Four Years

Four years ago I married the most wonderful man on earth.

Happy Anniversary, J!

Hanami!

Ooooh, I'm absolutely in love with this one. It's just so ethereal!

Pattern: Hanami, Melanie Gibbons
Yarn: Misti Alpaca Lace, Natural White, 2 skeins
Needles: Addi Turbos, US 3, 32" circular
Started: August 4, 2007
Finished: August 21, 2007
Dimensions: 17" w x 65" l
Modifications: Added beads to the body, one fewer pattern repeats of the basket weave section, repeated the last 12 rows of Chart F twice , only knitted Chart G two times, and did a beaded bind off instead of the ruffle.

The reason for these modifications were: I got bored with the basket weave, I wanted the cherry blossom section to be fuller, and I don't care for the way all those repeats of Chart G look so I did as few as possible.


I'm very very happy with this! I'll probably wear it more as a lacy scarf than a stole.

What a great pattern!

I had so much fun knitting this. I feel a little bit guilty, though, as I joined the Hanami Knit-a-long but ended up finishing before the KAL even got started. Oops. Oh well, I plan to make another of the mirrored Cherry Blossoms sections - that part is my favorite.

More shots:

Swan Lake

It's done!

Ohhh, those last few rows of Clue 7 were torture. I had totally lost my momentum and just didn't want to knit it anymore. But I pressed on and finished last night.

And then blocked it.

Kittens, pinning this sucker out took four hours. I simply have to get blocking wires. It was just so difficult to get things to stretch properly in one direction so that they would stretch properly in the other direction. And the unusual shape of the body and wing combination made it that much harder. Luckily determination and stubbornness are two of my more prominent personality traits - I kept going.


Pattern: Swan Lake (Mystery Stole 3), Melanie Gibbons
Yarn: Ornaghi filati Merino Oro, white (used roughly 800 of the 1375 yards)
Needles: Addi Turbos Lace US 3, 32" circular
Started: July 6, 2007
Finished: August 19, 2007
Dimensions: 20" w x 65" l
Modifications: none

I'm a bit puzzled about the length of mine. It's supposed to be around 75-77" long. As you can see, I'm quite short. I didn't shorten mine, so I'm not sure where that length disappeared to. I had no trouble stretching it to the 20" in width (and with the join laying so wide between the wing and the traditional body, I had no choice but to stretch to 20"), but wow, it just wouldn't pin any longer. Come to think of it, it could be because the yarn I used is actually cobweb weight instead of the recommended lace weight. Oh well. It's fine the way it is.

I've decided I'm going to give this to Steven to have for the store as a lace sample. It's very beautiful, but it's not quite my taste. The assymetry is great, but the design as a whole is just a little busy for me. Hanami is more my style.

Here's the rest of the photos:


1. MS3 feathers, 2. MS3, 3. MS3, 4. MS3, 5. MS3, 6. MS3, 7. MS3 feathers, 8. MS3 beads, 9. MS3

As a whole, being a part of this mystery was so much fun. I'm so glad I joined.

Monkey Sock Swap Questionnaire

I couldn't resist.

I signed up to be a part of the Monkey Sock Swap. I think it will be fun!

So here's my completed questionnaire:

Do you consider yourself a beginning sock knitter, an intermediate, or have you been doing this so long you could probably knit a pair in your sleep? I'm somewhere in between intermediate and sleep-sockster. I have knit several pairs of socks (among other things) and always love to learn new things.

The measurements:

Shoe Size: US Women's 7
foot measurement from heel to tip of big toe: 8.5"
foot circumference measured at the ball of the foot: 8.5"

Yarn Preferences:

What colors do you love? Earth tones, jewels. Oh, and pink.

Do you prefer solids or variegated? Variegated or self striping (preferably hand-painted/hand-dyed)

Do you prefer wool, cotton or acrylic yarn? Wool, please.

What colors would you never wear? Yellow or orange.

What are your favorite brands of yarn? Koigu, Austermann Step, Jitterbug, Schaefer Anne...

Are there any new brands you would like to try? Fleece Artist, Socks That Rock, Wollmeise

Cookie A. Patterns:
Which of her patterns have you already knit? Monkey! I started Pomatomus once, but I hated the yarn I chose so I frogged them.

Which pattern(s) would you like to knit and don’t already own? Thelonious, Gothic Spire, Flicker, Baudelaire, and someday I'd like to complete Pomatomus.

Other pertinent information:

Would you be willing to have an international Monkey Pal or do you prefer one in the US? I'd prefer US, please.

Do you have any allergies? Yes, cats.

Will your knitting be exposed to smoke or animals? No smoke, but I have two dogs.

Are you on Ravelry yet? If you don’t mind having new friends, what is your Ravelry name? I'm waiting for my invite!

This should be fun!

Hanami

So um, I'm knitting something else among my enormous project list already.

I just couldn't resist. Hanami called to me and it's so utterly beautiful. It's designed by Melanie, the same designer of the MS3 (Swan Lake.)

I started this a couple of weeks ago and have been working on it pretty exclusively the last few days. (Read: have been obsessed with it.)

My yarn is Misti Alpaca Lace in Natural White. It's the leftovers I had after finishing the Striped Baroque Scarf for work.

And because of my MS3, I'm adding beads into the body of my Hanami. Why? Hell, I don't know. It's fun!













And to show the detail of the beaded cast on (which took F O R E V E R)


It's gorgeous, though.

I took this to our Starbucks knitting night last night. Everyone loved it.

Only 3 1/2 charts to go!

OMG Ya'll

The helicopter ride was so. friggin. cool.

We went up around 1:00 and rode for maybe 20 minutes. It was exhilerating.

I thought it was just going to be the pilot and I, but Hubs worked it in where he could go, too.

Ok, let me tell you about this. It was one of the coolest moments of my life. We get to where they were giving the rides and told them that we were there to do the aerials. (They of course recognized Hubs.) They said, "Yup, let's go!"

And then they took the doors off the helicopter.

Seriously! They said, "We figured you'd want to be able to shoot into open air." Hell yea!

So we board, and our pilot gave Hubs and I both headsets so we could communicate easily with each other. (Because if we didn't have them, we'd be reduced to tapping him on the shoulder and pointing.)

We're sitting on the ground and he starts it up, turns on the propeller, and gets the gauges all set. And then, lift off! Now, I've been in planes before, so I'm not afraid of flying, but man, this was just awesome. There are no words. It was smooth, seamless, and I had an unhindered bird's eye view of the ground below!

I started shooting, to my heart's content, the grounds and the areas of Hubby's show site (which is what I was there to do.) We circled around several times, each time going a little bit higher so I could get full shots of the whole show. (Which, by the way, is huge. It's an outdoor show, and wow. They use a LOT of land.)

I have never felt so free, so cool in my whole life!

We circled around once more, then we got positioned to land. Kittens, it was the smoothest landing I've ever felt. He got us to where we were hovering maybe a foot above the ground, then we went down as if we were landing on a huge cloud of marshmallows. There was no jerking, no nothing. This guy was good.

Hubs and I got out and I looked at him and said, "That was so f***ing awesome!"

And now I'll just let a few of the photos tell the rest. These may seem boring to you, because, well, you've got no real idea of what they're of, except that I told you they're of my husband's company's show site.

But I think because they're aerial shots, they're still pretty damn cool.

And let me just say one more thing: Thank God for fisheye lenses. Just sayin'.

MS3, Clue 5 complete

I finished last night and I'm already itching for the next Clue.

This is by far my favorite part of the stole. Such an original construction and the lace pattern in this "wing" is beautiful!

It's pretty hastily pinned out here.

This is the first time I've pinned my MS3 (Swan Lake) out. But it's just too unweildly to try to take a good photo now with detail if it's not pinned. With the unusual construction, it makes it hard for the knitting to behave and lay flat. But I didn't want to stretch it too far, yet. I'll save that for the final blocking when it's off the needles.





Which, should be in about 2 weeks! I can't wait to have this done!

Here's a close up of the feathers. I know Melanie suggested against using a halo yarn (such as Kidsilk Haze) for this, but I think this feathery part would look gorgeous with a yarn like that. Maybe I'll have to use this stitch pattern in something else.

Steven wants to set up a lace display in our store and at the same time, really showcase the gorgeous selection of lace yarns we have. He asked if he could borrow one of my lace pieces to display. I'll probably let him borrow this one, since it will be done soon. I've got Hanami on the needles right now, but it's at the v-e-r-y beginning and I've yet to cast on for a beautiful lace stole from the Rowan magazine #41. (Which is what this yarn is going to become.)

Hubby left today to go on one of his business trips for his company's outdoor shows. He'll be gone until Thursday, but I'll see him on Tuesday when I go there.

Why am I going? Well, that's an exciting thing. They have hired a helicopter pilot to give rides during the show. Hubby's boss wants some new aerial photographs of the show site and I asked Hubs if I could take them.

Me! I'm going to get to ride in a helicopter and take aerial photos! I have always wanted to do that but figured I'd never get the chance. I'm SOOO excited!

Well I'm off to work on Hanami! Later, kittens!

MS3 Clue 5 Tips and Pics

Exciting! A Wing!

Swan Lake! We're knitting a stole themed after Swan Lake!

I LOVE that ballet!

This section might be hard to wrap the mind around so I just wanted to offer a few tips to help.

Have any of you knitted Grumperina's Jaywalker socks? Well the double decrease found in Clue 5 (slip 2 stitches knitwise together, knit 1, pass slipped stitches over) is the same double decrease in the Jaywalker socks.

As far as the short rows... In this case, if any of you have knitted Entrelac, it's the same kind of principle. You have live stitches going one way, you're working stitches going another direction, and you're joining them with a p2tog where they intersect.

I'm halfway into Chart G, and it looks SO cool.

Basically, the stitches here will start working upwards like in this photo:













And a close up:


I hope this is helpful!

Striped Baroque Scarf

Look! A finished object! That's 1 for me and .... ah, hell, the WIP's are still ahead. Who cares?

This was one of my projects for the store. Steven gave me the pattern almost a month ago and had me go through the color card for Misti Alpaca laceweight. I chose these colors (which I *love*) and they came in last Saturday.

Details:

Pattern: Striped Baroque Scarf, an Ann Norling publication
Yarn: Misti Alpaca Lace, 6 colors: Melange Moss Grey, Melange Forest, Natural Dark Brown, Natural Dark Tan, Natural Tan, Natural White
Needles: Addi Turbos US7 24" circular
Started: July 28, 2007
Finished: July 31, 2007

There was quite a bit of yarn left over from each skein, which I offered to buy off Steven because I'd like to make one of these for myself - he told me just to keep them. Score! I'll probably cast on for mine in late August. It's such a light and airy (yet warm) scarf that it'll be perfect for the fall chill.

Another view:

I scrunched the scarf together for these shots to show the blocks of color. It lays flat in a rectangular shape with triangular ends (similar to the Mystery Stole that I'm working on right now.)

Speaking of that, Clue 5 comes out tomorrow AND the much anticipated release of the theme!

Major excitement is brewing on the board of all 6600+ knitters impatiently eagerly awaiting to see what it is!

___

I want to take a minute to thank you guys, for sticking around the last few days. I know my blog hasn't been the lightest read over this last week and I thank you for putting up with my darker post.

Checking In

I'm sure you've all heard about the 35W bridge that collapsed into the Mississippi River last night.

Click to watch video of it falling.

Just wanted to check in and let you know that my family and I are all ok.