Clapotis, take two

For those of you who haven't knit Clapotis, why not join us on the Second Wave KAL? And for those of you who've been with me for a while, yes, I did knit one before, but I couldn't resist when my friend Bridget started this one.

Isn't my yarn pretty? I wanted to wait to take a picture until I'd dropped at least one stitch (the big exciting part of this pattern, you know). And now I have my new fall bag to show with it. I didn't even realize when I chose the brown over the red that it would look so nice with my shawl-to-be. And the skein of brown Koigu is to make a pair of Endpaper Mitts for my friend Keri's Fingerless Mitts for Fall KAL with the leftovers from Clapotis. I think I'll pause on the Clap, knit the mitts, and then finish the shawl with the rest of the yarn. What do you think? But then I also think I should go with a slightly more solid and light-colored yarn for the contrast. The Endpapers I've really liked in Ravelry have been high-contrast.

Something to think about, anyway.

Happy Blogiversary, Keri!

Flitting

I've been swatching while coming down from the Icarus high.

First up is some Euroflax in, surprise!, blue. Unfortunately, my Bryspun US3 snapped about halfway through. Worn out from Icarus, I guess. I finished the swatch on US4. Clearly, the smaller needle size is better, but it's still a somewhat sheer fabric. Washing and drying it completely in the machine helped the hand. I don't have a US2 at hand, so I can't swatch it on twos, but I'm not sure I'd want to do a lot of stockinette on a two anyway for an entire skirt. Oh, right, I bought the yarn (on sale) to make the lacey skirt from Greetings from Knit Cafe. Jody beat me to it on doing the skirt in linen, and it's very cute. Love the variegated colorway! Anyway, here are the swatches. I think this project is going into a timeout until I can figure things out (get a US2 needle to swatch). Perhaps this will end up as something other than the skirt.



And here we have the love child of Cheryl Niamanth's Wisp and Jared's Scholar Collar in BMFA's Bliss (70% angora/30% wool blend) in the Periwinkle colorway. Sorry they don't have it on the site, except in the Angora Boot Sock kit; I bought the yarn at The Fold. As you can see I blocked the heck out of it (and really need to get my hands on some blocking wires). This is a garter stitch (Scholar Collar influence) cowl, essentially, and I'm going to complete the circle with some ribbon through the yarn-overs on the short edges (Wisp touch).

This yarn is divine, though it does shed. I tried to get a picture of the fluff on my t-shirt, but it's not easy to snap a pic of your tum. Hehe. I used the whole skein (100 yds.), and it only took me a few days of distracted knitting to finish this up on US9s (Bryspun, natch).


And here is my first Koigu. Isn't the colorway (P33231 - fuchsia, ballet, mocha, and lilac) beautiful! I think I may make a Clapotis with it. Someone on the Knitlist mentioned gifting three skeins to a friend, so when I was at Three Bags Full yesterday with a gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket, I thought "why not?". I also bought some yummy yarn for a surpirse project, but the intended recipient reads the blog, so it will stay sooper secret until it's been gifted.


So, guys and dolls, that's where I am. It's pouring here, and Miss Isobel is still napping, so I'm catching up on Top Chefs.

I'm a cool kid, now!

Yeah, you thought I was cool for learning Magic Loop (pretty much on my own - check me out). But now I'm on Ravelry! Check it, bay-bee. I'm Purly. Woot, to quote Sandy. This thing is huge. I'm not even sure how extensively cool it is yet, but so far I'm totally wowed. Now I just have to get cracking on my Flickr account.

Anyway, much in the queue and stash to get into Ravelry. I'm going to be a busy bee.

In personal news, the house is on the market. I'm really sad about this, but it needs to happen. Wanna buy a house? It's a wonderful house, and we did all the crud work, so the new owner will get to do fun stuff like paint and not worry about burning the house down (wiring was knob and tube, and the roof was badly applied cedar shake).

Lace

Just found a great lace blocking tutorial of Stephanie's via an old post of Eunny's. So clever to use some thread. Why didn't I think of that?

I've started a Flower Basket Shawl from an old issue of IK with the BMFA Seduction yarn. Just started the Lower Flower Basket chart, and it's going well so far. Only one tinking episode, which I attribute to my parents' watching of CSI: NY. I am not an hour-long drama girl as a general rule, but when in Rome (and without my Tivo)...

Anyway, I'll try to snap some pics tomorrow, though we all know lace looks like a lump until it's blocked. And now I have some additional ideas about blocking. Yay!

Harlot in Chicagoland

Oh, she was great. Charming, self-deprecating, funny - your typical Canadian. I won't say Stephanie is "cute", since she exhorted us all to reject folks calling us knitters cute. So, instead I'll say she is attractive and very personable. I don't think the cover of the new book does her justice.

The Bohus was gorgeous and inspired many in the 200some crowd, I'm sure.

Franklin was there, I believe, but I didn't have a chance to introduce myself as my BFF and I were turning into pumpkins by the time I got my book signed. I have a very blurry picture since I haven't figured out how to control the autofocus on the Fahncy camera, and I wouldn't want to post a picture on my blog without asking him. 'Twould seem something like an invasion of privacy.

Anyway, here I am with Stephanie, her sock, and the start of my Old Shale Shawl.

Thanks, Stephanie, for a most enjoyable evening!

FO sighting - Lala Scarf

I promise I'll post a picture tomorrow. I finished this cutie pie with a sc, c1 bindoff (single crochet, chain one for those who don't speak crochet, not that I do), which worked perfectly. I might do this one again but use smaller needles and go farther to make a bigger one. Only concern then would be the bindoff, which takes a loooong time but is very pretty. I like it, but the fabric is very open, as you'll see tomorrow.

Slip Slip asked about my Hourglass Sweater in the Queue post, but since it's a WIP (work in progress), it has moved out of the queue and into the work bag! I cast on for the bottom of the Mermaid variation last night and completed one repeat of the lace pattern WITHOUT INCIDENT! Yay, me! One more repeat, then perhaps a couple of spaced-out repeats: I went from solid lace to lace every other "stack" on the sleeve so will probably do the same at the hem of the body. Then, smooth sailing stockinette with occasional decreases for a while. Ah, the kind of soothing knitting that we all need sometimes.

Did you know there was a new Yarnival last month? Me, neither. I've got to figure out how to stay on top of that, probably Bloglines.

The Joy of Knit Night

I am so glad to be able to attend Knit Night regularly again! How amazing are these women? I had such a good time visiting with everyone and checking out their WIPs that I hardly knit at all. I did shop, though! If you're in the neighborhood, be sure to grab a new Bamboo Sisterhood 3/4 sleeve t-shirt - I got my asphalt one last night with red and silver printing and am wearing it today. My colleagues remarked upon my fantastic rock 'n' roll appearance today. Ha!

I also bought the Interweave Knits with Icarus. The directions seem clear here, so I may be OK without Miriam's help that would come with buying the pattern from her directly. BUT I saw Carole's gorgeous Seraphim on her blog this morning. Doesn't she look fantastic? And, as if the shawl weren't lovely enough, she knit it from her own handspun in two weeks! "Impressed" doesn't even begin to cover it. So, add Seraphim to the queue. [I feel a post about the queue coming up.]

My destashed KSH in Heavenly arrived yesterday in the mail. It is a heavenly shade of blue. What will I do with it? You mean, besides pet and look at it? No idea yet, but I couldn't pass it up.

Oh, and the Schaeffer yarn? It is Nancy, not Elaine. Did I get that right? It doesn't really matter. The bumpy yarn (both worsted and bulky weights) is great! I need to wash that swatch, so I can figure out that sweater.

Softness

You can't imagine how soft the Blue Sky Alpacas Brushed Suri is until it's knit up. Oh. My. Goodness. Like a cloud, my friends. But that bit of bamboo gives it strength. I've just started my seventh repeat of the traveling leaf lace pattern on Pam Allen's Reading-In-Bed Shrug (opens the PDF), and it is so soft and sweet, though the color has an underlying dustiness that keeps it from being saccharine.

BTW, have you heard the news about Interweave Knits? Eunny Jang is the new editor! How fantastic is that. If you haven't come across Eunny's blog, please check it out. She is an indefatigable knitter and amazing instructress. Congratulations, Eunny, and I look forward to great things in future issues.

Block Around the Clock

Finito! I did a single crochet around the hem, neck, and edges on Saturday. I tried doing the crab stitch (backwards single crochet - thank you so much, Carolyn, for helping me figure it out!), but it was such a pain and didn't seem to add anything to the finished product. I crocheted around one sleeve and am, apparently, a tight crocheter, so I pulled that out and am leaving the sleeve edges alone for now. I also tried crocheting a little scalloped edge, doing a crochet one, chain three, then crocheting the second stitch (skipping one stitch), which I think I picked up from Annie Modesitt on Knitty Gritty Episode 408, though looking at the page on DIY, I don't think I did it right. Oh, well. It was sort of cute but fussy and kind of a pain. The single crochet firms up the edge, and I think that's enough.

Blocking is like boiling water: a blocked sweater never dries.

I washed it Saturday night after doing that crochet edge and am still waiting for it to dry - hopefully by tonight.

While washing the cardigan, the yarn gave off a little bit of dye and looked more lavender than I had thought while working with the yarn. Maybe it's the bare bulb in the bathroom (267-year-old houses are the ultimate WIPs) or knitting in the dimly-lit Keeping Room. I should compare the yarn to my Pantone books. Hold on... I'm going to go with PMS 214-7 (25% Cyan, 10% Magenta, 0% Yellow, 0% Black). But the lighting here in the office is a little whacked.

So, I'm back to working on Grandma's Shawl (and should join the KSH KAL, no?) and may have exacerbated my carpal-tunnel syndrome doing a couple of squares for a baby blanket in Blue Sky Alpacas Cotton that a bunch of us at Yarns In the Farms are doing together. I'll be fine. But my first square is too small, and I charted and reverse stockinette-stitched a letter on it. My second one seems to be the correct width, and I'm doing a Vandyke stitch from a Mon Tricot stitch dictionary that looks like lacy hearts. But it's on stockinette, so I'm not so sure it's a good idea. Guess I have to check with the gang to see if the blanket should be reversible or if we're not going to line the back or what.

Speaking of KALs, there's a handy list here, and I'm tempted by the year of sweaters but don't know if I'm enough of a joiner.

OK, back to my real job. Watch this space for yarn shop reviews! IMOndays coming your way...

Convergence

When three people from different parts of your life mention something within 24 hours, it can feel kind of spooky. Have you seen the Subway Knitter's CharlieCard Mittens? My colleague mentioned them yesterday (hi, Marissa!). My dollface, ex-pat, London-living girlfriend sent me this link this morning (hi, Suz!). And my dear LYS co-owner sent me the link to Colleen's blog just now (hi, Jill, and Carolyn, who sent it to Jill!). Whew! If only I took public transport to work. But I'm an evil driver these days, since it would take twice as long to commute if I rode the T (and be more expensive due to the recent fare hikes).

Anyway, I'd checked out Colleen's blog some time back, as she's a New England Knits gal, and I'd thought about joining that ring (I may yet do it).

Boston area knitter

Just found another Boston area knitter, and she appears to work at Three Bags Full in Newburyport, which I have never been to. Maybe I can check it out this weekend.

Gloucester Knitting

There is another blogging knitter in Gloucester! I'll have to get in touch with her. I found her when I was looking at the closeout yarns on the Webs site. And they have a closeout on K1C2's Angora Soft, which sounds lovely, but I thought I'd better google it to see what other bloggers have to say about it. And up popped Kathleen Valentine. I haven't had a chance to read her entire blog yet, but I will.