Another one done

I finally finished my part of the last of the play group blankets I'm making with Kylie. This is the Happy Baby Blanket from Lion Brand Yarn using Knit Picks Swish bulky in Marlin and Honeydew. I plan on passing this one to Kylie next time I see her. She'll knit on the border and weave in the ends. Speaking of ends, this blanket has a lot of them. I tried to use all of the leftover yarn I had. I wanted to be sure Kylie had as much of the blue left over as I could.

One to the next big needle project.

Lavender Fields Forever

This shawl reminds me of the pictures of the lavender fields in Provence, France. And it felt like it took FOREVER to knit.



The pattern is Daybreak by Stephen West in the large size. The yarn is Knit Picks Tonal Stroll in Springtime and Blue Violet. I originally cast on with the purple and knit all the through a couple of stripes. But it bugged me. My friend's main wedding color is purple and I wanted as much of the purple showing as possible. I ended up ripping back and starting all over.

An experiment in color

Back in May of 2006 I dyed some Koigu yarn in the center pull balls to see what would happen. The end result was beautiful but not very useful yarn. I had yellow at one end, white in the middle and blue at the other end. I've been waiting for the perfect project ever since.

Flash forward four years (I'd be surprised if it had been any shorter) and I've finally found that pattern. Based on the recommendation of friend at Knit Night I cast on Domesticat's Chevron Scarf. After much debate I decided to alternate balls from opposite ends to get a stripe pattern.

Of course, this wasn't an easy choice to make. I kept wondering what the scarf would look like if I didn't alternate the colors. What if there were no stripes? What if was blue, white and yellow? Well, I couldn't stand it. I have since ordered two more skeins of natural Koigu (see my previous two posts on addiction) to dye myself. Stay tuned for further experiments.

Blame it on David Duchovny

A friend commented on my last post that I should be kind to myself about my addiction. Instead I should blame it on whoever canceled the X-Files. Yes! That’s it! I can blame it on someone else. Perfect. If only I could claim the X-Files was my first and last addiction.

I read an article recently by a journalist who is a hoarder and I recognized a little bit of myself in him. Not so much the identity through your stuff part as the getting rid of stuff part. It’s just so, so hard to get rid of things. Because there was that one time when I got rid of something (it’s been so long I don’t even remember what it was) and the next week or month or two I needed it. It could happen again!

There are all the unread books, the clothes I keep even though they are hopelessly too small for me and don’t even ask me how many colored pencils I have. And even though my stash hasn’t quite reach SABLE (stash accumulated beyond life expectancy) levels yet I have a lot of yarn and I keep buying MORE (pictures soon)!! Sigh.

I’m not really sure what I’m trying to say here other then I have no one to blame but myself. Sigh. David Duchovny you’re off the hook.

Now, I need to go do some knitting. I need to finish my current big needle project so I can start my next big needle project. Scratch. Scratch. Scratch.

It's an addiction

Last night I finished binding off my Daybreak shawl and wove in all the ends. As soon as I was done I started thinking about (more like obsessing about) my next small needle project. All day I've been trying to figure out how I can sneak to the store to pick up a pair of size US3 needles. You know, just in case I got a few moments to cast on the project. There were times when I felt like my skin was itching just thinking about it.

Actually, I think it's more like a sickness but I'm going to be kind to myself.

Four

Four. Four more rows. Four more long rows.



Four more very long rows and one even longer bind off row. Then I will finally be finished with my Daybreak shawl. Actually it's not for me. It's for a friend. The colors are her wedding colors. As much as I like this project I'll be happy when it's done. I've been at it for awhile and I'm ready to move on.

I've been watching a bit of Sesame Street lately. I really like the above Feist song. But my favorite is this Jason Mraz song.

Who needs sleep?

Who needs sleep? Evidently not Little Miss. She's been up multiple times a night since... Well, since around the time of my last post. It's almost like having a newborn in the house again. Not only is she waking up a lot it's hard to get her back to sleep.

Anyway, I haven't had a lot of energy or brainpower lately. I have been knitting. I just haven't been blogging. Blogging takes both energy and brainpower. I have several finished objects to share. And, once the weather gets better and the sun comes out I'll take pictures. I even have some new yarn (shame on me). Again, once the sun comes out I'll try to get some photos.

It's supposed to be relatively nice this afternoon. Maybe I can take some photos. Oh yeah. I have to get my camera to work. In my sleep deprived haze I dropped a week or so ago. The outer tube that holds the lens cracked. Sometimes it refuses to take photos and I sort of have to force it.

Fingers crossed.