Sometimes Only Lace Will Do

Maybe it was a very delayed response to Malabrigo March Madness or a subconscious joining of Project Spectrum-Fire after the fact.

I found myself at Twisted which has probably the best selection of Malabrigo in Portland. I felt compelled to rid myself of the negative knitting juju of this (an utter waste of time and beautiful yarn).

Once again I returned to what is comfortable and cast on another Shetland Triangle in Malabrigo Lace because clearly two STs are not enough.

The colorway is Sealing Wax and in my defense I will say that:

1. I have been actually wearing ST #1 quite a bit lately.

2. I am embarking on slightly new ground by actually knitting lace in lace weight yarn.

I have already had frustrations with the latter, it tied itself in a tight little knot this morn which, pre-caffeine, I was forced to knit up into the shawl after hopeless attempts at unknotting. It amazes me with laceweight how quickly the stitches add up as the triangle is still so dainty.

I worked a few rows today at work during meetings but it is still so wee.

Watermelon Socks in Progress

Watermelon Socks in Progress, originally uploaded by Courtney Knits.

Picked these up after I finished the socks for my mom. The Kureyon yarn is beautiful but kinda stiff to knit with, not sure I would buy it again.

Waving Lace Socks for Mom

Waving Lace Socks for Mom, originally uploaded by Courtney Knits.

So, terrible picture (see the nursing school scrub top as background) but here they are. I mailed them off to mom yesterday. They knit up really fast and I had plenty of yarn left over.

I included a couple Cedar balls as the socks I made her for Christmas 2 years ago were riddled with moth holes (it gave me nightmares just thinking about it).

I will have better photos with the lace stretched out once she tries them on (I didn't want to stretch them out on my giant size 11 feet).

Great pattern! I have come to expect no less from Evelyn Clark!

Ocean Waves

A surprising bit of Americana showed up on my doorstep Friday.

I have never seen this quilt before.
It was won in a raffle in Mt. Sterling Wisconsin in 1902 by my great grandfather.
It was made by the local 'Ladies Aid' and has every members name embroidered on the front.

There is a note in my grandmothers hand to this effect which states that it is to be passed on to the first granddaughter to marry.

This is me as I am the only girl in that generation of our family and today is my 4th wedding anniversary.
Apparently it was misplaced in my aunts attic for some time and she remembered it when she saw me in January.

I finished my Hourglass Sweater and even though I tried it on and everything seemed OK, when all was said and done it was hugely baggy in the back. It fits pretty well elsewhere but the back was literally gaping.

It was pretty upsetting and I can't bear to go into details (there are more on Ravelry) but I did not want to frog and fuzz this so I tacked some darts in the back. It is exceedingly crude but maybe I will be able to wear it once the sadness abates. I may try again now that I have a pretty good idea what modifications need done but for now I am placating myself with something decadent and (knock on wood) foolproof.

I am knitting the Waving Lace socks from Favorite Socks in Sea Wool.
I stopped in Knit Purl on Friday for hemming advice on the sweater and saw this yarn and knew mom needed some socks.
She is a Piscean and oceanophile and these are 30% Seacell and the colorway was Ocean.
Perfect!



We had game night with the neighbors last night (horrid, endless game of Monopoly, Thank Goddess for knitting!) . I made good progress on the first sock!

Happy Sunday!

Sort of Anticlimactic

I knit a hand towel, loosely based on the towel patterns in Mason Dixon Knitting. I wanted a totally mindless project to stash in the break room at work for 'emergencies', days when I may have forgotten or did not have the presence of mind at 5am to bring knitting with me.
It came in handy for this purpose on several occasions.
I finally decided to finish the thing and move on. I made it extra simple stockinette with a garter stitch border so it was pretty tedious for such a small project and I was ready to cast off and wash it already to see if it lived up to the hype.
I have only hand washed it once so it will probably soften up more. At this point it is still pretty rustic. It does have lovely drape. It was OK to knit with but had little lumps of frayed yarn that bugged me and show up in the finished piece.
I love a little luxury but for the price of a skein of this yarn you could buy a pretty amazing hand towel so I'm not sure I'm convinced to make more of these.