Thinking about Wedding Ring Shawl

I have been thinking about Sharon Miller's Wedding Ring Shawl. Okay, it started with Princess, but I don't know about the whole triangle thing, and I'm not crazy enough to knit the square version. Then I started thinking about Unst, and isn't that a beauty? And then I was thinking about Wedding Ring Shawl...

Anyway, I'm only on round 170 of the Lena Niebling, so, there's not much to show, except for a sea of green. I do think I'm going to end it sooner than later, since I'm not a huge fan of the edging they used anyway.

Back to the 'next-big-project'. I'm torn. I've now got 3 different cobwebby yarns to be used for the Sharon Miller projects.

What do you all think?
the Mint is actually more green and much less yellow...these are all colourmart yarns.



left to right:

3/84NM 45:55 Cashmere/Silk Cobweb Weight in Mint

1/36NM 55:45 Cashmere/Silk Cobweb Weight in Sangria

1/36NM 55:45 Cashmere/Silk Cobweb Weight in dark natural

Which one to use?


ETA: I guess Sangria is it! Thanks everyone. By the way, Colourmart has more of this color (don't let his color scare you off, it's a deep red, not bright)

Panda

I knit this for my young friend who has a 15th birthday coming up this weekend. I never can figure out what to get for her each year, but recently, she's let it be known that she likes panda bears. And you know, it's not like she can have too many pandas. So I looked through my patterns and found the perfect one. It's from Noah's Ark by Alan Dart.


I knit him in worsted yarn instead of DK because I didn't want him to be teeny tiny. The pattern can be found in the simply Knitting magazine or his book, Irresistible Toys to Knit.

Stats:
Date started finished: a week because I was thinking about modifications.

It's actually a very fast knit, it took me a bit because I had to think about how to redo his legs and body so that he's more sitting, and less standing on all fours (like a cow). I wanted him to not be on 4s because well, I normally see sitting pandas.

yarn: acrylics
needle size: US2
mods: Many.

Here's my modifications:
Body: Done in the round because well, I try to do all of Alan Dart's patterns in the round when ever possible.
Head: Done also in the round after the neck part.
Arms: Done in the round. Went with casting on 10 stitches, knit a tube for a bit and then decreasing by k2tog and then thread through and pull. Stuffed and sewed on.
Legs: Done in the round. Cast on 14 stitches, knit 2 rows, increased 2 stitches at stitch 1 and 7, knit a few, decrease again, k row, decrease, knit.

Here's some more shots because he turned out so nicely. btw, that's a lucky bamboo that my mother gave me in the 90's (maybe 1996?).

No rest...

I'm knitting Rosa Romantic (aka phoenix Palme) from Lena. I've been meaning to knit it for awhile, and when I was last yarn diving (in my stash), I realized I had this lovely teal cashmere. So, I cast on on July 13. Of course, I haven't finished my other project, trollblume, but I'm at the point of moving my stitches off needles to only knit back and forth, so...it's sitting idle while I work on this beauty.

This will by my first (and maybe only) circular shawl. I like knitting circles, but I don't like wearing them (kinda like my love/dislike relationship w/ triangles). I guess I'm a rectangular type of gal. But here's the thing about this pattern, there's no rest row. You know, Nieblings have that every other row is a straight knitting row (which I really enjoy as the rounds get longer). However, with this pattern, you have to twist the twist stitches and purl the purl stitches. ouch.

Anyway, here's a progress shot. I'm too lazy to pin it out, so I stuck a book underneath it instead.

Ory-gone

Due to a soon-to-expire free ticket, we had a minivacation in Portland this weekend.

Of course, what is my main thought? What knitting to bring? Since we didn't want to check anything, I had to bring a project that would work w/ my Harmonies. So, it would be a doily (0-2needle size) or something that goes with size 4.

I chose to bring my Malabrigo green laceweight that I purchased from Nine Rubies a bit ago. And since one of my friends is turning 40 this next month, I thought I'd knit her something. I went back and forth between Ice Queen and Swallowtail, and then decided that the Malabrigo would be much better as a swallowtail.

Anyway, I cast on the tabby bit and that was it. Printed out the pattern, and put it in the bag.

We dropped the kids off and make it to the airport with plenty of time. Only to find that our flight had been delayed. Not a little bit delayed, but 4 HOURS delayed! Good thing I brought my knitting. 4 hours normally wouldn't be that painful, except for the fact that we boarded our plane at 1:05 AM. Ouch!

Anyway, I was able to get lots of knitting in during that time, and surprisingly, I finished the shawl in 3 days (and vacation too).

Given the amount of time I KIPed, only one person asked me about it...here's my knitting at the Portland Rose Garden.


Here's some gorgeous roses.


Did I mention this was going to be a short vacation (couldn't leave the kids too long). We were in the city of Portland for a total of 65 hours. And in the time I knit the whole shawl, got to check out Yarnia, where I picked up a cone of purple cotton yarn, and got to check out the Yarn Garden, where I picked up the latest Piecework for the shawl pattern.
This is my yarn being wound off at Yarnia.

Didn't have that much time at the Yarn Garden because we only found it 15 minutes before they closed. And lovely husband was so nice about it since we needed to be at the airport to catch our flight. (Of course the flight was late too, so whatever). I think had I known it was in the same block as my favorite Ethiopian restaurant in Portland, we would have gotten there earlier. By the way, that restaurant would be Jarra's. I went there when I lived in Oregon and we'd make a special trip up there. Of course, that's the restaurant where one of my closest friends said 'Even the vegetables are hot (spicy)'. Man was it fabulous! Then they moved to their present location, and we've been there once (that would be once in the last 12 years?)

To all: I must say I've got a most fabulous husband. He hung out as I checked out my version of heaven at Yarnia -- just imagine wall to wall yarn...in...cones. And he suggested and helped find the Yarn Garden as a stop before leaving Oregon.

The most fabulous killer spicy wings can be found at the Widmere brewery/pub.


As for the project, it's the swallowtail shawl:



pattern: Swallowtail Shawl from IK
start: July 9, 2008
finish: July 12, 2008
modifications: I did an extra 2 rows at the end (because I wanted to)

Creature verses Peacock

Several of us from the Lacis lace knitting group decided to knit the Fiddlestick's Peacock Feathers Shawl as a KAL. I got the pattern when I first got into lace knitting and really liked it, but the question was: 'did I really need another triangular shawl?'

On Ravelry much later, I found that someone had converted the triangular pattern to a rectangular stole. In fact, 2 knitters had. And it was lovely. So, while my KAL cohorts were off knitting their triangle, I started researching and knitting the stole.

Wow. What a great pattern. I was worried that the repetitiveness of the stole pattern would make my brain numb and make me very frustrated, but it was nice. I'm still not a big fan of pattern #1, but that's just me. But the rest of it just flew off my needles.

I cast on a couple of times because I didn't like the needle size. Casted on a total of 128 stitches provisionally (4 on each edge in garter). I decided to go up to US4 even though previously I'd been using US3 because the peacock's I've seen looked dense, and I'm all about airy. (And after working with #100 thread, Jagger Spun Zephyr feels like worsted).

Flies off the needle, I say, easy pattern to remember (sort of). I opted to add an additional pattern of pattern 5 and then added #6 glass beads to the knit row before crochet cast off (every other stitch). 9 stitches crochet and every 3 stitches (4 on the edge).

Picked up the other side and knit going the other way. Then disaster strikes this weekend. I'm on pattern 6 of the 2nd side when the Creature struck.

I set it down and told her as usual, please don't play with mom's knitting. I went to discuss dinner plans and hear the older child going 'mom. mom.' Not a screaming 'MOM', nope, a 'mom, can you come in here please'

I come back to find this:


The good news was that Creature did not yank the needles off the stole. The bad news is (and this is all from the 5 year old) that Creature took the ball of yarn and bit it like an apple...several times.

This is probably what my poor ball of yarn saw right before the tragedy.

Anyway, instead of finishing the stole as I planned, I spent about 5 hours trying to untangle, and rewind this mess. And to add to this, I read that the stole took a little more than 4 oz, and I only had 4 oz, so I'm all about trying to salvage this tangled mess. I also found to my horror, that the yarn was broken at the stitch I was working on, and several other places in that tangled mess.

After rewinding, I tinked back and reattached the yarn and finished the stole.

Specs:

pattern: Fiddlesticks Peacock Feathers shawl

start/finish date: June 24-July 6, 2008

mods: many. Changed from triangle to rectangle, added beads, increased length