Finished just in time!

Finished the shawl in time for this weekend. Even a little earlier so I can bring it to show at the knitting meetup tonight. Really pushed hard to get the edging done. Gosh, the edging just went on and on. I knew it was gonna be long. I prepared myself for it. But it was still long. Imagine if I didn't prepare myself for it!

Ta-dah:

Here's my attempt at an artsy shot. Don't think it's that good.

Here's a closeup:


Here's probably how I'll be wearing it:


Probably work on an UFO before starting something new?

I've been obsessed

I've been obsessed with the color knitting. Partly because I am afraid I might forget the skills I learned in the beth brown Reinsel class and partly because I just love the way they look. So with a small fair isle project as a dangling carrot, I finished the main part of shawl before casting on.



Originally I used two koigu yarn; yellow and a slightly variegated purple. But the variegation on the purple was too much that the pattern was not showing up well. It had a slight yellow the variegated purple too so that make it worse.

Then I went over to an yarn store that opens really late, I mean a friend (that was kind enough to let me come over late)'s house to see if she has another purple yarn that I can use late monday night. The yarn weight was slightly different and was not showing up well as the constrast color. So sticking to the same pattern I switched the CC as the dominant color and thought it worked out better. When I turned it around, you can totally see where the dominance changed. I thought that was interesting:



I am thinking of switching the Purple to MC and Yellow to CC for the second mitt to make them complimentary. What do you think?

Now I need to go back to pick up and knit the border for the shawl.

Finally got motivated to knit

The hot weather has not help with knitting but having deadlines seems to helped a bit.

My brother's baby is due in 10 days so technically baby can come anytime. Here's a little sweater I made for him. Still need to find buttons. Please let me know if you know where I can score some cute pineapple buttons. My SIL likes pineapples.



You can look at the back too:


Thanks to many people's opinion help I cast on for the shawl I like to use for my brother-in-law's wedding next month. Here you see it against the dress after a bit's been knitted up.



Do you still think they go well together?

Which one matches better?

I am wearing a brown dress to a function and want to make a shawl to go with it. Which one do you think it's better?

Option 1:

This is a silk lace yarn that I will most likely make Eunny Jang's Print O Wave shawl. For those that don't have Ravelry, this is what the wave shawl looks like.

Option 2:

This is the JaggerSpun Silk-Merino lace that will be made into the Orenburg Triangle Shawl. You can take a look at the shawl here too.

Here are they with darker lighting:


Please let me know which one you think it's better. Thanks!

Too hot to knit

Haven't been motivated to knit due to the weather but here are some finish objects.

The broken needle project had a happy ending. Here's the proof:


I also finished the first self stripping sock:


And here's him goofing around with my cherry blossom shawl:

Sigh

I knew something bad happened when I saw the knitting was too close to the door as I close it.....Only 10 rows away from bind off....now I have to go find the backup needles....

Still not a lot of knitting, but some fun stuff to report

Don't know what happened to my knitting mojo but just haven't been knitting that much. I am still knitting, just not at the crazy pace I used to do it. Maybe it's because there are too much stuff to do lately?

I did go to Lacy Knitter's Guild meeting and here's a cute little thing our friend Wes shared:

It's a pattern with those cherubs like in ancient art works except if you look closely, they are listening to a radio :-)

Here's the pattern and maybe a better look:


I did manage to get the second of the cashmere lace mitts done and here's official model modeling it:


That's all for now. I need to get cranking on some stuff that has deadlines...

Not much knitting, many things to report

There hasn't been much knitting because of the move and all other stuff, but here's a recap of things in past couple month.

First there was Stitches West 2009 conference. Here are a few wonderful things we saw.

A wonderful Bohus sweater:


She had a beautiful silk blouse underneath too:


Lily Chin is always a great entertainer. Here she is as "Cruella De Lil":


I took a Norwegian Purl class with the wonderful Beth Brown-Reinsel and here's a little sample from the class:


I took a picture and ripped it out so I can make a mitten:


The only modification I made from the original pattern was making the corrugated ribbing at the cuff so I can practice that some more from the class.

One "out there" thing at Stitches was my ticket winning a alpaca hat at the student banquet. Here's me wearing the hat:


Most peoples' reaction is: "You look like an Eskimo!"

What's happening?!

What's happening? I am blogging more then once a month?! :-)

Pam and I attended the Tea with Louisa Harding at the Green Planet Yarn and had a wonderful time.


Here's me and Pam with Ms Harding


I am so excited and happy about the new mitts, had to share them. They are made with the most wonderful cashmere, ever!


Here's me wearing it


I can't believe I am blogging when I should be packing.

Found a cute button

I found a cute flower button to complete the Clara dress:


Here's the TeddyBorg modeling the dress:


I need a less threatening looking doll to do my modeling :-)

Some knittings happening

Are you tired of those koolhaas hats yet? I finished the last two and put it on Ravelry. You can also see it here.

Haven't gotten much knitting done because I've been organizing some physical photos choas that I've avoided for the past too many years. But I did manage to knit Clara.

It was a strange feeling to go from big yarn, big needle (US 8) to lace -ish yarn and small needle. Got so used to things going really quick. But Clara was a good practice for me to get back in to lace. Here you can see it start:


Here's the finished picture:


On a unrelated note; I splurged in November and my Sundara yarn came. I order these "blue lagoon". I rarely go for blue and when I do, they are really nice. These came and they were even more gorgeous real life than on the web! Wish I could afford more.


I saved the best for last of course. We made t-shirts at the Knitspiration Guild meeting on Monday night and here's my hard work :-)


What do you think? Mary's got cuter colorful ones!

It's all facebook's fault

Okay, so I am blaming facebook for part of the not blogging enough; my cousin got me to join and now I am part of the FAA (Facebook Addict Anonymous) on facebook. J/K. But there is such a thing as FAA.

So what have I don't since? Lots of Koolhaas:

The Cascade 220 superwash in "grey" is done:


The malabrigo worsted in "American Beauty" is done:


The Classic Elite Portland Tweed was half way through before Christmas:

Good thing this one didn't need to be finished before Christmas because the recipient is away until after the new years.

Here are the hats together:


One more koolhaas to go and it's going at the pace of snail because I am just so sick of it already. After this one is finished, no koolhaas for a while until I recover...

These are the first baby socks I made for Orion and I think I will make more.

It's just not right that I have so much sock yarn and I still go out and buy him socks.

But more baby socks will have wait until after another gift knitting is done for my good friend's new baby girl!

Many knittings but no blogging

I have been a busy little bee but haven't been able to blog because I got a new computer and everything is different so I am still trying to figure things out. But here it goes for now.

Peony Shetland Triangle shawl

Here's a close up of the shawl


The whole shawl. You can see where the skein changed because the color is slightly different.


This is my baby making a funny face posing for me :-)


Firebird Clapotis

This is at the end of increase, before the "even" row.


I am about half way through now, but putting it aside for christmas knitting


Sunrise Circle Jacket

This was done before the Thanksgiving trip and not a christmas present. In fact, nobody will really ever get an adult sweater that's not related to me or share my last name. Sleeves are a bit longer but I can live with that


My second Pomatomus sock out of MamaBlue seasilk yarn.


love it, love it! I have to confess: it was gonna be a present but I like the finished object too much and couldn't let it go.

My favorite model showing the Yarn Harlot's Unoriginal Hat:

I love the smirk on his face. This is going to charity.

Series of Koolhaas hats. First up is The Fiber Company's Road to China:


Side view:


Top view as the model tries to run away (tired of modeling)


Immediately caste on for the second one right after. Using Sundara's worsted weight yarn (color mossy)

(my model is napping so didn't get a picture of him wearing it)

Working on the third one out of cascade 220 worsted in silvery color:


Okay, I am gonna breath now and go learn how to back up the computer.