Summer of Lace

I have always had a desire to knit lace but every time I would start a lacy thing I’d get part way through and toss it aside and never go back to it, or I’d get  frustrated with it and swear that I would never knit lace again.  I really don’t know what happened but I am so into knitting lace right now.  I’m on my 3rd  and 4th lace projects of the  summer and I have a bunch of patterns queued that I want to start.  It all started with this – The Shetland Triangle knit with Dream in Color Starry:

Then I moved on to Adamas knit with Dream in Color Baby.  Thanks to my Thursday night knitting friends,  I’ve also had this thing for Dream in Color lately:

Both of them were really easy and quick to knit.  Now I’m working on two different lace projects.  The Pi Shawl, which is in time out right now.  I’ll probably frog it because I really don’t know if I want a circular shawl.  Maybe I’ll just cast off and call it a doily.  And then there is this little scarf I’m working on out of Malabrigo laceweight:

The stitch pattern is Ostrich Plumes from The Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara Walker and doesn’t show up well in the picture,  but it is a beautiful pattern.  The borders are just garter stitch.  I’m wondering if I need to work it on a bigger needle though.  I really don’t want to rip it out and start over so I’ll probably just keep on going.

I also was able to go to The Estes Park Wool Market in June.  Most of my purchases were laceweight yarn.  I got some really pretty stuff!  Only one roving purchase which is really odd for me.  Roving is not something I’m at a loss for right now  so I didn’t  feel the need to buy any, but I didn’t have a laceweight stash.  I’m working on it!

I really don’t want to stop and knit anything else but lace right now but I’m going to have to start something else soon.  I can just feel the startitis setting in.  Maybe some colorwork.

I’ll be back

I’m taking a break from blogging for awhile. I’ll be back.

4/14/09

In spite of the migraine I have had for the past week, I did manage to have a nice Easter weekend.  On Saturday my husband and I went over to the Sheep Festival in Waterloo.  It was a good time, but I was a little disappointed that there weren’t more animals and vendors.  I guess maybe I am spoiled from going to Estes.  We had fun anyway and I bought a couple of fleeces from my friend Cindy.  Watching the dogs herding the sheep  is always neat and the dogs were such sweet dogs too.

I was actually looking forward to cooking an Easter dinner this year.  I even bought new table linens for it.  But thank goodness my SIL invited us to her dinner.  My migraine was so bad Sunday morning that I didn’t think I was going to make it through church.  I got home, took my meds and I was fine for the rest of the day and our dinner was wonderful!  I wished I would have taken a picture of our salads.  They were so pretty and each one had an easter egg placed in the center with our name on it.

I am moving along on the FLS. I’m past the eyelet increases and almost to the lace patterning. Thank God! I was beginning to wonder if I had the will to keep knitting the garter stitch anymore. It was seeming endless, but maybe that is because this is my 3rd one.

What a day

Yesterday was the most frustrating day I’ve had in quite awhile.  First off my computer was running slow and I needed the eyelet increase calculations  for the FLS before taking my husband to the doctor.  He was having a procedure done that left me in the waiting room for an hour and a half so there was lots of knitting time and I wanted to be prepared for it.  I ended up leaving without my calculations for the eyelet increases and wouldn’t you know it, 10 minutes into my knitting time I needed these.  So I called my friend Nancy who looked it up for me on her computer and then read it off to me.  Problem solved?  No!  Turns out that the calculations were wrong.  In fact they were way off.  Then I started worrying about my gauge.  I did a gauge swatch before I even started the sweater.  Turns out my gauge is now way off.  So I am left with nothing to knit while I wait and now I am going to have to rip out a weeks worth of knitting.  Argh!  I am beginning to think the February Lady Sweater wasn’t meant to be.  Afterall this was my 2nd attempt (the 1st was a bad choice in yarn).  I have been looking for something to knit that is similar but I really want to make this sweater so I guess I’ll try it a 3rd time and hope it’s a charm.

I then spent most of the day trying to figure out what was wrong with my computer.  I finally broke down and called the cable company.  Turns out I was getting a bad signal and they fixed the problem.  Why didn’t I do that in the beginning?  I was sure that wasn’t the problem.  Oh well, nothing left to do but  finish the day off with a Guinness and  Reese cups to make it better.  Guinness and Reese cups really do go together pretty well

Where have I been?

I’ve been wondering that too! I’ve been really busy lately with dyeing special orders, teaching classes and knitting.  Oh and I have been redecorating my house so that involved a little shopping.  Since my house sits in a wooded area and doesn’t get much natural light coming in, I wanted to brighten things up a little to make it less dark all of the time.  I really like what I’ve done and it has really helped lift my spirits.

I think in one of my last posts I was starting the February Lady Sweater with Classic Elite Renaissance yarn.  I ended up ripping it out.  The yarn was too dark and earthy for what I thought should be a feminine looking sweater.  Hmmm….I see a trend.  I ended up ordering Dream in Color Classy in the Butter Peeps colorway and I’m liking it much better.

I haven’t gotten very far yet, but I didn’t get very far into the first one when I frogged it either.  I’ve discovered that I can wear yellow now and so I’m loving knitting with this yarn since it is a color I haven’t worked very much with.

In between frogging the first FLS and starting the second, I started Mr. Greenjeans out of Classic Elite Waterlily in a beautiful green.  This is another sweater that I’ve been wanting to make for awhile and I’m enjoying working on it too.  I love the shading of the greens in this yarn but it wants to split every now and then which is annoying (it is 4 strands of 2 ply).

I want to focus on knitting sweaters this spring and summer.  We’ll see how that goes!   I just need to keep remembering how cold I was this winter.  This was the first Missouri winter where I was actually cold most of the time and felt like I needed a sweater or a scarf.  Which reminds me I bought a skein of Malabrigo laceweight to do a scarf which may interrupt my sweater knitting.  I’ll just let it me my diversion when I need one.

As promised

Here is the photo of my first Clapotis using Mountain Colors wool  in the Wild Raspberry colorway.  I started this in December 2007 but was sidetracked and picked it up again recently to finish.

I think I like wearing it more as a scarf than a shawl.  I’ve already started another one too and am almost halfway done.  This time  from SW Trading Bamboo for spring and summer.  How this next one holds it’s shape will determine if I ever knit with Bamboo again.  I’ve heard that anything knit with Bamboo “grows” and so I’ve always shyed away from it.  I’m enjoying knitting with the Bamboo – it feels so soft and silky running through my hands.

Evidence

I am getting so very tired of winter weather!   Thank goodness spring is right around the corner.  Here’s the evidence:

The crocus’ are  coming up and right now it’s nice enough to have a window open and I’m listening to the tree frogs and the birds.  Ahhhhh-so nice.

I’ve also completed  two UFO’s this past week.  Hooray!   I finished my linen bag that I started about a year ago.  I got sidetracked with other stuff and then forgot where I stashed it away at so I just now got it done. I used an old Louet freebie pattern  and used  Euroflax. The pattern said it would take 1 skein but it ended up taking a little more than one. I think Euroflax used to come with more yardage.  Evidence number two, which proves that I am actually doing something:

I also finished my Clapotis but  I have no proof to show you. Nancy send me the picture!!! Nancy took some pictures at the shop Tuesday so as soon as she sends them to me I’ll post them. It turned out really great and I absolutely love it. I can see myself making another and another….. It’s great because it can be a large scarf or a small shawl. It seems like I’ve wore more scarves trying to keep warm this winter than ever so I’m keeping my eye out for some nice yarn for the next one.

I really should keep on with the UFO’s but I have startitis.   I’ve always wanted to make EZ’s February sweater, but since I didn’t have any babies to make it for, I never did.  But thanks to Pamela at Flint Knits, who actually took the time to  adjust the pattern for adults, I’m making it for me.  I’m using stash yarn so that kinda makes up for not diving into more of the UFO’s!

Hello Blog

….it’s been awhile but I haven’t had much to say.   Studying guitar has certainly cut a big chunk of my knitting time away along with the shop.  I have been working on my Clapotis since before Christmas and under normal circumstances it should have been done at least a month ago.  But at least I’m being a good girl – I’m being faithful to it and not jumping around to other projects.  I’m hoping to finish it before it starts getting too warm to wear it.  The unseasonably warm temperatures we are having right now are making me realize that I need to make a better effort to stick to my knitting.  I’m also crossing my fingers hoping that I don’t run out of yarn because I bought this yarn over a year ago.  It’s Mountain Colors and I think the colorway is Wild Raspberry.

Sometimes I think it would be nice to be like Mrs. Weasley and have the knitting knit itself!   But I am making great progress with my guitar and theory.  I had some music theory in the past, but it wasn’t  too in depth.  It really can be mind boggling.  So much so that I haven’t opened up my theory book in a few days.  But it keeps staring at me so I’m going to have to jump back in.  And I’ll tell you again  that guitar lust is just as bad as spinning wheel lust.  You get a new guitar and within a couple of weeks you’re looking at guitars again.  I think it is a vicious circle!

Snow!

This is the first time this winter that we have actually got a decent snow.  I love the look of freshly fallen snow.  If it’s going to be cold out I want there to be snow.  Of course I want it to be off the road and my driveway.  Thanks to my neighbor down the street and his great 4WD ATV with a snow plow, my driveway will be clear soon.  I think he’s actually having a lot of fun.

Being the observant knitter that I am, I noticed the lack of a wool hat on his head.   So I went through the handknit hat stash and found him a great double layered wool hat knit out of Kureyon to keep him warm.

One good deed deserves another doesn’t it?  I think it looks great on him and now he’s ready to plow for the rest of the neighborhood!

Whistler

Due to lack of any sort of fibery productivity at my home I present you with the newest member of our family.  This is Whistler, my son and DIL’s bloodhound puppy.  I personally thought Elvis was a great name.  Oh well, who wants to listen to my advice?!

He is such a sweet puppy and very shy.  Millie, my Yorkie, even liked him which is very unusual.  Usually Millie doesn’t like the competition.