FO: Secret of Bad Nauheim

Finally it's done! Here it is blocking.



This is the largest shawl I have knitted.
The dimensions are:
Width 101.5 cm (40")
Length 228 cm (89")

I knitted this using Bendigo Woolen Mills Classic 2 ply in Peonie.

A close-up of the border






And the secret? This is how the designer Monika Eckert described it:
"Bad Nauheim belongs to the European Art Nouveau Network which is very special, we are the only town in Germany who is member of this group as you need to fulfill special requirements to get part of it. To read a little bit more about it just look here: http://www.jugendstil-bad-nauheim.de/jugendstil/content/en_index_html?a=36&b=0&docID=56

If you visit this page and click on "Tour" and then choose "Sprudelhof" (fountain yard) you will find a lot of great pictures of this great monument and one of them was the basic idea to create the shawl. Bad Nauheim stands for healing water and water is represented in a lot of windows and doors in the fountain yard. Bad Nauheim is also known for thousands of years to produce salt, the celts had been here to produce salt and this is one part of the border, the salt crystal. As Bad Nauheim is also known for his healing water and recreation I decided to choose the icon the city of Bad Nauheim uses on their website for the border. Two people standing in front of a fountain, arms stretched and behind them the fountain... "

My thanks to Moni for a lovely shawl. pattern.

The knitting queue

A friend dropped in yesterday with this:



Its Bendigo Classic 3 ply in Java. She asked me to knit this:



Cocoon from A Gathering of Lace.

She also wants me to knit her a pair of socks with this:



And I rashly said I would knit a pair of Jaywalkers but now I'm not so sure.

She also gave me this as a present:



Now I'm not made keen on being commissioned to knit something. I find it places me under pressure and I'm pretty good at doing that off my own bat. Nevertheless, I agreed to do this knitting on the proviso that I do it all in my own good time - no timelines.

You know how you walk around with a knitting queue in your mind and you tend to more or less stick to it unless something out of the ordinary presents itself - that thing that just shouts "Knit me now!" Well I have one of those queues and the above items are just going to have to run up and down my mental queue for the next few days until they have managed to jostles themselves a position and then I'll get to them when I get to them.

The pink blob

Only 5 more rows to go on the pink blog aka Secret of Bad Nauheim.



I am so looking forward to completing this shawl. I seem to have been working on it forever.

In the meantime

While I'm still deciding what to knit with my luscious alpaca I've been knitting a baby jacket for a friend. She asked for a nice plain Daisy and that is what she got.



I knitted this in Patons Superwash 8 ply using 4.5 circs. This is a quick and easy knit.

I'm still knitting my alpaca up in my head, trying out various garments but I think I'm still leaning towards the Faroese Shawl.

I've also reached the last clue of the Secret of Bad Nauheim shawl - finally. Only 38 rows to go. Will I ever get there?

Snow

For the last couple of months we have been hanging out for rain. Our creek was reduced to a trickle and the bush was starting to look very limp. Then, finally, last night it started to rain and by morning we had 5 mm. And by 8 am the rain turned to snow.



It snowed all morning. Although we can get up to 6 snowfalls a year it is still a bit of a novelty for us and it looked very pretty. But I have to confess I was very pleased when the snow turned to rain by 1 pm. It has rained all afternoon and is still going. Our creek has started to flow again and our rainwater tank is over flowing. My heart is singing!

I've called it quits

Nope, Henley is no more. You know when you are knitting something and you realise something doesn't feel right but you keep on knitting regardless? That's what I did with Henley.

I finished the back.



And then I started the front.



And by the time I got to the lace part I had to concede that this was just not working. I love the yarn. I love the pattern but the two just don't go together. Henley requires a yarn that will drape well and the alpaca is far too soft for that. So I called it quits.

Now I have the pleasure of looking for an appropriate yarn for Henley and I need a pattern for my Grignasco Top Print. I've been trawling Ravelry for something appropriate but so far nothing speaks to me. I'm beginning to wonder whether the Faroese shawl (also on the front cover) in A Gathering of Lace might not be the way to go. Any suggestions, thoughts?

Finally

I've managed to complete something. Here are my Tidal Wave socks.



These were done in Miami from Bendigo Woolen Mills using 2.5 mm circular needles. It's so good to have both socks finished simultaneously!

The Secret of Bad Nauheim is progressing ever so slowly. I'm still busy with clue 5 which is the border. Each round takes me approximately an hour to knit. I have to confess that I get bored towards the end of each round and need to do something else before I can tackle the next round. But I'll preserve and it will be done at some stage.

I've finally started the front of Henley. I love the softness of the yarn I'm using and just wish I had more time to spend on this jumper.

Not much to show

So here I have been knitting away quietly for the past week or so but I've nothing much to show for the effort. I've finished the repeats of the Secret of Bad Nauheim shawl and I've started to pick up the stitches to knit the border. So at the moment its a pink bundle with what feels like thousands of stitches to pick up for the border. It doesn't seem to matter which way you do a shawl border - it simply seems to take forever.

I've finished the back of Henley Perfected - finally. This project has languished because all my time seems to be taken by the Bad Nauheim. That also means that little progress had been made on my Tidal Wave Socks.

I'm beginning to feel a tad frustrated because I haven't been able to finish anything. This situation often tempts me to start something new for some instant gratification (there sure are heaps of projects clamouring in the wings to be started)but this time I intend to resist. I'm not even going to swatch for the latest Mystery lace KAL I've joined.

And speaking of Mystery Lace KALs. The melt down I wrote about in my previous post made me decide to sit this one out for the time being. I'll wait for the completed pattern to come up for sale and then indulge myself.