Anticipation, Anticipation, is making me......

Stalking the mailman. My wheel(s) are on their way. Yes, WHEELS!!!!!

The lady at the Woolery was like "um, may I asked why you ordered more than one wheel"? So - why. Well - I had budgeted for Matchless, but then I thought. Hmmmmmm - I can get a less expensive wheel for a couple of other tasks. Plus - since wheels hold their value pretty well - I can always sell it and get the Matchless later if it was a mistake.

Soo... I ordered....

Well - I'm going to string it out a few blogs. Why should I be the only one waiting?

Let me get caught up on a few other projects.

First of all - I wanted to knit Jada a fall sweater. I found this cute pattern in the One Skein book, that had never caugth my eye before but this time I fell in love with it. I roamed around Cottage yarns for an hour searching for the perfect yarn. I decided on Malabrigo, where I should have started but didn't because I didn't think it was Chunky enough.



This project is full of colors I love - and for a baby it's pefect. Squishy soft, colorful (she won't get lost!), warm, loose, moveable, easy to take on and off. Plus - it was a fast knit.



See - fits her perfectl - ie. a little loose with room to grow! I decided to crochet the buttons with advice from Doreen and Jenny. I had a fruitless search for buttons, but they were right. Crochet buttons were perfect - I don't have to worry about lead in the metal buttons I was looking at and/or a choking hazard.



This is my favorite project in a while. It makes me want to make sweaters, something I've never wanted to knit before.

So - I stareted another one - Victorian Baby Tee - for Jada with Serendipty Tweed.



I love the color, the lace and the garter bands. I also love the neckline of the sweater. This is going to be another favorite project.



I'm working on a ton of lace scarves for Christmas gifts. My gift of choice this year. Not sure if I will make it on all of them. I get a little bored....

Have you seen the newest knitting magazine out? I am in LOVE with so many patterns in this little gem.



I'm not a fan of the DB yarns, to pricy with too little yardage for me. But she knows how to make an attractive patterns. Her sloucy beret is on my short list of fall projects. Just working on the perfect yarn for it....

Look at these little friends in our yard/garage:





Sorry for the blurry picture on the last one. I was trying not to get to close, he was a bit jumpy. Ha, Ha, Ha :)

What's up with Coat's and other company tring to get exotic on us? The Auntie Lydia line has come out with a Bamboo Thread - that looks exactly like a high price lace yarn. For $2.49!



So - of course I got some to experiment with.

I'm currently obsessed with My Onda shawl. You take 7 Koigu colorways that vary from dark to light or really anyway you want them to - and blend them.



I'm knitting each section obsessed with joining in the next yarn - I'm so excited to see them together. I think this will be my travel project over the next few weeks while I visit Dallas, St. Petersburg FL, and New York in order. Lots of plane, airport time to hopefully get her finished. And she will be a great conference shawl for the next batch of conferences I will have to travel to.

Let me end with some pOrn - of the yarn variety.



Camelspin, Vintage, Pure Luxury. Yum.

Next blog - I will be spinning. Squee!

Take Two

My browser just blew away my entry. This is take number two. I so do not need this right now.

This was going to be a long entry. We will see now. I have a lot to update as I've been away so long on the blog. Travel, summer camp, work, LIFE. I'm still knitting, never fear. And spinning too. I've done very little blog reading - so I'm out of touch with my virtual knitting friends too. Here is hoping life returns to something resembling normal in September!

Hmmmm, let's start with a few yarn purchases of note. For my birthday my sister totally enabled me to pick up Schaefer Andrea in the colorway Rosa Parks. Even if you don't see the yarn, it sounds beautiful doesn't it? But the deep hues that the silk just soaked up are so lovely. I have it in a nice little ball waiting for a little treat for me.



The photo doesn't do it justice.

Another great find is Knitch. I was able to visit when in Atlanta at a conference in July. I have no pictures. But I found the softest laceweight cotton you can imagine. Habu Cotton Boucle:



I fell in love. Another project I will be not wanting to part with.....

They had lot of Habu - I was in bliss in the display that housed these yarns. I of course had to get the Kusha, Kusha scarf kit - and am almost done with my first one. I will love wearing this mixture of silk and wool this fall.



I have a Black/Green kit too! I will perhaps gift this scarf. Then again - green is my favorite color these days! I actually want to try this scarf with Jojoland Harmony. I think I will like to subtle color changes and the wool weight is close to the Habu wool. So I may just use the green wool for another project as my sister gifted me another cone of it - so I have enough for something bigger.

I've been knitting shawls again recently. Today I wrapped up one for my daugter. I used naturallycaron Spa. It's a Acrylic/Bamboo blend, and makes a super soft fabric. I was so pleasantly surprised at how it knitted up. I had used some before for a baby kimono (disaster, not the yarn but my effort). But perhaps because it was dyed, it didn't seem as soft. This was soft and squishy in the Naturally colorway.



The pattern is Angel Lace by Evelyn Clark. I thought it is perfect for a shawl for her in church where she is always cold. I didn't tell her I was making it until today when it was done. She loves it, so I'm glad I kept it a surprise. I forgot to show her the little angel pattern, I'll have to tell her that later. I think she will like that.



I put little glittery blue pony beads at the end to add a bit of her favorite color and make it special for her. I had her pick out the beads w/o telling her what it was for.




It's soaking now, I'll have to post pictures once it was blocked. But she did get to try it out tonight.




Update:

Here it is blocking.....



On a work note - this was one of the most interesting weeks of my career. My job is being relocated to Washington. Not surprising because despite the frequent travel - I really needed to be there full-time. It could have been a RIF, but I am being offered another job. And 3 days to accept it. I'm full of mixed feelings - it's a significant career change for me. High profile, and sort of exciting. Almost too exciting. Like going down in flames with a new job I know nothing about, creating a bit ole mess exciting. Nothing like fear of failure to get the heart racing. So - this week knitting has been a refuge. I've got to make a decision by Friday, but the decision is basically this or good luck finding something else in NC when 70+ other people at the site with similar skills are looking. So I know what I am going to do, I'm just burying my head a bit before I put it in writing.

Let's get off this topic - too much reality is sinking in.

I'm gearing up for Ravelymics. I'm most excited about Hey Teach!. I picked up the yarn on my birthday as well.



Doreen is doing it with me in the same colorway. Squee!

I have some other things lined up - tackling WIPs, and a lace project. I'm sort of tempted to use my Rosa Parks, I guess I need to decide by tomorrow! Yikes!

Well - it's late and 45 mins past when I was supposed to head out for my walk. And I forgot I need to block Janeen's shawl before bed. Nite, nite.

Linen Leaf Lace Shawl

Between family, work, family, work, family, more work, more family - and knitting (of course). I have not had any time to blog. I've been to Seattle probably 3 times since the last update. We also went to Ashville to go along with Janeen to summer camp since I couldn't bear to send her away by her self at age eight. We had a good time, and my sister and I even managed to find a new knit shop (Yarn Paradise) curtosy of her GPS system. My score there was 2 skeins of Jitterbug (a sock yarn I've wanted to try), and 2 lace yarns. One of them is 2 seins of Malabigo. It is soo soft and wonderful. I am trying to find the perfect project to use it's soft goodness on.




And despite starting many more WIPs than I have finshed, I have finally completed the Linen Leaf Lace Shawl. I didn't really enjoy working with the linen, it's rough on the hands to knit with. But the end result is lovely and much warmer than I thought. I was completing it last night and trying to position it on my chilly legs to keep me warm. It's larger than I thought it would be too. Here is a picture of it being blocked. And a picture of the stiches close up. The Pattern is from the book "Knitted Shawls, Toles & Scarves" The pattern is technically called "Lavender Leaf Lace Shawl". It is very easy (and fast) to memorize and do. I have 2 more on the needles in a laceweight yarn - one in Jaggerspun and one in Lorna's Laces Helen's Lace yarn.