Here is a little project I made for my daughter when we still had some frost here in Tennessee. Now it will have to summernate (or what ever is the opposite of hibernate) till winter!

:)

Booyahhhh

At least I know, I am not stupid now. I finally figured out why my initial attempt failed: There is an error in the pattern of the edging! One stitch decrease is missing in the rows of the 2nd half. Now it all makes sense. But now I am already in the process of knitting the edge onto the shawl as per the instructions.

In a German blog I found an entry of a knitter, who found the mistake, too, and only found a correction in a forum somewhere. It is a pity, that the pdf-file has not been corrected yet. But yeah.. That is the "gift horse" thingy, right? After all, she put the pattern on the web for free!

Knit on Pardners

Shawl Break today

or so...

Anyway, I needed a break from it and tried to design a shrug of sorts to go over the lotus blossom tank. I knitted two front pieces tonite, but then the shawl fever took over again and two more sets of pattern rolled off the needles.

Time will tell, when the next shawl break will occur...

today is my birthday... yeah

and my girls got me a wonderful book, and I got one for myself, too!

Kids first:

The Bread Baker's Apprentice



and me, myself and I:

big girl knits




yeahhhhhhhh


and I got 13 patterns of the shawl done and I bet that 17 patterns is not long enough to be half the length - it is wayyyyyyyyyyyyy too short, yupp, way too short... well stitch happens, right?

So...

I'm on the eighth repetition of the pattern... getting bored here. Nothing good on TV to occupy my mind. Oh well, gotta do, what you gotta do. 8 down only 26 to go.

I also got some other ideas floating through my mind. Wish I had 6 hands - work three projects at the same time - I like that thought!

I declare...

the bazaar open... uh, nope.
the first attempt a failure.

After row 16, I gave up, tried to unravel only to break the yarn... so it is time to start over with a sample of the pattern to get a better feel for it!

Eunny Jang Waves Stole

I started this stole but I don't like the concept of grafting it in the center and the funky attachment of the edge turns me off. So I decided to attempt knitting the outside edge right away by adding 17 stitches on each side and leaving out the inner edge. I also want to try not to graft the center, but simply to reverse the pattern, when I get to half the length. Will I succeed? Will it happen? We will see. I got to row eight, yesterday, but think I may have miscounted already, since my hubby was watching TV and I am not on autopilot yet with this pattern.

Oh yeah and my yarn... it is so gorgeous! Inspired by Schmollfisch, I ordered Uruwool from handpaintedyarn in the most breath-taking color: Mykonos

I will keep you posted!

well, this is

what it looks like on the not-so-slim ergo in circus-tent size

Work in Progress

I have started on the Lotus Blossom Tank from the Summer 2006 Interweave Knits. I just finished the lace bottom and I am using some cotton yarn I have "inherited" from a dear friend. Bright red, knobbly cotton. I should post a photo. I also should grade more essays... Red is also our university's color... I should grade more papers... I should grade more papers...

Think I'll go to bed now.

i think....i'm getting there

Why do they do it?

I will never understand why students plagiarize. If you have more than three weeks to write a lousy 3.5-page essay, why do you have to pull something off the web? Hello? Besides, what makes them think, that we do not find out? And as if that is not enough, why on earth increase the font size, make everything bold AND italics, so it really stands out like a sore thumb in your stack of papers, right?

Somebody put me out of my misery and stab me with a knitting needle or sumping, pleassse...

And then, there was the Icarus Shawl

A friend of mine recently showed the Icarus Shawl on her blog. I loved it so much, I ordered a backissue of Interweave Knit and made one myself. It took me about three weeks, interrupted by some hotpads and forever searching for the right size circular knitting needles.



I ordered the right wool and loved both the knitting experience as well as the result.

Even more Hotpads

These were made with a modified version of the cascading leaf pattern afghan (which I love). I just added one row of leaves to make it wider, made four pieces and crocheted two each together for a nice thickness

Some more Hotpads

These are made in the double-face technique. You cast on with both colors at the same time and knit one color while purling the other. Then you switch colors around to achieve the pattern you are trying make. This way, both sides of the piece will be in stockinette stich (no purls visible).

Little Pieces for Fast Gratification

When I do not want to work on big projects, or when I need a break from one, I like to work on the typical German hotpad. They are made from thick cotton yarn and they are truly thick enough to use on hot lids or pot handles or baking pans. My mother has never in her life bought hod pads and always uses home-made ones.

So recently I made these hotpads

Knitting Revival

So I haven't knitted in forever and then, last November, I wanted to knit a poncho after the one I had bought was too short for comfort. I bought some cheap yarn at Walmart and started out creating that thing just from an idea I had in my head.

I cast on 120 stitches and knitted cables up what I expected to be the right back half. At the height I wanted, I bound off and tookup the margin stitches to go at a 90° angle to knit the left half of the back in basket weave technique. After that was done, I changed directions again made a sampler going down the left front. I surfed the web up and down to find different patterns I could knit.

Finally, I made the right front as a separate piece, knitting it from the side again, using an Afghan Stitch. I finished the piece off by knitting a collar in fun fur and edging it with one row single crochet...

I took many breaks and did not work non-stop, but in early February I was done!

And here it is: