Victory and pretty things

Frost Flowers and Leaves (henceforth Claire's wedding shawl) is finished, and it's gorgeous! And big!

I used the Jaggerspun superfine merino from Halcyon Yarn for this, and it turned out really nicely. It's a pretty cheap as far as lace yarn goes, but very nice quality. I'm so proud of this shawl, as it's the biggest lace that I've done, and was a real learning experience - namely, I learned that I shouldn't try to knit lace after a martini!

And speaking of martinis: the ginger vodka infusion turned out really nicely - it manages to have the full flavor range of ginger, not only the bite, but the plantiness of it, if that makes any sense. The mint was gross and tasted like rotting leaves, and we have to wait a while to taste the lemon. Maybe when Claire gets her shawl we can celebrate with that!

Here's the Zen String Awaken roving I got last week. It matches the irises that are starting to come out:
I really loved the MA Sheep and Woolcrafts Fair. There were a lot of little kids showing and grooming their sheep, a lot of craftspeople with great things they were selling, and a lot of crazy sheep making hilarious noises. I love them so. I was having so much fun that I didn't take any pictures, alas, but I got some great stuff (mostly rovings). From Spunky Eclectic came these beauties. I love them all, but I'm especially pleased that that green lace yarn is in the color 'Soylent' so that I can make terrible jokes the whole time that I'm knitting it:


Unsuspecting curious person: What are you knitting?
Me: It's people!

It's a terrible joke, but I know I'll make it. Again, and again, and again.

These are a merino/silk and a merino roving from a lovely shop whose name I can't remember. Each one is about 8oz. and I'm thinking to spin one or both (together?!) as laceweight for a shawl. Should be fun to try, anyway:


On the left below is angora from Acker's Acres Angora. Their pamphlet says it takes an hour to comb out an ounce of angora, but since an ounce only costs $7, I'm guessing the bunny caressing might be part of the profit! The other one is a merino tencel from The Sheep Shed. I honestly can't believe I only bought one thing from them, they had so much loveliness! I think it may have been a hunger-related decision.


And the actual knitting? Well, on the way to the fair I made great progress on the Urban Boot Socks for the Bike Jerk, as anonymous husband decided to name himself. Just the foot of the second one left. But I'm a tad distracted by this:

Which is the beginning of the Hidcote Garden Shawl in Forest Seasilk for my mom. The pattern is delightfully complicated, and it's clear that the designer put a lot of energy into it. And the yarn is so scrumptious I can hardly stand it. It's a little thicker than most of the laceweight I've used before, and has a really lovely sheen that doesn't show up in the photo (mostly because the sun went away as soon as I snapped the picture).

I'm sort of embarrassed to go on. I'm usually a 2-3 items in progress sort of knitter - just one for paying-attention knitting, one for bus-riding, maybe another one for during a movie - and it feels weird to have so many things (5!) on the needles at once. How did it happen? These are socks for my friend Rebekah. They're a bit garish (Opal yarn, based on art by Hundertwasser), but in the best possible way:
And finally, the first one of the alpaca booties. One of the cutest things I've knit. Ridiculous. (Oh, and yes, that IS a duck with a ribbon around its beak in the background. Don't you have a pair of Korean wedding ducks?)

Rain, Rain, go away...

..so that I can take some better pictures. Ok, maybe I do need a new camera - one that allows me to focus how I want to - but here's a rainy day picture anyway:



Which it's the plied yarn from the onionskin dyed singles. This shows the color pretty well, and at least you can see that it's pretty fine. Maybe when the sun comes out, I'll post a better picture of it, because I love it! Turned out to be about 450 yards, too, so socks aren't out of the question.


This is the beginning of the purply merino roving. I wish I had more of it than I do! It's turning out so nicely. I'm usually more of a greeny-bluey person, but this is cooooool!

And here's a pair of mittens that I finished just in time for it to get warm enough to not wear mittens:

Nancy Bush calls them Hilja's mittens in her Folk Knitting in Estonia, but I call them Super-virtuous mittens, because they're entirely from my stash AND I used up 3 of those tiny leftover balls that just don't seem big enough to finish anything. Which they weren't, of course: neither your monitor nor my lighting is wacky - they are two different colors. The one on the left is mostly Koigu that's been sitting around (the remnant of TWO pairs of socks) for several years, the other is something else entirely. I sort of like the contrast. And I think this is enough colorwork to last me long time.

Also, just for update's sake, the Frost Flowers and Leaves shawl is halfway edged, though I won't burden you with another shrivelled shawl picture. Suffice it to say that I've upgraded it to the status of "work," which means that it gets to supercede things that other people might think are more important, like, oh, research. I'm just trying desperately to get it done before it gets hot, and if that means I have to spend 6 hours on a miserable rainy day watching Pride and Prejudice (the BBC version, of course! I'll take Colin Firth over Keira Knightley any day.) and edging a shawl instead of schlepping to the library, so be it!

It's Me!

I never even knew about knitting blogs until about a month ago, and now I have one. I couldn't resist once I saw all the great stuff going on and the sense of a knitting community. In real life I'm a graduate student, in something other than knitting, which means both that I have limited knitting time AND that I really need it when I get it. Hopefully I can figure out my camera and the intricacies of dealing with pictures on a Mac, so that this will work out!

Here are some of the things I'm working on:

Yes, it's Frost Flowers and Leaves from A Gathering of Lace, not that you can tell, of course. Oh the joys of circular lace, and its consistently looking like a tangled mess! Still, this one has 1/4 of its edging done, which is the real reason to show it. It's for my friend's wedding, and this photo shows it might be done before September (I've been working on it on and off for a year!).

Also, I dyed some purply rovings:

I'm just starting to explore dyeing, so I'm trying to stick within a colorway, but do it differently and see what happens. This is (L-R) merino, mystery wool, and silk. Both the silk and the mystery wool were supposed to have large white areas, but I didn't do as well with the mystery wool. It leaked.

This one is also mystery wool (I lost my labels for the undyed roving - I've had it for a while). You can't really tell from the picture, but it's rather violently orange in places, and sort of pinky in others. It was supposed to be for a scarf for my brother, but I don't think he'd approve of the color combo. Which is all for the best, as it means more yarn for my own evil purposes.


This is a singles spun with a roving I dyed with onionskin. I can't believe it came out so orange, but I love it. Also mystery wool! It's some of the thinnest yarn I've been able to spin, which is exciting. Maybe socks?


This is the beginning of a pair of Uptown Boot Socks from Favorite Socks (which I love! I have a total sock obsession, which is why I'm discreetly putting the sock last. That way no one will catch onto my sickness. It worked, right?) . It's using KnitPicks Gloss in Pumpkin, which feels great to work with, though we'll see how it wears. It's for my husband, which means a lot of foot to practice the very simple cable pattern!

That's it for now! I'll be back soon, with some more WIP and FOs...