Shawl Knitting

I recently purchased “Knitting Lace Triangles” by Evelyn Clark.  It’s the most fantastic book!!  Well, I’m not sure if it’s a book or a booklet…  It seems quite small at first, but once you open it, you realize it’s not small in content quality.  It’s spiral bound, which I love.  I wish all knitting books were spiral bound!  It’s more of a recipe book than a pattern book.  She gives you the power to mix and match out of 4 patterns to make your own shawl.  She walks you through shawl design.  It has really made me feel empowered and I’ve owned this book only for 2 days.

I started a shawl with the Medallion lace pattern, and used an ordinary cast on beginning.  I like the garter stitch tab cast on, and have used it before, but find it to be a bit fiddly for my clumsy fingers.  The ordinary cast on looks just fine, though, and I am quite pleased with that.

I am using Malabrigo lace in pink, my most favorite of colors.

Pea Pod Hat and Swollen Feet

My feet are swollen!! It makes me not want to work on any socks. It’s just so disappointing when my ankles are so huge! I’ve had many suggestions on Ravelry, since I can’t try on the socks, and they were good ones. It was to get sock blockers to test for size, use other handknit socks for reference, use a friend of mine who has a foot my size…. So maybe I will finish the beautiful Cookie A’s I started.

I’ve been itching to work on something lace lately, but can’t decide on what exactly.

And here is another hat I finished for the baby. It’s also a Susan B. Anderson pattern, bought from her website. It’s just adorable, and not nearly as fiddly as you think. I used Tahki Cotton Classic yarn. I did it in the newborn size.

Ok, that’s it for baby hats…..  for now. 

After dropping off the face of the earth….

It’s like I completely forgot my blog.  I just couldn’t figure out what to write about.  Or have the energy!!  I’ve been getting the itch to work on it again though, so let’s see how it goes.

I have a few things to speak of – but I’ll spread them out for future posts!  I am 30 weeks pregnant now, I’ve been to Switzerland on vacation, I’ve finished a few baby hats, and our house is in total wreckage trying to prepare for the baby!

I did lose my knitting mojo for most of my pregnancy.  I just couldn’t bare to do it – it was like I was too tired to move my arms or wrists!

This was the first hat I finished. It’s the Simple Baby Hat from Susan B. Anderson’s Itty Bitty Hat book, and I used some Rowan Denim leftovers I had from my Reversible Stripes and Dots hat, also from her book! (If you love baby hats, you truly do need this book.)  I also picked up this little piggy button at a yarn shop in Switzerland, with the thoughts of adding it to a hat.  I just love little animal things.   This button makes me laugh because it’s legs are attached with some rope-like cotton and they just kind of swing in the air.

Also, I’ve been listening to podcasts a lot lately and have two I would love to recommend and share with you: The Knitmore Girls – a mother and daughter team which are great together, and CogKnitive podcast which gives a little knitting talk, a little blather, and lots of psychology.

Things that I will be blogging about (hopefully) in the days to come – Switzerland pictures, another baby hat, baby things, and house renovation!

Big changes!

I am pregnant.  I’m about 14 weeks along.  This is why I was on bed rest for a while, I’ve been having some difficulties, but it seems those are better now….  I was really afraid to tell anyone and get too hopeful.  But, I’m ready to tell you now!!!  We are so excited – so many big changes!!

And that brings me to a finished object.  We haven’t gotten to know what gender yet, but since I made a purple ribbon hat, you know it’s going to be a boy!  My best friend is pregnant too, so surely between us both, one of us will have a girl who can wear this hat!!

It’s the Ribbon hat from Susan B. Anderson’s Itty Bitty Hat book.  There isn’t a hat in this book I dislike.  This picture doesn’t do this hat justice – it’s absolutely adorable.  My favorite baby item I’ve knitted yet.  I used some sort of Rowan yarn… I can’t remember the name (baby brain already!)…

FO: A Stork’s Nest Scarf

I meant to post the FO the next day after my teaser, but my husband took the camera cord in his briefcase and left it at his office for several days!! It definitely is lace.

This is “A Stork’s Nest Scarf” by Nancy Bush. It was in Piecework Magazine Jan/Feb 2008. I fell in love with it as soon as I saw it, and have been meaning to knit it all year. It was going to be for my mom for Christmas, but when I got sick – I couldn’t finish it. I think I’ll put it away until Mother’s Day. She could wear it in the spring just as an accent and not get overheated with it. I hope she likes it.

I used Malabrigo laceweight, which I love. The pictures are a little more vibrant than the yarn, I think. It’s really a more pastel blue, but it has been dark and gloomy here so it’s hard to take accurate pictures.

I finished something!

I finally finished something. However, blocking it may have pushed me past the line of sanity. Seriously, I am the worst blocker ever.

I’ll have FO pictures soon!  Can you guess what it is before I show you the after effect?

And in other news, I am officially off bedrest and return to work tomorrow….  wish me luck.  I’m actually nervous about returning to work.  I feel like a little girl the night before her first day of school.

Bedrest

I’m on bedrest for a week (yes, I’m ok – just precautions, and I’ll explain later). You’d think I’d love it… think of all that knitting… but I don’t love it. *sigh* It’s just making me crazy.

Happy New Year

I know. I totally disappeared. But I had nothing interesting to say or show you.

I still don’t really.

I was in two weddings in December, worked on Christmas day, stayed on the road, and frankly I was too tired to find anything interesting… Oh, I was also sick enough to need IV fluids and miss a week of work.

I did get a Woolee Winder for Christmas from my husband. At first, I was flustered. I couldn’t get the whorl from my Ladybug to attach. It wouldn’t slide on at all – wouldn’t even budge! After some reading, it seems the Ladybug whorls have problems sometimes with sliding on to the original flyer… they are manufactured for a tight fit. Sometimes, too tight. While I had no problems getting it on the original flyer, I could not get it on my WW at all. I contacted the maker, Nathan, and he suggested filing it down with a fingernail file lightly on the square edges. It worked like a charm! Now, I’m spinning high.

And, let me tell you…. I am spinning some alpaca I bought at a fiber festival from Blue Note Alpacas and it’s heaven. Soft, spins beautifully. I am in love. And it’s gorgeous.

Blogging Sleep Deprived

I was on call last night, and got called in for an appendectomy at 4am.  Then, when I got home I had a hard time falling back asleep.  And then when I did, Sam cat felt I should be awake so he knocked all my stuff off my nightstand one by one between his meows.

I am going to a spinning guild meeting this weekend — I am so excited!!

I am getting ready to frog some of my handspun.  I knitted with it about an hour and decided it wasn’t fun in the pattern I was choosing.  I am nervous about how my handspun will hold up to the frogging… we’ll find out.

Well, I wanted to update.  I think I’m headed back for a nap.

FO: Swallowtail Shawl (finally!)

I finally finished the Swallowtail Shawl!!! (I’m sure you are in total shock I finished anything!) It’s a tad small, but I saw someone in Ravelry using it as sort of a scarf like thing, and it looked pretty good that way.

I love the pattern, and I may make another one but with bigger yarn and possibly adding a few repeats.

Things I learned with this shawl: lifelines are good, never set your lace down for long periods of time or else you’ll forget where you left off, and I need to buy some blocking wires.

I went to the Indiana Fiber Festival last weekend, and had a great time. Bought lots of goodies. Hopefully, I’ll have some spinning to show you in the near future!!