Kitty Shot

I realized I hadn't posted a picture of Sheba in ages. Here's a shot of her enjoying the blanket that Martha crocheted for us.

4 Rows

Today I only did four rows on my shawl. This isn't too bad if you take into account that I now have over 200 stitches on my needles. I am nearly done with the third ball of yarn. I can't believe how quick this project has been. I love instant gratification!

Today

Two down:



Two to go:



The colors in this shot are pretty accurate. It’s hard to get the colors right when I have to use the flash. It’s been raining so much lately that there isn’t enough natural light to take a photo.

This is a really easy pattern and it knits up fast. I love the way the pattern in the colors is coming out.

Sheba likes the shawl too.

Happy Easter!

The rain came back in a big way this weekend. I took advantage of the weather to go from this:



To this:



We these to go next:



I decided to use my helloyarn.com for a shawl instead of a poncho. I really love this yarn! It is so soft and springy (no pun intended). The colors are wonderful too.

Pictures of the Day

Here's a couple shots of me wearing the Plum Tree Capelet.



And then there's the obligatory headless shot.

Quote of the Day

If you can count the number of projects you have going, you need to begin another, so you have a varied range of complexity, from the very simple 'mindless' ones to those that demand undivded attention.

Laura Warly, lifetime knitter

A women after my own heart. My mom emailed this to me. I'll have to see where she found it.

Happy Knitting!

Finished Plum Tree

I finished my Plum Tree Capelet! Yippee! Now I just have to figure out when and where and with what I’ll wear it. But who cares about such details? The important part is that I finished. And, it’s my first lace project! It turns out, some lace isn’t that hard. It was a real fun pattern.

Here’s an overview of the capelet:



And a close up of the pompoms:



I will try to get a fashion shot of the capelet on in the next couple of days. Again, I got to find the right outfit.

Pompoms

How long does it take to make 2 10 inch cords and 2 pompoms? Evidently, a long time. I’ve been working on these all week so that I can finish my capelet. I finally finished the cords last night. Now I just have to make the pompoms. I just have to figure out the Japanese directions on the pompom maker that I bought.

Last night I got a couple more rows of my Herringbone bone poncho last night. We watched Garden State last night. It was a quirky, strange movie but a little too cute.

Koigu

I was bad today. Not too bad but still bad. I bought 2 skeins of Koigu. Can you blame me? Look at it!



It’s just too beautiful not to buy. I’ve been in love with Koigu since I first started knitting but have never bought any. Then I discovered a list of all sorts of projects that only take 2 skeins! I can’t wait to get started! This opens up a whole new color filled world. Thanks Wendy Knits!

Now I just have to figure out what pattern to start with! It’s great!

Plum Tree

It was such a beautiful day today! I took full advantage and worked in the yard for most of the day. I also helped Greg work on the back porch . I decided I was done when he chopped down the plum tree and it landed on me. In all fairness it wasn’t the entire plum tree and it didn’t actually land on me. It did whap me on the side though. Greg is still laughing at the sound I made when it hit me.

I’ll post pictures of our backyard tomorrow.

Needless to say, I didn’t finish my capelet today. I did take some work in progress shots. The yarn is really nice. I love the colors. It’s mostly purple but there’s also little bits of blue and pink too.



I think I will name this my Plum Tree Capelet! The color fits and it will commemorate the day.

Spider Saga

Okay, so "saga" is a bit of an exaggeration. I my effort to make smaller, quicker projects I decided to do the Spiderweb Capelet from Sn’B Nation. It only takes 2 balls of yarn and is knit on large needles. What could be better?

Last weekend I cast on my yarn and got started. I was making really good time on it. The instructions call for repeating the pattern twice. I was getting close to finishing my second set when I took a closer look at it. I only had a few rows left and I hadn’t even used one ball of yarn and it was short. Yes, I know capelets are supposed to be short, but this one wouldn’t even make it past my shoulders.

I reread the pattern, several times. It looked liked I’d followed it. Then I looked at the picture in the book. My lace didn’t look anything like what was in the book. I checked the Sn’B website and sure enough, there’s an error in the pattern. I had done the thing wrong. With a heavy heart I pulled it all out.

I was so bummed by having to rip out the piece that I didn’t do any knitting this week. I just kept thinking about the project. I like the capelet in the pictures but I also like the look of what I had made. Then I thought why am I worrying about this so much? It only took TWO balls of yarn!

In the end I started over using (even) larger needles. I’m going to do the pattern as it’s printed in the book, I’ll repeat the pattern three times if I have to. Then I’ll make another capelet but will follow the corrected pattern. I may even look into a different yarn to make the two completely different. You can have never have too many capelets, right?

I will have pictures of capelet #1 soon. I may wait until it’s done as it doesn’t look very interesting on the needles.

I just want to say that I was wearing ponchos well before Martha Stewart and I didn’t use prison labor to make mine! Having said that, wow! What a great poncho!

Mt. St. Helens

I haven’t done any knitting this evening. I have been too busy up loading, editing, batching, naming and organizing my pictures of Mt. St. Helens.

There was an eruption this evening and I just happened to be up at Council Crest. I must thank Greg for suggesting I take the camera. Otherwise I would still be kicking myself. I noticed a strange "cloud" formation above the mountain. Then I watches as it slowly got larger. Finally I realized that, oh my god, that isn't a cloud. That's when I started taking pictures.

I won’t bore you with all 70 photos. If you’d like to see them here’s a link to my photo page at flickr

Here are some of my favorite shots.





Then one of me. I’ve always felt I look better in a soft focus. If only I'd worn my new poncho, then I wouldn't be cold.

Complete Poncho Power!

I finally finished my rainbow poncho today. It shouldn’t have taken as long as it did but I had other priorities. Hey! I was busy working on the floor!

I had some trouble with the blocking so sewing it up was a little harder then I expected. The only place I have to block is the bed. I started blocking a bit late last night so one panel wasn’t completely dry by the time I wanted to go to bed. I took the pins out before it was dry. By this morning, the ends had already begun to curl.



Here’s the view from the back…



And then there’s the artsy fartsy shot…



I can’t believe it’s only March! The weather we’ve been having lately is more like May or even June! It’s just been so unbelievably sunny and warm lately.

New Camera

Greg got a new camera. I took some pictures of my favorite model…

Poncho Power!

I’ve made some progress on both my rainbow poncho and my herringbone poncho in the last few days. On Sunday night we watched The Chronicles of Riddick and I worked on the Herringbone poncho then. It’s a slow going project. The movie was better then expected. I have a certain weakness for action alien movies. I really enjoyed Pitch Black but this new movie had little to do with it.

Last night I watched Resident Evil: Apocalypse (I also have a weakness for zombie movies). Actually I had already seen the movie in the theater so last night I watched the cast commentary and some of the special features. It was two for one night at the video store so I also got Van Helsing (I’m not sure why other then it was free). What does any of that have to do with knitting? Very little except that I worked on my rainbow poncho while watching Milla Jovovich kick ass.