Busy Days

You know, I've realized I'm really going to hate the months of October and December. Not that I hate Halloween or Christmas. But that they are SO busy, and I end up exhausted. This month was my step-father's and son's birthdays, Halloween (of course), my anniversary (my husband and I really like to celebrate when we first met), and a craft show.

The birthday was a blast. As you can see. Sugar rush for little Oogie.


And then the crash that quickly followed.


My step-father loved the hat. Obviously it was quite warm and thankfully big enough (he's a 6'4" swed). It almost didn't make it to him. My husband LOVED the color AND the hat itself. Which is baffling. I can never make him a hat that he really likes, but I make it for someone else and he ends up loving it. I think I'll just stick to socks for him. :D

Oh, and the craft show was fun and terrible at the same time! It was fun because I got away from the kids and hubby for a day. And terrible because I was across from a woman with handspun yarn! She sat all day spinning on an Ashford Joy. I couldn't resist. I bought myself a skien of yarn. It's Merino Tencil, 6 oz and 228 yards of worsted weight double plied yarn. I fondled it through out the day thinking, "should I???". But, of course I relented. I think it was watching her pack up at the end of the day that made me realize I would regret not getting it.



I also talked to her about her spinning wheel. Aparently she's got 4 spinning wheels and is looking to get rid of a few. One being an Ashford Traditional for $150! I'm definitely going to go for it. But, since it's right before Christmas time (which has my daughters birthday and my wedding anniversary too!) we agreed that payments wouldn't hurt as much. I emailed her today to see pictures of the spinning wheel before I buy it. When I get them, I'll post them here for you guys.

Oh and check this out! This is another La Dentelle Belle Scarf done! This one is done by Monika from smoking hot needles. I love it in the red and I'm thinking of making myself on in the same color. I've posted this in the Gallery. :D

Finished works!!! Yay!

I'm sure some of you don't mind! :D

I've been working on another shawl. Sorry about the junk in the background (my husband has to read constantly on his web designing)...and now everyone knows that my pillows don't match my comforter. Ah..oh well. Back to the shawl.

It's supposed to be rather gauzy and open. I was going for a more old world design with this. You know, something you'd find in an old 1800's knitting book. I was thinking of the cliche woman in a white dress and a parasol on a spring day.




Close up of the middle.


Edging.
(yes..the edges are supposed to be rounded, not rectangle. This adds to the soft allure of the shawl.)



On model. (front.)



Side.



The baby doll cami is done as well. I added small spaghetti straps to her and I quite like it.

The finished look is gorgeous. ( Like I said..more web design stuff. :D He's such a geek..he told me a binary joke before. *ahem* There are 10 types of people in the world..those who understand binary..and those who don't. Obviously..by my dumbfounded look..I was one of those that didn't understand.) Anyways..back to knitting!

The back.



I also had taken a picture of her earlier and my husband noted that it was such a good photo that I should turn it into a wallpaper. So..here it is. :D Enjoy! Just click on the picture to see full sized image.




And now...to change pace. That great big ball of yarn I spun..


I turned into this...


...which will hopefully look like this from victorian lace today.

The scarf is actually really easy. I'm quite impressed with it. The border took only an hour or two to actually complete and the middle is only a repeat of two rows which is a cinch to remember and helps the knitting to fly. After all the complicated and involved knitting I've done, this is such a great change of pace!

Oh..and I uploaded another scarf to the La Dentelle Belle (La Belle Dentelle) gallery.
Click picture to be taken there.

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.

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.

La Dentelle Belle Gallery

Hey! Have you knit La Dentelle Belle scarf? Send it to me and I'll upload into the gallery!

This beauty is from Strega's Needles.


This pretty one is from Carole at Carole knits.


Another addition to the Gallery. This beautiful belle by Monica.



This one is from Anoma Lea. She added a neat lace ribbing in the middle instead of the traditional lace. Check out some of the other pics here!



This one is from Monika.
This is done in a Merino/cotton blend.