09/11/24
This is my third - and probably not the last - Amille. I just can’t get enough of this gorgeous pattern. I made one of 2/28 cashmere - The Sleeping Beauty, and one of cobweb suri alpaca - Amille Once Again and Forever. This time I am using pure silk in gossamer weight. A bit suicidal considering how slippery silk is and how thin this yarn is. So far it is slow going.

I have started this several days ago and am working on it simultaneously with another silk shawl - the Night Blossoms by Rosemary Hill.

Some of these - and other numerous lace shawls I have on my list - are to be given as gifts to mine and my future daughter’s-in-law family for the upcoming next June’s wedding. I am making several so the ladies can pick and choose. I don’t even expect them to wear these to the wedding, since I have no idea what kind of dresses they will wear. I just want them to have an option of wearing one of these shawls, or just keep it as a token of love.

About the yarn - it looks like spider silk thread! The beads I am using strongly resemble drops of water and the effect is otherworldly.
Now, that autumn is just around the corner, spiders are more active weaving their webs. They are difficult to photograph without proper lenses. Unfortunately, just recently I dropped my favorite digital camera and broke it. So all I have now to shoot photos is my phone.
Just couple of days ago while walking with my dog in the off-leash park I came across a patch of silvery low growing grass covered in dew drops. It looked just like my silver silk yarn with beads! So delicate and breathtakingly beautiful. I did my best photographing it, but the pictures do not do the nature’s beauty justice.

I realize it will take me awhile to make this version of Amille. The work requires very bright light and undivided attention. It will get easier once I start working in the round.

Upon the start the cone weighted 123.5 g. I am assuming that of this 23.5 is the plastic cone itself. It contains 3,280 yards (3,000 meters) of yarn. I am listing all of it here for now and will adjust the yardage used once I finish.
I used size 1 needles to cast on and work chart A. Switched to size 1.5 on chart B and then back to size 1 on size C. This was not really intentional. I thought that size 1.5 or even 2 would work well for this shawl, but soon changed my mind. The silk is so thin any needle larger than size 1 creates huge yarn-over holes, which is not what I want. Size 0 would have been even better, but the shawl might have come out too small.

I used the figure 8 wrap cast-on, described on p.62 in the Principles of Knitting book by June Hemmons Hiatt. Oh, I have tried and tired and tried to use a circular cast on! I tried the Emily Ocker’s, the belly button, the disappearing loop, and many others. And I am not a novice to these techniques. I failed miserly. The silk just did not want to cooperate. Hence I looked up other options and finally succeeded with the one above. It is not as neat as a circular one, but at this scale it is barely visible anyways. I can live with that.

09/16/24
I jus started charts E1,2,3 - which means in -the-round. I had to tweak the fist row of chart E1 a bit, so the yo,k,yo falls between the leaves from the previous row. Otherwise the design is 1 stitch off. I remember doing the same thing making my second Amille.

Working with gossamer silk is no easy task. Any stitch that dares to slip off the needles - and believe me, it happens - quickly runs few rows down. If it happens on the plain section it is a relatively easy fix. Otherwise it is a major pain in the neck!

Although at this point I have almost 600 stitches on my needles I am still using 24” circular. I started with 40”, but quickly got tired of sliding the stiches around. I think ideal would be 32”, which I currently don’t have in size 1.

Note to self - next time when working with gossamer use thicker yarn for the stitches on hold! I used just slightly thicker silk and it was a nightmare transferring the live stitches back to the needles. I had to use size 000 needles for that, and even with such small needles it was very difficult to see the live stitches. Needles to say several of them dropped!

09/25/24
Started chart G last night, which is the last chart before the border… well, not counting the 2 row chart H. A this point I have 928 stitches on the needles and I am still using 24” circular. It is going slow. I can’t wait to finish this beauty so I can move on to something else.

10/07/24
Last night i finally started the border chart, that is chart I. I haven’t really had much time to knit lately, so it is going rather slow. At this rate I hope to finfish this in couple of weeks.

11/02/24
I just bound off! The cone with the remaining silk weights 92 g, which means I have used 30.5 g - about 985 yards.
I used crochet hook size 8 to bind off, chaining 10 and 8. I will block it tomorrow. Unblocked it measures about 68” x 19”.

11/03/24
All done! It is gorgeous, but a bit small. I still drapes nicely around the shoulders, but I wish it were at least 5” larger in both directions. I should have used larger size needles - at least 1.5, or even 2.