Friday Finishes 2: Sweet Dreams

Shadowscapes Tarot

I am afraid this is only a little post today - TABI's AGM is coming up soon (I am currently co-Chair), and we are discussing the future path of our Ezine, as well as all the other reports from the various areas of the organization; added to this, I am collecting three 9-year old boys from school, herding them home, feeding them, and making sure they are ready to go to their school disco on time. After the disco, I predict late-night mayhem, as Destructo Boy's friends are also staying for a sleepover.

What's that ? 

Have a little nip of gin ? 

Two, you say ?

Why, yes, yes, I believe I will, thank you.

Meanwhile, this is Sweet Dreams, a Boo Knits pattern; made with Artesano 4ply Alpaca in the colorway 'Sweetpea' and using lots and lots of size 6/0 rainbow translucent beads. 

The pattern is fairly straight-forward as long as you remember to check things like if the stitch-markers move, or else you will have to tink back. Oh yes, that's how I know.

If you squint for a while, you can see the beads. Whatever I did, I could not get a photo that really showed them up.

To see things that do not require squinting, head over to my friend Chris' blog, where she is hosting 'Friday Finishes' which is replacing the old 'FO Friday' ....

Mystery Monday #1

Whimsical Tarot

Well, the SusannaIC Autumn MKAL is finished, and the next MKAL I'm taking part in doesn't start until the New Year - but I still have a Mystery Monday for you, a mystery that perhaps you can solve for me since I am stumped.

Last week my MIL generously frogged and rewound the Oslo Walk Shawl for me, ready to be turned into something beady and sparkly but with way less opportunities for error, which ruled out the Golden Orchids Shawl for the time being.

Shuffling through my queue, favorites and library on Ravelry, to try and find a pattern that I already own for which I also have enough of the frogged Artesano Alpaca 4ply in 'Sweetpea', I came up with Sweet Dreams by BooKnits.

No, the mystery today isn't how or why I made more errors (I haven't made any - yet) but rather, why is the pattern in the state it is ? I've been through my projects, and searched this blog, but I cannot find any record of having made this pattern before - so why does it look like this: 

Yeah, I need practice using my mouse to write with in Paint. 

But you get the idea. Most important for our mystery is (A) which clearly shows that the lines of the pattern have been marked off as each row has been completed. (B) is most likely a tea-stain, since I'm not a huge coffee drinker. (C) is a water stain, and D is some other kind of drink stain.

That's a lot of scars and detritus for a pattern which I haven't made, don't you think ?

So what happened ?

FO Friday: A Tragedy of Errors

Halloween Tarot

It's actually really lucky that I am not a brain surgeon or a rocket scientist, or else this week we'd be talking about unintentional lobotomies and rocket wreckage (this had nothing to do with me, I promise).

It started with the completion of the Oslo Walk Shawl - mine was 77 inches long not fully blocked, and had more of a scarf shape than a crescent:

 

Fortunately my MIL was visiting this week and frogged the whole thing for me, in spite of the additional challenge presented by the alpaca halo and ton of beads. 

And having completed the Autumn MKAL, and commented on the unexpected shape, it turns out the instructions were not as straightforward and clear as I had thought - and followed; so, mine should not have been a 'U' shape but a normal crescent. As it's washed and blocked already, it'll languish in a corner while I struggle with my depression about it.

And if that were not enough, the Heartskull Hat turned out great - if you like the inverted color scheme, which resulted from the pattern chart having the main color in white, and the contrasting color shaded, meaning the skull is colored and the sockets are white; I know, cock-eyed; but the other people who have made this seem to have managed fine. I know, also, you'd think I would have noticed - something was niggling me, but of course it wasn't until I uploaded it to Ravelry and compared it to the other projects that I finally figured out what was wrong.

No problem, I had enough yarn left over to make another one:

Except this time I forgot to upsize the needles after the ribbing to make the body - so the hat is much smaller. It will still fit the intended recipient, but that's not really the point.

I had been planning to make the Golden Orchids Shawl, but as it's rated medium-difficult, I may have to restrict myself to a garter-stitch washcloth or scarf .... except I'd rather poke my eyes out than make those.

WIP Wednesday 126: False Advertizing

Tarot of Durer

I am terribly sorry to have misled you by tagging this as a WIP Wednesday post, although I did warn you in the title. You see, it should have been, if things had gone as they were meant to. But they did not. As the inscription from Accius on today's card from the Tarot of Durer warns us, ''there are many snares for the good'', and I have apparently fallen into one.

Some while back I bought the Sugared Violets Shawl pattern, to go with the pretty Artesano Hummingbird 4ply I found. You'll remember the yarn and pattern hated each other like cats hate water:

Yucksville Central

 No matter, I had some different purple yarn hanging around, and this time I've read loads of the comments people have made about the pattern, which set some alarm bells off, but hey, I'm stubborn and I already paid for the pattern.

Well, I got to within about 30 or 40 stitches of the end, when I ran out of yarn. And this was in spite of altering the pattern to be shorter. On top of that, I really didn't like the overall look - it was too shallow and too long. It was unfixable. So I frogged it.

450m is just right for a decent size shawl, so I thought I'd do the Summer Flies Shawl again: it is so pretty, and I really liked making my last one:

This time, in addition to thetanull's modifications to make it larger, I was feeling a little adventurous, so I changed the ruffled edge to the lace version in 'My Version of Summer Flies'. Things seemed to be zipping along quite nicely, thank you, until about 11pm last night, when I realized I totally didn't like the juxtaposition of the knotted openwork section with the arrow lace of the modification, and on top of that, everything looked a little too ... crowded ... somehow.

Here is the result:

Not to worry. It will sit peacefully in a Time Out while I go do something else: I have the yarn and patterns for the first 3 or 4 items in my Ravelry queue, so all I have to do is pick  ....

Pop over and see more encouraging starts to the New Year at Tami's Amis ....

WIP Wednesday 121: Pit Stop

Labyrinth Tarot

Talk about working your fingers to the bone ! Well, OK, I don't call what I do work - I like it too much - but I am busy, and then there is all that Xmas knitting I suddenly had inspirations for: why I couldn't have had all these ideas in June, who knows. You do know, actually - it is because it is The Law.

I bought these two balls of lovely Artesano Hummingbird Alpaca 4-ply a little while ago:

I realized I had the perfect person for this colorway, so I bought a pattern - yes, actually spent money on it - and started clicking away:

I feel terribly grumpy and cheated; this colorway looks great in the ball, and as with all Artesano alpaca, it is of a softness that the gods would drool over, but I am not at all loving how the colors are pooling in the shawl, it looks so randomly messy and unplanned that I have put it on the naughty step while I contemplate its future ie. while we sulk at each other for not meeting expectations.

As you know, a shedload of people who need to be knitted for seem to have appeared out of the gloomy darkness of my memory suddenly, so I just cracked on with other stuff - like using the James C.Brett 'Aria' that I found at my little LYS, which is mohair, wool, acrylic and polyester with SEQUINS. I know, I am all about class.

But you can see it is a lovely shade of pastel blue Brett (again) imaginatively calls 'Z3' and it is very beautifully amazingly soft and squooshy and I loves it. And at £3.50 (approx.$5.64) for 215m/235yds, it is not bad value for a hat. So there.

And I even paid for the hat pattern too - it is the Penselwood Hat by Jen Arnall-Culliford; I chose it because it is a little lacy and knitted flat: I'm in too much of a hurry now to mess around with Magic Loops and stuff. And she is approachable, friendly, and on Twitter: which made it easy to ask her about some modifications I wanted to make for a slouchier fit.

And when I am feeling like a challenge, I knit on this Seekret Project (which is deffo not for you this time Alison, I don't love you nearly enough to knit in black for you):

There is intarsia to come on this (imagine that vocalized in a portentous booming voice like that of James Earl Jones) so this won't be completed in any kind of rush, je vous assure.

And much as I love gassing with you all ? This stuff isn't going to knit itself, you know. You need to stop distracting me. While I am hard at it, pop on over to Tami's Amis to see how everyone else is doing ....

WIP Wednesday 114: The NeverEnding Story

You'll be glad to know beforehand that this is another short and snappy post - I've been up super-mega-early today in order to get Mini Diva to school in time for her Victorian day trip, dressed in something approximating the style of those days.

Auntie Fashion succumbed to the blackmail and sent cash for yarn, so work on her Blankey has resumed:

I know, you're sure you recall it as being much larger. 

And you're right, the first half is - this is the second half, which I plan to knit with the same amount of yarn as the first half, and then graft both halves together in the middle. Yes, I'm not quite sure how that will work out either. But hey, it's not steeking, so nothing to worry about, right ?

I forgot all about this in my Purple Passion post - Artesano 4ply Hummingbird100% Alpaca which accidentallyonpurpose got bought on my last trip to Twist in Woodbridge a couple of weeks ago when DH and I escaped the kids by dumping them both at the same party. Purty, huh ? I have no concrete plans for it as yet, but it looks like some kind of shawl-in-waiting to me.

 And then there is this WIP, a NeverEnding Story project birthed 7 years ago today:

Destructo Boy is far less chubby (he was a 10 pounder, delivered with only gas & air, in 3 1/2 hours from start to finish; no splits or tears - yes, I am incredibly lucky) and is far better-looking now, too. Along with his new sick stunt scooter, and his football party, his favorite present so far is this, which can fire its projectiles up to 12 metres away ...

I am off for a nap so I can make it through the rest of the day with my temper fraying slowly instead of snapping with a dangerous twang; so why not hop over to Tami's Amis to see what everyone else is working on today ?

FO Friday 45: I'm Done

Like a turkey at Christmas, that is. I think one of today's FOs is me ... the kids and I were tidying the patio, I bent over to pick up Destructo Boy's bicycle ... and couldn't stand back up straight. Something has gone 'ping' that isn't supposed to, I think.

Lucky that it was before this nagging reminder of encroaching age that I washed and blocked Tracy's Shawl, isn't it ? Because kneeling on the floor leaning on my elbows to pin it out for however long it took simply wouldn't be an option now that I am broken.

















before


soaking








blocking




I am calling it the Anemone Shawl, after the colorway of the Artesano 4ply Alpaca it is made from, plus it is a far prettier name, to me. I am thinking of putting tassels on each point. It was fabulously easy and soft to knit with, but it sheds a bit: my solution ? Just don't wear black while knitting with it.

Lots of lovely FOs from young, mobile, un-aching people over at Tami's Amis.