The Hap. Number Elevendy.

Here is yet another Hap:

It is, as you can see, green and blue (Berroco Vintage Chunky Fennel and Tidepool to be exact).

It is also soft and squishy. It is for Ella's baby. I will be writing in short declarative sentences.

I do not have much more to say.

Working on a Snug with the excess Tidepool. I should be done today.

Actually finished FOs

I finally blocked and put buttons on the Baby Yours sweater that I made for Ella's baby, (whose shower is this afternoon) and put buttons on the Cria sweater I made for myself (and finished  in April). Go me!

Here is an updated photograph of the Baby Yours (my rav link):

And and updated photograph of the Cria (again, my rav link):

And me modeling it today. The shoulders are a little weird, and it sheds like crazy, but it is soft and I love it:

Also, it took me a while to post again because I strained my hand pretty badly (knitted too much) and couldn't type, or knit for about two weeks. Bleh.

Happy Birthday to Me!

For my birthday, we took a trip up to Webs (America's biggest yarn store) in Northampton, MA, which also happens to be in one of my favorite places in the US (which would be Western Massachusetts).

We spent the night in a horrible little fleabag motel in Pownal, VT, which only added to the adventure, and we bounced around in Williamstown, North Adams (MassMoCA!), Shelburne Falls, Charlemont, among other towns in the area. I LOVE it up there. Love. Would move there in a hot second if I thought we could get decent jobs in the area.

Anyway, at Webs, I bought all the yarn.

I got a bunch of (the now discontinued) Berroco Campus in Coffee Run:

To make Alderbrook by Cecily Glowik MacDonald for me:

I got some Valley Yarns (Webs' house brand) Superwash DK in Grape:

To make Saffron by Elena Nodel for Georgia:

I got some Berroco Vintage DK in Delphinium:

To make the Limestone jumper for Bruce (and yes, he looks AMAZING in that shade of purple/lavender):

I got some more Berroco Vintage DK in Sloe Berry (one of my favoritest shades of theirs EVER):

To make the Slanting Gretel Tee by Petra Manis for me:

I got some Berroco Vintage Chunky to make a Hap Blanket for Ella's baby. I'm not going to bother with a picture, because I've already made approximately 500 of these blankets, and I'm sure y'all are tired of looking at it by now. Here are the colors Ella picked out:

I got a ball of Zauerball Crazy for a September Circle for me (again, have made a billion of these, so no pic):

Some Lang Jawoll Magic Degrade in Rainbow for some socks for Bruce. He loved the colors, and so do I. This stuff looks like a blast to knit with:

Some Jojoland Melody Superwash in Teal:

To make a Swirl Shawl by Lijuan Jing for me:

And some Cascade Pastaza (discontinued, apparently) in Chrysanthemum:

To make a Summer Flies shawl by Donna Griffin for Georgia at her request. She wanted a shawl, and loved this pattern.

And that is all. I wanted to get some madelinetosh pashmina in Tart to make a cardigan for me, however they didn't have enough on hand. This yarn has been eluding me for quite some time. Really irritating.

I had a wonderful time in Webs, really enjoyed hanging out in Massachusetts, and loved that we have Georgia's total number of states visited up to 14 now (with the addition of Vermont). I'm at 41, and Bruce, I think, was in the high 20s, low 30s.

FO: Baby Yours

I haven't blocked it yet, but it sure is cute.

Pattern: Baby Yours
Yarn: madelinetosh pashmina in filigree
Needle: US 4 (3.5mm)

My one complaint is that it was knit in pieces and then seamed together. That is an AWFUL lot of seaming for one tiny little sweater. It definitely needs a little blocking, but I'm pretty happy with this one.

It is for my yet-to-be-named unborn nephew, who is due in September or October, so it'll be a while before we get modelled pix.

Next up: Chandial. For me. Because I'm tired of knitting for other people.

Also, I'm dragging my family up to Webs next week for my birthday. I've been prepping my shopping list for two weeks.

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?