SomerKnits

The Asymmetrical Shawl was a fast, fun and easy knit. And it didn't take much yarn at all. I had 400 yards of cotton and silk that Bridgette Lowder of Farm Girl Fibers had dyed a lovely mix of steely blues with hints of purple showing through at times. Above is a pre-blocking picture of the finished shawl. I didn't use nearly the 400 yards I had and the pattern didn't specify when to stop. Basically it said to go until desired width. Its really hard to tell how wide this shawl really is while its still on the needles, mainly because of its circular shape. So I'd worry that it was still too small and I'd worry that it was getting too big. Finally, I just decided to go for it and started on the lace border. The border takes quite a while to do, even though its very simple, but it's worth it. Below is a picture of it all stretched out across a twin bed (went almost all the way across it width-wise). You can see the border better in these pictures of the ...

A week ago, while cleaning up my craft room / office / big catch-all room in my house, I looked at the bag that contained this mostly finish project. I've known for months that it was only about 2 rows from completion. So I finally, because I wanted to be able to clean up the room and put away the yarn, sat down and finished the last 2 rows and bound off my Chastain Park Shawl. This is the second one I have made. The first one I sent my sister for her birthday back in October and I think it only took a few days to make. I started this one for myself shortly there after because I liked the one I sent my sister so much. And then I set it aside for whatever else had come up of caught my fancy. It happens all the time to me. I know some knitters focus on a project until it is done. There are some people in my mom's knitting group like that, they don't start something new until they have finished the thing they are working on. But that is not at all how I operate. Here...

Bridgette Lowder of Farm Girl Fibers custom dyed this super awesome chunky yarn for me. :-) I love this pattern because it knits up really quickly on size 19 needles. Since i had almost twice the yardage the pattern calls for, I got a nice super wide cowl that can make a pretty decent hood. I took multiple pictures with and without flash because I was trying to do the yarn justice. Its just such a rich yummy color. And from all reports my exchange partner loved it. I hope it keeps her warm and toasty. Now everyone in my monday night knitting group wants to make one. Of course, it was me being on my third one that finally sparked this, but hey, whatever inspires them is cool. I still love the first one I made, but the alpaca definitely sheds a lot. I want to make myself a large cozy cowl / hood that doesn't shed and I have some lovely aqua and brown yarn that I got from Bridgette a while ago, so I just might have to do that. And maybe I should also buy my own pair of size 19...

My cousin's wife is having a little girl in April and I needed to come up with a super girly girl blanket. I decided to go with a lacy feather and fan afghan made with a soft washable yarn. The Neapolitan ice cream yarn broke up the monotony of the overwhelming pinkness. I'm just not a pinky person. The pattern does have beautiful drape. I barely made it with the pink yarn. I think there was less than a yard left to cut off at the end. I was definitely worried those last couple rows. But all's well that ends well, right? So here is the blanket stretched out for blocking on the twin bed in the guest room. Its nice and big, so it should last baby A for quite a while.

I'm exhausted, so here's all I'm going to say tonight: We'll see if I can manage to get one more medal by the end of it. Pictures of the actual FO will be posted soonish.

My friend Sara is having a baby girl. And this baby girl will not be covered in cotton candy pink all the time. Because I thought Sara of all people would appreciate it, I decided to make a brightly colored starghan for this little bundle of joy. I chose an aqua/turquoisey color and a terra cotta color and a warm goldy yellow. Since Sara is eco-conscious and prefers natural things, I chose a cotton blend yarn that will stand up to machine wash and dry. Its an easy pattern to memorize and fun to knit, although every other row you have to do a lot of counting and you need to keep track of what row you are on. I put stitch markers at the end of each pattern repeat, which is basically each indentation on the star, to help me keep track of where I was. I don't think I could have done it without that, I would have lost my place way too many times. I really needed a bigger space than the little twin bead in my guest room for blocking, but since that is all I had available, thats wh...

I decided, even thought I am still in my year of no deadlines, that I want to do the Ravelympics this year. In contemplating what to do for the competition, one event spoke to me the loudest, the UFO event. I have so many UFO's. I can remind myself of some just by looking at my Ravelry notebook. Others have been around so long Ravelry didn't exist and they don't have pages, they just have spots in the UFO drawer that I can't even get to right now because its blocked in by boxes of books. I don't think I've been able to open that drawer for at least 6 or 9 months. Thats terrible. Maybe its even been longer. Eeek. So my challenge to myself is to dig out some of those UFOs and finish them. Tuck the ends in. Block them. Get them done! Some of the things I want to finish are the more recent UFOs, but I do want to dig into the drawer as well. Now that I have a plan, I should go ahead and pull those projects out, line them up, make sure I still have the p...