Lace Ribbon Begonias

I recently finished my Lace Ribbon scarf. This scarf was a pleasure to knit. The yarn was awesome. This was the first time I had used Claudia Handpainted and it was so soft. The colorway, Begonia, combines my favorite mix of pinks and brown in such a speckaly great way... I love it.

And the pattern, Lace Ribbon Scarf, was perfect! Easily memorized and such a symmetrically pleasing lace... swaying this way and that. It's an instant classic. I love it!

I had a photo shoot to try and capture the pretty little thing...

My lace ribbon scarf even drew an unsolicited compliment from a stranger the first day I wore it! The cashier at the cafeteria said that my scarf was very pretty and I replied that I had made it! She was delightfully impressed and then said the colors were beautiful. Yay! She made my day.

Anyway, Lace Ribbon Begonias is Ravelized here. It feels wonderful to finish something. :) Now on to the next thing...

Join CAREFULLY...

To knit in the round being careful not to TWIST...

Ugh. I have made a total ROOKIE MISTAKE. And I'm annoyed.

See that? Is that 8" of sweater body? No? Wait... That's not a tube of stockinette. That's A !&#(*#@*& MOBIUS STRIP. (How ironic that the Wikipedia article has a knitted mobius strip as one of the illustrations of the amazing mathematical quandary.)

I can't believe it! I swear I checked multiple times during the progress of this knitting and it was never a one-sided geometrical object until tonight. I SWEAR!!! Do you get the feeling that this amazes me? How in the heck did I miss that?? Jeez. Not to mention that I'm not getting anywhere near the same gauge with my Knitpicks options needles as I did on the sleeves with the dpns. Hmmm. I hear the ball winder calling my name.

Anyway, here is something pretty to look at... the wildflowers are still painting the hills on the way up to Eric's place:

Yellow, Purple, Orange!

Sigh. Darn it. Back to square one.

Whoops.

Whoops. It's been a very long time since I last posted... Ah well, things happen. Let's see, what has happened in the last month? Most recently, Eric and I went on a road trip to Utah. It was so awesome! We saw so many beautiful things. The variety of activities on the trip was so much fun! We went skiing, hiking, biking, camping, and lots of driving. And I took a lot of photos. Here is a montage of the "Eric & Mandie" pics:

Lowest Point in the USA. Badwater, CA.

Petroglyphs in Nevada.

Skiing at Park City, Utah.

Delicate Arch, Utah.

Landscape Arch, Utah.

Double O Arch, Utah.

Druid Arch, Utah.

There are a ton more here: Utah Roadtrip April 2008. Check 'em out!

As for knitting, I've been plugging away at the Gathered Pullover. I have both sleeves done (yay!) and I've started the body. I have about 5" of the body... so I'm making pretty quick progress. Woot!

I also finished two Thorpe hats since I last posted. The first one was too big for the intended recipient (darn that growing superwash yarn!) so it went to my very tall friend, Jeremy. I'm hoping the second hat will be just right. I'll find out this weekend when I deliver it to Tom.

Jeremy's Thorpe.

Tom's Thorpe... soon.

I have also been knitting away on Lace Ribbons. That was my roadtrip knitting and I got about halfway through it on the trip. It's so pretty... I can't wait to block it!

Pretty in Pink!

Ta-da! A post... that's not so hard. Let's see if I can do it more often this month. :)