This is just a quick note to let you know that the pattern for my Summer Mystery Shawl is now available for sale on Ravelry.

If you purchase before June 8, it is half price: $2.50. June 8 and after, it will cost $5.00.

The Knit-along will commence on June 1 when the first clue will be released. If you buy before June 1, you will receive some preliminary information with yarn suggestions, a pattern for a swatch, and a full description of the sizes you can make — it comes in three sizes.

Check out the pattern on Ravelry for more information. You can discuss the project in the forums for the WendyKnits Ravelry group.

The Triquetra Capelet is no more.

Shortly after my last blog post, I decided that a. the yarn I was using was not right for the design, and b. I wanted to size down the capelet a bit. So I ripped it out.

I plan to knit it with a smaller circumference in a different yarn, which I have ordered. Since I am going to be starting over, I completely re-did the cable knot motifs used.

So when I knit it again, it will be longer, smaller around, and with a different cable motif. That’s all.

To kill time before my yarn gets here, I started another Viajante. Well, it is Viajante-like, anyway.

Viajante is a long skinny tube and as such, when worn as a poncho it is rather fitted across the shoulders. So for my second version, I changed the increases, increasing at each side until it hits the shoulder.

I am using Dream in Color Smooshy With Cashmere in the “Medieval” colorway. I love both the yarn and the colorway!

Lucy is thinking about it.

I started swatching with the silk I showed in my last blog post and decided it wasn’t right for what I had in mind. So it went back into the stash room and I started something else.

This is the beginning of the Triquetra Capelet which appeared in the Winter 2012 issue of Interweave Knits.

I am knitting mine from Rowan Purelife British Sheep Breeds Chunky Undyed in “Black Welsh Mountain.”

And of course I am incorporating some mods. I am making mine much longer. I’ve got lots of yarn, so I can easily add a lot of length to it.

The capelet has a large Celtic knot in each panel around, and the knot spans the length of the piece. Here’s the start of a knot:

Because I am making mine longer, I need to add some length to the knot motif. I’m adding a series of repeats of circles. Well, it’ll be easier to describe when I have a bit more done. And I won’t start the decreases for a while.

That means I currently have 658 stitches on the needles.

Lucy is impressed.

First things first, thanks to everyone who left a comment to be entered in the yarn bowl giveaway sponsored by  StardustPottery. The random number generator has spoken and has chosen Julia, who has an email addy that ends in earthlink.net. Julia has been emailed so if this sounds like you, check your email!

Lucy thanks you for all your good wishes on the anniversary of her having come to live with me. In celebration, here is the first photo I ever posted of her, on May 12, 2003:

Look at how light-colored her body fur is. She was 2 years old at the time I adopted her (so she is 12 now) and her coat darkened in the first year after she came to live with me.

Lucy today:

I am finishing up the second prototype for my upcoming Summer Mystery Shawl this evening, so will be needing a new project.

Here’s the yarn I plan to use:

This is a natural colored China silk that I purchased from Handknitting.com. You can see it here.

(Do you know about Handknitting.com? They have some great yarns at very good prices.)

I am going to do something lacy with this yarn. Stay tuned.

In other news, I am going to Camp Loopy this summer! How about you?

First of all, the winner of my copy of Scandinavian Stitch Craft: Unique Projects and Patterns for Inspired Embroidery is Bobbi, who has been emailed.

Second, I finally wrote up the pattern for the rainbow Kauni wrap I knit a while back and the pattern is available on Ravelry, here.

Now. on to new business

I have a new toy! I have a new toy!

By looking at the photo, you can probably guess that my toy is a yarn bowl. This bowl was made especially for me by Cindy Douglass, of StardustPottery. (You can check out her range of yarn bowls here.)

Cindy makes bowls in three sizes:

• REGULAR size fits 50 grams / 1.76 oz skeins of yarn.
• LARGE size fits 198 grams / 7 oz / Super Saver skeins of yarn.
• EXTRA LARGE size fits 453.6 grams / 16 oz / 1 lb skeins of yarn.

Mine is the “regular” size, and it looks like it could easily hold close to a 100-gram skein of yarn, so I will be able to use it with almost every knitting project.

It has a number of very thoughtful features. First off, it is nicely solid, sturdy, and level. There is pretty much no chance that tugging on recalcitrant yarn will tip it over. It is also taller than I expected it to be — another feature that will keep yarn in place. A ball of yarn would have to jump pretty high to be able to hop out of the bowl.

Cindy’s bowls are either right- or left-handed, depending on which side you keep your yarn when knitting. Mine is the left-handed bowl since I always knit with my yarn at my left. If you knit with your yarn dead ahead in front of you, I’m thinking you could easily use either model.

In addition to having the curved slot through which to feed yarn, there are also two holes. You could use those holes as needle rests, or as yarn feeds. I’m betting I could use this bowl for colorwork and stack two small balls of yarn in it and feed one through each hole. I’m excited to give that a try on my next colorwork project.

Last and certainly not least . . . it is so pretty! You may have noticed that my bowl has my lovely Miss Lucy on it.

Don’t you love how it looks like Lucy is reaching up a paw to gently bat at the yarn as it feeds out the slot?

As I said, my bowl is a custom design. Cindy has a form on her website where you can request custom work, specifying if you want a Right or Left Hand model, and what sort of design you’d like, the color, the size, etc. But she already has a lot of lovely standard designs for sale from which you can choose. What a great gift for another knitter . . . or for yourself, of course. Who deserves it more, eh?

Can you tell that I love my new yarn bowl?

Because I am pushy, I asked Cindy if she would donate a yarn bowl to be given away in a blog contest and she very generously agreed.

So . . .

If you would like to be entered into the contest to win a regular sized sheep yarn bowl, either left or right handed (winner will specify his/her choice), leave a comment on this blog entry by noon Eastern time on Wednesday, May 15, 2013. At that time the Random Number Generator will chose the lucky recipient.

Please note that the actual yarn bowl may differ slightly different in appearance from the photo above, or be a different color, as each bowl is hand made and unique.

Thank you so much, Cindy, for offering one of your wonderful bowls, and for my lovely Lucy Bowl.

Still Knitting

I have a project on the needles but can’t share it yet, as it is a prototype for my Summer Mystery Shawl. The Mystery Shawl KAL wil start in June, and more information will be forthcoming soon!

Happy Lucy-versary to Me

It was on Mother’s Day ten years ago that this purring bundle of floofy love came to live with me: