Puppy Dog Tails

Ever since I first saw this fiber spun up, I wanted it. It was a club colorway from Southern Cross Fibre, a few months before I got into the club (my one and only one...hey, I waited a looong time for this club ;)


Puppy Dog Tails Superwash Merino from Southern Cross Fibre,
4 oz., 264 yds of sportweight

I got lucky on a destash and it turned out to be perfect for my Snobby Holiday Swap partner.

It's a lovely, soft superwash merino. I tried to divide evenly...um...but I had a few issues, so I just went with the flow and spun it up.

I didn't get a skeined shot as it was a few days before Christmas, I had a houseful of people and had to start immediately to finish for the deadline....

My goal was sock weight....got more of a sportweight and sadly not enough for the size needed for my swap partner....What you see here is only 1 of 2 yarn cakes.



So I went with plan B....

Here are the n-ply leftovers...they turned out to be plan C....


B is for Lacey Baktus

Turned out pretty well I think!  I knit the smaller yarn cake (by a few grams) first, then tied on the 2nd yarn cake and started the decreases. Used a US 7 needle with no mods.


Baktus on a Bush!  It's a really easy pattern and works great for handspun too.

Oh...the plan C....it turned out to be an Owl Puff

Size US 7 needles, no mods.  Most of these are knit up with 2 or more colors. I thought some stripey yarn worked even better.  My swap partner likes owls.


Are you my Daddy??

What's up Wednesday!

Hiya! Been a wild week or so!  Daughter has started school already, and is doing ok.  A lot larger school than she's used to (Senior class is bigger than her last school)  but she's hanging in there.  We're both still looking for jobs as well.

We also found our house!!! Awaiting the final contract signing, then the rest of the closing stuff. Fingers crossed we'll be in it the end of Septemeber, early October time frame.

I've been knitting, have a couple small FO's to show you later this week.


Whiz Banging socks going slowly...all that spinning and shawl knitting kept them a bit on the sidelines.  Good for group knitting though. I'm about 1" from the heel turn....

I want to start a new shawl, however, trying to be good and finish my Roses are Pink Too! If I can stop tinking, I'll get more than 2 sections done in a week!



Ahhhh, more garter!! Currently test knitting some mitts.

The coffee color is Cascade 220 superwash....


The "other" yarn is my handspun!  GLBLF Polwarth in Autumnal Rite from one of the first spin-a-longs. It matches pretty well. I think these mitts will be a great way to use up small yardages of handspun....stay tuned for these!

I love garter stitch....

I really do, call me sick or something....however, this is one garter stitch project I was happy to finish :)


Nothing with the pattern at all!  I'm just a fidgety knitter sometimes. I am making myself finish things instead of jumping around and having tons of WiP's...thus you'll be seeing some getting done soon!


Guess I should have worn a different color shirt...oh well...


It really is an easy knit, relaxing too, sometimes too relaxing LOL!


Often windy around here, was a bit of a pain to pose ;)



Stripe Study Shawl
Plucky Knitter Primo Fingering, MC "Backwards in High Heels" and CC in "Henley"
US 6 circular
Mods: due to the Primo only being 385 yds each, I knew I needed to only knit 10 CC stripes (thanks to notes from Ravelry).  I used a crochet bind off with a hook 2 sizes larger than I knit with.

It's lovely, soft and so drapey. Knitting with Primo is a pleasure, so soft!  Depending on the job I have someday, hoping I'll get lots of wear besides with my winter coat ;)

Bugle Boy of the Moor

Blue and berries....

sky/teal blueberries??

Pardon me for the picture heavy post, but..well I'm pretty proud of this..can you tell?


I know a worsted weight shawl is sorta cheating...
But you'll most likely not ever see me using actual laceweight...(see I didn't say never :P)

(sorry hard to make the picture upright, shouldn't have turned the camera huh)

As you can tell I blocked the points. Some people didn't, but hey to each his own. Oh, btw, I loved the bind off for this too. Took a while, but it added some bulk to the edge, which made it easier to block.

Thanks to patient daughter. Once in a while I can con her into modeling for me!

Wandering the Moor Shawl by Celeste Glassel
Bugle Boy MCN Worsted by The Plucky Knitter 2.45 skeins
US 9's
Pre-soak was 42" W x 21" deep
Finished is 55" W x 28" deep
Started: June 25, 2010
Finished: November 11, 2010
No mods, just used worsted weight yarn. Why did it take so long..come on, you know me, too many Wip's! Trying to finish them..one at a time!

What can I say. It's no secret I love The Plucky Knitters yarns ;) When I saw this colorway for sale in June I grabbed it all. This is my 2nd lace shawl and I'm sure it won't be my last. I try to knit using charts, but this one had me using written too. It's not hard, it was just making sure I knit the correct sections at the correct time. You could hear me chanting the pattern repeat many times ;) This was not an in the public knit for me.

It's lovely, squishy and cheery I think. I look forward to wearing it somehow ;)

I'm Beached.....

well it should be more like...I'm FINISHED!!

Here is the ruffle preblocking, over 600 stitches in that there ruffle...

The colorway is pretty neat. Not as bold as I often go colorwise, but I just loved it when I first saw it..over a year ago!

367 days....on the needles! Very embarassing for a garter stitch shawl huh! Oh well, what can I say, I often get distracted ;)

For the record, I have no idea how to wear a shawl...I do have a pin though, will have to figure it out someday..when it's not in between thunder and lightening storms and not 90 plus degrees...


So, you get to enjoy some interesting shots.

The wrap me up so I can't use my hands/arms shot...


This one is the holy cow how did it grow 10" wider shot...

Hey, you likey my special foggy effects? That's courtesy of Mr. Humidity, he likes it around here lately.

Have I mentioned yet that this ruffle was over 600 stitches...

Not only can you use Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind Off for ribbing, you can use it for just plain ole' garter....remember those 600 plus stitches..yeah..2 plus hours of bind off. But totally, definately worth it!! It's perfect. I had more than enough yarn. Actually had 32 grams left. hmmm..

And my babushka look just for you Bezzie!

Shawl that Jazz (her pattern page is under construction, but should you want it, get it here
Blue Moon Fiber Arts Twisted, Beached Colorway 2 skeins, 32 grams left
US 9's for body, US 10.5's for edging....600 plus stitches..
Size: Pre-blocked 62w x 23h
Post-blocked 72w x 23h....10"!!! whew that's a lot of growth! It's ok, it'll keep me snuggly warm this winter...wherever I may be..I wasn't going to block it, but this shawl has been to Maine and back, a few movie theater's, work, car, etc...it needed one.

No mods, I knit it as per pattern except for the needles. I went up to the 9's for the body and 10.5's for the edging (so I could finish it faster, and it truly looked better). The pattern is pretty neat in how you use the short rows. If you knit this, use markers (fyi!) for those short rows, helps a lot! The yarn...well, I do like the colorway.

The yarn itself is made up of many plies, one of which takes the color of the dye a bit darker. It's kinda neat. It is a bit splitty though and was ok to knit, I just didn't enjoy it as much as some other yarns. Mine wasn't too soft until after blocking.

Ahhh..the thrill of finishing...

So....close...

Hiding away from this heat allows me to knit on this....



1.5" left of the edging...US 10.5's, quick no?? Um..er...at 600+ sts per row...soon...

I want to start another shawl...not allowed to until this is finished....hmmm :(

What's up Wednesday!

Well, since the frogging of the sweater, I kinda lost my mojo for any sweater knitting for a bit.
Instead I decided that almost a year on the needles...um...this needed to be finished.

It's great comfort and tv knitting. I have 16" done and I'm hoping to have the body done by the end of the weekend, so I can work on the ruffle. Not sure if I can get it done by the 25th but I'll try.


Shawl that Jazz

I'm teaching a toe up sock class for the knitting guild this Saturday.

I better get crackin' on 4" more of this sock so I can show them just where to start the heel.

Thanks for your comfort food comments. I see a lot of similar ones I like too :) Why the comfort references lately? First of all, we are all healthy so it's not that. Just a lot of change that may be coming our way in the next few months. Rather than stress myself out too much, I am just trying to knit it away. Stay tuned, life may get pretty exciting around here. "gulp"

Never say Never....

You wanna peek? Are you seeing something you never thought you'd see here?


Something I said I'd never take an interest in...you know what they say about never say never...


It's all Megan's fault really.

Why? I admit seeing her knit her shawls using sock yarn lately made me a bit more curious than I've ever been. My other knitter friends around here use the laceweight. Which I also said I'd never buy...cough..cough..I have 4 skeins now. (well 1 was a gift ;)


I can see where blocking makes all the difference. I even got to test my new blocking wires.
Before, you see the pattern, but the blocking shows much more.

My Ravelympics challenge was to knit a shawl in 2 weeks. I chose a simple pattern with YO's (which are often trying to me. Not knitting them, just keeping track of them!) Oh, wait a minute, isn't lace full of YO's? I admit, I did have to drop down and fix a few missing YO's, maybe about 5 or so, but geesh, with all the ones you see here that's pretty impressive to me. I already knit from charts with sock knitting, so that part was easy.

This fence will make a great place to photo shawls, I just pressed it up there and voila (well most of it, ignore the 2 nails poking out of the fence board ;)

Did she just say "shawls"?

DD is getting so much better and clearer picture taking as I know she doesn't like being my model.

I was asked would I get much wear out of this. I so can see this dressing up an outfit (jeans in my case) or wearing as a scarf as this merino-cashmere-nylon base is so very soft. Knitting with it was a pleasure and after soaking and blocking even more softer.

Traveling Woman Shawl by Liz Abinante
The Plucky Knitter MCN in Caddy
US 6 KP's options circular for shawl, size 8 dpn for bind off
Started: February 12, 2010 @ 9:00 pm
Finished: February 26, 2010 @ 9:20 pm

Stay tuned to see what one I cast on next, well you know as far as knitting with sock yarn. I do have 2 worsted weight shawl WIP's I need to finish too.

1st Weekend of Competition

Reveals a finished stockinette portion of the Travelling Woman shawl, which is now called Macintosh Woman, because the colors remind me of my favorite apple.

I only forgot 1 YO, which was fixed on the next row very easily! Woot and go me! Now onto chart A....



I've been watching/recording as much of the games as I can! I love winter and love the winter Olympics especially! The skiing and skating has been fabulous all weekend. The next 3 nights will have me glued watching the skating events....

Oh, and lest you all think I'm going to try to kill myself with all the stuff I have planned. I am not knitting every minute, I don't plan too, one still has to work, clean, cook, sleep...so try not to worry ;)

I present a non-Olympic knit. The MIL scarf..

30" of the Scrunchable scarf. Yay for chunky and US 13 needles! I showed her today, she loves the colors and I just need about 50" more..


Another shot of those gorgeous colors....

Wip's of the Week

The lucky knits that get some play time this week are....

Landscape Shawl for our yearly Knitting Guild KAL. I have until December to finish it...but I don't know if I can wait that long.

Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted in Amy's Vintage Office! I luff the colorway and the yarn. Hard to put down! You're seeing v.3 as I've finally found the needle size I want to use.

Almost there, my first SOS 09 and SAM 8 pair.

sew off one cuff, knit about 4" and add a cuff, then 2 afterthought heels! Sock 2 was knit while driving home from extended vacation, um....a teensy bit tighter than Sock 1, wonder why ;) Good thing I had my Emergency Knitting Bag with me huh! I needed it!


Shawl That Jazz but don't get used to this picture...well yet anyways!


It looks like this now! I just couldn't wait to show you how it was knitting up.

There is a reason for slipped stitches in this pattern. Sadly I missed a lot of them, like I think I remember doing them on rows 3 and 4 other than that nope! Rather than try to fiddle with it later (due to unslippedstitches) a pal helped me unwind down to row 3. I don't mind! It's garter! Now to keep a reminder note around ;)

Sights of Blueberries

Blueberry Hill and real live blueberries. We always visit this place. Something relaxing about looking over the lakes.


1. Looking down, 2. Blueberries, 3. More blueberries, 4. Another view

Another sight of blueberries....

A bag I made intended for my Lady E shawl, that was planned to start on this trip.


Um..er..1 shawl, 2 shawls started. I don't see a Lady E do you?? Oh well, more on the dual shawl project later!