ruthless

on an impulse last year, while at my lys, i grabbed some jitterbug yarn and started knitting the lovely coquille shawlette pattern.  i got this far into it, and stopped.  the yarn is NOT right for the pattern.  the yarn is springy and bouncy, and this pattern needs thin and drapey.  the colors change constantly, and the pattern needs longer repeats.

can you see what's coming?  the ball-winder snuck up to it...

... and here we have it -- a mint chocolate chip colored yarn cake of potential!  (the yarn is prettier than in this over-exposed photo.)

hip to be square

i recently learned how to miter a square in tunisian crochet.  it is fun, easy, and goes really quickly, like most tunisian projects.  then, kay of mason-dixon knitting published a blanket pattern, knit from mitered squares, with a neutral corner on each square, and surrounded with the neutral in a log cabin fashion.  GORGEOUS!  and supports aid for japan!  go buy the pattern! (link goes to mdk blog, "buy now" button in upper righthand corner of page)

i mention all this because, from this confluence of knowledge and ideas, i was inspired to crochet a blanket using mitered squares, a relatively non-neutral neutral, and eliminating the log cabin surrounding portion.  a natural evolution of thought, no?  シ

i've never knit a blanket.  too much boring work.  but noro, dear noro, with its crazy ever-changing colors, keeps it interesting.  i'm using noro aya, primarily cotton and silk, as the exciting colorful part.  i selected three main colorways, because i want a lot of variety and fun in this blanket, and frankly, i just don't care about having perfectly color-matched squares.  i'm hoping to have it not look too random, so after crocheting the first 10 or 11 squares as they came out of the ball, i'm now doing a minimum of planning and selecting the colors as i place the squares. 

i believe i'll do 36 squares.  i've already completed 13-3/4.  i'd like to use that bluish green as a border all around.  that yarn is rowan wool cotton, soft and produces about the same gauge as the noro aya for me.  part of what has made this project fun is that, in order to produce a square containing four squares, i had to figure out an appropriate method for casting on after i picked up stitches along an edge.  woooooo!  shivers of problem-solving delight! シ if you are familiar with the modified crochet cast-on in knitting, you will know how i decided to proceed.

finally, if you've been reading here for a while, you may remember the tirelessly blooming orchid my mother-in-law gave me for my birthday 1-1/2 years ago.  apparently, it thrives on neglect (the only way to thrive at my house!), and is now blooming again!  here she is:

happy spring!  happy easter!  a blessed passover!

and of course, happy knitting.

needlework update

i got a new toy.  it has enabled me to frog ugly projects, or projects where the yarn does not suit the pattern, or bad ideas gone wrong, and leaves me with beautiful cakes of potential.

this is my laceweight sterling silver impregnated yarn, in its new form.  i wanted to make a shawl out of it, combining knitted lace with tunisian crochet.  it just was ugly.  now i think this yarn wants to be opera length fingerless gloves.  we'll see.

i am stalled at day 11 of the advent calendar scarf.  it is fun, absolutely lovely, and i will continue -- i am NOT going to frog this.  however, it requires a lot of attention, and i'm unable to attend to my knitting right now.
here's a little summary of some of the things i have going, labeled 1-6, starting in the lower left and going clock-wise (you'll have to double-click on it to really see the numbers, sorry):

1. advent calendar scarf:  beautiful, fun, complex, stalled at day 11
2. herringbone cowl:  beautiful, fun, EASY, about 60% done by weight
3. tunisian scarf:  3 color technique illustration for classes:  easy, fun, interesting to look at, hurts my wrist to work on too much, not very portable, about 40% done
4. ball-winder and first frogging victim of the ball-winder
5. cotton projects: dish cloths i knit while traveling, a grocery bag in progress (40%).  easy
6. unblocked tunisian crochet experiment:  mitered square entrelac hobo bag.  just needs to be blocked and seamed -- 90% done.

there you go!  i do not spend ALL of my time bragging about my lovely weather ツ