Worst blogger evaarrr...

I probably shouldn't feel so guilty about not writing as often as I want in this blog, considering how much writing I do on Ravelry. If I could somehow import my Rav posts into some form of coherent paragraph form, I would totally do it. But that just wouldn't work.

Let's see. Since my last post, I've been captaining Team TARDIS in Nerd Wars - the largest team in NW history! It's been so much fun so far. This role really makes it easy for me to be super excited about everything NW related. F'real.

I have made the things...so now I'll show you pictures!

This is the latest test knit for Mia Rinde - and I am obsessed. I love this pattern so much. I want to make another one, probably in pale French Blue Prism Lace from Sunrise Fiber Co. More pictures:

Trust me, I know how cool my shoes are (:

Some works in progress:

This is my Celestarium shawl beginning. Eventually, it will depict the night sky to scale. The arrows are pointing to different styles of beads for different magnitudes of stars. Yup, I am actually insane.

Some fingerless mitts for our round 1 KAL/CAL for Team TARDIS. The pattern is Gallifrey and the yarn is in the colorway Time Traveler (from Knit Picks).

MKAL SPOILERS!!

And the very last picture - the beginning of my Unexpected Journey MKAL I told you about last time from AlterLace. It depicts the house at Bag End and trees from the shire. The next clue will be released over the weekend!

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!

Knit to self....

Knit more sweaters. I love my shawls, but I just saw this blog post on the Twist Collective Blog about jettshin, a knitter who makes incredibly gorgeous sweaters. I'm feeling inspired; maybe I'll un-relegate my sweater attempt from UFO status just in time for cooler weather. Plus I have a few pullovers and cardigans in my queue, and I just bought an ebook in Interweave Knits' sale yesterday about top-down sweater construction. Okay, now I'm sounding very ambitious, but perhaps a sweater pattern is in my future...hmmmm...

Anyway, as far as things I'm actually working on at the moment - my Shallow Waters is just about finished (ten or so rows to go) and the second clue for the Myrtle Mystery KAL has come out. I've finished the first chart repeat on that but still have quite a ways to go. No worries, however, I've had to place that at the bottom of my priorities because I have another test shawl that's kind of been languishing on the sidelines and I need to crank that out.

I've also been a bad girl, ordering yarn I can ill afford, but it was Lantern Moon, and it was on sale, and it was a gorgeous red color...what's a girl to do?

Seriously, how was I supposed to resist? Damn you, Craftsy, and your wonderful deals!

I've set it up with Grouchy Geisha by Marisa Hernandez (maidenbklyn), whose designs I've long admired but never knit. Currently there are six other patterns ahead of it in the queue, so there's no telling whether I'll decide to reapportion the yarn for another project between now and then. But as of now, that's the plan :)

And who knows, maybe a sweater will jump ahead in the queue, preventing my need to either return to Kentucky to get some fall clothes out of storage, or buying new sweaters here in St. Louis. Though a return to KY would also mean I could grab some more yarn out of storage...much to think about here chillins. And on that note, I bid you good day.

My Precioussss: A yarn petting story

So my favorite ever designer is also one of the nicest people on earth. Seriously, Mia Rinde, you're the best.

In related news, I got some yarn in the mail today. Now, enjoy the yarn pr0n.

Madelinetosh Tosh Lace in Filigree

For a shawl inspired by the Alchemilla plant

Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino in P866

For a sunset-inspired shawl

Madelinetosh Tosh Lace in Steam Age

For a snowflake shawl

Omm nom nom.

Also, I wanted to somewhat recant my harshness regarding Laura Nelkin's Mystery KAL. I'm having a case of the really nice designers lately, but Laura is a genuinely kind person, and I hope no one inferred otherwise from my comments. My problem was with a specific participant who got a little shirty with me, and when I have like 5 other projects going at the time, it was just really easy for me to drop that one. I hope once it comes out I can find time to sit and knit it at my own pace (which admittedly will probably be quicker than 6 weeks!).

I'm still working on my Shallow Waters test knit for Mia with Sunrise Fiber Co. sparkle lace in Viex Carré (I know you were wondering when I was going to bring up SFC!). I'm on the edging charts now, and this baby is gonna be pretty big. I'll post pictures when it's all presentable-like.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go lay down in a pile of yarn. Ahem.

Myrtle Mystery!

I've yet to do a Mystery KAL that didn't burn me out (see this post), but the lovely Mia Rinde is doing a free one, called Myrtle, and since I've never made anything of hers that I didn't absolutely love, I decided to give a shot.

Now, the pattern suggested 900-1000 yds of lace weight, but Mia said her tester with a tight gauge used less than 900 yds. Okay, well I have this gorgeous skein of grey laceweight with subtle flecks of purple, green, turquoise...but it's only 815 yds. We'll see how it goes. It knitted up beautifully, and since it's merino, cashmere, angora and silk, it's pretty much the softest yarn I've ever worked with. But unfortunately, at the end of clue 1 of 5, I'd used over a third of my yarn, and that just wasn't going to work. Here's how it looked though, for oogling purposes (SPOILERS for Myrtle KAL-ers!)

So anyway, that is the first clue, and it took me about 8 hours in one day to do the whole thing. I went out in search of some complementing yarn to integrate into the stole to make it go a little further, but I couldn't find anything that was just right and I wanted my FO with this yarn to be stunning. So I ripped it out and I'm saving it for another perfect project.

I started again with the stole yesterday using Mad Color Fiber Arts cobweb that I've had for awhile. And I have over 2400 yards so I know for sure I won't run out :) I had planned to make a sweater with it, but if I'm being honest with myself, that's probably never going to happen. And since most of my yarn is in boxes in a storage unit in Kentucky, it's not like I have a lot of options for this project hanging around in St. Louis. It just so happened that this yarn is the only one I have that goes over 850 yards, so here it is! But I'm actually quite liking using it. I've never used cobweb or single ply yarn before, so it definitely took some getting used to. But the color is amazing, and while it's not as soft as the other yarn I was using, the fabric has good airiness to it and it feels good on my skin. So after another couple days, I managed to re-knit the first clue:

This time I pinned it to a different bed with different sheets, and there's quite a lot of contrast :)

For those of you who may be interested in joining this free KAL, click the link above and download the first clue before Sept. 7. Mia is posting each clue for a week, so if you don't have time to knit it, save it to your hard drive before the next clue is posted because the new one will supersede the old one. At the end of the MKAL, the pattern will be listed for sale too :)

Move to St. Louis, knitting galore!

Okay, another post, only one month later! That must be some kind of record or something. At the end of July, the bf and I moved from Lexington, KY back to his (parent's) homestead in St. Charles, a suburb of St. Louis. Now I'm a Kansas City girl, so the area is new to me, but I'm proud to announce that I've secured employment (go me!) at a craft store (double score!) and my knitting hasn't abated one bit in the intervening month. So let's do some catch up shall we?

When I left things last time, I was hinting at a new shawl made with that gorgeous yarn from Sunrise Fiber Co. in Patina. So here's what the finished object turned out to be:

As you'll soon see, this bench is one of my new favorite photography props. It's nice to live somewhere with an actual back yard with trees and some patio furniture to put things on. Outdoor pictures are da bomb yo!

Okay, so since I'm pretty much obsessed with shawls lately, here is one I've dubbed the "Bad Luck Luiza". I had a lot of problems with this baby. The finished product is pretty, but I nearly tore all my curls out making it. I love, love, loved the yarn I used for the major part of it, then did the bind-off in Knit Picks Stroll in black to coordinate.

You can check out the project page on Ravelry to see how much trouble I had with it. Grr.

I didn't have nearly as much trouble with my Sakura in the Sun project, my first submission for the 2012 Ravellenic Games. I used Sunrise Fiber Co. classic sock again - can you tell it's one of my favorite yarns? - this time in Cherry Blossom (hence the name). I really like how this colorway knit up in this pattern:

And I'm hoping to soon be in the land of cherry blossoms - Washington DC, not Japan, that is.

Okay, hoping you all still have viewing energy left, because I've been very busy the last month. Next up is another Ravellenics project, a reversible hat in Malabrigo Worsted - another brand that is moving up quickly in my favorite yarns. It's so soft and reasonably priced too. This hat will be a Christmas present for my sister (who fortunately doesn't read this blog!)

Woo, reversible! Woo, Christmas knitting in August!

Okay, last up for the finished objects is this gorgeous test knit I did for Mia Rinde, the same designer who did Mimosa Mimicry. This one is called "Hearts that Flourish" and the the repeated motif is, you guessed it, a heart pattern. I used Sunrise Fiber Co. again, with a gorgeous colorway she calls Lilac. It's a bright purple with hot pink undertones, and I've only worn it about a zillion times so far!

That bench is getting plenty of use from me, I swear.




Okay, so that wraps up (pun intended) the finished shawls for the month. But the fun doesn't stop there! I'm currently working on two shawl tests - another for Mia, and one for a first time designer named Sarah (fluffstuff on ravelry).


I'm also doing a mystery knit along from Laura Nelkin, though I'm slacking a bit on that one because of the less-than-welcome vibe I got from fellow KAL-ers. It's not fun to do a knit along if the people with whom you are knitting along aren't terribly kind. So I may get back to that pattern in time, but I'm kind of bummed I bought it and allocated two skeins of fingering weight yarn to it when I can't enjoy the mystery-KAL aspect of it. Plus, set up is never my favorite part of a project, and the first two clues of this one are Clue 1, follow these steps; clue 2, do the same thing in clue 1 two more times. Bleh.


On the horizon, however, is another MKAL - a stole with Mia Rinde (who is obviously becoming one of my favorite designers)! I have a great skein of laceweight set aside for it:

Which I got as a gift, so I can't link to the seller, unfortunately. But I can say, it looks even more gorgeous as a yarn cake than in the skein. The MKAL will start in four days, and I can't wait!

And you all probably think I'm crazy at this point, but I've also signed up for another KAL with Sunrise Fiber Co. (I wouldn't miss one for the world). This time we're using her Cloud DK base in custom KAL semi-solid colors. I'm making some colorwork sock boots with the Grape inspired colorway and her established color, sage. It'll be interesting to use a DK base for once; I've been using a lot of fingering- and lace-weight yarns recently!

Now that I'm actually employed and not as grumpy in general at the world, I'll try to blog more regularly about what I've been working on :) Though one benefit, I suppose, to me waiting so long is you get a nice, long, picture-heavy post of pretty fo's. But I'd really like to start writing more about my process and what I'm thinking as I knit a project, so consider this my mid-year resolution: to write at least one blog post per project I'm working on. So look forward to a wrap-up post coming soon for the current test knit for Mia, "Shallow Waters".