Actual Knitting Content!!!

First of all, Happy Spring!!!










So, now I have some knitting to show you.

This is a small shoulder shawl that I made for my Mom. It's done in Lorna's Laces alpaca. I sort of had to design something that would lend itself to the length of yarn I had. (I have no idea where I got the yarn. There it was in my stash, and I wanted to use it.) For the side lace I used a double-wide version of Branching Out with a 10-stitch border on each side. The back is a single panel of the Branching Out lace with decreasing stockinette stitch to make a triangle.

At the end there is a tube on one side through which is pulled the other side which is basically reduced to a ribbed strip. It stays closed all by itself, but I'm going to try to find a nice shawl pin or something as an accent.


I've started on this for The Daughter from Debbie Bliss'Summer Essentials.
The pattern is written for Cathay-- which I "heart", but I'm knitting it in Jaeger Aqua in a pretty light teal color. It's a bit difficult to tell from the picture, but it's basically a 1X1 rib up to mid-chest when an upside down V is formed with 1x3 ribbing up the sides of the /\.
I love the fabric it makes--nice drape and shiny, but it's a little rough on the fingers. I chose to try this fiber because although I'm most fond of Cathay, it splits a LOT and starts to drive me a bit bonkers after awhile. The other surprise is that to get gauge, I'm knitting it on 3's!!! Yes-- THREEs I tell you-- which are the very high end of what I will ever use for socks, but definitely not what I'm accustomed to knitting larger garments with.

Katie-- are you proud of me??

In order to save my fingers a bit, I've also started a little baby sweater in a wonderful chocolate Cashmarino Chunky. It's for one of not-yet-born twins. The sister will get one in that yummy Cashmarino peachy color. Both will have accents in cream-- probably overstitched.


In other news, I've been off for a few days trying to make some progress toward housal organization.
I spent 2 days here with the tile guys. We had our kitchen retiled about 3 years ago, and unfortunately, the guy who spoke almost only Korean couldn't communicate well with the guy who spoke almost only Spanish, and there were some sections that came loose. So, the tiles were placed and grouted, and our kitchen doesn't seem as much like it's in a falling-apart house any more.

I've done some good work on sorting out clothes-- donate, pitch, save. I started to rein in the yarn stash. I have visions of organization. I am armed with large zipper bags, vacuum storage bags and plastic box containers. I have made progress. I will forge ahead. I will succeed.

Unfortunately, my back started giving me trouble on Friday afternoon. With so much that I had hoped to accomplish, it's really disappointing, because I really can't move much without quite a bit of pain. Despite massive quantities of ibuprofen, heat, cold, moderate amounts of tylenol, I fear I might have to go to the doctor. Of course, you know what that means-- as soon as I get there it'll stop hurting. I keep hoping it'll calm down on its own. I have until tomorrow, because it's back to work on Wednesday.

Knit Happen's own Michael delVecchio is on Knitty Gritty tomorrow:
details here:Knitty Gritty.