FO Friday 157: Hey Presto !

Halloween Tarot

Seeing as how it's October and we are talking about the magical and mystical, how is this for today's theme song ?








I just love the transformative process of knitting. I could start with the sheep/llama/rabbit, but you already know where wool comes from; instead, let's follow the practical changes once the yarn has reached me:

Sirdar Country Style DK 'Heather'

Transformed via the Cafe au Lait Tam pattern to this hat for Nanny:

To match the Cafe au Lait Mitts I made for her last year:

And then we take a skein of maravilloso Malabrigo Lace in 'Natural'

And filter it through the Afternoon Tea Shawl pattern to get this penultimate result:

And after the truly magical metamorphosis that is blocking, we get this:

Yes, that noise was me heaving a very contented sigh. You'll hear a lot more of those over at Tami's Amis ....

FO Friday 156: Grumps

Tarot of the Magical Forest

Between my ISP and Blogger, I shall have pulled out all my hair strand by painful strand before I manage to complete this post. Yes, I am feeling grumpy, how did you guess ?

I had been feeling as if I was trudging through treacle recently, as I seemed to be doing lots of knitting, but not finishing anything. The sweater for Titch ie. DH is on a hiatus while I sulk about not having enough yarn to complete a pullover for a giant ogre and I sulk about him being an ogre. Then I shall sulk some more, as I completed Destructo Boy's school cardigan this week, the second one this year as the first was too small despite my squeezing him in my anaconda coils, only for him to tell me it was too big and puffy. Grump.

 

 

 It does look a lot better now that it has been washed (after this photo) but the photo of the apres-wash cardigan was way more rubbish than this one. Grumpety grumble. It is Sirdar 2363, in Supersoft Aran: I modified it by adding the pockets, clever me - that way I have somewhere to put the bricks with which I shall weight him down before hurling him from the bridge. Grump.

 And then this morning I finished my Infidelity project. It looks like a dish-rag as it is not yet blocked:

 

I love Malabrigo Lace Yarn - so soft ! so squooshy ! - but it is the skein that never ends. I did lots of repeats of various parts of the pattern, AND a picot bind-off, and I still have 5 or 7 grams left. Grump.

 So it is just as well for the bodily safety all in my near vicinity that the postman showed up with this:

Jamieson & Smith 2ply Laceweight sent by my lovely MIL from her recent visit to Shetland. Such fabulous depth of color, and these skeins contrast so brilliantly, don't they ? I say nothing about the texture as yet, I'm trying to improve myself and make less snap judgments. Grump.

Yes, I do have a plan in mind for them, as it goes, just it won't be happening right this minute as another plan has swept in like a tsunami. Oh yes, I am spontaneity personified. But you already knew that ....

While I spend the next hours or so blocking my Infidelity project and drinking Ceylon tea because I have run out of Assam - grump - why not go see what's happening over at Tami's Amis ?

FO Friday 148: Colorful Chores

Spiral Tarot

School was finally out for summer on Tuesday. I spent Wednesday blitzing the house and laundry; the kids did an excellent job of mucking out their rooms (I am not ashamed to admit that bribery was key in getting this done). Thursday I spent in the sauna created by lots of steam ironing, rewarded by a trip to the library, and Friday involved a treat trip to Morrisons' bakery department - I have a thing about their 'secret centre' muffins, especially the lemon variety. It is hot and sunny, we have stayed up late and got up late. I love it.

And with all the ooky chores about done (in spite of the couple of thunderstorms, the ground is still too hard and dry to weed, don't you think ? Yes, I thought so too), today I have a job that I am looking forward to:

This is my stash of fat quarters. I was just going to put them into tidier piles and put them back into the shoe  storage boxes. However, Mini Diva has informed me that I have no taste whatsoever, and that she will be in charge of putting them into some kind of color family order, and some may simply have to go, as what was I thinking even buying that color ?!

Speaking of what was I thinking (answer: nothing, of course) I was privately gloating recently over a score of Malabrigo Lace at a superb price from someone's destash. On my monitor, it looked blue, and the colorway is called 'Sky' - so I snapped it up, knowing what fabulously soft and amazing yarn Malabrigo is, after making this shawl in the 'Jewel' colorway a couple of years ago:

Waves of Leaves Shawl, 2011

This is what arrived:

The colorway name 'Sky' must have been referring to an overcast winter sky. In remotest Scotland. On the coldest day of the year, just before a nasty freezing sleet starts to soak you from above. Gray is simply one of those colors that is too subtle and classy for me to fully appreciate as it no doubt deserves.

So wasn't it lucky that in the same destash I also obtained this ?

 

I can totally see why these yarns were in a destash ! For the same but different/opposing color reasons, if you see what I mean.

Perhaps Mini Diva may have a point about my taste ..... so go and see some lovely examples over at Tami's Amis.