Thursday, August 10, 2006

Still here, still knitting

I know it's been almost 2 months since I last updated my blog, but I'm still here and I'm still knitting! I've had troubles with my wireless internet connection and frankly, I've been too lazy to fool with fixing it. Oh I've done a few things, but it's still not working. I am about to the point where it's starting to bug me though, so this shall be remedied soon. Then I'll be ready to add pictures and all that jazz.

While I've been offline I have kept up a steady pace of knitting. Let's see, I finished a nice pair of cotton blend anklets in shades of aqua, green, and yellow. I like the idea of cotton socks, but I prefer the wool yarns for knitting as they have so much more *spring* in them, hence the fit is superior. I also finished test knitting a scarf pattern for someone on the Knitlist who gave a shout out for some help. The actual design of the scarf was pretty much OK (it was a well-known lace pattern) and the chart was fine, but I didn't like some of the finishing recommendations or how the pattern was written in general. I started to write out all the things I though should be corrected, then decided hey, isn't that what they pay editors to do???? Since the designer hasn't contacted me at all since sending me the pattern, I figured I would save myself the grief. If she *really* wants input, she can contact me and I'll tell her. Thanks to Loops, my new LYS that carries several great lace yarns, I knit the scarf in a luscious raspberry colored Rowan's Kidsilk Haze. I made a zillion mistakes while knitting it since I kept forgetting that every other right side row was just a plain knit row, not a patterned one. Tink, tink, tink. It's an honest error when one is knitting a stole at the same time where every right side row is knit in pattern.

And speaking of the stole, I've also been knitting with Melanie's Mystery Stole 2 KAL. For this one I used KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud in the Tide Pool colorway. The stole has a mix of paisley and diamond geometric elements and it's quite lovely in my chosen yarn. The 6th and final clue will be posted in the morning so I'll have this one finished sometime next week. That gives me a couple of weeks to spare before the next EZasPi KAL starts in September. I've got a simple pair of socks OTN at the moment for my brainless/portable knitting project and I bought some delicious alpaca laceweight yarn (Alpaca witha Twist's Fino in a rich mulberry shade) at Loops to knit the Shetland Tea Shawl from Meg Swansen's "A Gathering of Lace." I also bought some new Regia Superwash Merino & Silk blend sock yarn at the Knit n Purl. I've been wanting a solid color sock yarn to knit a fancy pair of lace socks out of. The brand new yarn feels heavenly! I'm still considering patterns, though, so I haven't started knitting these socks yet.

I've had a migraine for 3 days now. I tried casting on for the Shetland Tea Shawl last night, but I couldn't do it. OK, a circular cast-on isn't the easiest thing to do, but honestly I am capable. That's when I knew my headache was *really* bad (as if I didn't already know that from the pain LOL). I gave up, took drugs, and went to bed at 8:00 PM. The migraine is still here today, but it's a little better. That's good because I *had* to go to campus today and fill out the application form so I can graduate this semester (if the Good Lord's willing and the creeks don't rise--again!). I rewarded my courage with a brief stop at Lilly's Bead Box for some pearls and Swarovski crystals. Then I hit Loops with the intent of getting some more Kidsilk Haze. She has a yummy shade of dusty aquamarine KSH that I love, but then I saw this multicolor Madil Kid Seta that just took my breath away. the Kid Seta was a couple of dollars less per ball, so I bought 3 thinking I might just try it out in another Kiri shawl (which calls for KSH). The Kid Seta is basically the same weight and texture as the KSH and the melange of apple green, royal, fuschia, purple, and teal will mix and match with tons of things in my closet. Besides, I need a quickie project to knit before the next KAL gets going, right???? ROTFLOL Knit on!