Tag Archives: shawl

just what i needed.

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That song by The Cars always makes me smile. Back in 2004, I found myself road-tripping across the country with a new colleague, en route to our new jobs as part of a youth voting initiative. Things that stand out from the drive? My first experiences with ‘driving’ stick (think me doing the driving, and my friend P. doing the shifting), and a lot of time spent trying to figure out what The Cars are actually saying after the line, “I guess you’re just what I needed.”

“I needed someone to –eed.” (The answer is that it alternates: feed and bleed.)

Anyway, I bring all of this up because Mary, a ravelry friend of mine, seemed to know just what I needed this week:

On Thursday, I returned home from campus to discover that she’d gifted me the pattern for Terra, a gorgeous shawl by Jared Flood designed to highlight his new yarn line, SHELTER.

After making it through what I absolutely needed to get done this week, I came home yesterday and spent some time indulging in a little daydreaming about what yarn to use for this absolutely stunning shawl, and I settled on some seafoamy green, tweedy Peace Fleece. And I can’t wait to cast on.

Mary, this was just what I needed this week. Thank you.

I also finally got around to winding yarn for the next sections of my ripe bananas lap blanket testknit (say that five times fast). Note that one of these balls is hand-wound — I think it took me awhile to get the rhythm of the niddy-noddy down, and some of my early skeins are twisted. I did some intense handspun wrangling to get all of this untangled and into a tidy ball. This kind of mindless task was also what I needed yesterday. So it’s cool.

Lastly, another action shot of my textured shawl recipe shawl. I do wish it was a little bigger, but it really is perfect for when I just need a little extra warmth on my walk to campus in the morning.

Alright, time to earn some more knitting and outside time by finishing off another book in the pile. Happy weekend!

the tour.

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I’m actually planning to be near my wheel for most of the Tour de Fleece this year, so I’m in. Not that I was able to decide ahead of time what to spin — my options felt sort of overwhelming. After doing most of my cleaning and unpacking, I sat down to catch up on Ravelry, and was so inspired by the prettiness in all of the tour threads that I put a new bobbin on the wheel and started spinning.

This is Hello Yarn targhee in the garland colorway. I’m spinning thinnish singles that I’m planning to navajo-ply. This first picture is what I had last night. (I may have stayed up slightly past my bedtime to post this in the TdF threads before midnight.)

This is my bobbin around mid-morning.

And here it is after a bit more spinning this afternoon. I love watching each bright color appear!

Here’s one more shot of the bobbin — note what appears to be an enormous bug at the upper left. After uploading these photos, I went back to the wheel, and the bug was still there. Nowhere near as large in real life, but I encouraged him to find a new perch all the same.

I finally cast on for my textured shawl recipe shawl, and made some serious progress while catching up on the final episodes of The Good Wife and hiding from the heat! I’m using a handspun 2-ply made out of this gorgeous green wool from Friends’ Folly Farm. I only have about 257 yards, so we’ll see how big it gets. I might think about a contrasting border, a la some of brokeknits’ most recent projects.

Plus, blackberry muffins were made (with last season’s berries). Along with a bunch of pesto-minus-the-parmesan that went straight into the freezer.

Whew! We are going to sleep well tonight! (Who am I kidding? Boh is already asleep.)

pesto makes everything better.

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I made a jar of homemade pesto on Tuesday morning, and yesterday, as soon as I had finished ripping out my ishbel and posting the sad photos here, I made a beeline for the stuff. Pesto makes everything better.

Boh and I took a nice, slow walk yesterday morning — extra slow, because this rooster pulled a hamstring in last weekend’s soccer match. Boh waited patiently while I photographed neighborhood flowers with my phone. Aren’t they lovely?

When I look at this photo I hear: “Now wait just a minute young lady…”

And this one! What a ham! Thank goodness for a decent camera phone.

And now, since this purports to be a knitting blog, I give you my citron. I’m in the middle of section 4, and I’m planning to add a few more sections to make a more substantial shawl. I spent a few hours on this last night while catching up on podcasts, and fell in love with it all over again. I intend to work only on this and the pinwheel for the next week, in hopes that I’ll finish both in time for the wedding. I’m counting on Boh to keep me on track.

lace FAIL.

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This morning I sat down with my first cup of coffee and replied to all of your thoughtful comments and advice about lace knitting. And then I picked up ishbel, determined to finish the second chart. I knit another row, and then realized that it just didn’t look right. And so, I ripped. And when I got back to the stockinette portion, I realized I just did not have the patience to pick up 200+ stitches and get them all back on the needle facing the right way. So I just kept ripping.

These photos are from my phone — I didn’t have the energy to get up off the couch to get the camera in order to photograph my failure — but on the whole, I’m in good spirits. One less project on the needles for now, and I’ll be back. There is plenty of lace knitting in my future…but next time I’ll use a lifeline!

Time to get to work!

ishbel revisited.

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Hey, remember when I was afraid of lace? Well, I’m working on that. This week I dug out my ishbel, and started the lace section. I may have had a slight freak-out when my count was off by one at the end of the first chart, but after lots of squinting at my shawl, I’m pretty sure I did something silly near the edging, because everything *seems* to be lined up in the body of the lace section. So I k2tog’ed the offending stitch, and moved onto chart B. Fingers crossed that everything will turn out…

Also, I picked a few more quarts of sugar snap peas, and turned some of them into these most delicious, incredibly simple pickled sugar snap peas again this year. Yum.

The pinwheel blanket has entered blob-land, and I’m well into the second skein. Hoping to keep cranking away on this so that it is done long before the wedding (on July 2).

Boh in a blanket. Or in more traditional dress, depending on your reading of this photograph. This look really seems to highlight Boh’s soulful eyes.

Alright, time to get to work!

thickets.

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This wonderfully subtle colorway from AVFKW is called Manka’s Thicket. (Thicket: what a great word.) The fiber is black bfl, and then there are these subtle hints of reddish purples throughout. I’m imagining that this will be the main color of a daybreak shawl, with the Sadia bfl I just finished as the contrasting color…so long as I am able to get enough yardage out of the pair. This stuff spins like a dream, and is practically flying through my fingers. Here are my singles on the bobbin so far:

Hoping to spend some more time at the wheel today. Also, I just emailed myself a few photos from my (too smart) phone:

Boh’s best friend, Coltrane, after a long frolic that ended in a pond and a thicket. I love the way he leans his head against the side of the couch.

And Boh on my lap, mid-belly rub. Happy weekend!

FO: sadia.

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This is  2 oz. of BFL from A Verb For Keeping Warm in the Sadia colorway — my very first purchase from Verb. I wrestled with these singles a bit, but I’m quite pleased with the way these turned out, and I now have 203 yards of this stuff! (Also, singles dry so quickly! Thank you, warm weather.) I think I’m going to spin up 3 oz. of black bfl from Verb and then see if I will have enough yardage for a handspun daybreak shawl. My singles might not be plump enough to sub for fingering weight, as the pattern calls for, so I’m going to have to wait and see how my gauge compares.

It feels great to be back at the wheel. Also, I photographed this skein on top of an open cookbook in the kitchen. Yesterday I baked some banana bread, but failed to actually look at how hot an oven the recipe called for…which means the loaf was slightly charred around the edges. Still good, but man! I think my brain is officially on vacation. I’ll allow it for today, but soon it will be time to get into a summer mode of productivity.

Happy Wednesday!

FO: seasick.

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405 yards of corriedale singles in the Hello Yarn Fiber Club colorway Seasick. More swooning over here, folks. These colors are so vibrant! I might have spent a good hour on ravelry yesterday drooling over handspun shawls. So many I want to make! (Also, this is way more fun than compiling a draft reading list for my comprehensive exams.)

I might have started spinning more singles. This is BFL from A Verb For Keeping Warm in Sadia. I’m thinking this might become the contrast color in a handspun daybreak shawl? Happy June!

the future is bright.

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At least, that’s what my dear friend P. said last Friday night when she looked at that tray o’ dumplings and slipped on her shades. It has been a week of visitors — meaning lots of extra puppy love for Boh. See?

P. made a quick stop-over on a cross-country drive, and then D. pressed pause on his whirlwind of round-the-globe travel/work to spend a few days in my smaller-town life. We also made dumplings (an homage to the vast number of dumplings we used to routinely inhale when we were roommates on the other side of the world), curled up with the dog — and made blueberry pancakes.

It is just us again. Here is Boh’s response:

I think he misses our house guests.

Today I did lots of laundry and end-of-the-semester apartment cleaning. The books keep multiplying, and while I foresee adding another bookshelf in the very near future, I decided to spend some time making more room on my existing shelves. (This is clearly code for further compressing my stash into my yarn containers to shift the ratio of yarn: books on my shelves…) Also, I finally sat down and plied up that gorgeous targhee from Hello Yarn in the Parritch colorway.

This may be a bit overplied. I am giving it a nice warm soak right now, and I’m hoping it will relax into a squishy 3-ply.

I even have some knitting to share! This is my citron shawl. The first few sections have gone quite quickly, though I realize I’m going to slow way down as my stitch count continues to increase. I am having a great time with this project — it requires just the right amount of attention, and the Classic Elite Silky Alpaca Lace is lovely.

Happy weekend!