Cracksilk Haze

It's not enough to own a bag of Alchemy Haiku. Now, I have three skeins of Rowan's Kidsilk Haze in the Marmalade colorway. I'm making a stole for Grandma. I thought about doing Kiri, but then I got a little dizzy and had to come to my senses. I just can't do my first lace shawl. In mohair. So, I was inspired by the tube shawl in Alterknits, but I'm not doing it in the round. Well, I started it in the round yesterday, panicked, frogged, broke the yarn somewhere in the cast-on mess, contemplated Kiri, then decided to just do a simple stockinette stole. I don't think there will be much rolling with this yarn in stockinette on US8s (Bryspun circular for those keeping track).

The tube shawl wants a piece of fabric threaded through. And I worry that the 24" circumference tube won't really cut it as a wrap for Grandma. But if I think the flat shawl is just too flat, I could seam it up and do the tube. I hope to get it done before the trip to Chicago in two and a half weeks. Eep.

That yarn is so yummy.

OTN: Purl Beret

Have I mentioned this pattern? I'm making one with the Handpaintedyarn Boucle in Tortuga. Love the color - it's like a dark tortoise shell, which makes sense with the name. The boucle yarn is interesting, and when I swatched it up a while back, I found that the purl side of stockinette fabric was its best side, so this pattern is perfect. It's a gift, and the intended has a beautiful, dark chocolate shearling coat, so this should look fabu with it. Just hope the headband isn't too itchy or anything.

This is also a good way for me to work with the boucle to decide if it will work for my totally theoretical En Garde sweater in the Natura colorway. Because the yarn is so thick and thin, it won't make a solid fabric, which is probably just fine. I had originally thought to make a sweater with this yarn in the round (all knit) and then turn it inside-out so the "purl" side shows, but the En Garde idea is more cardigan-like with a wide, red, silk ribbon tie on the side. Hehe. Get it? Ahem. Sorry, I'm a geek. Anyway, that means stockinette back and forth.

The big issue with this yarn is I would not want to make any mistakes while knitting with it. I think it would be a pain to tink or frog back to a certain point.

Finis!

I've dropped the last stitch, woven in the @#$% ends, and she is complete. Now, I just need to wash and block the Clapotis, and it's ready for giving. It really is lovely. I know many folks don't block theirs, but I'd like to gain some length on this one. I'll post a picture after the bathing.

I also cast on and off one of these cute garter stitch gloves in Sheep Shop #1. That took about 2.5 hours to do. I might just have to make more for gifts, though my cow-orker basically asked for some wrist warmers today. I'm wearing an old pair I made from Manos waaaay back at the beginning of my knitting. As FOs, they're pretty awful, but they do the trick in my air-conditioned office today (yes, it was 60 degrees in here earlier - craziness).

Isobel refused to wear her birthday sweater yesterday, except for a brief foray outside when I insisted she wear a sweater. Guess it isn't one of my more successful knits for her. Today she wore her First Birthday Sweater (Shocking Pink Malabrigo Placket Sweater from Last-Minute Knitted Gifts - great pattern and super soft yarn. Perhaps I'll make another one for her in another Malabrigo color. The merino is just so lovely, even if it does pill.

Cable patterns

I'm on the hunt for a pattern I saw last month. It's a big cable scarf pattern that's reversible. I believe the pattern was a PDF and the photo was of a red scarf. Still wandering down the google hole...

But I found this cute cable purse pattern in my wanderings. Instead of a handle like that I think I've seen others that used a fat DPN for a handle.

...

Hey, I just found one. I don't think it's the one I'm thinking of, but I know I saw it in previous wanderings.

More great free patterns here. I know I saw this blog long ago, as I remember that cami with the embellishment.

Found its! I must have stumbled across it on a Knitting Pattern Central. I'm not crazy!

But now I can't remember why I was so keen to have such a pattern in the first place today.

Shawls

Kiri is beautiful, and I think I found it before I heard St. Brenda mention it. Then there is the Wing of the Moth shawl, which Wendyknits knit and looks amazing - I mentioned that in an earlier post. The Yarn Harlot has a Snowdrop shawl that I considered before I ended up doing Clapotis.

We need better lighting by the couch before I do any real lace knitting.

New places to drool

Thanks to the newsletter from Lime 'n' Violet, I spent a little drool time at etsy, now that the site is back up and running. People are producing beautiful things all the time. And from there I somehow ended up at pureknits, which has more droolworthy yarn and patterns. And they led me to Fable which produces a pure alpaca yarn. Drool. Pureknits has a really nice site.

I'm in the home stretch on Clapotis now. Maybe I'll even complete it before the weekend, though there are cupcakes to be made tomorrow night (the little lady turns two on Sunday).

French Girl patterns

How cute is this? Doesn't hurt that the pattern is called Isobel. I just read about French Girl patterns on the Knitlist. I just wish they had more information about the patterns on their site (sizes, how much yarn, needles, etc.). They do list the yarn used, but I think knowing how much yarn a project is going to require helps in making a decision. Ah, Jimmy Beans Wool includes some pattern information but doesn't have as many patterns for sale. Looks like the patterns are Rowan-centric, yarn-wise, though, again, Jimmy Beans Wool shows some alternative yarn options when Rowan has discontinued the yarn for the pattern.

In other news I dropped another two stitches on Clapotis. In the straight section I could manage one repeat a night, and yesterday I did one decrease repeat. I hope to increase the number of rows as we decrease the stitches on the needles because I want to finish this! There are so many other things to knit.

For that future project with the Boucle, I want to call it En Garde and tie it closed with a big, red, silky ribbon. What do you think? I want it be quite shaped in the body, too. It's starting to take shape!