By Wendy on September 23, 2009
On the commute home yesterday I finally finished my second Mallow sock. Ta-da!
To recap, I knit this from Madeline Tosh sock yarn in the “Malachite” colorway on 2mm needles. And in a spurt of energy, I even wrote up the pattern, in 3 sizes. You may download it for free in pdf format here.
It’s also listed on the “Free Patterns” page. It’s been a while since I posted a sock pattern, hasn’t it?
Now I’m down to just one bloggable project, my True Love Stole. Here she is, lounging in my office chair:
Yes, she accompanied me to work today. I knit on this baby during the morning commute, which was interesting as it was a particularly bumpy train ride. Lace and bumps don’t necessarily mix, so I did exercise some caution.
I also did a few rows during my lunch break, but the stole stayed in its very cute tote bag for the trip home as it was too crowded on the train for me to unfurl it and knit on it.
But if I did, I probably would have gotten some funny looks. 
Meanwhile, Lucy is wiggling. While she ponders the wonderment of her existence.
Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged colorway, commute home, lunch break, sock pattern, sock yarn
By Wendy on September 22, 2009
I love getting stuff in the mail, and an added benefit is getting stuff in the mail when you have little to blog about. Presto chango, instant blog fodder!
Exhibit A:
This is my yarn for the Enchanted Wood Lace Shawl KAL from The Unique Sheep. Hope on over to the page I linked there to read all about it. The Unique Sheep is finishing up The Secret Garden KAL. I didn’t join that one, but my buddy L-B did and she has been having a lot of fun with it. so I decided to sign up when they announced the Enchanted Wood club. You make your choice from many many yarns, and I chose their Luxe yarn (wool/silk blend) in a gradience colorway: Mirkwood. I love my yarn!
It looks like sign-ups are still open so anyone interested can still join in the fun. The KAL starts January 10, 2010.
Exhibit B:
What a surprise it was to receive a package from Johanne, as I was not expecting it. Inside was this:
Sock yarn! Sock yarn! Sock yarn! And this:
It’s a Swedish crafts magazine, and this issue is focused on knitting. Great magazine — it reminds me somewhat of Threads. Johanne sent it to me because it has an article about traditional Swedish knitting with some wonderful photos:
I was flipping through the rest of the magazine and this caught my eye:
Hee hee. 
(It’s from an article about knitting resources on the internet.)
And from the comments . . .
Tammy said:
Oooh – I love the kitty bag. Where did you get it?
That is a custom made bag from Three Bags Full. Michelle does gorgeous work — I highly recommend her bags!
Lucy sez:
“What’s for dinner? Catfood again?”
Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged crafts magazine, lace shawl, silk blend, sock yarn, yarn wool
By Wendy on September 21, 2009
Once a literature geek, always a literature geek.
In the comments Brit observed:
It seems that progress on the True Love stole is going more slowly than on your last two shawls. Is that because you aren’t finding as much time to knit? Or is it because it is a difficult pattern?
I was wondering when someone would ask me why the heck it is taking me so long to knit this baby.
The reason is the former, not the latter. While this stole is heavily patterned, there really are no tricky bits to it. The lace stitches consist only of yarnovers, k2tog, and a sl1 k2tog psso double decrease. Every row is knit. There is patterning on every row, but that just makes it more entertaining to knit, as far as I’m concerned.
And each row can be completed pretty quickly. Because it is a stole, it is not extremely wide, so I can whack out a row in a few minutes.
Getting that few minutes is the problem. I have had a whole lot of impediments to knitting lately, so progress has been almost non-existent. Still, I got a nice chunk of knitting time in yesterday afternoon, so that was encouraging.
And my second sock is almost done. I will hopefully finish it tomorrow on the commute. As soon as it is done, the stole will accompany me as commuter knitting, so I can get a few more rows knit every day.
Stay tuned for further developments . . .
Lucy sez:
“Just finish my white blankie, willya?”
Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged blankie, impediments, shawls, tricky bits, yesterday afternoon
By Wendy on September 20, 2009
This comment from Al on my last blog post made me smile:
Wendy – we laypersons have to know, how did you get so many size zero needles? Do you use all of them from time to time? I never know how Roseann keeps track of all her needles, except that she has so many projects ongoing.
Al is Roseann’s husband, by the way. I believe he has reasons for wanting to know.
Well . . . I have a gazillion size zero needles because that’s the size I use for most of my socks. I will often have more than one sock project going on at the same time. Stil, that’s not a very good reason for having so many, is it?
I still have every size 0 needle I’ve ever owned, apart from those that have fallen apart. And there have been a lot of different types and brands of needles created over the years. And of course I had to have them all.
Can you imagine my consternation if I had a burning need for that one perfect needle and it wasn’t in my Tower o’ Needles? The horror!
Anyway . . .
I did actually do a bit of knitting on the True Love Stole. Here it is:
And a close-up:
And here is something lovely:
Stitch markers from Blue Ridge Notions. Aren’t they pretty? They are amethyst & mother of pearl, with one pretty blue & white porcelain bead making up the set. These markers will fit up to a size 7 needle and are beautifully made. Best of all, they are very reasonably priced. They’d make a great gift for a knitter . . .
Lucy thinks salmon treats are a better gift.
Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged blue ridge, consternation, mother of pearl, needles, stitch markers
By Wendy on September 17, 2009
Gail asked in the comments:
How do you store your needles? Do you keep them in the original Addi bags and sizes together? I’m just beginning to have enough needles that I need to determine a better way to keep them organized.
I have this:
The Tower o’ Needles!
It has a total of ten drawers.
I put each size in a separate drawer (though the larger sizes are doubled and tripled up) and for the most part I do keep them in their original packaging.
The size zero drawer is jammed full. 
I’ve had the Tower o’ Needles for several years. I bought it somewhere like Staples or Office Depot. While it not exactly fine furniture, it serves its purpose very well!
In Knitting News
I have turned the heel on my commuter sock.
And I did not knit at all on the True Love Stole last night. I spent the majority of my knitting time working on non-knitting things.
Shocking, isn’t it?
Since this is an “at home” weekend, I’m hoping to get in some quality time with my True Love.
Speaking of true love . . .
I Heart Wollmeise
I loved the comment that Natalie made about the pic of my Wollmeise I posted yesterday:
Claudia is amazing – the picture just jumped out at me & yelled Wollmeise. Mmmm. Perfect colours.
So true. Wollmeise is an original. Ain’t nuthin’ that compares to it as far as I’m concerned. Period. The end.
Several of you asked what I was going to do with my Wollmeise bounty. As I said, I bought it sight-unseen in a grab bag. I figured I’d make socks with it. But don’t those colorways look fabulous together? Here: I’ll post the pic again:
Five skeins of Wollmeise Twin (80/20 wool/nylon) which is a total of 2550 yards of fingering weight yarn. What would you do?
Lucy thinks I should give her a treat. But really, that is her answer to a lot of things.
Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged fine furniture, office depot, perfect colours, staples, weight yarn
