9.13.13

Okay, so I have been knitting AND reading. I ran across a small stash of cotton yarns in varying neutral tones. I have been knitting the same 12 inches of a shawl with the same ball of yarn every day and unknitting it the next day. It is a wonder the yarn has not disintegrated. Each time there is some issue that requires a COMPLETE start over. Every new incarnation of the shawl requires several attempts with different sized needles to see if the drape is right with the stitch combination. 

The silly part is I have no reason to be doing this. Cotton is ridiculous to launder. Knitted cotton, anyway. I expect it will be washed once for blocking but probably not again after that. That is the reason I chose a shawl. I have about 500 yards of worsted weight which I could expand by dipping further into my cotton stash.  I have been through all the shapes: rectangle working the length, rectangle working the breadth, half-square triangle, half-circular. I am considering trying the half-circle again today. I will let you know what is next...

2.11.12

Another treasure. My Oregon family sent this beautiful shawl--from France! Can you see the gift bag? It is lavender and tan and looks like it is homemade. I forgot to mention it in my thank-you note, but it is appreciated! I like recycling and this little bag will get some use.

1.16.11

I do not know what it is going to be. There are 880 yards of it and it is coming to me in the next day or so. It is Madeline Tosh Merino Light which allowed me to get free shipping on a yarny-birthday gift from my second brother's family--you know, the hat family from Christmas Eve.

The yarn that needed me to buy this lovely lichen colorway to the right is intended for a pattern I have had in my collection for almost seven years, I think.  It is from NeedleBeetle and is designed by Brenda Zuk. If you know me at all, you know one of my passions is sea shells. In fact, at one point I considered being a malacologist. When I saw the pattern for the Scallop Sea Shawl, I knew I wanted to make it.

Let me be honest with you and tell you I do not really enjoy knitting lace. I appreciate it and understand the hard work behind it. I even find some of it pretty. I have been tempted a few times to make something with little narrow yarn on hopelessly big needles that turns out full of holes (my impression of lace and lace making) but my holes never end up where they should be because I CAN NOT COUNT.  Well, I can, but I have to do it over and over again until I give up because I NEVER get it right. So why did I decide to get 2467 yards of this

to cast on that?

 Well, it looked like it might be intuitive like cables are.

 After you get going on cables, they seem to tell you when they are right and when they are wrong.

 Like basket-making. We will see.

1.13.11

It is cold out. It is snowy. I am missing my basket class today. The roads are not plowed where we are. I am probably knitting on my BONEYARD shawl, designed by Stephen West. I had one cranberry hank, two fieldstone hanks and this is as far as I was Wednesday morning:

It is a lovely knit because of the wonderful construction. It fulfills one of my 2011 Resolutions:
USING MY STASH I have homemade bean soup and a wonderful man by my side. Life is good.

1.10.11.2

I am in two Knit-A-Longs. One is a KAL for a cowl and the other is for fans of Stephen West Designs. I really like the name of it: SELFISH WESTKNITS KAL.  If you remember, I knit two of his hats in just a couple of days and I  marveled at the construction and thoroughly enjoyed making them. If you do not remember, just click on his name above and let the internet whisk you away to his blog.


The Selfish Kal has a few rules and if followed, participants are eligible to be in a random drawing for one of his books. The project has to be tagged a certain way, the moderator of the thread is to be notified, and of course, the project is to be a WestKnits design. I chose the Boneyard Shawl (go ahead, click the link, you know you want to) after digging through my stash and finding a yarn that spoke to me. I cast on last night and made my usual changes to the pattern to make it suit me and have it going along pretty well. I had some skeins of Harrisville Flax and Wool and I am using Lantern Moon size 8 circulars.  The body of the shawl is in the Fieldstone colorway and the Cranberry is the accented garter ridge. The SELFISH part of the KAL is that with all the holiday knitting, knitters rarely knit for themselves and this is a January-February chance to make up for that.

9.5.10

Yup, it is 48 degrees F.
What is it? I do not know, but whatever it is, it is finished. It is a sort of rectangle shape and drapes across the shoulders like a shawl but it is not really shawl length, more cape-like. The yarn is: Misti Alpaca chunky with Cherry Tree Hill Alpaca Glitter. I knit it and unknit it and reknit it and unknit it and finally on the last reknit, I said, "That's enough of that." It is what it is.


I found a huge button in my stash just the right size and color. Helen and I both found similar difficulty working on this very simple pattern. It was a case of seeing one in the shop, getting excited about it, buying the yarn and being told, "You don't need a pattern; here's what you do--" and then a myriad of interruptions follow and Helen and Michelle give up and decide to figure it out on their own. How hard could it be?

When Jeff and I arrived in the mountains in July, THIS shawl had a moth on it the size of Kentucky. Maybe it was never destined to be a garment and is in a temporary shape awaiting its turn to be food for larval moths.

I really enjoyed the Farmers' Market yesterday. I bought summer squash, red peppers, and corn. Then we went to a smallish festival out at the Historical Museum and I met a lady who learned to spin this summer. She had a beautiful Kromski Minstrel wheel. Maybe I will meet more spinners soon.









I love my Kaleidoscope program. It makes my market veggies look like art.