Oh yea, Knitting!

I've talked a lot about my 'knitting friends' and showed you some pictures of some wild and crazy people, but we actually knit too! I thought I'ld show you something that I've finished and one of my WIP (works in progress).

Here is the Noro wrap that I've finished; this is the one that I had to go buy more yarn to complete. I went to Unwind in Newmarket to get the finishing yarn, because that's where the original yarn came from---tell me why a pattern would call for 100g of a specific yarn and have said yarn available only in 40g skeins; can anyone tell me? Anyway, Wendy and I had a good time playing with all kinds of greens to become the ruffle, because you can put any of the greens together, whether they have a blue hue to them or a yellow or dark or light---it's a rule! You know why? Because it happens in nature! All of us colour co-ordinating people got a Free Pass on Greens...put 'em all together, mix them all up, love or hate 'em; they all go together and someday I'm gonna do that! But not today...

The gold just brought the whole thing to life! This wrap was worked using Noro Silk Garden; working double strand on 8mm and when the called for Contrast Colour yarn wasn't available we had to get inventive,(Oh darn it all anyway!) and found a wonderful gold in Cascade Yarns - Cascade 128. This is a chunky/bulky weight yarn and to heavy too be worked double as the pattern called for, but still needed a little something; so we found SWTC - Vickie Howell Collection - Love (Bamboo fibres and silk) it brought a lovely sheen to the Peruvian Highland Wool in the Cascade AND it was 30% off! Woohoo!!

{My knitting friends know about 'the incident' with Bamboo, but I persevered and lived to tell the story!}

So, I'm kind of a swatcher, or at least occaisionally consider the possiblity that what I'm knitting might give me an idea of how the finished project (if ever) might look. But really, if the idea of swatching is to get a perfectly proportionate and fitted item; then I don't swatch correctly. I've had more luck just going with the flow and if it doesn't look good on me? Well someone out there is in for a lovely surprise someday, that's all.

Anyway, how this all relates to the above picture is this: I AM a Blocker!! And thanks to my husband and our construction business I have found the coolest blocking board! It's Insulation...Mitten Levelwall Insulation! It's a styrofoam product that takes the pins well. It's available in a large enough size to handle even our bigger projects, folds up for easier storage and has a grid already marked; including angles!! It's a neat treasure of mine!

Here's the wrap all done along with the photo that inspired it and even though I worked the ruffle 4 times and followed the pattern...I'm not getting the ruffly action, but it sure is pretty. I love Noro yarn; I could work with it all the time. I love how the colour changes and the unlikely combinations that they put together, and I have to say the Silk Garden is indeed my favourite.

Now that this is one more completed project off my list it's time that I turn my attention to some of my neglected projects. And therein lies the problem; which one?

Well, it's quiet here right now; it's kind of dreary and cool... and now that The Yarn Harlot is finished her book she may pass me in completing this project that is soooo her fault for me starting!!

The Mystery Stole III (not so much a mystery now, but still fun!) By last account I was just a bit behind her; if I'm lucky she'll get distracted and leave her stole alone long enough for me to catch up and...(dare I say it) pass her?! It really is a lovely project to work on and there's a lot of significance even in it's materials. The yarn was purchased from Pick Up Sticks (now a retail store in Bradford) and waiting in my stash (always a plus to find a project and have the yarn there waiting for you), the beads were found (much too easily; didn't have to spend much time there at all :o( at That Bead Lady on Davis Dr. in Newmarket, and the Addi Lace needles were from Serenity Knits in Newmarket. I had the most difficulty, though, finding a crochet hook small enough to fit into the beads. I looked in all the most likely places (and even some unlikely ones), but nobody had a 0.75mm crochet hook available on its own. I was getting quite anxious to get started, because all these other knitters were getting ahead of me on this knit along...I guess I AM more competitive than I thought.

I went into Unwind and asked Wendy if she knew where I could get one...she had it in the back, because they offer it with their bead knitting class (duh) and I was good to go!!

The theme of the Stole is Swan Lake and it came (is coming) to be with the support of many wonderful, caring 'crafty' people. Thanks everybody; back to knitting before Stephanie gets back to hers!