While I was knitting...

Here's the whole excuse story as to why I didn't finish Lyra in time...

Reason 1: I didn't pick up the thread from Lacis because I didn't know how much I needed. Then they didn't have any, and then I had to go to pick it up from their warehouse.

Reason 2: I had to wait for W to open to buy a Wii system for z and a's dad's birthday coming up (okay, it's a present for the whole family). I was told to go at 6 am for them to open at 7am...I did too plop down on the ground and work on Lyra sort of uninterrupted for an hour. ...the nice thing is that I was the only one there, the bad thing was that the electronic dept. manager didn't realize that they were offering it in the flyer for sale, so she sold all her Wii consoles the day before. I did make her call another store who actually knew about the sale, so at 7:15, I raced down there and am now a proud owner of Wii...

Reason 2A: Well, I had to play Wii, didn't I? And it's not like you can knit and play...so, Wii won.

Reason 3: We've got too much junk. So I had a yard sale. See, here's my Lyra on a stack of clothes...the sale was okay.

We unloaded a few baby items, but we've still got tons of stuff left...ack! I've got to have another sale?!

hmmm...what else? well. Life. Kids. all that stuff. Anyway, I'll post again when I'm finished.

Jaunt in the City

hmmm...maybe this is why I didn't finish Lyra in time for closing ceremonies...running around doing all the other stuff.

Anyway, a couple of friends from the Lacis lace knitting group and I met in The City (that's San Francisco for the non-Bay Area folks) for a lovely afternoon on Sunday. We met up at the 16th BART station and took #33 bus to the wonderful knitting store, Imagiknit. What a nice place. You gotta love a place that separates animal fibers from non-animal fibers...

I opted for a cone of deep purple merino lace from Habu. It'll make a lovely shawl.

Then we were off to Samovar, where we were treated (by my friend) with lovely tea and salads. A little knitting got done, but it was just fun hanging with the girls and doing a field trip.

A bit ago, we went to my other friend's home where she made us a lovely lunch and amazing dessert-- we did do a bit of knitting then.

I guess I'm next. Since I have two creatures, I think I'll host at Julie's Tea in Alameda.

Ravelympics part II--sadness

No bronze medals were thrown, no refs kicked in the head...nope. I tried really hard, but only managed to round 135 of Lyra. (at least I finished one project). Will post pics/story later.

Knitting Olympics part I

As my Knitting Olympics project, I originally chose Lyra (finally). But when I went to Lacis to pick up the thread, I couldn't figure out how much I needed (since I decided to do it with 100 thread).

Anyway, I have been meaning to do Hyrna Herborgar, so that's what I did. I did a little head scratching with one part (not the part that everyone else had), but other than that, it was a easy knit. I now understand why folks knit several of these. Easy and it looks amazing--kinda like swallowtail. I can totally see knitting 1 or 3 more of these...

And fast.



specs:
Started August 8 2008
Completed August 13 2008
yarn: laceweight cashmere in dark red (purchased from a knitter who was destashing from Knitters Review)
needles: US4 KP options
pattern: Hyrna Herborgar

The Happiest Place on Earth

Heck, very little knitting got done. But what a fun place for little kids. I grew up in SoCal and went to Disneyland a lot. As we got older, my parents would send us off with $20 bill and that would get us in the park, rides, including the coveted 'E ticket' rides, and even a souvenir if we didn't blow the cash on candy...oh, how times have changed. Wow! Sticker shock. Oh, well, the kids were charmed.

We promised Z that when he learned how to read, we'd take him to Disneyland. Well, he learned last year and is actually quite a proficient reader now (we're doomed) at age 5.5...

His least favorite ride was Space Mountain. Mean parents that we are, we talked him into that ride. We forgot how fast it goes. Both quite liked the Dumbo ride. And little Creature was enthralled by everything, the characters, the rides, and yep, she loved the pirates.

Oh, while down there, it was the start of the Olympics, so I did manage to cast on a shawl. I'll post in the next post.

Weekend wrap up

I forgot, I attended the Lacis lace group this Saturday. There were only 4 of us there that day, but it was fun.

I spent time weaving the ends in for the gift I knit (then promptly forgot to bring it on Saturday night). And I tried to figure out what the heck I did to Trollblume (an extra stitch). Tinked back two rows and then had to decide if I really wanted to tink back one more row -- this would be the round with 2 knit 7 togethers in one section. Oh double drats.

Oh, and Mary Frances showed us her beautiful doily made from the center motif of Lyra. It's done with their tussah silk and it's gorgeous.

Anyway, Jules came by to show their 'new' pattern. Mary Frances has cleaned up Alpenrose! She translated the directions to English. And that missing row? She fixed it. Is she awesome or what?!

AND it's going to be included in the next group of Niebling patterns put out by Lacis...get this...shhhh...it's supposed to arrive this Wednesday!


So, if you read my blog, walk in an orderly fashion and go place your order.


The party Saturday night? It was a blast. No, literally a blast from the past. My friend had a 80's dance party. It was so much fun. I found a jacket with enourmous shoulder-ma-pads in my closet (from the 80's) to wear. Of course, you know that in order to have this jacket in my closet meant it got moved from my parents home to college (3 residences) to my brothers to grad school (3 residences) back to Cali (2 residences). Oh, my gawd! In my closet. Not in a box, not from the rags pile. From my closet! And I almost wore my short leather jacket with fringe (also in my closet). I think it's time to clean out my closet and do a donation run.

btw, I really like the music of the 80's. I think that decade was the last one where I actually knew the lyrics of the songs. My favorite song? I have so many...too many. What's your favorite 80's song?

Niebling Leaf shawl complete

Here's the finished shawl from a Lena magazine. It's official name is "Rosa romantic", and there's variants in Lavori VIII and it's suggested it's related to Phoenix Palme. A couple of notes on this knit is that it's ginormous. And it would have been even larger had I not modified the last rows of leaves and the edging. The original is 211 rounds and I dropped it down to 198 by shortening the leaves and changing the edging.

Knit-wise, this was pretty simple, but as I mentioned before, you need to twist the twists and purl the purls on the 'rest row', which means no resting row. The yarn is pretty nice. It's Colourmart 100% cashmere. I'm off on vacation tomorrow, but when I get back, I might toss it in a bag and put it in the washer...or not.

Oh, there was binding between leaf set 2 and 3, so I added a hex mesh/section and then took it out toward the end.

Would I recommend this pattern? Well, yes, but I would have something a tad more challenging at the same time. I didn't bother recharting, so I ended up coloring in the leaf motifs. That helped me alot to see the general leaf pattern. And since it's kinda boring, it was a nice little break too.

btw--I originally used a white shirt for modeling this shawl, but it was so large that it looked silly. So I had to go and pull out a lab coat (shh, yes, I own my own lab coats) and use that for showcasing the shawl

specs:
start: July 13, 2008
finish: August 1, 2008
yarn: US3 and then US4 (when I needed longer needles--should have probably just started w/ US4, but whatever).
pattern: Lena March 2006 Rosa Romantic
mods: to release binding and to make it a tad smaller than given. And changed edging. Also changed crochet loops too.

all I can say is that if it weren't so not an exciting knit, I'd do it again as a tablecloth. Maybe I'll switch it up and do the Lavori VIII one...

My next project was going to be the WRS from Sharon Miller, but with Ravelympics and season of lace and vacation, I might wait--or not.

I might do Hyrna Herborgar with some lovely red cashmere that I've had and knit and ripped twice for two other projects.