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| 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:
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| 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 ....
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| 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 ....
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 ?
