Sunday, March 21, 2010

Sunday, March 21, 2010

I know, it's been a while! I had a surgical procedure and just wasn't up to much of anything, although I have gotten some knitting done. I finished a number of UFO's started before Christmas, three of which were gifts for Christmas. Mostly Cedar Leaves Shawlettes, and modified versions of the pattern. One was a lovely green for my friend Lori, in Mirasol Tupa. I gave it to her unfinished and brought it back home with me to complete when I finally was able to get another skein of yarn to finish it. I gave it to her a couple of weeks ago and she loved it! Pics to follow. Another is a modified Cedar Leaves in Malabrigo Worsted in Stonechat. This is probably going to be given to my friend Lisa as a belated Christmas gift. I had to keep buying additional yarn to finish it, I wanted it longer than the original shawlette and I also did y/o increases instead of using short rows for shaping. And another shawl done in the same method for my sister for Christmas in Lobster Pot's Worsted Wool and Mohair in Shoreline Heather, also ran out of yarn, but was lucky that Flying Fingers had just gotten a new shipment of 2 skeins. I ordered them both and now have 1.5 skeins left, so I may make some fingerless gloves to match for Sis. No rush though, since the weather is warming and she won't be needing them at this point. And last, but certainly not least, I was finally able to finish my Cedar Leaves Shawlette for myself done in Madelinetosh's Pastoral in Blackcurrrant. I ran out of yarn just a few leaves away from the finish. Although I had ordered and received a skein directly from Madelinetosh , they were kind enough to dye a skein just for me, it was a completely different color and I wasn't happy with how it looked when used to complete my shawlette. Misodiva from Ravelry was nice enough to send me the last few yards of her Pastoral Blackcurrant from a project she finished, so I have finished it, finally! I just need to weave in the ends and block it and it's ready to go! Yay!

I started a Cosette in Madelinetosh's Merino in Windowpane and Eyre Norway Spruce. I've had to put it down temporarily, though, into hibernation because my family has been invited to a friend's 85th birthday party and I decided to make her a modified Cedar Leaves shawl. She's in a wheelchair and it will be easy for her to slip on and off. I'm doing short row shaping, so it will be a modification of the Cosette shawl by Alana Dakos and the Cedar Leaves by Alana Dakos. I'm knitting it in Madelinetosh Merino in Moorland. The Moorland is a lot darker than I anticipated, but it's still pretty and there's enough color variation to make it interesting. Our friend, Sylvia, has strawberry blonde hair, so green was an obvious choice. I would have liked Jade, but there wasn't any available and I also wanted to get yarn from Eat, Sleep, Knit to contribute to the Yarnathon. I've reached the 5 mile mark! Very cool!

So much yarn to buy and not enough money! Eat, Sleep, Knit is having a sale and when I totaled up the yarn I wanted it came to nearly $1000!!!!! Just don't have that kind of money, so going to have to do some serious thinning.

I'm also hoping to find the perfect spinning wheel. I've been looking at the various different wheels available and have asked advice of several people trying to figure out which will be best for me in the price range I can afford. It will be a birthday present from my parents. Then all I have to do is practice spinning, but with the warmer weather approaching I have the feeling that I will be doing more spinning than knitting. As much as I like to knit, I just can't stand having wool in my lap when it's hot!

Off to continue my Cedar leaves/Cosette shawl. I have to finish it in time for the party, which is April 17. It will need to be blocked and packed by then. I also found a very pretty shell and bead shawl pin to accompany the shawl. This way Sylvia doesn't have to be clutching onto the shawl to hold it place. I hope she likes it. I think it's so very pretty and if I received it as a gift I would be over the moon!