Prom Queen.

It's prom night and daughter has been the picture of stress. Poor thing had to miss her hair appointment and then couldn't get her hair or make-up the way she wanted it. After a good cry and few moans about not going, she managed to pull herself together and finished getting ready.

Yes, I'm biased, but I truly thought she looked wonderful. Right up until she left the house she still felt not quite right and stressed as you can tell by the pictures. Gah, I wouldn't be 16 again if you paid me.

I used a modified Simplicity 4070 pattern, I deepened the v at the neck line. I also gave it a corset instead of a zip (although the skirt section does have a concealed zip) and as well as lining the skirt, I added net to the underneath to just about poke out the bottom.

I used taffeta for the dress and have discovered I really enjoy working with taffeta as it's so easy. The net and lining fabric was another kettle of fish altogether (eek). just some ribbon detailing on the bust line and it was done. Once I got into it it only took a day or so even though I've never made anything like it before.

Woodland Shawl update.

I seem to have been knitting this forever and it doesn't appear to be progressing very quickly. I hope to change that this week as I've now finished my daughter's prom dress (will do a separate post for that later) and have managed another couple of repeats.

At first I was a little disappointed with the yarn I was using, I wanted it to be ethereal in appearance as that's how I always think of elves, especially the elves from LOTR. Now that I've knitted a bit of it I'm happier as it actually makes me think of elvish chain mail.

Merino Lace Yarn Saga.

As you know I ordered some merino lace yarn from Angel Yarns in Icy Storm, I phoned them on the 10th June to see when they were expecting more stock as I'd ordered on the 4th June and received and email on June 6th to tell me it was out of stock.

They ordered the yarn from their supplier on the 8th June and told me it would take 7-10days to arrive in the shop.

Just phoned them to find that the colour I wanted had been discontinued, well for cryin' out loud an email or phone call to let me know would have been nice.

They did have some of the colours in stock, so I've changed from the Icy Storm to the Zest and it should be posted out today.

I do like the Zest, a lot in fact, will have to find a real nice pattern to knit with it.

So finally, 22 days after ordering my yarn it should be here tomorrow or Saturday.

Mystery Shawl Number 2

Okay, I've now completed clue 2 on the Mystery Shawl. I changed my mind on the chart, I ended up going for chart B.

There are a few mistakes but I'm hoping you have to know where to look to actually notice them.

Just have to wait till Saturday for clue 3, this will give me the time to actually make my daughter's prom dress for Friday (eek). I've the fabric cut out it just needs sewing together and I'm hoping that wont actually take that long.

I've also still got a couple of One Shawl to Rule them All shawls OTN and will see if I can get any work done on those as well.

Mystery Shawl, clue 2.

We got clue 2 of the Mystery Shawl yesterday, once again we had a choice of 4 charts. For the first shawl I've already done Clue1 Chart D, now I've completed Clue2 and again I chose Chart D. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, when we get next Saturday's clue I'm going to change to the mid yellow colour.

I had no problems this time and got it done in next to no time.

I'm off to do Chart C on the second shawl.

Have Finally Righted My Wrongs.

Okay, so I was looking at my chart A of the mystery shawl and wondering why I had no swirl when I decided to re-read the instructions for the shaded row.

Low and behold I'd only gone and mucked it up, that's what you get when you don't take the time to read the instructions carefully. I tried to tink back but it was a nightmare, those stitches are really tiny.

Ripped back to row 12 before the chart and then tried again. Result, I now have a nice swirl.

I'm Nuts, I must be....

After seeing other peoples mystery shawl, I decided I liked chart A so much that I had to do it. But chart D turned out so nice I didn't want to send it to the frog pond. So, I had the crazy idea of doing both chart D and chart A.

So today I cast on for chart A, I've completed it and it looks good (yes blowing my own trumpet).

I decided to reverse the colour order for this one so have started with the brown.

So now I've three (gulp) lace weight shawls on the go at the moment, does that make me nuts? Probably, but it's going to be so much fun and hopefully I'll have some beautiful shawls to wear at the end.

DPNs + Lace weight = Arrrgghhhh!

Well I cast on for the mystery shawl late last night as Renee posted it early. I think it may have been a bad idea casting on as soon as I finished dad's washcloth as I didn't realise just how late it was and how tired I was.

Half a dozen times I cast on, I just couldn't seem to get past the first 2 rows as I was all fingers and thumbs. I've never used DPN's and lace weight. In fact the only lace weight I've ever used is for the Celtic Knot Shawl and I've not even started the first knot on that yet. So a lace circular shawl was proving very difficult indeed.

I was loosing all hope of ever getting it by 2am, so decided to call it a night. So glad I did as this morning I was able to cast on and actually finish clue 1.

We were given a choice of 4 different lace charts, I plumbed for chart 'D' as it seemed the easiest and after last night I was all about making life easy :-) i can't wait for next week's clue now, this KAL is going to be so much fun.

Washcloth for dad.

Yesterday I knitted a washcloth as part of my dad's fathers' day gift. Mum picked his gifts and cards up today, so tomorrow I'll give him a call and see what he thinks.

Got the pattern from here, used 4mm needles and James C Brett's Kool Kotton in Putty.

Just hope he likes it.

Mystery Shawl Swatch.

As you know the merino wont be here in time, so I've swatched the new yarn and I love it. I'm so excited about this KAL now and hope the shawl will turn out as beautiful as it does in my head LOL.

I've changed needle size as well, from 3.75mm to 3.5mm. Looks so much better with the new needles. Creates a lovely light but squishy fabric.

Roll on tomorrow when we get the first clue, it'll be posted about noon CST, so that works out about 5pm here in Blighty. So that's my Saturday night sorted.

Yummy Yarn Woes.

Well it seems the lovely merino lace weight I ordered from Angel Yarns wont be here in time to start the Goddess Knits Mystery Shawl KAL.

I ordered it on June 4th, got an email June 6th to tell me the yarn was out of stock and they were waiting on a new stock delivery. So I rang them yesterday to find out how long delivery usually takes from their supplier, it appears they only ordered the yarn the day before yesterday and it can take 7 to 10 days to arrive from the supplier. Of course there's no indication on the website that the yarn is actually out of stock...gah!

I've never had any trouble with Angel Yarns before but having read a few things, I think from now on it'd be a good idea to phone and actually check they have what I want in stock.

So now I'm in a quandary, do I wait for the lace weight to arrive and then start the KAL a few days late or do I go with another yarn I've my eye on, Silverknit Paris 2ply wool (shown in picture)?

If I go with the new yarn I'd do the first two clues in the yellow, the second two in the mid yellow and the last clue in the mid brown. Possibly even adding some beads to the last section.

Hmm, decisions, decisions, decisions....

Yarn Brag.

I'll not tell my husband if you don't but I've just ordered what I hope will be some wonderful yarn for the Goddess Knits Mystery Shawl.

It's from Angel Yarns and is called Merion Lace Yarn, I've chosen the colour Ice Storm. It called to me and I had to have it :-D

I'm really surprised at the yardage as well, plenty for a shawl and the price is excellent. Now I'll just have to semi-patiently wait for my order to arrive. As the KAL doesn't actually start until June 14th the yarn hopefully will be here before then.

I did a test in some un-labled stash yarn I had (a 3ply), it turned out okay with the 3.75 needles I chose. Just a shame I didn't read the chart right, hopefully that'll be better when I come to knit the actual shawl.

I'm practising chart reading with the Celtic Knot Stole I'm currently working on and that seems to be pretty straight forward and is working out fine.

Block-a-month CAL

As if all that isn't enough I'm still doing my Block-A-Month CAL. This months block was called Lacy Granny. I only did 14 rounds as I found it was big enough by then.

Obsesed moi?

Hmm, I think I may be becoming slightly obsessed with lace knitting...eek!

I seem to have joined a couple of KALs on Ravelry, I joined 'one shawl to rule them all' a couple of weeks ago. Now I have two shawls on the go.

The first shawl I cast on was the Woodland Shawl, it's supposed to look Elvish. I had originally wanted to make it in Kidsilk night but couldn't really justify the cost, so went with a yarn I found in my stash. It does kind of make me think of Elves. The silver running through the green makes me think of Elven chain mail.

The second shawl I cast on is the Celtic Knot Stole, this is to represent the race of Men, I found a 2ply jet black un-named yarn on Ebay that was pennies, so of course as I love a bargain I bought it.

Here's a list of the shawls and who they represent;

Hobbits
knit: Chunky Highland Wool Wrap
crochet: Eva’s Shawl

Men
knit: Celtic Knot Stole
crochet: Angled Lace Scarf

Dwarves
knit: 98-21 Shawl
crochet: 102-36 Shawl

Elves
knit: Woodland Shawl
crochet: Feather Stole

So you can see, that alone is going to keep me uber busy. So guess what I went and did, yup you guessed. I signed up for yet another KAL!

I found the Goddess Knits Mystery Shawl group on Ravelry, there is also a yahoo group for the KAL. There is still time to join in as the KAL won't actually start until June 14th. That'll give me some time to work on the other shawls.