FO: Blueberry Brambler

Pattern: Brambler by Anne Hanson
Yarn: Handspun wool, dyed at Halcyon Yarns, ~4 oz, 240 yds, 12-14 wpi, singles spun on a Golding 1.4 oz handspindle, plied on wheel at 10:1.
Started/Finished: June 21/July 16, but not blocked until 8/21 (!)
Commments: Anne wrote in her blog about how addictive this pattern was, and she wasn't kidding! I raced through most of this in just a few days, ran out of yarn while in New England, and had to wait to get home to spin up the 0.3 ounces I had left. It made just enough yarn for 38 repeats of the pattern instead of the recommended 36.

The only thing I would change, in retrospect, is the cast on/cast off. I cast on with the backwards loop method, hoping for a loose edge, and bound off with my usual lace/sock cuff bindoff. To say they don't match would be an understatement. So the next time I make this scarf (and there will definitely be a next time), I'll put a bit more thought into matching the two edges.

Kudos to Anne for a beautiful and extremely well written (as always)  pattern!

More shots:

Boo likes it too...

Sticking the dismount

Or, in my case, not sticking the dismount. As in, taking a huge giant sideways step on the dismount, then falling on my ass and rolling off the podium onto the ground in a giant heap.

Can you tell I've been watching too much gymnastics? Or as Devil calls it, the monkey bars.

My grand, ambitious, long-anticipated Ravelympics project is probably not going to make it across the finish line. I'm loving the pattern, the yarn is gorgeously soft (mmmmm, baby alpaca!), and it's moving along. It's just that, well, it is kind of overwhelming. I'm maybe a third of the way in, and the rows are 400+ stitches and take about 12 minutes each. I'm finding that I want to savor this project, not rush through it. Plus black yarn plus black beads divided by spending much of my day in front of the computer makes for sore eyes. I worked on it on the bus yesterday, and by the time I got home all I wanted to do was knit stockinette sleeve caps. No more yarn overs, no more tiny beads on tinier crochet hook.

It is going to be absolutely phenomenally gorgeous when it's done. I just don't think it's going to be done by Sunday at noon. Oh well (Porpoise untangles herself from hurdle and stumbles across finish line).

SYB Update

I have slowly been plugging away on the Sock Yarn Blanket. It is a much better project to work on during the Olympics then my actual Ravelympics project - lace and beads do not make for good TV watching. Although they do make for much muttering and cursing from my corner of the living room. For the same reasons, the SYB is a good Thursday knit night project - I am much more successful if I talk and knit garter stitch at the same time.

Here's the current state of affairs:

Slowly but surely it moves. I think I'm now 20% done, so maybe by Christmas? Of course, if I finish this one for Boo for Christmas, I'll have to get the Duck blanket done for Devil, just to be fair.

I'm starting to think about how to fill in the missing triangles along the sides. I can't decide if I should try to keep the orientation of the garter stitch ridges, or just pick up one stitch in the valley and knit a triangle to fill in. Any suggestions?

I love swaps

Even though this is the first one I've ever done. What could be better then getting a big pile of goodies in the mail out of the blue?

My Hush Hush Handspun Hootenanny loot from Liz:

1) a beautiful skein of greeny bluey orangey 2-ply handspun loveliness that is going to be a winter hat for me
2) a 4 oz braid of handdyed domestic wool from Poppy Flower Fibers
3) a cute sheep card
4)2 oz of handdyed bombyx silk (!) from Miss. Babs
5) some fizzy bath treats
6) last, but not least, some sock yarn leftovers for the blanket!

What fun! A new fiber purveyor, a new fiber type (what in the everloving heck am I going to do with that silk? I can't spin it - it's too gorgeous!), cute sheep and sock yarn scraps.

Thank you so much Liz! I can't wait for the next round.

FO: Swallowtail shawl

This has to have been the fastest shawl ever:

Cast-on: 7/28

Bound-off: 8/5

Either that, or I'm just getting better at lace. Which is good given that I'm supposedly knitting a beaded lace shawl for the Ravelympics...

Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark

Yarn: Handmaiden Sea Silk in "Mineral", 440 yds/100 gr - I used most of one skein

Needles: Addi Tubo Lace needles US 5/3.75 mm

Comments: I was worried that I would run out of yarn, since I only had the one skein, but there were a bunch of Ravelry folks who had done this pattern with one skein, so I set forth. The yarn is incredible. So soft and silky and smooth. And the pooling didn't turn out too badly at all.

The nupps (which I had never heard of before!) were a breeze with the Addi Turbo lace needles - pointy, pointy, pointy. In fact, the only bad thing about these needles was using them in combination with the Sea Silk - a bit too slippery! I think there are going to be some Harmony needles in my future for just this occasion.

We had a fantastic trip to Colorado. The weather was good (up until the wedding - oops!), the four-kids-under-5 thing worked out pretty well, and Devil and Boo were dancing queens at the recpetion on Saturday night.

A very sleepy dancing queen

It was a wonderful trip, and very hard to get on the plane on Sunday to come home. We're already planning a trip back for some skiing once winter hits.