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.  

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.

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.

Well, It is WIP Wednesday

The scarf is coming along very slowly it seems.

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.

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.

We also stopped at this lookout where I got this picture of the valley.

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.

And I got these gorgeous buttons.

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

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.

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.

 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.  

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.

Pinned out.

After taking the pins and wires out.

And a pretty artsy picture of it.

 

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.

It didn't win. 

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.

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

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.