Busy Times

Lots of stuff has been happening lately. Our holiday party was a resounding success. Grandson loved his telescope. Being the evil grandmother that I am, I put socks in the box & wrapped it up. Grandpa put together the telescope while I did that & we hid it in the closet. Poor kid was almost in tears when he found the socks. We whispered to him to look at his cousin Bradley, who held up the telescope. Talk about ecstasy. LOL

I also knitted a couple baby blankets. One for a great nephew who was born a couple weeks ago and one as a Christmas gift for a great niece from her uncle.

This is Wallace's blanket. It's made with Yarn Bee's Mosaic Twist in Terra Rosa. The knitting is done corner to corner on size 17 needles with an increase on the each end of the right side rows, then decreases on the right side rows.





This is Mason enjoying her new blankie. It's the same yarn, just different color. I also did eyelets around the edge on her blanket.

2008 Knitting Resolutions

Dawn had this bright idea to post our 2008 Knitting Resolutions, so:

1. Finish: DH's vest; Handsome Triangle from VLT; Secret of the Stole; any other UFO's in my closet (mainly sewing things together)
   
2. Work on new KALs
3. Do more lace/shawl knitting
4. Make some dresses for niece - knitting or sewing

I think that's enough damage for now. :-D

Design Contest Over

At long last (says she who was running late), the LSSK Design Contest is over and the votes have been tallied. Congratulations to Meghan for her swing dress and JoAn for her Texas Vest (like your daughters, I want one too!!!). I came in second place for my Flower Petal Blanket. (For more information on any of these patterns, please email me at txaes2001atyahoodotcom)


I also entered a purse & cell phone holder. There is a large pocket inside:


In addition, I made an ensemble for my niece for Christmas. I thought it was the right size, but it's not. I went ahead and gave it to her mom so maybe she will get a little wear out of the booties & sweater:


Secret of the Stole: I'm about half-way through clue #6. (Clue 7 was published yesterday.)
Mystic Waters: I've made some headway on untangling the yarn. Right now though, it's all put away. I want to finish SotS and I have a bunch of charity knitting to finish before the 1st.

Stash Enhancement: Yesterday, my friends Birdy, Brenda and I went to Laurel's house. She wanted to get rid of some machine yarn and we needed lace weight style yarn. I'll take a picture of what all I got later and post it.

Untangling update

It is slowly but surely coming undone. I've got two balls working right now. My guess is the smaller one is the beginning and the larger the end.

I haven't worked on Secret of the Stole today. Actually felt good, so I worked on the floors of the house. They desperately needed mopping. This evening, our grandson came over to spend the night. (His dad works in a restaurant and did a double shift tonight.)

Mystic Waters

Whereas the Secret of the Stole is coming along nicely, I had a major "burp" in this one this morning. My dear, darling, lovable, feisty Ashley found a way unto the dining room table in her never ending pursuit of the cat. I guess she got distracted...


At this point, I don't know what I'm going to do. I've managed to get quite a bit rewound and there are still several sections for easy rewinding, but I've hit a major snag. I think I will work on it off & on and restart the project when my Knit Picks order comes in.

I ordered Knit Picks Gossamer in the Caribbean colorway to make another of these. It is currently being processed, so we will see when it gets here.

This has not been a particularly good day knitting-wise. :-/

Secret of the Stole

I won't complain, for long, but it's not been a good week. Had a bad arthritis flare and still recovering from it.

On the happy news, I finished Clue 3 of Secret of the Stole today. Although, being me, as I was transferring to a long needle to take a pic, I dropped some stitches which will require tinking back 6-7 rows. Oh well. I am hoping to finish Clue 4 tomorrow and will upload a photo.



This is a close-up showing the pearls. You will need to click on the photo to enlarge it.

Swatch Done

I completed & blocked my swatch for the Mystic Waters KAL. I used Baruffa Cashwool, #3 Addi Turbo Lace Needles and #8 Mill Hill Beads.

I'm not happy with where I placed my beads. I will have to pay closer attention when the charts start coming (in 6 days). They are kind of hard to see, but since I'm using them as accents, I think they will be okay. They do show more in person.

This yarn is super soft. I'm glad I spent the money on the lace needles because it does "grab" the yarn a bit. I think I would go nuts with any other type of needles.