Nutcracker Snow Queen

Readers who have been following my projects for a while will remember that I finished my Queen of the Night cowl on Hallowe'en. Inspired by Mozart opera and based on Rosemary Hill's magnificent Ice Queen design (Knitty, Winter 2007), it immediately became a staple of my wardrobe, because it is not only snazzy & stylish but amazingly warm too, and it goes with just about everything. I wear it *a lot* in this blustery winter weather.

Just look at all that sparkle!! (And click for a larger view). More or less by accident, I ended up placing beads every 4 rows, rather than every 8 (as the pattern suggests), and I added the maximum number of beads every time as well, rather than alternating between more and fewer. Who says professors always read the fine print?!!

But you can't have too much bling, right?

In point of fact, I really love the glamour of the silver-lined crystal beads in all their profusion, especially because they contrast so dramatically with the inky blackness of the mohair/silk fabric. The designer said it herself: "Wearing it makes you feel like a movie star!" This cowl gets attention, especially when I wear it outside, pulled up around my face and over my hair. But when I come in and let it hang down around my neck and throat, it stretches out a good deal under the weight of all those beads, growing larger in diameter and shallower from top to bottom. After a while, I actually have trouble pulling it up to cover my head again. Mind you, it quickly returns to its original shape if I take it off and shake it out and/or let it hang vertically for a bit, but I have come to the conclusion that it works best as a warm and luxurious neck-piece rather than strictly as a head covering.

Fortunately, I happened to have another skein of the same delicious Silk Cloud yarn in the pale gray color known as Mist, as well as a container of 6/0 silver-lined beads with the AB (aurora borealis) coating...

And so I proudly present my second Ice Queen, which I decided to name after the magical pas-de-deux from the end of the 1st act of the Nutcracker Suite. As a child enrolled in ballet classes, I had the good fortune to join in a local Nutcracker production for a number of years. I fell in LOVE with the snow scene and would watch it from the wings every chance that I got. I remember that the choreography of the pas-de-deux came to a glorious climax as the Snow Queen ran to her King and he hoisted her effortlessly onto his shoulder and held her there aloft. I have never seen anything more quintessentially Romantic in the deepest, richest, truest sense. The soaring strains of Tchaikovsky's magnficent music still give me goose bumps to this very day.

Unlike its dark sister, this silvery cowl is specifically meant to be worn outdoors as a head covering in winter weather. So to ensure that it would fit easily over my decidedly fluffy hair while continuing to drape over my shoulders, I added 2-3 inches to its length. I was also *very* careful to get the bead placement exactly right this time around, so that a single container of beads would suffice and the fabric would not be weighed down too much. Indeed despite the risk of over-taxing the mohair, I even decided to go back and redo a sizable portion of the cowl when I discovered a mistake that I had made early on. Fortunately, with gentle handling the fibers proved very resilient and bounced back remarkably well, so that you would never know I had resorted to such measures.

I am *thrilled* with the results. Click on the photo above to take a closer look. The beads have an airy, ethereal quality that suits the yarn to *perfection*.

Queen of the Night

OK, talk about *BLING*...

I had to order more beads and wait for them to arrive, and then I got distracted for a while by Harmonia's Rings and the moebius technique, but my Queen of the Night cowl is now complete, and boy, is she a *stunner*. The beaded picot bind-off around the lower edge really makes the design.

YUMMM.

After weaving in the tiny handful of loose ends, I soaked the fabric briefly in cold water and stretched it out to dry in lieu of actual blocking. When it dries, I will put it on and get my husband to take some pictures of how it looks when worn. But for now, here are the customary photos of the piece itself. As always, click on either one to get a closer look...

The rows upon rows of 4 mm silver-lined crystal magatamas really dominate the finished effect, because they stand out so dramatically against the black background. I think that the lace would probably show more if I had followed the pattern & used fewer beads, but the shimmer of all those magatamas in one place is absolutely entrancing.

The Shibui Silk Cloud yarn (60% kid mohair, 40% silk) is like a dream come true as well, with incredible sheen and softness, perfect color saturation, and a very fine gauge. My one regret is that I could only order a single skein of the Ink colorway on sale before it was out of stock at EarthFaire. I have found it available elsewhere at full price ($17 per 330 yard skein), so I will have to do some serious thinking about whether or not to invest in more, if not now then perhaps at a later date.

I learned recently that Rosemary Hill, the designer of the Ice Queen pattern on Knitty, has converted the same lovely fan-lace pattern to be knit flat as a scarf or stole, which she calls the Delta Queen. See all of her pattern designs here, and click here for multiple images of the Delta Queen scarf/stole. So if I do end up with more of the yarn at some point, the scarf to match my cowl would be a tempting project.

Queen of the Night: A Second Look

Here are some up-to-date photos of my Königin der Nacht cowl, to show the dazzling *sparkle* created by all those extra beads that I have been adding (see previous post).

In the image on the left, the tube of knitted fabric is folded flat, so that you are looking at a double layer throughout and can really see the gently undulating rows of beads. As your eye moves across from left to right, notice that columns of single beads alternate with groups of three in a chevron pattern. In the image on the right, the front lower edge of the cowl has been pulled down a bit to reveal more of the lace (now in a single layer) silhouetted against the pale background. The 3-bead chevrons are in the lacier sections, with the columns of single beads running up the center of the denser patches. So there is a very pleasing "Chiaroscuro" contrast (i.e. light vs. dark).

The designer writes that the best part about this pattern is this: "Wearing it makes you feel like a movie star!" So if mine ends up being more Cher than Audrey Hepburn, with all that extra *bling*, I think I can live with that. :-)

If you didn't happen to click on one of my previous links to the 1815 set design for The Magic Flute by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, you should really compare his starry sky backdrop for the Queen of the Night's entrance to the pattern of beads on my cowl. There is really a remarkable similarity: he used groups of three as well!

As it happens, I followed the Ice Queen pattern correctly for the first 20 rows near the bottom edge, where every row is supposed to be knitted precisely according to the chart, without the dreaded footnote coming into play at all. So the beads there are spaced vertically farther apart than in the body of the cowl, where I started placing them every 4 rows instead of every 8. That little discrepancy, and the resulting area of the cowl where beads are relatively scarce, might be seen as a problem, and I suppose I could even go back later and add more beads to the rows in question. But I think it may instead end up looking like a deliberate design decision, taken to balance the dense row of beads running all along the bottom edge, especially if I mimic the wider spacing of bead rows near the top edge as well. The movement from more beads to fewer to more to fewer again should be a pleasant thing. At least I hope so. We'll see.

Fortunately, since the bottom row of beads will be added only at the very end by means of a beaded picot cast-off (once the provisional cast-on has been removed and the stitches are placed back onto a circular needle), I can still decide to go back and add more beads to the lower part of the scallops if they don't look right, when all is said & done.

Fine Print?!!

OK. This is just too funny...

My Queen of the Night has been going through an awful LOT of beads, to the point where I realized a little while ago that I would actually have to order a second container of beads in order to finish the piece as I have started it, especially with the intensely beaded picot bind-off around the scalloped edge at the bottom. This seemed strange, though, because the pattern only calls for 300 beads, and the container (which was full at the start) holds almost 400.

>>> Hmmm. <<<

The sudden quandary prompted an investigation. At first I really couldn't figure out what was going on, until my eye happened to fall on a footnote in the pattern, where it says that beads should be placed on every *other* pattern repeat (i.e. every 8th row). Ignoring that instruction, I had simply been following the chart as written, and therefore placing beads every *4th row*. Twice as many beaded pattern repeats means twice as many beads. Q.E.D.

Mystery solved. But now what to do?

The more I think about it, the more I must conclude that there is just NO WAY I am going to rip back and redo the thing, especially with a mohair yarn, which likes to stay put once it's been knitted into place. Besides, the effect of all those sparkly beads against the dark background is strikingly similar to the dramatic star-spangled sky in this famous set design for an 1815 production of The Magic Flute by German artist Karl Friedrich Schinkel. To quote Lady Macbeth, I'm simply going to have to "screw my courage to the sticking-place" and place yet another EarthFaire order.

So my Queen of the Night is going to be extra super-DUPER-glamorous. But it could be worse, right??

The Queen of the Night and The Flying Magatama Brothers

Wherein we go from the Sublime to the Ridiculous, and back again...

It's mid-October now, and the weather here has taken an unmistakably autumnal turn in recent days, with the trees all changing color and a suddenly noticeable chill to the air. So in spite of having too many WIP's on the needles already, I decided to get to work right away on my beaded lace cowl, the one item for myself that I snuck in along with the "Christmas 2010 Project." I am usually very much a process knitter, but I will be delighted to see this garment finished in a hurry, because I want to start wearing it ASAP. It will be Just the Thing to jazz up and *warm* up my walks to and from campus every day (~0.7 miles each way, morning and afternoon/evening). Fortunately, it should be a very quick knit: I am already ~30% finished, after only a few hours' work.

The pattern is Ice Queen by Rosemary Hill from Knitty, Winter 2007. It is knit in-the-round and can be done either with stockinette stitch (all k) or garter stitch (alternating k & p rounds). I have chosen the garter-stitch version, because I think the nubbly texture will accentuate the warmth of the finished piece. The yarn is Shibui Silk Cloud, a delightfully cozy lace-weight 60% kid mohair and 40% silk (shown here in purple). My colorway is called Ink, pitch black with a lovely sheen (that's the silk content). I was fortunate to grab the last skein that EarthFaire had in stock. The beads are 4 mm silver-lined crystal magatamas, simple but snazzy, with more than a hint of genuine glamor to them.

I have dubbed this project the "Königin der Nacht" ("Queen of the Night"), because the combination of the inky black yarn and the sparkling crystal beads reminds me of that remarkable character from my favorite Mozart opera. Her famous aria ("Der Hölle Rache" i.e. "The Vengeance of Hell") is the stuff of legend in soprano circles, reaching the F above high-C. Nor do I doubt that the cowl named after her will make a dramatic entrance too.

Yet whereas there is nothing more Sublime than Mozart opera, the Ridiculous side of life reared its silly head yesterday morning, when I tried to do too many things at once. I had been placidly knitting away for a while on the bottom part of the cowl, with my yarn and needles and a tray with a bead mat and the container of beads all sitting on my lap. No problem, right? Knowing a bit about both the laws of physics and my own predilections, I am always very careful to pour out only a few beads at a time. BIG potential for disaster otherwise...

Anyway, I had just finished a beaded round, when glancing up at the clock I realized that I should probably check my campus email, because I was scheduled to give a midterm exam at noon and on the day of a test students can generally be counted on to come up with last-minute questions or other emergencies. So I reached over and grabbed my little netbook — smaller and lighter than a full-size laptop but perfectly suited to such routine tasks as email or, for that matter, blogging (ahem) — booted it up, and started typing. Somewhere along the way I must have lost track of the fact that I had LOOSE BEADS in my lap, because a little bit later I absent-mindedly shifted position, and everything tipped sideways.

>>> YIKES!!! <<<

The sound of the beads bouncing around in their (*oops*) open container alerted me to the, er, gravity of the situation, so I reacted quickly, and that transformed what followed from tragedy into farce. Only about two dozen beads actually spilled, but they went in all directions. Man, can those little buggers ever travel!! Even now, I keep finding stray sparkly objects within what may exaggeratedly be termed the blast-radius of yesterday's incident.

As I scrambled first to close the bead container, preventing further mishap, and then to corral the wanderers back to where they belonged, a phrase came unbidden into my head: The Flying Magatama Brothers. Sounds just like a Japanese circus act, doesn't it?!! I knew that I had found the perfect headline for my next blog installment...

And now, here are the customary photos of my new work-in-progress. There are two of them. As always, click on either one to get a closer look.

I absolutely love love L-O-V-E the way the beads nestle in the fuzzy nooks & crannies of the lacy mohair, sparkling for all the world like ice crystals or diamonds or twinkling stars in a moonlit sky. Looking at them takes me right back to the Sublime...

Introducing the "Christmas 2010 Project": A Gallery

It's been almost two months now since my big birthday splurge back in August ("Thanks, mom!"), and since then I have spent little or no money on knitting supplies. It took some effort to slam on the breaks, especially after a period of relative freedom over the summer, but lately I have been enjoying the virtuous feeling that comes from using and appreciating what you've already got. Besides, with the semester now in full swing (thereby limiting the hours available for knitting) and many of my summer yarn purchases still backed up in the queue, there's certainly more than enough to be getting on with, as the saying goes.

Things were going reasonably well, I thought, until last week witnessed an unusual and DANGEROUS confluence of forces in my universe. Not only did EarthFaire have a big one-day yarn sale (fasten your seatbelts!!), but right at the same time two different KnitPicks lace yarns that I had been surreptitiously eyeing from a distance also suddenly went on closeout.

It hit me all at once, and I went a little gonzo. I freely admit it. OK, maybe more than a little. It was not a frugal week, at least not in the short term.

On the bright side, however, with a view toward what the French Annaliste historians would call the longue durée, I now have supplies to produce beaded lace objects for EVERY FEMALE in the immediate family. That includes my mother and both of my brothers' wives, plus my mother-in-law and my husband's sister and sister-in-law. I can now add handmade luster and luxury to the lives of *6* different women who are near & dear to me, at no more cost per person, on average, than we typically end up spending at the department stores in any given year.

In fact, I just got *7* new lace yarns (including one that's just for me), and many of them in sufficient quantities to make more than one item. So we're looking at a plethora of projects and a PILE of presents when all is said and done. Probably more than one year's worth of Christmas gifts!! Most of the colorways already have beads to match as well, and I am working on filling in the gaps so that the pairings of fiber and "shiny things" can be complete.

These sudden acquisitions were so *terribly* exciting, and the possibilities have inspired my imagination to such an extent, that I took the (for me) unprecedented step of officially photographing and stashing this latest cache of lace yarn on Ravelry, along with the substantial leftovers of Gossamer CashSilk from my Wedding Ring and Princess shawls. It does make a handsome display, but I am still quite hesitant to document the rest of my motley yarn collection in detail. Then again, now that the camel's nose is under the tent-flap (as it were), I suppose the larger and/or more notable samples may yet find themselves destined for a photo-shoot of their own one of these days, if the mood strikes.

But I digress with this stash talk. Let's get back to my latest prizes... My husband is part Scottish on both sides of his family. He *hates* spending money unnecessarily, so we prudently took care of the bulk of our Christmas shopping for 2009 in the post-Christmas sales last year. No real call for holiday knitting at the moment!! But that's OK, because given the list of current WIP's and the depth of my already pre-existing queue, we're certainly talking about the Christmas of 2010 with all of this new yarn, if not even *2011*. I now know what I'll be knitting next summer, and beyond!! Here's some of what lies in store. As always, just click on any image to get a closer look.

In the midst of all this converse with the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, one of the EarthFaire yarns is for me alone and will probably get used up sooner rather than later. It's a single skein of Shibui Silk Cloud: an incredibly soft 60% kid mohair & 40% silk lace yarn from Japan in a colorway called "Ink" (i.e. pitch black). One skein gives me 330 yards, and I'm hoping that in addition to the Ice Queen by Rosemary Hill (Knitty, Winter 2007), I will have enough to eek out a small pair of beaded handwarmers or fingerless gloves to match — perhaps a variation on the Delicato Mitts by Anne Hanson of KnitSpot. I now have both silver-lined crystal AB 6/0 and silver-lined crystal (non-AB) 4 mm magatama beads on hand for just this sort of contingency. Either one will do, no doubt.

I am very eager to produce a few such small wearable *warm* beaded lace items now, before the weather starts turning genuinely cold. They will make me happy on an aesthetic level for one thing (by appealing to my inner diva!!), in addition to the practical business of keeping the chill at bay on my daily treks to & from campus. Since there were very few skeins of the SilkCloud available to begin with — and for several weeks I'd been watching the supply slowly dwindle — when the sale happened I was delighted to grab what turned out to be the very last one in the color that I wanted.

Now for the gifts. See what wonders Herr Drosselmeyer brings... We begin with two colorways of Eos (50% merino wool, 50% tussah silk) from The Unique Sheep. Each skein contains 630 yards, so there's lots of potential here for projects large and small. I imagine cozy neck-warmers like Poinsettia or Spiralucious by Anne Hanson of KnitSPot or Pretty Thing by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (a.k.a. the Yarn Harlot), and delicate lace scarves like Protopopov by Susan Pandorf, Angel Pearls by Sivia Harding or Canterbury Bells by Laura Patternson, among others. In fact I've been collecting suitable patterns on Ravelry for a while, with Christmas in mind, and I always have my eye out for new ones to add to the portfolio.

The first Eos colorway is called Deep Forest. I got just one skein, thinking primarily of a particular sister-in-law who favors such colors, and I think I will probably pair it with some shiny beads in a pale gold (like these), although the same celery-lined crystal AB that I am using for the Parisian Ostrich would doubtless also suit. I will want a pattern with a Bohemian feel, maybe something like Faina's Scarf by Faina Letoutchaia.

The second Eos colorway is called "Aurora Borealis." There's a charming story behind the name, because Ellen of EarthFaire actually sent a photo of the Northern Lights as inspiration for the artist who hand-paints this yarn. I was blown away by the rich combination of jewel tones in the end result: pale blue, dark turquoise, navy, emerald green, charcoal gray. Beads seem almost superfluous here, given the intensity of the yarn, although something in a hematite color (like these) or the right blue (like these or maybe these) might add an enchanting glow.

I bought a whopping *four* skeins (2520 yards) of this yarn, certainly enough for a major project if the fancy takes me, or perhaps a series of smaller ones. To be honest, I would probably have succumbed to this beauty even at full price, but when things like this go on sale, resistance is futile!!

Finally among the EarthFaire offerings, I have one sister-in-law who is allergic to wool and cannot have it next to her skin. She is an artist with an eye for striking colors and textures, and I have wanted for a while to come up with a suitable lace project to make for her, but I had considerable trouble finding the right yarn. Even cashmere is off-limits. >sigh<

Imagine my delight, then, to discover this lovely Organic Lace-Weight Cotton from Peru: Eco Butterfly Pakucho Lace in the sandy beige colorway known as "Vicuna." So smooth and soft to the touch, it will make beautiful lace. I bought two skeins of 500 yards each. And the beads that I found to go with it are simply STUNNING: garnet-lined transparent light topaz AB magatamas in two sizes (4 mm and 4 x 7 mm). Iridescent shades of magenta and gold and blue and green shine happily on a sunny golden background. I strongly recommend clicking on the photo to see the bead colors close-up.

The pattern that I have in mind for this combination is another of Susan Pandorf's luscious designs: Mehndi. It can be made as either a scarf or a stole, and I have enough yarn for the larger version. Because the pattern does not call for beads, figuring out where to place them will be half the fun. I got one container of each size to start, but I will definitely want to order more before they sell out, so that I can make something truly ornate and extra special.

*Phew*. That EarthFaire order would be enough by itself to keep me busy for a LONG TIME.

But wait!! There's more...

Now here's the first of the KnitPicks yarns: my old favorite Shimmer (70% baby alpaca, 30% silk) in the colorway known as "Lilac Dream." I bought just one skein (440 yards) specifically to pair with the silver-lined smoky amethyst AB 8/0 beads that I had acquired earlier. The color-match is *perfect*, with exquisite shades of lavender ranging from pale to medium intensity. I imagine something long and supple that can be wrapped around the neck more than once and still dangle, with a generous splash of beads at either end (e.g. the Icicle Scarf by Susan Pandorf). The yarn colorway has been marked "Last Chance": once it sells out, it won't be coming back.

This one here is also Shimmer, but in a brand new colorway called "Bayou." It arrived just recently and was not on sale, but the rich blend of chocolate brown, teal blue, and emerald green appealed to me so much that I bought four skeins (1760 yards) right away, in order to be sure that I got enough to stash away while supplies last. Several of the ladies on my list favor earth-tones, so this will be just the ticket for them, especially when paired with a rich brown bead like silver-lined root beer (the 8/0 size is currently sold out at EarthFaire, but I have been assured that they will soon be back in stock). Imagine Anne Hanson's woodsy Elm Row design in this yarn with beads running up & down the edges and all along the wavy vertical lines between the leaf motifs. New Haven, CT (where my dad taught for many years and where I went to college, along with my husband, both his siblings, and one sister-in-law too) is known as the Elm City, so there is some appropriate symbolism .

Last but not least, there's this delightful yarn, which was also a closeout: Shadow Kettle-Dyed in the colorway known as "Wilderness Kettle." It's a buttery soft 100% merino wool in a deep blue-green, with the subtle shading produced by the kettle-dying process. I chose it specifically to go with one or both of the silver-lined teal bead types that I had purchased earlier: one in size 6/0 with a matte finish and the other in size 8/0 with a shiny transparent finish. Both of them match!! I'm not sure exactly what combination of patterns and bead-work I will end up pursuing, but I got two skeins (880 yards), and whatever happens the prospects are pleasing, to say the least.

Oh! And while I was at it, placing the EarthFaire order, I also acquired the additional beads needed to complete my Parisian Ostrich and Magic Carpet Ride stoles, both of which have been lying fallow for several weeks pending such supplements.

Mmmm. Feel free to sing along with me, if you'd like: "Happiness is....