recharting, and trying out different yarns. I was feeling rather pleased with my progress until I saw Bethany’s swatch. Is that gorgeous or what? Perhaps I should rethink my design aspirations. The current plan is a rather complex stitch to be used as an all-over pattern and a simple shawl construction: rectangular with understated edgings on the short sides. Too boring? Keeping me company this past week or so: a lot of rain and my baby hummingbirds who finally graduated from flight school and left me an empty nest, fond memories and a couple of video clips. Amazingly we were able to watch both birds make their first flight. It’s hard to put into words how exciting it was to watch first one and then the other fluff their wings and move a little away from the nest and then actually fly. They did it a couple of hours apart from each other but followed the same pattern, moving further away from the nest and higher on the tree until they were gone. Too bad those video clips didn’t turn out well, but we still got a couple with the birds in their nest and just outside, fluffing their wings. What can I say? I am a sucker for cute baby critters. Baby hummingbirds feeding Baby hummingbirds fluffing their wings Going going gone
Posted by Francesca | 4 comments
Lydia
How fortunate to be able to watch the hummingbird family right outside your window. I’m a bit envious! We get lots of hummingbirds around here, but our trees are so big they nest well above the rooftops, I think. Just as well, my neighbor’s cat is an expert hunter and catches birds in flight, and even grasshoppers.
I look forward to seeing your lace swatch.
fleegle
Awwwwwww……
I like your swatch better :)
Annie
Bye bye hummingbird babies (waves)
I’m looking forward to seeing your lace project, and impressed at the speed of its progress … I started swatching for a short-row lacy shawl design of my own a few weeks ago and don’t seem to have got far at all. You’re right, Bethany’s motif is gorgeous, but I’m sure your design will be equally inspiring … don’t keep it under wraps for too long :)
Bethany
Those baby hummingbirds are too cute! You can see how they were wayyy too big for their adorable little nest.
Also, re: my swatch, thank you! Your lacework has always been visually inspiring for me, between the color and pattern and yarn choices—I’m sure the shawl will be beautiful. :)
Rectangular stoles are nice because they are more relaxing to knit; you can build up a nice cadence with them that you just can’t with other shapes.