I thought it was time to update the progress of the Hemlock Ring. It is a very fun project — and basically mindless knitting once you get past the center floral motif. You just do one pattern row (standard feather & fan) once every five rounds. The rest of the time is straight knitting.
With ~15 rounds to go, mine is 38″ diameter — Brooklyn Tweed said his ended up being about 48″. And of course you can keep on going and make it larger.
The pattern is adapted from the Hemlock Ring Doily Pattern found here with some other vintage doilies. It would be really cool to knit some of these as actual doilies with the tiny thread that our grandmas used to use. Or knit this one into a flipping gorgeous shawl:
What an intriguing way to link to the past.
Tonight was knit night and of course I enjoyed meeting up with the peeps. [M, thank you for the very sweet note :)]. Two weeks ago, AuntieAnn was in town visiting friends. She brought them with her to Panera’s and joined our group for the evening. What nice people knitters are! From left to right, here are Lisa, Nancy and Ann:
They fit right into the group. Come back any time!
Several people commented on the fact that they love The Big Book of Knitting which validated my purchase — thanks for your “reviews.” I think I may do that spiral binding thing for this one. I still have my sock book in the car. I drag it everywhere but forget to get it bound. Maybe if I drag TWO books around I’ll remember.
Now I must knit!!
PS: From Susan to Marina: do they scare you cuz they’re ugly or cuz they look hard to do? If it’s the latter, they really aren’t hard: Set up row: do a double yarnover; next row: drop 1st YO, [(k1, p1)x4, k1] in the second YO to create 9 sts.
PS2: I forgot to mention that I am still on the first ball of yarn!! I will tap into the second fairly soon.
PS3: EeeeK! I just used my infamous formula for figuring out how much shawl I have knitted and I am only 62% done! THAT is very depressing ;). I thought I’d be blocking this by the weekend!
Response to Carol: The How Much Shawl Have I Knitted So Far? formula is a link in our side bar. All it does is compare the area that you’ve knitted so far to the total area of the finished shawl — in a percentage format. Sally notes that it under-reports your progress because it is based on an unblocked area whereas the finished measurements are usually blocked measurements. So, even though I may actually be closer to 70% — I still have a long way to go. 🙂
PS4 (3-12-2014) — Katja actually knit the gorgeous doily with the violin as a shawl or large wrap:
Beautiful — thank you for sharing!! ?
Sue! You can make me cockeyed cake (and twinkie cake!) anytime you want!! 🙂
Comment by Nora (surly's daughter) — August 31, 2007 @ 12:49 am
I was so happy I had my copy of Montse Stanley’s book spiral bound. I must get my sock books and my new Cat Bordhi book spiral bound, but there was no way I was going to entrust them to the rude and incompetent person I last encountered in the copy department at Office Depot (not that she offered to take them). Must go back soon and get this done soon, though.
Comment by AuntieAnn — August 31, 2007 @ 12:50 am
Gorgeous! But those “big holes” are scary!
Comment by Marina — August 31, 2007 @ 6:47 am
Ooo, that’s looking gorgeous, and the doily pattern you show would be a lovely shawl… good idea!
Comment by Octopus Knits — August 31, 2007 @ 10:16 am
So pretty and interesting. Lovin’ yours and Brooklyn’s… such inspiration!
Comment by Wendy O — August 31, 2007 @ 10:40 am
To you, it may be “mindless knitting.” To me, it is simply beautiful work. And the shawl idea is brilliant!
Comment by Karen B. — August 31, 2007 @ 1:28 pm
Ooooooh! Gorgeous! 🙂
Comment by Romi — August 31, 2007 @ 2:22 pm
Mindless knitting? My kind! I’m wondering how that might look in a yarn with long color changes like Noro. Hmmmm. (no, no, NO! There are already too many items in the mental queue!)
Comment by kmkat — August 31, 2007 @ 2:41 pm
That sure would make a gorgeous flippin shawl! I’ve yet to make a doily, but can not wait just the same! What’s your infamous formula?
Comment by Carol — August 31, 2007 @ 4:24 pm
Oh yes, that Stor Rund Dug is gorgeous as a shawl! I’ve seen it done more than a few times, and I’m thinking about starting it in the next few weeks. I’m going to chart it out first though, since I hate working from written-out patterns.
Your Hemlock Ring is looking gorgeous!
Comment by Kat — August 31, 2007 @ 9:12 pm
I was looking at the hemlock doily pattern and was wondering what the O, as in {(O, K1) 8 times}, meant. I looked up all the knitting abbreviations but still came out confused. Thanks for your time,
Oune
Comment by Oune — September 10, 2007 @ 11:48 pm
I’m a first timer on to this, but have been knittig a long time. I love the Hemlock Ring and started it using your pattern. Don’t charts usually have a legend? All charts i’ve used for cables do have one. Please help me decipher the chart.
Comment by Aija Collison — February 16, 2008 @ 7:14 pm
I HAVE TRIED KNITTING THE HEMLOCK DOILY PATTERN BUT IT GETS GOOFED UP ON THE 35TH ROW! YOU HAVE 136 STS ON THE NEEDLE AND THIS ROW NEEDS 137 TO FINISH WITH A(K1,O)TWICE! WHAT AM I DOING WRONG? I HAVE RIPPED THIS OUT 4 TIMES NOW! IS THERE AN ERROR IN THE PATTERN? I’D APPRECIATE ANY HELP.
THANKS,
THIS IS THE FIRST TIME KNITTING A DOILY
Comment by JESSICA KOSS — April 24, 2008 @ 8:32 pm
This is the 5th time that I have tried making the original doily pattern in the last two days. After I got the correction for row 35 I thought I was doing fine. Now I’m stuck on row 39! I have placed 8 markers on my needle and when I get to each marker I end up with O,k,1 instead of o,k,1 two times!
your pattern PDF:
*O,K1,O,sl 1,K2tog,psso,O,k2,ssk,k 2 tog,k2,O,sl 1,k2tog,psso,(O,k1) 2 times
original doily pattern:
39th rnd: O, k 1, * O, sl 1, k 2 tog, p.s.s.o., O, k 2, sl 1, k 1, p.s.s.o., k 2 tog, k 2, O, sl 1, k 2 tog, P.S.S.O., (O, k 1) 3 times. Repeat from * around, ending with (O, k 1) twice.
row 43 is also different! I want to make the original doily which has 87 rds! Any help would be greatly appreciated. We no longer have a knit shop in town and I have no one else to ask.
Comment by JESSICA KOSS — April 25, 2008 @ 3:32 pm
Hi, girls! you are amazing! I want to respond on an old post – I have knitted the doily with the violin on it as a throw. I want to share the picture, but I don’t see how. It was even better than hemlock ring. It is about 2meters I diameter, 16 skeins of 100m/50g
I fell in love with lace knitting, really! It is so cool!
About trouble with Hemlock – I just cheated myself through some difficult places and had to add many, many rows besides Jarod’s pattern. So I got really into pattern. It was also enlightening. Thank you!!!!
Love, Katja
Comment by Katja Hjertaas — March 12, 2014 @ 2:54 am