WINNER!

Robbie and Elodie and I headed down to the Stampede grounds on Sunday to check things out, watch the Bare Naked Ladies (Canadian band, not actual bare naked ladies), and above all else--for me at least--check out the shawl. I was not disappointed.



I won't lie, when I heard that Evenstar shawl to the left was being entered, I nearly gave up hope. Evenstar is a stunning pattern, and I covet it immensely. But enter I did because of two reasons. One, I was very happy with how the shawl turned out. And two, hell, I wanted an effing ribbon.

Winning best in section, though, among all the amazing knitting entrants was really something unexpected. There were so many beautiful entries, such as that Evenstar as well as a really great hat, and I feel completely honoured to have been recognized.



I'm totally going to enter again next year. But what, I wonder. I'm seriously debating a Bohus, even though it's major money. Or maybe a Starmore, even though I hate the boxiness of the patterns. Or perhaps, since it works, I'll knit more lace. Who knows? One thing is for sure, though. I could get used to this winning thing.

Action Shots

My dear hubster took pictures of me with the shawl to give an example of how big it is. Here it is in a three-quarter fold:





And my favorite way to wear square shawl, folded in half with the top half rolled around the neck to keep my neck warm from the chilly spring wind.

Done and Done

The cupcakes were finished on time, as was the floor and the painting and the cleaning. Our little princess had a great time playing with her friends, and we had a good time hanging with the parents.



She got more Barbies than I think I owned as a child, and she also got a really thoughtful gift from my parents (a oil painting of Elodie done by a friend) and a bike from Robbie's dad, a book from Robbie's dad's girlfriend, and an umbrella with matching rain jacket from Robbie's step-dad and his wife.

Also in the news, my cousin's wife had a baby on Friday. Cohen Anne is a sweet little girl, and we're so happy for Tanner, Kyla and big brother Caysen!

Finally, a knitting project is done. It's the biggest project I've EVER knit with by far the most stitches. I love it.



Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I ran out of yarn halfway through the fifth chart and was forced to cast off early. Considering how huge it is, though, not knitting the last chart and a half was probably a good thing. For scale, i inserted a cool beverage in this photo...



Said beverage is currently being consumed. ;)

A Better Wisp

I promised better pictures of Wisp, and better pictures I shall post.




(It's really long)



:)

2010 On The Go!

Well, despite having not blogged for a month, I really have gotten things done. The holidays came and went with hardly a stitch given, save from a pair of socks for my best friend and a sweater for my mom. I decided it was just too much to knit for everybody, and honestly, not everybody appreciates the time and effort of it, so I left my needles pretty cool. As usual, the holidays were very busy, though, with way too much food and drink.

New Year's was a quiet affair with Robbie and I mostly just reading and chatting and having a glass of wine as 2009 went and 2010 entered. And since then, I've been doing not much more than work and sleep. However, I have managed to knit one thing.



This is Wisp. The picture's not great (I just took it, and it's 11:00 at night, so, you know...), but when the sun comes up tomorrow (tomorrow...I'll love you, tomorrow...) I'll get a better picture. It came off my needles about a week or so ago, and I just bothered to block it and weave in all the ends. It's pretty, though, and the Zauberball makes the project, which is a pretty straight-forward (and boring) knit. To add some textural design to the scarf, I changed up the pattern slightly in alternate panels, with a YO, K1 for one panel and a K1, YO for the next. I actually liked the K1, YO better than the called-for YO, K1. It just seemed cleaner to me.

Troldeskov is doing well. I've had a lot of interest, which is great, and I'll be releasing the pattern for sale on Ravelry in just a few days. All my test knitters are finished, and for the most part, the pattern feedback was really positive. I do have a few things to adjust, such as some errors I made in the charting (sorry, folks. Check out the errata on Ravelry) and maybe a bit more clarity for my overseas friends who may knit the shawl. Overall, though, I'm extremely thrilled with the response that I've been getting on my first real design, and my husband has been encouraging me to design some more. I'm thinking a shawl based on Vulcans...hmmm...

Finally, I leave you with a bit of my day today. Elodie was transformed by the super powers of broccoli into Super Elodie, with the super power of cleaning up all her toys and eating all her lunch (and ice cream for desert!).


(so happy with how clean and shiny my Counter top looks in that last one. ;)

Troldeskov - Completed

It's done. It's beautiful.

When I dyed this fibre back in September, I was going for a jewel-toned green. HAH! My dye pot laughed at me, and shattered my dye. The resulting Corriedale was green, blue, brown, red and yellow. It was, in one word, absolutely beautiful. I didn't wait until the fibre was completely dry to start spinning it. I just started.

I took the fibre with me to Airdrie Centennial's Homecoming Weekend where I was doing a spinning demonstration.

When it was plied, I had 600 yards of the prettiest laceweight. It was luminous, and I knew it had to be a shawl. I started searching for the perfect pattern, but no luck. No pattern really called to me. Alas, what's a girl to do? I started designing my own.

What would I use for inspiration?

In the country of Denmark, there are several forests with distinctive trees, called Troll Forests, Troldeskoven. The trees are old and knotted, their branches twisting whimsically in all directions. One particular Troldeskov, near Jels in southern Jutland, was my absolute favourite. There was one tree that bent right upside down and then reached for the sky again, forming a perfect circle.

For a young child, it was as if the forest was magical. Completely silent and still, one could hear the birds singing, examine all kinds of squishy little creatures, watch the sun filter through the leaves and peer through the spiraling trees for signs of the trolls who lived there.

Several years ago, a hurricane swept through Denmark, felling 80% of her forests. My forest was decimated. On a recent trip, I went to see what was standing of the Troldeskov. I was sad to see that it was dying, slowly being replaced by commercial tree farms.

This shawl is inspired by my memories.



It's perfect.



Troldeskoven's trees are so higglety pigglety, but they have a grace and beauty that are hard to find. The elements in this shawl try to emmulate that unexpected grace. They don't seem to belong to just one shawl, and yet they blend so nicely (and rather pleasantly for the designer, I might add).



It looks lovely with a pretty shawl pin and sits just so on my shoulders. This would be lovely in a heavier weight yarn on just right needles to be a warm fall shawl. The really lovely thing about the way this pattern is designed is that the knitter can make it as big or as small as they want. The elements, while dependent of each other, do not require a certain stitch count to work correctly. So, given plenty of yardage or minimal yardage, you can knit this shawl. As it were, I wanted it for when I return to Denmark next year for my grandfather's 90th birthday, when I will walk in the forests again.



One day, as I was knitting in The Knitting Room and visiting with the store manager and my friend, Annie, she was telling me all about how she's riding in this Ride to Conquer Cancer next year. She needs to raise $2,500 to do it. Well, since I was just going to submit the pattern for free on Ravelry anyway, why not help a friend out, says I? I know that knitters are pretty awesome people, and it's for a good cause.



So, friends, the pattern is written, charted, photographed and tested. I'm bringing it in to Annie later this week. Knit, enjoy and go for a walk in the woods. :)

Happy Thanksgiving Socks!

Last night, I took a break from working on Troll Forest to finish up a pair of socks I'd been working on sporatically for the last month. Meet Eunice (rav link).



They're really sweet little socks, certainly not difficult, but just intruiging enough to keep you interested. They knit up fairly quickly, and I loved the colours of Koigu that I knit them out of. The sock yarn was gifted to me by Jocelyn after I spun her some yarn a while back.



It's hard to see, but the purple actually pools. It swirled down the leg and then went half-and-half with the other colours on the heels, and then spiraled around again on the foot. It's uber pretty. There is a bit more green in one skein than the other, but it's all good. I'm not one of those crazy perfectionist knitters. ;)



Cookie is a genius. Love her. The way the pattern all came together makes me realize that designing is not just about tossing some stitch patterns together and voila like I see time and time again. It's really about flow, balance and, well, designing. It was the perfect reminder for me, just as I'm struggling to transition into the second element of the shawl. Thanks, Cookie!

Veil of Isis

So beautiful!

Knit with Colourmart 100% Cashmere. YUM. This is a gift for my cousin's fiancee, Ashley. Modelled by the ever-lovely Terra.









The beads (which are rather hard to see) are only on the border. I used far more than called for, and they're a really nice smoky purple/green/blue hue. I am SO happy with this knit. I hope Ashley likes it!

Knit in just under two months.

A La Peanut Butter Sandwiches

Here is the Egeblad blanket in all its finished glory:







This blanket shouldn't have taken as long as it did. There was, do remember, a move in the middle of it, so things were rather hectic. The blanket turned out beautifully, though, and I think I may have to get one on the needles for myself the next time I decide to produce life. I love it.

The parents to be loved it, too.



There was a copious amount of warning them to NOT put it in the wash machine lest it "felt like a Mo-fo." There was a rather annoying point in the whole baby shower thing when some random person whom I've never met decided to start lecturing me about everything to do with our daughter. First it was that we wouldn't let Elodie hold her own cupcake while she was eating it because she's a rather messy eater and we only had one change of clothes. Elodie was bawling, and the woman kept saying, oh, come on. Say, Please Daddy? Please?

Then it was her giving our daughter a donut and telling her, "Don't tell Daddy." The final straw was her lecturing me that I'd best "get pregnant sooner rather than later because you don't want a big gap between them." Actually, yes, I do want a big gap between them.

Why do people do this? Why? Is it my new Emo hair?



Do I look like someone who needs parenting advice? Seriously, my daughter is 28 months. I've survived this far. I think I know what I'm doing in general. Sure, ask me when she's a teenager and I may have a different answer for you, but for now, I'm good. If I want advice (which I don't), I'll ask my mom or grandma. I'm not going to ask Suzy Random that I've never met.

Sheesh.

FINISH.

Blanket is done, washed, blocked, wrapped, gifted and opened. They loved it. I warned them that no washing machine is to be used on the 6,400-some-odd stitches, and that if they really, really need to give it a good wash, give it to me, and I'll do that for them. It's just one of the many things I do that makes me a nice person. In general.

Anyway, I'll post pictures tomorrow!

A Lesson in Patience.

The Clapotis is done.



I jumped on the bandwagon, spinning my own yarn for this project. It's soft, squishy and very versatile. I love it.



I picked up a vintage brooch from my grandmother's collection. It goes great, and it makes a lovely shawl pin. It holds the wrap on just where I want it. Of course, this will make a great scarf for when winter rolls around.

To be honest, though, I was rather bored with the knitting of it. I don't mind plain things. I love knitting stocking stitch socks. I even like garter stitch in the right scenario. But this was the same thing over and over. I grew so bored with it that I even hibernated it on my Ravelry projects page.

Finally, a few nights ago, I decided enough was enough. I spun up the very small amount of yarn that was needed to finish the project. I stayed up until 1:00. I knit. I soaked. I blocked.



Sometimes, being patient pays off, apparently.

Tour: Week One

It's been a crazy week. Between work and packing and spinning and knitting, I've barely had time to do anything.

Tour de Fleece started off with a spin-in. Terra came over for a spinning day, as mentioned in my previous post. Everything was set for a great time!





Here is what came off the bobbins in week one:

sock yarn.


Baby camel and silk


Sorry about the blurry picture. This is the plied baby camel and silk.

100% Merino


BFL/Silk and yet another skien of the Maple:


Kitty managed to get a hold of my BFL bobbin last night:


I also spun enough N-plied Maple to finish my second Red Dwarf sock:




The flower thief stole the flower:




What else have I been doing?


A blanket for friends whose baby is due in September. I like this blanket almost more than I like the Hemlock Ring. I just picked a doily pattern off Ravelry that I rather enjoyed (I picked Egeblad - Ravelry link) and started knitting it to a larger gauge. It's turning out beautifully.


Also totally adoring the Luna Moth Shawl (Ravelry link). I'm knitting it with some silk that I spun a LONG time ago. You can tell that it was one of my earlier spins since it's not all that even. I think after I give the shawl a firm blocking, it'll settle down nicely and the texture will work quite well.

I've also become kind of a freak for stitch markers of late. I am, however, rather poor since buying a house, so I've been making my own:


I picked the beads up at Michaels for only a few bucks each package. I've made about 100 stitch markers so far, and I can see myself sitting with a surplus.



They're really quite addictive.

Anyway, it's nearly 2:00 a.m., and I still have 30 minutes to do of a file that I'm working on. I guess I'd better stop procrastinating and actually work so I can go to sleep at some point tonight. Until next time!