Needing Color

Typical gray January day here. I decided yesterday I needed some color to get me through the rest of the month so I cast on the Brandywine Shawl in Blue Yonder Stroll by Knit Picks. It is the happiest blue I can find right now. 

 The chart is pretty easy to follow so far - it took a bit for me to get that the first few rows were essentially garter stitich. Today my goal is to find a printer - trying to follow a lcae chart on my tiny iTouch is huting the eyeballs.

Comfort

Why I Love the Internet, reason #57

I am plugging away at Little-Sis' monkey sweater today. I am at the point of putting the underarm stitches on waste yarn, and I have no idea of how many to do.

Internet to the rescue!

Wool Works Raglan Pattern

Accoring to this I need 1" under the arm. Back to knitting.

I am so consistent

So I am participating in the Self Imposed Sock Club (http://www.ravelry.com/groups/self-imposed-sock-club) over at Ravelry. The idea us you kit up 12 socks-yarn and pattern and each month you randomly grab one of your sock kits.

Great idea-I do have a pile and a half of the sock stuff sitting around. When I started putting together my kits this morning I found this:

Granted a small, but consistent, selection of my sock yarns. Green & blue. The rainbow one on top is the only exception.

Next in the Queue

So the queue feature in Ravelry might make it a bit too easy to imagine project after project...but once I finish Little Sis' mystery monkey sweater, and my Purple Thursday socks this is my next contender:

Brandywine Shawl

The Brandywine Shawl is by Romi Hill. I love the idea of some lace and a lot of garter - semi-mindless is good right now. Also she is donating $5 for every pattern purchased to Haiti relief. 

This past August The Husband spent a week in Haiti covering a local effort to bring Haitian college kids tot he US to finish their degrees. The entire college system was destroyed in the earthquake. The cause couldn't be better.



The Husband's Article on Haiti

Added: I must try this:

Beaded Bind Off

Knitting Socks

Must be the extreme cold this winter that is making me obsess over socks. I have joined the "Self Impossed Sock Club" Group over at Ravelry. The idea is you bag up patterns and yarn - one per month, then every month graba  bog and knit.

Course I have no bags, patterns or yarn yet, but I am trying to finish a few things first. Mainly my garter rib socks.

Some good links to techniques. This one lets you cast on (for top down) without the bump where you join the round.

Afterthought Heel

This is my first stab at an afterthought heel. I forgot to bring waste yarn with me while out today so I bought some cheapo embroidery floss to use. Even the afterthought was an afterthought.

The front side is a garter stitch rib. I am working it toe up- increasing until I had 12 stitches on each needle.

Yarn: Sock Ease by Lionbrand
Needle size: 0

Owlet is done

I still need to block it and weave in the yarn ends-if only I could get it off big-Sis for ten minutes!

Miralda Done!

I finished last night, while watching Emma on PBS (sorry Superbowl - Jane Austin won).  Normally this kind of project would have been full of fits and starts, but since we've been snowed in for almost a week now I've had plenty of time to finish. 

The latest round was this past Saturday. Snow Friday, rain, then snow all day Saturday. We got 6 inches or so. Our total for this year is about 33 inches.

 Poor big - sis is ready to go back to school. We had a late opening last Thursday, but between the snow and the teacher workday after exams she's not been to class for a full day since Wednesday before last. She spent most of yesterday frantically making worksheets for herself, and getting the husband to create selling lists for her.

Little-sis is thrilled with all the time off, and would spend the rest of the year playing quite happily at home if given the choice.

 

Miralda

 

We've been snowed in since Saturday - 13 inches this time. The last winter with this kind of snow was 2000, but this time we've had two big ones. No that I am not totally fond of the short people, but it is proving to be a lot of time entertaining kiddos.

Yesterday we made marshmallows. Today I hope we can get out to the bookstore for a bit. Big - sis and I are reading our way through the Sisters Grim series. I had checked out books 3 - 5 before the storm, but t we're almost done. Right now we're both reading the fifth-tough to share.

Anyway, this is the yarn I got from the fiber festival at Montpelier back in October. It is the Classic Merino Lace from Knitting Notions in Green Apple. It is my favorite green.  I had bought a pattern to use with it, Lacewing, but on second look it is way more complicated than I thought. I've not done a huge amount of lace.

So instead I am doing Miralda from Knitted Lace of  Estonia. The thing I love about this pattern is that you cast on a bazillion stitches, then reduce each row making the triangle shape - also making it go faster. I had to pull out yesterday when the center diamond section got off by a good five stitches. Thus, the photos.

I am having one bit of a puzzle - the pattern uses a three-cross stitch that I cannot find described anywhere in the book - I am sure I can't find it. I did find it described on Things Soo Likes. 

Her description:

The cross is worked over 2 rows. On the first row you slip the first stitch purlwise, knit the next tow stitches together and then pass the slipped stitch over (so 3 stitches become 2). On the return row you insert a YO between the two stitches (so the 2 stitches become 3 again).

If this weather keeps up I should finish this week.