Category

FOs

2
Jul
2012

Photos: Mirror World

A couple months ago, sometime in early March, I found myself with a few free hours, a fried brain, a free dress form, a drawer full of shawls, a camera and a sunny morning. So rather than doing something productive for school I spend the morning photographing shawls.

Some are old, some are new. Some had been photographed before, some hadn’t. Some of the patterns have been published, some are still waiting patiently in the wings. Either way I recently found that folder again, and  thought it might be fun to post some of the photos. Because there are so many (200+ initially), and I didn’t want to create a ridiculously overwhelming post, I’m splitting them up by shawl, so each shawl will get it’s chance in the spotlight.

I love Mirror World primarily for it’s stitch pattern, though the yarn, color and shape are all some of my favorites as well. I love how the stitch pattern stacks forming strong vertical lines that juxtapose against the overall crescent of the shawl. I adore how the triangles at times mirror each other to make diamonds and at other times are staggered to nestle between the lines of diamonds. The yarn and color (curiosity on Tosh lace) is simply wonderful, rich and deep, subtle but variegated. While the shape is definitely one of my favorites, elegant and easy to keep in place.

Ravelry Project Page

2
Apr
2012

Mittens For Spring

Honestly I thought I’d have more time to devote to, well, everything once the performance was over. Knitting, blogging, sleeping, the important things. But now I’m laughing at myself for even thinking that thought, and with us heading towards the end of the semester alarmingly quickly, I can’t see The Busy stopping anytime soon.

The written portion of the thesis is demanding time and attention at the moment, and funnily enough, it doesn’t get any closer to being finished if I don’t work on it (crazy thought), so it’s been getting lots of love, and a bit of swearing. Seeing as I haven’t perfected knitting and typing at the same time, that means I haven’t been doing much knitting. But I did manage to weave in a couple ends, which mean…

I have mittens!

Just in time for spring. Oh well.

Pattern: my own. It’s just a basic mitten pattern in a 1×1 fair isle check to make the extra cozy, and a Latvian braid around the cuff to keep them from rolling.
Yarn: Classic Elite Ariosa. 1 ball of each color, 90%  merino, 10% cashmere,  colorway: grey-4814, light blue-4809
Fiber Source: Knitty City (I got the yarn at their sale last summer, so I’m not sure if they still carry it or not)
Needles: US 9s DPNs

Maybe they’ll end up in the back up gift pile.

16
Mar
2012

Post Thesis Haze

Things have been sort of (read: completely) crazy around here. My thesis performance went up Wednesday night, so that’s now finished. And the next couple days I’ll be focused on relaxing and picking up all the balls I dropped over the last few weeks. Including, but not limited to, laundry, cleaning, knitting, blogging, and reading for other classes, before I start focusing on the written portion of my thesis.

I think, I’m going to try and gather a bunch of the photos of the performance and accompanying exhibit into a post, probably early next week. Even though there’s no knitting, there are pretty dresses, and who doesn’t like some pretty every now and then.

Anyway, even with the thesis monopolizing my life I have gotten some knitting done mostly in bits and pieces, a podcast here, 15 minutes there. (Much like this post in fact, a sentence here, a paragraph there, so if it sounds a bit disjointed and abrupt in places, that’s why.)

Both the “Big Orange Blob” and the second pair of potato chip mittens are off the needles.

I’m going to try to weave in the ends, wash and block them both over the weekend. Since I spent the morning cleaning, I now have the floor space to block a shawl again.

Ghosts & Mirrors is coming along. I’m finding that it takes a special level of concentration, so I’m not spending much time working on it. But since it’s only 100 stitches or so across, the small amount of attention I have given it, really shows.

I’m into the bust increases on my Not Quite Argyle Jacket. Even though I probably won’t get to wear it until fall at this rate, it’s still a fun, and semi-brainless knit that I can pick up and put down easily, which I exactly what I need right now.

And finally you haven’t seen this before, but I’m probably about 2/3rds or maybe 3/5ths through this braid of Fibernymph Dye Works BFL, colorway “Incarnation, the lighter.” I’m planning to do a gradient two ply, so I’m spinning all of the colors separately. I’ll then ply each one from a center pull ball, probably with a section between each color where one ply is one color and the other is the other color to smooth the transition.

Well, that’s all for now. I’ll try and get the thesis post up, and maybe FO posts for the mittens and big orange blob next week.