10 rows down...544 to go

I finished 5 rows today and 5 yesterday. At this rate, I'd be done in April which wouldn't be too bad. I hope it's not a bad sign that I miscounted for the 2nd YO. I'm going to take it as a warning not to be cocky and count everything. Twice. Another 24 border rows and then I get to the body of the shawl. Then 20 rows of ring stitch before starting the dragon. My goal is to get to the dragon's claw this weekend.

Dragon of Happiness

The problem with asking yarn what it wants to be is that sometimes it tells you. I'm participating in a Wollmeise Lace KAL on Ravelry. I thought it would be fun to do a large project that would utilize as much of this beautiful yarn as possible. I was thinking about the lovely Forest Path Stole, which is entrelac lace, so each rectangle is a mini project. Very satisfying. However, after I wound the lace, I changed my mind. I searched the Ravelry patterns and came up with a short list of possible patterns. That's when the trouble started. The yarn didn't like any of my choices. I went through and discarded numerous patterns, when finally a tiny voice said, "Dragon of Happiness?"

My immediate response was no, absolutely not. I'd have to be crazy to tackle it. It's true knitted lace with no rest rows. According to Ravelry and Google, only 4 people have ever completed the shawl, with one of those being the designer. The pattern is 23 pages long with 18 pages of charts. There are 6 charts, each 3 pages and 100 rows long. Over 125,000 stitches. The KAL deadline is March 31. March 31, 2010. 3 months from now. I must be insane.

So I've spent the morning assembling my materials and taking pictures and generally dawdling to avoid casting on for this monster. Choosing the right knitting bag for each project is so important! After all, I wouldn't want the bag and the project to clash, right? But I think I'm ready to start now. Right after lunch.

Pattern: Dragon of Happiness by Sharon Winsauer
Yarn: Wollmeise Lace-garn Dunkle Kirsche
Needles: Knitpicks Options US1 (2.5mm) 32" circular
Knitting Bag: Green Mountain Knitting Bags Madison Sweater bag

It Lives!

I don't know where my camera is or I'd have lots of pictures.

I finished my mom's scarf last week. It was 2x2 ribbing in Claudia's Handpaints Sport in Ocean Depths. It came out very pretty, if a tad short.

I am still, believe it or not, deliberating on how to finish Lady Eleanor. She's finally complete, but she needs fringe or something.

Tonight, I started Edgar for a co-worker. She's someone I have lots of conflicts with, but as I discovered knitting for my mom, it's a lot easier to think pleasant thoughts about someone when you're knitting lovely, yummy yarn up for them. I'm using Noro Silk Garden in color 47, a black/brown/grey colorway.

My next project for me is the Braided Pullover from the fall Interweave Knits. My LYS had enough Cascade Lana d'Oro in Regal purple for me to start right away. They are currently looking for another skein of Cascade Eco Wool in silver, so I can knit the Susie Hoodie this fall. I think it will look lovely in natural silver wool.

Lady Eleanor in the home stretch

I just started tier 29 today. Here's a pic from last weekend. Everyone loves the colors. You can see, down at the bottom, a single tier of brown. That's just how the yarn knit up. After all, there has to be a bit of order in perfect chaos.

Lady Eleanor the Second

Here she is:
Isn't she lovely? I'm about a third of the way through now. This yarn is a dream. It's very well-behaved. I love how the colors change across each square. Every once in a while, I'll get a square that is all the same color. In fact, I have one tier that is entirely brown.

I've been knitting a little over a skein a day, so I could be finished with it in March.

Stitches, or I have $1.02 left in my pocket

The Stitches market was fun. I made a beeline for La Lana Wools and bought the Forever Random Worsted I've been drooling over for the past year.






I finally got to see the Noro Kureyon Sock. It's much too thin for me to knit into socks, but I think it will make very pretty lace.







I bought some cashmere, Just Our Yarns Myne, as part of a beaded shawlette kit.







Here is the sample of Malabrigo laceweight that the Malabrigo booth was giving away on Thursday night.










There's more, but that's enough for now.

Beech Wood

I ran out of yarn just after the second full repeat. Not sure what happened, but it still looks pretty, if asymmetrical. I hope my friend likes it!

Things I've learned about knitting lately

1. Life is too short to knit an ugly pattern. If the pattern is ugly, changing the yarn and/or colors probably won't help.
2. Life is too short to use ugly yarn, too.
3. Do not take a class from someone who writes patterns but doesn't have the pattern edited or test knit, unless you're a masochist.
4. I like cashmere.
5. I like knitting lace.
6. Cashmere lace is awesome.
7. Merino's nice, too.
8. Purling in the round takes all the fun out of knitting in the round. Never knit a pattern in the round that uses purls for half the pattern.
9. Always read the pattern all the way through before starting. This may be something you have to learn the hard way, though.
   
10. I really do have enough pink yarn. Possibly for a lifetime.
11. On the other hand, I don't have any pink cashmere laceweight. Yet.
12. I need a challenging pattern to keep me interested. 5000 rows of the same pattern over and over will drive me mad in white linen. Although linen is nice, too.
13. I'd rather buy a sweater than knit one, but I do appreciate a well-knit sweater.
    
14. I don't like knitting on a deadline. Anybody's deadline.
15. Don't take multi-day classes, because again, I hate knitting on a deadline.
16. It's ok to take a year or two to finish a project.
17. It's also ok to frog a project that I can't remember what row I'm on, don't like the yarn, and can't remember why I thought the project was a good idea in the first place.
18. I'm still allergic to mohair.
19. I do not enjoy Fair Isle right now.
    
20. Socks are fun (I really like turning the heel) but I don't have the patience to knit two of them. So from now on, I'm only buying sock yarn in complementary colors, so I can have socks that are, well, not fraternal twins, but at least vaguely related.
21. I finally learned to use DPNs without stabbing myself, but I still prefer Magic Loop.
22. Rather than trying to figure out what fibers make me itch, these are the animal fibers that don't: wool, silk, cashmere, and camel. Yes, I even find qiviut and baby alpaca itchy. More for you.
    
23. I don't like to knit the same pattern twice.
    

I'm about a third of the way through my child's size Fair Isle sweater, halfway through Lady Eleanor (still), a quarter of the way through my Mistake Lace scarf, 2/3 through the Clapotis, and half way through Beech Wood.

Beech Wood needs to be done by Tuesday morning, since I'm giving it to the wonderful friend who took care of my cats while I was in the hospital last week. Luckily, it's a fast knit, and it's in the scrumptious Hand Maiden 4 Ply Silk Cashmere in the Paris colorway.

2008 is here at last

2007 was an odd year for me, so I'm grateful to be able to put it behind me. The best thing about 2007 was finding my new job in a completely unexpected place - the industry I swore I was leaving forever in January. Famous last words! My new employer is wonderful, and have treated me very well through my health issues, which was the downside to 2007. But my health issues are under control now, and I'm looking forward to a great year in 2008.

I have gotten some knitting done, although not as much as I'd like. I finished the moebius cowl and it is beautiful, even if it does have some extra "design elements." I'm very close to finishing my Lady Eleanor, although she's been languishing for the past month or so. I'm over halfway through my first (and probably last) full size Clapotis, in Patons SWS in Natural Violet. I'm about a third of the way through a simple lace scarf in Fleece Artist Italian Silk, quite possibly the most delicious yarn I've used in quite a while. It has a very strong silk smell, but it is decadently gorgeous. Pictures just don't do it justice.

I've signed up for a Fair Isle sweater class next week. I'm a little nervous about steeks, and not too sure about stranded knitting, so this will be a good exercise for me.

I've been purging my stash of the yarn I don't absolutely love. Novelty yarns, acrylics, murky colors, strange textures - it's all going. I still have too much yarn, but since I love what I have left, I don't feel too guilty. And I have empty bins available for Stitches next month! I've already started planning my method of attack on the marketplace.

Oops!

I learned a valuable lesson on Friday - do not attempt to knit lace in the lunchroom! My cowl ended up with a rather peculiar lace pattern afterwards, so I ripped it back. Ouch! It should go much faster this time around.

My SP11 scarf is blocking now. It should be dry tomorrow morning, so I can ship it out. I'm sending it with 2.50 mm Knit Picks Harmony dpns. It's unfortunate that green is the dominant color in this set. I hope my pal doesn't mind too much!

Moebius Class tonight

The moebius class was canceled, so the LYS suggested their sophomore knitting class instead. The other women in class declared the moebius to be senior knitting, at least. :-) I ripped back once, after knitting a definite freak of nature, but got it the second time. I hope. Time will tell. Behold, after 2 hours of knitting, I have this:The teacher hadn't knit a moebius before, so it was a learning experience for both of us.

My second SP11 package was well-received. I must block the scarf and get it out next week for the final reveal package. I've been distracted by health issues the past 3 weeks while the doctors try to figure out what is wrong with me. I have medical tests planned out through December, so in the meantime, I'm knitting. What else is there to do?

I finished the SP11 scarf

My SP11 scarf is finished. I just need to block it, and it will be ready to go. I don't know if I'll buy Lorna's Laces again. The yarn was splitty and I found 5 knots in 1 1/3 skeins. That's an awful lot of knots, considering how much this yarn costs. Several of the knots were only in a single ply, which made them difficult to see until I was just about to knit them. But the scarf did come out nice.

Kureyon Sock?! The yarn diet is doomed.

Doomed, I tells ya. Noro Kureyon in fingering weight. Sigh. Those color changes the vegetable matter, the uneven spin... in fingering weight. Yum! And I always thought Noro lace was an oxymoron. It's due in stores in December or January, but a few lucky people scored some on eBay earlier this month. I hate them. I guess I can look forward to scoring some at Stitches in February. It's not like it's going anywhere, right? Right? Oh, yeah. Noro. Well, maybe I'll get lucky. I want 102, 180, 182, 184...

Something to look forward to on a gloomy day.

Almost forgot...

Here's the yarn my SP11 pal sent - Spunky Eclectic Super Nova in Aspen:

And this is a skein I finally broke down and bought - Fleece Artist Italian Silk in Fruit Punch. It stinks to high heaven, but it is oh, so beautiful. Because of the smell, I doubt I will be buying it again, but it's so beautiful, it's almost worth it.

Lady Eleanor progress

I decided to work on Lady Eleanor a little today, and ended up adding an entire skein. The skein thankfully had no knots, or odd color changes, and wasn't noticeably thick/thin. If only the rest of the skeins are like this one! I wish I had realized when I was swatching that the skein I started with was much thicker yarn than the other skeins. I would have definitely gone down a needle size or two. I do like the color changes in this colorway. Now that I'm a quarter of the way through, I'm pondering what exactly I'm going to wear this with. I guess I have a ways to go before I have to worry about that!

Harmony needles

My Knit Picks Harmony needles set is finally on its way. It should arrive on Monday or Tuesday.

I also found out that my new job will let me ship packages via FedEx for their discounted rate, so my next SP11 package is going FedEx. That saves me a trip to the post office, and it's about 50 cents less going FedEx than US Mail. The second package will arrive before the first!

My package arrived today

My SP11 package arrived today with a cornucopia of goodies. Since I am an impatient person who rips wrapping paper off without hesitation, I don't have any pictures of the black and orange packaging.

I received 2 cookie cutters (a black cat and a pumpkin) a pin with a black cat on a broom, a small box of Russell Stover chocolates, 2 packages of Candy Corn popcorn, some fruit treats, a package of Brach's Autumn Mix (my favorite fall treat, besides egg nog), and the September Funky Eclectic club yarn, Super Nova in Aspen. The yarn is a sport weight in a merino/nylon blend, so it's very soft.

I'm not sure where my camera is, so I'll try to post pictures later.

The package is on it's way!

My SP11 pal's first package is on its way. We agreed that I would send one package at the end, but I went overboard on stuff, so I have to send multiple packages to avoid import and gift taxes. I hope she likes it! Since postage is so expensive, and customs so high, I'm sticking mostly to yarn. I hope to include a set of Knit Picks DPNs with the last package, but I don't know when those are going to ship. I may send those off when they get here, probably long after SP11 is over. Since they're small and light, postage should be fairly inexpensive if I have to send them alone, or I can send them with the back up yarn...

Semi-fiber related, I am gainfully employed again, so I can continue to support my yarn habit. I'm very excited about it. It's a fun job that pays well, has great benefits, I really like the people I work with, and it's close to home. What more could I ask for?

Halfway done with the SP11 project

It's taking way too long - I'm far too easily distracted. Anyway, it's halfway done. And now I'm realizing that it's not turning out at all like I had planned. Much the same as my life, really.

I must finish this scarf, so I can finish the second sock, so I can finish the dragon scale scarf, so I can start on the Forest Canopy shawl. And then I really need to work on some sweaters.

I received my size 0 KnitPicks Harmony circular today. It is frighteningly light and fragile feeling, although very pretty to look at. I am rather nervous about knitting with it. I'm rather impatient for the rest of the needles to arrive, though. I want 'em now!

I did some checking on postal and customs regulations for my pal's country. Oops! I've exceeded the gift limit, so I need to break up the shipments, lest they be taxed. That wouldn't be very nice of me at all, would it? If it's 2 separate shipments, it will stay under the limit, and I'll pretend the postage is, I don't know, Monopoly money or something. When did postage become so very outrageously expensive, anyway?