New Photos!

I don't have time to write a long entry, so I'm just going to have a quick photo heavy post. Enjoy!

FO & a New Endeavor

So, yay, I finished my first FO of the year, a shawl:

The pattern is Seth by Anna Dalvi from her Ancient Egypt in Lace and Color collection. The yarn is that merino, cashmere, angora, silk blend I've been trying to find a good match for. The shawl is beautiful, and actually much more colorful than it appears in these photos.

The new year has also brought new endeavors for me! First, I'm co-captaining my Nerd Wars team, Team TARDIS, at the start of the year of the 50th anniversary of the show! We have a massive team and incredibly epic plans. There's still time to sign up for Nerd Wars, so head over here to do that, mmmkay?

Also, one of our beloved long-time players, AlterLace, has just released her first Mystery Knit Along. It's inspired by The Hobbit, and it's called An Unexpected Journey. If you like MKALs and/or shawl knitting, be sure to check it out. You can purchase the pattern up there, and join the KAL on Rav here. It's 3 months long, so it's timed perfectly with Nerd Wars dissertations, if that's how you want to play. Personally, I'm going to take it easy and knit on it when I can, and submit it as a flexible start project in the third round.

Finally, I wanted to share my dissertation plans with y'all. I'm really excited to making Celestarium:

It's a to-scale representation of the night sky, using yarn overs and beads to represent the stars. I'm using a bead mix with four different bead types to indicate different magnitude of stars, from clear, to matte, to shiny. Hopefully when it's finished you'll be able to tell the subtle difference between the bright stars and the more distant ones. I've marked all the stars on the constellation chart included in the pattern, so I'll assign the bead type to the chart as I work through it. I kind of wish I had more white/clear beads so I could do six or more magnitudes, but instead I'm just combining m5 and m6, and m3 and m4. It'll be pretty awesome when it's finished!

Stay tuned for more Nerd Wars and other knittng updates! There's a lot of exciting things coming up!

January 12 and I'm already falling behind...

So I said this would happen at least once a week, so I guess I'm only a week behind. So let me tell you what I've been doing since the new year! Not so much with the pictures this time, unfortunately, because I haven't managed to finish anything yet this year.

On New Year's Day I started Seth by Anna Dalvi from the Ancient Egypt in Color and Lace  collection. I've had this gorgeous grey laceweight yarn with flecks of green and turquoise and purple  since last Christmas, and I've been dying for the right pattern for it. And I have to say, this is definitely the right pattern for it.

The colorway is called Sirens and the yarn is made from Merino, Cashmere, Angora and Silk. 

I also ordered some Lorna's Laces Honor in a color specially dyed for Stefanie Japel's Sharing Cowel:

In the colorway "Tresses" 

This is my easy-to-carry-around project, but I haven't had a lot of downtime for knitting at work lately, so it hasn't gone very far.

Finally, Mia Rinde (you remember my favorite shawl designer, right?) has another test right now, so I'm glad to be working on that as well.

Seth is almost finished, but I'm mostly focused on Mia's pattern right now. And, since it had been awhile, I'm using Sunrise Fiber Co. classic sock in Harvest Apple. The bright red is perfect for the hearts on Mia's pattern.

We're currently in inbetweentimes for Nerd Wars, but I'm planning on joining team TARDIS again for the fun. It's the 50th anniversary for the show, so we've got lots in store for the upcoming tournament! And I'll have lots to talk about so keeping my blogging resolution shouldn't be too hard.

Yarnie Resolutions

To Make:

• Knit 50 skeins
• Knit 20 shawls
• Crochet 5 shawls
• Knit 5 sweaters
• Publish 2 shawl designs
• Spin 5 skeins
• Finish following projects:

1. Casablanca sweater
2. Carson shawl
3. Mulieta shawl
4. Herringbone skirt
5. Green & rust socks from T3 dissertation
6. Moonlight sonata 

To Organize:

• Find a new way to organize yarn by color, weight, and yardage (cannot do until moved in March)
• Create a better way to match library patterns to stash
• Blog at least once a week about current WIPs and FOs
• Always add new yarn to stash, link to projects, weigh to accurately determine remaining yardage - separate storage for leftover bits
• Always document the size of needles used for a project
• Use consistent tags for favorites, library, queue and projects