On My Way to Cape May

On Thursday.  Can't wait.  I have assemble several "almost" done projects to work on for a long weekend at the shore.  

I have to finish Hannah's Rainbow Shrug (she's expecting it this weekend; I promised).

I also have the Tilli Tomas Shrug for my niece who is getting married in August.

And I have a third shrug that I am making with Wild Stuff Half and assorted other yarns (of course, my intention was to work with leftover yarns but "had" to purchase new skeins to make it beautiful).  

And then there are three shells for me!

I found my camera and will post photos shortly!

Knit Faster!

I wish I were able to knit a lot faster than I do. There are so many projects I want to work on. I keep buying yarn, but things take a whole long time to make. I have to go find my camera so I can post what I'm working on now.

Crazy Days

I've been busy at work and I'm not complaining because, as I like to say, consider the alternative. But I have been lucky enough to be able to make a few visits to The Skein Attraction on Wednesdays, which is their late night. On my first trip, I found some Prism "Stuff" and Shaina wrote a pattern for me to make a pullover for myself. We added in some additional yarns like Colinette Giotto, Trendsetter Dolcino and Charm, Louet Euroflax and Luisa (can't remember who makes this). I'm using a cotton blend from Plymouth for the ribbing and am happy to report that I love it! It's so soft and I love the feeling. I'm knitting this on size 11 needles so it's going quickly--in fact, I started on Wednesday night and had the back done by Friday night. I love the play of different colors and textures--the "Stuff" is the color "Sky" which you can see in the photo here.

I went back last Wednesday to have them measure the back for safety and Adina helped me design a shell using Colinette Giotto. My vision was cotton on the bottom, Giotto on the top. They had something called Banyan from Colinette in stock--it's also a cotton blend and the colorway matches the Giotto exactly. I'm doing my shell in purple passion which is a surprising choice--I'm more of a beige/neutral person, but the purple is sooooooo pretty.

I need to post photos of the two shrugs I made for my younger niece--she made her First Communion a few weeks ago and her dress was sleeveless, so I made a shrug using Tilli Tomas Disco Lights. I loved it but later learned her dress had rhinestones on the top, so I quickly made a second version in Pure Merino. I think I liked the merino better because the stitch definition is so good. And my niece reported that the sequins on Disco Lights were scratchy.

I'm still working on a similar shrug in Disco Lights for my older niece who is getting married in August. I'm doing hers in Natural. I'm hoping to finish soon so I can have the shrug lined so we don't repeat the itchy problem.

I've also started another shrug for another young friend. Her color request was "rainbow" so I got a new yarn from Plymouth called Kudo. It's a cotton blend with rayon and silk and it's self striping (yippee-I didn't' want to stripe different colors and have to weave in all those ends). I like the feel of it and am considering something for myself too (I know, I have to finish the above mentioned projects plus a boatload of others first).

And if that's not enough, I've been working my way through Elizabeth Zimmerman's knitting workshop book. I have made half a hat so far, and cast on twice for a sweater, although I'm reconsidering which yarn to use for what. I really like the jerkin but with sleeves--I have a lot of Noro Silk Garden I can use. And some Manos. Or Brown Sheep. I did cast on for the Pi shawl using some Koigu KPPPM that I had originally bought to make a Charlotte shawl. The first 48 rows went quickly but my enthusiasm is already waning. I'm looking for lace patterns to work into it to keep my attention. I'm having a hard time imagining what this will look like after it's blocked and may be on a needle that's not large enough. But maybe it will be fine. Just worried about all that work and having it be a mistake, you know?

One of the challenges I'm facing is finding portable projects--with shaping and patterns, it's difficult to knit on the bus or a plane. Well, I'll just have to soldier on!

Two Rows of Fish

I finished the "Mother-of-Pearl" color and "bubble" lace for the seashore shawl and started the darkest blue. I knit two rows in garter and six rows in Stockinette then started the lace pattern for fish--got one row in pattern and one purl row done. I should listen to my instincts more often--I don't love the spacer rows but there are too many stitches to frog unless I make a mistake.

I Am a Process Knitter

I read somewhere that some people are project knitters--they want to work on something because they like the progress, and other other process knitters--people who like the planning and starting etc. That's me. Which accounts for the inventory to over 100 started and unstarted projects in my closet. I gave the two baby sweaters pictured here as gifts recently so there is evidence that I actually do finish things--eventually. The neckwarmer has been done for months now but I just recently weaved in the ends. I bought the yarn, which is silk cashmere from Elsebeth Lavold several years ago in Dallas, TX. It's almost too pretty to wear.

Tiny Bubbles

I haven't had a whole lot of time to work on my new seashore inspired shawl but I have been having fun with it. The first photo shows how large it is--290 stitches! The second is a close up of the "bubble" lace pattern I started for the bottom edge. The bottom few rows do look like bubbles, but then I put it down for a few days and when I continued, forgot I was spacing each YO row with three additional rows (P K P). I thought it would look more frothy but am getting a mesh feeling from it. Since the next row will be fish, still will work, right? Have to clean up around the house and also have work work to do, so I'm not sure how much progress I'll make this weekend. I'm hoping to at least finish the bubbles and get in a couple of rows of fish!

In the Mood

I've been so busy at work that I haven't been able to spend any time online and have had precious little time to knit, much less update this blog. Well, can't complain considering the alternative, right?

I need a better storage system for my yarn--I have a problem working on one thing at a time and I'm always pulling out multiple projects at once and somehow they don't get put away...I like to keep them close at hand. I thought I might get a handle on the projects I have by assembling a list of projects on needles as well as yarn in my stash. There are over 110 items on the list--time for a purge, I think.

I hae been looking for a KAL to participate in and really liked the Yahoo group for the Creatures of the Reef shawl. You work at your own speed, which is entirely up my alley. However, finding the pattern has been a problem--it's not the cost of the pattern (which is about $12.), it is the S&H (which is about $10.50!). Frustrated, I checked my LYS. They don't carry the Fiddlesticks line but said they would look into it for me. But they also suggested that I could design my own shawl, which we are doing...I'm so excited.

We're using Mica from Berrocco and I'm knitting on #4 Addi Turbos for lace. I bought the second Barbara Walker book because that has most of the patterns although I also bought another pattern for a shawl that had nautical themes as well as one of the Great American Afghan booklets. I feel like I shouldn't say too much about it because it will jinx my progress, but I can't resist.

The final size should be about 60" long x 20" tall. I cast on 290 stitches in Mother of Pearl last night and started a shell pattern but got all jumbled up, so I switched to bubbles. I got through 12 rows which is just about a full skein of Mica (108 yards). I hope to get through another 12 rows of bubbles, then I'll switch to Vivianite, an almost navy blue and knit in some fish. After that, I'll use Abalone, a silvery gray, to knit fish hooks out of the BW book and then I'm switching to a nice sandy beige (can't tell which it is from the color card) to represent the shore. I really really really liked the starfish in the Reef shawl but couldn't find a pattern but found one yesterday--I ordered Ocean Breezes: Knited Scarves Inspired by the Sea from Barnes & Noble and hope to have it in hand later this week. I need to decide whether to switch colors for the starfish or if I want to use the same beige I'll use for the sand. I have some Tilli Tomas Disco Lights in beige as well as one skein of brown---I'm a sucker for sequins anyway. Or I could just get some brown and have it represent wet sand.

Shaina from The Skein Attraction found a pattern for a gingerbread house in the BW book--I'm going to put that in the middle of the back in the sandy color and I am making applique crabs and snails from the Great American Afghan booklet in Cinnabar and Purple Pectin. Then I'm finishing it off with an edging pattern from one of Nicky Epstein's books--I'm using a blue called Lazulite, which is meant to represent the sky, but I'm using a pattern that looks like a wave.

In other news, Adina (also from Skein) wrote a pattern for me so I can make my youngest niece a shrug with some Tilli Tomas Disco Lights--I only have two skeins in a very light pink--gives me 450 yards. I started this yesterday so I can work on it on the bus--there's no shaping for anything to keep track up so should be easy enough to commute and work on it.

I'm also trying to make the Aran sweater for the American Girl doll. Berrocco had a free pattern online recently, however, I haven't been able to find Comfort in DK weight and I'm struggling to get gauge.

Finally, Shaina was wearing a great sweater on Saturday and I had to get the pattern and some Euroflax in Terra Cotta for myself. I started it but frogged it because I don't like the increases...need to give that some attention.

What A Day

We have a new president! I was watching coverage on NBC news and the anchors were joking about how they became emotional as they watched President Obama being sworn in. Well, me too. I'm hoping this is the being a wonderful new era for us.

Sadly enough, another era ended for me and my family yesterday--we said good-bye to my grandfather who was 101 years old. You can't be sad too long when you think about it but it's still hard. I had made a list of all the wonderful things he saw in his lifetime when he turned 100--too bad he didn't get to see this day.

What does this have to do with my knitting? Well, I still haven't finished my inauguration day scarf that I started in February 2008 and was supposed to finish and wear today. But I did give my youngest niece a new pink scarf made from a fuzzy polyester called Cocoon from Universal Yarns. I'll post a picture of it later.

Meanwhile, I took the opportunity to take pictures of my nieces and nephews before the funeral yesterday. Aren't they a great bunch?