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16 June 2006
the silver lining
one of my favorite area LYS is closing its doors at the end of the month. Bo Peep's Fiber Shop in Greenwood is done, and that's really sad--HOWEVER, the 20% off of everything in the store isn't sad. i decided to comfort my grief with a bit of Stash Enhancement:
i got a skein of Skacel Merino Lace in color 417 (navy). it's not my most favorite color, but i have such a love for lace done in deep, sophisticated palettes. to me, it just makes the work so very rich. the one skein has 1375yds in it--oh yeah!
i also picked up 7 skeins of the Cascade Pima Tencel in shade 1693 (an icy sky blue). now, i'm really not a huge fan of blue--i much prefer purples and reds for wear, but i love how this yarn feels and the blue was all they had in any significant amount. i'm envisioning this worked up into perhaps the Picovoli tee. it's just so soft and smooth--perfect for a summer top.
and because i've been really smitten with the idea of felted bowls/vase type things lately, i picked up some 8 mm double pointeds.
14:32 Posted in stash! , WIP's | Permalink | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this | Tags: Knitting (ENGLISH)
15 June 2006
Lily stole FINALLY done!
so, after almost a year, i have finished the Lily of the Valley Stole from Fiddlesticks knitting. whoo freakin' hoo!!! now some pictures
on the top is the stole before blocking. the right is after a vigorous stretch-and-pin session. i attempted to use the blocks on my bedspread to show the difference in size, but i don't know if it's helpful in the least.
Here's a close-up shot so that you can see just what a difference blocking made in opening up the pattern. i know that i've gone off about it many times previously, but i really adore the change that takes place when you block lace!
Details
Pattern: Lily of the Valley Stole
Yarn: Knitpicks Shadow, vineyard; 3.25 skiens
Needles: Bryspun circs, 3.5mm
Start/Finish: 3 sept 2005/15 june 2006
Notes: i will never make this stole again. don't get me wrong--the pattern is fabulously written and i love the finished project, but it really almost killed me to finish this. the pattern is not complicated enough to demand very much attention, but it can not be completely ignored either. i would almost prefer miles of stockinette to this.
23:51 Posted in FO , lace | Permalink | Comments (6) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this | Tags: Knitting (ENGLISH)
09 June 2006
magical lace
i love knitting lace. the process of having a icky-poo wad of yarn like this
:
add some water, a little wool wash (cause really, who wants all that xavier fur wrapped about their shoulders?!?), some string and an metric tonne of pins and you end up with something that looks like 
this. holy crap it's magically delicious!
Details
Pattern: Flower Basket Shawl from IK fall 04 issue
Yarn: Knitpicks Dye Your Own lace-weight Merino, dyed by moi
Needles: Bryspun circs (love love love for lace), size 7
Start/Finish: 24 May/ 6 June 2006
Notes: i added two repeats to the main pattern to make less of shawlette. i also added a couple of rows of gater stitch to the edges instead of leaving it in stockinette. i like the addition and will use it on future Flower Basket Shawls (and there will be more--this is such an easy-peasy pattern and it produces such a lovely shawl)
in WIP news, i started a second Via Diagonale bag. 
dig the bright, happy colors. aren't they great? this is fun tv watching knitting (which is good because i think the fella and i are going to have to have a Lost marathon pretty soon).
01:54 Posted in FO , WIP's | Permalink | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this | Tags: Knitting (ENGLISH)
01 June 2006
spinning and knitting and reading
(you should sing the title, ya know, for the full effect)
so, after a weird coincidence of talking about Navajo plying and then, that very day, coming across a Spin-Off that contained a how to article on the technique, i broke out the spinning wheel. gah. gah i say! because i spun up a metric crap load of this cheap-but-pretty roving i scored into this
fairly decent set of singles. gah because my wheel, which i got for absolutely free and, therefore can not complain about too much, has such a severe wobble that i can't ply the singles into a 2 ply yarn. the wheel was home made, i'm fairly certain, and not all that well put together. the uprights that hold the actual wheel part in place where first glued in, then screwed in, and finally, cause obviously something somewhere wiggled, NAILED in. consequently, repair is going to be a pain in the ass. i am now faced with deciding if i should just go ahead and knit the singles into some baised lacey thing or to wait until a time when i can get a new wheel (le sigh) which will probably be in years, not months or weeks. so, that is why the gah.
in happy, better news, i've started on an amalgamation of the Calla tank from magknits and another tank designed by Squeaky Weasels that uses a brillian DNA cable. i didn't really like the all around cabley-ness of the Calla tank, and imho, Squeaky Weasels' tank was just too busy with the lacey lace panels and the DNA cable. so, this is what i've got so far
(forgive the picture, it's a bit bright). what i really wanted to do, i couldn't find the lace pattern for, and being a lazy woman, i just said "screw it! i'll make do". so, i kept the two smaller side cables from the Calla pattern, used the DNA cable in place of the center cable, and changed the back to plain stockinette with eyelet columns (a picture when i'm done cause really, it's wicked boring). what i had envisioned what a very simple lace that almost mimicked the DNA cable. when i have more gumption, i might have to plot that out cause i don't think it would be too difficult.
now the reading part. i try to make a "summer" reading list each year. this year, i'm running behind and haven't even started my list, though i have been a reading fool. the only concrete goal is to read the Narnia Chronicles (so i can return them to Megs who i've been borrowing them from for, oh, a year and a half). this isn't going to do diddly squat for my summer after next week (it's taking me like 3 hours to read each of the first two books, and i can't imagine that the rest will be much different). so, dear blog readers, how about some suggestions? i'll read just about anything.
12:25 Posted in WIP's | Permalink | Comments (1) | Trackbacks (0) | Email this | Tags: Knitting (ENGLISH)