Gothic lace shawl back at the homebase

Well, well, my infamous gothic lace shawl followed its wanderlusty spirit and spent a good month abroad at a friend´s home (where I used to live a few years back). I was glad to come over and collect it because it´s been missed greatly *sniff*. And I had to promise that I would never ever leave it at another place, not even with nice people and cats. Being a cold and miserable owlet with some anonymous generic black scarf was no fun at all but due to health reasons collecting it any earlier was not really possible.

In the meanwhile I started knitting this piece here which will hopefully make a cardigan AND breastfeeding cover at the same time, at least it looks like this was possible. And it will pair greatly with the black lace scarf. I´m by far not the hero of lace knitting but this is a really simple piece for lace beginners. Plus, I totally underestimated the amount of yarn it sucks up without really looking it. Strange and makes it kinda extra exciting to do since the yarn is out of stock at my local dealer, so, the worst case oh-noes-scenario includes me frogging quite a bunch...

Not exactly hibernating....

...although it is tempting, seeing as how the temperatures here don´t creep above 0°C. What sounds like the ideal season to hide under a pile of yarn to crochet an knit cozy stuff has turned out for me a season to write, write, write which is good because it provides what people call an income and I´ll definately won´t have the ressources to freelance once the tiniest of all owlet is here (which will be soooooooon, joy, joy:-D!!!)

So, the blanket is coming along albeit veeery sloooowly but it´s so incredibly bright and colorful that words are not enough to describe it. Currently I´m adding a last and final row of blues-and-purples-and-grays to tone the colorfulness down a bit and so far it looks great, great, great and I´ll be posting another recent pic once I´m home to take a photo.

Blindingly colorful granny blanket

This is the piece I´m working on in every free minute (when I´m not blogging). Inspired by the pillowcase of blinding colors +3 (somewhere in this blog) I´m doing a brand new baby blanket for the soon-to-come addition to our nest of owls. It´s not easy to find the time for crocheting when you´re waddling like a whale and want to sleep, sleep, sleep...

The plan (if there´s such a thing) is to add at least another row of purple and blue squares PLUS some extravagant edging on which I´ll decide once I have to do it. The colors in the photo hardly do the real blanket any justice, it´s BLINDINGLY COLORFUL and dh is averting his goth eyes in goth shame every time he sees it. I´m putting the choice of colors on my hormone level:-D! (but already feeling like there´s been enough color in this blanket to do black-only-projects for the rest of the year)

Anywhoooo, there´s still a black and beautiful garment on my to-knit-list (already started with that!!!!111) which will be featured in lenght once the blanket is finished.

...no more posts until 2012, I swear - shortest recap ever

I´m not too big a fan of year´s end posts at all, especially when it comes to years like 2011 which has been ...special... in ways, speaking for both my private and business life not to say emotional state. So much has happened that I can´t begin to make a list without making it real damn boring. Anyhow, I guess this is the way LIFE is shaping its tracks for you and your future and I´m still thankful for all this stuff happening because it actually makes me stronger and more at peace with myself and everyone. That (kinda depressing stuff) being said, I´m so much looking forward to a new year with new opportunities, a relaxed mindset and more time to make things/craft.

Plant hanging pics

Go me, the plant hanging is happily doing its job supporting one of our giant green lilies:

But: Somehow it´s impossible to take decent pics of this thing, it´s either too dark or too bright with all that flash, I´m not happy with those pics at all but with so little time left to sneak for making photos for this blog, I have to put up with that. Sigh.

This was taken a few SECONDS after finishing it in the middle of the night (litterally so). Yay for gl00my goth kitchens!

Couldn´t resist this weird closeup of the famous *tiny net*, because it´s a net and it is tiny, Macrame kinda makes me feel all silly inside, still have those kung pow references in my head every time I see it...

Macrame plant hanging all finished

Yes, it took some sweet time to get it all done, three weeks to be precise, but yesterday evening (almost this morning) I got it finished, in the middle of "tiny net" and "chosen one" thoughts, like in Kung Pow-Enter the Fist, y´know ((and a crapload of chocolate, argh me!!!)):-D!

Macrame sure is one thing made for eternity, not only due to the super sturdy jute yarn but also because of the knots and all this stuff.
Already inhabited by one of our gazillion plants. I got a better shot on the other camera and see to upload it these days for more details. Originally I had planned to add some deep red seed pearls to it once it´s finished but dh objected it MIGHT turn out A BIT kitschy, so, respecting his wish, the plant hanging will stay kinda plain. We´re contemplating making a second one because this one feels kinda lonely on our real huuuge window, let´s see, I guess I´d love the look of a huge window full of red macrame:-D!!!

Almost there with this stringy mess...

Yes, this tangled thing, it´s progressing and would even be finished by now if it wasn´t for one giant batch of cookies that had to be made (om nom nom).
So, for the first time in 20 years I´m doing a macrame plant hanging because we´re real short of places to put our plants without them being pwned by the little owlet. Yeah, macrame seems to be dead as any other dodo, nobody seems to do it nowadays and I begin to think it was far outfashioned even back then when I was taught how to make it back at school (must have been around ´89 or ´90, OMG!!11). The pic doesn´t do the actual color any justice, in fact it´s a vibrant burgundy and not a flat excuse for a red.

Today I managed to get all the straps done and start with making (macrame-ing??) the part where the basket will be placed which is something you´ll need much concentration for to make it as even as possible. So far, I´m pretty satisfied with how it turns out, anyhow, there´s so much still on my to-do-list before the end of this year that I hope to finish it soon.