Where's Waldo?

In compliance with the Amazing Lace Contest I have created a second post today.....here is my entry. Where is the lace?

Sunday Eye Candy

This morning this lovely Hibiscus flower greeted me! What a great smile it produced which is especially needed when doing the bothersome chore of weeding.

Last night...I needed a new activity to break the boredom of knitting Picovoli so I made a pair of sterling silver earrings to wear. It all began when Sue and I made a trip to the East Side to visit some of our favorite stores. We began with lunch at the new sandwich store which replaced Daily Bread then we went to La Strada...I was bad and bought a lovely pair of sandals.

Next was a visit to A Stitch Above where I purchased three skeins of Lorna's Laces which may be used for a baby gift for twins. Can you knit bloggers make some suggestion for what to knit for twins. It's a challenge given you need to knit for two of them so choosing something small to do is twice as important.

Stormy Clouds

Last night provided a cloud show for our area. The steamy temperatures in the 100's of course produced the wonderful thunderheads you see above. They are both awesome and fearsome. They brought very little rain to our area, but wrought havoc for others.

Knitting news: Very little to report here. I worked on Picovoli and I am past the waist decreases. I'm also coming down the home stretch with cashmere sock number one.

Spinning news: Spun some red merino fiber called Mohave purchased from RI Handspun so that I can fill a second bobbin for a two ply destined for shawl knitting.

I've been reading Too Much Wool and she's inspiring me to take out my inkle loom one of these days. She's also been trying some card weaving which has piqued my interest as well.

The Foster Fair and Flowers

What a weekend at the Fair. As you can see below there are some wonderful projects. Upper left is Carol M's beautiful blue ribbon Aran sweater. Upper right shows my blue ribbon prize winning skein of wool/mohair and angora. Bottom left is Paula's Best of Show handspun shawl and my blue ribbon Opal socks. Bottom right is another of Paula's blue ribbon entries.


Of course....I had to post some garden shots! I'm in love with my Casablanca lily. Too bad I can't smell its lovely fragrance due to my head cold. I'm totally enjoying the Hibiscus bud and flower pics as well.

What Does a Gal Need?

What does a gal need when she's had a tough week with the darndest *&*#*### head cold in the world? Especially when she's missed out on her Tuesday night knit in at Sue's and a workshop with Candace Eisner Strick on Thursday. Well...of course, she needs yarn and more!! Kristen of Audioknits fame so sweetly mailed me my gift for winning her blog contest to commemorate a rather special birthday. You know the one that scares the living daylights out of all of us, but also frees us to do what we all damn well please..... Happy" do what you please" Bday to Kristen!!!!

Thanks, Kristen for the Opal yarn and new knit accessories bag as well. They're lovely!!!



Tomorrow....I'll post about the Foster Fair, knit and spin projects and my Casablanca Lily.

Picovoli and Nalbinding

The hot weather has been keeping me away from wool so I've managed to get some of Grumperina's Picovoli done. I must say I love working with Debbie Bliss's Cathy. it is very soft and I'm loving the color. I'm sure the monitor colors don't quite get the color right, but trust me it's a lovely gray-blue. I am not too happy with my increases so I wrote to the Techknit list for advice. They are always willing and eager to help and the email traffic is very low. One of the listees suggested I knit into the back then the front of the stitch instead of the other way round to get a better looking increase. I will try that technique soon.....

It's a joy to work on this shell pattern because there will be no sewing up to do since it's knit in the round.



Today I spent a good part of the morning organizing my stash. Believe it or not I removed most of my new yarns from the dining room corner to some plastic boxes in the basement. Now....you all know this is dangerous! If that dining room corner is empty, you can guess what I'll do......fill it with more yarn!!!! When will it end? At least DD is a knitter now and can benefit from my acquistions :).

While surfin' the web I found some interesting articles on Nalbinding....knit and crochet's cousin.
Enjoy the Links!

It Was a Ten!!!

Yesterday was so beautiful! DH and mom and I took a trip to the beach. What is it about the shore that intrigues us and draws us there? The water's calming effect, the birdlife, the boats or the salt air? It's all of them for me. We like to park at Galilee renamed Salty Brine Beach a few years ago. We left home at 8 am stopped for "coffee and" and arrived at 9:15 to park near the rocks to take in the view you see in the pics below. Naturally I took my knitting along. I've finally begun Grumperina's Picovoli at long last. I bought some Debbie Bliss Cathy in a lovely gray blue and began in earnest. Sadly, I didn't read the directions carefully enough and wound up ripping it out last night. I restarted immediately and I'm on track and loving the softness of this yarn made of cotton, silk and microfibre.












Here's another garden pic! Any ideas about what I could name it? Interlocking Echinacea?

Baby Hoodie is Finished!

My daughter, Marisa, finished knitting a sweet baby sweater for her friend's baby shower. The sweater will be much appreciated I'm sure. It's so soft and a great color for a boy or a girl. Best of all she tells me she will be free to knit whatever she wants now. Deadline knitting can be trying as we all know. She used a free pattern from Bernat.

All in a Day!

What a wonderful day in pictures! Below you see DH's prized plecostomus. To be precise a Leopard Pleco ~ Sailfin Plecostomus (Adult) Glyptoperichthys gibbiceps.


Of course, I'm happy to have finished my Opal tiger socks. Hmmmmmm....time to begin another pair of socks. Perhaps I'll consider the new Knitty when I choose a new pattern. It's called the extremities issue!!

My purchase at Tranquil Lake Nursery paid off. Below you see Numinous Moments. She bloomed in all her glory yesterday morning. I have another that is to die for. I will be posting that pic soon.

Here you can witness my Echinacea plant in two stages.........

Challenge # 3 Amazing Lace

The Red Shawl

Red linen loops
Formed on smooth pointed sticks
Cheer its creator
Knit a row
Purl a row
Yarn over and knit together
A purposed balancing act of more or less
Makes undulating fabric beneath her fingers
Shoulder decoration.

Saturday's June Spin In

It's such a joy to spin at Sue's RI Handspun on the last Saturday of each month. As you can see Carol M was present to model her lovely Inishmaan sweater, one of A Starmore's beautiful aran designs. Carol made it from yarn that was purchased in Ireland.



Here you can see a close up of the shoulder detail. Maryann, I know you'll appreciate these photos of Carol's work.....



Below we have a Navajo spindle in use. Can you guess who it is?


I spent Saturday afternoon spinning some gray mystery wool on my Ashford Joy. I even was able to stretch and align some locks to ready them for the hackle. This technique perserves the color variation. I will post a pic of a finished skein if anyone cares to see it.

Bolstered

Why have I neglected posting a second time this spring? I have a good reason.....

As you all know I have hinted that I have been working on a test knit project designed by Gina Macris. Last Monday I had the distinct pleasure of finishing it! Although there was the challenge of knitting with hemp on size 3 needles and the creation of many bobbles, I learned much from this project.

I learned how to knit the bolster shape in one continuous piece which begins with the circular end of the pillow. This was accomplished with circular needles and increases to make the circle grow. The addition of knitted staggered bobbles on the straightaway of the pillow made me understand and appreciate their amorphous nature. I found making knitted bobble buttons a clever addition to the pillow. I think I will use them on a future sweater.

Below are two pictures of this pillow pattern that will appear in the spring release of one of Gina's new knitting pattern books that will feature accents for the home. Late fall is the planned release date for her pattern book on accessories. One of her books called Start to Knit: From Casting On to Binding Off is posted at Amazon with a five star rating.

Finally, I learned what it means to test knit a pattern for a designer!!! It means tweaking a pattern and being prepared to rip back if necessary. I'm glad I was willing to persevere; it was well worth the effort!





I'm back to the amazing lace project which is growing. I've also finished spinning one skein of variegated gray yarn. I began by washing one of my gray fleeces, then using a hackle to open the locks. It spins like a dream on my Ashford Joy wheel. I will post pictures soon.

Springtime Blooms

I've been remiss. I haven't posted in weeks! There is so much to tell you about starting with my garden. I am enjoying its blooms daily. Here are some pics to enjoy. I'll share more about my knitting projects in the days to come. Particularly a test knit I'm doing....

Amazing Lace : Meet the Team

Here you can see the circuitous teammate otherwise know as a Lady Gray Susan Bates jockeying in position with white place markers. The markers separate the eighteen stitch repeat of Feather and Fan Stitch, or Old Shale taken from another prominent team mate called Barbara Walker. She illustrates this pattern on page 205 of A Treasury of Knitting Patterns.


The strongest teammate is the cranberry linen which interprets the pattern deftly. Notice how she holds the hills and valleys of the old shale course. She is sadly nameless due to her humble birth. She was found among many lonely cones of yarn at PASA yarns in Uxbridge, MA. She's been jostled about by other brand name yarns in my stash for years crying out to be a team mate for some time now. I've decided to give the unknown a chance to perform and I believe she's doing admirably.









Don't be scared away by her length; I still need to add three feet to this growing project and my teammates are up to the challenge!!! Keep in mind I am an experienced knitter who hopes to finish this project and move on to another lace project this summer.

Here Comes the Bride

Long Overdue

I've finally taken pics of my latest projects for you to peruse. This is because I've finally got all my ducks in a row for the wedding. We are 5 days away from the special day!!! We are sooooo excited.

Below is a feather and fan shawl I've resurrected from the UFO pile. I'm knitting it with a cone of cranberry linen I picked up at PASA in Uxbridge, MA. You never know what goodies Paul has there. I've knitted a good 3.5 feet so far and plan to at least double this length to make a wonderful shawl for moi. I just love linen; it improves with washing and drying.



Here you see the Opal Tiger sock coming down the home stretch. I am very happy with the ringwood pattern since it breaks up the striping of this yarn...notice the difference between the bottom of the foot versus the leg or top of the foot. I think I want to use this pattern again perhaps with a solid yarn.


And here is a cutie I saw at the Tolland Fair on April 29th.


If you are a bee lover trek over to Judith's blog to see her swarm. It is awesome. Then visit Kristen to see her honey harvest.

I've been exploring new blogs and enjoying reading them.

Pursed!!!

How often can we say we can make something from virtually nothing? Below is a case in point. As you can see below these are scraps of fabric in very odd shapes;perhaps they could have been thrown away. Not a chance....these "scraps" are pieces of my daughter's wedding gown that were mailed to me by her seamstress after she altered her wedding gown several weeks ago. My daughter told me she would like a purse for her wedding day. At first she suggested that I make it from my wedding gown as I did for the ring bearer's pillow, but with the scraps of her dress below I decided to create a bag for her. It was not easy. You see my dilemma;curved scraps that would not behave in the sewing.


Nonetheless I forged ahead and sewed them together as you can see. With the addition of my wedding gown fabric as a liner, a my wedding gown button and some satin cording I was able to create this.....


I managed to cut some lace flowers from my gown to cover the cording's frayed edges inside the bag. She and I are very happy with the results!


Obligatory Knit Content: The Opal Tiger sock number one nears completion. The linen feather and fan shawl is growing. I know I promised pics of these but I've been wedding busy. They will come in time.