Annis update

So...it's now T = -9 days and I have three out of six Annis done (two blocked even!) and have started #4. Things that I have learned along the way:

Backwards loop cast on is a good stretchy edge, but makes the first row a bit dodgy
Malabrigo lace is gorgeous soft stuff, but can make some really impressive yarn barf
Just say no to nupps (at least when you're going for speed)

And finally...my husband really doesn't understand how important it is that I not be required to drive anywhere for the next week plus. That's key knitting time!

waves and dives back into lace knitting/short row fray, not to be heard from again until Le Tour starts

Two extremes

So the last time we saw this project, I was bemoaning my lack of competitiveness in the Ravelympics and making myself blind with black beads and fingering weight alpaca.

I'm still making myself blind, but the shawl has grown considerably, and I am now only 50-something rows away from being done. Hooray! Granted, I'm doing one less repeat then is called for, but from my extremely scientific calculations* this thing is going to be at least 40+ inches across. Plenty big enough. The only issue is that the rows are approximately 550 stitches each (and only going to get bigger), so I get maybe four rows done per day commuting to and from work. Which means 5 more weeks of knitting. And Christmas is only 6 weeks away right? So...hmmm...we'll see.

To combat the wear and tear on my noggin from Ms. Isis up there, I cast on a few days ago for something nice and simple - garter stitch.

Devil has decided that she needs a "coat", and due to our impending relocation across the pond, I've decided that I need to do some serious stashbusting, and fast. Enter some stashed Lamb's Pride Bulky (in a barely acceptable purple color, since there was no pink to be had), and a couple of evenings with EZ's The Knitting Workshop and Alias, Season 1 DVDs, and I've gotten almost to the armpits of my first ever Tomten (Rav link).

Look at the squishy garter stitch! Absolutely the perfect brainless evening knitting.

So Isis for the bus commute, and Tomten for after the kids go to bed. Or for Knit Night, since I brought Isis last week but was extremely uncommunicative (which totally negates the entire point of going to Knit Night**, right ladies?).

* I pulled on the center to stretch it out, put it next to a piece of paper for comparison and said "That looks like about 16 inches, and with 50 more rows, I'm sure I can get 4 more!" You know, Scientific and shit...
** Which is, of course, to talk very loudly, share completely inappropriate and embarrassing stories about our children/spouses/pets, and scare the folks who go to Whole Foods to, you know, buy food or something!

Sticking the dismount

Or, in my case, not sticking the dismount. As in, taking a huge giant sideways step on the dismount, then falling on my ass and rolling off the podium onto the ground in a giant heap.

Can you tell I've been watching too much gymnastics? Or as Devil calls it, the monkey bars.

My grand, ambitious, long-anticipated Ravelympics project is probably not going to make it across the finish line. I'm loving the pattern, the yarn is gorgeously soft (mmmmm, baby alpaca!), and it's moving along. It's just that, well, it is kind of overwhelming. I'm maybe a third of the way in, and the rows are 400+ stitches and take about 12 minutes each. I'm finding that I want to savor this project, not rush through it. Plus black yarn plus black beads divided by spending much of my day in front of the computer makes for sore eyes. I worked on it on the bus yesterday, and by the time I got home all I wanted to do was knit stockinette sleeve caps. No more yarn overs, no more tiny beads on tinier crochet hook.

It is going to be absolutely phenomenally gorgeous when it's done. I just don't think it's going to be done by Sunday at noon. Oh well (Porpoise untangles herself from hurdle and stumbles across finish line).

FO: Swallowtail shawl

This has to have been the fastest shawl ever:

Cast-on: 7/28

Bound-off: 8/5

Either that, or I'm just getting better at lace. Which is good given that I'm supposedly knitting a beaded lace shawl for the Ravelympics...

Pattern: Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn A. Clark

Yarn: Handmaiden Sea Silk in "Mineral", 440 yds/100 gr - I used most of one skein

Needles: Addi Tubo Lace needles US 5/3.75 mm

Comments: I was worried that I would run out of yarn, since I only had the one skein, but there were a bunch of Ravelry folks who had done this pattern with one skein, so I set forth. The yarn is incredible. So soft and silky and smooth. And the pooling didn't turn out too badly at all.

The nupps (which I had never heard of before!) were a breeze with the Addi Turbo lace needles - pointy, pointy, pointy. In fact, the only bad thing about these needles was using them in combination with the Sea Silk - a bit too slippery! I think there are going to be some Harmony needles in my future for just this occasion.

We had a fantastic trip to Colorado. The weather was good (up until the wedding - oops!), the four-kids-under-5 thing worked out pretty well, and Devil and Boo were dancing queens at the recpetion on Saturday night.

A very sleepy dancing queen

It was a wonderful trip, and very hard to get on the plane on Sunday to come home. We're already planning a trip back for some skiing once winter hits.

Oh yeah, knitting

Sort of. I've been out of commission the last week dealing with loads o' work stuff, and a lovely summer cold that knocked me out for most of the weekend (exhibiting the equisite timing for which disease and various other useful roadblocks are known). But today I came to the realization that 1) I'm going to a wedding in a week and a half and 2) while I now will have something to wear (having ordered 4 dresses from Patagonia in the hopes that one will fit and be a good color), I don't have an appropriate wrap/shawl type thingie. So tonight I spent way too much time winding this

into this

so it can become this. If I work on nothing else in the meantime. Project Monogamy, here I come!