WeeTinySockFO

I received my match and finished the sock for her, last night. It was fun to have such a quick, simple knit. I've "met" my match online, already, but this exchange gave me the opportunity to learn more about her by looking her up on Ravelry. It was fun and I was surprised to see how many of the same groups we're in together!

Spring Weather in Seattle!?

As the day has progress, we've had about 1 1/2 inches of snow! It has been fun watching it fall, though. :)

LaceHenlyBackFinished

I've been working on the Lace Henley since Sunday and now have the back finished! I finished it on Wednesday night, and have now finished the ribbing for the front, too. I love the yarn/pattern combination and expect this to fit really well and be great for work. When working I have a security badge that must be worn visibly. Usually, this means that I wear it on a lanyard around my neck. If I don't have a collar on my shirt, the lanyard slips up my neck a little and causes neck pain and a headache. Weird, huh? Well, this sweater will have a collar, so it should work very nicely. It certainly is dressy enough! :)

New Swap

Here's one that fun and almost cost free:

It looks like fun, takes just a short amount of time, and is knit from a little left over sock yarn!

Sewing

Last Friday was the my brother's wedding. He married a person that the entire family loves. Here, you can see everyone! Since I have 5 siblings, and all but one (the 16 year old) is married, that makes for quite a few people. This picture even shows all the spouses and kids.

For the wedding, the dress that I made is from Simplicity's pattern number 3804. I made the short version with the long sleeves. The split cuff looks great on and adds a little extra comfort than a long sleeve without the cuff. I do not feel that the pattern was written well. There were 2 places where the pattern did not instruct the sewer to finish the raw edge. Also, there were several places where the patter pieces did not match up exactly. If I had been using a fabric with a little more stretch, this may not have been a problem, but I still would have been concerned about the fabric stretching out in certain places as the instructions do not call for any stitches for the purpose of stabilizing the neck edge. All things considered, I was so unhappy with the pattern that I recycled the paper it was printed on as soon as I was done hemming the dress. The dress is lovely to wear, though! I wore it to my brother's wedding, last Friday night, and felt so glamorous. I, of course, plan to keep sewing and will also continue to use patterns from Simplicity as this is the first time I've had such an awful pattern.

More Progress!

Last night, we went to the home of some friends to have dinner. While there, we dyed Easter eggs. I haven't done that in a few years, and its always more fun with smaller children in the mix. We all dyed a few. Its too bad I didn't have my camera with me as they were all so pretty. After the clean up, which didn't take long, their kids were off to bed and we sat and played some Trivial Pursuit. I didn't get many right, but as we were playing guys against gals, we still won! (We only played until one side had 2 wedges because it was getting late.) While playing the game, we were knitting. I finished chart 4 on the stole and am now on to work the part that looks striped. This part will knit up more quickly. I stretched the finished part out, this morning and measured it: almost 18 inches per half! It looks so small in its pre-blocked state that I was starting to wonder if it would ever grow. I have a renewed sense of accomplishment after seeing the measurement.

Stole is coming along

I've been working exclusively on the Juno Regina stole since finishing my socks. Its coming along. I'm almost done with chart 4. (This is the last of the 8 charts that I will be knitting as I am working the shawl in the symmetrical variation.) I've been working both halves at the same time and it is going very well. By the end of today, I'll no longer need to carry the instructions with me, as every right side row will be the same, and every wrong side row is already the same. It won't be as interesting, but it will be quicker to knit. I'm still not confident that I'll finish it by Sunday, but I'm still trying! :)
I bought some fabric, last night, to sew myself another dress and a white shirt. I already own the pattern that I want to use. Last night I put the fabric in the wash, so I might get a little time to cut out the top, tonight. I still need to take some pictures of the last dress that I sewed and the new fabrics. Hopefully, I'll do it tonight, so that you can see them all tomorrow.

Sock Madness...Done!

Well, after working on the shawl for almost a week, I took a break to knit the socks for Sock Madness. I received the pattern on Thursday afternoon and cast on immediately. After knitting exclusively on them for 3 days, they're done! I don't like the way that this yarn pooled, so I plan to rrriiippp...They're just not what I envisioned for the yarn. I may try the pattern again in the future. Only time will tell. :)

New Shawl Pattern Chosen

I spent some time looking around on Ravelry for a different pattern to knit a lace shawl for Easter. I was having a difficult time finding anything that I liked. I want something not too difficult to knit, but not too easy, either. I finally decided that I may need to change yarns and started to look at what others had made with some of my stash yarns. I happened upon the Juno stole from Knitty. It took more yarn than I had of the stashed yarn, but I should have just enough of the original yarn that I purchased on Saturday! (I bought 1 100g skein of Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Lace which is 800m.) I printed the pattern and then ripped the little progress that I had on the Alpine Lace Stole. I cast on while waiting for dinner to be ready. After a couple hours knitting I am into the third repeat of chart 2. It looks great! So that I can use all of the yarn, I am knitting this 2 halves at time on one circular needle. This means that I am making the variation in the pattern of knitting 2 halves and grafting them together rather than knitting the stole from one end to the other. So far, it has been easy to work one half and then the other. This has also given me a little more speed because I can memorize the pattern on the first half and then just knit it on the second! Of course, I'm just loving that!! :)

New FO

I've been knitting away on any stray socks that are left to be finished. This is one more step to being ready to start Sock Madness, as I'll need my needles free! I finished one pair on Sunday and then started working on another pair that I've started already. This second pair, the Serpentine Socks from Anni Design, are slow going. I love the finished effect, but all those little cables slow me down considerably! (I'm so used to knitting at "100 mph" that when I have to slow down the project seems slow, but it really isn't bad and I still enjoy the process very much.)

Also, on Saturday, I decided that I should make myself a dress to wear to my brother's wedding on Friday night, so I spent my Saturday afternoon altering the pattern and cutting it out. All that I have left to do on the cutting is cutting out the interfacing. If it hadn't been so late, I might have finished that on Saturday, too. Being so ambitious about the dress, I also decided that I would like to knit a matching stole for the dress. I'm not planning on that being done for Friday, but to wear with the same dress for Easter. The pattern I chose is an "experienced lace" pattern from Victorian Lace Today, in lace weight. Is that over doing it or what? After working on the lace some, yesterday, I'm not too sure that I will ever get it done. Just before bed, I was trying to finish just one more row, dropped a stitch, and it unravelled back to the border! After the horror of watching that, I'm not sure I want to do the same pattern. Its lovely and even looks great with the hand painted yarn that I chose, but the decreases and yarn overs happen on both the right side and wrong side, so I'm not sure I can pick the stitch back up. I'm thinking of choosing a simper pattern from the same book so that I have a little more reasonable expectation of finishing in time for the holiday.

(ETA pictures.)

Pogies

I finished the second pair (of 3 pair) of Pogies for a friend and her rowing team. On the final pair, I only need to bind off the stitches for the ribbing on the side of the hand, and then weave in the ends. They'll be done today! The first pair I made, I followed the pattern closely. There were a couple changes that she asked for, and then I didn't worry so much about the pattern. These came out great and I'm sure she'll really like them.

Finished!

I did manage to finish the Flower Motif Shawl, last night and didn't even have to stay up late! Its lovely and now I can look forward to finishing the next "must finish" project. I cast on for my friend's Pogies (mittens used by rowers) this morning. My hope is to get the first of the 2 pair done by Thursday when I will see her. I wish that I could have both pairs done, but there are just not enough non-work hours in the day to accomplish that. 1 pair might be pushing too much. The more I can finish the happier I'll be at the start of Sock Madness as I will be able to put all of my attention into knitting those socks. :)

Still No FO

I'm dying, here...I really want to get this shawl (the Flower Motif) done so that I can move on, but its just taking forever! With time to knit tonight, it will get done. :) While I was at the Village Yarn & Tea last Saturday, I found some beautiful Silky Wool from Elsebeth Lavold. Of he color that I liked best, a bright turquoise, there were still 8 skeins in the same dye lot. I had a project in mind, a sweater, but when I looked at my book on Saturday night, I realized that I miscalculated how much I would need. 8 would not be enough, but I needed more like 12-13. So, on Sunday, I made a quick trip back, arriving just 5 minutes before closing. I knew that they had more in the color Charcoal, which is almost black. Fortunately, they did still have 13 even though it is on clearance. I still have too much to get done to cast on for another sweater, now, but I sure want to! If the whole truth be told, I actually want to cast for about 5 sweaters and almost as many socks! Ravelry, where I found the patterns, could be the death of me.

More Yarn!

I now have the rest of the yarn that I will be using for Sock Madness. I bought some Sock It To Me from Elann in Steel Blue, along with some Baby Lace Merino in Dark Chocolate and Banana Cream. Then, today I bought the last skein at Villiage Yarn & Tea: Louet Gems fingering in Pink Panther. I'm really looking forward to trying some new yarns and using some that I've tried before, again.
I also been working on the Flower Motif Shawl and only have just a little of the border left. I am hopeful that it will be done by the end of tomorrow.