Finished and begun

Finally, after almost a year (yes I'm slow, but I have a lot of stick-to-it-ivness), I have finished the Landscape Shawl. Washed & blocked it last night and wore it to work today. It is so cozy and soft, soft, soft. It is knit from Knit Picks Elegance in Grass using Fiber Trends Landscape Shawl Pattern. I used US size 10.5 needles and the numbers for fingering weight yarn. I ended up not doing the fifth panel since I ran out of yarn and it was plenty big enough anyway. There are mistakes (of course) and I’m not crazy about some of the yarn joins, but in all I am just thrilled to bits with it.

Since finishing the shawl, I’ve been splitting my time between the Country Silk shawl and this…

Apparently there are subliminal messages hidden between all the blatant warshcloth love talk in Mason-Dixon that make it impossible not to knit a BallBand dishcloth. I had picked up a couple of balls of Peaches & Crème and Sugar & Cream with the intent of knitting some dishrags one of these days (see previous posts). I wasn’t immediately taken with the BallBand pattern and have been looking online for something to catch my fancy. Nothing has. I’m just not a dishcloth kind of person. Then yesterday I just felt I HAD to do the BallBand dishrag. So I settled in with my yarn and needles and pattern and had at it. The pattern is exceptionally easy to memorize. After the first repeat I had it down. I’m only using one color rather than the two called for in the pattern, but I think the ombre yarn has enough interest on it’s own. This is the first I’ve knit with Peaches & Crème and am finding it very nice to work with. Soft and smooth, even for a cotton yarn.

Ann & Kay have had a lot of sway over my knitting this week. I got to page 82 and fell in love. Absorba, the Great Bathmat. I MUST KNIT THIS. I have been searching for a cooshy, absorbent, pretty bathmat forever. This one suits the bill to a T. I came up empty on the double worsted Peaches & Crème called for in the pattern. That’s not exactly true, several people pointed out it could be purchased from Cotton Clouds. But in the end, I decided to go with Sugar & Cream from Knitting Warehouse. I was able to get a cone of Cream, and balls of Ecru and Soft Violet for cheap and it will be here Monday (in plenty of time for my long weekend coming up!) Already told hubby I plan on spending alot of time knitting so don't make too many plans! I'm shite at picking colors though, so I hope these work well together. My bathroom is blue with purple accents so I'm thinking this will work. This girl can pick colors! Who'd have thought purple and orange would work so well? I feel...inspired!

First impressions: Fiddlesticks Country Silk

My new shawl yarn arrived Friday from Handknitting.com. It only took 2 weeks from Canada, not bad.
The yarn is Fiddlesticks Country Silk, manufactured by Fleece Artist. Everyone raves about Fleece Artist yarns, so my expectations were pretty high.
The yarn is 50% silk, 30% wool and 20% nylon. The feel is neither too soft or too scratchy. It has an incredible sheen in natural light. There is no gauge or needle size recommended on the tag. I would say the yarn is about a sport weight (although the website lists it as suitable for DK weight patterns).

The color, Marrakesh, is perfect, a blend of purple, teal, gold and green. The hank is 250 grams/800 meters. This one HUGE hank produced three equally huge balls of yarn. I was a bit concerned to discover quite a bit of vegetable matter in the yarn as I was winding it off the swift. However, it pulls out easily and does not really detract from the overall appearance of the knitted fabric.

I fully intended to finish up the Landscape shawl before starting a new one. I really only have about 10 rows or so to go until it's finished. I'm not going to have enough yarn to put the fifth texture panel in, so I'm going to end it when I complete the 4th. But now that each row is over 250 stitches, it's taking me forever to complete a row. I made a valiant effort yesterday. Put in Star Wars Episode III, figuring a good action pic might get me moving, and I did get several rows done. But I just couldn't resist the Country Silk. I decided it might be good to go ahead an swatch it. Funny how the swatch looks an awful lot like the beginnings of a shawl...

I'm making the "Thinking Woman's Shawl" found here. I love the way the eyelets start in the center then veer off to each side. I'm using US 8 needles and getting 5 1/4 stitches per inch in garter stitch. I think I could have even gone up a needle size or two for a lacier effect, but I think this will be prefect. It's nice and light weight. I'm so in love.

Hot

Seeing as how Memorial Day IS the unofficial start of summer, I guess this heatwave is not completely unexpected. However, and I'm sure this has been mentioned before, summer is so my least favorite time of year. I hate the heat. I awoke with nasty dizzy spells which I'm sure were brought on by this weather. My hair is frizzy and my face is sticky. Yuck. How many days till fall?

Meanwhile, spring cleaning continues here in Peacecatville. I hate house cleaning. (Actually, I've only met 2 people, ever, who actually admit to liking to house clean, but I'm assuming they are some sort of genetic mutants and we won't be talking about them.) Still, in addition to the weekly spruce up, the house does get a good thorough cleaning at least once a year and right now, I'm in the midst of it. This weekend I finished up the curtains, blinds and windows, I still have one new curtain to make, but with the mercury sitting at 92, it's way too hot to work in my sewing room. All that's left is stripping and waxing the kitchen & laundry room floors. Unless I decide to paint...but that's still up in the air.

Today I worked in the garden. Hubby and I went to the flea market yesterday and I picked up these lovely Coral Bells.

It's sort of hard to see the flowers in this picture, the ones on the right are sort of drooping. Hoping they perk up once they get established. The lady we bought them from said they are good for attracting hummingbirds. That would be delightful, but I've never seen a hummingbird in this area. We'll keep our fingers crossed.








Here's one of the cucumbers today I put in today. Hoping the cages will provide enough support and will keep the plants pretty vertical. My garden is pretty small so I try to maximize space when I can.

The last time we planted cucumbers we grew them up a little trellis I had. It wasn't quite big enough, but it did seem to keep the plant healthier and the cucumber much nicer than when they sprawl all over the place.





Look at this little fella I found hiding among the tomatoes. His mommy was fussing up a storm the whole time I was working.












My newly retired mom and I hit the sale at JoAnn's today. I wasn't planning to buy anything, but you know how that goes...

Ann & Kay's book has me itchin' to make dishcloths (that and the enormous number of paper towels I've gone through cleaning, time for some reusable cleaning supplies!) Conveniently enough, dishcloth cotton was on a super sale ($1.49/super-size ball!!) Buttons for the 3 Seasons Cardi which is in limbo until the heat passes, but the buttons were so cool, and also 50% off! Muslin for a duvet. But as I washed and hung it out to dry, I got to thinking this sure doesn't look like enough fabric. Sure enough, I only bought half what I needed. Damn. Knew I should have done the math on a calculator and not in my head! Thankfully, I found several yards of muslin left from my fabric dyeing experiments a few years ago and should be able to muddle through. Once it cools off, of course.

For now, I'm off to try to find a cool spot in front of the fan. Since no knitting will be going on in this heat, I think I'll start on Blossom Street.

Monthly post?!

Blogging is becoming more and more part time for me of late. So much going on, I just don't seem to have the energy to sit down and write.

I've been spending a lot of time cleaning out my basement getting stuff together for our big yard sale. We had the sale yesterday to coincide with the town's spring craft fair, thinking this might give us more traffic. We had pretty good weather, although there was a cold air blowing most of the morning. Mostly it ended up being a nice opportunity to sit and visit with my sister. We did manage to sell a good bit of stuff, but ended up carting a good many boxes off to goodwill. I only sold 2 bars of the handmade soap. This really didn't disappoint me too much, though. It's getting too warm for me to want to mess with making more and this leaves me with a good supply to last until fall.

I went a little nuts lately with the knitting books...
Knitting Rules is Stephanie's best book yet. If you haven't read the others (and why not?!) by all means, get this one and read it. She has much the same "you can do it" attitude that Elizabeth Zimmermann always put forth in her books. Rather than specific patterns, she gives you recipes and the tools to work out how to knit basic things like scarves, hats, socks and such. Plus there's plenty of her familiar with sprinkled throughout. I'm currently reading Mason Dixon (hence the removal of the cover so as not to get it all scuffed up). Everyone RAVES about this book and I must say, so far I'm really enjoying it too. I've checked out their blog occasionally in the past, but it hadn't been one of my regular reads. It's becoming a regular stop for me now, though. Same with Wendy Knits. I would stop by her blog every know and then to see what Lucy was up to and ogle at Wendy's phenomenal (and prolific) collection of knitting. I picked up her book along with Mason Dixon, but have only briefly glanced at it. The last book was a find at a local book sale a few weeks ago. I have no clue what it's about, just saw it was a novel with knitting for $.50 and had to snatch it up. I do think it's a sequel to Knit One, Kill Two, so I may have to find and read a copy of that first.

I've been doing tons of knitting. Despite this...
I sat down to knit one night, after a long hard day and picked up my knitting to find Stuart had chewed the ends off of my Brittany Birch needles. Yeah, the little beast is fine, no splinters or anything...this was hubby's first concern. Although I was concerned for the cat too, once I was sure he was ok, I had to tape the ends up so I could finish the row I had stopped in the middle of. Not fun, but it worked. Thankfully, I had a US 11 circular needle I could use and now have this...
The right front of the 3 Seasons cardi is now done. I reckon that makes it close to half finished. I've got the left side past the ribbing. But I've been spreading my knitting time around plenty.

I purchased 2 skeins of cotton chenille from Numei, navy and amethyst. It doesn't look like much in the skein, although the colors are beautiful. And knitting it is much like any cotton, stiff in my opinion. But the resulting face cloths are such a treat. Once washed, they are soft and fluffy. I'm using this pattern from Crystal Palace. Although, I wasn't crazy about the eyelets formed by the yarnovers. After the first cloth I switched to using a kf&b increase and am much happier with the result. I think I would also like them to be a little bigger, maybe go up to 50 or even 60 stitches instead of 44.

I'm back on a shawl kick again. I've pulled the landscape shawl out of limbo and have been happily knitting away on it. I so adore the Knit Pick Elegance yarn. Whenever I knit with it, I get the urge to never knit with anything but this yarn forever. There is now some urgency for me to get this shawl finished now that this is on it's way. Fiddlesticks Country Silk in Marrakesh. I hope it's as delightful as most everyone seems to describe it. I haven't decided on a pattern yet, but it will be a shawl for sure.

The koolaid sock is still tucked away in a drawer. I feel pretty bad about it. I mean, I can't even say its SSS (second sock syndrome). Is there a such thing as HWTFSS (half-way through first sock syndrome)? Several people have asked how it's going. Unfortunately, it's just not "going" at all. It's not the sock's fault. It's really a nice sock and it's not hard knitting. I'm just really enjoying these other things at the moment. That and I'm not up to those little needles. It will get done sooner or later, but not in the near future.

That's all for now. Plenty more to tell you all about, but it's getting late. I'll try to get back to posting more regularly. See you all soon!

Kool tool

Have you seen these?
They're called KnitKlips and they are totally awesome! I'm a complete gadget girl. If there's a tool out there to make life easier, I want it. These were reviewed on Knitter's Review a few weeks ago and sounded like a really neat concept. You line up the pieces to be joined and insert the peg on the clip through an individual stitch on each piece. Makes it super easy to make sure your seams line up exactly.

I've never been real good at the whole sewing up thing (as I've mentioned before, I've even resorted to using the sewing machine to seam my sweaters!) But I'm striving to become a better knitter, and that includes learning proper sewing up. I got out the knitter's bible, found the section on seaming and had at it.

This is what I'm working on. It's the Fast & Fun sweater knit on my Bond USM using crappy acryl-yuck Red Heart yarn I had bought to make an afghan (but finally gave up on). I've knit flat stuff on my USM with pretty good results, but had never tried a sweater. The other day I just got this thought I wanted to give it a try. I figured it probably wouldn't be wonderful, so I didn't want to waste any "good" yarn trying, thus I resorted to what I had most of in stash. To my utter amazement, it has turned out fantastic! The sleeves look insanely long, but I had steam blocked everything flat for seaming. They'll be rolled when it's finished. The yarn doesn't seem too horrible either. I will definitely knit this pattern again, this time with good yarn! (Oh yeah, if you need to steam block, try this. It's da bomb!)

Catching up

Tax season is FINALLY over and life is slowly returning to normal. We’ve had beautiful, warm weather the last week and I’ve been happy to get outside and “play in the dirt”. Dad rented a tiller and turned my garden. All I’ve gotten planted so far are onions. The tomatoes I started never really developed very well. I’ve set them outside, hoping the spring air will perk them up, but I have a feeling I’ll be buying tomato plants again this year. If it doesn’t rain too much this weekend, I hope to get out and get some plants in.

It looks as if my wisteria may bloom this year. It was planted in 2000 in memory of my granny Kleibrink who passed away that year. Two years ago it had one blossom. Last year, it looked like we were going to have flowers, but the weather turned windy and rainy and knocked every bloom off. Here’s a picture of some of the flowers about to open. They smell just heavenly. It is supposed to rain the next few days, but hopefully not so bad as to wash away my flowers!

Progress reports on the knitting projects:

Here’s the 3 Seasons cardi. Finished the back and one and a half pockets. I struggled with meeting gauge on this one and it does look like it may end up being big. It’s so hard to tell at this stage. The pattern is only one size and there are no schematics. There should be RULES about that sort of thing.

This is a really crappy picture of the CC Tunic. Dark green is not the easiest color to photograph. I’m well out of the black hole and knitting up the bodice. The body was worked in the round and I was able to get my Continental knitting down pat. The bodice is worked flat, but still all in knit stitch, so I’m groovin’ right along. I must admit, Continental is much faster than English. But I still like purling better right-handed.

The quilt show was a lot of fun. Despite the cold, windy, rainy weather, we had a great time. I got some fabric and a bunch of Australian quilting magazines. I was completely surprised to find a yarn vendor at the show this year. Her stuff was gorgeous! All hand spun and hand dyed. Unfortunately, it cost an arm and a leg ($40 - $60 per skein!) so I had to pass. I didn’t find much inspiration in the exhibit quilts, again, mostly art quilts which just don’t float my boat. I saw several wall hangings in the vendor mall that I’m considering making. Top of my list is the “Wool” quilt from Alphabet Soup. Didn’t buy the book at the show because the pattern looks pretty simple to emulate. For now, I’m working on this little wall hanging. It’s Bear’s Paw by Eleanor Burns from the August 2003 Quilter’s World magazine.

Oooo, looky-looky…

The Opal yarn prize arrived. My hand still isn’t up to sock knitting, but it’s pretty big inspiration to get back at it!

Winner!

Ooo, lucky me! I was reading the current Opal Chatters newsletter (http://www.ptyarn.com/aprilnewsletter.html) and found my Opal socks in the sock drawer. They pick a number of socks from those posted on their website each month and feature them in the sock drawer. If you find your socks, you win a ball of Opal yarn! Woo-hoo! Can ya' tell I'm happy? My love of Opal appears to be well placed as the Opal-gods keep smiling on me. I've worn them several times and everyone who sees them seems to like them. Sadly, the weather is getting too warm to wear them much longer. But at least I'll be able to enjoy more Opal goodness when the new yarn arrives.

My hand is feeling somewhat better so I've been knitting pretty steady. I've packed the socks away for now, though. Even the size 3s are too small and make my hand ache. I'm alternating between the two sweaters, since I'm knitting one English and the other Continental I can give my hand a break when I need too. I'm better than half way done the back on the 3 Seasons Cardigan, but still in the black hole on the CC tunic. I think I've got another 4 inches or so before I can start the garter stitch yoke.

Spring has sprung and it was great to be able to open up the windows today. Quinn and Stuart sure enjoyed it!

2 steps forward, 1 step back

The last 2 weeks have been most unproductive, knit-wise. When we last spoke, I was ripping the koolaid socks back to rework the holey short row heel. I reknit a garter stitch heel which is just fantastic. The photo is not the greatest, but you might see, I'm finally just about back to knitting the toe. Unfortunately, the carpal tunnel in my left hand has been acting up for most of the last two weeks, so the sock hasn't gotten much attention.

I have been instead, knitting on the Cottage Creations (never ending) Tunic. I'm in the black hole of knitting on this one. Knit five rounds, see no progress. You've all been there, I'm sure. But it's still pleasurable knitting so I'm not unhappy.

I also started working on the 3 Seasons Cardigan from Lion Brand (in Oxford Grey). I had about 5 inches knitted when I decided I wasn't happy with the gauge. I tried my gauge swatch with the recommended 10s, but my gauge was too small, went up to an 11, but then I was too large. So I decided to just go ahead and knit the sweater on 10.5s. Alas, the gauge was still too small. I'm the kind of person who likes their clothes a little big rather than a little small. So not wanting to risk a too small sweater, I ripped the whole thing out and started over, now using 11s. Here's where I'm at today. Just finished the ribbing, ready to start the moss stitch body. I was afraid I wouldn't like moss stitch, all that switching back and forth between knit & purl, but it's not so bad once you get the rhythm going. I'm slower doing moss stitch in Continental, though, so I keep switching back and forth between English and Continental. I am staying faithful to Continental on the CC Tunic though, and am getting pretty darn fast at knitting that way.

More finished soap.
Please excuse my oh so fancy drying area, a cardboard box and needlepoint canvas! But, hey, it works like a dream. These are Pumpkin Spice (left back), Oatmeal, Milk & Honey (left & center front), Chocolate (center back) and Almond (right). Today I made Sage. Yes, I do seem a bit soap obsessed at the moment. I actually managed to sell a few bars, which made me feel inspired. I may list these up on eBay once they are fully cured. Meanwhile, I'm making plans for selling during the craft fair. Chuck has some neat packaging ideas to try. I've got a few more scents to make up then I'm going to stop for awhile. If we don't sell any of these, we will easily have enough soap to keep us clean for a good 2 years! But it keeps well and smells great, so no worries.


Only 2 weeks and counting until THE quilt show. Quilters Heritage Celebration is held every April in Lancaster and mom and I have been going for the last 5 years or so. If you are a quilter in this area, be sure to go check it out. Although we both found last year's show disappointing (too many art quilts, not enough traditional) it's still a ton of fun to attend. The quilts themselves are always beautiful and inspiring. Then there's the vendors. It's like quilter's heaven. There are easily, hundreds of vendors. Between the show at the Host and the little independent show across the street, you can find ANYTHING quilt related you could possibly want. Full report and pictures after the show!

Let's try that again

I made it all the way to the start of the toe decreases on the koolaid sock before I decided I just couldn't live with the heel. I put it on and you can see how bad it looks. Look at that hole. And the decreases look awful.
So I ran my needles in a row or two before the heel and ripped it all the way back. I love this technique. It's so much less scary than just ripping since you know the stitches can't go any further than where the needle is. This time I'm knitting a no-purl heel flap I found here. I love the look and it feels like it's going to be nice and cushy.



I was knitting on it while watching Goblet of Fire this afternoon. Had to stop when I reached the heel turn because I didn't want to miss any of the movie while reading instructions. I enjoyed the movie much more the second time around. I think my expectations were a little high when I saw it in the theater. But now, knowing what was and wasn't included, I could just enjoy it.

I've decided to try to sell some of my soaps. I'm quite happy with how they are turning out and think others will enjoy them too. I've listed a few on Ebay. Anyone who is interested and mentions my blog, will receive a 20% discount. All I ask is you let me know how you like the soap.

First of all, I want to thank everyone for the nice comments you've been leaving. I was very disappointed that Blogger doesn't give me the email addresses so I could reply to you all directly. But I love to hear from everyone, so either comment here or send me an email (my address is in the sidebar).




The koolaid socks are progressing nicely. I've got the whole 2 circular needle thing down pat now. The Knitting Korner DVD was a big help. Often times, seeing something done is all it takes to understand how it's done.


I used Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' short row heel (from Simple Socks). I was a little lazy about paying attention to which decrease I should be using, though, and have some little holes down the sides of the heel (kind of hard to see here, but they're there). I will do better on the second sock. Short row heel seems faster than the heel flap/gusset combo. Not sure if it will wear as well, but I wanted to at least try it. I should have got reinforcing thread but haven't gotten to a store that had any. I will probably regret that I didn't since this is 100% merino. Someone did mention I could weave it in after the heel is finished, so I still have options.


Pictures of some of my finished soaps. Lovely, no?




They are Pumpkin Spice, Edelweiss Almond and Lavender Vanilla.






I think the little sleeping cat impression is just so cute. I'm really getting the hang of this and am figuring out which recipes and methods I like best. I just love these marbled soaps. So far I've only had one failure (the color turned out wrong and the soap never got hard) and even that batch is still useable. But I've been really pleased with all the rest.


Have been seeing robins nearly every day now. Guess spring might actually get here soon. I've got some onion and tomato seeds started for the garden this year. Don't plan on planting much this year, just onions, tomatoes and peppers probably. I tend to overplant in my small garden, then things don't do well because they are too crowded. And then it gets hot and I don't feel like tending it like I should. So this year, I'm keeping it small and easy (I hope!)