Shawl Fever

My Charlotte's Web Shawl is blocking...


I have Summit on the needles ...


and my Aeolian is in temporary hibernation. It seems that I'm hung up on shawls for the time being. I've made two already this year. I love the look of shawls and they are perfect for my office which is always too cold. When I wear one I find that I don't have to run the heater as much.

I made another visit to my favorite online store Webs. I've had the "Best of Lopi for several years so I finally broke down and bought the Lopi to make the sweaters I marked when I first got the book while it is still on sale. Some of this is backordered so I'm not sure if they will hold it or ship. I had to call them today and replace one of the colors since it had been discontinued. These sweaters are part of my plan to start my cold weather knitting now.

Basketball is over but one of my favorite shows is back on tv. I love the Top Chef series and once again it is the masters. It's been over a month since I watched my regular shows which has resulted in a total disruption of my viewing schedule. I was glued to ESPN or CBS with an occasional foray to the SYFY chanel (hate that name).

I'm trying to organize a dye day for the guild. I sent out a survey yesterday so I'm waiting to see how many responses I get. This will be the first time that I've done something like this so I'm trying to make sure that I cover all of the bases. It won't be anytime soon because everything is covered in green pollen. Because we haven't had any rain it is horrendous. I don't recall it ever being this bad. Hopefully the rain that they are predicting will come through.

Time to go rest the shoulder and neck. It's been acting up again so I have to treat it with a little extra tlc.

Yarn Love

My order of Koigu arrived Thursday. It is gorgeous!!!


I've never had this much Koigu in my possession at one time. Of the colors I purchased two where really suitable for my Charlotte's Web shawl. One had more green and the other is a darker variation of the color I used for the fourth color change. I used the latter and am now debating as to how I shall finish it. This was a stash project until I needed an additional color. With all that Koigu calling for a new home I couldn't help myself!

Margaret Fisher taught Brioche knitting in her workshop "A Sampling of Stitches". I fell in love with the stitches and purchased Nancy Marchant's Knitting Brioche. In addition to containing a wealth of stitch patterns it also contains some beautiful projects.

Webs is having their Anniversary sale. I purchased yarn for two Brioche Knitting patterns and ChicKnits.com Cerisara. I received the announcement of the new Cerisara pattern by e-mail and immediately purchased it. The pattern has a three-quarter and sleeveless version. It is an open front cardigan with lace yoke accent. You can allow it to hang open or close it with a decorative closure. I will make both versions.

I am also working on Nina from the Debbie Bliss Prima Collection. I'm using Cotton Cashmere from the stash. My original goal was to knit a skein a day. At that rate it would have taken me 11 days to complete the actual knitting. Due to the arrival of the extra Koigu I've deviated from that schedule but I plan to pick back up this week when the shawl is finished. Since it is stockinette it will be my main travel project.

I've been giving serious consideration to changing my knitting plan. I typically knit heavier weight garments during the fall/winter and lighter weight garments in the spring/summer. This year I'm planning to knit more heavy garments during the summmer and vice versa. I hoping that this will allow me to get more use out of the seasonal garments. Since it gets so hot down here I'm not sure how this will work out but I'm willing to give it a try.

March Madness is almost over which means a significant portion of my life will get back to normal. I'm going to miss the games but there is a lot that I need to get done. It's time for spring cleaning and planting the vegetables. The latter may have to wait until more of our yellow-green storm (pollen) calms down.

Taking a note from some other Ravelers and bloggers I have started creating project bags. I'm sure this will help in the stash management. Since a lot of my yarn is in sweater size amounts I've started looking for patterns that will match the yarn and recording the info. The plan is that this will aid me in deciding what to make since I will know in advance what pattern to use. The jury will be out on this for a while so I'll have to see how it goes. In the meantime I'm going to work on finishing current projects and wips.

If you haven't already checked out the new Knitty. The Summit. This is a genius pattern. I have already ordered and received the yarn and cast on this pattern. I opted for the exact yarn used in the pattern Tess' Designer Yarns Raw Silk. At first I thought I wouldn't like it. The colors didn't appear to be what I wanted but once I started knitting I see that it is perfect.


It is truly great to live in an era of such inspired knitting.

Handwear

I don't know if I'm heading toward a knitting slump but I've been having a hard time committing to any projects. Out of desperation I once again cast on the Charlotte's Web shawl. I'm into the third colorway so this should soon be an FO.

I finished these gloves last year but just finally got around to taking pictures.


Specs:
Pattern: Knotty Gloves by
Yarn: Merino sportweight ordered on a cone from Miss Babs
Needles: 2 US circular needle
Size: XL for Mrs. Rainey
Started: 10/23/2009 Finished: 11/20/2009

I tried to photograph these before mom went to Vegas. I looked for them while she was gone but immediately knew that she had taken them with her.


Specs:
Pattern: Della Mitts by Holly Terrell
Yarn: Colinette Jitterbug Blue Parrot
Needles: 2/2.5 US dpn's
Size: S/M
Started: 2/26/2010 Finished: 3/9/2010

This was a wonderful pattern to knit. The mitts are very feminine and look and fit great. I enjoyed knitting with the Jitterbug. I have several other colorways that I will consider using for mitts instead of socks.

Yarn Parade

You know you got it bad when your sister, a non-knitter, starts buying yarn for you.

Thursday my sister told us that she saw some pretty yarn at Tuesday Morning. On Friday she bought some for us and on Saturday we were all on the Tuesday Morning yarn crawl. We bought way too much but the prices were reasonable and the quality good. Most of the yarn is KFI, Knitting Fever, brands.





Last month I purchased the Corrie Fair Isle Vest kit in the neutral and bold colorways from Knit Picks.


I received all the yarn for the bold version but only 5 of the skeins for the neutral version. When I called them they said that I didn't order all of the skeins. Further checking on my part revealed that they didn't have the colors in stock and therefore moved them to the notify list. They are supposed to come in this month and since I don't have plans to order anything else so much for "Free Shipping" I thought I was taking advantage of by adding some things to my original order to make it $50.00.

This past week I received two of the best books I've ever purchased. The Haapsalu Shawl and Shirley Paden's Knitwear Design Workshop.


The first is a compilation of Estonian shawl patterns from the town of Haapsalu. It is not your average pattern book but a beautiful large and heavy coffee table-sized book. It contains over 100 stitch patterns and the instructions for creating your very own Haapsalu Shawl. The book contains the history of the Haapsalu shawl and is beautiful photographed. Each of the stitch patterns is clearly photographed and the charts are large enough to easily copy without enlarging.

I own many books on knitwear design but Knitwear Design Workshop is one of the most comprehensive I've seen. It is everything I was looking for when I purchased Deborah Newton's Designing Knitwear. There are numerous worksheets and the formulas used to calculate things such as armhole or neck shaping are very will explained. I plan to put this book to the test in a couple of weeks and post a follow-up.

I'm looking forward to our workshop with Margaret Fisher. I completed the last of my swatches last night. This is the second time we have sponsored an instructor. I'm taking all four workshop classes. Details can be found here Palmetto Purlers.

Snow Again

Last night we got a light dusting of snow. When I went to bed everything was covered but by the time I got up this morning most of it was gone. It's hard to believe that we got snow twice in the same year! No pictures this time. I've been nursing a case of bronchitis and sinusitis and I'm finally feeling much better.

This past weekend we went to Wadmalaw Island (which is in South Carolina) to celebrate my Aunt Ida Mae's 75th birthday. It was a small family gathering and my aunt was suprised when she found out. We didn't know it was a surprise party until we arrived. She was getting out of the car when we drove up but since her distant vision is gone she couldn't see who we were and thought we were friends of one her grandchildren.


Specs:
Pattern: Anemoon by Zebraknits
Yarn: Brown Sheep Nature Spun Worsted True Blue Navy
Needles: 6,7 US circular needles
Size: One size
Started: 2/12/2010 Finished:2/13/2010

I learned a valuable lesson. If someone pays you to knit something for them be sure to get half of the money up front. The lady who I knitted this for thought I was charging her $15.00 even though she repeatedly asked and I repeatedly told her the price. I was prepared to keep it when my oldest brother's friend saw it and immediately took it off my hands. The color is much deeper and prettier than this picture shows. I have one skein remaining and may have to make one for me.

I finished the Mars Hat and Scarf for my brother Charles but I've yet to take pictures. I'm going to try to get them taken this weekend.

I started another pair of fingerless mitts for my mom. They are the Della Mitts a free Ravelry download. I'm using some of the Colinette Jitterbug mom bought for me when she was in Florida last year. The color is Blue Parrot and they are gorgeous.


My sister requested a hat and even though I said I wouldn't knit anything else for her I did. I used a chart from Beautiful Knitting Patterns to make a hat with a Fair Isle band of leaves.


Specs:
Pattern: Leafy Fair Isle hat based on a chart from Beautiful Knitting Patterns
Yarn: Cascade 220 Wool colors Brown and Natural
Needles: 4 and 6 16-inch circulars and 6 dpn's
Size: S/M

I cast on using the Double-Start Cast on from Folk Knitting in Estonia and worked in corrugated ribbing. The hardest part was the decreases at the top which took me 4 tries to get right. I'm glad the yarn was up to the challenge.

I started this Cotton Kisses baby sweater in June and put it aside when I realized I wasn't going to have enough yarn to finish it. One of my Guild members, Janie, made the other sweater included in the pattern in the smallest size and gave me the rest of the yarn she had last. As soon as it arrived I picked up the stitches and finished the band. I think it is an adorable sweater even if it won't fit Anniyah until later.



Specs:
Pattern: Cotton Kisses Baby Cardigan by Plymouth Yarn
Yarn: Plymouth Yarn Cotton Kisses Green
Needles: 5 and 7 US
Size: 12 months
Started: June 23, 2009 Finished: February 25, 2010

I'm going to have to find a way to blog more often so that I don't have these large updates. The past two weeks I've been glued to the Olympics and there was no way I was going to blog at 1:00 AM. I was too busy trying to make it to bed.

Knit-Inn 2010 Part II

One of the best things about a knit-in is the endless parade of handknits. I captured a few that caught my attention. Ellen's scarf while not complicated was beautiful and draped wonderfully. It is Phiaro from Knitscene Winter 2007/Spring 2008.



Elisa was there with her winning Mr. Spock sock monkey. She won the Knit Picks sock monkey contest and was steeking her Fair Isle vest that was the prize. I've been waiting for her to post the finished vest.




She's only been knitting for two years and her work is beautiful. I love fearless knitters.

My memory fails me but the photos don't. There was a knitter from Georgia who had a gorgeous Estonia shawl. She wouldn't let me photograph it on her. The nupps were worked separately while knitting using white against a green background.




I finished my lone project purchased at the Knit-Inn.



Specs:
Pattern: Garter Stitch Loop-Through Scarf from 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders
Yarn: Karabella Aurora 8
Needles: 4 US Rosewood straights and dpn's
Size: One size
Started: 2/6/2010 Finished:2/10/2010
Mods: The pattern uses sportweight but this worked up beautifully in worsted.

The Great Snow of 2010

It started snowing around 3:30 PM on February 12th and didn't let up until midnight. In Columbia South Carolina we recorded our 6th largest snowfall on record. At our house I measured 7 inches. It is quickly melting today and all of it is gone from the trees, but our backyard remains a winter wonderland.

They are calling for more snow tomorrow night. I hope it does snow so that maybe we can have that elusive snow day!