Wednesday, August 29, 2012

WIP Wednesday: Dragon Tail

It's been a while since I've done a WIP Wednesday.  So here it goes.

I've been wanting to a garter stitch scarf like hitchhiker or wingspan since they first strated to show up in the knitting groups I go to.  Wasn't sure which, was leaning towards wingspan when I came across Drachenschwanz by Solway Hauptmann on Ravelry.  The next day I cast on.

I love the curve this pattern creates.  And it's so simple.  The yarn is Cascades Heritage 150 Paints sock yarn in the military fatigues colorway.

Next, something for Knit Wits.  This is a baby blanket I started sometime last year and now finally half way through.  I'm determined to get it done now.

Yarn is Red Heart Eco-Ways.  Pattern is Afghan #2 by Rachel J. Terrill.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

WIP Wednesday: August 1

Two WIPs to share today.  The first, the second of the shrugs I'm working on for Knit Wits.

Kwshrug2wip1
The second is the hoodie I've been working on for myself.

Hoodiewip2
I've got the back and left front done and I'm working on a sleeve now.  Maybe I'll have it down in time for winter.

 

I don't have much to say about either project at the moment.  I'm tired from cleaning house in preparation for the sister's arrival tomorrow.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Butterfly Wings Shawl



The Butterfly Wings Shawl is now available.  You can purchase it for $7 from Knitivity or you can buy a skein of primo lace from Knitivity and get the pattern for free!  It only takes one skein primo lace, or 920 yards of another lace yarn.

Here it is on Ravelry!

This is my first shawl design and I'm pretty excited about it so share it with your friends!

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Camping and Olympics Project

I've started my Ravellenic Games (formerly Ravelympics) project.  Didn't get to watch the opening ceremonies when I cast on since I was camping at the time.

Huckleberrywip1

 

I'm loving this yarn.  It's Schaffer Yarn's Audrey in the Mary Walker Phillips colorway.  It 50% merino wool, 50% silk.  So soft and shiny and it's in some of favorite colors.  The design is my own.  Not sure at this point how it's going to turn out.  It'll be a shallow shawl, triangle or half circle shape.  I haven't quite decided yet.

 

So camping, yay, that was fun.  Kind of.  It was definitely one of the most memorable camping trips I've been on, but that's not necessarily a good thing.  Every year at the end of July my family goes camping up on Priest Lake.  Sometimes on the west side, sometimes the east, it all depends of what campground we can get into.  This year was on the east side at Lionhead's campground.  It's a nice campground, no hook ups, but free wifi, which is just weird.  We camped there for the first time last year and it was enjoyable.  They have a dog beach which is nice when you want to play on the beach with your dogs, and it also means I haven't been on the other part of the huge beach the campground has.  What can I say, I like hanging with the dogs.  Tripper and Cable are just so lovable.

 

Nice location, lots of wonderful family to spend time with, nice weather, only one problem.  The neighbors.

 

Thursday morning I was woken up at 7am by someone yelling into a megaphone, in Russian.  Yes, that right, Russian, in North Idaho.  The campground was taken over on Wednesday by a huge church group which apparently were all Russian, and they apparently didn't see anything wrong with yelling into a megaphone at 7am in the morning.  Or letting their kids run through our campsite thirty minutes later.  I was pissed.  I mean, it's one thing to making noise at 7 in the morning (when quiet hours ended) it's a completely other thing to be yelling into a megaphone at the hour, or any hour.  The rangers came in and put a stop to it for us and the other patrons of the campground.  They couldn't however do anything about the dirt bikes, but that wasn't constant so it wasn't too bad.  It was the smell that was worse then the noise anyways.

 

Friday was the best day for me.  Managed to convice the dad to go for a drive rather than go on his daily bike ride.  We ended up driving all the way around lower and upper Priest Lake, something I've never done before but now would like to do more ofter.  The area north of upper Priest Lake is gorgeous and Garnite Pass was quite the sight.  We stopped at one point early onbecause dad saw some cedar he wanted to cut up into firewood.  While he did that me and mom explored a bit.  I found a large granite boulder that was just gorgeous.  It had one section that was just white with little red spots of garnets in it.  Too big to take home and couldn't bring myself to break off a chunk.  Some things should be left as they are.  

 

Mom walked around taking pictures of wildflowers and while doing so found a patch of huckleberry bushes that had ripe berries.  The huckleberries aren't that great this year, most people aren't finding any, it's just been too wet this year.  The patch we found though had plenty of berries.  We picked enough for huckleberry pancakes for everyone in the morning.

 

When we got around to the other side of lower Priest Lake we stopped at Granite Falls.  A beautiful fall that you can visit before heading up the trail into the Roosevelt Cedar Grove.  We were the only ones there, which is weird.  There's a campgroung right there which usually has one or two people camping in it but not this last week.  We walked up to the see the falls from the lower vantage point.  I've never seen so much water in that stream!  And it's the end of July when the water is usually low.  After the falls we headed back to the other side of the lake and camp, stoping for beer on our way through the town of Priest Lake.

 

Came home yesterday.  The rest of the family stayed till today.  My aunt couldn't get our site through the weekend so we had to come back early.  Not that I minded to much.  Camping's great but it does leave me really tired, and I really wanted a shower.

 

My birthday is Thursday and the sister will be getting into town late that evening.  Looking forward to seeing her even if it's only for a little while before so goes on a week long bike ride with my dad.  After that my attention will be focused on the fair.  It's going to be chaos this year.  They're switching over to registering entries online and getting people to change is going to be hell.  Here's hoping we get plenty of entries despite the change, otherwise building 3 is going to look a little empty this year. 

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Gear Shawl: Progress Photos

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Gearshawlwip2

 

Gearshawlwip3

I love looking at this photos together.  It's like it's evolving, like a pokemon.

Hmmm....

 

 

:D

 

 

Monday, July 9, 2012

Canada and the Cat

Got back from Canada on Thursday.  Would have liked to stay maybe a bit longer but I'm glad to be home.

 

The Canadian Rockies are just gorgeous.

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I got to walk on a glacier and see the headwall of the Columbia Icefield.

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We also visited Lake Louise but I found it a bit crowded for my liking.

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Also saw some moutain sheep.

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And I got a skein of Qiviuk which I'm going to use to make my hands very happy with a lacey pair of fingerless mitts.

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I also got some work done on the my lastest shawl design the gear shawl.  Finished the small gear the first day when we spent the night at Fairbanks Hotsprings.

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I had quite a bit fun, but it wasn't all good (my dad was an asshole for most of the trip) and on the way back home I got sick with a stomach flu my aunt and cousin had gotten the previous two days. Definitely going to go back some day, though probably not to Banff.  It's awfully crowed there.  

 

Friday my mom went to pick up the dog from the kennel.  A couple minutes before she got back my cat Lindy came meowing and limping into the living room and I promptly freaked out.  I got her to lay down and she was hissing and growling from the pain.  I couldn't tell if her foot was broken or what so when mom came home we got Lindy in her pet carrier and took her to the vet.  

The vet checked her out and then took x-rays of her leg to make sure there was no fracture. Thankfully nothing was broken but the vet still wasn't sure what was wrong.  Lindy either sprain something or there was a blood clot in her leg. Eek!  Blood clots are the worse.  We were sent home with some painkillers for her and directions to give her some baby aspirin.  She's already improved quite a bit and it looks like it was just a sprain.  She's been spending the last couple of days curled up on my blanket on a chair.

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She just looks like she's in so much pain doesn't she. :)

 

With the trip, getting sick, and Lindy's injury I've been completely discombobulated.  Looking forward to getting back to my normal routine this week.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

WIP Wednesday: Lace designs

The Double Diamonds scarf is bound off, but not blocked yet.  Finished pictures probably won't happen until sometime after the 7th.

With the scarf done I found myself wanting to knit lace and two designs I want to do.

The first one I'm going to do for the Ravellenic Games (formerly Ravelympics).  I got the design and chart drawn over teh weekend.  I also did a bit of test knitting and really liked how the pattern's going to look in the yarn I picked.  

Audreyshawldesign

It's going to be a sideways knit, shallow triangle shawl with a pretty edging and just plain stockinette for the main part of it.  The yarn is a skein I got when visiting my sister in Rhode Island.  It's Schaefer Yarn Company's Audrey in the Mary Walker Phillips colorway.  It's 50% merino/50% silk and feels absolutely lovely.  The picture came out dark so you can't see the colors quite how they are.  The colors in it are black, pink , blue, gray, and purple.  It's gorgeous knitted up.  I can't wait to cast on during the opening ceremony of the olympics.

The other shawl is one that's been in my head for a while and I've finally got it down.  I'm calling it the Gear Shawl for now and it will be my first circular shawl design.

Gearshawldesign

I finallized all the design elements today, drawing up charts and figuring out the math and then I cast on.  The yarn is an unknown knitting machine yarn my mom gave me.  It's acrylic and I have no idea the yardage.  It's a pretty brown though and is perfect for this design.

Saturday I'm off to Banff, Alberta, Cananda with the parents, aunt, uncle, and cousin.  In Canada for Independence Day, but also Canda Day so I won't miss out on fireworks.  Staying in a  condo and I have no idea if I get a bed or what.  The aunt, uncle, and cousin have their own condo.  Somehow my aunt scored two free condos.  She's always finding amazing deals like that.  Won't be back till the 7th.  Looking forward to going somewhere I haven't been before.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Well, It is WIP Wednesday

The scarf is coming along very slowly it seems.
Doublediamondswip2
It's over half way now, will probably try to finish it before Monday.

I've also bound off on the a shrug for Knit Wits.
Kwmuppet1wip3

I absolutely love the colors in this.  The fur yar worked so well with boucle and variegated yarn.  It's the first of many shrugs for Knit Wits.

That's all I've been working on recently.  Mindless, easy projects to take a break before my next lace shawl.  Which I should probably try to get started on sometime soon.

For Father's Day I went with the parents on a drive around Selkirk loop, which goes west into Washington, up  into Canada and then back down into Idaho.  I've always wanted to go around the Selkirk loop and was not disappointed.  It's a beautiful drive through mountains, valleys, and at on point a ferry ride across Kootenay Lake.  I got a few pictures, I didn't very many because I'm not much for taking pictures.  I don't particular care for looking at things from behind a camera.
A picture a got when stopped just for the view of the lake.
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We also stopped at this lookout where I got this picture of the valley.
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After the ferry ride we stopped at this artisan crafts area that feature things like weaving, glassblowing at the such.  We went in to the glassblowing and forge building.  There was nobody currently doing either but it was nice looking at the beautiful stuff they'd made.
I ended up get a beautiful snowflake copper and glass necklace.
Snowflakenecklace
And I got these gorgeous buttons.
Buttons

Now to find the yarn and design to go with them. :)

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

WIP Wednesday: Double Diamonds

It's another WIP Wednesday where I actually remembered it was Wednesday.  This weeks work in progress is a scarf I've designed and am knitting up for Knit Wits.

Doublediamondswip

The yarn is Loops and Threads Snuggly Wuggly in the Silly Sprite color.  This is my most favorite baby yarn to work with.  I spotted someone making off with a couple of skeins of this color at last months Knit Wits meeting and was jealous I didn't get to it first.  So, when a skein showed up at this months meeting I snatched it up.

 

The scarf designs idea is lacey diamonds bordered my solid diamonds.

Doublediamondscloseup

 I have to say I really like how it's looking, but the knitting's been slow going.  Sport weight yarn does not make for fast knitting.  Finally putting some noticeable lenght on it.  When it's done I plan on writing up the pattern and selling it on Ravelry.  See if I can make a little money.

 

I didn't get much sleep last night due to constant thunder.  Then while doing the dishes I broke my Bailey's Irish Cream glass and cut myself on it.  I'm going to go finish off that bottle of chocolate wine.  

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Purple Mystic Star

 Bound off the Mystic Star shawl on Monday, June 4.

 

My first circular shawl.

 

Here's a picture of it before blocking.

Mysticstarbeforeblocking
Pinned out.

Mysticstarpinnedout

After taking the pins and wires out.

Mysticstarblocked

And a pretty artsy picture of it.

Mysticstarhanging

 

I can't believe how beautiful it turned out.  The pattern is Mystic Star by Anna Dalvi.  The yarn I used was Claudia Hand Painted Yarns Silk Lace in the aubergine colorway.  It's got a diameter of 50 inches.  I couldn't quite get the 51 inches the pattern indicated.  Going to set this one aside to enter in the fair.  It's too gorgeous and perfect not to.

 

With the shawl out of the way I've been playing lots of Diablo 3 and working on Knit Wits stuff for my knitting.  I've got a scarf I'm working on right now.  Planning on writing up the pattern for it and trying to sell it.

 

And I made a cute cyborg octopus for a contest on DeviantArt.

Cyborgoctopus

It didn't win. 

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

AK Kerani Designs

I knit for the online company AK Kerani and now have a couple of my own designs up on their site.

Red Rhody Scarf - $40


Lilac Slouch Hat - $25

Lilac Mitts - $18


You can order them all through AK Kerani and 18% of the profit will go to the charity of your choice!

I'm also thinking of starting to offer commissions so if you'd like to commission me to knit something for you fill free to note me about it.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

WIP Wednesday: Shawl Progress

I've been spending lots of time working on the Mystic Star shawl.  I'm to the last section of it.  576 stitches around.  The chart for this part is 48 stitches wide and covers over 70 rows, even rows not being show since they're just knit.

Here it is on the needles.  I tried to spread out the middle so you can see the pattern at the center.


And here's part of the section of just finished spread out a bit.

I've been enjoying working on it and the cat seems to like it as well.  One knit while I was trying to knit Lindy jumped up onto my lap and curled up on the shawl and then shoved her nose into and fell asleep.  It was very cute.

The stitch markers I was using for the shawl were annoying me.  The yarn kept getting snagged on them so my mom was nice enough to make me some out some stone beads a got some time ago.
There's four round ones and four tear drop shaped ones.  I looked them up and they're synthetic blue malachite that's been dyed, or something like that.  Not something that occurs naturally.

The other project I've been working on this week is a crocheted stegosaurus.
That's the head there on the pattern.  It should be adorable when it's done.  Don't know what color it's spikes are going to be yet.  I'll have to look in my stash for something that would look good, or find something at the next Knit Wits meeting.

I've also been working on the hoodie for myself.  It's been my social knitting so not much work is getting done on it but I just might have the back done before the end of the month.

Spring has been just wonderful.  The flowering plum and the wild plum have been absolutely gorgeous this year.  We did get some really cold nights over the weekend, freezing the bleeding heart and the lilacs.  One lilac is not going to bloom this year but the other too will.  The freezing coincided with my mom buying plants for the deck, of course.  Again this year she put Dahlia's in the boxes around the deck.  They were gorgeous last year and the Moose didn't eat them.  Here's some pictures of my favorites.




 I spent several hours out on the deck enjoying the sunshine, gorgeous flowers, and hummingbirds that were coming to the feeder.  Lindy joined me this afternoon and I got some nice pictures of her.


Hey mom!

Snoozing



Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Pictures

I took a bunch of pictures today and here are the ones that turned out the best.

Spring Tulips Shawl on lilac bush

Treelephant in flowering plum

 Galaxy Scarf in wild plum tree

 Cable running through the woods

Now to get back to working on the Mystic Star shawl.