Color Affection: Me Too!

I'm sure you too can name a handful of knitters who have a serious crush on Veera Välimäki, and that you too noticed how her garter stitch shawls pop up everywhere. Her Stripe Study Shawl (2.499 projects on Ravelry!), Different Lines (832), and Color Affection (2.999) are really fun, stripy, colorful garter stitch shawls. For I while I resisted the trend, but once I saw Vicki's Affectionately Mine, I wanted one too.

Yesterday I mentioned that I fell hard for Malabrigo Arroyo; when I paired (grouped?) these three colors together, the result had "Color Affection" written all over it.

And so, three weeks later, I'm in happy possession of my very own Color Affection:

The shawl is huge, but beautifully light and airy. Love!

FO: Grey winter shawl

Oh gosh, it's been so long that I cast on for this shawl that I don't remember any of the details! The body is Evelyn A. Clark's Shallowtail Shawl, but I skipped the lace border and worked a garter stitch edge instead to make it a heavy, winter-y shawl (I'm copying this straight from my Rav project page).

I had finished the body more than two years ago and added the border last summer, as we were getting ready to move. While packing I realized how many WIPs I had in my knitting basket (and several closet corners), and this shawl seemed to fastest to finish. It sure was easy, but, man, June isn't the month to knit with an alpaca blend!

I wore the shawl tonight for the first time--and I wore it to knit night at Blazing Needles! I had an awesome time. My in-laws got here yesterday but weren't offended that I left for the evening; I hope my parents will be as understanding next week, when I hope to go back again.

You'll be shocked

Alert the media, there's a finished object chez Wollgut! It's that lace scarf for my doctoral thesis advisor that I started one week B.C. (Before Conrad, that is), which was halfway done the night we rushed to the hospital, and that took three months to complete. Sheesh.

Good things come to those who wait, and while my advisor didn't know she was waiting for anything, this scarf turned out mighty nice, if I may say so myself.

I got the yarn--delicious Madelinetosh Pashmina (merino! silk! cashmere!)--the week after I defended, mulled over lace scarf patterns for weeks, then asked you for input, then ignored your advice, and finally settled on a narrower, longer version of Nancy Bush's Lilac Leaf Shawl. Verdict: one of my finest projects.

Want to have a closer look?

Closer?

Yes, those are nupps. And ya know what? They weren't half as bad. Although I admit that I abandoned Bush's technique of making seven stitches out of one knit stitch on a RS row, then purling those seven together on the next WS row. Instead I followed my mom's advice: make seven, slip those seven back onto the left needle, then knit seven together on the same RS row. Much easier, me thinks. And the result looks the same: I checked.

Waaaaayyyy more nerve-racking than making innocent little nupps was grafting the two parts together (lower edge and body + upper edge, so that the top edge mirrors the bottom). Kitchener stitch in itself isn't evil, but bloody hell, once I lose track of where I am (part 1, 2, 3, or 4 of the operation) I just can't figure out how to continue. You'd think it's easy to see if I most recently worked a stitch purl- or knitwise, but instead I experience complete brain shutdown, and then I make a mistake. This time I screwed up five or six stitches before I was done. I kept on Kitchening as best as I could. The two parts are joined successfully, but the mistake is visible to the knitter's eye (but only if that knitter's eye is mean-spirited and closely searches for mistakes). My advisor isn't a knitter, so I just won't worry about it.

And as always when I block a lace project, this time, too, I cursed the lack of blocking wires. I really ought to have blocking wires, 'cuz this isn't pretty:

I used about 5.000 blocking needles, and with a crying baby tied to my chest, it took about two hours to block the scarf ("5.000" may be an exaggeration, "two hours" is not). By the time I was done, the scarf was dry, more or less.

As I said, the scarf is longer and narrower than the original pattern: if I remember correctly, it's two repeats longer and two (three?) repeats narrower. I didn't measure the blocked scarf, but it's fairly long and fairly wide, kinda perfect, actually. The whole scarf is kinda perfect. I hope my advisor likes it!

Schlaaaaaaaand!*

If you are following the World Cup you know that Germany's was an epic win. If not, let me tell you: Germany played an amazing game against Argentina this morning. It was outrageously, wow-ly, extraordinarily, insanely exciting and ended with a completely unexpected 4:0. (Unexpected because... well... four goals!) After last week's game against England, which was also crazily awesome, I didn't dare hope for such a spectacular game, let alone a 4:0 win. Total awesomeness.

We watched the game at our usual breakfast place, along with mostly Argentina fans:

Since Germany's fans were in the minority we yelled and screamed and cried extra-loudly, with the result that my voice is gone now.

Hey, and since I went out to the porch this morning to photograph our Fußball jerseys (see above) I also took photos of Multnomah:

Since it's too small for me to wear, and since I don't want to gift it (because I love the yarn: Alchemy Yarns' Juniper), I will unravel it. (This shouldn't keep you from making a cute little Multnomah yourself: it's a pretty pattern, well written, etc. etc., it just isn't for me.)

And now... gotta run and see how Spain and Paraguay are doing.

*Schlaaaaaand=the increasingly popular Facebook soccer nick name for Deutschland.

Textured Shawl(ette), Jr.

Couldn't help but take a few more pictures:

The yellow Mystery Socks are coming along swimmingly. I'm done with the second clue, thanks to Jeremy Brett and David Burke, who make such a wonderful Sherlock Holmes/Dr. Watson team (in the British 1980s series) that we watched three episodes last night.

Here's a pic of the finished first clue, which involved knitting a vikkel braid:

It's easy enough to make if you have clear instructions. I found a nice vikkel tutorial here.

So long!

Denial

I'm in denial about the "Luxus" sweater and started a new yet another project to distract myself: I'm making a second Textured Shawl (design by Orlane), this one in linen and for my friend Emma.

The yarn's completely weird; it's GGH's Safari Gold, which is a nylon/linen blend. It knits like string--the type of string used to secure a parcel, for instance. It's a very stringy yarn! It attracts dirt like crazy, but Emma lives in a spotless house, so I'm not worried about it. (Good thing I'm not keeping the shawl for myself; it would get dirty here in no time.)

And by "weird" I'm not saying I don't like it... it's just different. And it's in a pretty green, a very light green that sometimes looks grey.

I got the yarn in Germany at a sale; I bought three skeins for three euros. I hope three skeins is enough; if not, I'll finish the shawl with a grey border, since I have the same yarn in different colors.

Other than the second Orlane and no progress on Luxus... well, there's not much to report. The fall will be super-mega-extra-crazy busy. I thought that last spring was busy, but in retrospect, it was a breeze. Now the real craziness begins. I haven't been getting home before 8 pm, and since I usually collapse at around 10:30 pm, between making dinner and prepping for the next day and doing stuff around the house, I have about 30 minutes of knitting per evening. I'm not complaining, I'm just curbing your expectations for finished projects.

As for the long weekend ahead: well, I have to work. We opted out on the possibility to join friends for a weekend at the beach. Instead we will be entertaining tomorrow evening. Hubs invited a colleague of his, who's bringing his wife, and since Hubs planned the entire dinner menu already and is going to do most of the shopping this evening, I have little work to do. Apparently, I'm in charge of the salad and one side dish (recipe and ingredients for the latter will be provided; I don't even need to make a decision as to what veggie to prep). And Hubs asked me to make a peach cobbler. I tried one of the peaches he picked up at the Farmers' Market... and it was tasty! Yum yum.

On that note, enjoy your weekend!

Blues

I want to knit a scarf for Sylvie, the sister of Betty for whom I made a mohair scarf a while back. Sylvie likes the color blue, and while in Berlin, Hubs and I found an interesting blue cotton yarn that we thought Sylvie might like. I had a wave pattern in mind and started right away:

Hubs didn't like it, arguing that since Betty got mohair, her sister should get the same fuzziness (although while in the LYS, he liked the cotton... *sigh*). So we went out to buy another blue yarn, this time kid mohair, and I made this swatch:

Now it was me who didn't like the result (partly because it was TOO HOT to work with mohair), and I went back to experimenting with the cotton again. I thought: Orlane!

But somehow the shawl didn't live up to its big sister, my first Orlane, and I stopped after just a short while:

The texture just wasn't right. So, guess what: I pulled the mohair out again, trying different things, among them a basic leaf pattern:

The idea was to start with big needles, decrease them in size, and at the other end of the scarf increase again. So that I'd end up with a regular-width scarf with wide fluffy ends.

Well, I don't like my "design idea" anymore! For now I've abandoned the blue-scarf-for-Sylvie project, but only until I've found a good pattern. Any ideas for a mohair scarf or shawl, anyone? (Yes, I've searched Ravelry. Extensively. Obsessively. But I simply can't make up my mind when faced with hundreds of choices....)

*sigh*

Winner!

I'm so very happy that I won Vicki's bedtime rituals contest. Hooray!! (Here is Vicki's initial blog post and here the announcement of the lucky winner: moi!) I told Vicki of my grandmother who, when putting me to bed, loved making up stories about grandpa Kurt. My very favorite story was the one in which he killed a tiger while camping in Africa, the truth of the which I never doubted, since my grandma would produce an old, scratchy blanket with a large stain on it, supposedly the tiger's blood. I totally believed her. (Dad says grandpa never killed a tiger, although he did live in Africa for quite a while, and the blanket is in fact authentic.)

Thank you, Vicki!! I'm so excited!

Incidentally, the color of said blanket is very much like the color of the shawl I intended to knit while on the plane to Berlin, but which I finished last night instead. Monsieur and I had a blast posing for pictures, as you can see:

This is Orlane's Textured Shawl, made with Mirasol's Samp'a (100% naturally dyed organic cotton). I followed Orlane's recipe closely, using her stitches and modifying only the number of rows. (What I did: 14 rows St st, 20 rows text st, 16 rows St st, 12 rows text st, 18 rows St st, 4 rows text st, 56 rows of garter st.) I knitted until I ran out of yarn, and run out of yarn I did! I had about 5 more inches to bind off but no yarn left, so I ended up cutting a loose end (from when I started a new skein) and tying it to the working yarn. Probably not the smartest thing to do....

What I discovered during the long garter stitch section: I can now knit and read at the same time! Not very well, not yet, but I was excited about the prospect of mastering this skill in the (near) future. (Since I picked up knitting I've been reading considerably less--and that's a bit sad, isn't it? I love to read!)

And now: off to the airport. Y'all have a good one!

(Monsieur says to remind you that we were intentionally being silly, looking all serious and heroic... this is not how we normally stand.)

Berlin Knits

Next Monday Monsieur and I are off on a ten-day trip to Berlin. He's attending a conference (again), and I'll be going to the archives (again). I doubt I'll have much time for knitting; after all, it's my childhood home, and I'll be visiting my family and enjoy the Biergarten and Tiergarten culture that makes this such a great city in the summer. While I expect to be busy in Berlin, I've been thinking about knitting projects to take along on the plane. Here's what I have in mind:

Remember this sock?

Since I messed up the heel (I turned too early), I had to rip, and once I started ripping I thought to myself, 'What the heck? This is fun!', and undid the whole thing. I had made a mistake early on, a mistake absolutely invisible to anyone but myself, but since I knew it was there, I was bothered by it. So... my first Jaywalker has been reduced to nothing, and I'm starting over again:

That's project number one. Anticipating another mishap with this sock project (I think I cast on with this yarn 16 different times already), I'll also bring this along:

It's Orlane's Textured Shawl, a finished version of which I saw in Sean's Woolcott and Company store last week, where I purchased the same yarn he had used. (Beautiful samples here and here.)

It's my first cotton yarn, and I love it! It's very, very soft, and because Sean's shawl had the perfect drape, I'm hoping to be just as lucky.

Lastly, for your viewing pleasure (although those flowers look a bit sad):

PS: My Hubs--ever so cute. He checked my Ravelry page and realized that the scarf I made him has received more hearts than any other of my projects. His delighted response: "I was given the most popular thing!!!" (Thing?!?)

Betty's Scole

Is it a scarf? Is it a stole? It's both! Currently, the "scole" measures 14.5 by 57 inches, which makes it wide enough to wear casually around your shoulders and long enough to wrap it around your neck a couple of times. I will wash and block it, stretching it a bit longer as I go. For now, here a couple of pics:

The third picture shows the color most accurately; the yarn is more brown than orange.

The specs: two skeins of Filatura di Crosa Multicolor in 5029, 6 mm needle (US #10), three repeats of the feather and fan pattern as described in Erika Knight's Lace & Eyelets stitch guide. That's all, folks!

I Heart Icarus

Yesssssss! It's done. Icarus is fixed. Whew! I took some tons of pictures... here we go:

This baby is big! (94" wide and 51" long, to be a bit more precise.) I tried to take pictures of myself wearing it (so that you can see how big it is), but since I was photographer and model at once, the photos came out, well, poorly:

And here one last shot:

Oh, I'm so pleased with the result! Happy happy happy. :)