Greta!

Okay, folks, you know you're having a bad photography week when you have to resort to the "least crappy" photo. This shawl is beautiful, but apparently she's not very photogenic. At least not in the lighting that has been available to me the last few days. I'll keep trying to get better photos, but I really want to show her off. (I love the way NB names her shawls. "Greta" sounds so graceful.)


The close-ups are a bit better:

Those nupps (rhymes with "soups") really pop out when blocked, don't they. And the edging is my favorite:


The specs:
Pattern: Greta Garbo Shawl Kit from the Wooly West
Yarn: Nordic Lites in Linganberry
Needles: size 5
Size: around 60" across the top and 30" down the middle
She's a bit smaller than she was supposed to be. I should have gotten a third skein of yarn and moved up a needle size, but she's okay, I guess. I'm 5'7", so I like my shawls to be a little on the big side.

I've been working on the Kimono Top. It's coming along. It adds to speed when half the stitches on each RS row are slipped instead of knitted. I've been working on some other stuff, so I'm not further along. I'll tell you what my kitchen smells like and maybe you'll excuse the slack knitting - freshly baked bread and geranium oil. The bread smell is sort of obvious, but as for the geranium oil, I made up some wonderfully fragranced face cream yesterday with almond, jojoba and rose hip oils, beeswax, and lavender and rose geranium essential oils. It's really nice and my skin feels nice and soft.

Hearts and Cookies

I've completed the lace border of Greta. I had to rip about three rows because I wasn't happy with the nupps. (By the way, did you know "nupp" is actually pronounced to rhyme with "soup"? I did not know that until I watched a video on Knitting Daily with Nancy Bush to see how she made hers.) Anyway, I'm much happier with the nupps (rhymes with "soups"; I have to remember that) now. Although they don't seem very prominent now, I think they'll be wonderful when all blocked out. For now, see the heart:


I've also been in the kitchen again. I recommended the book "Super Natural Cooking" a couple of weeks ago and I'm telling you, the book is well worth it, if for nothing more than the desserts. The popcorn from Monday's post was from there as are these delicious thin mint cookies:

Chocolate and mint, two of my very favorite flavors together. They're made with whole wheat flour. Okay, they have a bit of butter, but cookies just aren't cookies in my house without real butter. None of that fake butter-wanna-be stuff here.

Greta Garbo Shawl

I started a new shawl. It's the Greta Garbo Shawl from Nancy Bush. It was originally supposed to be in the Estonian Lace Knitting book and I was very disappointed when I got the book and realized it wasn't in there. I was very pleased, however, to find out it was available as a kit (and 8 pages of pattern). It's a beautiful shawl and I love the color I chose. The color is funny though. It looks a deep red in some light and it has an orangish tint in other lights. It's very pretty though and I thought it appropriate for a shawl with hearts, just in time for Valentine's Day.


I've also been doing a little cooking here and there. Here is a picture of caramel corn made with maple syrup and toasted pecans and almonds. It was really good.

Magickal Earth Shawl

Wow, she's finished and blocked and HUGE! Here she is in all her glory:

The color's a bit more accurate on this one, though the grey may even be a little lighter; it's showing up a bit too dark on my monitor:

(Click on the pictures for close-ups!)
Specs:
Started: March 1, 2008
Finished: December 26, 2008
Size: about 60 inches square
Needle size: Size 2 (3.00mm)
Yarn: Zephyr in Pewter
Pattern: Magickal Earth by Sandy Terp in Gathering of Lace

This shawl is probably the one I've most wanted to do since I started knitting lace. Gathering of Lace was the first lace book I purchased, and Frost Flowers and Leaves (finished earlier this year) and Magickal Earth immediately caught my eye. (I love unicorns and Celtic Knots.) I had to build the confidence to tackle this one though. Having done this one now, I'm pretty confident in most lace projects now (well, except for the Raku Suri Stole, but I was stupid enough to immediately try another lace project when I'm pretty sure I need a little bit of a lace break). Anyway, I think I'm going to try and finish up a couple of small projects, then maybe tackle the Raku Suri. Meanwhile, I'm going to show off my new shawl tonight at my Sit 'N' Knit and guild next week. New shawls make me very happy.

Magickal Earth - Evergreen Trees

I've finally finished the dreaded edging of Magickal Earth. I've picked up all 1152 stitches and started working inward. Here is the edging and the beginning of the evergreen trees:

It is such a beautiful pattern and I'm enjoying working on it very much!

Swallowtails Finished!

I actually finished something! Here they are:

Swallowtail, the pink:

Swallowtail, the blue:


Specs:
Pattern: Swallowtail by Evelyn Clark, Interweave Fall 2006
Size (both the same): 44 inches across the top and 21 inches down the center to the point
Yarn: Shadow from Knitpicks in Pink Posy and Mermaid
Needles: Size 4

I worked on these shawls at the same time. I would complete one pattern repeat on one shawl and do the same on the other shawl. I enjoyed not having a whole other shawl to do after finishing one. It was quite nice to bind-off on two projects in the same evening. These are my second and third swallowtails. It is a nice pattern (even with the darned nupps) and quick to do. I completed both of these in just a day shy of a month.

Speaking of nupps, has anyone seen the Nancy Bush pattern in the new Piecework? It is from her new book and is lovely even with all those darned nupps (the shawl on the book cover also has tons of nupps!). I'm looking forward to the book, even if it will be a while before I do another shawl with tons of nupps.

WIP Wednesday

I have exactly this much of the edging done:

It's going to take forever, isn't it?

As for the color, well, it's cloudy, so I'm having a worse time than usual getting the color. It really is a vibrant purple with lots more red in it than this picture. Sort of like the purple in the percentage bars in the sidebar. If I ever finish, I'll just keep taking pictures until I can get the color better. Who knew that particular shade of purple could be so difficult?!

WIP Wednesday

It's been a while since I've actually had a WIP Wednesday, but I finally have something to show. As is probably a bit obvious, I've been very uninspired lately when it comes to my knitting. There are a few things that have been lingering OTN because they just haven't spoken to me. I picked up my Victorian Lace Today book the other day and thought I'd finally found something using the red silk, but I wasn't happy with the red silk. So I kept looking and came across something else. It's funny because I ignored this stole earlier in favor of the Hexagon Shawl and The Cap Shawl and several other more elaborate ones. But this one spoke to me the other night because of its simplicity. And you know what, I have a bit more of that wonderful alpaca silk from Webs (I LOVE that stuff!) in a wonderfully rich purple. Simple stripes of diamonds with a border.

Just a simple stole with a fairly easily memorized pattern on size 7s. I'm sure I'll complain when it comes time for the border, but right now, this is what I need.

Red Silk

Thanks to everyone for the commiseration about my tangled mess. Luckily, it wasn't nearly as bad as it looked at first. I'm so glad that I didn't go with my first instinct which was to toss it! I still have to finish winding it - it's a lot of fine laceweight (unfortunately a lot of opportunity for more tangling), but I really want to use it for the Three-cornered shawl in clover pattern from Victorian Lace Today. I actually started a swatch, just to see what it's going to look like.


I've been wanting to use the yarn for a while and I'm determined to actually start something. I know I still have FPS to work on, but it seems to be dragging. The VLT shawl is worked by casting on something like 600 stitches and working the two shorter sides of the triangle and working in to the center, so while it's a PIA to cast on, each row will actually get shorter. I will tell you that I won't be doing the recommended loop cast on because while it's really easy, it's also a pain to try and get into for the first row. Six hundred stitches of that, I don't think so. I'll probably do the knitted cast on.

Finally, A Finished Object for Friday!

I've really been into this alliteration thing for titles lately. But, you didn't come here for my adoration of alliteration as of late, did you? Nope, you came to see what I finished, didn't you? So, I present you, without further ado, my first finished object of 2007!

Pattern: The Hidcote Garden Shawl by the talented Miriam Felton
Finished size: About 80 X 38 which is a little smaller than the pattern specifies, but still plenty big
Needles: Size 3
Yarn: Viola Handpainted Lace from Sweet Georgia
No modification. This pattern is a joy, very interesting to do and really keeps you on your toes because of all the different decreases.
And the closeup:

I am so happy with how this shawl turned out. The yarn is just perfect and the pattern is just incredible. Maybe this weekend, I'll get some elegant modeled shots. Now, I'm already to pick Forest Path Stole back up just in time for the February start date of the KAL.

And I'm really happy to have a finished object finally. I haven't finished anything since the Hexagon Shawl. That's two whole months without a FO! I hope now to get a few rather quickly as the socks are almost done and I have a second snowman vest also nearly done.