Ze Shawl, she es done!!

Isn't it just gorgeous!? I love it. It's a shame it's going out tomorrow in the mail. But, she's a pretty lady on her way to a photo shoot on Thursday. They just grow up ..er knit up..so fast don't they?







This is a nice close up of the lace. I'll have a few pics later with her unpinned.


Ah yes, and you can't forget my pincushion. I made this from an awesome template found on craftzine.com. It's just the template for the outline (I used my own creativity when embroidering him).


Update:
Unpinned!!




Oh and I got tagged by Val. It's a birthday meme where you have to list three event, two births and one Holiday that share the same day as your birthday.


Events:
1564- Shakespeare was christened.

1865- Union cavalry troopers corner and shoot dead John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's assassin, in Virginia.

1962- NASA's Ranger 4 spacecraft crashes into the Moon.

Birthdays:

1962- Debra Wilson, American actress and comedian.

1963- Jet Li, Chinese martial artist.

Holidays:

World Intellectual Property Day (as of 2001)

This is actually pretty fun. If you want to try it..go to Wikipedia and type in the month and day of your birthday, omit year.

I'm still here, don't worry :D.

No..I did not drop off the face of the earth. I've actually been so busy with writing up designs, knitting, being a Mommy, being a maid and just life in general. I know I said I'd have the shawl knitted by the end of last week. Let me just say, THAT did not happen. Although I'm almost done with it, a few more pattern repeats and she'll be finished...finally.


The shawl was really hard to get through. Not because it was a shawl, but because I've knit the pattern 3 times in a row already and I think I'm suffering severely from "been there done that" syndrome. And it seems pushing yourself to do something makes it even harder to plug through.
Once I just gave in and stopped fighting it, it was much easier and I actually got to enjoying it again.


Tell you what though, knit in the Alpaca Silk, it's wonderfully soft! My son loves to rub it against his face as I'm knitting it.

I've also been trying something a little new with the spinning. I wanted to make lace weight and wanted to do it as thin as possible, so I tried the hooked spinning. Basically you take a piece of wire/clothes hanger and bend it into a shepherd's hook and pull out a few fibers while you spin.


It works nicely actually, but spinning while drafting is a challenge. It's not as easy as a drop spindle since the spindle can spin freely on it's own as you join new fibers. This is a challenge and takes a lot of patience since you don't get a lot right away.


See the roving in the back? Isn't that gorgeous!? I love the yellow mixed with the blue. I've tried looking for it on the Blue Goose Glen website, but I haven't found it. I would LOVE to find a color like that again. This was from a sampler pack of different colored rovings. (It was a great way for me to see all the colors up close and personal.) If anyone can tell me where I can get a roving like that, let me know! :D

Shawl update

Well, the shawl is almost done. I know it doesn't look long enough, but another 16 pattern repeats and she will be done and then blocked to her full potential. I'm hoping to have her done by this weekend. This is knit in Buckingham from Plymouth. It's soooooo incredibly soft.

It's a CO of 95 stitches instead of the recommended 55 for the scarf. It knits up to be really wide. When one edge held to my neck the other reaches past my elbow. Ok...not exact measurements so far, but when she's blocked, then you'll know.


It took me a little bit since I've been working on other projects for Plymouth as well. Here's a cute little baby sock. It's going to be offered in 6-9 months and 12 month sizes. I love it. So does oogie.



Oh, and here's some more pics of the yard behind my apartment. Yeah, I only wish this was my yard. I think she's strayed a little far from her forest and into the wrong part of town, since there's a highway right beyond those trees. I don't think she crossed it though..so no worries. :D

Hey all

Let's see how's my week been? Pretty good actually, I've got a LOT to share. Apparently La Dentelle Belle (or La Belle Dentelle..yeah I've got to change that soon) was a big hit by all of you. I'm so glad that you liked it! It was such a big hit, that Plymouth Yarns bought the pattern and asked if I would knit up a scarf for their new yarn called Buckingham. (Don't worry, it's still going to be offered as a free pattern on my site :D) It's an alpaca/silk blend. Oooooo it's nice.


After I started talking with the nice lady at Plymouth, she asked if I would like to design for them. How could I refuse!!! So...she sent me out a bag of each of their colors. Wow, it's just gorgeous stuff. I love the yarn.



It's so soft! So soft in fact that my little Oogie sneaks over to my yarn stash and pulls out a skein and rubs it against his face. I've found him sitting in the corner out of view and just holding a skein to his little chubby cheeks. I think that's an omen I should be designing a baby blanket?

For right now, it's offered in only 3 colors. But, in July they'll be coming out with 5-7 more colors. I strongly suggest this yarn, I'm in love!

So the lady at Plymouth wanted an awesome scarf done in the rose color, and a shawl done in the natural/cream color. (I REALLY need a ball winder. They don't look it, but there's a LOT of yarn in one skein and it takes forever to wind these if you do it by hand!) Here's the finished scarf below. One skien made this gorgeous scarf!


I know you can't see it here but I'm almost finished with the first skien. It's taking a while since this shawl is really wide. I casted on 95 stitches instead of the 55 required from the pattern. Right now it's not blocked, but I have gotten really far on it. I've been knitting on it a lot!

I've also been working on some other projects for Plymouth, so my "me" knitting time has been really cut down. Not that it's a big deal, I mean, who would complain about being paid to knit!?

I've also been doing some spinning. I thought that my bright purple and black Colonial blends would look awesome spun together. And they do! Sadly, again, I didn't spin enough for a hat. I really wish I would start getting it right.



Oh well, instead though I'm taking a hint from Val, she's been knitting these and I thought that it would be awesome in the purple/black yarn. I'm going to knit it up for myself ( I don't think I'll look good in it, but gosh darn it, I'm going to wear it!!)

Here's a better view of the colors..


I'm also trying to knit up the Flower Basket shawl from interweave knits. And it's kind of disappointing me. I love the shawl, and I'm going to finish it, but it's kinda bulky. When I first knit it up, I used one skien of Clematis Heather on size 2 needles. Then, I looked closely at the pattern (ok..I started it at 11 at night when I was REALLY tired.) and found out the she used #7 needles with TWO strands of yarn held together.


Needless to say..I was kinda bummed. Seeing how far I got, I had to frog it and start over. Now, I'm not sure I like how bulky it is. I was so looking forward to something light and whimsical. Maybe if I just work through this and finish it I'll feel differently, but I'm confused right now about it.