Happy Easter

Here are all my little fluffy friends. Suri Merino, Brushed Alpaca. Thanks to resurrection fern for the tutorial and inspiration. So cute, so fun…

Wish I could learn to blog backwards? Last but not least.

Ahhh… the cowl I did keep. It's Malabrigo worsted, Continental Blue—super soft. Another Ravelry free download. The Crofter’s Cowl, Designed by Gudrun Johnston, Shetlandtrader. I love it, super soft, great color. A fast knit, the grafting of 80 stitches was a little tedious for me and you can see my grafting, it's far from perfect. More than likely I will make this again and again. It can be completed in an afternoon, making it a good gift. The Malabrigo lends itself nicely to the design, its thick to thin transitions and slight color variation help to hide the grafting and it's so soft you just fall in love the minute you put it on. That's it for today. My last cowl for March. I have two patterns on my studio desk and of course if my friend Rebekkah from Bowerbird Knits writes her pattern I'll be casting on immediately!

cowls, cowls, caplet, cont…

cowls, cowls, caplet, cont…

Then I made Burnished Leaves Cowl. Designed by Chrissy Prange, a free Ravelry download…thanks Chrissy. A fun, quick and beautiful knit. I was thinking of keeping this one, but in the end it was gifted.
It's knitted with a Cascade 2020 Heathers, blue green, very pretty. Cascade always knits up nice, it's pretty soft, washes well, and holds its shape. I didn't even block it, it just washed and dried so nicely that I didn't have to.

cowls, cowls, caplet

The next thing I know I'm making a cowl for my mother-in-law for her Name's Day (a Latvian tradition). I chose some beautiful light aqua blue Frog Tree (from my stash) and a light lacy pattern. A free pattern from Lion Brand website titled Lacy Luxe Cowl. In the end I sent two of the cowls I made to her. I told her to choose the one she liked best, and give the other to either my niece or sister in law as an early Easter gift. Well she chose the one a made with her in mind…it was a success!

cowls, cowls, caplet

This all started with a Caplet for my niece Sondra. Then I got carried away. I thought it would be wonderful to own a cowl. Since, I have knitted three different designs from the Ravelry site. I have two more ready to go. I must finish my sweater sleeves first. Perhaps it will too warm by then they'll get put on the back burner. Sondra’s Aspen Caplet came out nice. The color is quite pretty, the yarn is Lopi, I doubled it because she loves purples and my LYS didn't have that color in the super bulky weight. It's a little scratchy and it was a little rough on the hands knitting doubled. I rinsed it in Eucalan…seems to have soften it a bit.

HAPPY SPRING…

Catching up with all my favorite knitting blogs all day. What better way to procrastinate. I have a large design job that needs to get going and I just don't feel like it. Instead I went outside with my camera (notice the new header), took some emerging crocus shots and then attempted to take pictures of my Malabrigo sweater. I'm working on the second sleeve (finally) and thought it was a nice bright day to take pictures.
Well, too bright, they came out awful. I'll have to get back to you on that. Here's a nice picture of Josie enjoying a beautiful spring morning.

Ilma's mittens. Sorry the pictures are not great. My husband helped me take them and he isn't a photographer (ssshhhh… don't tell him that). Can you say overexposed.

Backing up to the Holidays

Here are my very first Fairisle projects. Two pairs of Kate Gilbert's Bird in Hand Mittens ravel it The first in liliac/pink Suri Merino and Cascade 220 dark brown. I knitted them on two size 2 circulars, 24". They came out a bit large, but very soft and SUPER warm. I kept them, I figure the first pair is a chance to make mistakes, learn the pattern and get a little comfortable with fairisle. I really enjoyed knitting these. I made a second pair for my sister-in-law Ilma. Ilma’s are knitted in Frog Tree DK weight and the colors are raspberryish plum color and this beautiful wheat (golden yellow brown) color. I absolutely love hers. They were a little small for me. I knitted them on size 1 circs, she has small hands. I left out one of the braids and one of the trim patterns, shortening hers by a good inch. I loved fairisle so much that I raveled a bunch of mitten patterns, bought the yarn, plan to knit many more…

A Note from the Universe

I've been thinking a lot about my blog, just haven't had time to get back to it. My latest setback (excuse) is that this past week I've been down with a very bad cold. I have been keeping up with taking pictures and of course LOTS of knitting. This Sunday I was trying to take a picture of the capelet I made for my niece. I picked up my camera, turned it on and was surprised to find that it wouldn't work. A flashing symbol "CF". Argghhh… the memory card is full. I decided I better get those images on to my comuter, so I can finally update my blog. Happily…that much is now done.

Monday morning rolled around. Still feeling stuffy and somewhat miserable, and also feeling bad about possibly missing yoga. I agonize over whether or not to go to work. If I stay home I can work on my blog, finish my cowl, etc… I should go so I can teach my yoga class. While pacing and thinking I decide to check email.
Well, whattya know my daily "message from the Universe" has arrived and it reads…
"There are lots of reasons you chose to come to earth, Laura, and I am super happy to tell you that not one of them was to master being poor, lonely, or sick. Incidentally, neither did you have any intention of living your life without a blog."

After pondering that for a short time… I decided to go so I could teach my yoga class and I also decided to work harder at keeping up my blog. At the end of yoga one of my regular and very faithful students hands me a package and says something like "here's something for your knitting." Thinking it's yarn I stuffed it in my bag. Later in the evening I opened my bag, saw the package and said Oh yeah? When I opened it I realized I was holding a beautiful hand sewn knitting bag (THANKS Lisa)! Boy was I ever happy the universe sent me to yoga. And in case you didn't know you can get your daily email from the universe at theuniverse@tut.com.