The feats and foibles of a fiber fanatic.
4/29/2005
We really, really took our time at dinner last night. It was a blast and the food was pretty good, if a bit on the expensive side and slightly “unbalanced” as a meal. We were at the restaurant for over two hours, LOL! So, we made it to Woolen Treasures only a tad before they closed. I was good and only bought a gift. I resisted the urge to buy some Berroco Softwist or Berroco Denim Silk or Butterfly 10 for another shell. And, I barely looked at the sock yarn! Go me! LOL!
All that crazy fun last night means I don’t have much to say today. Three rounds and I start the armholes. So, hopefully I’ll have a full back side done by Monday. Though I know we are going to a play on Saturday evening and I don’t know what else is on the schedule for the weekend… There is a slight chance that I might get to learn a bit about wheel spinning on Saturday… maybe…
knittingfool @ 10:59 am ::
:: Comments Off ::
::
4/28/2005
I think, this photo shows some progress in comparison to Monday’s. Yes?
All shaping is completed (you can almost see it in the photo) and I’m *very* near the armholes. In fact, I think it is time to sit down and do some of the math to figure out the armhole shaping and while I’ve got the design journal and calculator out I might as well do all the “official” figuring for the neckline as well. I’ll be splitting and doing the back first, as I had an unfortunate knot in the yarn that landed smack dab in the center of the first half and I think I’ll be close enough on yardage that I didn’t want to rip back to the side, so I’ll make the first half the back of Skyway Scoop.
It’s been a knitty week this week. SnB on Monday evening, then I went to Textiles a Mano yesterday, and this evening some of us SnBers are gathering at a new local restaurant (with my oh so patient, DH) and then continuing on to Woolen Treasures.
So, with any luck at all, I’ll have some armhole shaping to show you tomorrow!
4/27/2005
I have roughly 3 inches to go until I’m to the arm holes and will switch to the second ball of yarn after one more round. I’m, afraid a picture at this point does not look significantly different than Monday’s. So, I bring you a detail shot of the lace edging at the bottom. The gals at SnB said it looked like it was going to be nice, but they didn’t know how nice until they saw it in person. So, while not all of you can see it in person, this is the next best thing, yes? This is with a light and quick steam with the garment steamer. I didn’t take it off the needles and pin it or anything, so it is still curling ever so slightly in this photo.
Oh, and the ever so talented with words, Jessica, had a very eloquent description and name suggestion in Monday’s comment….
In my mind mix the words, “sky” and “Minnesota” then suddenly all the images of nature disappear and I see clearly - Minneapolis skyways connecting building to building, air conditioned on a humid midwestern day. Walking within, the city girl nearly humble, nearly haughty, striding surely to some excitement, wearing a luxurious lacy scoop tank the color of the blue sky above the skyscrapers.
A name suggestion, from this Milwaukee born Midwesterner, is “Skyway Scoop”.
I love her description! It doesn’t have a specific location in the name, but that extra syllable seems to fix how the name rolls of the tongue. It’s still a working title, but I think I shall dub it “Skyway Scoop” for the time being. Thanks Jessica!
And lastly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY Ashley! I hope it was a memorable one!
4/26/2005
I’m taking just a few moments out of my regular knit-blogging to alert you to the changes that occured over there to your left…
A little while ago, I decided I might as well get the most from my TypePad fees (for the Spearfish Madness Blog I had to get a pro account, which is a bit spendy but includes unlimited blogs…) and broke away from LiveJournal. I did not like the lack of catagorizing in LJ, so had long ago created multiple LJs for various topics…
So, over there on the left there are two new blogs under “Other Sites.” The first is focused on my visual art pursuits. Due to the health issues of late it’s been sporadic and mostly photography posts. But hopefully it’ll be picking up to new and more interesting things as the pain levels slowly creep back down to more normal levels. Even if I do say so myself, there are some good photos linked to in yesterday’s post as we went on a mini road trip on Saturday afternoon.
The other new blog, Culture Catalog, is my blog dedicated to those things which often provide me with inspiration - books, movies and music. This one seems to get updated the most frequently of the two, at least at the moment.
So, now, if you are so inclined, you can get a broader feel for my life…
4/25/2005
I was a faithful knitter this weekend worked pretty exclusively on the tank top/shell design. I’m half-way through the straight section of the waist and will soon begin the increases. That’s about half-way to the arm hole shaping! And, I have a little over 1/2 of the first ball of yarn left so I will definitely have enough yarn 
One of the lakes near the house I grew up in was called Wagonga (though for most of my life it seemed most people pronounced it as Waconda ????). I’m contemplating that name. Thoughts?
I did take a little bit of time this weekend to frog and re-do the first 15 rows of Shaped Triangle. But, I suspect it’ll be mostly on the back burner until I wrap up this tank/shell design project.
Once again, it’s SnB night! If you are in the area, please join us at Catalyst Coffee from 6-8pm.
4/24/2005
I don’t like Skye Scoop - the name that is. Nor do I feel comfortable with Dallas Skye since I’m not the maker/seller of the yarn nor am I affiliated with the maker/seller other than being a fan of her dye jobs.
But, I seem to be stuck on the whole sky theme. . . Though, it does also remind me of the nice blue lakes back home in Minnesota. . .
Photo by Amber Schueler
However, that lake and all the ones that I frequented have icky names, so I can’t go from those…
Foot Lake, Big Kandiyohi, Lake George - see!?!?!?
But, I certainly have a history of using geographical locations for names and wouldn’t mind keeping that going.
HELP!?!?!?!????
4/22/2005
Yesterday I cast on and knit the first four rounds of Skye Scoop (or should I call it Dallas Skye?), a shell that will coordinate with my future re-knit Clapotis… It has a slightly squared scoop neck and slight waist shaping. It is knit in a solid color of Textiles-a-Mano’s “Dallas” cotton/rayon ribbon yarn and features a simple but elegant lace bottom, knit in the round.
I’m hoping it will fly off the needles pretty quickly at 4.5 sts/in and 6 rows/in. But, we’ll see. There are lot of other factors in how fast I can complete it.
Feel free to ring in on the name. I’m not settled just yet…
4/21/2005
Okay, I already posted easrlier that the A Gathering of Lace KAL is official. So far there are only three of us so there is plenty of room for you too!
I cast on for my Shaped Triangle on Tuesday, but yesterday had me away from home at DH’s work most of the day and not feeling real well aftwards and today has been crazy, so I’m only at row 16. But, it is a start and I can say that I am liking my Helen’s Lace and I think it will look quite lovely. So far there doesn’t appear to be much in the way of pooling, flashing or striping (crosses fingers that the trend continues). I’ll have a pic when there is more worth photographing.
I suppose now that I’m knitting a real shawl it’ll be time for me to finally purchase some blocking wires, huh? Man, this has been quite the week for becoming an adult knitter! LOL!
On the Spearfish KAL front, we have another pair of completed Spearfish in handpainted Opal, this time in a turquiose colorway. Check them out, and congratulate Azhar on her beautiful socks!
Remember, the contest portion has been won, so the pressure is off and it is now an ordinary KAL. So, if you have the Spearfish pattern join us at http://designedlykristi.typepad.com/spearfishmadness
The site for the Gathering of Lace-a-Long is set up and open! It might get tweaked a bit, but it is there! - http://designedlykristi.typepad.com/gatheringlacealong/
Sign up and grab the button (or make one specific to the project you are going to make)!
A few days ago when first contemplaing the Shaped Triangle I ran across a site that had photos of at least the majority of the projects on their site, but I can’t find it again. If you come across it, please let me know so I can add a link to it to the KAL blog for people who perhaps don’t own the book yet.
I’ll be back with more soon, but I’ve got to do some cooking for tonight’s supper…
4/20/2005
My post the other day about using my Helen’s Lace yarn from Lorna’s Laces for the Shaped Triangle Shawl (p 20) prodded Snow to also do the same with her solid colored Helen’s Lace yarn. It seems there is a fair bit of interest to knit items from this realtively new to paperback format book so I think Snow and I will be hosting a KAL.
I’ll be working on setting up the KAL blog today and hope to have it ready tomorrow. If you wish to join us in the KAL, just leave a comment here (being sure to include your e-mail addy) and I’ll get you invited to the blog as soon as I have it set up.
