Sunday, June 21, 2009

The Welsh Daffodil Tea Cloth

Sunday morning I was out and running around to the shops to buy more T pins. Who would have thought I didn't have enough? I expect to find a stash of them now that I have literally "hundreds."
The sun was threatening to go behind a very large BLACK cloud but I kept the good thought and hauled all the stuff I would need for blocking outside.
String, pencil, interlocking foam slabs, T pins, bottled water. What else could I possibly need?
I measured off two feet of string and in a mathematical precision type way inscribed a circle onto the foam. Ready! I slapped down the sogging mass of knitting.

And began hauling it out and pinning it down. Something is not quite right. Looks like waves on a beach.....grrrr

1. Doesn't look much like a circle to me.

2. It is a lot smaller than I expected....crap. I keep pinning expecting a miracle.

Finally I stop and take the all the pins out and go re soak the knitting...damn

Go look in garage for something to use as a straight edge.

You can't see the lines but I inscribed a newer smaller circle and bisected said circle in 8 points..

Now I am on to something here. I haul the cloth out of the house in a plastic jug and dump it on the foam. Water sloshes and floods every where. Firstly I pin out 4 points then 8. Ahhhh.... I am on to something now. By the way the bottle of water was replaced by a very large white wine spritzer. Should know better than to drink water when working on complicated problems.

Looking much better.

My knees are killing me from crawling around. This was actually not a bad way to block. Aforementioned spritzer is getting a little too far away. Remedy that next.

Almost done.

Did I really knit that??

The chairs and the bottle of water (snort) are weighing down the foam while the drying is in process. Once this is accomplished I will have to weave in the ends and it will be truly finished.
I will have to purchase a dark cloth to do under it as it is too small for my glass topped table.

Daffodil Tea Cloth

2.75 mm Addi Turbo lace needle

6 balls Coats Opera Cotton

Marianne Kinzel's Second Book Of Lace Knitting

finished diameter 45.5"

4 comments:

FuguesStateKnits said...

See - wine spritzer solves everything! Hope your knees are feeling better:)
This is truly lovely!

Helen said...

I will have to block a circle soon and had already found out about the length of string, but the wine spritzer is a new idea. And a very good one.

Yours is an amazing piece of work.

happyone said...

That was quite an ordeal!!
Now I know why I stick to knitting afghans and dish clothes. :-)

Julie said...

Congratulations! You did it! Looks great. What will you do next? Niebling?