A thank you

A couple months ago, I joined the Knitflix swap. My partner on this swap, Erin, sent me this terrific package:



Roman Holiday, gummi worms, Pop Rocks (oh how I LOVE these!), popcorn, Jelly Bellys, Daisy needles (size 13, they're PINK!), a skein of Filatura Di Crosa Love yarn, and a skein of Knit Picks shimmer. The best part of the package? The pink bag. I can't wait to use it! Erin rocks. If you ever get her in a swap/SP round, you're a lucky person.

Next...Wanna guess what I finished tonight? I'm borrowing blocking wires tomorrow and will show you a finished photo soon.

Shawl progress

Last week, I started the Icarus shawl. It's surprisingly easy, and the yarn is just so lovely, the rows are going by quicker and quicker. The initial chart is done once, with a portion of the rows repeated 5 times. I'm currently on the 4th repeat, and the pic was taken at the end of the 3rd.



I did take a few hours out of knitting Icarus yesterday to work on Sock Wars socks. They are done and await meeting time instructions from my target; she lives here in the city and I thought it would be fun to hand deliver them.

New projects!

First, the tea shawl looked like this:

Now, it looks like this:

Rip, rip, rip, and R.I.P. It has started to make me cry. It doesn't make me happy. Yes, it's beautiful, but the knitting makes me want to cry. And it shouldn't do that. So it sits now with the rest of the stash, in a permanent time out, til I decide that I must have the tea shawl again. Or some other lovely lacy thing.

I purchased a hank of Silk Rhapsody Glitter this weekend. It is turning into the Misty Garden scarf in Scarf Style. It's SO soft, and makes me happy. I thank Amy for that purchase.


I also purchased a hank of laceweight yarn this weekend, dyed by the lovely Artsygal. It is to become Icarus, from the Summer issue of Interweave. I'm a glutton for punishment doing another lace shawl, but lace makes me happy.

My fun filled knitting weekend

Friday night I went to the Point, and I saw this lovely lady again:


Saturday night, I went to the Barnes & Noble in Park Slope and I met this wonderful lady who agreed to pose with my latest finished object (off the needles literally 5 minutes beforehand):


A close up of the stitch pattern:


This morning, I headed back to the Point for their Gold Club champagne breakfast. I'm not telling you how much I had to spend to be in their gold club, just know it was a lot. From there I headed to Union Square to the Knit Out, where I got to snap this picture:

I also got to meet a bunch of other coffeeshop folk, which is always a pleasure.

And yarn pr0n Friday, even though it's not Friday:
Kid mohair/merino singles, roughly 270 yards of singles


New Zealand wool, roughly 190 yards plied

Blah

I haven't felt like blogging lately. I've been knitting, and spinning, but not in the mood for blogging it all. Maybe it's the big production I have to do to put in pictures. I think I need a better, less complicated way. I think I'll look into Flickr.

In spinning news: I've finished spinning up (on the spindle) some New Zealand wool that I bought off Etsy. My friends own the store and the service is great, so go buy from them. The big news on the New Zealand wool is that once it was plyed, it was a balanced yarn. I was very excited. Hubby saw me plying some other yarn the other day (some Finn) and he said, that's not going to be balanced is it? He saw that I was putting too much twist into the ply. I was slightly afraid that he was paying that close attention, but excited that he actually listens to me when I talk.

In knitting news, I have finished up a secret pal project. I have gotten to the calf shaping of the second knee high sock. And I finally ripped out the rows that I screwed up on the tea shawl and worked it correctly. I have about 10 rows left of the diamond madeira and then it's on to the edging. If I'm able to go to see the Harlot on Sat. night, I may bring that with me to work on. I'll have the knee highs with me in case I can't listen and do the shawl at the same time.

In reading news: At the beginning of the year, I set a goal for myself to read 100 books. I wanted them to be 100 new to me books. Nothing I'd read before. I'm not into the deep books; I like the fluff and a good murder mystery. I am currently on book #62, and I forsee being on #63 tomorrow. I'm still hoping I can make my goal, but I think I'll be cutting it close. My booklist, from myspace, is linked on the side for you to laugh at my reading selections. :)

Blogstalking: I apologize to you blogstalkers out there....I'll post pics this weekend.

Four days off

What do you get when you have 4 days off and a bunch of unfinished objects? Why, finished objects of course!

This weekend I did my housecleaning and grocery shopping early so I could sit and knit/spin. The weather cooperated with me and forced me to stay indoors and out of the rain. So, what did I do? Well, I wove in the ends on Pico, even though the knitting has been done for awhile. I finally got to wash and skein up some camel that I spun and some merino. The merino is the pink color.




I also finished up a handspun hat for the little guy. He picked out the colors; I can not be held accountable for that. He loved it so much, he wore it in the house all day and then wondered when we could go shopping for more fiber to make him a scarf.




I finished up the second of the Northern Lights Mittens.



I finished up Go With The Flow. The photo is not the most flattering of me. I blame my brother.



I dyed up some silk hankies using some Kool Aid. I got a headache from the sweet smell in my kitchen. They are more red than the picture makes them out to be.



I started spinning up some merino/kid mohair blend that I got from the Yarn Tree.



I finished up a secret project for my spinning sp, but I can't show you that. And speaking of SPs, my very belated photos of a package from my spinning SP.




The brown fiber is a pound of alpaca (YUM!) and the white is bombyx silk top.

Blog stalking photos next time.