Hello Again
It’s been awhile (again, sorry bout that), lots and lots and lots of stuff has been happening.
The condensed version of events.
Knitting has continued (Icy Fields is this close to being done and Christmas knitting has been started).
Some spinning has occurred (not enough to get excited about though).
Some frogging has happened (the project just wasn’t meant to be).
One project has been finished (Liesl! YAY!!!!)
Another is off the needles (The knitting on Walk in the Woods is done, but I can’t remember if I’ve talked about this yet, I don’t think I have).
I had a design submission accepted somewhere (which will almost definitely be hush-shush knitting and not see the light of day on this blog until it’s published).
Another two designs are being written up then prepping and preening to go off to test knitters (if you’d like to test knit let me know, they’re both fingerless mitts with lacy ribbing along the backs of the hands).
More yarn was acquired (but I ordered it before Rhinebeck, and arrived shortly after, so it’s been hanging around for awhile now).
Four designs were released (but if you follow the blog you knew this already).
I was profiled on another blog (which is where many new people came from [I think], so this isn’t really all that new either).
More design ideas are brewing (but that’s not all that new or strange).
Classes are getting to be kind of annoying (but that happens around this point every semester, so this isn’t new either).
Now,
the longer version (much longer).
In the world of knitting.
I have less than one full round to go before I can cast off Icy Fields. Less than ONE round to go, that means I’m almost done (I’m ignoring the loopy crochet cast off I have planned for now). This shawl has been on the needles (in an astounding number of incarnations) for THREE YEARS, and let me tell you I am ready to be done with this shawl. Oh so ready.
Part of the reason I’m so ready to be done with this project is that, though it has changed a lot (and I mean A LOT), the stitch patterns (all two of them) have remained the same, they have not changed since the finalized swatch three years ago. And I love both of them, but three years is a crazy long time to be working on the same design with the same stitch patterns (in case you’re wondering, it has been the construction that’s changed many many times).
On top of all that I ordered this yarn (Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud, color smoke) in one of the first Knit Picks orders I ever did. That was some time around 2003. I think I talked about the life of this yarn before but to recap. I’ve since started and ripped one shawl. Designed, knit, and published a second shawl (A Study in Grey), and am designing, knitting, and eventually publishing a third shawl. I am ready to be done with this yarn too.
So if anyone would like my leftovers, just let me know and we can work something out. There will be at least one or two, possibly three skeins left over along with one or two not complete balls (there might be a tiny amount of cat hair mixed in, I don’t currently live full time with a cat, but I’ve had contact with a lot of cats throughout the time I’ve had the yarn). It is fantastic yarn, I love it to pieces, I’m just sick of it.
Though Icy Fields has been taking up most of my time (I want it done damn it!), because I want to finish knitting it before all of the details about the design that got accepted get finalized and I need to switch my attention to concentrating on that project, I have been knitting other stuff.
Gothic Spires has been quite neglected (poor thing), and has only gotten a repeat added to it, though hopefully that’ll change over Thanksgiving weekend.
I’ve started one of the three things I’m knitting as Christmas presents, a cabled hat for my sister that matches the fingerless gloves I gave her for her birthday in September (apparently I hit the nail on the head with the gloves, and I’m hoping the hat is just as well received). The hat too is my own designs, and once I finish, I’ll write up the pair and release them as a set (after knitting myself a set). This project is progressing along nicely, I’ll probably finish it up in a day or two, after I’m done with Icy Fields.
And I think that’s all I have on the needles at the moment (we’re not talking about Celtic Forests, it needs lots of chart work). I’ve got a bunch of stuff that I want to cast on for, but I’m waiting till I’m done with Icy Fields (this is starting to get to be a theme).
I worked through another 16th(?) of the silk/merino blend that I’ve been spinning since *cough*April*cough*. I told you the spinning wasn’t very exciting.
Belle got frogged. I love the idea. I love the yarn. I hated them together. So now, the idea is waiting for the right yarn, and the yarn is waiting for the right stitch combination or pattern.
I finished Liesl!!! Happy, happy dance. Truth be told the knitting was finished for ever ago, then I managed to weave in the ends about three and a half weeks ago. After that it sat on my floor for awhile until on Thursday I (finally) sewed the buttons on. And now I have a new sweater. I’ll try for photos and a wrap up post soon-ish.
Walk in the Woods is also off the needles, but is now waiting until I go home to get blocked. Maybe over Thanksgiving, but probably not.
I got a design accepted. YAY!! There was a lot of real life happy dancing.
The pair of fingerless gloves and their matching wristlettes (I’m wearing the wristlettes because my room is freezing) I talked about absolutely forever ago (about the same time I talked about the gloves for my sister’s birthday) are getting written up, and double and triple checked, then going out to test knitters (if you think you’d like to test give me a shout).
I got a big box of new to me yarn in one of Susan Pandorf of Sunflower Designs stash sales. They are all sport, DK or worsted weight workhorse yarns, destined to be hats and gloves, maybe a cowl or two.
I released the Crisscross Caps Collection, available through Ravelry or on the Original Designs page in the side bar (I’m working on coming up with a better way to showcase designs on the blog, the one page for everything is quickly getting clunky).
Shortly before that release I was profiled on CanaryKnits’s blog which introduced a whole bunch of new readers to this blog. Hello and welcome to everyone new, pull up a chair, take out your knitting, grab your beverage of choice and make yourself at home.
Once Icy Fields is finished expect to hear about an explosion of yarn and needles
accompanied by a butt ton of new projects.
Until next time, happy knitting.
Ruffles and Lacy Leaves
This is going to be a bit of a whirlwind post where we’ll fly at light speed through what’s on (and off) my needles in an attempt to get everyone caught up on what I’m knitting. How does oldest WIP to youngest WIP sound to you?
First off we’ve got Icy Fields. I’ve showed this on the blog before, and I haven’t really touched it since August, so it doesn’t look any different. Bad designer, no cookie.
Next up we’ve got the four Crisscross Caps. All of them are off the needles and ready to be washed and photographed. I feel a large-ish photo shoot coming up soon (not in August this time around. Yay!)
Celtic Forest is currently hiding out in the closet until I can get a free afternoon and beat the second half of it into submission. This is a sideways knit lace shawl, with a band of cabling along the neck edge.
The braided cabled and ribbed mitts for my sister’s birthday are done and gifted. Now I just need to procure another skein of Cascade 220 superwash, to whip up pair for myself, and maybe tease out the matching hat.
Walk in the Woods is a lacy scarf without clearly distinguishable motifs, but that still invokes an afternoon of walking through a forest in the Northeastern United States. Down the center of the scarf there is a lace leaf, but that blends into the much more organic trees on either side. I seem to have leaves on the brain a lot these days. I’m guessing it’s the cold weather that we’ve been having.
And now the baby of my knitting family. Bella is a skinny little scarf knit side to side, with a small(!) ruffle along it. And at just about 12 hours old, this morning, I’m feeling confident in the direction she’s headed.
I’ve also got another scarf that only needs a few tweaks before casting on, and the yarn for a cowl waiting to be swatched.
The pattern for Birds of a Feather Tam is almost ready to be released. I’m just waiting for one final test knitter to finish, then I can proof the thing, and make it available to you.
Now I’ve got to get ready for my day, so I’ll edit and post this later tonight.
(And right before heading out the door this morning I cast on Liesl by Ysolda Teague. I’m faulting the sudden cold for this bout of startitis.)
A Crazy Number of WIPs
It’s been awhile since I’ve updated, but despite that there has been lots of knitting going on. The sky is overcast this afternoon, so some of the pictures might not be the best, but either way, here we go.
Beginning with two finished objects.
Both Leaves and Snakeskin, as well as the second Birdy Shawl are off the needles. Leaves and Snakeskin is knit out of STR lightweight in Gail’s Autumn Joy, and the second Birdy Shaw is knit out of STR mediumweight in Dragon Dance. Both of these projects simply fell off the needles over the past month. Looking back I got the yarn about a month and a half ago, and both of these were finished a week or so ago. I still need to write up and format these patterns, but both these patterns are towards the top of, a rather long list, of patterns to get ready for release.
Next up, two recently cast on items.
I’m a few rows past the ribbing on what will end up being a tam. In this tam I’m playing with the idea of combining color work with lace. This idea was inspired by the amazing Susan at A Few Stitches Short of a Full Row, and her combination of color work and cables, in the Tom Bombadil tam. The final tam will have a band of sitting birds (back birds on a blue background), and then a crown of soaring birds done in a lace pattern. I’ve never knit a tam before, so don’t be too surprised if you end up seeing this get ripped back a few times.
This project is something that I cast on yesterday, and has taken top priority at the very tippy top of the pile. It’s a shawlette that will be sent to my aunt who has recently gone through some very serious medical stuff. She is now out of the hospital and back home, but still not herself.
When I was designing this I wanted a very simple, very easy to memorize pattern, that would knitting up quickly. Knit on size 10s and in a thick and thin handspun, I wanted a pattern that would let the yarn dominate, but still have enough interest to keep my attention. This should be done within the next few days, and then some sort of project rotating regularity will be re-introduced.
This is the blanket that I talked about in the last post. I’m about 3/4 done with the main body, and then I have the border to knit up. My goal is to release this blanket pattern (tentatively being called A Study in Blues and Browns), a long with the pattern for A Study in Grey sometime in the last week of August, but we’ll see what happens.
Both Que Sera and Icy Fields have seen some action but not huge amounts.
I’ve started the right front for on Que Sera, but haven’t really worked on it in awhile. Though that might change soon, because I have the yarn and pattern for Liesl lined up to be my next “not original design” project.
I’m two or three rows away from being done with the Waves and Shields portion of Icy Fields shawl, and will probably spend at least part of this evening finalizing the charts for the next section.
For the next few weeks I’m going to try regularly updating every Sunday, in hopes of not going almost a month with no updates again.
After looking over this post again, I’m just realizing that I have a crazy number of projects on the needles.
Holly
