No Knitting Today!

As you can tell by the title, I have no knitting to show you. I haven't knit anything in days. Why, you ask? Well, Mickael and I went on a little trip. Here.

Need another hint? Maybe seeing it at night will help.

Yes, we've been to Vegas! Neither of us had ever been before and when we found out that our neighbor from Virginia was planning a surprise party for her husband's 40th birthday (he was also our neighbor, of course), we jumped at the chance to go. So we got to see Vegas and see most of our neighborhood friends from Virginia too!

Caleb got to go to his grandparents' house with Finn and Ramius.

Dog in the Herb Garden

I finished my Herb Garden Scarf (pattern is The Gift of Friendship Scarf) and even though it still needs the ends woven in and blocking, Finn agreed to model it for you. Here he is showing the Preppy look (love how it really shows off his chest hair).

And here we see it folded in half and the ends pulled through the loop - much more appropriate for those chilly, cold days when a scarf is more than a fashion statement.

I better be careful, or Finn will start charging for his modeling skills.

I worked 400 rows of the pattern stitch for this scarf and it will be around 72 inches or so in length when it's all blocked. (For those who aren't knitters or who have never knit lace, blocking opens up the piece substantially and makes it much larger than it looks unblocked - I realize it looks no where near that size on Finn.) The width is probably going to be pretty close to the 9 inches the pattern gives and and I'd say 400 yards of the laceweight yarn is probably pretty close to what I used. I knit this on US 4's. It was a really easy pattern to do and I like the stitch pattern - it works particularly well on multi colored, hand painted types of yarn like this one. I did most of the last 300 rows of it watching the Deadliest Catch marathon over the weekend (love those for knitting!)

Finn Blogs

This morning Mommy told me I could blog and I was SO excited! I wiggled and waggled and pranced on my hind legs and made lots of wookie noises!

Then Mommy told me she wanted me to show you her new finished Shur'tugal sock. I decided the best way to show you the sock was to wear it. Then when Mommy sees how good I look in socks, maybe she'll knit me some. Don't you think I'm totally wearing this sock? I could get used to this. Lounging by the fire (OK, fake logs and gas started fire, but hey - it sets a mood), wearing socks, sipping on something warm and bacony... I think I could be that dog.

Hey Mommy, I need three more of these!

Mommy Edit: There was a request that I keep you updated on Finn's treatment for allergies. As you remember, he got a Cortisone shot at the first of June. That gave us 3 weeks of itch free happiness, but last week he started itching again. (The vet was hoping for 5- 6 weeks of relief, but with the severity of Finn's allergies, he wasn't expecting it to last that long. I called the vet and let them know and he is now on Prednisone pills - by the second day of taking them he is itch free again. They started him off with 2 a day but tomorrow we go to one a day and next week we'll be doing every other day. Fingers are crossed that this solves our problems.

Shur'tugal

I've finished the heel flap on my first Shur'tugal sock. The stitch pattern on these socks is easy enough to be portable, but it seems to take longer to knit a round than the Vog On socks I just finished. On the other hand, since I tend to like to get to the end of the whole pattern repeat before I set the socks down, these seem to be getting knit very quickly. I love the way the stitch pattern looks in this yarn and (in my mind) at least, the shine from the Tencel in the yarn makes it look more "dragon like."

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Happy Fourth of July if you're American. (I realize that the rest of the world does indeed have a fourth of July in as much as it is after the third and before the fifth and I hope yours is lovely too, but we get fireworks and capital letters to celebrate the Fourth!)

Cherry Blossom Shawl Yarn

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I had joined the Cherry Blossom Shawl KAL on Ravelry. The designer was getting the pattern ready to sell because the IK issue it had originally appeared in was out of print. Well the pattern is now available, I have a copy and I have my yarn. This is Silk Cloud from Shibui Knits in the Blossom colorway (appropriate, no?) Now the astute among you (or perhaps just the better caffeinated) will ask, "But didn't you just finish that big wrap thingy with pale pink yarn?" Yes, I did just finish the Silky Alpaca Lace Wrap in Geisha from Blue Moon Fiber Arts in Rosebud, but Rosebud is a warm, soft pink while Blossom is a cool, soft pink. Two different animals entirely, see?

Some Finished Yarn

It's been ages around here since I had some finished handspun, but today that all changes. This is 1050 yards of two ply Polwarth spun to about fingering weight. The spinning isn't terribly even (I really got out of practice with spinning during the move), but it's done. I finished plying and then fulled* the skeins in the washing machine to finish them. I never really had a plan with this yarn, I just wanted to spin some of it the roving up. (I purchased a whole fleece, so there's more of this fiber in the stash). I'll probably use it for lace since it's just a two ply and two plies do lace better than they do anything else.

I've still got to ply up the lavender merino and silk singles that I spun earlier this Spring, then I'm going to go through my spinning notes, go through my spinning books, and start practicing everything that I used to know until I'm spinning consistently again and getting the yarns I want for specific projects again. Knowing that I used to spin much better and more even makes me frustrated when I look at this yarn. I've got several batches of fiber in my stash for sweaters, but I'm not about to undertake such a large spinning project until I feel confident in the consistency of my spinning.

*Fulling is a way to finish yarn. Fine wools like Polwarth and Merino (there are others but I'm not going to try to remember them in my uncaffeinated state) actually expand and push against each other when they're agitated in warm water. Don't do this with all wools because the same type of activity these two skeins did in the washing machine would have made felt of Blue Faced Leicester or Romney. Judith Mackenzie Mc Cuin has written an article in Spin Off on fulling and I'm guessing her spinning books also cover this.

A Finished Pair and the Start of A New Pair

Sock knitting is a bit like royal accession. In one you have "The King is Dead. Long Live the King." In the other it's less dramatic, but "The socks are done. I'm knitting socks." still captures the never ending aspect of sock knitting that's like a well organized monarchy. Or maybe I just need more caffeine. Or maybe it's because I just finished reading Edward Rutherford's London. (I really enjoyed it - it's fiction, but it follows several fictional families through actual history in the London area, from pre-Roman times to present day. I've also read The Forest and enjoyed that too.)

I did get the Vog On socks all finished up, and while I wasn't really planning on bringing them back one last time, Finn felt that we should show you the finished pair and he volunteered to help out.

Of course, I've cast on for a new pair of socks now. This is the yarn I'm using (I'm not really far enough along to show you anything sock-wise). It's from The Woolen Rabbit, it's a Merino/Tencel sock yarn, and the color is Mo' Berry. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, she doesn't dye this base yarn or this color right now. On the bright side, the pattern I'm using is available and it's free. It's Shur'tugal from Alice Yu. Shur'tugal means Dragon Rider and if you've read the Eragon books (Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr all written by Christopher Paolini), you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't read them, I'd suggest you get to a library and check them out. They're in the vein of The Hobbit with a little bit of Harry Potter. I'll get more done on the sock and show you how it's actually looking later this week.