Aeolian Shawl: from Knitty Spring '09
Yarn: Alpaca With a Twist Fino
Needle: US 6
Mods = None
Ravelry deets here.

I knit this as a KAL at my LYS- I thought it would be fun to try knitting lace with beads as I never had before and I was excited to have a little extra kick in the pants to get done. It did seem to help as this was only on the needles for about a month and a half. I found the beadwork tedious but worth it- I don't think I would find this shawl nearly as pretty without the added sparkle. It's a great pattern- very detailed and well written. I went up a couple of needle sizes to get a bigger shawl hopefully and because I tend to knit fairly tight. It ended up a perfect size.

I'm so excited about fall knitting that I can hardly stand it. I loved most of the Fall Interweave and I'm in love with some of the new yarn lines/patterns that both Classic Elite and Berroco have come out with this fall as well. I'm especially interested in Veronik Avery's new line with CE- St. Denis. Her magazine looks amazing. One of the reasons that I'm more excited about fall knitting this year is that this marks the first year in my adult knitting life that I'm finally small enough to knit regular sizes in knitting patterns. I've lost 80 lbs since last Christmas and it's the first time in the last five years that I don't have a double chin. I'm pretty excited about that too.
To kick off my fall knitting and test out one of Berroco's new yarns, I knit the Blossom Hat from the fall Vogue Knitting as a sample for my LYS. As much as I claim to love Norah Gaughan's designs I came to realize as I was knitting this hat I really haven't finished knitting anything designed by her before. I definitely need to remedy that.

Blossom Hat from the Fall 2009 Vogue Knitting (see link above).
Yarn: Berroco Blackstone Tweed (btw- I am definitely buying a sweater's worth of this yarn after knitting this hat- it was fab!)
Needles: Size US 7 and 5
Mods: I left off the folded brim- the only reason I did this was because I was able to knit this with only one skein without the brim folding up. It also seems to make it have more of a slouch shape without the fold. There is also no reason I can see not to knit this in the round. I didn't (mostly because I couldn't find my size 7 double points), but I don't see any reason why one couldn't.
Ravlery Deets

And, here's even a modeled shot that somewhat exaggerates the slouch as I had just spent ten minutes running back and forth from pressing the camera button to where I thought I would be in focus so the hat was falling way forward. I really need to get a camera remote.

It still feels weird to be modeling woolens in the summer heat.

It's been two years since I first got a wheel and began my attempts at spinning! I can hardly believe I've been at it that long... and also can hardly believe that I haven't been doing it forever. I've really grown to love and enjoy the process of spinning.

Last year I had a basket of handspun. This year I bring you a trunk.

Yeah, I might be outta control, but I love it. And, I want to pass the love onto everyone, so in celebration of my 2nd Spiniversary I'm having a free/discounted shipping sale over in the shop through the end of August. For international customers, you only have to pay what my US/Canada Customers normally pay.

Lazy Daisy Socks

Just popping in to say I'm still around.
Handspun wool socks in summer- still fabulous if I do say so myself :)
Details over on Ravelry.

I'm continuing with the lace knitting- mostly prompted by a KAL at my LYS- CDA Yarn and Fiber. The owner and I are doing the Aeolian Shawl from Knitty together. It's really not a very big KAL since it's just the two of us, but it is definitely spurring me on to get some knitting done.

This marks the first time I've ever knit with beads and while I love the sparkly, I'm not loving the tediousness of adding beads in every few stitches. I'm hoping that the outcome will be worth the effort. I just finished the transition chart today. I had extra time due to having had a wisdom tooth out today. Fortunately for me, my wisdom teeth come out easily, so after a little ice I'm already eating solid food.

Oh, and, a picture of where I'm at so far.

I'm using Alpaca With a Twist Fino and size six needles.

I suppose I should dish on what I've been up to besides spinning. Not much really. Early in March we went to the ocean. It was lovely, even for that time of year.

You can see the whole set of photos over here. We had fun and will probably be headed back that direction at the end of the month for camping or something. We take an extremely casual approach to trip planning.

I've been working on the knitting slowly and steadily and seem to have settled on lace as the project of choice. Both of the lacy scarves from this post are finished.

Lace Ribbon Scarf- from Knitty. I love how this turned out. Optim is delicious!

This is the Peacock Tail and leaf Scarf is from Nancy Bush's amazing book "Knitted Lace of Estonia". I seriously want to knit everything in this book! Also, by the way- Cashmere is pretty amazing stuff too.

And, then because I can never resist a simple triangular shawl that can be knit from one skein of sock yarn. I made an Ishbel too.

Pattern: Ishbel (my ravelry project page) by Ysolda
Yarn: One skein of Malabrigo Sock in Tiziano Red- and when I say one skein I mean every last inch. I literally used the skein ties to finish casting off with because I had run out of yarn.
Size: The larger of the two sizes offered.
Needle: US size 6

Oh, and can I just say, the Malabrigo Sock yarn is addicting. I pretty much want to go out and buy every single colour available.

Okay, now I feel kind of caught up again with the blogging. Hopefully I'll stay that way (which of course I know will never happen, but it's a nice thought).

Certain people can feel free to tell me 'I told you so', because I've finally felt the need to open an Etsy shop! I hope everyone likes it :)

Blues and Greens

I just wanted to let everyone know that I survived the MRI (which of course, everyone knew I would). Thanks for all the helpful hints and tips. It's nice to know that I'm not the only one who gets nervous about such a silly little thing. I got enough anti-anxiety drugs to make me sleep all day long yesterday, and all night. And, J should get boyfriend of the year award for standing up and massaging my feet through the entire hour long test which is what really seemed to help the most. Now, onto funner and fiberier things. The basket of handspun above is what I've worked on so far the month of February, blues and greens. My favorites.

I've had migraines for pretty much as long as I can remember, only this winter they've exploded and I feel like I've basically had a headache every damn day. I've finally caved and restarted my migraine meds that I've been on in the past which make me pretty much so stupid that I can't knit anything but 2x2 rib. This means that I will be doing a lot of spinning, but whatever... I have a lot of fiber I need to use up. Anyway, today I went in for an MRI just to make sure there's nothing serious going on (I highly doubt it, but I have super good insurance so I might as well use it). I spent about 30 seconds with my head in the machine before I completely freaked out- I'm definitely claustrophobic. So, I rescheduled and opted for oral sedation, only now, thinking about the utter panic I felt in that 30 seconds I'm wondering if a valium is going to do it for me. I mean, I've gotten to watch several people undergo MRI's (I get to monitor patients down routinely as part of my job) and they seem to tolerate it without any problems, so logically I know it's no problem, but I definitely want no part of it- my hands are starting to sweat just thinking about it. Gah.