Blocked she is 66″ across the top, 25″ down the center back.

I used a size 6 (4mm) needle and one skein of MadelineTosh Tosh Sock in the “Oak B” colorway with 24 grams left over.

Expect a pattern presently.

Lucy is beside herself with excitement.

Because I am far too lazy and impatient to do anything like actually swatch out the lace before starting work on it, I’ve been designing it on the fly. In fact, the last two charts of the pattern underwent a significant overhaul after I worked a couple of rows and just wasn’t feeling the love.

This is a more-than-a-triangle shawlette and I’m still planning to keep the yarn requirements down to one skein of sock yarn, so it will be wider but not as deep as the previous two I just completed.

I love the yarn — MadelineTosh Tosh Sock in the “Oak B” colorway. It may look brown in photos, but in real life it’s sort of a browny-olive-greeny mix. Very nice!

Lucy sez:

“It is not as pretty as my colorway!

I cheated on the pic I showed you yesterday, because it is from Sunday afternoon. Here is the current state of the shawlette.

Sorry for the crappy flash pic — it’s dark, so hard to get a good shot.

I’m knitting this from one of my favorite sock yarns: Sanguine Gryphon Eidos. The colorway is “Polimarchus” — ain’t it purdy?

I’m using a U.S. size 6 needle for this one. I used a size 5 for Argus, but the Eidos is a bit . . . I dunno . . . firmer than the MadTosh sock yarn I used for Argus so I figured I’d go up a needle size.

Like Argus, I’m trying to make this from one skein of sock yarn and so far it looks like I’ll be successful.

And Lucy is hard at work keeping my place on the couch warm.

Here it is in its unblocked state.

Cat included for scale. Unblocked, it measures a petite 40″ across the top and 20″ down the center back.

And here it after blocking.

It now measures a surprising 54″ across the top, and 25″ down the center back. And it took under 350 yards of fingering weight yarn. Madelinetosh Tosh Sock, in the Baltic colorway, to be exact. I used a U.S. size 5 (3.75mm) needle.

I’ve named this design the Argus Shawlette. Here it is being modeled by Gwendolyn:

And another:

I’m working on the pattern for this baby even as we speak. It’s very easy to knit and a nice speedy project.

Help for Haiti

Today I went into my Ravelry Pattern Store and have edited all the patterns there to reflect that from now through January 31, 2010 I am donating 50% of my profits from all Ravelry pattern sales to Doctors Without Borders.

Lucy sez:

“Zzzzzzzzzz . . . “

(By the way, they posted about this correction in the Ravelry group but did not send out an email for this error as they did for the previous error in the cast-on. So if you downloaded the first clue within about 14 hours of it being initially posted, you need to download it again to get the corrected pattern. The latest pattern as I write this says “updated 2:04pm 1/10/10 at the bottom of each page.)

Anyhow, I sat down to tink back and discovered my work was pretty much, well, un-tink-able. The combination of the somewhat “sticky” yarn — I was using the Luxe, which is a wool/silk blend — with the lace cast-on used in the pattern meant I had to suck it up and pull it off the needles to rip it out completely.

At that point I lost interest.

I was planning on doing this knit-along purely for entertainment, and I loathe ripping out, so I decided to set it aside until such point as the pattern is complete. Hopefully all errors will be caught by then.

(There was a question in the comments about the lack of beads on my cast-on — I was doing the unbeaded version as I’m not a big fan of beaded knitting.)

Anyhow, I conveniently had a draft pattern of one of my own designs waiting in the wings, so I dug out the yarn I’d bought for it and cast on something different.

The yarn is Madeline Tosh sock yarn in the “Baltic” colorway. I believe made a brief appearance on my blog after I purchased it a couple of weeks ago.

And the pattern is going to be for a shawlette. I seem to be on a shawlette kick lately, don’t I?

Speaking of shawlettes, my Aestlight accompanied me to work today. I wore it over my coat like a big scarf — this is one of my favorite uses for shawls. It was pretty darn cold today so I was happy to have it!

Lucy sez:

“Darn right it was pretty darn cold today! It’s a good thing you got me this sheepskin!

A cellphone beanbag chair!

Here is Lucy’s favorite new toy:

A tear strip from a box. Gotta love kitties!

Right before Christmas I put my Talisman Shawl pattern up for sale on Ravelry for $5.00 for a pdf download. Here is the direct link.

And I finished Ishbel. Here it is on Gwendolyn, shown draped over the Talisman Shawl, which is draped over my Exonumist’s Shawl:

A close-up:

And a floor shot:

I knit the larger size and used Dragonfly Fibers Dragon Sock in the Green Riptide colorway, on a U.S. 6 needle. It used about 1.5 skeins of the yarn. I didn’t wet-block it — just steamed it with my trusty steam-iron.

And I started something new.

Can you guess what it is?

Lucy sez:

“Now where is my tear-strip?”

A couple of you asked when the pattern would be available. I’m working on it as we speak.

And a couple of you were spot-on about what my new project is:

Ishbel, by Ysolda Teague.

Yeah, I don’t knit a lot of things by other designers, but this is my Christmas break knitting. I’m not designing, just happily following a pattern.

I am using a lovely lovely yarn from Dragonfly Fibers called Dragonsock:

The colorway is called “Green Riptide.” It’s pretty much heaven in a skein for a lover of all things green, like me.

I bought two skeins of it when I visited Fibrespace last month, with the thought of using it for a shawl or shawlette. So I’ve got 780 yards, which is plenty for the larger-sized Ishbel.

I’m using a U.S. size 4 needle and am loving the fabric that makes on the stockinette section.

In other news, I went into work today. The government was offering unscheduled leave for today, but today was my last day at work before my holiday leave — I’m off until January 4 — and there were a few loose ends I needed to tie up. The commute went fine as the streets around me are pretty much clear. The only issue was the train station parking lot. Black ice on asphalt in the dark makes me extremely nervous. I crept along and got to the sidewalk without any slipping or falling, so all is well.

And now I’m home, home, home. Not that I’m happy about that or anything.

Just for fun, here is a photo of a chair full of stuffed animals.

Or is it?

I seem to have hit a bit of a dry spell with the knitting.

See, in less than a month I am embarking on the Unique Sheep’s Enchanted Wood Lace Shawl Knit-Along. We start January 10 (if I remember correctly). I’m sorta sick of socks for the moment. So what to knit?

Aside: I did finish my socks-in-progress, see?

They are sportweight, knit from Fiesta Boomerang in the “White Zinfandel” colorway (which is one of my all-time favorite colorways). I like the socks, but as I was knitting the second sock I thought of some ways I want to adjust the pattern a bit. So i shall be winkling it a bit at some point and knitting another pair.

But not right now.

I am feeling uninspired, so what to do?

Wollmeise to the rescue!

This is Wollmeise sock yarn in the “Rhubarber” colorway. I started knitting some lace with it last night, but I didn’t like my results — I was using too large a needle (a U.S. size 7 – 4.5mm). I didn’t have other needles handy just then, so I just frogged the bit I did and will start again today with a size 5, I think.

I tend to like more “solid” lace, particularly when I’m using a variegated yarn. While this colorway isn’t wildly variegated, there are definite shifts of color. If I knit on too large a needle, the open-ness of the fabric plus the shifts in color detracts from the lace pattern.

Tune in tomorrow to see how successful I am!

Before I start in on the knitting, I have some gifts to wrap.

And Lucy is getting ready to settle in for a long winter’s nap!

I guess you could call the reason a major life change — I’m making a commitment to eating clean — only natural and organic foods. No processed crap, no preservatives.

I made a start a few weeks ago when I stopped drinking diet soda. And as of yesterday, I am drinking only one cup of coffee per day, water (and lots of it), and green tea.

After cleaning out my kitchen I went shopping. It’s a good thing I received my annual performance award a week ago, because that was a pricey proposition. Here’s what my kitchen looked like after I got home.

Now my cupboards are nicely restocked.

So’s the fridge.

I got only all natural stuff and organic where I could. No processed sugar, no white flour. I’ve been building up to this over the past couple of weeks, and jumped into it with both feet yesterday.

So far so good. The only drawback so far is the amount of time it takes to prepare everything. It’s a heckuva lot easier to pop a Lean Cuisine in the microwave.

If you google “eating clean” you can find a lot of good information online. This article is a very good summary of the concept of clean eating.

I got this book a couple of weeks ago. (It says it will be published in January, but it is available now.) While the book layout is kind of garish and makes it look like a fad diet book, it has sound ideas and principles. It’s rather poorly organized so that you have to flip back and forth alot, but I still recommend it.

In knitting news, I did very little over the weekend. I did manage to knit this sock.

Sorry for the lousy photo, but it is dark and I am tired.

It’s sportweight, so it went quickly. Knit from Fiesta Boomerang in the “White Zinfandel” colorway, on 2.75mm needles.

And I’m knitting the second sock. Excitement abounds!

Lucy exudes excitement.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving and the turkey was yummy. Lucy had her own little plate on the floor next to the table and she enjoyed her turkey dinner as much as we did.

I finished my diamond lace socks:

A close-up:

As I mentioned, there are knit from ShibuiKnits Sock in the “periwinkle” colorway.

And if you look at them side by side, you can see the difference in the yarn, even though it is the same colorway and same dyelot:

One sock striped and one didn’t. It’s always weird when that happens.

Name That Mitten!

Thank you to everyone who suggested a name for my mitten design. There were so many wonderful names you guys offered tht it was hard to narrow it down. But we finally have and we have chosen a name: Celtic Frost.

Several of you mentioned this name, but the prize goes to the commenter who offered it first: Cathie Jones. Cathie has been emailed and will receive a kit to knit these mittens.

As you recall, I designed this mitten for the Dye Dreams Four Seasons Mitten Club. The kit will be available soon, so if you like the design but did not win, you can still make ‘em!

New Project

I started something new. Here’s a sneak peek:

More later!

Lucy Sez

“Why can’t we have Thanksgiving every week?”