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.

Of Cats and Dumplings

Inspired by PH's great work as yarn model in the photo shoot of December 12th, 2007, I ventured outdoors with my newly felted and dried Dumpling Bag, intent on pressing the young, orange talent into service once more. As always, the ever-obliging feline came when summoned.

Today, however, he seemed less than accommodating.


At first he refused, but then reluctantly relented after I agreed to his extortionist terms. He demanded a wardrobe fee for appearing in his own collar, travel expenses for having to come down the stairs and a special fee for being male and having to appear in print with a purse. He also demanded that craft services be set up not just for the time allotted for the photo shoot, but for the remainder of the day and evening so that he could snack whenever he wanted. Needless to say, his fee involved vast quantities of dry food, canned food, treats, chicken and then of course, bacon, as well. I think I am going to have to start auditioning the neighborhood cats. You know, some "unknowns."


Well, there are some pretty photos of my Dumpling on Ravelry. I'll post them here, tomorrow. As for marble-mania, the purple paper ended up going on the book. Here it is with some others that turned out pretty well.

In other news, today is DH's and my 11th wedding anniversary. He had to work today and he had a special program to do tonight, so we're celebrating next week. The 11th anniversary, that's the yarn and fiber anniversary, right? Just like the 10th was? Heh heh heh.

You know, he looked so professional in his head shot...

Knitting For Artillery

The first clue for Mystery Stole 4 came out today. Though other people seem to really like it, I have to say that I am a wee bit disappointed. I loved MS3 (Swan Lake) because of the beads and the lacy wing. This one is starting out a little too geometric and stockinette heavy for me. I guess I just like the looks of, and enjoy knitting, very lacy lace. But, MS3 started out with a lot of stockinette, too, so I have to give it a chance. It's only the first clue, right?

Yesterday, I marbled up a whole slew of paper, as my oil paint stained fingers can attest to today. I managed to produce some decent ones amidst the bleah and just plain awful. I think that to make some really nice marbled paper you just have to use the sizing. I found that the paint just keeps moving around using only water to float it on. My colors started mixing together, as well. I think this may be one art that really requires watching someone else who knows what they're doing. Never-the-less, I covered the book, and it looks pretty cool. Plus, I have extra paper to recover the book when it gets trashed, which is bound to happen since it is a prop.

Oh, oh, oh! I felted the dumpling bag today. It is cute! DH calls it my cannonball bag. I have stuffed it with plastic grocery bags to give it that nice, round, large-caliber projectile appearance. I'd say it looks like about a 12 pounder, maybe more. Photos will appear tomorrow when I have the light to take them.

The End.