Category Archives: Knitting

The aftermath

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My Dad was quite proud of the glass he had to drink his champagne out of at the reception.

There were jokes about it having been full earlier when he made mistakes in his speech, like when he called someone else the father of the bride.
Here’s my sister actually wearing the shawl along with the pin she picked to help hold it close.

There was knitting and spinning loot… and not so related loot. I love my iPod. 🙂 And I’m a big Invader Zim fan… my husband actually tracked down a stuffed GIR just for me. I’ve been having lots of fun reading For the Love of Knitting… haven’t gotten to Heirloom Knitting yet. I had just gotten the lazy kate put together right before this picture; it should make things a lot easier.

This is what I currently have on my wheel. The shiny multicolor bobbin is silk dyed blue, purple, and light teal. The other bobbin is dark teal baby alpaca.

Getting back on track?

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Trying to get back into the habit of posting more often than once a week… should be slightly easy since I don’t have shawl time competing with blogging time anymore. Unfortunately, I am horribly sick… we’re talking the works here, folks… stuffy nose that occasionally runs, sore throat, plugged ears, bit o’ cough. I should be at home cuddled on my couch with a warm blanket watching something mindless while knitting or downloading wedding pictures from my camera so I can actually show you what the shawl looked like on my sister* as well as the pictures of knitting and spinning related loot that was gotten for Christmas… but, no, that’s not my reality… at the moment I’m at work trying to share my germs with all my co-workers cause I used the last of my time off to go to the wedding. Good planning on my part getting sick right afterwords, eh? *sigh*

*It looked really good on her; I was jealous. Everyone loved it… some were so surprised that I had made it they asked me 3 different times in amongst going on about how lovely it looked. I even have one friend asking what sort of bribes I would take to churn out another lace shawl that might be sent in her direction. *grin*

The Horizon

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Now that the Sister Shawl has been completed, wrapped, unwrapped, and worn, it is time to look to the horizon and see what’s next…

Not much actually… I dreamt about knitting the shawl for 2 nights after I finished it. I did take Le Bete Noir down to Monterey with me and have gotten most of the armseye shaping done on the back. A worsted weight yarn is a big difference from a lace weight one…. I think my fingers were grateful for the larger soft wool. Of course, now I’m itching to make something for myself, so a pair of socks might be in order. My sister got me a gift certificate to Knitting by the Sea in Carmel, and I pick up some lovely superwash merino yarn… I got the Glacier Lakes color, although I was tempted to get the Tilting the Gizmo color because it was such a bright green color, which was odd cause I’m not a big fan of green in general. I’ll probably have to do toe-up socks since each skein is only 123 yards, but a nice soft pair of kick-around socks would be nice.

Done at last, Done at last…

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I finished the shawl on Thursday night at about 1 am… so Friday really. I then had to wash it, rinse it, and condition it. I finally finished blocking it at 2:30 am. But, I did indeed get it done in time. I was wrapped Friday afternoon and unwrapped this morning. There was true amazement over how light and airy it looked.

The shawl


Close up of the main pattern


Close up of the edging


We also gave my sister and future brother-in-law a couple of Riedel champagne flutes as Christmas gifts. A little later we decided to give them their wedding gift early… a bottle of 1996 Dom Perignon. The look on my sister’s face was priceless… wish I had had a camera.

Mmmm… vegetarian chili time.

Happy Holidays!

Time? What’s that?

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Thanks to work, looming trip to Monterey, and end of the year stuff that needs to get down before… well, the end of the year… knitting time is at a premium, so I can pretty much forget about blogging time.

The Christmas surprise for my husband has fallen to the wayside, but I think he’ll understand since he wants to see the shawl done almost as much as I do.

I have discovered one thing that sucks about knitting a white wool/silk lace shawl… no chocolate is allowed near the shawl (me, any white fabric, and chocolate have a ceasefire agreement… none of us are allowed in the same area at the same time). This is a problem because I think chocolate would help me to relax a little and enjoy knitting said shawl rather that trying to break land-based speed records and failing miserably (worst case: dropped stitches *gah*).

The fast and the furious

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I have been trying to knit fast and furious on the Sister Shawl… I have to have it done and blocked by the 24th, which is when we’ll be driving down to Monterey. Unfortunately, with people staying at my parents’ house and the dog I can’t block the shawl there… of course, I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to block it at my place. The last lace shawl I dressed I pinned out on a full size bed. I have a queen in the guest room… hopefully, it will be big enough. I’m thinking of using fishing line as I have not had enough time to get dressing wires… okay, so I didn’t remember I needed dressing wires until too late. But, fishing line and T pins should do the trick. Although this raises the question of where one goes to find fishing line… huh. I’ll have to figure that one out. Anyways, the shawl… I’m up to only 116 rows cause I didn’t get half as much knitting done last weekend as I wanted to. I looking forward to tomorrow… I have nothing else I am required to do until 8:30 pm when I’ll be whisked off to a company Christmas party.

My sister emailed out a schedule for the 27th and 28th (D-day)… boy, am I glad that Josh and I did the simple yet sweet wedding*. This is insane. I must admit that I thought it was pretty funny that she reminds all the guys going to the store to pick up their tuxedos the day before to check for both the left and right shoe. *hehe*

Thankfully, I picked up my dress on Sunday… very pretty… of course, now my mother hates me. *sigh* She showed me a dress in a catalog by Spencer Alexis… the dresses are mostly flowy things using different types of fabrics in all the same color or nicely contrasting ones. Then, I found out a place in Carmel sells them, went in and tried one on, ordered one in what I believed to be my size, and picked it up a week later. Now, my mother is moaning over the fact that she wanted to get a dress by Spencer Alexis, but now she can’t cause we’d look like twins** even if she got a different style and color (her words, not mine), and what is she going to wear. *sigh* But, with my dress safely in my hands, all I have to worry about is the shawl and if the pins I bought on eBay are going to arrive in time. (I picked out a couple of sparkly pins, both of which are kind of art deco in design, so that I can give one to my sister to help hold the shawl on without needing to worry about holding it or tying it, etc.) I should get at least one before next Friday since it’s already shipped out.

Wheee… I am so glad this is not my wedding.

*We did the 20 people in the redwoods with a fancy dinner afterward… no dancing… no cake cutting… simple.

**People usually think I’m either my mother’s clone or her younger sister we look that much alike. Clone I don’t mind… but sister? Granted my mom is only 20 years older than me… I should just be happy that no one believes what age she is and that I got those genes.

Pictures, pictures everywhere

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I finally finished my lace bookmark for the Knitted Lace bookmark exchange. I blocked it last night, and it should be going out in the mail today. I used the diagonal lace pattern from Barbara Walker’s 1st treasury.


This was my first time adding beads to my knitting. It was an interesting experiment… trying to figure out which side of the stitch a bead had to be on to get it to show the way I wanted. I think it might be fun to try this pattern again, but putting the beads in the design… so they follow the diagonal.


The Sister Shawl is progressing and looks to be done in about a week… well, at least the main body of the shawl. Then, I need to do the lace border. I’m on row 96 and can currently get about 4 rows done in 2 hours. I plan on working on it tonight, trying to get to at least row 100. Then, I have a whole bunch of free time this weekend during which I hope to get at least one repeat section (16 rows) done.


I was very happy to come home last night and find not one, but two packages waiting for me. One package was from Inspirations Yarn containing my Surprise Sock Kit. I chose the warm colorway, which got me a really pretty coppery brown yarn.


The other package was from an eBay purchase I made… a pretty purplely and silvery superwash roving. I’m thinking socks… I like socks.

Just say "Bah!"

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Due to a various number of things, I feel completely drained. However, thanks to my sister’s wedding and me selfishly taking a week off at Thanksgiving, I am out of usable hours off. This of course means that I am at work and do not want to be. This means that when I have been at home the last few days I have thought that I should work on the Sister Shawl because the wedding count-down is growing terribly short, but I say “Bah!” I have been spinning instead… spinning a little bit of silk and now a little bit of baby alpaca which are dyed to coordinate with each other. I’m about half done with the alpaca, then there will be plying. I feel like a horrible blogger since entries have been sparse, without pictures, and rambling… this entry being a prime example.

I can only hope that the pain I am experiencing in my sinuses is from the sudden drop in atmospheric pressure affiliated with the rain storm that came through last night… cause otherwise I might be sick… without an usable hours off… and a manager who won’t let me work from home even though all I do is edit stuff. A co-worker has suggested I cough on him if I do indeed turn out to be sick.

Well, I think it’s cold

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Boy, am I glad I got my hat finished up at the beginning of the month. It had been cold when I started it, but then it warmed up a bit around here*. Then, it rained on Sunday, and the wind shifted… now the air’s coming down out of Alaska, and it’s gotten damn cold around here… okay, it’s only like 54 F out, but consider that before the storm rolled through it was getting up to 68 F… that’s over a 10 degree difference practically over night… and that’s why I wore both my new hat and the fingerless gloves I made last year** this morning just to get to my car.

Boy, I ‘m glad I know how to knit.

*This of course confused my iris bulbs, so now I have irises sprouting in several of the pots on my balcony and I’m wondering if I should worry about them with the frost advisories the area is starting to get… or should I just think that’s how natural selection works. *sigh* Thankfully, my bearded irises, tulips, and crocuses seem to have more sense.

**At the old building my company was in we had problems like needing winter coats while sitting at our desks in July. My fingers were literally turning blue, so I decided to try my hand at gloves and used the Interweave Knits article that tells you how to make gloves/mittens with just gauge and the size of your hand. Fingerless gloves turned out to be wonderful for keeping my hands warm while still allowing me to type.

Do I have to go back?

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Back at work after a beautiful week off… if only the week had been longer… but we can’t have the week adding on extra days just for me, other people might get jealous… or pissed if they have to work. The unfortunate thing of the week off was I have come to realize that I need at least a month off from both work and school. The nervous twitch in my left eye actually went away for a couple of days; it was back this morning. *sigh*

I didn’t really get any knitting done… I finished my bookmark, so now I need to block it. I guess it will get into the mail eventually. I did get the spinning for my sister-in-law’s Christmas gift done… approximately 118 yards of fingering weight romney. I think I need to practice the whole spinning bigger. I’ve gotten damn good at spinning lace weight, which means I can’t spin anything else. Maybe if I got a lazy kate… just spin lots of lace weight singles and start making 3…5… 8-ply yarn… I’d be spinning forever in order to get anywhere.

Anyways, the yarn came out pretty nice; now I need to dye it. I don’t know my sister-in-law very well, so I have no idea what colors she likes. I was thinking of going with a green blue combo… everyone likes green and blue, right? Now to find a time my husband won’t be mad at me for making the whole apartment smell like vinegar and wet sheep.

Did I really say I didn’t get much knitting done a couple paragraphs ago? I did, look at that. *groan* I actually did work on the Sister Shawl at Thanksgiving. I can’t believe I forgot… especially since knitting seems to be one of the few ways I can impress my family. Knitted lace seems to truly amaze them, and it rocks my socks that it’s my skill they’re impressed with. I think it’s funny that my mother has told me more than once, “We never thought you’d be one to knit.” What she did think I’d do, I have no clue.

Sadly, knitting will be laid by the wayside for most of this week unless I need a stress break. Must get to work on the 15-20 page paper that is due come Saturday. Most of the work is reading all the articles and books I’ve been collecting… should have gotten started on it over the weekend, but laying around in my pajamas for a few days made me feel better. I’m such a procrastinator. At least I’m getting better… a couple years ago as an undergrad I would have just begun looking for sources right about now.