For no reason except that it amused me, here is a photo of the sky at about 8:00 this morning.

Yesterday it was grey and miserable. It’s pretty darn chilly today, but nice and bright.

As much as I like rain, it does make it difficult to get good blog photos. Here is a natural light photo of my lace project (as opposed to the flash pic I posted yesterday):

That may show the emerging pattern a bit more. Still, it is nigh on impossible to get a good photo of lace in porgress, given that it is unblocked and smooshed up on a needle. You’ll just have to use your imagination.

Because this is a smaller project — a shawlette — I’m hoping to have it done by the weekend so that you don’t have long to wait to see what it really looks like.

Free Knitting Patterns Online

Check out this post that lists 25 spots online to find free knitting patterns. Some I knew about, but there were a couple that were new to me. Bookmarked!

KnitNation!

Registration for KnitNation will be opening up soon — 6:00am GMT tomorrow (December 2) which makes it 10:oopm PST tonight (December 1), which makes it 1:00am tomorrow my time. I think.

Please sign up for my classes so I don’t feel like a loser. They are fun and informative. Honest.

Lucy Sez

“Whenever you get around to doling out the leftover turkey, I’ll be right here.”

Rusty and her husband Larry had just returned from a trip to Canada and Rusty brought me some prezzies:

To the left is sock yarn, from Belfast Mini Mill on Prince Edward Island. It’s a beautiful heathered green-blue. The bright turquoise is laceweight from Tanis Fiber Arts. And the Dala horse is . . . just because.

I also got a cap from Larry’s ship:

The classes on Saturday were wonderful. The knitters were fun and enthusiastic about learning the techniques. In fact, we now have a group on Ravelry dedicated to the wonder that is a toe-up toe, called “Toe Cuppage.” And a challenge has been issued there . . .

For my travel knitting I cast on a sock.

Can you guess the yarn and colorway?

My purchase of the weekend — I discovered that KnitWits carries Lawre’s Laine bags. And they had a style I hadn’t seen before — a pouch:

I love how it has a stitch counter attached to the drawstring! It’s big enough to easily carry a sock or two or a smaller lace project.

I returned home yesterday afternoon to this:

A very happy little kitty!

Since you haven’t seen it for a while, I’m posting a pic of the sock-in-progress:

This is Madeline Tosh sock yarn in the Malachite colorway. I’m loving this yarn. It’s got my favorite base — tight twist 100% merino. And it’s green! How could I not love it?

And it is being knit up very slowly. Since I’ve got a big lace project to work on at home, this sock only comes out during my commute. And more often than not, the morning commute only. The afternoon commute has been too crowded for knitting lately.

But I’m hoping to finish this sock by the end of the week and have the second sock started to take to New York with me this weekend. I’ll be at Knitty City Saturday evening for a book signing (5 – 7 pm), and Sunday for classes. I hope I’ll see some of you there!

Here, for Johanne, a pic of the shawl in progress.

I’ve named this design “True Love Stole.” Johanne will understand.

iTunes!

I just got enough reward points from my VISA card to order a free $50 iTunes gift card. Wheeeeeee! So soon I’ll be buying 50 songs from iTunes. Wanna help me out? Leave the name of a song from the 1960s to 1990s in the comments to this post and on Monday (September 14) about noon-ish my time I’ll fire up the Random Number Generator and pick some folks to win the WendyKnits pattern of his/her choice, which will be delivered in pdf format via email.

Doesn’t matter if the song you name is one I’ve already got — I just need some inspiration here!

Lucy sez:

“Treats, please.”

There were a couple of questions about using a heavier yarn to knit it — you could definitely knit it using a worsted weight yarn. I’d recommend a U.S. size 8 needle or thereabouts, but you could do a swatch to see how you liked the resulting fabric and adjust accordingly. And of course the shawl — well, blanket now, would be much larger. But I guess that’s the point, huh?

Thanks for all your kind comments about this design! I am very happy with it. It was fun to knit, not very difficult, but entertaining enough to keep my interest, and I love the yarn — Dream in Color Smooshy. So what’s not to like?

By the way, I purchased my Smooshy for this shawl from my very favorite purveyor of yarn, Sheri at The Loopy Ewe. Note that Sheri has an anniversary sale going on right now — The Loopy Ewe has been in business for three years now! This week, through Friday, all Lorna’s Laces yarn, Knitspot patterns, and Zecca accessories are on sale — 20% off! What a deal! I might have purchased some Lorna’s Laces last night.

Sheri is having two more sale weeks this month to celebrate the anniversary, so keep an eye on her blog for news and updates.

So.

I’ve moved on to a new lace project. Behold — a pink blob!

This, as I mentioned yesterday, is some lovely Black Bunny Fibers laceweight. It’s 1300 yards of an alpaca/shetland blend. Not too fine — the 1300 yard skein weights 230 grams (a bit over 8 ounces). I particularly like slightly heavier laceweight, so this is just about perfect as far as I’m concerned. And good golly, look at that yummy colorway! It’s called “Hot Lips.”

I’m using a US 3 (3.25mm ) needle, because what I’m going for is a more solid rather than airy look.

I have embarked on a Faroese shawl, knitting it from the top down. It’s kinda hard to see what’s going on here, but here’s a pic of the center back motif.

So far, so good!

Lucy Sez:

“Yes, I am still lying on Momma’s shawl. But look how cute I am!”

I finished the Order to Chaos Shawl last night at approximately 7:30 pm.

I used approximately 1500 yards of fingering weight yarn and a US 5 (3.75mm) needle. Specifically, I used Dream in Color Smooshy, in the “Shiny Moss” colorway.

As is my wont, I blocked this baby by steaming the living daylights out of it with my steam iron. Apologies to those of you who requested a YouTube video of said steaming process. I was by myself when I did this so was unable to film it.

Well, Lucy was with me, but her lack of opposable thumbs makes her a lousy camera operator. That and the fact that she is easily distracted.

Anyhow, unblocked, this was about 48″ in diameter. Lightly blocked it measures 60″ in diameter.

I worked up an edging that was more orderly than chaotic, and I’m liking the results.

The pattern will be available for sale in the near future.

From time to time y’all comment on how brave I am to allow Lucy to lounge around on my knits. No bravery involved — Lucy is very much disinclined to do damage to knits.

For starters, she has no front claws. (She was declawed before she came to live with me). And she is a very dainty girl. She has many knitted toys, most of them filled with catnip, and she does not hurt those, either. Rather, she plays with them rather carefully and carries them around as if they were her dolls.

I did start a new lace project, using the yummy pink yarn I pictured in yesterday’s post. That’s the alpaca/shetland blend laceweight that Carol of Black Bunny Fibers gave me when I was in Philadelphia.

But I’ll talk about that tomorrow.

Lucy sez:

“I want to know which among you were implying that I would harm Momma’s knitting.”

In the knitting bag department I am suffering an embarrassment of riches. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. I was lucky enough acquire three new knitting bags last weekend.

Check out this baby:

This is the Emily Lace Bag, a new bag from Keri’s 3AM Enchantments (Etsy shop). This bag is made from a heavy fabric with a flat bottom so it stands up nicely by itself. It has a grommet on each side so you can thread your needle tips out through them when you stuff your lace project in the back, thus ensuring you don’t drop stitches off the ends of your needles when your WIP is in the bag.

(This past weekend in Richmond, Frances had her Girasole in her Emily Bag and said she really likes that feature!)

A little bird (okay, it was Keri) told me that she would be updating her Etsy shop very soon with these bags. If you are a member of the 3AM Enchantments Group on Ravelry, you can stay in the know.

My bag is in the Dala Horse fabric, which I love. I’ve got a KIP bag and an accessory pouch in this fabric as well.

Now check out this cutie:

This is a box bag custom made for me by Aimee. When I was in Charlotte, NC earlier this month, I picked out the fabric and Aimee very generously said she’d make the bag for me. I wanted a box bag that was slightly smaller than usual, so Aimee sized up a pattern for a much smaller bag. Didn’t she do a great job? And I love the ribbon she used (she picked that out, not me.)

Pictured with my new little sock bag are some sachets Aimee made for me and some lavender wands L-B gave me over the weekend. The lavender wands match the bag very nicely, don’t they?

This brings us to this adorable bag:

This one was made for my by Issy, who also made the ultrasuede mouse that Lucy was playing with in yesterday’s blog post. (Issy, Lucy slept with her new mouse last night.) I love, love, love the kitty and pawprint fabrics Issy used on this bag.

So, I am surrounded by knitting bag love! Thank you, Keri, Aimee, and Issy!

Oh, in addition to the lavender wands above, L-B thoughtfully gave me a One-Year-Aniversary-on-Plurk gift:

Bananagrams! Woo-hoo!

Lucy is not terribly impressed. She just wants her dinner.