Lelah’s finally finished! I’m not as thrilled with the final result as I thought I would be, but at least it’s not hideous. We’re at my Grammy’s for the weekend, so when I was done with the crochet around the top and straps, she helped me steam the straps straight because they were still curling in, and let me use their good camera to take some pictures. Please excuse the facial expression! These are two of a huge batch of self-timer photos that I took.
C’est une beauté, n’est-ce pas? I really enjoyed making this pattern, and I’m also really glad that I finished it before we set off for California!
My sister and my grandma and I spent the day on the town looking around in shops. We went into a little place that sold yarn, and guess what I had the impulse to buy? Yes, that’s right, sock yarn. Even me, the total novice socknitter, bought two skeins of Brown Sheep Wildfoote Handpainted Luxury Sock Yarn (who came up with that name? It takes so long to say that I don’t really want to talk about it anymore) because they were $5 apiece. I do have a project in mind for it though. Since I’ll be in the car for the next few days, I thought maybe socks would be the perfect project because their portable and don’t take up much room, and then I thought, what pattern does good justice to variegation? Guess what, everyone, I’ve cast on for a pair of Jaywalkers!
Yes, I am aware of the fact that just about everyone and their mom has made a pair, but not me yet! I also am already loving the colorway I picked out (dubbed ‘Sonatina’ by the folks at Brown Sheep Company) and I think I’ll have no trouble finishing them before we reach our final destination.
Well, since we’ll be gone on vacation, I guess I won’t be blogging for a couple of weeks. Goodbye, fair readers! I hope you’re all having awesome summers!
I know it’s not much, but I still wanted to show my progress on Lelah. She’s turning out very well, and I even dipped the cord of my new #6 circulars into hot water (to loosen it up and eliminate the whole ‘crazed serpentine’ thing) before I switched needle sizes. I really like the look that the Cotton Ease gives just plain stockinette…it’s got 4 fine plies that knit up into a texture that’s almost reminiscent of merino. I also really like the ribbon that I found on sale for a dollar when I went to pick up that third skein of yarn…the little blue threads woven into each side are almost an exact match to the fabric! I’ve gotten about three inches into the bodice (I actually just now learned that that word means the top of a sweater/shirt/whatever instead of the bottom…) which is about half of what I want to do, and then right before I bind off I plan to place markers so that the stitches are divided 15/35/15/35% and do the straps from there. I don’t really know what stitch pattern to do them in or even how wide to make them, but I guess that’ll all come in time. I just hope to have Lelah all done and blocked before this weekend, which is when my family leaves to go on a two-week trip to California to visit relatives (driving, no less…we have to try and fit everyone, their stuff, and the baby with his huge carseat into our little car for 2 days).
I also got my Owl Swap package last Friday! My partner sent me the coolest little quilted handbag, a note on the back of a picture of an owl, a crocheted coin purse, a sewing needle book, a pin, and a hairclip (which I promptly misplaced after opening the package…it’s three cute little felt owls with fabric paint).
So, unless I finish Lelah before I leave, I guess this is goodbye, at least for now.
I finally have access to my home computer!! Huzzah!!
I’ve been cranking away on Lelah and am now just into the eighth lace repeat (I’m planning on doing maybe 11 or 12 to make it long enough)
After going through almost a full skein of Cotton Ease before even finishing the waist part, I got paranoid and ran back to get another so that I wouldn’t run out of yarn for the straps. Luckily they still had more of the same dyelot left (I guess no one really goes there on weekday afternoons, at least to the knitting section). Again, I love the color that I picked. I was going to do it in ‘Cream’ but then I realized if I wanted to wear it in the winter I wouldn’t be able to layer it over my cream-colored thermal.
My Office swap package came today and I am loving all of the stuff my partner sent me! I probably shouldn’t post full-size pictures cause there are a fair few and I don’t want this post to take up the whole length of my web page.
First off, there’s a great journal with ‘inspirational deep thought’ funny quotes from different characters through the seasons.
Then, there’s a set of awesome postcards…
My favorite is the one with the two pictures of Jim because, well, there’s two pictures of him on it!
Then, in my opinion, the most creative of all:
They’re Michael Scott’s grilled feet from the episode ‘The Injury’, complete with George Foreman Grill-marks! I love the separated big toe and mary-jane closure!
Yes, I think this was a good day.
Hey, sorry for the gap in posts, I’ve been kind of busy in the past week. SCHOOL’S OUT!! My mind still hasn’t completely grasped the idea of not having to go to school yet, though, because the past few days I’ve had to get up early anyways to go to work with my mom while she finishes up her teaching hours for the year. I’ve updated the projects in the sidebar, because for one thing, I finished the baby booties last Monday and gleefully presented them and the hat to Leslie on Tuesday. I also got a couple of skeins of Lion Brand Cotton Ease yesterday (my quest for that elusive yarn is over…Michaels has a big stock of every color) in Lake, which is a very pretty colorway and reminds me of well-loved jeans, but not in too much of a denim-ish way. Anyway, I’ve begun a Lelah top, but I’m making some mods by using smaller needles, making the lace portion longer, and adding straps (which also means eliminating the need for elastic). It’s still technically the same pattern, though. I’m only about three pattern repeats into the fishtail lace, but it’s looking really pretty and the yarn is holding up well. I’ll try and post some progress pics within the next couple days!
I think I’ve developed an addiction to Ravelry. I spent the better part of my afternoon catalogueing my past projects and working on adding things to my queue and so on. You could sort of think of it as MySpace for knitters and crocheters (except way better and without all of the creepy people trying to stalk you) in a networking sense. I like it a lot and I can’t wait until it goes live to the public.
I also finally got around to putting up the pattern for the handbag that Knitty rejected last fall. I tinkered around with my Patterns page, so now Mrs. Darcy is at a different location. For anyone that linked there, here is the new URL.
I hope you like!
…and I’ve just finished making a wooly pair of fingerless gloves.
I haven’t gotten to get on my computer at all this week, so sorry for the huge gap in posts. I finished the second glove yesterday after knitting on and off throughout the week, and bought some really pretty red wine-colored ribbon for the lacing at Jo-Ann’s (they have an amazingly sparse selection of ribbon–I only settled for the color I got because they didn’t have what I had in mind). They were for my friend Lizzy at school who likes wearing the first Dashing mitt, so I decided to make her her own pair of gloves so that she didn’t have to lament the loss of them when I gave them away.
I think she likes them.
She wore them all through school today, and got many compliments. I’m just glad they turned out all right, because the yarn did something weird this time that it didn’t do with Mrs. Darcy, somehow the fabric became really lumpy and loose, and blocking didn’t really fix it. I did like how much they softened up, though.
I’ve also been slowly working an Umbilical Cord hat (from the first S ‘n B) in some more Blue Sky Organic Cotton for Henry to present to Leslie at her baby shower in two weeks.
NHS has randomly sorted me into Green school for next year, which I am not very happy about. They kept telling us before that they would be putting the incoming freshmen into small schools according to the language they chose to take. Knowing that, I got my hopes up about finally getting to go to school with various other people I know who chose to take French. But no, they then went back and decided, without much notice, to sort us somewhat randomly, thus splitting us up from the people we wanted to go to school with.
Oh, and I also made it into the AP English class, and am infinitely glad to have Liv in there with me to share in the stress.
FIVE DAYS OF SCHOOL LEFT!!
I’ve had a more or less busy weekend, with almost no time for knitting. However, I did get to start one of Ysolda’s Lace Up Opera Gloves this evening while watching Ocean’s 11 (One of my favorite movies). I was originally going to use an odd ball of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Tweed that I picked up on a whim awhile ago to make a shortened version, but after having some gauge issues I gave up and decided to use some more of the omnipresent Spinnerin Alpine. Out of the bag that my grandma gave me, I have made a newsboy hat for Ruthie, a sweater for me, a felted handbag, and now these. I’m also guessing that there’ll be more left when they’re done, too. As if I need another project to keep me busy along with all of the other end-of-school-year hubbub…
I love the corset-ness of these. I’m thinking of picking up some ribbon next time I go to Jo-Ann’s, though I’m not sure what color yet. I think I want something that pops with the yellow. I also like the picot hem–I’ve never tried it before, and I like how subtly frilly it is. Hopefully this will be enough to get me through this second-to-last school week, at least. The yarn is still yummy, and the mohair fuzziness hasn’t lost its charm yet.
