Next FO/MS3 update
After recovering from that moving experience with the fair isle sweater I had to go right ahead and finish something else. Yup, the lace doily is finished too and just in time for the kick off for the Mystery Stole. So here is my finished doily. It's from the book "The Lacy Knitting of Mary Schiffmann" on page 41 and is called the plastic doily, because she retrieved the pattern from some cheap plastic print they sell in card stores. Funny, but it sure came out beautiful.
Instead of 18 inches like described in the book I ended up stretching it out to 24 inches. Must have been the yarn. So right now it's suffering on my floor, being tortured into shape, but isn't it pretty?
Ok, now that we have covered this subject really quick, lets move on the the next one. Yesterday Melanie released the first clue of this years Mystery Stole and I tell you it must have been a frenzy getting that pattern. I took my time. I waited a couple of hours and had not a single problem downloading the pattern and printing out the four pages for the first clue. I still get all the emails for all the messages people post on the yahoo group, but I sure don't get all of their problems. They are worried about the beads, the crochet hook to use, the color of the beads, the yarn, reading the pattern as a chart or written out. My god, use some common sense and just do it. Sorry, but I had to let this out. Most the time I just skim through the subjects and delete one after the other. The only message I really read are the ones from Melanie and with half of them she has to answer questions to topics mentioned above.
Now do you still want to see what the first clue looks like all knitted up? Originally I thought I could stay up all night and get it done, but that was wishful thinking. Plus I my good night sleep got interrupted by my dog barking when some kids (I assume) had nothing better to do than egg, tp, key and do some other disgusting things to some cars in our neighborhood. Hooray to my guard dog. My neighbors car ended up with salad dressing on the windows. Now that's a new one.
Where was I? Oh, yes, the clue. Well, I finished it today and pinned it out so you can see the beautiful pattern emerge.
The group is still open to new members until coming Friday. She will close up the group then and post the second clue. So if you got a taste for it now and still want to be a part of this group with currently more than 3500 members then go for it and sign up, because the count down is on.
No I'll go back and stare at my yarn and figure out what I'll do for the next couple of days until my yarn from KnitPicks arrives or the next clue comes out. Labels: FO, Lace, MS3
Mystery Stole 3 Swatch
I guess I have to swatch my yarn for the mystery stole to get a feel for it and an idea how it looks like. I ordered the Grignasco Merino/Silk from the Woodland Woolworks in natural white, which has a yardage of 1533 y/3.52 oz or 1.400 m/100 g. I was so sure I could use my size 5 needles, but that was a wrong thought. Way to big. Now I tried the 3 mm needles I used for my kimono shawls and this is the result.
What do you think. This is the 35 stitch swatch which gives me a good 5.5 inches in width. Now, if the whole stole doesn't have more that 99 stitches, I'll end up with roughly a 16 inch stole instead of a 22 inch. Hmm, well I'm afraid if I use bigger needles than that it'll look very holey so 16 inches it is. Also, I put in some beads I found. They are size 8/0, as requested and the bottom row is in crystal, which has a rainbow sheen to it and the top ones are in ice, which is pretty much clear. Unfortunately the picture doesn't show much of a difference, if you can even see the beads at all.
Now, what do you think? I guess I'll leave it like this.
Labels: Lace, MS3
Recovery Sunday
Today is a lazy day to recover from this week. Yesterday we went to the beach and came back with a nice sun burn. My older son, which tans easily and usually never has a problem with the sun, has his first sun burn and is not very happy about it. Welcome to my world. So the only thing we are doing today is hanging out the house, maybe cleaning all the sand out of my Jeep, and knitting on stuff. That is my part anyway. I don't think my boys are going to start knitting for me, like Tiennie's husband. Hale to him, I bow in respect.
I've been doing some stuff these last couple of days. Here is what is going out in the mail today. Still shrouded in mystery, but this is all you get until the catalog comes out. When? I don't know yet.
Then I did a dozen of those again. Since we are an army post with mostly deployed soldiers right now, these flags are selling very well. Bad for us wives, who's husbands are gone, but good for me.
I'm getting ready for the start of the MysteryStole 3 on Friday, the 29th. I'm itching to get the first clue and casting on with the very soft merino/silk blend yarn I ordered just for this stole. I also have beads to knit in with it, but I'm undecided on the color. The race is on between the ice and the crystal. I'd show you pics of the beads, but my camera didn't want to focus the way I wanted it to and then the batteries ran out.
Then there is another thing that is holding my knitting spirits above water. Since I'm not in the mood for socks at the moment (Monkeys are sleeping), I don't want to touch 100 % iceland wool in almost 100 degrees (Fair Isle is hibernating), there was a certain lace doily that was calling my name and I answered. I found this nice pattern in The Lacy Knitting of Mary Schiffmann. It's called the plastic doily and it's just what's keeping me busy until Friday. As you can see I've already made some progress. I don't know what it is with the circular lace knitting, but it's fun. I don't know who this is for, but I had to knit something interesting, airy, lacy for now and that was it. I'm knitting this with 100 % Cotton crochet yarn on 2.5 mm circular needles. It's some german brand that gives me 267m/50g and is usually worked with a 1.5 to 2 mm hook. I know I'm nuts, but that's just me.
Labels: General, Lace, MS3, On The Needles
Happy Birthday Army
To all of you that didn't know it, today is Flag Day and also today is the US Army's 232nd Birthday. So
Happy Birthday Army!!!
Ok. I did my duty as an army wife, now back to the regular schedules programming, which contains knitting. Oh, that reminds me. Has any of you watched the show "Army Wives" on Lifetime yet? It's pretty interesting. It's on on Sundays at 10pm and repeats during the week a couple of times, like this afternoon at 2pm. Check it out if you want to.
Here is my finished body as well as the finished sleeves for the fair isle sweater. Taa-daa:
This is what's left over.
I only need some yarn to sew in the sleeves and to knit the neckline and the rest is..., well I guess it's going in the stash. Oh, Laurie, in September, if you should be running low on some of your Lopi yarn, remember, that I have some to spare, in case you need it.
I guess I could give you a little peek at what the UPS man brought me yesterday. Just in time when I finished off the second sleeve, the rang my door bell and brought me the package with the yarn and instructions from Knit Picks. Yuuhuu. More yarn.
(Sorry about the tease, but I'm not sure yet how much I can show and I don't want to get in trouble yet. :)
Of course I had to cast on right away and after a late nighter I actually finished the first piece. It's being blocked as we speak and I'm working on the second piece. Hey, I can knit and watch TV at the same time. At this rate I won't have any problem with the deadline at all.
Well, gotta knit and the kids demand their best friend (the computer) back. It's a hard life for kids nowadays, when mom needs to use the computer and they don't know what to do with all that time. Well, back in my days.... Don't worry, I'll spare you, plus I'm not THAT old.
Later and happy knitting. :)
Happy Anniversary to me
I just wanted to share with you what my husband sent to me via UPS yesterday. It was a box that looks like a little house and had this little guy in it.
Isn't he sweet? I don't have a name for him yet, so I'm open for suggestions. After 17 (!) years he still knows how to surprise me. Now this is a Build-a-Bear and he was made to my husbands wished, tuxedo, sash and roses added, the way he wanted them. Since my husband is more than 13,000 miles from home he is the next best thing for me to hug. And for all of you that wanted to see what I looked like, here we go. (The one with the red shirt is me).
I also have other news, that I can't reveal yet, because I don't want to jinx it (no! no family expansion here) I have something simmering, that might put some of my knitting projects, even planned ones on hold. I'll give you more hints as things develop. I bet I got you on your toes now. In the meantime I'm finishing up the first sleeve on my fair isle. Laurie, do you hear me? Keep up, girl. Labels: Fair Isle, General
Body is done
We actually had some rain yesterday. I mean all day! It hasn't rained here in weeks, maybe even months and we had wild fires between GA and FL going on for weeks. Hopefully that rain took care of that. I tell you, I felt sorry for my dog. I went out twice with her, but we got so wet that she didn't want to do what she was supposed to.
Anyway, that called for a whole day of knitting. After dragging myself onto the treadmill for an hour (oh, I'm so proud of myself) I devoted the rest of the day to the Fair Isle sweater and I finished the body of it. Here are some pictures. I hope I did everything right. It's not falling apart, so I guess I didn't do too badly.
This is a front view of the sweater, a side view with the steek and the "beard" and the shoulder seam with the edge of the steek. Now I don't know if I was supposed to connect the shoulders, if the steek isn't cut or secured, but I just did it that way. Now more pictures.
A picture of the neck steek and two more of the whole shoulder seam and the neck opening all together. As you can tell, I'm not rushing to cutting anything yet. I'm letting this body sit and simmer for a while, while I work on the sleeves. I already started last night on the first one. Hey, my neighbors next door didn't let me sleep anyway. At 11.20 pm they decided to bang with something on the wall on and off until almost midnight. I was going nuts. Do they have to do their remodeling in the middle of the night? Anyway, since I didn't get to sleep until after midnight, I started the sleeve. I hope I'm doing the increases right. I'm working it on a circular needle with the magic loop, just like if it was a sock. I don't have any dpn in that size.
Isn't that a nice basket full of yarn? This is how I travel from place to place, when I knit. I move it from my bed to the couch to the front porch, to the back yard. It's nice and portable that way.
I still haven't figured out what my next lace project from the lace style book is going to be, so if anybody has any suggestions or wants to knit something at the same time, let me know. It's always more fun to knit together.Labels: Fair Isle
