I'm back!!

My dear, neglected blogees, I am back from vacation and newly recommitted to this whole blogging thing. We had the most wonderful time on our trip. Everything was perfect. The weather was amazing, the places we stayed were great (with one single-night exception, which I can live with), and we saw all kinds of wildlife.

To say I got home with renewed energy would not be entirely accurate (we left at 8 pm on Sunday and arrived home at 1 pm Monday), something about coming back from vacation fills me with the sense of a new start. I channelled this energy into my poor neglected Sakaki shawl. Before we left, I had knit almost the entire thing, and then I ran out of yarn just short to the end and had to rip it back. I didn't manage to pick it up again after that, but once I got home, I couldn't put it down, and I raced back through the lace portion and down to the end, and ended up with a very satisfying little leftover ball of yarn.







I also blocked my Asterope at last. I finished it ages ago, but for some reason I just couldn't get up the blocking mojo to get it done. It's no secret, I hate blocking - love the end result, understand it is a necessary step, but I absolutely loathe the process, and I guess I just couldn't face it before the trip. Now she's all done and sitting pretty.



While I was gone, the 7th sister, Alcyone was released, but I'm in the grips of some pretty strong finish-it-up-itis and there is one very important project that is still not done. And let me tell you, I knit that thing the whole time we were gone. And I have proof.
When I left, I was still on the first ball of yarn. I didn't get nearly as much work done on the shawl before we left as I had hoped. However, by the time we got to Seattle I was ready to join the second ball of yarn. I didn't get very far because my hands gave out on the flight to Anchorage and I really had to stop. I picked it up again the next morning, however, as we waited for an hour to get into the restaurant we had picked out for breakfast. I owe a huge debt to the knitters on the Alaska Knitters group on Ravelry, who were generous enough to give me a billion recommendations for yarn shops and places to eat. We sat in a little park and looked out over the Cook Inlet and I knit while we waited for breakfast. Then I knit in the car as we drove out to Potter Marsh, a protected bird habitat outside of Anchorage. We didn't see much, but I kept knitting as we went out to the Wildlife Conservation Center that's just a little beyond Potter Marsh. Sadly, it rained on us and so I mostly stayed in the car.

The next day we took the train from Anchorage to Seward, and did I knit? You bet I did.



In between taking pictures through the windows. I have to recommend taking the train. It's slower than going by car as the train doesn't move very quickly, but it's absolutely a beautiful view and it was much better for both of us to be able to enjoy the scenery instead of one of us being stuck driving.

When we arrived in Seward, we drove around for a while getting acquainted with the place, had lunch, did a little shopping, and then we decided to 'hike' out to Exit Glacier. I put 'hike' in quotes because, well. It's more like a really long walk. Not much effort to get there at all. I took the knitting.



I'm hiking in short sleeves here but as soon as we came over the next rise and were standing level with the glacier, the coat went on. Not surprisingly, the winds coming off that thing are FREEZING.



We hiked to the edge of the Glacier, and then down to the toe of the Glacier. The last bit was interesting because the trail ends at the glacial moraine, and you basically have to pick your way across shifting rocks and streams of melted glacier water to get to the glacier itself. Neither of us fell in, but neither of us escaped entirely dry, either. Fortunately the water wasn't that cold and the weather wasn't cold at all.

The day after that we went on a wildlife cruise with Major Marine Tours in the Kenai Fjords, and it was absolutely amazing. I didn't take the knitting since I had visions of it tumbling overboard or something equally absurd, but I had the camera up so often I wouldn't have gotten much done anyway, because we kept seeing things like this.



If it lives in (or visits) the fjords, it was out that day. The orca pod we saw were being studied by a science vessel, so our captain was able to tell us which orca pod it was. It's led by a matriarch named Aurora and I think I actually saw a Discovery Channel documentary about them at one time. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the science boat, though, and my searches aren't turning up anything.

Anyway, that was really the highlight of the trip. We saw otter, orca, humpback whales, sea lions, Dall sheep on the cliffs around Resurrection Bay, we saw glaciers - it was truly a wonderful experience.

The next day we drove until we found a promising trail head and hiked to Greyling Lake. There wasn't much to see in the way of wildlife but the forest itself was very pretty, everything covered in neon green moss. I found a log sticking out over the water and climbed out and sat on it to knit.





On our last day in Seward, we went to the Sea Life Center, and afterwards we spent some time hanging out outside the sea life center, watching a wild otter in the bay as well as a harbor seal that made an appearance or two. Of course, I watched while knitting.



We went back to Anchorage and I did some yarn shopping, and then we drove to Homer, where we took a quick cruise across the bay to Seldovia. This time I did bring my knitting with me.



Eagles and otter are what I will remember most about Homer. There were tons of both, everywhere. And the otter are so cute!!



And as it happened we arrived to see the annual Memorial Day Chainsaw Carving Competition in progress.



It rained on us a bit in Seldovia, but we stopped in a local shop/bookstore/thingy and sat on the deck under the trees with some hot chocolate to watch some eagles in the trees across the river.



I was sad to come home, but alas, we had to. The flight home was brutal but I knit pretty much the whole time, and I'd almost gotten through the third skein of yarn when we got home. I still have the last skein to knit, and I'm working hard on getting the shawl done so I can show it off here and have it to remember our wonderful vacation.

Once that's done, here I come Spanish Moss and Alcyone! There's so much I want to knit, and so little time. I haven't touched the April installment of Pins and Lace and the July installment is rapidly approaching, plus all the non-Romi stuff I want to knit. I still plan to do the In Dreams shawl, even though it's definitely not a mystery at this point. Lots of stuff I'm just brimming over to do - but I really want to finish what I have first!

Drive-By Blogging

Oh dear, another long run of no blog posting, followed by another pictureless post. I'm getting ready for my vacation!!!!!!!!!!! and I'm so excited. Hopefully after I return we will resume our regular postings. In the meantime, here's the WIP report...which is, sadly, rather boring, because no time to blog means no time to knit, either.

1. Spanish Moss
I've been busting a move on this one as much as I could, since Romi is not waiting for me to finish one pattern before releasing another 'must knit' piece! I completed the center section and last night I bound off the first end. When I get back from vacation, I'll pick up the provisional cast on and knit the second end.

2. Sakaki
When last we left Sakaki, I ran out of yarn after carelessly tossing in an extra repeat. I haven't picked it up since. Before we leave, I plan to rip this back and take it along with me as an alternative project when I need a break from my Alaska shawl.

3. Alaska Shawl
No where near where I wanted it to be by this point, but that's okay. Our trip includes a lot of travel time, so provided the powers that be (I'm looking at you, TSA) don't interfere, I hope I will still be mostly finished with the shawl by the time we get home from the trip. I've never had my needles taken from me on a flight - but it would just figure that this would be the one time I do.

4. Matching set for CodeNinja
Despite the fact that I have knit two 5-foot scarves for the man that he was perfectly satsified with, he has suddenly decided he wants this scarf to be 6 feet. Why he feels the need for a scarf that is taller than he is, I do not know, except that his mother said she always makes her scarves six feet long and he is a big fat mamma's boy. When we get to Alaska and he has a hat and scarf but no gloves, he will be rethinking the wisdom of this choice (honestly, by the time we got through with the discussion about adding the extra foot, he was probably already rethinking it - I didn't take it well). I probably six inches to go on the scarf, maybe less, but I'm so bitter at having to do this extra foot that I'm dragging my feet on it. The gloves won't take that long to do once the scarf is finished, but I'm still not sure they'll be done in time for the trip. It's his own fault!! If I had been able to gleefully cast off when I wanted to, he'd have the whole set by now and it wouldn't be hanging over my head any more. SIGH. (Yes, I'm bitter. You would be too, admit it.)

5. Socks
I've been working on a pair of socks for CodeNinja for quite a while now out of a yarn I've never used before, and I'm not liking it much. Of course I don't have the ball band and I can't remember what it was, but it's a single and I think it has some mohair content, and I've had lots of trouble with snagging and splitting. The first sock is almost done, so as long as CodeNinja doesn't decide he wants me to smack an extra few inches on this I hope I'll have the first sock done shortly. Then I have to face knitting an entire second sock out of yarn I don't like, but I'm trying not to think about that too hard.

I have another pair of socks for me that are on the needles somewhere in my house, but that freaking scarf has taken up all my mindless knitting time, so my sock knitting has suffered.

That's pretty much it - no blog next week while I'm on my trip, but hopefully when I come back this will return to being the scintillating, picture-filled blog you all know and love.

Not Dead Yet

My apologies for the radio silence over the last couple of weeks. Between work deadlines, illness, and other personal drama, I just couldn't muster the energy.

I wish I had a better post to make up for my absence, but all of the pictures I had taken are now out of date! So, here's a text-only status report and I will try to do better a little later this week. I just didn't want to go yet another Monday with no blog!

1. Asterope
Finished, and gorgeous. This really was quite a quick knit for me. People often comment on my knitting quickly, and it always makes me laugh. I don't knit quickly, I just knit A LOT. I don't have any children and I live alone, so nobody can fuss at me for neglecting my responsibilities to knit all day long - except my boyfriend the CodeNinja (he's a software engineer), who doesn't live here but spends enough time here that I grant him some latitude to criticize. But he doesn't. ;) Anyway, I digress - I started Asterope on March 31st and finished it on April 10. Not bad at all!! And now, fifteen days later - I still haven't blocked her. I'm lazy.

2. Sakaki
I hate admitting it when something is my fault. Sakaki should have been finished yesterday, but I ran out of yarn. I ran out of yarn because I was STUPID. Sakaki is knitted end to end and you are supposed to increase until you have 45 stitches. I wasn't paying attention and I got to 46 stitches before I realized I was done. Now, I could have stopped, frogged back to 45, and gone on, but I didn't. I just did another repeat and ended up at 55 stitches. I weighed my yarn. I knit the lace panel. I weighed my yarn again and concluded that I had plenty of yarn to finish. Aaaaand, I was wrong. I'm not really sure how, to be honest. In theory, I started out with 114 grams. After I knit the first side I had 68.8 grams left, meaning I used about 45 grams for the first half. After I finished the lace part, I had 55 grams left. Surely, I thought, that would be enough, even if the skein was a little heavier than 114 grams when I started (I didn't weigh it before hand - critical mistake).

It's not enough. I've got 15 stitches left on the needle and I have about 4 grams of yarn left. I can only conclude that a) I weighed wrong b) the skein was more than 10 grams heavier than advertised c) the decrease side takes more than 10 grams more than the increase side.

Ultimately, the reason doesn't matter - I don't have a whole lot of choices left at this point. I could stop where I am and claim the asymetrical effect is a design feature. I could shop around and see if anybody else has some leftover of the same yarn to give me, but this particular dyer's skeins vary so wildly that I can't imagine I could get anything that would match in the end. I could burn it and pretend it never existed - or I can frog back more than half the shawl and go forward.

Unless another option presents itself I will probably just frog back and reknit. I wouldn't be so bitter if it wasn't for all those short rows!! Once more my love/hate relationship with ruffles comes back to haunt me. I really thought the short rows were an innovative way to get the ruffle without making you knit rows that were billions of stitches long, but they really do require their own brand of suffering. Hopefully now that I've done it once, it won't be so frustrating.
I have to say I've also been a little spoiled by all of the silk or cashmere blends I've been using. Plain superwash just doesn't cut it for softness anymore for me (you know you are spoiled when merino is not good enough for you anymore). I wish I'd been able to get this colorway in the Djinni base, I'd be enjoying the knitting so much more.

3. Alaska Shawl
Our trip plans are firming up and I have started the knitting on my Alaska shawl, and now I really wish I had my pictures - I'd show you even an out of date one if I had it. I used the start of the Phoenix Rising shawl pattern to set up my Faroese shaping. I increased until I had 29 stitches in my center panel, and then started the motif from the North Star scarf out of Arctic Lace. I actually started it a little before I was at 29 stitches, once I was to the point where I would get to 29 stitches before the widest point of the pattern. The pattern is written for stockinette but I'm doing it in garter, and it looks fine. This first colorway (Aurora) is very dark, so the lace isn't showing up too terribly well, but when I smooth it out with my fingers it looks like it will show when blocked, and the shawl gets lighter as I move through the colorways I've chosen, so I think it will be fine. Again, I kind of wish I had gotten a slightly softer blend, especially because the Aurora has that somewhat stiff feeling that you get with very saturated dyes, but I expect that will soften up in the wash a bit (also true of the Sakaki yarn, actually). I'd like to get through at least the first skein of yarn before the trip, if not two skeins - I really like knitting while anticipating and then finishing the project very soon after getting home! I don't want to run out of knitting on the trip, though, so I'm not rushing toooo much.

That sums up what I've been actively working on. Here are the projects I'm 'behind' on:

1. Spanish Moss
No progress. I think this will be great summer knitting, though, so I plan to get back to it when I get back from vacation. I may even work on it some between now and then, since I don't have any other true laceweight shawls OTN at the moment.

2. Light and Dark Lace Club April
I bought in, I have the yarn, but I haven't started it at all - haven't even really looked at the pattern or the spoiler pictures! It's in the 'for after vacation' bin for sure. I may skip the next installment of this club just so I can catch up with other projects. That's the benefit of having a pay-as-you-go program!

3. Romi's Pins and Lace April
I'm not linking anything because packages are still arriving - I haven't gotten mine yet but I've peaked at the spoiler thread and the pattern is lovely. This will be number one when I get home from vacation - if I don't cave and start before hand! I don't have the perfect yarn for it, though (I get only the pin and pattern) so browsing around for it may save me. I can't decide what color is speaking to me for this project. The recommended yarn brings hydrangeas to mind, but I'm not sure those colors suit me. I'm thinking about something in a nice saturated coral. I don't have anything that color yet.

4. Scarf for the CodeNinja
When last we spoke of this scarf I griped because he asked me to make it six feet instead of five. I still maintain that it is silly to have a scarf taller than you are, but since he asked, he shall receive. I think I have about six inches of this thing to go. I have a couple eps of Deadliest Catch stacked up on the DVR. Maybe watching the fishermen out in the cold will give me the motivation it takes to crank out the last bit of this project. I swear, I hate every scarf I make by the end of it. Once this is done, I'm going to dedicate a weekend to making him the matching gloves so I can stop feeling guilty that this isn't done yet!

5. In Dreams Mystery KAL
I haven't even started this. The KAL will be over by the time I cast on! I'm okay with that, I think, but it is definitely on the list for when I get back. I have so much fun on Romi's group that I always push aside other projects for her patterns, but I have been peeking at the spoilers for this project, and they are all quite lovely. I'm going to have to get on this one.

6. Galadriel's Mirror
I may wait until fall to get into this one again. It's a large fingering weight shawl and that just doesn't say 'summer' knitting to me.

7. Birthday Socks
I owe someone socks for their birthday. Right now all my sock needles are occupied. I'm hoping I can clear a pair during vacation and come back and crank these socks out. Normally, I knit socks because they're easy, uncomplicated, and portable, so I don't often knit intricate socks. Because of that, though, socks take me forever to finish (especially when I am KNITTING A MINDLESS STUPID SCARF UGH) since I work on them a little bit at a time. Socks with charts get done much faster because they require dedicated knitting time, so I'm hoping I will be able to crank these out fairly easily once I get back.

Nothing to see here...

Oh my, I am so late on the blog post this week. Things have been a little up and down lately, and the blog suffered. But! I am here now, and I know you all rejoice. Let the Weekly WIP Report commence.



Asterope has been released and I am FLYING along on it. It's so beautiful. Yarn is Lisa Souza Cashmere and Silk fingering, and the color is Peacock. I chose this one specifically because it's not one that I normally use, but it's a color that gets lots of compliments when I wear it. I'm hoping I'll have time to wear it this year. Winter just doesn't want to let go and I really hope we get some spring weather before we launch right into summer.



And...that's it for WIPs! I have Spanish Moss still on the needles, but I haven't been working on it. Despite that, I feel like I finally have the WIPs somewhat back under control. I actually hope to finish Asterope by the end of this weekend. Romi's Sakaki shawl will be coming out in the next few days, and I really want to knit that, but after that I think I am taking time out from other knitting to start working on my Alaska shawl. This will be tough - I just got the yarn in for the April edition of the Dark and Light Lace Club, and Romi's next club shipment will be shipping this month as well. But, I do want to get started! Besides, I have a bunch of books on Alaska sitting on my table to be read, and I will need simple knitting for that. I have developed this weird idea in the last few months that I have to knit everything I want to knit RIGHT NOW because there is new stuff coming up all the time, and I can't keep up! I really need to let go of that mentality, take a deep breath and realize that no matter what I do, I can't keep up, and I'm going to have to make some choices. I'll....let you know how that goes.

My second Taygete is finished. I feel like this was a pretty quick knit too. I knit to 60 MC rows (the pattern calls for 74, I think) since I was using a heavier weight yarn. Romi gave a percentage system to help with yarn substitution/resizing, and it worked great. I used up almost all of the darker colored yarn.



I actually intended to use the lighter colored yarn for the lace, but I changed my mind as I saw how the stripes were working up. The lighter color was totally overwhelming the darker, so I switched in the hopes that using the dark for the lace would help balance the colors out a little better. I think it did. The sock weight version is squishy and cushy, while this version is drapey, but still cozy.

Rallied

I'm here! With pictures! Shall we go from least complete to most complete? Because that means I get to show you my new yarn first!

I went to the Homespun Yarn Party on Sunday and boy, what a madhouse! Confession time...I don't like crowds. I'm not exactly claustrophobic or anything, but I'm just not in to having to muscle my way through something. 99% of the time if I look at a booth or a store or what have you and it's clogged with people, I'll just walk away. So when we walked in and I looked around at the gobs of people crowding around the vendor booths - I almost wanted to go home. Eventually, though, we worked out a general system, were we sort of orbited around. Almost every booth had lulls, so when we passed one that didn't look too crowded, I popped in, took a look around, and left. But, I have to say I probably would have bought more if the idea of standing crammed together waiting for the register didn't turn me off so badly.

Well, I'm on a budget, so it's good that I didn't spend much. I wanted to take the entire Neighborhood Fiber Company booth home with me, but I stuck to these:





Capital Luxury Sock in Palisades (blue) and Kalorama Circle (pink). I like the pink one because it makes me think of cherry blossom season. There were a bunch of colors I coveted deeply, and I might have bought a couple more if money weren't so tight and the yardage weren't so short - only 375 yards per skein. This 80/10/10 blend (wool/cashmere/nylon) is one of my favorite yarns to work with but it is pretty darn pricey. I guess the yardage is pretty standard for this yarn, though, my beloved HM Casbah is in the same range. Just a little tight for a shawl, though, and I think the pink one especially would make such a lovely shawl. The blue one I am thinking may be destined for mansocks. We'll see - he has big feet and I don't want to run short.

This skein of Dragonfly Fibers Dragon Sock will make a stunning Sakaki, I'm thinking. Red is a color that protects from illness and demons in Japanese culture, so it seems quite appropriate for the shawl.



There is so much color depth in that skein and it is so rich and beautiful in real life. As stunning as the picture is, it doesn't do it justice at all.

I suffered from serious project ADD this weekend, some of it stemming from laziness and some from disorganization. I finally worked my shawl design charts out last week (I was having some problems), so Saturday, I started out working on my shawl design swatch and I got through the first chart, but then I couldn’t find my printout of the other two charts. Reprinting it would have meant carrying my big laptop from upstairs (because my files are in Word, and the netbook doesn't have Word installed) to the printer which is downstairs, and I decided...NEXT! I picked up my second Taygete and worked on that for a while. I ran out of yarn on my CC, but I thought I had enough of the MC that I didn't need to wind any more of that. So I wound the CC and not more than fifteen or twenty minutes later, I ran out of MC. Now, I could have just gone ahead and wound the second skein while I was up there, but noooo, I didn't, so rather than go back upstairs and wind another ball of yarn, I decided...NEXT! I started working on Spanish Moss. I did that for a little while, but there is so far left to go on that, and frankly I'm having a little trouble getting the yarn to slide across my needles (my beautiful new signature needles! why have you abandoned me? Because I am using the wrong size and refuse to admit it, that's why. Despite the tightness of my knitting and that the recommended needle size is a 5...I kind of thing I may need to go to a 3 for this yarn. which means ripping out what I've done so far. Apparently I would rather write a paragraph of parenthetical statements than plainly admit that I need to do that). My charity shawl was so close to finished, and I loathed the idea of having it sit there staring at me for another day, so I picked up that instead. And, in the process of all this switching around, I picked up at least three other projects but either couldn’t find the needles or couldn’t find the pattern pages. Organizational fail, for sure. So, end results?

My second Taygete (done in Mirasol Tupa) is in excellent shape. I finished Chart A of the lace last night, so I'm hoping I can maybe finish it this weekend, since I am anticipating the release of Asterope very soon (finished test knits are popping up on the Rav page), and Sakaki as soon as Romi can get it ready. I decided after the fact to switch my contrast colors and main colors, which means I had to fudge the end tip of the shawl so that I had the right color with which to pick up stitches, but I think it was the right call. The turquoise was so overwhelming before, and I think the lace is helping to bring out the darker color a little more. Of course, it doesn't show in this picture. But I think it will in the finished product.



I also finished the charity shawl I have been knitting for my shawl ministry group. It still needs to be blocked, which will be an interesting experience for me since I have never blocked acrylic before. This is a wool-microfiber blend and I'm honestly not 100% sure how to approach it. The ends will need to be woven in as well, and there are kind of a lot. I'm trying not to think of that part. I loathe weaving in ends.





I finally feel as though I have conquered my WIP list, a little bit. I cheated a little - put some projects in hibernation, etc. As far as lace goes, I have the Taygete, Spanish Moss, and Galadriel's mirror. Taygete will be finished soon. Spanish Moss and Galadriel's Mirror will still be around for quite a while, I expect. I still have the bulky weight Jared Flood blanket, Umaro (no progress at all), the scarf that's part of the 3 part manly set (I thought I was almost done, but he asked me to put another foot on it, because he does not love me at all, but since he buys me yarn, I agreed, even though I think that having a scarf taller than you are is silly), and a couple of pairs of socks in progress (which would get more play if it wasn't for the stupid scarf). I don't think that's terribly unreasonable.

Of course, when you add Sakaki and Asterope to the list, not to mention the April mystery shawl from the ZYG club, and my Alaska shawl...well...it still won't be too bad, right? Sakaki and Asterope will likely go pretty quickly, I'm still not ready to start my Alaska shawl juuuuust yet (must swatch), and I'll hopefully have Taygete finished not too much before those come out, so the net effect won't be horrible, I hope.

Bad Blogger

My dear blogees, I am afraid the blog will be a little late this week due to terrible overscheduling and a madness to finish a project that had become so mind-numbing, and was yet so close to completion, that I couldn't stand to let it go unfinished, haunting me, for one more day. Happily, I finished said shawl last night. Unhappily, it was so late by that time that I staggered to bed without taking the bevy of photographs that I needed in order to blog all the stuff that I've been up to. Hopefully, the blog will return tomorrow with all the photographic goodness you actually came here to see.

On a roll

I finished Fiori this weekend! As usual, FO pictures will come at the end of this post, but I'm feeling pretty good. This is shawl number 4 for the 11 in 2011 challenge, which makes me feel like I'm ahead of the game. I've been aiming to finish about one shawl per month to make the goal, and this is the second one I've finished this month, so I have a little bit of a buffer now. I'm not resting on my laurels, though. I know myself well enough to fully expect I will need that buffer before this whole shebang is over. But, I am nearly done with the Prayers of Love shawl I was working on for my charity knitting group, and I'm at the halfway point of the second Taygete shawl I was working on, the blue one made of the souvenir yarn. I think I may try to finish the Prayers shawl this week, and though it's made from a worsted weight yarn, I am well over the minimum yardage requirement at this point so it will count towards the challenge.

Meanwhile, with Fiori off the needles, I finally cast on for the January Pins & Lace pattern, Spanish Moss.



The yarn is Yarn Chef Spun Sugar in Wild Sage. It's really beautiful stuff. I couldn't find my crochet cotton so I used some leftover yarn from my Taygete to do the provisional cast on, and it goes so nicely with the Wild Sage! I've only got about two and a half repeats done out of 28, but I keep stopping to admire it. I know, I know, I always say I won't knit things with 8 billion repeats, but I can't help it. It's pretty. And you know how I like to knit rectangles after a long stretch of knitting huge things.

This also has the honor of being the first project I knit on my new Signature Needles. They were a valentine's day gift and I haven't had the chance to use them much, since I didn't want to change needles on anything in mid-project. I really enjoy working with them. I have the stiletto tips and while I was thrilled about the pointiness, I was a bit worried the longer taper was going to make my knitting even tighter (trust me, I do not need help knitting tightly). But, because of the way I knit I don't think it's actually going to be much of a problem. My stitches are definitely falling securely on the body of the needle, and not just on the tip.

My poor Sea Turtles shawl design has really been languishing. I still plan to get to it, I just got stalled a bit with some road blocks and really, I am feeling so satisfied with all my other projects that it may just take me a little while to get back around to it.

I also have some new deadlines to worry about.



We're going on vacation to Alaska in May, and I'm so excited about it. I've wanted to go to Alaska for ages and I'm really thrilled to finally be getting the chance to go. Since I was so happy with my Yellowstone Shawl project, I decided I needed some vacation knitting for Alaska as well so I could end up with similar memories.

The four yarns above will become my Alaska shawl. I went for Handmaiden/Fleece artist yarns again, but this time I got FA Merino 2/6 instead of the Handmaiden Casbah. I love the Casbah but it is pretty pricey and I don't want to spend all my trip money before I even get there. From left to right the colorways are Aurora, Forest, Glacier, and Ocean.

For the pattern, I plan to use the North Star motif from Arctic Lace as the center panel for a sort of Faroese shape. I'm planning to make the whole thing in garter stitch, so I have to swatch the motif and see if I like it in garter stitch, or if I'm going to have to change my plan and either make the center panel in stockinette, or do the whole shawl in stockinette. I liked having nothing but garter stitch to knit for the Yellowstone shawl because it meant I could knit away without having to look at what I was doing, so even though I was knitting through the whole trip, I didn't miss anything. I was also able to knit while doing my pre-trip reading, which I plan to do again.

I'm complicating things a little on this shawl by adding in this north star motif, but I think it's worth it. The center panel won't be all that wide, so I won't have to pay attention for very long at a time. There's also a large version and a smaller version of the motif, so I will need to see which one I prefer for this project. If possible I think it would be awesome to get some fingering weight quiviut to edge the shawl with, but that may be too much to ask. We'll see.

I'm not sure exactly when I'll get started on that. I'll probably do the swatching fairly soon, but I'm going to wait until April at least to get started on the shawl proper. I want to have plenty of knitting still to do when we go on our trip, which won't be until towards the end of May.

And now, may I present, Fiori.



Someone asked me on Ravelry whether the yarn was truly as golden as it looks in the picture. I think it is, and it isn't - if you look at the preblocking picture, it's definitely yellow.



But, stretched out and with the light from the flash reflected off it, it certainly does look gold. I'm expecting the end result to be a sort of combination of the two - it will be more golden than in its unblocked picture since it will be more sheer, but only where the light hits it at the right angle will it really look as gold as it does in the picture.



Happy sigh. It will make a lovely spring shawl, if only spring would make up its mind to hurry up and get here! I'm already thinking through my wardrobe to figure out what I can wear under it.



The end result is about six feet wide and maybe a little over 3 feet tall.



I've wanted to make this shawl for ages, it seems like, and the end result has surely been worth the wait! I can't wait to unpin it and see how it looks up off my drab grey blocking mats. They don't seem to play nice with the camera, so I will definitely be back with more pictures when it's dry and unpinned.