Snowed in = lots of Knitting

Mushu Kitty likes the snow too!

I have been holed up in the snow here and that means knitting and lots of it!

I finished both the girlfriend swing coats

and I started my Birch! I love, love, love this project! The yarn is to die for, the pattern is perfect and I am enjoying the lace. Did I mention I can't wait to wear this shawl!??

I also started a hat for my brother using the Zeebee pattern. This is a fun knit. He picked the colors to go with his winter jacket. I think they look like cantaloupe and honeydew so I am calling this the melon hat.

I am teaching my sister to knit. She is making a simple hat. I think a hat is a great first project because it is small, simple, everyone likes them and not boring to knit. She is doing very well and learning fast! We might have a new knitter on our hands!

When I am not knitting I'm in the kitchen getting ready for Christmas!

These are my favorite Gingerbread cookies, we have made them every year since I was little.

Blocking!!!!

Here is the shawl pre-blocking with all my blocking equipment. Yay, welding rods! Here it is blocking, I couldn't get it completely symmetrical But I think it came out well.
The lace looks amazing close up!!!
I hope to get some modeled shots at the wedding over the weekend.

Now that the shawl is done I hope to finally get in on the Summer of Socks! I signed up and was really excited but I have been so busy on the farm and with wedding preparations that I haven't even cast on any socks!

I leave for Germany the day after the wedding and I plan to start something on the plane. I have a 12 hour layover in Dublin and I am really looking forward to walking around the city, if anyone knows of something I should not miss let me know!

Shawl is cast off!

We have been busy here on the farm, here is the crew in the pea patch. We have also been picking Black Raspberries as well as Peppers, Potatoes, Squash, Eggplant, Green Beans and Herbs.

Somewhere in all of this I found time to knit!


Whew! the shawl is cast off, now it only needs blocking. I will be glad to get this project finished and be able to move on to other things.

Detail of the un-blocked edging.

I have not been able to keep up with my blog reading or listening to pod casts, I hope all of you out in blog land are having a good summer!

Not Much Knitting, But I do have a FO!

What do you block a hat on??? A red cabbage!

I finished the hat to go with my sister's wedding shawl. I am very happy with it, I had to come up with my own pattern so I just kind of winged it. I used three strands of lace weight Zephyr held together and I used size #0 US needles.

I have made a little progress on the shawl using the same yarn. My goal is to use up the yarn and make it as big as possible before the wedding!
And a close up, I am practicing with my new camera. It seems pretty close color wise.

Shawl in progress

This is how far I got over the weekend. I am about halfway done with the repeats called for in the pattern but the rows get longer as I go along so I think I am more like a quarter of the way through. I plan to add several repeats to the pattern so that the shawl will be about 60" along the top edge after it is blocked. I am finding this to be a simple knit and enjoyable for the most part. I am slightly annoyed with myself because I have had to go back and fix several little mistakes. I rarely make mistakes (knocks on wood) while following a chart so I don't know what is up with me. Hopefuly I will get back into the swing of it soon! In other news my Crazy socks are comming along nicely, I have turned the heel and am on my way up the cuff. they should be finnished in the next few weeks I think.

The Wedding Shawl

I have cast on! I am making a shawl for my sister's wedding. She has chosen Ruby zephyr wool silk for the yarn and I am using Evelyn A Clark's Shetland Triangle pattern form Wrap Style.I fell in love with this pattern when I saw this version and this version knitted up. Absolutely gorgeous! I am using my new Knit picks needles in size 5 (3.75mm). I plan to make the shawl a little bigger than it is in the book. So far it is going well, I was surprised that I only had to do the cast on once. I often cast on more than once because I am so picky about how it looks but this one was really easy! I have finished the neck section and have just started the main lace pattern. The lace is based on the traditional fir cone patten. I love it. I think this will be a long project and I am looking forward to knitting lace and making my first lace weight shawl. I have until August to finish it so wish me luck!