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.

Small update

Seems to have been ages since I last updated my blog, I do have a few things to share.

I've been working on Goddessknits mystery shawl #10, as usual with Renee's patterns it's turning out to be a beautiful shawl. I've just started clue 4.

I've also been dying again, this time a yellow/green combo I've decided to call 'Harvest'. the base yarn is 75/25 superwash/nylon, it's a 4 ply fingering weight yarn. It was also done with food colouring and the slow cooker. I swear, my slow cooker has never been used as much as it is now that I'm dying yarn.

I crocheted some new headphone covers as our old foam ones had split and they had become uncomfortable, now they're wonderfully soft and cosy on the ears.

I'm also working on something for my mum's birthday but don't want to say to much as I know she sometimes reads this blog. Suffice to say, it's something from Victorian Lace today. I also had to dye the yarn for this as the yarn I wanted to use just didn't do the pattern justice, once it's been gifted I'll let you now more about it.

Hmm. seems it wasn't such a small update after all.

Shhh, another mystery shawl.

Renee at Goddess Knits is doing another mystery shawl, this time mytery shawl #10.

I stash dived for the yarn and chose a silver blue that looks like a blue heather, it's just a 4ply wool acrylic mix and I'm using 4mm circs.

I thought I was going to finish clue 1 yesterday but noticed a major mistake and had to unravel the lot (62 rows) but I got caught up and completed it today. Just have to wait for clue 2 on Saturday now :-)

Can't believe I only just realised that if you click on the picture you're directed to a much larger and clearer image of the project, fancy not knowing that LOL.

Shawl Relay

I've finished the Clapotis, okay I ran out of yarn and as I really didn't want to buy any more of this particular yarn I just used some from my stash to finish.

So I have a mostly green Clapotis with one blue point. I think I will end up knitting this pattern again as it's a good TV knit and delivers a really nice shawl. Next time I think I'll go for a variegated yarn.

I'm not doing to bad for the Ravelympics, so far I've completed three projects and there are still a couple of days left, wonder what else I can get done before the closing ceremony?

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.

Mystery Shawl Number 2 Clue 3 Chart C

I've finally finished clue 3, it seemed to take an age. I'm full of a cold though so didn't work on it as much as I could have.

I finished it last night just in time for the release of clue 4 today, although now I'm frantically working on clue 3 for shawl number one.

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.

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.

Behind on my crochet.

I joined a 12" block a month CAL on Ravelry, I've completed both January's block and February's block but as of yet I've not even started March or April's block...eek.

Just glad I've the next two weeks off work as I've so many things to catch up on. There's the shirts and trousers for work, the two blocks not to mention Kiri for my friend and I also need to do another Azure Allure (hopefully it'll fit) for myself.

Well I better get off my butt and actually move away from the computer if I wish to accomplish that much in my time off.

Doctor Who has a lot to answer for!

So, knitting Kiri whilst trying to watch the new series of Doctor Who is really not a good idea.

I completed row 57 thinking there was something that wasn't quite right and upon checking noticed a major fubar...gah!

Thank god that not only had I read about lifelines the other day but that I was also using them. Made it so much easier to frog back to row 52 and correct whatever mistake it was that I'd made.

So, my progress yesterday was to get back to the place I started. because life does get in the way and things are so easy to muck up I've decided I'm going to place a lifeline every ten rows, may increase this to every five as the shawl gets bigger.

As for Doctor Who, the jury's still out on whether Catherine Tate is going to diminish my enjoyment of the show every time I look at her all I hear is 'am I bovvered?'...grrr.

Update on the shawl

Yay, I figured out where I'd been going wrong and have now completed 32 rows.

I was doing the two pattern repeats and not knitting the center stitch, so of course had a gaping hole that wasn’t very pretty. In the pattern the repeats were in brackets and I just assumed the k1 came after the two repeats…d’oh!. After reading the chart (another new thing learned today, I can now read charts!) it all made sense and I'm storming along.

It really is a beautiful pattern and I'm just amazed at the beautiful things that can be made with a bit of yarn and some needles.

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.