All good things

Finished within the confines of April: my April shawl, Dream Stripes.

Some of you may have knit this shawl, and you're no doubt thinking, "Huh. Mine doesn't look like that." And you're right. I messed up the lace pattern on the border. It's all sort of ... misplaced. But I messed it up consistently, and there's something to be said for that. I rather like the slight wonkiness it's given to the whole shawl.

And the colors are so fabulous - I did a spectacular job choosing the colors, if I may say so. The yarns are Knitpicks Stroll in Dandelion and Fiber Optic Yarns Foot Notes in Surf's Up, and I used a 4.5mm needle.

Dream Stripes is a terrific pattern; be sure to read the chart carefully. That's what I'll be doing, if I knit it again, which I might.

***

Today marks six years since I accidentally, while looking into the possibility of starting a blog, started a blog. I've had a hell of a lot of fun since then, and there are a lot of posts and projects here that I'm really proud of.

But I believe I'm finished with regular blogging. It's probably obvious - but for the last few months, I haven't been enjoying blogging as much as I used to. And that means I'm probably not much fun to read anymore, either. So today, my sixth blogiversary (gesundheit), I've decided to stop.

I'm going to leave the blog here for as long as Blogger will let me - and many thanks to Blogger for being such a great user-friendly platform. I may even pop back in and say something, or post a picture, once in a while. You never know. I certainly don't.

Thanks for reading, everyone. ♥

Advanced Knitting

Over the weekend, I knit up a baby sweater.

This is the Baby Bolero from One Skein, made with less than one skein of Cascade 220 in colorway Dammit I've Lost the Ballband, a lovely blue-grey. Darling, isn't it? This is for nobaby in particular; I just like knitting baby clothes, and also I kind of wanted to celebrate

FINISHING MY SHAWL.

I'm so pleased with this - it's absolutely gorgeous. The pattern is "Scarf with the No. 20 edging from The Knitted Lace Pattern Book, Thompson Bros., Kilmarnock, Scotland, 1850," from Victorian Lace Today; it took about a skein and a half of Knitpicks Gloss Lace in Fiesta, and I used 4.5mm needles. It's 72 inches long, 16 inches wide, 100% stunning. I can't stop looking at it.

The book lists it as Intermediate Lace, so I reckon I'm an Intermediate Knitter, because there wasn't a single thing about this shawl that I found difficult. (Except for paying attention, sometimes.) Actually, wait - if an intermediate pattern isn't particularly challenging, does that make me ... an advanced knitter?

Whoa. This is something to dwell on, while I knit some garter stitch this afternoon. (Hey, even an advanced knitter needs a break.)

There it is again. Beautiful. I am going to pack this in a Very Special Plastic Bag With No Sharp Edges, because this is definitely NOT going into the suitcase with everyone's socks and underwear. I mean please.

A couple of shawls

I haven't actually said this out loud yet, but one of the things I wanted to do this year was to knit a shawl every month. I decided this during January's Festival of Cowls, so January didn't get a shawl, and February didn't get one either due to bone-idleness on the part of the knitter.

The Wedding Shawl was supposed to be March's project, although it is overlapping well into April. I still expect to finish in time for the wedding; the announcement that the father of the bride may be wearing a Hawaiian shirt took the wind out of my sails for a couple of days (I knew it would be a casual wedding, which is cool, but I had no idea it would be that casual, and really? A shawl? Maybe I shouldn't), but in the end I decided to stick with my shawl because I really like knitting it. It's a more complicated project than I usually take on, and I might not have taken it on at all if not for the deadline to push me along - so I'm going to finish it, and wear it to the wedding, because I'm proud of it.

If it looks this good now, I can't wait to see it blocked.

Despite still knitting March's shawl, I did start April's shawl on time!

Cast on April 1, not mentioned in last week's post because it was still about the size of a taco chip. The pattern is called Dream Stripes, and the colors are making me feel all giddy about the onset of spring.

The wool fumes finally got to him

On Friday, El Fuego asked me to teach him to knit.

This is not an elaborate, belated April Fool's joke. He can cast on, and he's got the knit stitch down pat. Next up: purling, although he wants to work out his garter-stitch gauge issues first.

Here's his first swatch. I call it a bookmark; he calls it ... well, never mind. Not a bookmark. I think it looks great, and apparently El Fuego has a bit of the knitter in his soul; in what must be a world-record-setting moment, within 20 minutes of learning the knit stitch, he said to Miss Dashwood, "Hang on, let me finish this row."

He's working on his second practice swatch. It contains a small section he calls The Yarn Tumor, and we're not really sure what happened in that spot, but these things, they happen. I'm chuffed to bits that he wanted to learn, and glad I was able to overcome my deficiencies in the explaining-things department ("No, your other left!") well enough to teach him.

But you're going to have to get your own stash, darling. ♥

In my own knitting news, the Wedding Shawl is beginning to look like a shawl.

Back on track

Greetings! Lost the narrative thread a bit last week, which may be for the best, because I was also firmly stuck in the Doldrums. I just did not want to knit, or cross-stitch, or crochet, or anything, uggghh. El Fuego kept feeling my forehead and asking if I was all right.

But on Friday I found a cure for the Doldrums: being set loose in a fabulous yarn shop. "You'll feel better after you visit Temptations," El Fuego said. "And then we'll all go to Jeni's."

I'm pretty sure Jeni's was everyone else's reason for wanting to go to Dublin. If you've ever had Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, this will come as no surprise.

Still, awfully nice of them to wait patiently while I wandered around Temptations and touched everything. Here's what I bought ...

There's some Malabrigo Rastita in Volcan, and some Malabrigo Sock in Ochre (Horatio picked that, and requested a pair of socks, which I'm always happy to provide). There are two balls of silvery-grey Austermann Royal, and a ball of Noro Ayatori which is already being turned into a skinny scarf. Ayatori is newish, a wool/silk blend, and so soft and lovely that I must wear it around my neck.

I also bought a ball of Noro Koromo, and over the weekend it became a pair of Camp Out Fingerless Mitts. I absolutely adore them, just look at these colors. And how have I missed this pattern for so long?? Three years it's been out there, and I only just found it. It's so much fun, and perfect for Noro yarns. Knitting these, that's when my knitting mojo really came back. So long Doldrums, see you next year.

This morning, I finished my Sparkly Socklets. How cute are they? This is Knitpicks Stroll Glimmer in Parrot, plain vanilla socks knit on 2.75mm double points. I should probably wait for all this snow to melt before I attempt to wear them out of the house, though.

As for the Stuff I Want to Finish in March ... well, two out of three ain't bad. Unless something akin to a miracle occurs, I won't finish the Wedding Shawl before Easter, though I still hope to have it done by April 10 or so. But I finished a pair of socks, and I am definitely going to finish Periodic Tales before the week is out. I would have finished it already, only it was briefly dropped like a hot rock so I could read The Bridge of San Luis Rey, a beautiful little morsel of a novel that I devoured in fewer than 48 hours. I recommend dropping everything and going to the library, or the bookstore, or your nearest e-reader, to procure a copy. My brain is still sort of lingering in 18th-century Peru. (I do love a novel that sticks with you for a while.)

Cripes.

Not only did I completely miss the fact that it was Tuesday and I was supposed to be blogging ... but I just now realized my beef with the subtitle of Periodic Tales is all wrong. Obviously the subtitle should be "from actinium to zirconium."

I'm so embarrassed.

See you Tuesday.

Poor actinium, it gets no respect.

For your consideration: my new hat.

Honestly, I don't think I've ever knit a hat that suits me this well. It looks really, really good, and a part of me is thinking I need a bunch of these, in different colors. The pattern is the Cool Hat from Simply Knitting Issue 97, and the yarn is Aussi Sock in Sahara. My Difficult Ball of Sock Yarn, as explained in last week's post, but it did, in the end, make a smashing hat.

I have, as is traditional for me when the crafting gets a bit mad, created A Plan for getting things done. By the end of March, according to the list I made Sunday, I want to finish the Wedding Shawl, the Cool Hat (that's one thing checked off already!), a pair of socks (any pair, just pick one), and this book I'm reading about the elements. I'm kind of a sucker for the periodic table; it's so damn well organized, and each little block packs in a whole lot of information. I respect that. It's also rather colorful. The book is very interesting, and my only beef with it is that the subtitle should be "from actinium to zinc," but it's not a very big beef, really. Probably more people have heard of arsenic.