Almost done

Good morning, I hope you had a lovely weekend. I'm currently fighting a headache from bending over the Holden Shawl for 2 hours yesterday finishing the picot bind off.

All told I had a lovely weekend. Worked like crazy on Holden, in the company of my kitty and a book on the computer as seen here.

It's much more difficult to knit with a cat on your lap when they are very interested in what you're doing and want to see what the yarn tastes like, and help you with unraveling the ball, and generally getting in the way. Yet letter her sit on my lap was the lesser of two evils when considering what she was doing when she wasn't settled.

Yesterday we went to the local hobby shop and I was able to get all of the edging done, but it did take me over 2 hours from start to finish, after which I had the start of a killer headache. Getting down to the wire I was somewhat worried about the amount of yarn I had left. I though I had the yardage for it, but it was becoming a rather small ball as I was getting to the end. In fact, this is all I had left at the end of it all.

I think my sweat and fears were justified, especially since I was adding two stitches to every two that came off the needles.

Now I just have to block this baby and she'll be done. I'm working on my Grandpa's socks right now because they're simple and don't need much concentration.

Where my focus currently is

And by "focus" I mean what projects currently have my attention.

So to start off, let's check out my finished Fisherman's Rib Scarf thing.

This is so cushy! It isn't symmetrical because I wasn't sure how much grey I had left and ended up just using up all the yarn I had left. Oh and thank goodness for spit splicing! I was 6 stitches short on the grey for the last row, but managed to spit splice in just enough from where I originally added in the grey.

The other nice thing for this super warm scarf, is that I can fold it in half and wrap it around my neck like a short scarf like this:

Or put it's full width around my shoulders like shawl, or use it as a small lap blanket.

Full FO Details can be found on Ravelry. This is made with approximately 1.5 balls of blue, and a .5 ball of grey Lamb's Pride Worsted yarn that I bought in Toronto years ago for my husband's sweater of insanity. This isn't an actual pattern, though I did use Wendy Knits Fisherman Rib scarf from her book as reference. With this I just cast on as many stitches as I wanted for the width and did the rib until I ran out of yarn. The stripes were done on the fly, there really wasn't a rhyme or reason to it except that I messed up and did 4 rows of the grey instead of 3, so I just started dropping it down to 1 row, and it ended up working.

Knitting with Lamb's Pride was nice, it's a soft yarn, but the mohair ended up EVERYWHERE, so I did sneeze a fair amount as it got in my nose. I enjoyed this knit, and may use a pattern similar to use up other left overs because it knit pretty quick. I started this just before the long weekend, and finished it up this past Sunday morning, so just over a week.

A part of me kind of wishes I had made it thinner so the scarf would be longer, but I think this will work well as it is. I kind of want to get a nice big shawl pin to hold it on, especially since I've been making a lot of shawls lately.

And with that let's look at my other two projects, both shawls.

First up is the Spring Thaw Shawl that I'm working on in Socks That Rock yarn that I got in the 2004 sock club. I've found that STR doesn't wear as well as I like it to and I find myself darning them fairly often. Don't get me wrong, it's very comfy as socks, but more like slipper socks than what I like to wear on a daily basis. So the beautiful yarn has slowly been being turned into scarfs, hats, and shawls.

I lost the ball band for this one so I can't tell you the colour, but it is a bunch of shades of blues and greys.

I do very much like this pattern. The over all design is lovely, and the yarn is fabulous to knit with.

I very much look forward to getting this off the needles and blocking it out, however:

I only have this much yarn left, and I'm only the 5th row of the edging. It's not that big of a deal, I just need to put out one full repeat of the pattern. This is actually a good thing because the pattern prefers it if you end on an even number of repeats width wise, and I originally ended on an odd number. So I just need to take the time to weave in some spare yarn to make sure I don't pull out too far, and then rip it out to that point and start the edging again.

So while that waits, I of course started something else (but this is IT, no new starts until I finish one of these shawls and get them blocked).

This is all Ravelry's fault. I was looking in the "Your Nicest FO's" thread and saw a gorgeous completed Holden Shawlette in a Raveler's homespun. I loved what it did to the colours, and how it showed off the long transitions. 

It was perfect for another ball of sock yarn, that I had started to turn into socks but then found out the yarn doesn't wear well, and it also didn't feel like anything I wanted on my feet. It was Noro Kureyon Sock, that I purchased from The Loopy Ewe ages ago. I love the colours of it, in fact, Noro is probably one of my favourite yarns in terms of colours and transitions. However I decided to set the yarn aside until I found a project that would do it justice.

I love the colourway, though the little peach parts aren't my favourite, they seem to be pretty small though, so hopefully they won't be the main thing you see.

Here's all the colours up to where I've paused in my knitting, the pink isn't as bright, and the green isn't as dull as it looks here, hopefully I can get a better picture that shows the colours properly.

So far I am very much enjoying how the simple stockinette stitch is showing off the colours. The only thing I'm worried about is the thick and thin areas of the yarn, it has a very different drape in sections due to this. 

I don't know if you can see at the top of the brown section where it gets thicker. I'm hoping that when I wash and block this once it's done it will bloom and not cause too much of a problem.

So that's what I currently have on the needles. Tomorrow I'll be telling you why I may be in trouble. See you then!

Old Stuff - 5 favourite things I've knit

The problem with me and blogging, or starting a new hobby of any sort really, is burnout. I had to stop my self at least 5 times last night from logging on and posting something here. I had ideas like crazy, but I know that if I don't hold back, I'll run out very quickly.

However, in addition to holding back from posting a ridiculous amount, I also forgot to put my pictures online, so we're going back in time so I can talk about my list of favourite things I've knit.

So here is my top five.

Number 5:

The wee Hello Kitty sweater. I made this back in 2003 when I was getting back into knitting. I love Hello Kitty and there was a lovely KAL going on for this sweater. However it was designed for a 3 year old, and the only 3 year old I knew was out in Northern Ireland, and that's where it ended up. This was my first attempt at Intarsia and I'm really proud of how this sweater turned out.

Number 4:

The Doctor Who Scarf. This was knit at the request of a friend. All 11.5 feet of mind numbing garter stitch. However it did turn out beautifully and now that it's been almost a decade I'm actually considering making one for myself. It helps that I've been pulled into the Doctor Who fandom as well.

Number 3:

Swan Lake shawl. This was a first for me, first Mystery KAL, first Beaded knit, first lace weight shawl (everything else had been made in fingering), first major blocking, first knitting internet drama. Anyone who made this during the Mystery KAL will probably remember the drama surrounding it when we were about halfway through. Anyway, this massive shawl turned out beautifully and went to go live with my friend in Italy who's online handle was Swan. I'm very proud of this knit, and it's another one on my list to make for me.

Number 2:

These were just fun. They're Arrrrr-gyles, and were made as a Christmas present for a friend in Singapore. We all were part of an online game called Puzzle Pirates, and when we decided to trade Christmas gifts, these were just perfect for her. It also helps that she has the world's littlest feet.

Number 1:

This sweater requires a bit of explanation. The first picture is my brother at 4, wearing a sweater that my Grandmother had made him. Many years later, he unearthed this picture and posted it on his Facebook stating that he would "totally wear this sweater if I could find it again". Knowing that the sweater wouldn't fit him, but that I could recreate it, off I went. The colours aren't exact, and there was a good amount of figuring necessary to make an adult sized sweater for him. But it worked out and he enjoyed wearing it a couple of times.

So that's my favourite things I've knit. I just realized that most of them are well traveled and overseas, and that none of them ended up with me. Maybe in a few years I will actually decide to keep some of my favourite knits, but for now, I'll just enjoy the fun of seeing others enjoy them.

Fisherman's Rib

Good morning!

So, after fighting for about half an hour with my iPod to upload my picture, I think I'm going to have to make sure all my pictures are uploaded the night before I post. Nothing's ever easy.

So I figured today I would show you my current WIP, my lovely Lamb's Pride Worsted Fisherman's Rib scarf/shawl thing.

Can I just say that I have fallen in love with Fisherman's Rib since I've started this. At first I was really unsure about it, and had avoided this stitch pattern because it didn't make sense to me. Stitching into the stitch beneath the one you're working with, wasn't that asking for trouble by leaving a loose stitch?

This time though, I bit the bullet and just started doing it! Rather than second guessing myself, I just followed the directions and kept going. It's so smooshy! I love it! I'm pondering making a sweater with Fisherman's Rib in the future, since I live in Canada and it can get pretty darn cold in here.

I'll leave you with this rather old picture of me and Peari snuggling in my old apartment that was rather cold, which was a rarity.