Another Niebling?

I am pleased to present Herbert Niebling's PhoenixPalme, at round 165 out of 300. I am knitting the entire cloth as a practice-run for knitting a 3/4 circle shawl for my son's wedding next summer.

I started out on 2.25mm bamboo needles, and worked my way up to a 3.5mm circular needle. The original pattern calls for 50 grams of Size 80 thread on 1.25mm needles. I am on my fourth 20 gram ball of Coats Anchor 6-cord, Size 30 thread, ecru, and it is almost identical to the silk thread I may choose for my shawl.

First is the perfect little belly-button as seen here:




It is a little rough looking, as it's only laid out on a velvet pillow, and not properly blocked, but you get the idea!

Next is this sideways view of a palm frond. This pattern consists almost entirely of hexagonal mesh, twisted knit stitches, and purl stitches. Unlike many knitted lace/lace knitting pieces, there really are no "resting" rows, as the twisted knits and purls must be knit in the "resting" rows, as well as the P1, K1 into the double YOs.

Next is a close-up of the expanding palm branches. There are several features of this cloth which I don't like, particularly the thick "spoke"-like appearance of those stems coming out of the centre of the cloth. I may do some kind of adaptation for the shawl. Of course, I won't be starting the shawl in dead centre, because I'll have to make allowances for the neck area.

These pictures were taken outside, under the apple tree, and the light areas on the cloth is the sun shining through the leaves!

And this apparition would be the old man of the apple tree (do you see his face?). He guards and protects the garden, the pond, and everyone who enters our yard ... well, except for a certain neighbour (who shall remain unnamed!), on whom he casts a spell (it's a very high-fibre spell, in the hope that this neighbour's head will be fired out of his .... just a minute, this is a family show and we'll have none of that language!).

I will have more pictures as the cloth progresses. Next week I'm off to Victoria for a couple of weeks, housesitting, cat-sitting, painting, pressure-washing, and hairdressing (gonna be a jam-packed couple of weeks!).

Tonight, here on Vancouver Island, we are enjoying a cool breeze, fresh off the Pacific Ocean. We have apples, sliced and frozen, from our Gravenstein tree, plums, washed and frozen and waiting to be turned into jam (mmmm), had green tomatoes from the garden, lightly coated with whole wheat flour, ground flax seed, salt, fresh ground black pepper, and cumin, then fried in olive oil, as well as oven-roasted zucchini, also out of our garden. Oh how I love Vancouver Island!

TTFN!