Yet another shawl update

I finished the repeats last night and have decided on where to put the beads in the border!

Since I don't have a picture of the border yet and I don't want to get into copyright problems with other people's pics, you'll have to look at the shawl on knitpicks. Just click on more images and it will be on the first page in the top right corner. If you look closely you can see where there is a YO, K, YO repeat. Rather than place the beads on that precarious K between the two YOs, I think I'll place them in the center of the K, K2, K repeat that surrounds each YO group. I'm really excited!!

Also, you might have noticed that I now have the Ravelry progress bars for my projects. I thought this might be nice because I don't always update my blog but I'll slide that progress bar along whenever I'm on Ravelry. It comes in especially handy for long lace projects, at least I can SEE that there is progress going and I'm getting near the end. :)

Wedding Shawl Update

I laid everything out and measured again and I really think that 14 repeats of the pattern should be sufficient. I don't want the thing to be too long and just get in the way of my day! I think if anything, shorter would be better and easier to manage and also draw less attention. :) SO I'm done with the 13th repeat and plan to finish the 14th tonight and then calculate how many stitches I need to be picking up for the border.

Thursday night is game night with some guy friends of Michael's so there won't be much knitting but then I'll have Friday night and some weekend time to get started on the border. I have no clue how long the border will take me or where I should put beads or if I should even put any on the border! Any advice from all you out there in the blogosphere? *puts hands to eyes and looks out at the vast beyond*

One more bit...

I've been working on my Lily of the Valley wedding shawl again... I finished three repeats over the weekend to total 11. With the latest (and I've decided, final) math the entire body will be 17 repeats in length.

Yarn P*rn and an FO!

Well, I finished my mom's Ringwood Hose, they come up to the calf muscle and I tried them on to make sure they'd fit :) and man oH man am I going to have to knit a pair for myself. Not only did I finish these in (more or less 5 days, including work) but these are the best fitting pair of made yet! I kinda just made up my own pattern, knitting to fit my foot.

I cast on about 50 stitches around the toe (note: this is too many and made for a very square toe) and then knit up until I was past the big toe before starting the pattern. I didn't increase in the toe at all, I didn't increase until I reached about 1.5 inches from the end of the foot and started making the gusset. I increased 5 times with 2 stitches per 2 rows (one plain knit row in between). Then I followed the recipe for my toe up heel flap. I knit up quite a ways before beginning the calf increases (I tried to somewhat follow the leg directions) and increased as the pattern is written. I only knit about 27 rows of ribbing though, the 40 that the pattern calls for seemed like it might be a bit much.

I also received my yarn from Abby:
I also got some black that I really could not photograph, but you can visit her site to see any of these! I LOVE every color and have to tame myself into knitting up that blue I got from her a while ago first. I want my own pair of Ringwood Hose and that vibrant blue would be perfect.

Chinese New Year

So one of my coworkers decided that she wanted to prepare a lunch for Chinese New Year and since we have a small lab (12 people in toto) we had, in my opinion, just the right amount of people!

Because everything took so long to prepare we didn't start the 'lunch' until 2:00, but it was well worth the wait:
Also, I've been making great headway on the socks for my mom and I love the pattern, yarn and fit!
I think I'm going to end up either keeping these for myself or making some for myself. My mom already knows I'm knitting these for her, she's seen them, and will probably not be happy if I chose the former. :)

Oh my goodness! I almost forgot to mention that my Grandma got her shawl and she said that she almost cried when she opened the box! Both her and her husband were shocked that I was able to knit something like that in 3 weeks! I made her day, and she made mine!

Ringwood Socks

I have started some Gentleman's Half Hose in Ringwood from Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. These are for my mom and I'm quite enjoying the pattern. It is a fast knit because there is only one K1, P1 row but it gives a lot of bang for your buck and I could see myself knitting this pattern up for myself. The yarn is Knitpicks Essential Tweed in Flint.; it is from that grab bag of sock yarn my mom got me for Christmas.

I know I've knit with Essential before but I'm really enjoying it this time! I was wondering if there was a large difference between the tweed the the plain essential.... there is! The tweed has less superwash wool in it that is replaced with donegal.... interesting that my feet (!!) could pick up on that... The yarn is very soft but still feels substantial and like it will wear well as a pair of socks. I really want to have this pair finished by the end of January but would love it finish them up this week!

I've been conversing with Abby about buying some more of her yarn, so stay tuned for some more of that yummy stuff!

Finally, but most importantly, the bad news from this last week. When I was still living with my parents we had two dogs, one of which I (more or less) took care of so I still refer to her as 'my dog.'
She will be 7 years old on Valentine's day. My mom told me on Tuesday that she was diagnosed with malignant lymphoma. On Wednesday my parents took her to the CSU canine cancer center to decide what to do. They decided to start a chemo regimen that will last for 19 weeks and the vets estimated that will give her 6 to 12 months. I plan to spend much of whatever free weekend time I have with her, and I would like to post as many pictures as I can.

FO: Grandma's Faroese Shawl

Sorry for the delay, there seems to have been an influx of bad news this week.

I finished the 6 rows and bound off on Tuesday night and the whole thing was blocked and dry
Wednesday evening. I knit this up on US 5's with Webs Mill Ends & Closeouts 2/4 Highland Tweed in Arctic. This is a 100% wool yarn that was shipped to me still with the spinning oils on it. I knit this up without washing and at first I thought the yarn was very scratchy but soon got used to it because I didn't touch anything else of a fibrous nature until I finished it. I washed the whole thing with eucalan and it did soften up a bit but it's 100% wool so it's still scratchy. I really didn't fall in love with the pattern and probably won't knit it up again.

I'm going to send this to my Grandma with a delivery confirmation so that she will still be surprised but I'll call her and ask if it's too itchy. If so, I'll have to make her another one!

I know, I know

I know I promised to post finished, or at least blocking, photos of my Grandma's shawl but something quite negative happened yesterday... It was 10:00 pm and I had just finished the last row of the chart when I went to the computer to look up the 'correct' bind off method. I had 6 more rows of garter stitch!! And with the rate that the last chart took me that meant at least another 3 hours if you didn't count the actual binding off.

So, I'm going to knit like a fiend when I get home today and hope that I can block the thing tomorrow night. :(

Brief Update

I've been churning away on the faroese shawl for my grandma and it looks very similar to the last picture I posted. I hope to cast off this weekend, so tune in on Sunday for an update! (I haven't picked up any other knitting since starting this shawl, I really want to finish it in time for my grandma to wear this year.)

Long post... includes wedding stuff!

Ok, I'll start at the beginning.

First, I got my Blue Nebula from Abby and I SWEAR it feels even better than the last batch I bought from her!
Can't wait to cast on for my own pair of blue socks, but I really should at least get started on my mom's! I finally decided on the Nancy Bush's Half Hose because it's got some interest but not so much that my mom won't wear them. Also, I think the tweed will look great in it!

Second, last night the man and I went to see Bugs on Broadway.
The gist of it is that a symphony plays all the music for various Warner Brothers cartoons, my favorite being 'What's Opera Doc?': the opera that Bugs and Elmer Fudd do starring the ENORMOUSLY fat horse! We had a blast!

Third!! (This is what I'm currently still excited about) I had a trial hair and make-up today for the wedding!


I think everything turned out REALLY well and can't wait for the real thing! These pics were taken back at my mom's after we did a rough redo of the hair because the stylist took it down for me at the place (WAY too many bobby pins for me to deal with if I don't have to. Also, ignore the jewelry it's just what I happened to have on).

And on a side note, I am currently a little over halfway through chart E on my Grandma's shawl. I thought I might be able to finish this weekend but I'm thinking that something more realistic would be by next weekend. :)

Lace update

As the title suggests, there really isn't much to see on this blog lately. I've been plugging away on my Grandma's shawl and have begun Chart D (it goes through chart G). I'm really starting to feel the growth of the shawl now because I don't think I can get through more than 3 or 4 rows in an HOUR! And this is what I have to look at for my rewards...
Not exactly tempting, I know. I'm also a little concerned that the 100% wool characteristic of the yarn will not make a very friendly shawl. The swatch is kind of stiff and it's not particularly cozy. I've told myself that if I finish the thing and it's not something I would want to wrap around myself I'll have to scrap it and try to make something else out of the yarn.

On another note, I have here a picture of the new stitch markers that I bought at the LYS last week. Quite cute!
And finally, I have a picture of my finished scarf.
It was a fast knit with three strands, I'm estimating about 5 hours! I actually enjoyed this knitting, as much as I could with it being a scarf anyway, and plan to CO for the afghan using this pattern. Cross your fingers that I'll actually be able to finish the darn thing!

And one more tasty tidbit, I've ordered some more of Abby's yarn! Can't wait for this gorgeous blue to come! Of course I'll have to put a hold on my own blue socks until I finish the ones my mom has asked for.... I did start sort of looking for a pattern the other day...