Finished Damson

This is not my official FO post, just a quick pic to show I finished for Ravelympics!

FO: Laminaria

I never did obtain really awesome photos of this shawlette. It has been mostly grey and rainy here lately. I had my sister-in-law Carolyn take some on New Year's Eve, so that's what we'll go with. This is Laminaria, and it is really incredible. The yarn is Malabrigo Merino Lace, and so incredibly light and soft. It is a lightly spun single and feels so wonderful on your skin. The shawl pattern uses some Estonian lace stitches that I have never seen before. The design is clever in a way you may not notice unless you knit it or get to see one in person. The first section at the top uses a star stitch where you decrease and increase three stitches simultaneously, which creates a section that is relatively dense and thick, especially considering the lightness of the yarn it is knit with. The next section, the blossom chart uses some 2-into-9 stars which convert two stitches into nine stitches, and this section does pucker the fabric a bit, but is not as dense as the star chart. Both kinds of stars are a bit tiresome to knit, and this is why I am glad I knit the smaller one.

The final section is the edging, and it is very light and airy and uses the kinds of stitches I am more familiar with. I love the way the dense base sort of flows and thins outward into a fluttery edge.

Because of all these crazy stitches, the shawl comes out a bit small than others that use a similar amount of yarn. I blocked it out as firmly as possible, but it seems to have shrunk a bit since these photos were taken. If you want a medium sized shawl, you'd better do the bigger one, this one is more of a neck kerchief.

FO: Five Christmas presents

I was knitting like made in December to finish gifts, and haven't posted any of them, so here's a quick update. Most of the pictures aren't great, so bear with me.
Here are Knucks made for my niece Sophia, with Eco Alpaca that we skeined out and dyed to get stripes. A quick hat for myself, the Side Slip Cloche from Boutique Knits made with the free sample of Berocco Vintage we got at the Sock Summit Ravelry party!

The Sock Monkeys from the Blue Moon Fiber Arts Funky Sock Monkey kit that I got at the booth at OFFF.

Knucks made for my nephew Jamie, also Eco Alpaca dyed to his color choice.

And a lace scarf from the Debbie Bliss Pure Silk book made from Royal Bamboo for my sister.

And I just finished the Laminaria today, but it is still blocking, so I will show you the last project of 2009 when it is dry and photographed!

My Sporran

I received my package yesterday from my spoiler in the Voyager Swap I am participating in. Neila put together an awesome sporran for me, beginning with some stitch markers with thistles on the beads. Here we have a group shot, some Whiskey Fudge (which doesn't have any chocolate in it to my surprise, but it does have a good strong whiskey flavor!), a cute patterned tin of tea which smells wonderful, a teapot cozy in a gorgeous yarn, a tea measuring scoop, and a pattern and yarn from Patternworks for a cowl/hood project.

And this gorgeous Chinese porcelain teacup with a lid and a built in strainer. I love all of my gifts, but this one the most!

And last but certainly not least, some authentic Scottish treats, ginger border biscuits and caramel chocolate wafer bars, both actually made in Scotland. How fun is that.

And here is my teapot wearing its cozy. I explained to my husband that a teapot is one thing which actually needs a cozy to keep the tea hot longer.

I love my package Neila, THANK YOU!

Purple and Green Handspun

I finished spinning the purple and green stuff that I dyed at Amy's party. It looks better than I expected it to. I think these colors will make something cute for my daughter. I have about 300 yds of it, about worsted weight. It is softer in the yarn than it seemed in the roving. I still don't know what kind of wool it is, but it doesn't matter too much.

FO: Dane Shawl

I finished another alpaca shawlette last week, so I thought I'd better get it on the blog! I really love these little shawls for so many reasons; they are quick, fun because of the lace, a little bit fancier than a scarf (in my opinion), surprisingly warm, I can wear it instead of a hoodie on a cool day. If you haven't got at least 5 or ten of these, get busy, there's no excuse, there are so many free ones available. This one took just over two skeins of Frog Tree alpaca sportweight. The pattern is a free one from Jane Tanner called the Dane Shawl. I did have a bit of a hard time with this one because of all the purling involved, she has altered the original oriel lace pattern from the Barbara Walker book to improve the appearance of the wrong side. (All pictures here are of the right side.) I don't think the wrong side looks that great either way, but my yarn is kind of fuzzy, so maybe in a smoother yarn it would matter more.

I do love the way she increased the row before the bind off so there isn't a problem with tightness in the bind off, she also did a neat method of binding off, but I don't know the name of it, so you'll have to look for yourself.

I used a size six needle, and did not alter the pattern in any way.

Starship Scarf

A few months back I developed a fascination for some of the art yarn that my friend Bohoknitterchic (ety shop here) was making, and at the same time, began noticing that my spinning was becoming a little too uniform, and somewhat boring. So I looked around etsy and found a neat little shop called Moa HandKnits Fiber Shop. I purchased this textured batt from her called Starship. It says it only contains kid mohair, but there is also a little bit of what looks like silk noils (according to Britney). Little puffs of orange stuff. I had a little trouble spinning it at first, I was still being a bit OCD about my spinning, and was trying to spin it very fine. I asked Britney about it, and she suggested letting it be a big larger diameter, and sort of letting the fiber control the spinning a little bit. So I relaxed a bit, and stopped trying to turn my textured batt into a perfect, smooth yarn, and came out with this.

I still wasn't too sure about it, but my Ravelry knit night friend assured me that it was really neat, and so I took some pictures and got ready to put it in my etsy shop. Then I couldn't figure out how to describe it, the wpi was quite variable throughout the skein, and I just didn't know if it was good enough to sell. I finally decided a couple of weeks ago to knit it into a scarf.

I knit a simple squishy ribbed scarf from it with a flare at each end, and it is very pretty after all, and amazingly soft. I love the contrast between its rough appearance and soft feel. I can easily wear it around my neck without itchiness.

So I put it in my etsy shop after all!

It was somewhat difficult to photograph, so I look very pale in the photo, but the scarf is accurately depicted.