Lacy Winged Shawl

Sometime last year at the annual dye day in South County I chose to dye some coned beige linen with purple and green. I only dyed a small quantity....maybe 310 yards and wondered for a long time what I should knit with it. I began Shapely Shawlette by Judy Pascal but I wasn't pleased with that pattern for my linen. Then I saw Iris's shawl and I knew it would be perfect for my linen. The shawl pattern is called Lacy Winged Shawl from March 28, 2007 Knitting Calendar. You can make it in any weight yarn up to sport weight. I used a laceweight linen ( about 200 yds) and a size 4 needle.

A New Addition

How exciting DD and SIL have found the perfect companion for Gwen! It's Wyatt!!! He's three and a is a gelding with impeccable manners, and he's a rescue horse. He's not full size just yet. Welcome Wyatt!!!

Today get over to Cathy's blog and wish her a Happy Bday! Cathy and I share the same bday. I began the day with a knit in of course. I worked on MS3 and I am pleased to say I'm on clue 2 row 123. It may not seen like much to some, but it means the world to me!

The picture below does not do justice to the color or the pattern:

Openness

Nursing Shawl

I finished a little shawl for my niece to use when she nurses her newborn. I made it out of some cotton and wool sock yarn for easy washing and drying. It's a simple garter stitch triangle with a crocheted edge.

Seagulls and Clamcakes

As always I migrate to the shore every summer for my yearly dose of chowder and clam cakes and a chance to take pics of the gulls. I did take along a knitting project....some socks. I chose to leave my MS3 Stole at home since I have to do that knitting solo....minus relatives and the wonderful distraction of the sea. I did work on the stole last night and I am pleased to report I'm finally on row 95. This may seem a paltry amount of rows to those who are through with clue 4 , but I'm pleased I have persevered after many rip backs. The most important gain I have made is that I have learned much about lace from this project even if I never finish it.

Enjoy the gulls and see if you can come up with some captions for any of the pics..............

Foster Old Home Days

You know the drill..........a country fair, friends and food. It's a prescription for fun on a warm summer day. Luckily we were spinning our hearts away under a wonderful tent with the best breeze on the fair grounds. I did partake of some seriously sinful treats like doughboys and raspberry chocolate chip yogurt.

Many of the gang were there as well as some newcomers. Paula, queen of aran, was in attendance with her spindle on both days. Carol M not only spun her mojave fiber, but won the spinning bee with her record singles! Marva spun some to die for wool and alpaca blend from Twist of Fate. Sue spun on her Hitchhiker wheel and worked on a dark blue black shawl on her triangle loom.

Davis and Iris came by as well to show us their spinning. David won a reserve ribbon for his spinning of both Jacob fleece and Chow fiber. Iris showed us her wonderful Chow hat she knit which has a extraordinary halo! If you are interested in spinning dog fur see this.Way to go David!!!!

David and Iris even brought some fiber they washed and carded for everyone to try.

Reveling in Ravelry!!!

I am so intrigued by Ravelry! I received my invitation last week, and I have not been the same since. It is quite a knitting community experience. I was so involved in the possibilities of the cyberknitterdom that I could not get to sleep last night for thinking about the innumerable possibilities it provides.

Not only are you able to learn who is knitting what you're knitting, but also just by a click of the mouse you can learn what other interpretations of the pattern are out there in the cyberknitpool.If you haven't received your invitation don't despair or feel left out. As Casey from Unraveled says:

"Also, I’d like to explain the waiting list again because there is still confusion. The list goes in order - we don’t prefer some people over others. We choose how many invites to send out and a computer program sends that many from the top of the list. We have the list because everyone wants to get in even though the site isn’t ready! A new version of Ravelry goes out almost every night and we are still very much in beta. We’re adding new people as fast as we can."

Getting set up in Ravelry will take some work, but there are huge benefits the least of which is organizing your projects and finishing them. My problem is that my must do projects list is growing!!! Keep up the good work, Jess and Casey..............

Eye Candy Friday

11 Day Hiatus Ends: Well, well............it happens here and there. Life gets busy and I keep forgetting to post. Eventually I have much to post then I get into a quandary about what to post. So here goes:

Mystery Stole 3: Since last post the need to rip, rip,rip became apparent. Even though I used a dental floss lifeline I was not able to salvage the knitting of the first chart. This was not so bad actually......knitting the first two charts taught me much about my need to knit carefully. When I told Iris about my stitch fudging she cautioned me to not let that go too far. Judy made me understand this as well when she told me she reknit a row three times to get it right. I am proud to say I am on row 67 and pleased with the result. Of course, I'm not keeping pace with the other 5,000 knitters globally who are cranking out this stole, but that's not an issue for me. It's the process that draws me.

It's Mysterious !

I'm still working on Clue #1 chart b for Mystery Stole 3 . What a community feeling occurs when you discover that 5,752 members have joined by July 6th!!

I'm am floored by the fact that there are thousands of knitters from all over the globe working on this pattern simultaneously.......a global knitting adventure to be sure.

Beading using the crochet method is neat! Thanks to Iris, I've learned to knit the stitch after the bead is placed with the crochet hook.

I did manage to take some pictures of the stole as well as some of my flowers. The yellow and red day lily is a gift from Kathy.

On the spinning front I have little to report due to the warm weather. I just managed to use the drop spindle this week.

Weekend Saturday Spinning and More

Saturday Spinning was a joy since I met a great crew of spinners at RI Handspun. The usual suspects attended. Carol M spun her three ply Mohave merino; Carol R spun one of Heather M's wonderful fleeces in a light beige; Paula brought her spindle to continue work on a lovely dark blue fiber. Sandy spun some teased locks in a warm brown; Ann spun a beautiful dark blue multicolored roving on her Kromski. Marva had her sweet dark pink plyed yarn ready to leave the bobbin for skeining.

I managed to continue working on some fiber I bought from Barn 31 at Rhinebeck a few years ago. The colors are vibrant and the fiber is a mix of wool mohair and either llama or alpaca.

Marisa's ( DD) knitting has produced a lovely felted purse..........I love the colorway and can't wait to see it in person.















Sunday I called my mom for a quick trip to pick strawberries.........

African Cichlids

DH's African Cichlid Collection

Ocean State Blogger Meetup

What do knit bloggers love to do? Well that’s easily answered: peruse yarn shops in search of luscious yarns and meet with fellow bloggers and non- bloggers alike. That is what we did at Sakonnet Purls on a lovely Saturday afternoon in June.

There was lots of yarn by the usual manufacturers. What caught my eye was the sumptuous display of Rowan’s Kid Silk Haze in every color. Claudia’s Handpaint Yarn was winking at me as was Jitterbug sock yarn. Kristen managed to pick up some wonderful turquoise alpaca wool to make a Tasha Tudor Shawl. Carol purchased the bargain of the day: 4 skeins of Noro Kureyon in a wonderful brown colorway. She managed to also do some yarn enabling. Those who know Carol well are aware of her strengths in this endeavor. Her influence set my project wheels in motion causing me to buy 2 skeins of bargain Noro in a black, gray and fuschia colorway. Kimberly purchased some luscious wool silk called Rapture by Reynolds.

Once we had our fill of yarn and needle shopping we headed to the back room to knit and chat. What I love most about meeting with other knitters is seeing their projects. Erica was knitting Pomatomus socks, a free sock Pattern at Knitty.com . Be sure to check out this new summer issue.Kimberly brought along her blue coloway Diamond Fantasy Shawl which is moving along rapidly. Carol worked on her Trekking socks. We spied another Lady Eleanor shawl done in Noro yarn.

My project,a felted flappable bag, made an appearance as well. I am happy to say it’s almost ready to felt. One snag in the bag was the fact I was short one skein of yarn.....not to worry.....my stash came to the rescue. I found an orphan skein of the same wool in another color. Now for the fun part.........

After project viewing, we moved on to discuss the creation of a Ocean State web ring for knit and crochet bloggers from Rhode Island as well as bloggers who have any ties to the state. We had a great day and hope to meet again in the future.

Summertime Felting?

You know how it is! You want to be creative, but it sometimes doesn't fit the season and you have to wait until it's colder to enjoy your creation. That's where I stand now with my felted scarf. Sue and I played with some of her luscious wool on Wednesday. We were inspired by Patty's lovely scarf a few weeks ago and we knew we had to do some wet felting. Of course......Sue already had worked with dry and wet felting in the past so I was the lucky student!! Here's the result................

What a Morning Surprise!!!

Liz you are so delightfully generous in creating such a special package of goodies for me! Not only did she provide some wonderful teas such as Moroccan Mint, but she also sent along two kinds of sock yarn ,one of which is Cherry Tree Hill in a sparkling colorway. I love the mini-bump of Iowa Wool and the mohair accent locks. The teddy bear in her college colors is soft and cuddly.

This morning I used the Badger Balm to soothe my dishpan hands and they feel wonderful!

Tomorrow: I'll be brewing my loose tea using a People's brew basket; measuring my projects with a Kitty tape measure; eating luscious chocolate .

Thank you once again, Liz!

Rock Gardens

I've decided that I must explore rock gardening more thoroughly. I fell in love with some container rock gardens at the Farmer's Daughter nursery in Wakefield,RI. It dawned on me that I had a wonderful aged cement container that I could fill with some dwarf perennials.

Eye Candy Friday

Birthdays and Flowers

Yesterday we celebrated my mom's birthday with a cookout and two birthday cakes. Can you believe it! My niece send along a Pastiche marscapone birthday cake that was to die for.............

Enjoy the False Indigo as well as the roses.

Fiber on Film

I belong to many fiber lists. Thanks to one of its members I can provide this list of fiber related short films. Enjoy!

African Hand Weaver: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPG7252dD0E&NR

Moroccan Weaving: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TK8-SwWBPXM

Berber weaving : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJglfjET3Jo

Dundee Mill Works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y0mFEf59FE

Silk Show : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQkHntwTGig

Fatty Silkworm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dyDkTpvjUo

Cocoon spinning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ee12FgxL4G4

DreamRibbon/ Harvesting Silk Cocoons:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWjQCsI2BCE

More Cocoon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKN_z-f_5Qg

Silk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCgZvTdQWEU

Indigo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XjydU1p-KA

Carpet (Turkish knots): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffMmYWauJa0

Breaking the Silence

I can't believe I haven't posted for 10 days!!! I kept thinking that I have things to post, but I never got around to it. Here are the 10 days in pictures which include Saturday Spin In. I managed to spin up the cashmere and silk into a singles:

8 Random Things About Me

Can you believe I got tagged by two bloggers at once! Here goes:

1. I love eating 85% dark chocolate...especially with a cup of tea!

2. I own two cats that always wish to be near me but not held by me.

3. I love the smell of raw fleece ( well-skirted of course).

4. The ocean is one of my favorite places.

5.The only gloves I have knit are sideways gloves; a wrist to finger glove is in my future.

6.I abhor doing kitchener stitch, but I do it anyway :).

7.I'm dazzled by the morning moon in the sky;I'm stunned when others never mention its beauty to me.

8.William Blake in one of my favorite poets.