Why, Hello, and Just a Little Test

Well, I haven't posted in a long, long time. Maybe this will soon change. 2009 was a crazy year. What will 2010 have in store?

I did get an iPod Touch for my birthday in November. Tonight I downloaded a free app called BlogPress that should let me post from my happy little device. This is my test post. If you are reading this, it worked.

I have tons of bloggy material that has waited in the wings over the past year and I want to start blogging again. I do. I really do. So, I'm not going to make a New Years resolution, because, you know, those things never get done. I'm just going to say, "I'm gonna try", because you see, there's this chicken Viking hat I'm knitting, and you just can't not blog about that. Heh.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Moving On, Again!!!

Eeek! Yep. We're moving again. Headin' back to Kentucky. Not too far from here, though. Less than two hours away. So, tomorrow morning, bright and early, we say goodbye to our mountain.


This is a frosty picture of it I took a few weeks ago. We didn't see sights like this in tidewater Virginia. Now we are headed to the foothills and the bluegrass!

So, since I've been packing and cleaning like a fiend, and all my yarn is already at our new house, I've had to find some tiny-little projects to work on when I needed a break. I have a pair of almost finished socks and...

tatting!

These are my first actual tatting projects that didn't involve endless chains and rings. Gnatly, you'll have to let Melissa-the-magnificent-tatting-monster know that I have mastered the split ring! Well, maybe not mastered, but look! I've got twelve of those babies, up there in the photo, end to end, see? Woo hoo!

I hope PH likes his new home. He will have a screened in back porch to relax in when he gets there. Right now, he is a little bushed. He got vaccinations yesterday and has been sleeping all day today. Poor little guy, he has a big day in store for him, tomorrow. Poor me, too, PH likes to sing in the car.

Winter Wonderland Shawl Finished!

It was snowing today! A perfect day to take photos of the Winter Wonderland Shawl. I had some help from my dear friend, Madge. This shawl is hard to photograph because you want all the snowflakes to show and it's next to impossible to get them all in at once. Here goes!

I love it. Yay!

Oh, there were a couple of more corrections that I didn't have in the last post. Basically, when the second to the last row ends with 27 stitches, the last row should end with a k2tog instead of just a k2, because you want to end with 26 sts for each side of the hexagons. And if you accidentally end up with 27 sts on a hexagon (like I did) just take the two stitches that were supposed to be knit together up at the same time when you are grafting. It completely dissappears. No prob.

I have just finished winding up a skein of Skacel Merino Lace to start my next big lace project, even though I still have the Heere Be Dragones on the needles. I just can't help myself...

Snowflake Teaser

After a very late start, I finished grafting the hexagons together late last night. I started the edging today, which is much less tedious as I feared it might be. I am actually enjoying it and it seems to be going very fast. I think the simple edging finishes the shawl off perfectly. You use the same Glimmer alpaca yarn that you use for the snowflakes, themselves, so the edge has a little more weight to it and will hang well.


The rest of today will be devoted to finishing up this shawl. I hope to find a pretty way to photograph it tomorrow. I'll have to consult my photo stylist, P.H.

Flaky Post

Hey!

What is this stuff?

"Snow? You're pulling my tail!"

I finished the last of the snowflake backgrounds last night. This morning I pinned them all out. Here they are blocking peacefully.

There are thirteen of them. Please excuse the wrinkly background. Here are the rest.

There's been a lot of interest in this fabulous shawl pattern lately, so if anyone else is interested in making it, I'm going to offer this list of corrections for the little errors and typos I found in the pattern. One of the corrections I received from the designer, who was really great and willing to help me, the others are just simple things that I caught, but I think may save you some time and frustration. So here goes!

Snowflake 2 Background

Rnd 18: k1, (k2tog, m1) 8 times, k2 tog

Snowflake 3 Background

Rnd 13: k1, k1 in tCb, k2, k1 tog w tCb, k5, k1 tog w tCb, k2, k1 in tCb, k1

Snowflake 5 Background

Rnd 9: k1 in edgP, k10, k1 in edgP

Rnd 22: k1, (k2tog, m1) 8 times, k2tog

Snowflake 6 Background

Rnd 14: k2, m1, (k2tog, m1) 4 times, k1

Rnd 24: k1, (k2tog, m1) 8 times, k2tog

Snowflake 7 Background

Rnd 5: k1 in edgP, k3, k1 in tCb, k4, k in tCb, k3, k1 in edgP

That's it! Hope that this helps another crazy-for-snowflakes knitter. I have really enjoyed knitting this beautiful pattern. Sharon Winsauer is one talented lady! I have to finish the Heere Be Dragones shawl, another one of her designs. I have my eye on some of her others, as well. Have you seen the Dragon of Happiness shawl? She also has designed another wintery shawl called Dance of the Snowflake that features one large snowflake motif. The link takes you to the Aurora Alpacas site. You need to click on gallery of shawls and then the catalog link towards the bottom of the page to see all her designs. You can also check her out on Ravelry.

Hopefully, next post we will have the finished shawl, or close to it. There's mega grafting and an edging as well. Stay tuned...

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! I promise I'll be back to posting soon.

Snow Clones!

"I got tuna for Christmas!"~PH

"My Garter Slipped" Scarf!

Got two skeins of Noro? Need a last minute Christmas gift? Need some mindless travel knitting that isn't so mindless that you want to pull your hair out from boredom? The "My Garter Slipped" Scarf might just be the project you're looking for. The pattern is an easily memorizable four row repeat. The long slip stitch looks great with Noro and would look great with variegated yarns, too. It's simple, but pretty. Here's the pattern. Merry Christmas. I hope you like it!

"My Garter Slipped" Scarf

by Bereni, © 2008

Project Specs:

Materials: Noro Silk Garden (2 skeins). Color 87 pictured.
Needles: Size 9
Gauge: Not that important, but row gauge @ 18 st/4 in (after blocking).
Finished Measurements: I blocked mine out to 6" x 60"

Pattern:

Cast on 26 sts.

Rows 1-4: knit.

Row 5: (k2, sl 1) 8 times, k2
Row 6: (k2, sl 1 wyif) 8 times, k2
Row 7: (k2, sl 1) 8 times, k2
Row 8: (k2, p1) 8 times, k2

Repeat Rows 5-8 (102 times)

Knit 4 Rows. Bind off.

This pattern is so easy to memorize because each row starts and ends with a k2 and rows 5 and 7 are the same. It's a cinch!

Close up.

Unblocked.

You can see the back here.

Since it's been quite chilly lately, I've been getting alot of use out of this scarf.

I am returning to posting after a bit of a break. I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November, and I did it! I squeaked by with over 50,000 words on the last day. It didn't help that I took about five days off to knit a shawl in the middle of the month. I've got lots of things to post about, and I've been taking photos, so stayed tuned.