Wonderful Malabrigo Swap 9 Pkg

Today, I picked up my Malabrigo Swap 9 Pkg from the Post Office.
I have been so spoiled from the moment I opened the box, and saw all the pink tissue paper(yes, I still am in love with pink!)

Here's the beautiful "before":
There were 8 (count ‘em 8!) packages to unwrap (lucky me)!

and the oh so amazing “after”:


In detail:

Kara gave me the book from my wishlist - “Knitting in the Sun”-

and lots of yummy goodies from Trader Joe’s - chocolate covered sunflower seeds, luna bars in chocolate peppermint (I am so in heaven right now), dried pears (thank you thank you) and chili spiced mango (I love this stuff).
Also, Haribo Gummi Bears - yum- these are so good -

I didn’t think it could get better, but I kept opening…
Next, needles and notions from my wishlist - thank you thank you
Knit Picks US 4 and US7 Harmony Tips, and US 24” cable set-
Webs wood interchangeables - US 3 with cable; it has a very interesting join, I tried screwing them together and they seem very secure, can’t wait to try them out.
and Clover Locking Stitch Markers (which I can always use, and I use tons - in fact, my knit night ladies always rib me about how many I use - no pun intended)



Next an unassuming plain brown box with this beautiful Shawl pin inside from Nicholas and Felice



and last but not least - 3 gorgeous skeins of Mal Worsted in Tuareg
(sorry, the picture doesn’t do it justice - my camera just can’t take blues, and struggles with reds)



The second amazing thing about these skeins is that they match well with the 1/2 knit cable hat I made from mal and ran out of yarn for - so I can finish this off too. Here’s the pic:



oh, and the little flecks are the irridescent specs coming off the beautiful hot pink tissue paper which is like a mini celebration in and of itself. :)

It feels like Christmas and a very grand Birthday rolled in one.

Fantastic Finish

A Fantastic finish to the 2010 Olympics - I caught the overtime game Canada vs. US and saw the gold winning goal - fantastic...and a humorous end to the closing ceremonies.

Here's the photo of the Shapely Symmetry Sheath from last post - finished finally - started 2007 before I moved from Portland and finished in the wips dancing event of the Ravelympics 2010 on Ravelry.

Front:


Back:


Next, I finished the BSA Alpaca Cardi. Knit primarily in 2008 Winter and Spring. I stopped short of adding i-cord on the front, and sewing in the zipper. It's Suri Merino, actually. Turns out, it wasn't difficult, just took careful placement of pins. Here's the cardi -open:



and closed:



I added attached i-cord, which allowed the front of the cardi to collaps with a nice finished edge, then, hand-sewed the zipper in.



Finished the lacy scarf - entered in 3 events - laceluge, speedskate for 1 skein projects, and the superg scarf events:



Ta Da - Medals:


and started another woven - with blue, brown, and a variegated yarn Mochi Plus that has pink, red, brown, and blue together.

1 week down, 1 week to go.

Just over half way, and I frogged my footies (see previous post), wove a beautiful scarf in teal green, red and pink:


This from the podium in honor of my grand finish-

"EVENT: Labyrinth Weaving

Today’s finishers:

mprsdrose
NadKnitBlog (from Germany)

Congratulations on your wonderous woven victory! Please accept this Ravatar Bouquet, presented by one of the Ravelympics’ hororary dignitaries, the Goblin King himself (the crowd screaming, “We love you David!!!”).

Also, please accept this medal from the head of the International Ravelympic Committee, Adonis Dionysius Bobicus Maximus.


And now please rise and hold your needles, hooks, and shuttles over your hearts for the Ravelry International Anthem.

and the warped crowd weft the building still squealing with delight!!!"

I alsostarted my Oooh La La La Luz Waterfall Scarf:


made with Fiesta La Luz in Bluebonnet - if it looks like it has a sheen to you, it does - it's silk (and oh so soft).



and finished today seaming my Shapely Symmetry Sheath dress.

This week, to finish off the waterfall scarf, weave another scarf in blues, and finish the i-cord zip on the bsa alpaca cardi from yesteryear.

Aerial Unwind Event - Frogged Footies

first event finished for ravelympics 2010 - frogged my footies on the weekend. What was once a lovely journey towards handpainted superwash footies, is now just a pile, well, actually wound back into a ball.

Here's the before:



The after:



and hereafter, waiting for the next project:



and my reward:

Ravelympics Plan

I ditched the idea of thrummed mittens, and possibly of hats. Now, I'm thinking I'm going to frog my blueberry footies (which were at 60%), at least one of them, as I had overknit for the Aerial Unwind event . I hope to finish off 2 of my outstanding hibernating projects for the Wips dancing event - seaming my Shapely Sheath, and hopefully, making a suitable belt for it, and adding the zip to my alpaca cardi from 2008. Alas, it is time.

As for new projects, I am thinking maybe an easy scarf to take to knit night that would be for the Scarf Super-G event.

In the rules, it says that it is possible to start a new project during the ravelympics timeframe, but only if the other ones planned have been completed. Therefore, I can't plan to make too many. .

Here's to knitting within the lines...which for me is the real challenge.

Ravelympics 2010

It's official. I'm apparently the captain of our Team Bitchybees for Ravelympics 2010. Only 11 days away, and I haven't picked projects yet. I'm still happily weaving and playing with yarns. Still knitting the same cardi from November - the b-side. I'm on the second sleeve. That should be one I should plan on finishing, but we'll see.

I'm usually an ambitious knitter, and end up spending my time on a mix of activities.
This year, Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day weekend, and Ravelympics (and the Olympics) all fall on the same weekend. Add to that, my mom's birthday on the 12th, and there's a tea festival in Victoria on the weekend. It adds up to not as many days as planned to get knitting done.

Some of the projects I'm interested in include - thrummed mittens, simple hats made of malabrigo, and probably some weaving. We'll see.

I moved some more yarns to destash (trying to be brutal here)...a move to become lighter in the new year.

Possum yarn and Destash

I finished the possum hat - took only 1 ball of DK yarn to make the modified Coronet Hat. I say modified because the first one I made from Camel and did not pick up from the bottom of the cable band inside before decreasing for the crown. I just knit the cable strip and picked up and knit to the crown. I wasn't sure I'd have enough camel yarn. I had just enough in the 1 ball which was about 100yds.

The possum hat was also about 100 yds, so not quite a full ball.

After putting it in the wash on warm (in a lingerie bag), and letting it dry, it fluffed up and it turned out to be very furry and so so soft. The drawback is that the hat is not quite as warm as my camel one. I think that's the merino-possum mix.



It's January and my only resolutions are to get out more, and to be more abundant. I've started walking again at lunch, and I'm still unpacking, but separating things to keep, from donations, and things for sale. Speaking of such, I'm starting my destash with some yarn, and books. Check out my destash page on rav and let me know if you're interested in anything. I will consider reasonable offers too.

Happy New Year 2010

I had a great Christmas and my recipients enjoyed my newly woven scarves very much. I just made two - the rest I've kept as lessons, or they're waiting for new homes.

One was for my mom - a simple two-colour scarf in Blue Sky Alpacas Alpaca Silk in Peacock (Teal) and Black. One edge was black, teal, black, and the other teal, black teal so she could have either colour as the edging on the outside. Although she initially wasn't as fond of it as another I'd picked for her - an Alpaca-Acrylic combo I'd picked up at a local Craft show, she thinks she'll end up using the one I wove as it's softer, and lighter. Yay!





The second was one I'd woven for a friend, Marilyn. She had gifted me a big bag of cotton yarn on Christmas eve, and I offered to weave her a scarf, with a keyhole so she could loop the scarf around and tuck it in. Turns out, the scarf was a big hit. It was combination of blues - dark, light, teal, and purple with various fibers - her cotton and also angora in a navy, and a blue-purple variegated from louisa harding, also the matching LH ribbon in blue-purple, and a thin teal silk ribbon I'd had from years ago. Add a touch of copper from the Drops vicose, and a bit of copper metallic. It was a hit, and it looked great on her. The photo doesn't do it justice - looks like my camera was having an off day-



I just may make a few more keyholes for fun.

Just before Christmas I renewed the loom again until the end of January. This is getting to be a bit addictive, I'd say, but still fun. I did take one small knitting detour just after Christmas. Due to the Beehive's Inventory Sale- I sprung for some possum yarn (60% merino; 40% possum) - I tell you - you have no idea how long I've been literally yearning for possum yarn - years. Way back a couple of years, one of my friends from guild showed me a beautiful blue hat she'd felted. It was made of possum. At the time, Cherry Tree Hill had just discontinued their possum yarns, and most recently, they had been merino with superwash wool. Since hers had been felted, I was curious to find the possum yarn again with the non-superwash wool. I sprung for 2 skeins of the 01 Natural, as they had a ribbed scarf on display and it was very soft. I am half way through another coronet hat, just decreasing at the crown, and hope to have this baby in the wash soon so I can try it out.

Other than the Rimu Possum yarn, I also picked some Handmaiden - casbah, a favorite and also a skein of the sea mountain sock, which is superwash sock and seacell together. Should be fun. Perhaps sock, perhaps a woven scarf, we'll see.

Woven exploration

Well I haven't knitted much in these last 2 weeks - I'm still working very slowly on my stonechat b-side cardi, and I'm still on the first sleeve, ready to shape the cap.

It's been slow going because I started a new hobby. I rented a Knitter's Loom from Knotty by Nature, and I've made 3 scarves so far.

The first uses Black Wollmeise as the warp, and Handmaiden Camelspin - in a blue-pink-green colorway as the weft. This scarf turned out very pleasing, but not as soft as expected, as the wollmeise is a superwash wool. Both are near fingering weight, so it took about 1/2 hour to setup but about 6 hours to make total. Let's call this my learning scarf. I forgot several of the things that Ryan briefly told me at the store. One was to center my project in the loom. Since the scarf was built almost entirely on the right hand side of the loom, my tension was definitely off, and it took longer to manipulate.

The first pic shows off more of the Camelspin:


This second pic, I layered the scarf as it would likely go around my neck - and it shows off more of the black:


On the second scarf, I forgot that to change colours, you should do this mid-row. Consequently, I have a pile of ends to weave in. I made the warp with more of the black wollmeise, and added some Blue Heron Metallic in a pink-red colorway that I had left over from a wrap I'd made in the fall, and also some copper-black strands.
Here's a pic of the warps in the loom, waiting for weaving:


On the weft, I had a lot of fun - I used some back wollmeise, the blue heron pink-red, and also added a thicker Elsbeth Lavold wool yarn in a deep rich burgundy colour, and also Knit One Crochet Too red rayon chenille. I alternated the colours when I felt like it, and now, am left to weave in some ends. I brought the scarf to Knit night friday and that gals loved it.



and a detail shot:


It's very addicting and I made my third woven scarf this week. After re-reading the instruction booklet again, I learned some new things. The booklet I have has black& white photos, so it's hard to see what they are describing. I was told in my group that there is a colour booklet which would probably be easier to follow. The loom is the 20" size.

For my third scarf, I tried using the Camelspin as the weft. After I wound a bunch of warp yarns around the post, I realized that I'd forgotten to clamp the loom to my table, so the tension was off. I ended up having to unstring and cut a bunch of the yarn off the loom. On my second try, I re-strung the warp yarns snug and this worked much better. Also, I realized that by putting the piece of paper in the bottom of the tied warp yarns in front, the heddle could push each weft yarn straighter against the last. I really enjoyed making this last one - and I think this time it took only about 2.5-3 hours to make. I see now why this lady in my group Melissa really likes to weave - it's very satisfying to be complete with a project very quickly.

So, from here:


to here:


and here:


Here is the detail:


Ta Da!

B-Side progress

Whew a month's passed, and I've finished the body of the B-side cardigan, and started on the first sleeve. The Mal silky merino is very soft and enjoyable to knit with. After knitting 3" of ribbing, I decided to rip back, and start the sleeve again in the round. Now, it's progressing along well. Tuesday knight I knit 6 repeats of 12 of the sleeve. No new pics as of yet. I did find perfect buttons to go with the cardigan when it's ready for them. Haven't unpacked the buttons I own yet, but hopefully soon.

Took a couple of fun classes last week at Silk Road Tea - one was on making Massage Oils (oooh - a new hobby!) and the second was called Glacial Melts which involved pouring hot tea over ice cream (yum!). Most black and herbal teas brewed strong taste wonderful over vanilla. The Glacial Melts class was held at Roger's Soda Shoppe, which I hadn't been to yet. It was a fun class.

Started on the B-Side

Started a B-Side Cardi in Stonechat (Burgundy, Brown, Olive Green) Mal Silky Merino. It's a dream to knit with; so much so that I sometimes forget to read the pattern completely. For instance, I started well enough with a 2.5" rib, and knit a few more rows before realizing I was supposed to decrease. Too much yarn, so had to frog back. You could say I'm getting good at this. Next time, I reknit the cable, and continued onwards, then, reaching the end of the cable chart (26 row repeat) that I over-ribbed, for more like 4.5", instead of doing stockinette.

Needless to say for those who know me well, I've veered from the pattern. I did un-do about 16 or 18 2-column pearls and used a crochet to drop and pink up the columns of stitches to make stockinette. Between the cable and the left front edge though I kept about 6 columns, and to even it out, also at the right front edge, so I'll have a border of ribs which will hopefully keep the cardi pliable. It's still soft, but the stockinette is very boring. Hopefully, the cable will keep my interest up.

Here's the pre-ripped rib:



Ahem, having said that I started another lace sock in Yarn Pirate Cicada (Lt pink, spring green and white), a merino-bamboo yarn which is very soft and the color reminds me of spring flowers.