It’s my second Traveling Woman shawl (the other was with madelinetosh yarn too, actually, tosh merino light in a gorgeous silver gray color called Tern), and the biggest lesson I learned there was to use a much stretchier bind-off. I didn’t go with Judy’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off,  though I kind of wish I had. Instead, I used this one and it’s better than my regular old bind-off, but probably not as stretchy as Judy’s. If I make another Traveling Woman shawl, I’ll try Judy’s.

I think one thing that helped me get this project finished was that I needed a break from stockinette sleeves in laceweight yarn. Yeah. Compared to that, this project was dreamy and oh-so-fast.

This has been a very slow year for FOs, I must say, and all of them have been primary colors — blue, yellow, and red, plus a vivid green. Time for some neutrals, I think.

Having struggled with my weight for most of my life, and having that “I’m so big and have a too-big chest” thing going on too, I compensated by wearing big baggy clothes. I’m not as big as I think, and I’m trying different kinds of clothes and taking many big breaths these days. Marnie suggested small cardigans, of a scale I never thought I could wear: very fine yarn, quite fitted, and shorter than I’ve ever worn (i.e., not going down below my bottom).

My ravelry sweater queue features the kinds of sweaters I always thought I needed to wear, not the kind I’m trying to wear now. In fact, so many of the projects in my queue are large-scale — and of course some large-scale things are the best, big and squishy and warm and enveloping. So now I need to rethink things and try something new. A Goodale, perhaps. Even the Laar, perhaps, since I already bought the pattern and a gorgeous red laceweight yarn for it.

I’m also newly interested in making some very bright, eye-popping accessories to wear with my basic pieces, which are kind of anchored in black. I’ve had this great madelinetosh lace in a gorgeous springy green called lettuce leaf; I’m just beginning Jared Flood’s new shawl, Rock Island:

this baby is as delicate is a whisper

For some silly reason I had to start over 4 times; on row 3 I always forgot the last YO and when I tried to tink back I screwed it up. There are 71 repeats of the 8-row pattern (only ~12 stitches/row) so it should go quickly, but it’s not. My hands are accustomed to the drastically different scale of my other WIP:

this baby is huge and weighs a LOT!

This is my traveling woman shawl, the giant edition, in madelinetosh DK, colorway byzantine. I’ve finally gotten to Chart B, and may do it twice. The rows are pretty dang long at this point, and that return all-purl row is a boring killer, me not being a huge fan of all that purling. Still, I’ve put this much time, effort, and expense into it, and I want it to be what I want so I’m hoping to stick with my plan to do 2 repeats of Chart B. I’m into my 3rd skein of the dk now. That’s a lot of yarn.

I’m starting my 2nd week of strength training and taking care with my appearance, which makes me feel proud. It’s fun seeing my strength improve (on plank, at any rate), and it feels so good to be sticking with it. This is a 3-month experiment, set to “end” on August 1, but I’m not fooled: sticking it out that long is just a clever ploy to change my life.

Ah. The little kids years, such fond fond memories, to the soundtrack of Sesame Street and Mister Rogers, and Raffi. Baby beluga in the deep blue sea….

OH YEAH. Here’s why I stopped by. Want to see my progress?

so lush! it's going to be so big and blankie-ey

love the horseshoes, such fun to create

My Traveling Woman obviously, madelinetosh obviously, colorway byzantine (maybe not so obviously). But now I have the song in my head:

would ya like to buy an O? circular and sweet? looks just like a donut, really good enough to eat….it’ll cost you just a nickel (a nickel!) a nickel, shhh, a nickel right, so buy the O and take it home tonight don’t ask any questions…

Maybe that’s not really a good lesson for little kids to learn, now that I think about it.

Last night I was cleaning out my giant project bag and there was a cake of the yarn, madelinetosh tosh dk, in the colorway named byzantine. Byzantine, reds and purples and snaps of gold, really rich and beautiful. And then something started buzzing a little in my mind, itching and twitching hey…. byzantine … Byzantine Empire … hey, Constantinople …. HEY! In 27 days I’m traveling to Constantinople … ur, Istanbul. HEY! Traveling! Byzantine!

And so I cast on a Traveling Woman shawl (the giant edition) in my precious byzantine-colored yarn. Here’s the take-off:

that color is so rich it makes me weep

The yarn really has such beautiful stitch definition, and the pattern is fun and pretty quick, though I am making it XL size, the better to wrap myself up in glory with. I imagine I’ll take it with me to knit on the plane, unless some kind of miracle happens and I finish it before we go.

Off to hit the shower, happy Saturday y’all!

The pattern (LaReine, by Angela Tong) is simple and straightforward, but somehow I never could wrap my mind around how she came up with it. The alternating lacey bits are really lovely, and easy to do but not boring — just a very nice combination. Despite everything this week threw at me, and despite my state as a result, I was able to work on the shawl and not be bored  but not be too challenged. I went up a needle size and always run out of yarn, so I stopped short 12 rows and went straight to the border.

And the yarn — Okay Knits Sena — was wonderful. The very subtle shifts in color were never jarring and give the color such life; there were bits of light pink, bits of orange, a couple of dark almost purple flecks, but no long runs of shading. The end result is such a lively and brilliant color. This colorway is sweetie-pie, but to me it’s like a cherry lifesaver. I highly recommend the yarn, and hope to score some more (I love the bubblegum colorway she has in the shop right now).

I won the pattern and the yarn in a giveaway on the pattern designer’s blog; she’s a new designer, and the yarn is dyed in Brooklyn by a young woman who is in medical school. Support them if you’re in the market for a shawl pattern or yummy yarn.

Spring seems to have arrived in Manhattan, though I worry that I’m tempting the gods with such hubris in making such a crazy claim. It’s only mid-March, there’s certainly at least one more winter blast to come. Back to it for me — I hope you’re having a good weekend!

glorious!

This is the LaReine shawl, by Angela Tong, and the yarn is Okay Knits Sena, colorway sweetie-pie (isn’t that a perfect name?).  I just love the color of this yarn, it’s as cheery as cherry lifesavers. Red like candy. I won both together on a giveaway on Oiyi‘s blog (oiyi is the designer). The pattern is quick and easy (and fun); it’s been a while since I knit a little shawl and I’d forgotten just how much fun they are, starting with 3 stitches and expanding out so quickly.

Lots lots lots lots of work to do all at once! Hope you’re facing a good week –

slice and bake - so easy - and pecan brown sugar shortbread, so delicious

Next up on the delicious hit list – looming yarns and their associated projects:

next on deck

MAN THIS IS KILLING ME. I want to grab needles and cast on for the five projects that will use these glorious yarns. Let’s go around the circle:

• top left, that pale, pale pink? That’s madelinetosh’s tosh merino light, in the porcelain colorway. I’m going to make the Austin Hoodie, designed by Connie Chang Chinchio – designed especially for this yarn, I believe. I’ll have a lot of new experiences with this one, including set-in sleeves and a hood.

• that red, on top? That’s my new Okay Knits Sena, in the sweetie-pie colorway. I’m going to knit the LaReine Shawl, designed by Angela Tong. No new experiences, but loads of pleasure with the fun design and gorgeous yarn.

• that brown(ish), on the right? That’s madelinetosh’s pashmina, in the silt wash colorway. I think I’m going to make the Katrina Ballerina Lace Layering Cardigan, designed by Nicole Feller-Johnson, but I’m not sure on this one, like I am on the others.

• the red, on the bottom — of course that’s my new Spirit Trail Fiberworks “clotho” in the dragon’s blood colorway, which I’ll use to knit Gudrun Johnston’s beautiful little Laar sweater. Thanks for your thoughts on that one! Right now this one is the most fun to think about.

• and last but certainly not least enticing, the fawn-colored laceweight wool on the lower left is the Jamieson & Smith Shetland Supreme, which I’ll use to knit either the Madli’s Shawl mentioned in the previous post, or the Tree of Light Shawl. Still pondering that one, and don’t want to give short shrift to the gorgeous yarn.

I’m just going to put all these yarns away, out of my sight (in the hopes that my age-related memory loopiness will help them slip out of mind) until I finish the Eve Shrugged and the Lace Ribbon Scarf. I want to finish the shrug, and I need to finish the scarf, and that’ll only happen if I give them both all my spare time and attention.

Do you continually massage your ravelry queue? Mine is extremely organized, and I regularly go through and reorder the items on the individual tabs (e.g., socks, sweaters, shawls), and then reorder the top items on the queue as a whole, matching them with stash yarns. In a way, this keeps my obsession going (the downside), but in another way, it gives me a way to play with projects without actually casting on too many at once (the upside). The top of my queue is now dominated by sweaters, a fact that tickles me.

A downside issue that warrants my attention…..I’m getting knitter’s elbow in my left elbow. It hurts, a lot, and I know I’d better slow down and do something about it before it gets so bad I can’t knit. THAT WOULD BE AWFUL. Since I spend so much of my day hunkered over the keyboard with long hours of focused attention, and then much of the rest of my time knitting, I hold my elbows in one position for long periods. I’m trying to stop very regularly – predetermined intervals so I don’t forget, like every page, or every couple of rows – and stretch out my arms, flex my hands up to further stretch the muscles and tendons, and breathe while I’m at it. [I forget to breathe.] This part is not so delicious.

happy! joy!

SUCH a wonderful, happy day for me! I finished the final little details of my old job, tied up every last loose end, left nothing undone, left on a very high note.

I finished grafting the shawl together, and it LOOKS GREAT! I was so worried that the graft would be obvious and weird, but you know the kitchener stitch is really amazing. It really looks seamless. Now I just have to weave in a couple of ends, then soak it for a bit and do the blocking.

Isn’t it great when the things that hang over you are finished? You know that glorious feeling of liberation and accomplishment and exuberance?

Yeah. I’ve got those going. After I finish the blocking, I think I’ll do the next swatch for Peasy, so I can work on it on the flight later this week. To my daughter’s wedding. Two girls happily married, that’s another great relief, you know?

blocking

.

So what’s on the needles? There’s one I can’t reveal here, the wedding shawl, but here we go:

2nd Kai-Mei, ready to work the heel

My Kai-Mei socks – I’ve been sneaking little wearings of the finished sock because it’s so dang wonderful. Madelinetosh sock, in crow – feels kind of hard when you’re knitting it, but as the fabric flows from the needles, it’s softer than you think it’ll be. And when you soak it and block it? Really so nice. The pattern is clever and fun to knit, but when I was knitting the first sock I was just going on faith (Cookie A faith) because I couldn’t see how it was going to work. I highly recommend the pattern and the yarn.

OK, next?

oh, my dearly beloved Ishbel, languishing....

I do love this Ishbel, knit with madelinetosh lace, in lettuce. It’ll be my 3rd (why do I think “she’ll be my third”?), and the pattern is fun and the color is great and I love the whole deal but it’s been set aside for so long that I struggle to pick it up again. Once I finish the wedding shawl I’ll return to this because it’s going to be fantastic.

Next?

what is wrong with me?!

Stop it, me! Stop! Why did I start this one?! I had plenty to work on, the last thing I needed to do was to start another project, but I did. This is Baktus, and I got about 1/3 of the way through it with Noro Silk Garden Sock (pictured above, the yarn cake) when I decided that I’d rather alternate the Noro with a black yarn. So even though I had no business starting this one in the first place, I frogged it and started over, alternating it with a KnitPicks Essential Kettle Dyed, in soot. [Lori, do not start another project!!]

such a 3-D blankie!

Totally Autumn, which I’m knitting with Cascade 220 Heather in chocolate, so it’ll be more like a blanket. The photo represents the length I get from one skein; since we want it to be ~6 feet in length, I’ll need 7 skeins and of course I’d bought 6. Luckily the sale is still on at Webs, so I bought additional skeins.

Next?

hanging my mondo head in shame and denial

This project, the Mondo Cardigan in madelinetosh merino (graphite) has been so painful. I had enough yarn to complete the sweater, but I foolishly didn’t look at all the skeins before I started. One of the lovely things about madelinetosh yarns is the variability in color, but this time it bit me in the butt. When I got to this point on the first sleeve, I noticed that my last two skeins were quite obviously blue. That would not work. I couldn’t find any graphite in any of the online stores, so (to use Yarn Harlot’s phrase) I threw up the Bat Signal in the rav forums, pleading and begging. Very kind raveler Glennae offered to sell me two of her skeins, which looked like a match to mine, but that would leave her with an insufficient amount of yarn to knit a sweater – the reason she bought it. I didn’t want to leave her in that spot, so I basically just went into denial and ignored the problem. Then, last weekend, I “randomly” decided to look through ravelers’ stashes to see if anyone had any of this yarn, and found Jenny – boopersin on ravelry. Jenny, O Jenny, my new BFF and savior. I wrote her asking if she’d sell, told her my sob story, and she quickly agreed. Isn’t she wonderful? Friend her immediately if you’re on rav, she’s a keeper (and Glennae too, if you don’t know her yet). So Jenny’s two skeins are winging (or brown trucking) their way to me, which means I’ll be able to finish my Mondo Cardigan. Whew.

Next?

froth and beads

Is this technically “on the needles,” given the fact that I’ve obviously pulled out the needles? Apparently not. It’s gorgeous. It’s Liquid Silver, by Rosemary Hill, with Elann Silken Kydd, a luscious and halo-ey mohair and silk blend, with glass beads. I started knitting it when I first returned to knitting a couple of years ago, and honestly, it was beyond my beginner’s skills. I struggled with the very thin yarn on the very slippery needles, with nothing on hand to thread the beads onto the yarn. So I got this far and then put it away. Apparently at some point I pulled the needles out – to use them for another project, probably? – but I don’t remember doing that. The pattern would be very easy for me now, so I hope to frog this and just start over with the same pattern. After all, I have the beads.

I know this is supposed to be a fearless inventory, but I’m not being fully honest here. There’s a sweater in progress, halfway up the back but I don’t like it so I’ll frog it and reuse the yarn, and a Christmas stocking for one of my girls, just begun and set aside.

There. Now I’ve been really fearless, I’ve confessed my excess. I feel much better. And I just noticed how many of my projects are made with madelinetosh yarn. I love her.

So, WOTN! Item #1, the wedding shawl. Nupps are “fun.” I won’t show the shawl in its entirety, to preserve the surprise, but little bits here and there seem ok. Case in point: nupps.

nupps (unblocked, of course)

Next up on the needles: socks for my youngest daughter (nonrav link), whose dorm floors are very cold. I want to finish them by the time she comes home for spring break in a couple of weeks, so I’m alternating these with the shawl. (Doesn’t that gusset look mighty huge to you? It does to me.)

A's socks

While not technically on the needles, these are destined to be on the needles very soon – sock yarns chosen by my oldest daughter. Katie, which one do you want me to use first?

Lorna's Lace Shepherd Sock: Beverly

Knit One Crochet Too: Meadow

And finally, in this brief period between snows, I walked over to Riverside Park – my back yard, kind of – and I took a picture I take over and over, in all seasons. Here it is today:

winter view

And here it is a few months ago, and a few before that:

November

May

Seeing the park blanketed with snow, and ice in the Hudson River, made me think about Lent. I didn’t grow up in a church that focused on Lent (ours focused on the fun combination of both fire and brimstone), and I’m not religious in that way, but the idea of it struck me. There’s a longing for life to come – the life that’s pent up in the trees and plant life buried under the snow. The wheel turns, it’s bleak now, but rejuvenation is coming. It’s coming. The world will begin again, as it always does.