Halfway There (almost)

So, being stuck on the couch because of my leg/hip/groin, I have been knitting. When the doctor said "You need to rest, let your muscle heal itself," I heard: "You need to knit, finish your Christmas presents and heck, go ahead and cast on anything else that catches your fancy,". Same thing, in my opinion. I have been making headway, at least on the knitting, leg still angry. I finished Amy's Present For Being A Good Friend and it's gorgeous. It's Abrazo by Susanna IC. I really want one in a deep plum color with shiny gold beads for myself. I think Amy's going to love it. You can't really see the beads from the pictures, but they add just the right amount of twinkle and weight to keep the fluffy alpaca grounded.

I started a Daybreak for myself (I know, and in the middle of Christmas crunch, no less!) which I am highly amused by.

I only have one more gift to finish, but I can't share details on that, now can I?

And the Count Down Begins

It is December 1st, which means that I have only a matter of days to finish 10 shawls in 2010; I am strangely behind on this. I have a game plan though. I am nearly finished with Amy's present for being a good friend (shawl #8) and I am half way through Anne's secret surprise (shawl #9). I have yarn for shawl #10, which I will finish ASAP, as it's small. I just have to decide on a pattern, but I've narrowed it down to a pattern that is striped. I am thinking either Daybreak by Stephen West or Romi Hill's new as yet unreleased striped shawl. We'll see.

I took a couple of days off the frantic gift/shawl challenge knitting (see how clever I was to combine the two? otherwise, I'd be busting my butt for two separate deadlines, although I have upped my deadline by a substantial bit; the shawls have to be done in time for Christmas gift giving.) to make myself a cowl to skate in. The rink is cold, and my neck is the only exposed skin. Scarves, like what everyone else at the rink has opted for, strangle me while I skate. I love scarves, but all of the extra motion of skating causes them to constrict around my throat, making me shorter for air than I'd like to be while exercising. I am very pleased with how it turned out, and while take a picture of it when I have both decent light and a willing camera-person.

On a different, non-knitting note, Happy Hanukkah!

My BIRTHDAY!!!

I am 19 now! It is my 19th birthday today, November 26. Wow. It is a bizarre thing, not no longer be 18. 18 is so yesterday. Hello new year! I wonder what it will be like, living this 19th year of mine. I can already tell that I have will be knitting franticly, has anyone looked at my queue? Yeah...

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone stuffed themselves with stuffing and enjoyed a piece too many of pumpkin pie. I'm thankful for being home with my family this year for Thanksgiving instead of stuck in a lonely apartment back in Texas.

We went to see the new Harry Potter movie tonight, so I'm sleepy. It was good, but my brother and I threatened to just stay in the theater until the 2nd half came out, waiting is going to be difficult. I think I might attempt to read the whole series over again in time for movie 7 part 2.

KnitPicks Palette

I bought some Palette last winter to make a stranded colorwork hat. You have never seen it because I was on the decreases for the top of the hat and realized that it was not going to fit me. I didn't get gauge. It got bundled up into the box that it came in, and has only recently resurfaced, because I want the yarn for another project. One of the reasons (besides that it does not fit, ahem) that I am willing to frog it is that I didn't quite like the colors I had chosen. Being an impatient person, I was not willing to wait for a sample card to come, I just ordered colors I liked and started to knit (forgoing the 'get gauge' instructions at the beginning of the pattern). Here's a nifty thing to keep me from not doing the same thing twice (I'm talking about the color choice thing, I've learned my lesson with gauge. Truly I have.). Go here. If you go there, you will see an option to download a pdf file of all the colors (it's under the 'inspiration' tab). It helps tremendously.

I know about the whole computer monitor-color thing, my computer monitor actually didn't do a bad job there, I tested the ball of Palette in my hand to the one on the screen. I was the one at fault.

Now, if only I could stay consistent with what project I have in mind, and what colors I actually want to use...but that's another day, obviously!

We Are Thankful For Ravelry!!

GUESS WHAT??? (listen up, especially you Rhinebeckers) I might (fingers crossed) be going to the Ravelry event, We Are Thankful For Ravelry, in Austin, Texas!!!!!! It's next weekend!! And only 4 hours away from the door of my apartment! OH!!! I hope it all works out, that my mom and I (and Riley, of course!) can go!! I've been stuck in my miserable apartment nursing a pulled muscle for a ridiculously long time, so now I have something to really cheer me up, it's been insane for me to be off the ice for 6!!! days. I hate not being very mobile. I feel guilty to not be training and getting so much sleep. It's my inner thigh muscle, which is employed for all manner of balancing, limiting my skating ability to forward and backward skating skills, everything else hurts it, including turning from backward to forward and vice versa. My coach thinks I'm nuts to be so impatient with my injury, but that just sort of infuriates me further. I hate with a capital 'h' to not be on the ice. At least I've had my knitting for company... AUSTIN, here we come!!

I have to finish my Audrey, I want to show off at the party!! Bye now!

Riley's First Sweater

So, yesterday was really cold for Dallas. It rained all day, something Texans get really excited about. I always just look at them like they're crazy. I'm from Pittsburgh, it rains non-stop there. I get along great with my British coaches; they both have the same attitude about rain I do. Anyway, back to the knitting. I took Riley on a walk in the rain and first off I must say, my dog is not very brave. He's afraid of umbrellas (among other things, such as motorcycles, bananas and generally anything that goes 'boom'). Second, and more important, he got shivery because he was cold. My little puppy can't be cold. I won't have it. I now understand why my mother always wants me to wear a sweater. Riley's my baby and I hate to see him shiver. My knitting was called into action. I made Riley a little preppy green sweater to set off his ginger ears and was finished in a flash. It would have been a quicker flash if it had not been for a multitude of playtimes, demanded by the recipient of the sweater. He's good about wearing it, just not so good about putting it on. I see a whole wardrobe of little puppy sweaters in his future...

Saturday's Sin

Okay, so every weekend my mom and I try to find something really...sinful to eat. We are chocolate lovers and this week's sin was gelato! We each had chocolate chip and dark chocolate. I added peanut butter chocolate to mine and she added raspberry cheesecake. You got to pick 3 flavors for your 'piccolo' size; it was very hard to do! I was tempted by mint chocolate chip, but couldn't pass up peanut butter, loving that almost as much as chocolate itself.

I don't think we ate anything particularly sinful last week, though the week before last was the Texas State Fair, which was awesome and we bought rocky road fudge, with huge marshmallows and almonds in it. We bought half a pound and ate it all that day. The stomach ache from all the fair food was totally worth it. Have you ever heard of fried s'mores, lattes, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or margaritas? Yup, this is Texas and that's how they do fairs down here.

Oh, by the way, it's still 80 degrees in the afternoon here! :p I'm actually getting a bit sick of not having to wear socks. Although we are getting cooler evenings, which is at least a start!

Stashed!

How was Rhinebeck you lucky ducks? I am green with envy. I can hear your giggles at my indignity, so please stop. Anyway, above is my new pet. Isn't it a beauty?It's Scrumptious Lace by Fyberspates, in colorway 'Cherry'. I have big plans, but I'm not sure what they are yet for this pretty, pretty, pretty yarn. I was at the Shabby Sheep, my new LYS (but never replacing my old one, back in the 'burgh...you know who you are!) and this yarn just...spoke to me. It whispered, then when I put it back down, it became insistent and as I turned around, it screamed: "TURN AROUND, PUT THOSE OTHER MISERABLE SKEINS DOWN AND COME BACK!!!!!!!" It was so right, I didn't want those other skeins, they didn't glow like this one did. I just love red lace yarn. I love how it makes you feel, to wear a red scarf.

Oh, and BTW, I am in love with the beads too. I know, most of you have heard my feelings on bead knitting, but I didn't quite realize that beads come in sizes. I have been sticking big ol' size 6's on all of my lace projects, and that has led to my displeasure with the final project. These are size 8's, which when held up to the yarn, actually seem to fit the yarn. I need to find a mini crochet hook that fit through the holes though, the one they told me to buy in Arlington, TX was too big...

I'm thinking of doing Aphrodite with this yarn, but can't decide, what do you think?

Wandering

Hello,

So I think I need a new rechargeable battery for my camera, because it died over the weekend, and I was going to spend this evening photographing all of the knitting that I have done recently. For some reason, I have not kept onto of my ravelry page and that's no good, when y'all are far away. Anyway, the camera is charging right now, so if it's quick, I'll post again tonight, otherwise, let's aim for tomorrow!

What I am knitting currently, obsessively, is my Audrey. It's violet, like, crayola crayon purple. I love purple. I cannot believe how comforting it is to just knit, purl, repeat. I love all of the stockinette stitch. It might be a new trend for me, super easy, perfectly knit sweaters. Another good thing about the st st is that when my puppy starts to bite, I can basically toss the sweater out of harm's way and not worry about a cable uncrossing or lace un-yarn-overing.

I am also addicted to yarn coming to me in the mail. I just ordered 2 more skeins of the Elsebeth Lavold Cool Wool yarn from WEBS, and I must say, I was very impressed with the customer service there. I wrote to ask if they had my dye lot and they were very speedy in reply and miracle of all miracles, they had the dye lot and were super helpful and the yarn was in my mailbox only a couple of days later!! It's like Christmas to get yarn in the mail, so I am going to make finding precious yarn in my mail a habit, because I like Christmas and I like yarn. Here's a list of things that I have in mind to find in my mailbox:

1. Madelinetosh Prairie to make a Simplicity sweater. It only takes one skein!! I can't decide what color I like though...
2. Quince and Co. Lark to make Grove, the Jared Flood mittens. I'll make them so I can decide if I love the yarn enough to make a whole sweater in their "sorbet" colorway. I have to decide what sweater I will make, but it kinda makes sense to test the yarn before I decide, doesn't it?
4. Hedgehog Fibres Merino/Cashmere
5. Sanguine Gryphon Gaia Lace
6. Madelinetosh
7. Madelinetosh
8. Sweet Georgia Lace yarn, any, I can't decide. Possibly all... yes, all. Color? OMG
9. Miss Babs Yet

So, I have to go and eat mini chocolate chip muffins. Catcha later.

Meet my baby!!

Here's a picture of me and my puppy, Riley. (Obviously I have found my camera's charge cable, and plan not to misplace it) Isn't he the cutest darn thing you've ever seen? I love him so much!

KNITTY'S DEEP FALL!!!!

I spend my evenings alone with my new puppy, Riley, while my mom works. I knit only when he's asleep, which is not incredibly often. I have misplaced the cable that charges my camera, so that's why there is no picture of him for all of you to squeal over. (He's a maltese-poodle and very, very cute, so I promise I will find the camera charger soon!)

Anyway, Knitty's Deep Fall came out and I am really excited about the SOCKS!!! I love Riff and Nemesis!! I have exactly the right stuff to knit BOTH, so now I have to decide which to knit first and which to knit with which colorway....

I also love Brambles beret, my favorite part is the only needing 220 yards to finish it. That's some yarn I can squeeze from the skating budget!!

And you all know that I would zoom to Pretty Maids shawl faster than my puppy after a squeaky toy.

Welcome to life in Dallas!

Okay, we are finally moved into an apartment and slept there last night. It's very close to the highway for my mom and very close to the rink for me and it has a pool. That's really not a perk exclusive to the apartment complex though, pools are standard here in Dallas. But I've never lived anywhere with a pool I have unlimited access to, so I am excited.

Now for the confession part of this post. I picked this apartment (I did the apartment shopping while my mom was at her new job, oh and I was the one to sign the lease papers!) because there is a yarn closet. I will admit that the extra closet was not advertised as a yarn closet, but when the agent showed me the extra closet I almost squealed. A whole closet for yarn. A WHOLE CLOSET FOR YARN!!! A WHOLE CLOSET FOR YARN!!!! omg, my heart is about to beat out off my chest....Now, back home we have a closet for yarn but I was worried that moving into a cramped apartment would mean that we had to somehow store all the yarn somehow differently. That leads me to tell you how much yarn we took with us to Texas. We took enough yarn to fit into a yarn closet. 3 large tote bags, a handful of little project bags and a duffel bag, all full to the absolute brim with yarn. We also took all of the needles we own and the binders stuffed full of patterns collected and lovingly preserved for reference. We needed that extra closet.

A recap: I am more excited about the extra closet then I will ever be about some swimming pool. Hi, my name is Rachael and I am a yarnaholic.

EZ is 100!!!

To celebrate Elizabeth Zimmerman's centennial, which I consider a major deal, I have finally achieved sweater nirvana.

EZ tells us that knitting is fun and we should not worry about it. I thought she was crazy. How can one not worry about how the selvage stitches look or how evenly placed the buttonholes are? I have come around. I am knitting a sweater (my wasabi green Que Sera) and I am not freaking out about any of those details. This is the most fun I have ever had knitting a sweater. Nothing is stressing me out. I am letting mistakes happen, and then I am calmly deciding how to fix them and and then moving forward. I am not agonizing over my decisions, I am not throwing myself face down onto the floor and wailing, I am not weeping or sulking or banishing the sweater or cursing or anything like that at all. I have grown up. I will not let my knitting control me anymore. I will still demand perfection, but I will not cause myself pain over it anymore. Sure, I have knit sweaters before, but this is the first time that I am not having to go on a spiritual pilgrimage to decide how I am going to handle working the new stitches into the pattern on the sleeves.

Here's the best thing about my new approach (or rather, here's the best thing about EZ's approach that I am finally giving a try): it's quicker. I'm knitting faster. I'm done quicker because I am not spending half (or more likely, more than half) of my time worrying. I'm knitting. I'm knitting the whole time. It's the best thing in the world. I can't believe I never tried this sooner. Better late than never, I suppose, and my timing's great. Happy Birthday, Elizabeth Zimmerman!!!

New Interweave Knits Magazine!!!

Interweave Knits is one of my favorite knitting magazines and I just got the new one!!! I got an email from Shabby Sheep, here in Dallas and checked the patterns out online. I fell head over heels in love with Carol Feller's Leitmotif cardigan and couldn't click on 'bonus pictures' fast enough!!! I feel like I have been searching for exactly this pattern for a long time and now I need to find the perfect yarn. Other patterns I like in this issue are the Bavarian Tulip mittens (which I think I have yarn for, back in PA), Leyfi pullover, Peavey cardigan (who doesn't love all the color combination possibilities that the plaid offers? and, I love Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark's Girl Friday cardigan from Knitty, so I'm biased.) and last but not least I like Hoarfrost Mobius (because who can deny the urge to knit with wire and have it look that beautiful?). Another thing I really like about this issue is how pretty some of the non-knitted clothes are, the blouse shown with the Williamsburg cardigan is really pretty, the dress shown with the Sea and Sky shrug is adorable and I like the shirt shown with the Running-Stitch skirt. I give this issue an A+.

My current Artichaut shawl is going really well, I am extremely happy with the marriage between pattern and yarn, the fuzzy cashmere with the uber lacy-ness is making it come out very, very girly, but in a very, very good way. I am on the 3rd repeat and believe I will have plenty of yarn to finish 6 repeats! Almost half way there, then!

Cashmere, again

What do people think of using my Jojoland Cashmere 2-ply in a delicate lilac color to make Anne Hanson's beautiful Artichaut pattern? I have enough if I don't take back the second ball, which I never really thought I would do anyway; would you give back a ball of cashmere after you bought it? A silly thing to do, unless you need money for food. Although, cashmere is food for the soul, so maybe it's the same as buying food. I like that argument. I'll use it next time I pick up a ball of cashmere. Usually I don't even touch cashmere in my LYS because I know I can't afford it. Unless it's purple, then I touch it. And buy it. And love it. And knit it. I am not getting along with Juneberry, surely this is temporary and in a bit I will be typing my raves about that pattern (which I still think is really pretty and I want to knit), so maybe an $8 pattern is the surest fit for my dear, most beloved, treasured, perfect cashmere.

Summer Heat

Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you have all been waiting for: pictures of a finished Lilia! Shot on location at Grapevine Lake, Grapevine, Texas (just outside of Dallas). 108 degrees that day and the water was not much cooler. It was fun to sit and work on my tan though, especially with how little time I have to just chill...I need a different swimsuit though, when I untied my triangle bikini to get rid of those tan lines while maintaining modesty (at least to some degree), I swear, every boat on that lake was over to see how much of a tan I wanted! Anyway, I would have liked to take more pictures, but it was just so hot that the ones I do have barely got taken; I just didn't want to move.

I cast on for my Juneberry, got through chart 1 then hit chart 2. Chart 2's very, very complicated. You need your thinking cap on for that one, if it slips off even the smallest bit, you're doomed. Other people (including people I know) have made it through the treacherous waters of chart 2, but mentally I don't think I have it right now. I love the Juneberry shawl and will come back to it, but I need mindless, not mindful knitting...

Love Poem to Cashmere

Love poems can be
full of sappiness
but this one's for
cashmere,
and happiness.

Soft as a bunny,
lighter than air
stitch definition
so clear,
there is no compare.

Cashmere, you beauty,
you fiber queen,
I love you so much,
though you make
my wallet lean!

That is the worst poem you've ever read, right? Well, it comes from the heart, so remember that as you laugh. Most love poems are a bit painful to read anyway...I can't spend too much time being a poet, I must knit! The inspiration came from my lovely Jojoland Cashmere 2 ply, which I am using to make Juneberry Triangle, by the talented Jared Flood. So far I have only got to row 8 of chart 1, because I had to spill forth the truth my heart yearned to have the world know about my feeling for cashmere in (horrible) poem form. I am very pleased so far, but that was a somewhat obvious statement, eh?

FINISHED!!!!!!!!

Lilia has been carefully cast off using an Estonian bind off (the kind that Elizabeth Freeman recommends for Laminaria and Aeolian: k1, *k1 slip both back to left needle, k2tog, rep from * across) to match the bind off I used on all the edging points. It is blocking on the floor of our extended stay hotel room, on a clean sheet, of course! I love the ritual of blocking, though getting the perfect shape sometimes drives me crazy. I will post pics ASAP, because I know you're all dying to see it finished. I am. It took much longer than other shawls I have made, but I think the end result will be worth it. It was all I could do not to go out and knock on all the doors on our floor and demand that random strangers admire my knitting.

Anticipation!

Okay, I am on the LAST wedge of my beautiful Lilia! I pinned a section out to see what it will look like blocked because I am impatient and I am terrifically excited about this one! It is the biggest piece of lace knitting I have done, and I am excited, excited, excited and can't wait to post some lovely pictures here, check back soon!

Sweet Lily Obsession

I have 8 more wedges to do on my Sweet Lily Shawl (Interweave Knits, Spring 2009)and I am super excited about this one! I am calling in 'Lilia', Russian for lily of the valley, because of the lace edging which repeats across the bottom of the shawl. The shawl is knit in wedges, using short rows, which were very confusing until I finished the 3rd wedge and wrote down how many sts remained unworked at the end of each row. After that, this project graduated from 'no talking while I count' to 'watch tv/chitter chatter' knitting.

The yarn, Madelinetosh Lace, came from my stash, it was bought in Vermont, at Kaleidoscope Yarns in Essex Junction. The shop is literally a house of yarn, with each room devoted to a different weight/fiber. I would really like to have a reason to get back there. Vermont is really far away from Plano, Texas though...Try 1 day and 5 hours away, through 8 states!

I love Mad Tosh. I love love love the colors! They are like colors straight out of a dream and they make me very happy whenever I see them at my LYS. The color I am using for Lilia is 'Thyme', though it reminded me more of parsley, like in Rapunzel. Not to brag at all, but it's the same color as my eyes! The fabric that the lace weight yarn knit on size US8s is delicate and feathery, almost like mousse. It feels delicious against my skin...sigh...

All of this writing has made me really want to get back to knitting, so I'll catch you later!

Oh, and Happy 4th!

Hello World!!

A new blogger is born! I knitting lace, photographing lace and gushing about lace...and if you're reading this, you do too! I'll keep you updated as to what I obsessing over next!! Peace and happy knitting!