2 Year Blogiversary and Contest

Hello all,
I figured I should get in one last post before the end of the month. Lest I post tomorrow and you all think it is a joke (April Fool's Day and all). Today is actually my 2 year blogiversary! When I first started blogging, I never imagined that the community of knitters I would read from afar would welcome me into the fold. It's been great being here meeting knitters in real life as well as in blogland. I'm glad to be here.


And as a small thank you to you all, I'm having a little contest.

The rules are as follows: (please note the rules have been updated as of 03 Apr 07, 7:51 p.m. MDT)
1. If you'd like to see the prizes I'm giving away, go here or click on the web album link on the sidebar.
2. For sock yarn, leave a comment or send me an email why you'd like the sock yarn. If you're a first time sock knitter or fairly new, you're especially encouraged to delurk and leave a comment for a shot. I'll determine who I will give sock yarn too. I am giving away yarn for 4 sock projects, including Regia Jacquard, Trekking, Socks that Rock lightweight (Peaseblossom) and Claudia's Handpaint (Plumicious).
3. There is 3 projects worth of yarn being given away.
4. Lastly, 2 hanks of laceweight, enough for a fairly large project, 1375 yds and 1315 yds.
5. The deadline is Tuesday, April 10th at 12 midnight MDT.
6. There are a total of 9 prizes to be given away.
7. Please only leave a comment with a reason why you should win a prize for sock yarn only. Feel free to leave a comment requesting an entry for every other project. If you would like to be entered only for a specific project, such as lace, leave that in the comments too.
8. Good luck.

Lastly in the knitty news, some updated pictures of the Chevron scarf. I really do love how it's turning out. I do wonder what one skein each will net me in length. Currently almost 3 1/2 feet and I've still got quite a bit of yarn. Who knows?




And a closeup:

Chevron Scarf Beginnings

So, I'm a joiner. Although I did choose to make the Chevron Scarf from LMKG, I'm not using Koigu, nor sock yarn as others have done so. My scarf is done with sportweight Lorna's Laces in a discontinued colorway, Valentine and also in the Desert Flower colorway, as shown below.



I love the pattern and the scarf is coming quite nicely. This picture marked the beginning of it, but it is much longer now, currently at 27.5 inches in length. Some people have finished this and said it's over 6 feet long. I have two skeins of each color of Lorna's Laces and while I like how it's turning out, I can't imagine knitting both balls of this yarn. The yarn cakes hardly look touched, so I have a feeling this scarf is only going to be as long as one skein of each color will take me. I'm knitting it on size 5 needles and for a scarf, that seems so tiny. If it is too short, then I would keep going with the second set of yarns.



Thanks to everyone with the comments regarding the sweater. It's not too short, per se, but I have a sweater that I wear at work that is about 2-3 inches longer and I just wanted this sweater to be the same length. The sweater I'm knitting is similar in style to the "work" sweater and I like that length, so I will be ripping out that seed stitch and adding a bit more length to it. That part I'm not so interested in, so I will probably work the sleeves next, just so they're finished and then go back and work on the body.

As for the Perfect Pie Shawl, I do think I could use that yarn, but I am worried or rather, don't want to do math to figure out how to make it larger. Sad, but true. I think I will try the shawl pattern with a heavier yarn. I really like the pattern, but it also calls for short rows, which I don't love doing and frankly I'm too lazy to figure out the math to make it work with regular lace weight yarn, vs. the mohair. If I use a different yarn, it would probably be a dk-weight or lt. worsted.

Tweed '03 Top-Down Cardi and a Question for all you lacers out there?

First of all, thank you to everyone for your supportive comments from my last post. I really appreciate it. Please know that I'm not embarrassed or ashamed of going back to school now, but those were my feelings from the past, just because I never finished my degree. Now I'm excited to be so close to being done. I really enjoy being back in school and am contemplating a master's. We will see how that goes after finishing the bachelor's first.


I finished the knitting of the Top-Down Raglan Cardi. I think I'm going to measure it against another sweater that I like the length of. I think this might be a bit short, although it's not really short, b/c it's 23" in length now. What do you think? Sorry for the bathroom shot, but I was home alone and I just wanted to get a picture.



Now lastly, I've been hankering for a bit of lace. After the first lace attempt of this year, in the Wool Peddler's Shawl in the angora/wool, I bought some laceweight, Blackberry Ridge 2-ply laceweight. I found another pattern, the Perfect Pie Shawl from Weekend Knitting. The original shawl was knitted in mohair. As you know, I am allergic to mohair, so that would not be an option. I'm wondering if this yarn would work for the pattern as it's knit on sz 10 1/2 needles and while I can knit it on larger needles (maybe between sz 3-5), but am just wondering for anyone that may have knit this, is it possible to do another repeat or so to make it larger? I'm curious as to other's opinions if this yarn would work for this pattern?

Thanks and happy knitting!

Come clean

While I've been away from the blog, there has been knitting and some finishing happening. Also, I hadn't mentioned why I've been so busy lately. At first, it was in the works, so I hated to jinx it (hey, I'm from Louisiana and we tend to lean towards the superstitious). Then it was happening, but I just didn't want to talk about it, partly because I was ashamed, but there's no reason for shame, it just is.

The news is that I'm back in school to finish up my bachelor's degree. I went to school for 4 years but never matriculated. Fast forward thirteen years and I'm back in school. Things have been most fortuitous as I only need one class to complete the degree. It's very interesting being back on campus and being in a political science class with much younger students. My major was/is international relations,so the class I'm taking currently is in that same vein. Being back in school has been very hectic, but also fun. It does take up a lot of time and leaves with little time to knit too, but I'm enjoying being a student again, who knew?

With that said, the bits and snippets of time I have had have been put to good knitting time. I finished up My So-Called Scarf. I used the Sheep Shop Yarn Company 1 yarn, which is a worsted weight. I realized after the fact that it was worsted and that there was a bulky, which I kind of wished I used as my scarf is a bit skinny, but it's all good. I do like the scarf and the color quite a bit.



In other socky news, I finished the cat's paw lace socks! Yay, they are finally done. I'm quite happy to be done with them. I like the pattern, although it's a bit difficult to see the pattern. I'm pretty happy that I enjoyed the pattern and I've knit a few more socks with patterns. This pair of socks was knit with Regia Stretch yarn. And the yarn does stretch. I finished the first sock a few months ago and washed it and because I made the foot a little short, it was great that this yarn does in fact stretch.



Lastly, the first sock using the Regia Banner sock yarn has been finished. These are fun to knit because of the striping, although if I were making them for myself, I probably would have tired of it. It was fun for the hand warmers I made and I think, hope that I have enough to make a pair of socks for M2. I finished the first sock and have cast on for the second one. I can't wait to finish it so I can get back to my second Monkey sock. Actually I may cast on for it anyway, as the Regia Banner is perfect for the stockinette need to knit without thinking and as they're short, they go pretty quickly in that regard.


Well that's about it for now. Gotta get going and head out to school, whee!