Pink lace in the bathroom...

I have been knitting the pink lacey top and it's growing pretty quickly...

Down to the waist...

I think the back is pretty. Peakaboo tattoo too.

I added waist shaping on the fly and it turned out well! Fits like a glove. The paired decreases look cool...

Under the arm shot...

Now to decide on the lace pattern for the waist... time to leaf through the Big Book of Knitting Stitch Patterns. I'm thinking gothic arches. We'll see what happens. It kinda fun to make up a pattern as you go along. And it's even better that there is no seaming for this top. When it's done, it's (mostly) done! Yay! ♥

For Kaitlin...

The Tropical Turquoise Waves Shawl is complete! And she is a beauty. After accompanying me across the country and seeing much of the United States, she will soon be on her way back to her rightful owner Kaitlin.

Wingspan...

The shawls completion was not with out some difficulty. First, I attempted to add an ill-fated border. Too complicated and wide for the shawl, I started and re-started about 6 times in Iowa. I came up with a simple yet effective border somewhere in Nebraska. Then I ran out of yarn half-way through the border when I arrived in California... Luckily, a 40% sale at a Thousand Oaks yarn shop and the craziness of them actually having the specific yarn I needed, saved the day! The yarn bled quite a bit during its soak in the sink. Hopefully, Kaitlin will not get caught in a rainstorm at her friend's wedding or else she might have turquoise flowers on her brown dress.

On the left, is a sample after the 1st soak and on the right after the 3rd(!) soak...

The shawl blocked out huge! She's a full 23"x55"... much larger than I expected.

Posing on a chair...

Here are a couple more shots modeled in the lovely CA sun.

Notice I put on my fancy digs for the fancy shawl...

The bamboo is cool against the skin, but will keep the chill off if needed. The shawl has a lovely silky drape that flows wonderfully. And the color is awesome. I just hope the size doesn't become cumbersome. I hope you like the preview Kaitlin!!! ♥

The Cross-Country Journey

I just wanted to share some pictures from my recent week long drive across the country! I have relocated to Thousand Oaks, California to work for Amgen. I decided to make the long drive and my cross country trip took me through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, back to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and finally California. Eric met me in Denver, CO and accompanied me the rest of the way to CA. We made some amazing stops along the way... the Rocky Mountains, Steamboat Springs, Salt Lake City, Zion National Park, Las Vegas, and Point Dume (Zion National Park being the most amazing). I also got to see family along the way! I stopped in Toledo, OH overnight to visit Grandma, drove to Monroe, MI to have lunch with Aunt Valerie, and stopped out in Kamas, UT to see Aunt Lou, Uncle John, Kathy, Chris, Paul, and Luke. It was an amazing journey and here is a link to some pictures taken along the way. You can view them as a slideshow if you would like by clicking on the link in the upper-right hand corner, but that doesn't allow you to see the captions I painstakingly added... :)

*CLICK ME FOR PICTURES*

Enjoy... I know I did... ♥

The journey begins...

Oh my. What a week it has been. I'm in Pittsburgh right now and my parents house and I'm about to embark on a journey across the United States. I'm filled with apprehension and hope and excitement and sadness and I miss so many people already and and and.... I am majorly overwhelmed. This is a huge turning point in my transition to the West Coast and I'm on pins and needles. I would show you pictures of my extremely packed car, but the software to upload photos is not installed on my parents computer. I'll try to add pictures later.

Ooof. My stomach. The butterflies are restless.

In knitting knews... I have started on the border of Kaitlin's shawl. I had an inner argument (too many decisions to make these days) about whether or not to add a border, but I decided that I'd like to have the shawl be a little wider than it currently is and the only way to accomplish that is to add a border. I hope that Kaitlin will agree... because it was a pain in the butt to pick up 500+ stitches around the edge and I'm not changing it now. :) Again, I want to post a picture, but I can't. It doesn't look like much right now anyway. It's all squished on a circular needle and can't be spread out properly.

*insert picture of crumpled pile of beautiful aqua bamboo yarn*
Ok. I have to go drive 2500+ miles. See you in sunny SoCal. Wow. ♥

Aqua waves...

I'm making some headway on the pretty shawl. I was super sick Tuesday and Wednesday... I didn't even want to knit! But I'm better now... Hopefully more progress will be made this weekend...

Making progress.

It's amazing the change that blocking makes in lace. Above, it's all floppy and crumpled in its just-born state. But give it a good soak and a stern pinning and the lace pops out so beautifully. Sigh. I love lace. ♥

Commissioned.

Yay! I've been commissioned to make a project! My friend Kaitlin has a wedding to go to Memorial Day weekend and she wants a shawl to go with a pretty brown dress she bought for the occasion. Luck for me, she has excellent taste in yarn, color, and pattern! Alchemy Bamboo, Teal Tide, and Print O' the Wave Stole. This is going to be fun! I spent a few hours this morning swatching and working on the math to figure out how big this puppy can be with the yarn that I have. When giving the swatch a bath... I noticed that it bled a bit, tinting the water blue.

Blue water...

And now the wonder of blocking... Turning a wadded up piece of string...

Wad...

Into a beautiful lace pattern...

Blocked.

The color variation in this yarn is awesome. The colorway couldn't be more perfect for the wavy pattern with variations hinting to the shimmering aqua waters of a tropical sea.

I think the finished shawl will be about 13"x46". And one thing that you can't tell from the photos: the yarn is incredibly soft with a lovely drape. After it was dry from blocking, I threw it in the dryer with a towel because it seemed a bit stiff. It emerged silky and soft. Nice.

Yay for new projects! ♥

Springy Projects.

So I was itchy to start some new projects. And I did. There have also been some absolutely crazy decisions made in the last week... like, "quitting my job and moving to California to start a new job" crazy. It still doesn't feel all the way real... but yes ma'am. I'm moving to SoCal. Dang.

Anyway... back to knitting. I started this cute pink cotton lacey top after being inspired by this free pattern at elann.com. I say inspired because this pattern is written in the most vague way possible. But maybe that's the point? I'm having fun charting out the lace as I go because there are no charts included in the pattern and I've discovered that I don't understand lace without charts. It's starting to look like something now!!! I'm very happy with it so far. I'm going to switch up the lace patterns on the bottom of the shirt, but I really love the horseshoe lace on the top.

Pink Lacey Top.

I also started a Lace Leaf Shawl for my mom. We went on a tour of a couple yarn shops in Philly a couple weeks ago and I bought some awesome koigu to make her a shawl. She knits very well, but she asked me to make her a shawl. I love knitting lace so I'm more than happy to oblige.

Dappled Lace Leaf Shawl.

The koigu is a gorgeous mix of greens that remind me of sun shining down through fresh leaves in the spring... so Dappled Lace Leaf Shawl it is...

Ok... I have to go to work!!! ♥

Sigh.

This evening, I was reorganizing the patterns I have accumulated and reassessing my many works in progress. I have decided that this shawl is not going to work out. This is very depressing because I love the pattern and the yarn, and I put so much work into the beads... But I'm only getting 1.4" of scarf length/gram of Kidsilk Haze. I only have one ball of this color and I was planning on doing the edging in a chocolate brown.

1.4 in/gram... sigh...

So I have to decide if I want to continue with this pattern for this project. I might take out one more repeat from the center panel... I'll have to do some calculations to see how much additional length will come from the decrease in width. And all those beads... I don't even know if they are noticeable or worth the trouble.

****10 minutes of calculations later****

Okey. New plan. I'm going to rip the progress so far and reknit with one less repeat which should give an ~50in scarf with milky white beads instead of the matching itty bitty beads. Hopefully they will show up a little better and have more of the effect I was looking for.

Enough thinking about knitting for the night... Time to frog some Kidsilk Haze. This should be interesting. ♥

Divided.

Right now, my knitting focus is divided between a bunch of little projects. I'm starting to get anxious to start something new, but I'd like to actually finish something. I have so many works in progress, it's frustrating.

So anyway, here is a progress picture. Not very exciting. I'm going to try to focus on getting some thing done so that I can start something big, like a sweater, and focus on that. I'm feeling the need for knitting monogomy for some reason.

WIPs lounging together. On the floor. Haha...

I guess that's it for now. Go outside! It's beautiful out there. I went golfing for the first time yesterday. It was only 9 holes and it took forever, but it was pretty fun. I can get a couple really sweet shots, but I have no control or finesse. I suppose that comes with practice. Okey. Have a great weekend. ♥

Word.

It's funny how quickly this....

can become this...

My friend, Christa, asked for a green hat with royal blue beads and I churned out another Odessa in a weekend. I love the beads! It's a really cool color combo. And since I was making Christa something, I whipped up some fingerless gloves for Kaitlin! They are made from wonderfully soft alpaca... I think I need to make some for myself to keep my hands warm in the office.

Warm fingerless gloves.

We went out to lunch in our hand-knit regalia and Eric was kind enough to take a portrait. Handknits for everyone! And Christa & Kaitlin seemed to really love their hat and gloves. Yay!

Word. We did this pose so that Kaitlin didn't feel silly showing off her gloves. :)

I made a trip to the West Coast this weekend to explore a new job opportunity and I was able to start a couple projects. I started my self-dyed, self-striped socks and they are turning out how I planned for them to be! How about that?!

These colors remind me of something... I can't quite place it...

And I started my Malabrigo scarf which is so lusciously soft that I wish I could wrap my whole body in the beautiful colors and hibernate for a month. Yes. ♥

Another "My so-called Scarf." Love this pattern.

Fruity!

I had some fun dying yarn the last couple of days. Here's a bunch of photos from the experiment.

First I wound a looooooong hank around a door knob and a lamp. It ran almost the whole length of my apartment!

Looooooong hank.

Then I marked the color repeats with acrylic yarn, tying a different color ever 18" or so to deter any tangling, and soaked the whole thing with a bit of wool wash for 15 min.

Soak.

While the yarn was soaking, I mixed the Kool-aid. Two packages of Ice Blue Raspberry Lemonade, two packages of Lemonade, and four packages of Pink Lemonade.

Koolaid.

Primary colors?

The yellow dye exhausted quickly, so I had to use it's jar to add more pink. The yellow dangled in limbo while the other colors continued to soak up dye.

Dyeing.

Here is a comparison of the pink dye before and after. The yarn sucks the color right out!

Exhausted.

I rinsed the yarn afterwards, but it still smells of fruitiness.

Rinse.

Strung out to dry...

Dry.

And here it is wound into a skein. Now... the colors are not what I expected. I wanted a pale pretty pink. Not a electric melon pink. The other colors are pretty much what I expected so that's cool... As I look at it more and more, it grows on me. It's sorta retro summery colors. Ah well.

Colors.

When I was winding the yarn into a skein after it dried, the strand broke pretty much in the middle of the hank! I think I must have snipped the yarn when I was cutting off the acrylic ties. But luckily, it broke pretty close to the middle! One ball for each sock. :)

Lucky break!

And that was my adventure in Kool-aid dyeing. It was pretty fun, but I think I would more enjoy professional dyes... Of course, those are not edible and much more potent... sooooo yeah. More safety precautions would have to be taken. Ok. Have a good night. I'm off to knit. ♥

I have a problem...

Hey! This weekend I was in Pittsburgh to work. It was a drag, but that's ok... I'm used to it. In fact, this month will mark my 5th year in the Air National Guard. It's crazy how the time has flown. Only one year to go. Anyway, on to the knitting.

I had the opportunity to visit 2 knit shops in downtown Philly last week: Rosie's Yarn Cellar and Loop. I bought yarn. I cannot be stopped. I bought some Cashsoft DK for a proper Odessa with beads. I love the pink color (Bloom) with the pearly beads. It's so freaking girly.

Another Odessa with beads!

I also bought some Cashsoft DK to make an Odessa for a friend (hi Christa!). She requested a Chartreuse color with royal blue beads which is a lovely combination. Oh. I also bought some Malabrigo in Little Lovely (in the lower right hand corner) because it is the softest wool I have ever felt. And the color? It's pink...

More yarn acquisition.

I couldn't decide which royal blue beads Christa would like the most so I'll let her decide.

Which beads?

I also bought some Koigu... but that's for my mom... she made me buy it! I swear!

And finally. I have a problem with my Jaywalker which has caused all progress on the sock to grind to a halt. It just doesn't fit my foot right. The ankle and heel fit well, but the foot is a bit loose and the toe has these weird wing things. I have come to the conclusion that I need to rip back to the gusset and do a few more decreases so the foot is a little more narrow. I might also do a short-row toe, as seen on my sock to the left, because it fits my toes very well. Now, I just need the courage to rip out the whole foot and reknit. Which is kinda depressing, but necessary.

I have a problem with the toe!!!

Eric is in Asheville, NC mountain biking for the entire week! Lucky boy. I can't wait to take vacation. I really need to travel. Anyway, Eric's absences means I'm sure I will have lots of knitting time this week... *sigh* ♥

Hmm...

This weekend was a relaxing one and I took a few pictures of the knitting for posterity. Here we have Jaywalker socker which is actually further along than this photo suggests. I loooooove the colors! LOVE. Pink and brown and purple. Just great. :) The pattern is easy and fun. I have begun the toe decreases, however, and the toe looks funky. It doesn't really fit my toes. I have kinda weird toes, so I might have to improvise. We will see.

Jaywalker socker.

Next is the purple fuzzy thing. I like how it's turning out, but it's really slow to knit and takes a lot of concentration. Especially the rows with beads... But I did buy bamboo needle to use, instead of the super slippy silveralums circulars I was using. Those puppies were too slick for the silky haze.

Purple Haze...

Lacey!

Also, I went to a new (to me) yarn shop. It's called NeedleArts Studio and it was a really cute shop with some nice yarn. Best of all, it's like 10minutes from Eric's house up in Allentown. SO. CLOSE. I don't think I've ever "lived" so close to a yarn shop. There are a couple here in Lansdale that I still have to check out. Anyway, I bought some lovely Elizabeth Lavold Silky Wool there. I love the colors together. I have no idea what to make with them... maybe some fingerless gloves or a hat... Who knows... I'm sure I'll think of something.

Silky wool.

And now, to bed. Because I have to be at work really early tomorrow. *Sigh*

Finally.

A post about knitting! I don't get much time to knit, but I do knit when I can and here's the progress to prove it.

These next two projects were so quick, I couldn't even blog about them. I made a scarf for my sister out of handpaintedyarn.com super bulky wool in Pearl. Knit on US35 needles (freakin' huge...) using the "My So-called Scarf" pattern, this was a quick knit. I like the pattern in this bulky yarn. It looks quite complicated and woven, but it's not.

My so-called scarf: the super bulky edition.

Next up was Odessa... Grumperina's super cute hat pattern. I couldn't wait for this pattern, but once it was posted, I realized that getting the Cashsoft DK yarn for it was going to be difficult. So I used some Patons Classic Merino, adjusted the stitch count for the different gauge, and knit this puppy in 2 days. I love it! I'm sure I will make many more and probably with beads next time!

Odessa in chocolate wool on the snow.

Odd angle back of head shot.

I finally broken down and bought some Socks that Rock in the gorgeous Cobalt Bloom colorway. I started sock #1 with the picot edge and I really enjoy how the colors are working with the pattern. My only concern is that it is too big... I cast-on for the bigger size because I've read on multiple blogs that they are difficult to get over heels sometimes. I guess time will tell... I also can't decide how many repeats to do before starting the heel. I have the larger skein of STR, but I have big feet. I'll figure it out...

Jaywalkers in Colbalt Bloom.

I also started a Kidsilk Haze scarf using Eunny's Print O' the Wave stole pattern. I have eliminated a repeat to narrow the scarf and will probably do the edging in chocolate brown Kidsilk Haze. It was a bit difficult to knit with the Kidsilk at first, but I love the fluffy soft fabric it creates. I am also using beads in the scarf, which was another challenge to figure out how to get the beads on to the stitches. Seed beads are tiny!

Just beginning.

Pretty beads!

Finally, Eric and I headed up to State College last weekend. We had a lot of fun, including a hike across the mountain ridge in Rothrock in the snow. It was good to be in the fresh air and pretty snow covered forest. Here is a group shot from after the hike. Notice Odessa hard at work on my head! ♥

Fun in the snow! From left to right: Eric, me, Emily, Jimmy, and Dr. Curtis.

Ha HA!

I think I mostly fixed it. There is still some tweeking to do. It's frustrating to only know a tiny bit of CSS and not be able to figure out positioning issues that exist between browsers. Maybe some day I will teach myself CSS more thoroughly.

So now I need to have an update about knitting... I have pictures of knitting progress. Now I just need time to post them instead of clumsily fiddling around with CSS code.

Soon, I hope. ♥

Messed up!

Oh man... my blog is all messed up. If you use Firefox it's ok. But Explorer totally jacks it up. Ugh. I have a headache. I just want to go home. :(