sundays are for sluggards

at least, i feel like a slug. of course, if i take a step back, i'm working on benny the monkey for alie, and need that done by around my b'day for her.

I'm working on a new mystery shawl, and finished clue 1 on friday (the clues come out on wednesdays).




i'm working on the tuscany shawl, and am pretty much back to where i was when i frogged the entire thing - at least this time, i'm not irritated by errors!

and then there was the felted bag. i think i liked it better with doubled worsted, instead of this bulky wool/mohair blend - this one feels a little shaggy... on the other hand, i won't worry if it gets shaggy cause it started out that way! but it's done! yay!

mystic light KAL

so i finished clue 1 tonight - i really mangled the last 3 rows multiple times, it seemed like i was going backwards there for a while, as i had to frog yet another row.

but it's done,and i like it - i was worried that the yarn was a bit too busy, and would distract from the pattern (which is really quite nice) - and it might well be. but in the pictures, you can see the colors AND you can see the pattern.

lace and cables is an amazing combination, by the way - if i ever get a creative juice and try to design my own, i'll have to hold that thought. cables and lace. lace and cables. it's nice!

so i made a claim

in the ongoing wish swap - and dyed some yarn for the recipient. and i really hoped that she would like the colors (dark to pale purple)

and according to the USPS site, it was delivered yesterday.

and she's gone till tuesday, which means she's received, but she hasn't.

anyway, here's the yarn... i hope she likes it.



on my own crafting front, i'm working on the felted flower bag, this time for me - i loved the one I sent to superhooker in a swap last year, and always wanted one for me. the body, handles, vines, and leaves are finished, and i'm on flower number 5 out of 6. i should be able to felt all the pieces this week, and hopefully put it together by next week.

i think i'm getting burned out on the swaps.... i received a disappointing package in a swap that was really supposed to be a high quality one, and for now, it just seems more rewarding to make things for myself - at least i know that i worked really hard on it, ya know?

i'm not a total slug!

about 2 weeks ago, i agreed todo a personal swap with another craftster member - her aunt makes these amazing stained glass tiles, and she was going to have one made for me that had a dragonfly.

i promised to make a crochet hook roll.

and procrastinated an awful lot.

tonight, i said enough is enough. and made it. no pictures, of course, because that would have been TOO organized!

but it's done, packed up, addressed (shoot, forgot a note)... well, it's going to the post office tomorrow.

yay, me!

secret of the stole is done!!

wow. 9 clues, 2 months... and it's blocking across an entire bed!! i'm thinking i need to get 1 panel of the foamy insulation for a blocking board - cause if i keep doing big projects like this, the bed isn't big enough!

2 months, and i still like it. good thing, huh? it would have been nice to be one of the lucky people who won a prize, but really - the designer shared this pattern with us, as well as clues and puzzles... so for 2 months, i got to belong to something cool. i can live with that!

not to mention the stole, which is awesome - check this out....

LMAO!!

I'm a glutton for punishment.

there's going to be a new sock wars. everyone gets a target, and a pattern. you knit the socks and send them to your target. they get assasinated, and have to send you the info on their target, and their unfinished socks.

unless you get assassinated by whoever has you in their sights.... in which case you get a pair of socks, you're dead, and you send your unfinished socks and target info to the person who killed you off.

it's bizarre. my daughter did it last year. she got assassinated. i don't know who got the socks she had been working on. on the other hand, i got the socks she received. they were purple. i like them.

this is gonna be funny!

wanna take part? membership is a measly $2, they take paypal, here's the site
Sock Wars III

i think i'm finally getting my fill of lace for a while

i did the merino painted wool shawl. then i've got the SOTS-ii, which has the last clue coming out in 3 days - that's clue 9, which means i've been working on that one for 2 months.

and for in between the clues, i started the tuscay shawl, in a hand painted laceweight from Javede.

i finally got a little tired of lace. or maybe the tuscany is just getting tedious (which i suspect is closer to the truth) - so i needed something that was fun and not lace.

so i finally cast on for the felted flower bag i made heather last year in the IYP - this time, this one's for me. very cool. i ordered the brown sheep (or whatever it is) bulky wool for the body of the bag... feels VERY luxurious, it's a wool/mohair blend. very soft - a little fluffy puffy. ok, it'll end up just being felted when i wash and dry it... but it'll be great. maybe i'll have it done by my b'day, that would be pretty cool.

these are links to the one i made last year - mine will be substantially the same, though i'll post pix when it's done:

one side of the bag
the other side of the bag

this new one, it's a different blue wool, i suspect it's going to be nicer - and the greens may be different, i have so many colors in my stash!

or not

i frogged the whole thing this morning. ya know how you see 1 error, and you say ok, i can live with that. and you see another error, and you say no prob, i can fix that?

strike 3, and it's time to frog.

but i'm not working on a whole lot else at this point, so i'll just start again. at least i'm familiar with the pattern, and know the trouble spots to pay attention.

that was a lot of knitting, though.......

and the tuscany marches along

I realized that it might be nice to have a progress picture of the tuscany - i'm really liking the yarn for this one...

not a bad week!

my shoulder gets better - still real achy and all, and the doc wants one more shot at PT before i go back to work... but this is so much better than it was, before!

i made a pair of socks for leah - i'm so pitiably late on her b'day package, it's a miracle she hasn't yelled at me... and i figured she needed a pair of 'real' socks... i've apparently become a sock snob, too!

been working on tuscany, in the yarn that Javede dyed for me...

and obviously, i need to take some pictures of all of this.

i finished clue 8 of SOTS-ii... hard to believe that i've been working on this for 2 MONTHS!! and sort of strange to have it be coming to an end next week.... this project/group/KAL has been my companion for 2 months......

so i did what any self-respecting knitter would do! found another lace KAL that picks up fairly soon after this one ends... and this new one has cables, which i like!

anyway, here's my clue 8 - it's now so big that i cannot get it all into one picture and have ANY detail show!

new projects and indecision

LOL, i needed a new project. Leah, my adopted sister (i adopted her), sent me the book with the tuscany shawl in it... and i've been wanting to make that for ages and ages....

small problem figuring out what wool to use, as you can see....... (i removed this from ravelry cause it was too bloggy for there)

3/2 - cast on (using some fabulous wool i had dyed with koolade yarn, blues and greens). this appears to be something repetitious, so i should be able to just move along on it

3/2 - realized that the koolade yarn is only 440 yards (compared it to my bare yarn that still had labels.. love the weight, just not enough yardage)... so going to dye up some other laceweight in turquoise and green, and when that's dry, use that.

3/2 - i'm so decisive today - I have a great variegated blues laceweight that was dyed for me by Javede in a personal swap ages ago - and never knew the right project for it. Let's see, this needs 820 yards, and I have 880 yards (compared it to my other bare weight yarn to make sure) - so we're off and running, and i'm FINALLY past the halfway mark of the first 16 row chart! (couple of false starts in there)



LOL!! and i dyed up the green/turquoise, so that's hanging to dry - 1760 yards, so that's enough to make any number of wonderful shawls (or 2 of the tuscany)

LOL!! ok, so i'm finally working on this.... and i decided that leah needs to have a handknit pair of socks... so went into my sock stash and picked out yarn for that - she'll get the sock of doom, cause the yarn is real pretty just as it is!

desperately seeking a new project!

isn't it funny, the closer i get to the end of a project, the slower i go? i don't know if it's just me or if loads of people are like that... honestly, i could have had this done last night... but procrastinated.

on the other hand, i wasn't going to give myself permission to start anything new until i finished this one!

so there you have it. my carolyn sweater.

project details: i made this in a medium, based on the measurements in the pattern - the small just seemed as thought it would have been snug. i should have made the small. either i'm a whole lot smaller than i realize, or the measurements were way off. i didn't bother measuring my finished sweater, what's the point?

the wool was the peruvian wool called for, from the elann site. 6 of the main color, 5 of the second color.

i'm pretty sure i knit right about on gauge - i ordered precisely the amount of wool called for in the sweater - did NOT get an extra skein of either color, which i don't recommend doing, by the way - it gets a bit stressful... as i was doing the front edging/placket, i got the 6 rows, did the button holes, and the pattern calls for 2 more rows of the navy, and i'm looking at this really small ball of yarn... ok, so i do one more row, because if i'm 1 row short (which was looking pretty likely), it won't be really noticeable. do that row, and i still have this small ball of navy - so i arm stretch measured it (1 arm span is about a yard, give or take) and i have about 10 yards left. 360 inches, roughly. and i have about that many stitches. hmmm, an inch a stitch? what's the worst that happens, i have to rip out the last row because i don't have quite enough? (now you see why you should always get an extra skein, especially of the main color!)

anyway, i got that last row in. with about 2 yards to spare. huh. had about half a skein of the green left, btw.

the wooden buttons were from a personal swap with a lovely lady in Iceland - so they're authentic Icelandic buttons... she sent a packet of them that was just the right size button and just the right number of buttons. of course, if i break one of the buttons, i have to replace them all.

here she be - now i need to start something else....

oh, and please ignore the hand print on the mirror - that was apparently my teenage son's contribution, and he'll be cleaning mirrors today!

and my other project

I've also been working on the carolyn cardigan from knitty.com - i fell in love with the sweater, and have wanted to make it since the pattern came out.

this morning, i attached the raglan portion of the sleeves, and am now ready to pick up stitches to do the front edging/placket - then it's just side seams and done - holey moley, it might be done before the weekend is over! YAY!!

Secret of the Stole - II

Ok! I finished clue 7 - only 2 more clues to go. I'm using Knitpicks Shadow, had 3 skeins, and started skein #3 at the exact middle of clue 7 - so i think i'm good for yardage as well.

The titles for each clue are all Jimmy Buffet songs, I got that much worked out. The sub-clue, the parts that go into the crossword puzzle, I'm pretty sure i have them all right - there's quite a bit of discussion about clue 6, trying to make fruitcakes and "looks pretty, smells sweet" play nicely together, and i'm not so sure they're supposed to. I need clue 9 to intersect clue 6 to be sure what the answer is, though I think i have it. LOL, i think i know the answer to next week's clue already too, based on the number of letters, the 1 letter that is already filled in, and the suppositions I've made so far.

ok then - possible answers for clue 6.

7 letters, second letter is an A, "6. FRUITCAKE: smells so sweet & looks so lovely"
Bananas (banana bread, smells and looks good)
Raisins (generally found in fruitcake)
Cabbage (crossword dictionary came up with this one)
Daisies (ditto)
Walnuts (fruitcake is someone who's nuts?)
Caramel (different crossword dictionary)
darling (ditto)

those are my options, depending on what happens in clue 9

ok, enough babbling... clue 7 is done, i can go back to my cardigan, my shoulder is sore and stiff but i keep doing all the exercises in the hopes that it will start to feel like it belongs to the rest of me!