Shrug It Off

I'm currently designing a shrug. It's knit in Yarn Bee Icelandic Jewels in Peridot. It's a great yarn - it could pass for wool (IMHO), but it's an acrylic/nylon/polyester blend (machine washable, baby!). It's a lovely green with a very thin olive/rust/red/blue variegated ribbon carried along throughout the yarn. The ribbon gives it a tweedy look that I just love. Here's the back:



I wrote up the pattern for the left/right front, and started knitting it up, and then decided I didn't like it and I ripped it out in order to modify the pattern a bit. Ah, love the "RE-DO"! Wish life was that easy!! :-)

My Kind of Heaven

This weekend Stitches Midwest rolled into town - into Rosemont, IL to be exact. I confess I was a virgin to Stitches, and as I approached the pearly gates, I almost peed my pants from the excitement. I thoroughly enjoyed my first experience at Stitches, even though I only scored a bag of angora yarn.

I went to Stitches fully prepared - I had a list of projects I wanted to knit up and the yarn requirements for each. When I stepped inside, I was so totally overwhelmed, I thought I may hyperventilate. I kept it together though, and marched on. I pulled out my list numerous times, but something was amiss. I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, and after awhile, even with the list in hand, I wasn't really sure what I was looking for. So, I'm chocking this one up to a learning experience. With my first visit to Stitches under my belt, I now have an idea of what to do, and what not to do, next year:

1. Wear comfortable shoes. I love my flip-flops, and they're always mucho comfortable, but after walking around on that concrete showroom floor, my dogs ached for a pair of tennis shoes with arch support.
2. Save up some cash before the event. Stitches couldn't have been held at a more inconvenient time - before payday! I had only a meager budget for goodies and this definitely held me back.
3. Buy a two-day pass. No matter how much I tried to convince myself one day would be enough, I can't express how I wanted to kick myself for not buying the two-day pass.

So, lessons have been learned, yarn has been bought, and now I'm off to knit up somethin' sweet with my newly acquired fiber.

On the Edge

I "lugged" my shawl home with me last night so I could post a pic of the edging. Why was I rambling so about lugging my shawl home? I'm really not sure . . . I think my lazy side was peeking through just a bit.

Here's a pic of the crocheted edge of my Homespun Triangle Shawl. The shawl is increased with a yarn over at the beginning of each row. So, in each yarn over space, I did a (sc, dc, ch 3, sl st to top of dc (picot formed), sc). I played with a few different edgings, including fringe, before I decided to go with this one. I couldn't be happier with the way it turned out!

I'm Done!

Okay, so I've been done with the Homespun shawl for a little over a week. I wanted to post a pic of it to show off the cute crochet edging I went with. The only problem is I was so excited about it's completeness, that I carted it off to work without snapping a picture of it. I'm gearing up to bring it home soon, but it's kind of bulky and I don't really feel like lugging it back on the train home with me, just to lug it back to work. I could bring my camera to work, which might be what I end up doing. We'll see...