WOW! It's been a long time...!

Well, the California PTA Convention snuck up on me and it seems it's been non-stop since! I've barely had time to participate somewhat on Ravelry and post a few things here and there.

Here is what the outgoing California PTA President looked like at convention...
Seriously, there are conventions. PTA Conventions. And they are serious as they are funny.

Kinda weird to have those big ol' televising screens and the teleprompter screens on stage that people read from!

All the seats in front of ours were empty. I think because it was representing the San Jose District and since they were hosting, a bunch of them were running around and working.

The first time I ever attended one, it was so weird to realize what a huge organization it is. And can you tell who this is on stage, helping to give out Arts awards?


Carol Channing herself!



Anyways, the end of school year is a busy time of year, but I managed to get sucked in to an Ulmus KAL that Nartian told me about. The pattern is pretty awesome! I told Nartian that considering the combining of colors, opportunity to use two un-matched skeins of STR from the stash, the ease yet interest of the pattern I could see how this would be quite an attracting KAL. So far, not as popular as our sock KALs going on at the Socks that Rawk Rav group, but it kinda makes it easier for me to keep up with the posts!

So I will share with you my swatching efforts and hope to get some input on which combo I should go with! I swatched the following swatches and will show a close up of sections of the long swatch. Hopefully you will bear with me as I go through this!

So the whole Ulmus color decision started like this:

Hey Everybody, I think I'm going to use Jabberwocky and Rhode Island Red!

Then it went to this...Or perhaps this combination that once looked like 'no way' ...

might work afterall!


The resulting swatches ended up like this...




I suspect that with a whole knit shawl, the colors won't be quite as "blendy" and really, "blendy" is ok, but I'm thinking I may want it to look a bit more contrasty.

So I dove back into my stash and dug out other options to consider, revisiting some options I had earlier tossed aside: Harlotty, Rooster Rock, Brick, Muckity Muck...and even threw in Footsey Foo for a bit of fun!


And here lies my dilemma. Which to choose?

The Jabberwocky/Harlotty combo, shown in the lower portion of the pic below...

The Jabberwocky/Muckity Muck in the lower portion following? Or the Jabberwocky/Rare Gems (Firebird-ish) Silkie STR combo that is showing above it?

Then there was the Jabberwocky/Footsey Foo combo...the pale, minty green contrasting with the darker tones of Jabberwocky look kinda white, but what a contrast!
And a bit more subtle is the Harlotty/Footsey Foo combo...very nice together. Again, the Footsey Foo photographs a bit whiter than it actually looks in the swatch.
The Brick/Jabberwocky is awfully pretty...but maybe a bit more red that I'd like...

The Rooster Rock mad for an interesting pairing with the Brick, too...

So for now, I'm stuck! I like the Jabberwocky/Rhode Island Red combo, and think it may end up being more interesting once knit up as the shawl. The Harlotty/Jabberwocky is pretty pleasing to me, as is the Harlotty/Footsey Foo. I kinda like the Jabberwocky/Muckity Muck but don't think I want to go that orangey.

Of course, I will have to review all of this with Nartian tomorrow!

Oh well...not like I don't have other projects to work on. Like the crocheted scarf I decided to make for the Crochet Challenge at the Socks that Rawk group! It WAS about 85% done when I found a mistake. I tore back and it is probably more like 70% done now.
So this is it pre-crocheted...

I'm knitting the Verdure pattern with my skein of Korppi LSS

I'll post a finished pic when it is completed.