Spring is Here!

I just finished a very simple Spring scarf for a very secret recipient. I won't disclose who she is until she receives it but let's just say she has been a warm and generous knitting friend.

I call it the Spring Scarf because the Noro Silk Garden has every colour of spring imaginable in it - pink and blue and green and rose and lavenders and marigold.




It's a simple lace pattern I picked up from my chinese "600 knitting patterns" book and I am sure it has an english name.

The instructions are as follows:-

Cast on 17 stitches. The 1st 3 and the last 3 stitches are the border and can be done in seed or garter stitch.

Work 3 rows in seed or garter stitch

Row 1: work 3 stitches in seed or garter stitch, [ knit 2tog twice, yo,k,yo,k,yo,k,yo, ssk twice ] work last 3 stitches in seed or garter
Row 2: work the border for 3 stitches, purl until last 3 stitches, work border.

Keep going until you want to stop and knit the last 3 rows in seed or garter stitch
Cast Off.

I used 5mm needles with Noro Silk Garden -which is a worsted weight.


Enjoy!!

Finally - a yarn for Clapotis

I finally found a yarn suitable for Clapotis.

I blogged about this quite some time ago and though there are plenty of great yarn substitutes and dozens of beautiful Clapotis around the web, I never really found something that met my criteria.

until now




The yarn is for my favourite handpainted yarns from the ebay store Over The Rainbow - and is called Shmmer in the crocus colourway. It is a Rayon/silk mix and the worsted weight makes it go real fast. The drape in this thing is unbelievable.

I am making a smaller wrap - only 14 inches as opposed to the original 21 inches and this one is for me - nobody else but me.

My baby was 2 on Saturday. Wasn't it only yesterday when he looked like this



or like this



Now he's a gorgeous kid who looks like this




Sigh!

FBS Debut

Just a quick one before I rush off for Easter.




FBS Blocking




Wearing FBS in 35 degrees C.



Taking a closer look.




Happy Easter everyone!

FBS unblocked!

Take a look at my finished Flower Basket Shawl, half draped over my office chair



Done with 2 strands of laceweight merino from Lotusblossom (ebay) colourway - Lagoon
Click here for a closer look.


If I had not seen the other similarly unblocked FBS's in blogworld, I'd be crying in my cups right now. BUT I have faith in my blocking abilities. It's going for a nice warm "bath and block" tonight.

Oh by the way - started this on 11 March and finished on 20th March - one of my fastest project ever.

I have found my perfect Clapotis yarn. More pics later.

Celia, I drew your name out of the correct guesses for the Broadripple socks - I'm almost starting the toe - got distracted by the Flower Basket shawl. Please email me your address so I can send you a nice ball of Filatura Kid Mohair in Blue.

Another Clue??

I'll do the drawing on next Friday 18th March. Oh BTW you can guess more than once you know.

OHMIGOD

Look what I got from my Secret Pal !!!





From top to bottom:- Noro Daria for a necklace scarf; Noro Lily for socks ( oh no won't use this for socks! Will hoard this for something special!) and Bernat Boa - just for the fun of things!
You're the greatest !!!!


Lyn came over last Friday to do some winding and we took some pictures but it needs some touching up. We sat outside on the patio cos it was an extremely hot night. I must say that the ball winder is a great investment, what took me 2 -3 hours to wind now only takes about 10 minutes.

We gave our hands and waists a good work out cos we took turns in holding up the skeins and moving it back and forth in time with the ball winder - so hey! who says you don't get any exercise from knitting.


Click the thumbnails for a closer look at we were doing



Fired up by the gorgeous skein of handpainted merino lace from Lotus blossom that I wound up, I started the Flower Basket Shawl.
Lyn asked if I could figure out the casting on - and after frogging twice - I did! I originally cast on with a red viscose cotton from Garnstudio which I thought I might wear for my sister-in-law's wedding in April. But a visit to the tailor's the next day resulted in me choosing a blue- green dress. So the handpainted colourway names Lagoon won and I've been obsessed by this shawl every since. I'm at the 1st repeat of the upper Basket pattern - another 6 to go.




I've also been working on a mystery project - so mysterious that when I tried to upload the photo to photobucket - I hit a scheduled maintainence page. So I'll let you make guesses on what my mystery project is. Just to make it a little more fun, any right guesses will go into a draw for a ball of Filatura di Crosa Kid Mohair fine - the same as what I am using for the Lacy Lattice Stole. ( *oh Lyn you can't join in the fun cos you saw it already*) A clue? - well it's rippling.

Just send in your guesses through my email or in the comments here.

From the comments

Melanie was asking about the shawl/shrug pattern in one of the previous post. She didn't leave an email address so I'll answer here.

It's from Panda Yarns leaflet#108 4 designs in Bracken Tweed. Have googled the life out of it but I can't find any information on this yarn anywhere so I guess it's been discontinued.

The Panda yarn site is http://www.pandayarns.biz. Perhaps if you email them, Melanie they may be able to give you more information on where to get the leaflet.

Cheers

Fiddlesticks!!

I just have to share with you what I discovered during the weekend.

Filatura di Crosa Kid Mohair rocks!!
I got some from Emy a couple of months ago and decided to break it out this weekend to do a small swatch for my Fiddlesticks knit a long.

Yes I have sadly neglected my lace knitting after my pathetic attempt at Inky Dinky stole, so I decided to try again this time using the Lacy Lattice Stole.




Take a closer look



I feel like I am knitting with clouds, it's that soft and airy. Of course the downside is that it does fly about a lot if you're knitting under a fan so one has to get a good grip on the yarn. Occasionally I do feel bits of fluff itching around my nose and in my throat but it's not as bad as some other mohairs I have used.
The best part is that it's way cheaper that Rowan Kid Silk Haze so I think the next project with this yarn would be Polly's Kiri.


Stasher's Anonymous 5 step programme

I was just having a conversation with Laura about yarn obsessions.
I though I'd share the things I do to stop myself from buying yarn - especially in the last few weeks ( I have 20 days to Easter and counting!!!).


1. The worst place of temptation - EBAY! Whatever you do,don't visit it everday. If you have anything in your favourite searches, don't set it to send to your mailbox.

2. Ditto for your favourite online shop.

3. If you just can't resist something, click save it to your watch list instead and wait 24 hours before you do anything.

4. When surfing in an online shop - click the desired items and place them in the shopping cart. THEN CLOSE the window and do not go back to the site for at least 24 hours. Repeat everyday if necessary.

5. Don't drive anywhere near your LYS. If you must go in, drag along some knitting friends with you and watch them buy up the store. This just gives me a such a sick vicarious (sp??) buzz.


On suppressing impulse buys ( especial when Sales occur)

1. Repeat this mantra " There will always be another Sale"

2. Set a budget every month for Stash and do not deviate!! Don't make up for the fact that you spent less last month either.

3. Have a list of your most wanted and set what is the most you are willing to pay for each item. Update this list only every month.

4. Compare every yarn you are thinking of buying with this less and do not deviate. If you must buy something not on the list- take something out.

5. If you take something out of the list - put it back in only after 2 months. After that time you might find you don't want it as much. ( Or most probably ,you might find something else you like better).


And if all else fails -
DESTASH FIRST BEFORE YOU BUY YOUR NEXT LOT OF YARN.


Did I say there was 20 more days to EASTER??

Round Up

So here's the Butterfly in all its glory.

Noro Silk Garden

Colourway #137

I haven't a pic of me in it cos I can't seem to get one which looks passably decent. Lyn was supposed to come over last Sunday to take a few photoes but we were both tied up and did not meet in the end.


Anyways - I need to do some major fix up on this one. As you may have noticed - one side of the front is longer than the other. I don't how that could have happened unless it was during one of those marathon late night/early morning knitting sessions watching Deep Space 9 DVDs. I'm not sure how I am going to fix it yet, probably pick up stitches on the cast-on edge of shorter side and knit about 1 inch.


Secondly, it's huge!! I really over estimated my size this time. Probably over-reacting to the other time with the Shapely T when I under-estimated.


You know what I might just re-do the whole thing in maybe about oh... 3 years time or so - around the next time there is a recycling campaign. In the meantime - my Mum seemed to like it so she'll probably get more wear out of it than me.

I've finished one sleeve of the Zara project (which I'll refer to the Pseudo Gansey, because it reminds me of some other ganseys I've seen around the net, in particular Rachel's )


I'm doing this project in tandem with the Zara.







It's for my sister who sent over the wool last year with my Mum. She'll be coming over in July to pick it up, so I probably should get started on it. Check out this yarn - Panda Bracken Tweed - a mohair acrylic mix.

I just love the name "Bracken Tweed" - it's so descriptive. Everytime I say it "Brrracken Tweed" I just imagine the scottish highlands surrounded by heather, moss and tweed, wind in my hair and some handsome scottish laddie walking around in kilts.




"Brrrraaacken Tweeed"






Sorry! got distracted by the scottish laddie! I went to boarding school in Dunedin NZ so am a little partial to handsome scottish laddies.




My sis asked me to make the cardigan but I'm more intrigued by this pattern



I've asked her to get more of this yarn but she says it was discontinued. So if anyone of you knitters out there have some (about 5 balls) in your stash you'd like to get rid off... please let me know.