Undulating

Pre-blocking, lace always makes interesting topographies. As usual, I was amazed at how much this grew during the blocking/dressing process. For finished photos, pop over here.

Freshly Ruffled

with beads! Freshly bound off the needles is a brand new red lace shawl (because I apparently am still stuck quite firmly in my red knitting phase) - This was a relatively fast knit, and the edging is really quite lovely. Straight off the needles, the shawl is very ruffly, and looks more shawl-ette sized....it's got a date with the sink and some pins though, so we'll see how it all turns out once everything is all said and done :D

Swift...

...and squooshy! Behold what became of the handspun yarn cakes - details here!

Down to the wire!

The Secret of Chrysopolis Shawl, which I apparently cast on for 2 years ago this month, has been finished, and the knitting needles officially harvested!

it's currently staked out and blocking, getting ready to pack it up and take it with me for a wedding. Finished, it's an impressive 27.5" wide, and probably about 6-feet long. Of course, once it's unstaked, there will be more photos :)

Houston...

...we have a problem.

See that wee bit of yarn? Not nearly enough for oh...150+ rows more of knitting, is it? Thank goodness I am dyer...but probably better, the second skein was still available! I'm making swift progress on harvesting the needles out of this project by way of actually finishing it. I'm now knitting down to the wire - I want it done for an event this weekend. If I am going to make it, I need to have this baby staked out and blocking by Saturday Night...think it'll happen?

Slow progress

Look! Another long-time WIP! It was supposed to be done for a knit along, but I wound up setting it aside - for whatever reason I was having some difficulties following the pattern back during the KAL. I put it into a time out, and when I picked it up recently, it seems I'm getting along better with it now - though I'm finding the purl rows really slow me down - I guess that's courtesy of all the circular knitting I've been doing lately! Current progress: most of the way through chart 3 of 8...I guess I'll be knitting on it for a while yet...

Mitten Knittin...

Well, okay, not mittens, but fingerless mitts - regardless, they kept me warm at Rhinebeck :) (yeah I know, I'm really stretching out the Rhinebeck mentions, aren't I?) I rarely wear full mittens, and I seem to be awfully fond of wearing shorts and tee-shirts, only to decide I'm chilled...then I add handknit socks, then depending on where I'm feeling chilled, I'll then add mitts - usually of the fingerless variety so I can still easily carry on doing whatever I'm doing with my fingers...if I'm still cold, then I'll usually give in for a scarf/wrap and/or a sweater. Keep in mind, this is generally in the comfort of my own home, where I seem to refrain from turning on the heat for as long as possible so I can get the most use out of my handknits...a girl has to resort to certain strange behaviors sometimes, I'm afraid.

Anyhow, additional photos are over here, as usual.

Wet Blanket

...well not for long, what with the dry air of the desert!

cats, as usual, included for scale - Finished in less than a month...actually it appears (according to Ravelry) that I may have finished in about a half a month! As you can see, the blanket is rather non-aggressively blocked - I figure as a blanket, it will just wind up relaxing back down rather quickly, so I didn't bother getting out all the pins to pin it out like a trampoline - though I'll bet that if I did, I'd gain another foot or more of diameter...in case you're wondering, that blanket is already just over 6 feet across - my cat is very very long. As always, you can find more details on the finished objects blog :)

oh, and congratulations to Eva for being selected by the random number generator - the book is on the way :)

I Heart Leaves

Happy belated Earth Day!

To celebrate (and also for Project Spectrum), I've cast on a lace stole with heart leaf motifs. It's proving to be a wonderfully fast knit (as are most things that are knit out of DK weight+ yarn :D )

The lace pattern is simple and easy enough to knit that while the project is small, it's my travel knitting. I plan on knitting this for use as a lap blanket/car blanket to swap out with Cozy. I find it amazing how different my experience with lace is now - I'm actually at a point where I consider some lace (usually lace with regular repeats) easy/relaxing knitting - this certainly was not the case with Cozy!

Subtle Transitions...

Sorry for the flashy flashy shot, I keep having issues reminding myself to go outside when there is sunlight with knitting in hand. Perhaps I'll be able to amend the blog once I remember...now that the project is actually off the needles, maybe I should tie a wee bit of yarn around my finger to remind myself ;)

In case you're wondering just what you are looking at, that would be my leg...in Spritely Goods Sylph, in a limited edition colorway called Deep Blue Sea. It was knit into a pair of glorious kneesocks - of which there are more photos and details here :)

The secret is out

Secret of the Stole - CoffeePot Rock Fey
Originally uploaded by WoodlandSprite

While we were getting some much needed rain and doing battle in the house to determine who would wimp out first and turn on the heat, I was diligently working on finishing off the Secret of the Stole (whose name, by the way, is actually Guinevere). It got to a point where I would wrap the finished portion of the stole around me while knitting away on the end. Turns out I'm not so good at estimating yardage requirements when I switch yarn around, as I wound up running out and having to rummage in the shop for more yarn.

Details and more info can be found over here.

Bundt Cake?

I don't know what it is, but on occasion, when I knit from a yarn cake, it starts turning into a bundt cake or gumdrop shape!

This would be a CoffeePot Rock Bundt Cake - along with some beads that I used in the Secret of the Stole (whose name, by the way, is Guinevere). It seems I managed to get a FO this month after all ;) and before the week of "rest" from regular work that I've scheduled at the end of the month!

The stole appears to be a bit monstrous, even though I only knit a little bit of the middle clue (the designated location to add or subtract length). In its unblocked state, the stole is approximately 8 feet long...and it took about 10 ounces of fingering weight yarn knit on size 6 needles. I did have to break into another skein of yarn, and while the colorway is the same, the 2 ounces at the end are definitely more saturated - I did ease the transition, so the changeover isn't too abrupt to the eye. I'm still trying to decide if I'm going to block this baby out with blocking wires or if I'm just going to lay it out wet - I'm leaning towards the latter - I'm lazy when it comes to rectangles, especially if I'm fairly certain that it can be coaxed easily into shape while damp. Stay tuned :) FO post coming up shortly!

Slow and Steady wins the race...

Well, okay - maybe it doesn't win the *race* but it still allows for a respectable finish, right? :)

Toppled off track by tendinitis (it's better thanks, and now my office looks wierd as the desk height has been changed and I keep a small herd of mice to allow for left and right hand mousing along with my already owned strange looking "ergo friendly" mice)... I have fallen behind on the Secret of the Stole. Some nice relaxing time was spent "catching up" over thanksgiving...though I went and ran out of yarn - I've added another ball on, alternating with what I had remaining of the original ball to try to blend the join more.

As for guessing the name of the stole, I'm definitely clueless - I had several guesses for each of the hints, and I'm still trying to make sense of it! Ah well, I'm enjoying seeing the other finished stoles though :)

Sadly, I've made next to no progress on the other projects on the needles - though once this one is finished and blocking, I'll probably dive back into the Secret of Chrysopolis and Frolic - or even the Mitered Squares...though the miters may have to wait until after I untangle the yarn - one of the cats who never before has shown interest in my knitting bags, upset the one with the miter yarn in it and proceeded to have himself a grand wrestling session. Apparently he's gotten it all out of his system now because he hasn't made eyes at any of my knitting since!

OPK: A lace interlude

Cocoon Lace Close Up
Originally uploaded by WoodlandSprite

Sorry folks, work continues to be crazy, so I continue to raid the gallery for knitting content. There hasn't been much personal knitting going on here, partially due to the crazy schedule and partially due to the mild tendinitis. Fear not, I hope to get a fair bit of knitting done on the Secret of the Stole as well as some of the mitered squares soon....The socks, though with all their twisty stitches are going to have to hold while I see if my hands will put up with less stressful knitting.

As for this lovely lace interlude, it's a Coccon Lace Wrap knit by Blogless Olivia - Olivia is on Ravelry though - so if you're a Raveler, you can go check out her other projects :) Yarn used is limited edition Lothlorien on Fey from Spritely Goods, of course :D

Weekend Knitting

Seems I've been taking a little bit of a much needed break over the weekends to relax, recharge and knit.

One of the knit alongs that I seem to have been sucked into, the Secret of the Stole, has captured my attention - it's not what I think of as "typical" lace, as there are rather long stretches of straight knitting, though it has enough going on what with the motifs and beads to keep me entertained while I hang out with the cat :D

Since each hint is conveniently sent out on a Friday, it means if I'm not slated for other activities over the weekend, I spend the weekend knitting on it, often times finishing the hint sometime during the weekend.


completion of hint 2, unblocked of course :)

The stole is coming together quite smoothly, and the variegation of the CoffeePot Rock is quite alright in this pattern. The beads, unfortunately, don't really show up real well in the photo - I've decided to go with both the iridescent and the luster beads - the luster ones do show up much more readily as they are "solid" in color.

Seems I'm entranced with lace these days, with 2 of the 4 projects on the needles being lace (the other two are frolic and a pair of very complex socks...but more on those later). I've also joined *another* mystery shawl kal - the Mystic Waters KAL, and I'm trying to decide if I can spin up enough yarn out of a gorgeous wool-silk blend that Raquel gave me for my birthday the year I learned to spin....all this time it's been sitting quietly trying to decide what it wanted to become and it is starting to mumble at long last...the big question is whether or not I can spin finely enough to get over 1200 meters out of the fiber I have on hand....

Prelude to the Un Pinning

Sorry folks, I promise. Unpinned photos soon - for now you get to look at crinkly bits...I have to reiterate my amazement at the lace blocking process - the tiles on the floor are 12 inch tiles - so the moth, at rest, unblocked is somewhere close to 5 feet across the wingspan....blocked, I believe she is close to 8 feet across!

I love these bumps - they are actually the backside of the moth - backside of the fir cone lace portion, that is. Note their halo - that would be the high angora content showing itself :) This is going to be one heck of a warm shawl, I suspect!

Corona, Anyone?

No, not *that* kind of Corona!


Sorry for the slightly blurry photo - apparently the Macro setting wasn't working quite right on the camera. This would be one of the numerous scallopy Coronas on the edge of the Wing of the Moth Shawl. I do believe in aggressively blocking my lace...so each of the Coronas got 8 pins each to make sure they were nice and round :) I'm looking forward to the unpinning. All told, I probably used a box and a half (that would be about 150) T-pins to get the job done...

And out of the extra yarn I spun, this is all that was left. Notice how you can just start seeing thru the "wall" of the yarncake. Keeping an eye on the quickly collapsing yarn cake during the bind-off process was making me think that I was going to be needing a Corona...that's for sure!

Knitting on Empty.

Or close to it anyway.


So I'm knitting along, keeping a close eye on my yarn, and I find myself 3 rows into the corona edging on the wing of the moth....and I'm going to run out. There is no way I'm going to make it without having to spin more yarn....

*sigh* I swore I had enough yardage...but apparently not. I guess I need to haul out the fiber and do a bit more hand blending. Thank goodness it's my own blend and I have more fiber on hand! I've pulled together about another ounce or so of fiber - I just need to spin it up - I may have a bit of a WPI matching issue, but that's alright, seeing as the yarn is thick and thin anyhow - ah the charm of handspun :)

One Week Left to Join

The first clue has been released, and it looks to be a gorgeous piece of work. It's not too late to join if you're into mystery lace projects. The group is open for joining for one more week I think. Note that the group is German, though the pattern is also available in English.

I love lace.

I appear to be on a lace kick. Not only have I finally cast on for Wing o the Moth, I've recently finished this lace project. It was knitted as a gift for someone who did a bunch of work for me recently on a project yet to be announced. Her favorite colors are earthy greens, I'm hoping this wasn't too bright. A pleasure to knit, and relatively quick to finish. More details, as always, over at the Finished Goods blog :)