Happy All Hallow's Eve!

Knitting and Yarn!

Still knitting here. This is for the Giftmas box:

Another cotton dishtowel. Just plain stockinette with a garter edge.

And now for another taste of Italian yarn!

This yarn is microfibre. It is sooooooo soft! And nubbly, as you may guess from looking at it. I was thinking maybe a slouchy hat and an infinity scarf.

Ciao

New Yarn!

Before I went to Italy, I went to a yarn store that shall remain nameless. They did not have what I wanted. They tried to sell me something else. Were quite pushy about it, actually. I tried to escape gracefuly by saying, "Well, I'm going to Italy in a week, I'll see if I can find it there and if not, I'll be back..." The woman looked down her nose at me and said "It is getting VERY difficult to find GOOD yarn stores in Italy, you know." Uh huh.

I'll spread the funky yarns over a few posts so you don't get bored, folks.

First up, Louisiana from Lana Gatto:

This is VERY thick yarn:

Basically roving in a net tube. I got 2 skeins of it and am thinking an infinity type scarf for it. The yarnshop lady said that most people work it with their hands, they don't bother with a knitting needle. I can see why!

As my last post indicated, I was on vacation. So, I will be presenting, over the next few posts, a selection of pictures from my trip. I was in northern Italy where they grow rice. ie around Milan. The mosquitoes are fierce. As a result there are many efforts at killing them from wall plug-ins to electrified tennis rackets to sweep through the air and zap em. While poking around in stores near Turin I found a flyswatter.

please note the target:

My aunt actually managed to kill a mosquito with this. She did not, alas, score any points.....

Seaside Piccies

The radio silence has been due to me being on vacation. In Italy. Where the vistas included things such as this:

Not much knitting occurred during this time, but it was oh so nice!

Colourwork-I'm Going In

I saw this on the Yarn Harlot's blog and loved it. So I went to Ravelry and looked at all the lovely projects people made. I thought to myself, "I haven't really done colourwork, this looks intriguing". Then I went stash diving and found some yarn that would work! (shocking, I know). Clearly the Fates were with me. Then I swatched. (another shock, I'm sure). The pattern is Catkin by Carina Spencer.


I'm glad I did swatch, as a couple of the stitches are different. Also, there are spots on the chart where the symbol(s) go over 3 or more stitches. Took a few minutes for my brain to realize that I wasn't looking for ONE symbol on the legend, I was looking for 2 or 3 grouped together. Otherwise it went pretty smoothly.

Colourwork ahoy!

Lazy Katy Tuch/Shawl is Done

This was a pretty quick knit. It took me awhile only because I was working madly on the Ice Cream Blanket.

Project Details:

Pattern: Lazy Katy Tuch/Shawl
Yarn: Smooshy by Dream in Colr
Colourway: Lipstick Lava
Yardage required: 301 yards
Final size: 54" x 22"at the longest widest point







This is really more of a scarf than a shawl. The unusual shape makes it hard to drape over the shoulders effectively.

Other Project

Having finally finished the Epic blanket knit, I can now work on my Lazy Katy tuch/shawl guilt free. I've started on the edging.

At Long Last

The lighting was horrendous today, I will try for better pics another day, but I am too excited to hold out! Ta DA!!!!!!

And a closer up:



And even a pic of the back for those of you who like to look at the finishing on things (and the heavens know there was A LOT of finishing involved in this project):




DONE. Whew, that was more work than I want to contemplate doing any time soon.......

Continuing On

The seaming is complete! Whew. Here's proof:



Um, yeah, Elvis decided this would be a good spot.....

Edit: this isn't finished yet! Still working on the border...

Fingernail Friday

Not so much knitting as....

seaming! and seaming and seaming...it never seems to end! But I have gotten thus far:

Landon Bay

Checked out the Landon Bay hiking trails. These trails were a bit more 'rustic'. In other words, they were more what I would picture as a hiking trail. Ups and downs, rocks to go around and over etc. The trailhead was marked nicely:

A pic of the trail:

See? Rocks and trees and stuff! The trail lead to a nice view of the bay:

and a little bridge along the edge of the bay:


All in all, a very nice place to take a hike!

KP Trail

Went hiking out on the KP Trail. It is an old railway right of way that has been rehabbed into a hiking/biking/horseback riding trail.

There were a multitude of deerflies, so bring your bugspray! It goes through farmland so the view is pretty much what you would expect.

Aaaaaand then I got home and saw this in my backyard:

Hiking in the wilderness indeed! Apparently my backyard was more wild than the trail!

Lazy Katy Progress

I am currently working on a Lazy Katy shawlette/scarf. This is Smooshy sock yarn.

It doesn't look like much right now. I just started the first row on the lacy border and realized about 1/3 of hte way in that I started on the wrong side of the chart. headdesk
So I will have to tink back a bit and try that again....

Fingernail Friday

Fingernail Friday

NOT with Extra Protein

I like to sit on my deck. I like to have refreshig beverages while sitiing on my deck. I do not like having bugs befoul my refreshing beverage. I have devised a method to prevent said bugs from committing suicide in my refreshing beverage:



To whit, the saucer from my espresso cup set.

Next up!

I am on a shawl roll. I keep seeing lovely ones that NEED to be made. The next one is the LazyKaty.

Ciao

An FO!

I have finished my first Faroese style shawl. It has been christened the Camoshawl.