BIG THRILL!!!

Though not yet blocked, I am happy to report that the Mystic Light Shawl is DONE!!! Nartian witnessed the cast-off on Monday afternoon. I thought I would not be able to resist and would block it soon after but alas, it still is in a lump, unblocked.

This was a KAL I had started back in March and am quite proud to have plugged through this. See guys? I finish things...eventually! It's kinda my first "Big Girl Knitter" lace! I mean, I did do the Forsest Canapy, but that was maybe 1/2-1/3 the yardage, smaller, and done with heavier yarn.

I made one of my work buds model this for me.
She's waaaaay tinier than me in size, but maybe a tad taller than me.

I wasn't happy showing just ONE pic, but I realize you can't see much from this!
So what was the point, really...?

And look what arrived at Purlescence last week and is now a part of my stash?!

STR lightweight: Potomac, Jubilation, The Cookie Next Door,
Muckity Muck (much more of a rich, deep reddish-tinged orange
than what is shown at the BMFA site-me LOVESES this!)

And more gifties on the needles...all are quick-to-knit projects for yarn-rich, cash-po' me!

A second Capitan hat! (Oh...these are so quick that I don't think
I even posted the one I made for me which is nearly finished!
Next time...maybe even modeled!)

And a Silky Malabrigo "Ivy" cowl knit in the "Mint Frappe" colorway...
funny, too...not a hint of green in this yarn!

Must be I'm focused!

Phew! With my parents' surprise 75th Birthdays Lunch behind me, I am wiped out! During a time of brief moderate sanity (moderate, I say, as I actually contemplated participating in the Ravelympics and brief because shortly thereafter came the insanity of the thinking I'm doing both shawl KALs...), I had decided I would NOT be participating in the Ravelympics on Team Blue Moon when I realized the planning of and this actual event fell at the same time. Probably a very wise idea...

But I am happy to report that the Central Air socks are now a pair!

And I have now finished Clue #3 of the Mystic Light Shawl. There are still 2 more clues to complete, and Secret of the Stole iii the begun! And I've not finished swatching with the Habu-possibly because I am realizing the error of my way in thinking that this was a good idea to knit something so big out of yarn so absolutely thin! But I need to figure this out soon!

I stretched out one half of the shawl on the clothesline. As always, not the best pic, but: 1) I live in the City; it is overcast today, 2) it has grown much bigger where the width exceeds the circ length, 3) I'm trying to give you an idea; I am not a photographer!, 4) You all loveses me anyways, right?! ;)

In the meantime, I got this out of hock at Article Pract!
They were able to look up my past gift certificate and I was able to use it to pay for this lovely skein of Yarn Place Gentle. The color is Wet Stone and it is a very dark, olivey-tealy green with a grey tone to it. I LOVE this and it seems to have a nice, tight twist to it. $20.25 for this 100g ball of 1380 yards! Not bad, huh? And I have $7.38 worth of credit remaining on my gift certificate! YAY, ME!!!

Now, off to go play me some BRAIN AGE cuz it taught me, "...knitting can activate your prefrontal cortex...Using both hands to create something can be a stimulating brain activity." Or maybe I should just go and...KNIT! ;)

When Duty Calls, I Answer!

And that's why I ended up casting on yet another pair of socks! But look how awesome my Socks that Rock Blarney Stone is knitting up?!

This is the Sunshine Socks pattern from SockPixie that a friend of mine had done using a skein of STR in Purple Rain that I had given her as a consolation for the fact she had knit her brand new Shabui (a gorgeous CherryBlossom colorway-pink with flashes of lime green!) into Monkeys that only a small child would fit! And well...she has three boys! Three boys who are not of the petite variety!

Anyways, she knit this Sunshine Socks pattern up and the socks turned out gorgeous! Our other friend decided she would try out the pattern and found herself getting 5 remaining stitches from the original 70 stitch CO! So, being the helpful knitting pal I am, I told her I'd take a look at the pattern.

I looked. I counted. I didn't get it! Not even messing with it on an already in-progress sock! What was I to do? Only what any good Knitter would: I cast on so I could figure it out! And proceeded to get 2 remaining stitches after the first round! HUH??????????

So I even get KnittingGolfer Marcy to look at it, while at the same time getting on the 'hot line' to my Purple Rain knitting bud to review what I obviously must be getting wrong! Well...turns out there was nothing wrong with the pattern or with our interpretation! It was actually something I had kinda suspected from the get-go: we are more used of knitting with patterns whereas Purple Rain Knitter learned by doing under the supervision of her knitting aunt without patterns. Naturally, PRN followed the pattern, no problem, since she was actually FOLLOWING the pattern! We, on the other hand, probably leaped over a K2 or a P1 here and there resulting in the extra stitches at the end!

Long story longer, this is a great pattern! Especially for our lovely hand-dyed yarns. Just be veeerrry careful when running the first row-those K2's after K2tog with P1's scattered throughout can throw some of us more confident, (or shall I say, reckless-?) knitters! But really, once it gets going, it is awesome! and looks great!

And before allowing that to distract me from my housework and other knitting projects, I actually have an FO!

The pic is a bit bleached out, but this is my newly ungrafted, length extended, grafted back, end-woven-in and completed Ruffled Roses scarf! When I saw this scarf at Annie Modesitt's site, I thought it was so clever! She offers it to LYS for free* to encourage knitters to visit their LYS. I immediately contacted Allison at ImagiKnit and asked her to request it. Bought the yarn, did a pretty good job (cuz well, I can often not be very good at focus...) focusing on this project and finished it. Only to find it was a bit too short; well, actually, it was a bit strangling around the neck, to tell you the truth! Could I live with it? As much as I wanted to just 'live with it', I couldn't. Not if I valued my ability to breath! So it sat. And sat. And sat...Because face it-and I think you all know what I'm talking about!-when you feel like 'knitting', you feel like 'knitting' and this was not going to be 'knitting'. At least, not until I got the grafting undone-oh yeah, and did I mention that the ends had also already been woven in? Bottom line: the yardage of the two green skeins of yarn were obviously NOT enough for my fat neck-even having done an extra lace repeat of the reddish/brown color at the base! You could either: a) do as it says, if you have a slender neck or knit tighter, b) decrease the ribbing after the lace portion or c) buy extra yarn! d) utilize the proportions of colored yarns differently to avoid the 4th Misti Alpaca yarn skein purchase...

So there I sat last week with Nartian while we both enjoyed each other's company while performing 'knitting-related' drudgery tasks! She, seaming Monkey 1's fingering weight sweater; me, un-grafting, resetting stitches and lengthening the scarf! We were in hell, but we were together! And now our tasks are complete!

I kept my focus on the Central Air sock and the Mystic Light no-longer-KAL shawl (the one person on the Rav board I thought would be KAL with me had her KALs mixed up and is actually working on her MS3! But that's how I ended up joining MS4!-lol!) We may yet KAL together on the Mystic Light, afterall, I am that slow...yeah...more like CAL (crawl-a-long!)

I am happy to report that I have finished Clue 2 and have started Clue 3. And as much as I knew it was too good to be true and had pictures to lead me to conclude otherwise, I had been thinking there were only THREE clues!-HA! Who was I kidding? There are FIVE, People! FIVE CLUES! So I gues that maybe makes me at least 1/3 through?

When I finish Clue 3, I'll flash a new pic, cuz it isn't looking much different from the last pic at this point. But if you looked at the link above, it shows how the finished shawl is supposed to look. Let's hope I can be as good as Adrienne and finish it!

(*PS-Nartian told me there was some buzz about this pattern on Ravelry-seems some LYS had the nerve to sell this pattern to someone! Don't buy it-it is supposed to be offered for free through your LYS! They may require purchase, but they may not charge for it! Can you believe that?!)