It's Been A While...

Since I last made a post ( or at least it feels that way).Yesterday I finished another hat, Star Crossed Slouchy Beret by Natalie Larson. Really quick and satisfying knit, although I did decide to use smaller needles as I didn't want it to be too big on my head.I used King Cole Fashion Aran in colour 162 Heather and 4.5mm & 5.5mm circular needles.

I've also been working on the Renee Leverington Winter Mystery Shawl 2008, I'm now on clue two. It's a bit slow going due to the beads (my first beaded project) but I'm enjoying the process and don't feel the need to rush it.
I also started another jumper (this one for me) using Ann Budd's book, I'm using the same mohair yarn I used for the Kiri shawl as I've shed loads of it :-) I've finished the body and have started on the first sleeve, it's not going to be overly fitted but will hopefully be flattering. I may even try to work in some interest around the yoke, but that will depend on if I can find anything that captures my interest.I've also been working on a pattern for a matching hat for the Twisted Seedling: Fingerless Mitts, hope to have the pattern ready by next week.

WOW!

What can I say? I finished one of the shawls I've on the go last night. Renee Leverington's Persephone (also known as MS10), wow! This shawl is beautiful but like all lace didn't reveal just how beautiful until it was blocked and WOW! I love it. Yes, yes I mucked up the blocking as I really didn't give myself enough time for it to dry before I needed to actually go to bed (the only place big enough to block it) but I can re-do it another time now I know it's true beauty.

Renee is a master of the lace shawl and I bow to her excellence, I've 2 more of her shawls OTN and another 2 in the queue, I can't wait to discover how beautiful they are.

I used 4mm needles and a silvery blue 4ply yarn called Soft Seasons, Soft Mix (wool/acrylic blend) that I'd bought from Ebay and stashed quite a while ago. The pattern isn't available on Renee's website just yet but will be soon, so be sure to bookmark her.

Delicato Mitts

Okay, I've only finished one so far and I'm already in love with both the pattern and the finished one.

They certainly live up to their name, very delicate and light on my hand and such a wonderful fit. Also with them being 100% lambswool, they are nice and warm as well.

The 2.5mmDPNs I used are perfect, the yarn and colour is perfect, the fact I only did 6 instead of 7 repeats of the lace panel pattern is perfect. Did I mention I loved these mitts (mitt)?
I know I'm definitely going to have to keep these away from the girls or I'll never see them again, let alone get a chance to wear them and show them off.
I've now finished both and am definitely in love with them LOL. Any ideas on how to block out the ladders on the palms?

Mitts For Meeeee.

I bought this absolutely georgeous yarn from Ebay, it's a 2ply hand dyed laceweight and 100% lambswool. This stuff is so soft and the colours are so gentle, I was stuck for a while on what it wanted to be.

Then I came across a pattern called Delicato Mitts and I thought the name and style of mitt really went with my soft pastel laceweight.So, out of shear boredom I cast on for them late last night and so far am loving them. I'm using 2.5mm DPNs instead of the recommended 2.75mm, not only to accomodate the fact I'm using a lace yarn but also because my hands are quite small.

Lace Beret

Woolly Wormhead posted a mystery beret on Ravelry, I've now completed it. It was a quick and satisfying knit with easy to follow instructions.I originally made this beret for my daughter as one of her birthday gifts, it's turned out so nice I'm not sure if I can give it away :-)
I used James C Brett Ripple in H1 and 4.5mm needles. The ball of yarn is a true representation of the colour.

Victorian Lace Today Scarf

As usual life got in the way and I ended up having to do a rush job on this, although I still really like it, it’s not what I originally planned.

I did do the Stripes and Torchon lace on page 158 for the center panel, just didn’t use the border from that pattern. I only cast on 41 stitches as I did two of the stripes and repeated the pattern 12 times. After blocking the scarf turned out 10.5 inches wide by 60 inches long.

Instead I chose the wide Clarence border on page 82.

I used a superwash sock yarn that I hand dyed in the slow cooker. Also, as I didn't have anywhere to block the scarf I doubled it over and blocked on the ironing board seemed to work fine.

It’s mum’s birthday today and I’m meeting her at lunchtime for a coffee and will give her the scarf then. I'll try and get some pictures of her wearing the scarf and upload them later.

Eek, a wedding.

Okay my sister in law is getting married on the 24th of October, I only found out on Thursday. I knew she was getting married but for some reason I thought is was next summer, that's why I couldn't figure out why she was having her hen night this month LOL.

So of course there being three females in this house (two of whom are teenagers) the major question was, 'what am I going to wear?'

I've dibs on one of my eldest daughter's dresses, she hasn't worn it yet and it's a floaty chiffon number in black. Wearing black to a wedding isn't the problem, the fact it's strapless is. My solution is to knit a cropped cardigan/shrug type of thing so my bra straps don't show. Also the yarn matches a pair of heals I've got so hopefully will look nice on the day.

My husband is easy to dress, he can just wear a suit, eldest is panicking and has decided she needs to go shopping (this girl can't even fit all her clothes in her robe as it is) so the plan is eldest and I go shopping on Thursday, she can pick something for herself and help me choose something for the youngest.

Youngest has requested that the dress have two colours and one of them must be blue (sigh), if I can't find anything like that I may just pick up some fabric and cobble something together for her myself.

I was looking at patterns for the cropped cardigan and fell in love with this one, unfortunately the whole pattern isn't available yet so have plumbed for this one (with a few alterations).

I'm using a Dk weight yarn with 4.5mm needles so have cast on 80 stitches instead of the recommended 50, I've split like this 14/13/26/13/14. Think I'll make it slightly longer but only by a few rows, just hope my alterations work out as I'm not a designer and am winging it LOL. I'm not adding the pointy edge as I'm not too keen on it.

The VLT gift I'm knitting for my mum is coming along nicely and should be completed next week sometime (hopefully).

Yay, Clue 3 Chart D Done on the Other Shawl

It seems to have taken an age but I've finally completed the third clue on the second shawl from the Goddessknits Anniversary Mystery Shawl.

I now just have to complete clue 4 on both shawls, they are huge clues so I wouldn't expect to hear about them for a while.

Harmony options, just thought I'd mention them, yes, you all probably knew about them years ago but I've just found them. I LOVE these needles, not only do they look lush but they're a dream to knit with. I only ordered a sample (just 3.5mm tips and a 120cm cord) but I'll definitely be getting more, they're just too good not to.

Go out, treat yourself, buy them. Yes, I believe they are that good.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Woohoo, Kiri is done.

Yay, I cast off my Kiri last night and it's now blocking.

For the cast off it says to make sure you do it loose and to use a 5mm needle, to be on the safe side I used a 6mm needle.

Blocking is harder than it looks, I don't think I've done it right but it's close enough that I can live with it. I don't think it'll take that long to dry either.

I ended up doing 12 repeats of the pattern, that's equal to 132 rows with another 12 rows for the edging. I didn't count how many stitches there were as I was a little scared to find out LOL.

I can't wait to unblock it and see how it draps/looks, just hope my friend likes it now.

Shawl update (yes, again)

Yes, I know I did an update the other day but my new camera has arrived and I wanted to take pictures, look at that detail :-) Yup, I'm a kid in a candy store.

Kiri Shawl

Well I got to row 28 and I'd been feeling as if something wasn't quite right so had a look at the picture.

My Kiri didn't have the two obvious yarn overs down the center, it just had a large hole rather than two neat ones.

Now I followed the instructions so have no idea how it's happened, I've frogged it and will re-start it today, tip, mohair is a git to frog!

I know when I was doing the purl rows that the two yo's in the center were purled so why it looked as if I'd dropped the stitch I don't know, I was wondering if I twist the stitches this would give them more definition. Will find out in a couple of hours.

Friendship.

I've a friend I met via the net, we've been chatting for about 6/7 years now. We met in real life when she travelled up to help me celebrate my 30th birthday.

Her husband had been ill for a very long time and sadly passed away, as I've also had my own troubles these past couple of years I've let our friendship slip.

So as a little sorry for being basically a crap friend I've decided I'm going to send her a care package type of thing. She writes a lot at all times of the day and night so I thought I could make her the Kiri shawl to help keep her shoulders and back warm on chilly nights.

I'm also going to make her some fingerless gloves, her hands will stay warm but she'll still be able to type.

I'll also include some smellies for the bathroom, chocolate and some wine. Can't really think of anything else to add but hope those will bring her a small smile.