J is for . . .

Joyful.

Block-a-bye Flutter

Flutter scarf, blocking. The ends are woven in but still the tails need to be cut off.
I'm not sure how well the flutter ends will block out; I tried to pin them into sort of pleats, and to stretch the yarn (MamaLlama silken cashmere in Bella) out as much as possible.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this knit. The pattern is well-written, and fairly easy (and quick!) to knit; it's a great one-skein lace project. The yarn is soft and lovely, although the pinks bled a fair amount while soaking. I gave it a second bath with a glug of vinegar, and a third bath to try and get a little of the vinegar scent out, so hopefully that's the end of the bleeding. It didn't bleed at all on my hands while I was actually knitting it, so I'm not too worried about the final product.

I only had 400 yards, rather than 440, but the scarf blocked out to a little over 60" long, and 10" wide, which should make for a nice neck scarf. I'll take some action shots once it's dry!

And I'll probably cast on for another one soon--I have a skein of Posh Sophia that I've been looking for a good pattern for.

I is for . . .

Ivory silk.
Because H is for Habu--I was in NYC for a conference this past weekend, and managed to get to Habu for a few minutes. (The elevator was out, so I had to walk up the 8 floors. But it was well worth it!) The ivory-colored silk is A-39, which they list as a fingering weight, although I'd call it a very very light fingering, or a very heavy lace. I have almost 1200 yards of it; I think it's destined to become a lace stole for a friend's daughter's wedding. The wedding is over a year off, though, so it's got some time to marinate.


I also bought 2 ounces of A-1, in color 38, which is a lovely tweedy raspberry color. It's a lace-weight, about 530 yards. Nothing planned, but I couldn't resist the color.

The trip down and back offered plenty of knitting time, and I worked on a Flutter Scarf. (I took a Bolt Bus, which is a fairly new service between Boston and NYC. The trip down was great, the one back was okay. But I emailed them with a "here's why I'm not thrilled with the trip back" report, and they were very prompt about getting back to me. So I'd give them another shot.)

I'm using a skein of MamaLlama silken cashmere, in Bella, which is delicious. I got the skein as payment for knitting up a sample scarf for MamaLlama, and I've been waiting to find a good pattern for it.

Flutter is a very easy pattern to memorize (and Miriam was wonderful about helping me decide if the pattern would be suitable. and then with walking me through some technical problems in actually getting the payment to go through!). Rather than knit it as written, which is in two halves, I knit a couple of repeats, then the flutter, and am knitting down from there, with the join at one side rather than in the middle. I weighed the amount of yarn that the first end took, and am now getting close to that point on the other side. The skein I'm using is a little shorter than the skein the pattern calls for, so I'm trying to make the center part as long as possible without worrying about running out of yarn for the second flutter. Right now the scarf is about 45" long, and I'll probably get another 3 or 4 center repeats in before I start the second flutter end.

The scarf is going to be a present for my best friend's mom, who's a darling and going through a rough time right now. She's always been wonderful to me (and lately has taken to sending me knitting-related things, like pattern books and magazines and skeins of sock yarn that she's found when cleaning out a closet!), and I wanted to send her something lush and pretty.

I is also for Irony--yesterday, G and I went to the police station to have elimination prints taken. While we were there, the detective in charge of the case said they had a suspect in custody, although no hard evidence linking him to our break-in, and no real hope of recovering any of the items. When we got home, we found an automated message from the town on our machine, saying that there had been a series of break-ins, lately, both home and auto, and everyone should be very careful. A little late for that, but--nicely ironic, none the less!

H is for . . .

Harmony.*

I love my Harmony needles!

When I learned to knit, I learned on long, straight needles, with the right one anchored under my arm. I let go of the needle entirely to wrap the yarn around to form a stitch, which made me very leary of things like dpn and circulars. But I wanted to learn, and finally decided to get an interchangeable set. Only I liked wood better than metal, which limited my options. (hee hee, Options!) When KnitPicks came out with the Harmony Options set, I was sold--definitely one of my best knitting investments!

Currently otn, above: a EZ Pi Shawl, on size 5 (3.75 mm) tips, using Helen's Lace in Watercolor. I'm about 1/2 done with the last section, with 572 stitches on the needles in a feather-and-fan pattern. (Ravelry link).

And even if there hasn't been blogging, there has been knitting--mostly lace. More . . . eventually!

*Excuse the crap-tastic picture. We're still recovering from G--better photos soon.