Finished Object: Lacy Scarf

Finished it!

Pattern: Silky Alpaca Lace Scarf (my rav link)

Yarn: Knit Picks Shadow Tonal in Queen Anne

Needle: US 6 (4mm)

Here's a picture that shows off the lace pattern:

And here's two that show off the color my daughter:

I'll be shipping this one off to me Ma shortly.

On the needles right now is a baby sweater for my SIL.

Longer blog post later on, I promise.

Lace Scarf, in Progress

My  mother sent me a skein of cobweb weight yarn, and requested a lacy scarf made from it.

I started the scarf, however, it became apparent after about 10 inches, that the skein was not going to be big enough to do much of anything with. I  knitted 10 inches, weighed what I had left, discovered it was 35g of a 50g skein, and realized that would be barely enough to pull out a 30 inch scarf.

 Plus, my stinkin cat was totally obsessed with it, and would attack the yarn  no matter where it was.

After a little research I discovered that this skein was Broder Medici, a line of embroidery thread from DMC that was discontinued a few years ago. The tag, which was mostly illegible, was still attached. I'm trying to figure out what to do with it.

Anyway, I ripped back the original, and re-knit with some of the lovely Knit Picks Shadow Tonal in the Queen Anne colorway that I had left over from making a sweater for Georgia. Which, by the way, Georgia (or possibly her father) accidentally shrank. Sigh.

It's coming along well, although the aforementioned stinkin cat managed to chew through the drawstring on my project bag one night to get to the yarn, and I woke up the other morning to Queen Anne yarn spaghetti all over our apartment floor. I spent the first 40 minutes of my morning re-winding the ball, and discovered that the little s$!% had chewed through it in numerous places, so instead of having one big ball, I have five little balls and about 10,000 tiny pieces. Grr.

Here's the scarf as it was today at lunch. Clearly unblocked, as it is a WIP:

While I was knitting on it, the very same coworker who had ripped my Rock Island out of my hands two weeks ago started circling me like a damned vulture. I clutched my project to my chest and glared at her until she moved further away.

I don't need any more disasters like the one she caused the other week. Plus, no lifelines on this scarf. Come to think of it, maybe I should put one in soon...

On the musical front, I've been completely obsessed with Foster the People. I know I'm a little late to the game on this one, but I tend to ignore musicians with floppy hair.

 Most of the time when I listen to an album there's a song or two on it that I absolutely loath. When I like all songs, I refer to it as a "perfect"  album, and honestly, there aren't too many of those out there. Torches is one of them, and I've had it on constant repeat and probably will until I get sick of it. Here's a link to their video for "Call it What You Want" which is my favorite song off the album, and amazingly enough, I loved the video for it as well. There are homages to the great videos of the 1980s and 1990s sprinkled throughout, which cracks me up.

FOs: Fuzzy Lamb and Rock Island Shawl

Two FOs today. The first is the Rock Island (disaster) Shawl. It's for my friend Dani, who is a vet and did a LOT to help us out when Beezer was so sick.

Yarn: Malabrigo Lace
Color: Midnight
Needle: US 6 (4mm)

Not the best photos, but black is tough to photograph and I was doing this by myself.

Also, I finished up Georgia's Fuzzy Lamb. It took me forever, but mostly because I kept neglecting to buy embroidery floss. I didn't really enjoy knitting this, simply because it was fiddly, had TONS of seaming, and I'm lazy. But it was super quick. I think the next time I make a toy I'll try out one of Ysolda's patterns. Georgia really wants Poppy...

Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride
Colors: Charcoal Heather and Sandy Heather
Needle: US 6 (4mm)

I suppose I'll have to knit a sweater for him now. :)

Up next is a lacy scarf for my mother. After that, I got nothin. I'm at a loss. Any suggestions?

Blocking is hard on a kitty.

Man, fighting those blocking wires and attempting to eat the t-pins just knocked poor Beezer out. He spent a good hour "helping" me block my Rock Island shawl.

The slog.

So my Rock Island has been the disaster shawl of 2012.

It took forever to finish the trim.

I screwed up the very simple first two rows of the lace charts about 16 times before getting it right.

After I FINALLY got going on the lace charts, a coworker grabbed my knitting out of my hands as I was knitting it (because she "just wanted to touch it to see if it was soft), and ripped about 50 stitches off the needles, causing me to have to rip back to my lifeline and reknit about three days of work.

And now, I'm slogging through approximately 10 billion rows of garter stitch.

But the end is near! (I hope)

Here it is in progress, with Beezer's tail, and our new rug:

Spinning

I recently got bitten by the spinning bug, and after about two months of whining about not having a spinning wheel (or wanting to spend the money to buy one), I broke down this weekend and bought a spindle, and Abby Franqemont's book and video, Respect the Spindle.


 By the way, I blame Monika, and her absolutely gorgeous handspun yarn for this problem of mine.

Here's a picture of my fiber mess and the beginnings of my spinning.

Spinning on a spindle is HARD. Looks easy, but is not. At all. I tried and failed for about two hours on Sunday.

However, I'm really loving a new skill, and I can honestly say after reading Respect the Spindle that I understand yarn a lot better than I did before. This is really giving me a much closer connection to the tools that I'm using, which is awesome, because I am all about context in terms of how I learn and operate.

On the personal front, things have started to calm down. Thank goodness. I'm doing fine, Beezer is doing fine, Bruce is healing, and Georgia continues to delight and amaze.

I'm currently inundated with reading materials, with an enormous stack of books sitting by my bedside, and a whole bunch on my kindle that I haven't delved into yet. Oh, and I also have a pile of magazines sitting here that are demanding attention.

I'm also studying to become a LEED Accredited Professional, which is a certification for people who are involved in the green/sustainable/eco building industry. Which I am, as I work for an engineering firm. The process is fun, but a little tough. There's a lot of memorization involved with learning the materials, but I'm still enjoying it.

And, as always, I'm listening to music while I knit. At the moment, I'm on a Latin music kick, listening to Celia Cruz (official Goddess of Salsa), Bebel Gilberto (Brazilian. I know. Whatever), Rodrigo y Gabriela (rockin Spanish guitarists from Mexico), Los Amigos Invisibles (crazy funk/disco/jazz party band from Venezuela, saw them in concert this winter), Bomba Estereo (awesomeness from Colombia) and a little Shakira for good measure.

Bruce's Hat

I finally got pictures of Bruce in the hat (my rav link) I made for him:

Pattern: Los Muertos (rav pattern link)
Yarn: Cascade 220
Needle: US 7 (4.5mm)

And I think I'm starting to get back into the swing of things, with regards to life, the universe and everything.

I've cast on a sweater for my mother, and a shawl for my vet friend who helped me out so much with Beezer when he was sick last month. Beezer seems to be fully recovered now, thankfully. He's back to his normal self, and doesn't seem to be in any more pain.

Hugs to everyone, and I'm hoping I get more time to catch up soon.