And just to prove it, I’ve recently purchased another shawl pattern: the Brandywine Shawl, by Rosemary Hill. You can check it out on Ravelry, here, or on Romi’s blog  — read her post about the pattern here. She is donating $5.00 of the purchase price for each pattern sold to Doctors Without Borders and has set herself quite a goal for the number of patterns she hopes to sell and the amount of money she wants to donate.

So if you think it’s pretty and like me need another shawl in your life, buy the pattern!

Meanwhile, I’m still working on the Chevron Stole.

I am halfway done. I know this because I have just about finished the first skein of yarn, and I bought two skeins. The finished shawl will block out to at least 72″ long, I’m thinking.

Winners!

The great and mighty Random Number Generator has chosen winners to receive copies of my new book! So many of you left a comment (Yowies! 1400+ comments!) that I decided to give away three copies. The winners are Sarah, Jayne, and Kelly-Ann. I’ve emailed the three of you, so if you think one of those individuals might be you, check your email! Thanks to everyone who entered the contest!

Here are some details about the way I pick the winners . . .

I check the total number of comments on the blog post, and then have the generator pick 3 numbers within that number range. In WordPress (my blogging software) it is pretty easy for me to go in and find the comments with the winning numbers because I can display the comments for a particular post 20 on the screen at a time.

Why am I telling you this? I am telling you this because  this is the reason why I ask that entries be left in the comments and not emailed to me or sent using the “contact me” form. If one sends me an entry via email or the “contact me” form (which is also emailed to me and in fact sometimes ends up in my spam filter, for whatever reason), the entry is not assigned a number.

Okie dokie, gotta run! I’ve got a busy Sunday planned. Lucy does as well:

She has to “make biscuits” on her sheepskin!

A kitty’s work is never done.

Like Miss Woodhouse, it’s a “more than a triangle shawl.” You work double the increases on the outer edges as you do on the inner edges to get this shape.

This shawlette can be knit from one 100-gram skein of sock yarn and when blocked measures approximately 56” across the top (wingspan) and 25” down the center back.

This pattern is perfect for a beginner knitter who wants to knit lace. The pattern is written in great detail and spells out everything you need to know. The lace is charted in 4 relatively simple charts that are easy to follow.

It is knit from fingering rather than laceweight yarn, which is much easier for a lace newbie to execute. The stitches used are knit and purl, and a few simple lace techniques – yarnover, knit 2 together, and ssk, and sl1 k2tog, psso (which are explained in the pattern).

And now I’m working on another shawlette, this one yet to be named.

The yarn is Madelinetosh Tosh Sock in the “Oak B” colorway, on a U.S. size 6 needle.

Lucy is working on her nap technique.

And thanks in general for buying my Ravelry patterns. So far I’ll be donating well over $250 to Doctors Without Borders from my sales . . . and it’s only the 21st of the month. (I’ll be donating 50% of my profit from Ravelry pattern sales through January 31).

I’ve had a couple of questions about making changes to the Argus pattern.

You can enlarge it by doing more repeats of Chart A — as many as you like. With each extra repeat you do, you will be doing more repeats of the 8-stitch pattern repeat. Well, you’ll see — it’s obvious from the pattern.

Another alternative is to use a heavier yarn and larger needles — like a dk weight and perhaps size 8 or 9 needles. You could do this in conjunction with extra chart repeats if you like.

Conversely, you could make it smaller with fewer repeats of Chart A. Like, if you were making it for a small child.

And speaking of doing it in different weights of yarn — you could use laceweight yarn. I’d advise doing a small swatch of the pattern stitch to make sure you are happy with how open it is — you may want to size the needles down as well. And if you are knitting it at a smaller gauge, you’d want to add some repeats as described above.

And this of course would affect the amount of yarn you need.

The sock of the moment now has a heel. Here’s a fairly crappy photo:

And Miss Lucy is ready for the weekend.

I finally made it to the Bird’s Eye Lace portion of the Aestlight Shawl.

I would have made more progress had I not done something stupid halfway through the first repeat. As I knit I realized that the holes in the pattern weren’t lining up properly, so I had to backtrack and see where I had messed up. I’d dropped the second yarnover on one of the motifs so I was off by one stitch. I managed to repair it without having to rip back, so all’s well that ends well!

I’m trying to time the completion of this shawl to coincide with the start of the Enchanted Wood Knit-Along. I’m too lazy to read the posts in the Ravelry group, but L-B tells me that the first clue will be emailed to us just after midnight this Saturday night.

I guess I could wind up some of my yarn in preparation.

But at the moment I’m too distracted to even think about such mundane tasks. Look what I got today:

On preview copy of my new book Toe-Up Socks For Everybody, which is coming out on March 23rd. I am very very excited but Lucy doesn’t seem to be too concerned about it, does she?

Bonus shot — the back cover!

Lucy seems a bit more interested — I guess she likes colorwork socks better than lace.

And here it is blocking:

And being modeled by Gwendolyn:

I used a 150-gram skein of Sea Silk, and worked an extra five repeats of the main body pattern. I estimated well, because this is what I had left after binding off:

Fifteen grams of yarn!

Several of you asked what “nupps” are. Here is a close-up of the nupps:

Nupps are little mini-bobbles. These are worked by doing a k1, yo, k1, yo, k1 all in one stitch on the right side, and purling 5 together on the wrong side. They give some people fits because of the purling 5 together, but because I’m a fairly loose knitter, I don’t have much of a problem doing that. It helps to have a really pointy needle!

Here’s my new work-in-progress:

This is the start of an Aestlight Shawl, which I am making from Dragonfly Fibers Dragon Sock in the “Starry Night” colorway.

Thank you!

Thank you for all the wonderful birthday wishes you all sent me — in the comments here, on Ravelry, on Facebook, and on Plurk. I had a great day. It almost makes up for getting older.

Lucy rang in the New Year in the manner in which she plans to continue for the rest of the winter:

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?”

Today was Day Three for me. Yesterday I ate 6 mini-meals and thought that surely I had gained weight from it — I was happy and satisfied foodwise all day. And the scale this morning told me that I had lost 1.5 pounds. What a pleasant surprise. Gotta love it.

(I do not habitually step on the scale every day — more like once a week. But it’s hard not to jump on every ten minutes!)

I had thought I would ease into this regime over the next month so I’d be committed to it fully by the first of the year. But I guess I’ve already done that. But that’s the way I am — I ted to jump into things all or nothing.

Reader Debbie in Minnesota commented about starting an Eat-Clean group in Ravelry. I think it’s a great idea. While there are Eat-Clean forums online, I like the idea of a group that is exclusively for Ravelers. It makes the group smaller and more manageable and more friendly somehow. I see it as a great place for exchanging ideas, sources, and recipes for good food that’s quick and easy for those of us with zero spare time. Also a place where we can encourage each other and cheer each other on.

The group is on Ravelry, here. If you are already into a plan like clean eating, please feel free to join, along with those of you who are perhaps interested in the concept or are thinking about starting.

I foresee a recipe contest . . .

Back to Knitting

I’m working on my second sportweight sock.

And I took another photo of the first one.

Better, don’t you think?

In Other News

Spring Fling Sign-ups are open!

In Other Other News

Lucy is demonstrating her “hen on a nest” pose.

Designer Scavenger Hunt

Featuring Jared Flood, Catherine Gagnon, Tanis Gray, Wendy Johnson and Courtney Kelley

Sunday, January 17, 2010, 11:00am – 5:00pm
Mansion on O Street: 2020 O St NW, Washington, DC

Join fibre space™ for our most creative event yet! We will gather at the unique and historic Mansion on O Street for a day long scavenger hunt, featuring some of our favorite designers. Participants will start the day with a luxurious brunch at the Mansion and the opportunity to explore the Mansion’s 100 rooms and discover some of its 32 secret doorways. Among its many rooms are four workshops, featuring five spectacular designers: Jared Flood, Catherine Gagnon, Tanis Gray, Wendy Johnson and Courtney Kelley. Each participant will experience four one hour workshops in a variety of different skills. Read more here.

Register online or by calling 703-664-0344. Cost is $275 and includes four one hour workshops, brunch and goody bag. Supplies not included.

——-

It amazes me that although I’ve lived in the Washington DC area for my entire adult life, I’d never heard of the Mansion on O Street before Danielle contacted me for this event. It sure looks like a fun place and I understand the food is wonderful. I hope I’ll see a lot of DC area knitters there.

My one complaint is that I won’t be able to take the workshop that the other designers are giving!

In With the New

It’s new project time here. Whee!

It’s lace.

And it’s a “shawlette.” Triangular in shape and shorter than a full sized shawl. Just a little something to throw over your shoulders.

I’m knitting it from Dream in Color Baby in the November Muse colorway.

This is a great laceweight yarn — not too heavy and not too fine. It’s got 700 yards per 4 ounce skein. This project will take under one skein (unless I’m very very wrong). I’m using a U.S. size 5 needle and chugging along nicely.

I Still Love My Droid

I’ve had my Droid phone for three weeks now and I still love it. Over the weekend I discovered an Android group on Ravelry, for people who have smartphones with the android operating system. There are some very helpful posts there, including a thread for your favorite apps.

A few of my favorites:

Dockrunner — I mentioned this one before — it puts your phone into multimedia mode without a multimedia dock, thereby saving you the $30 that the multimedia dock costs.

Contact Owner — puts your contact information on the locked screen of your phone. So, if you have your phone locked for security purposes and you lose it, if an honest person finds it, he or she will be able to contact you. The information you put on the locked screen is customizable. I have my name, email address, and office phone number there (since I no longer have a landline at home)

DC Metro — well, this one is only useful for people who use the Washington DC subway system! It tells you next train arrivals and service alerts. Very handy if you are on a train that’s sitting in the middle of a tunnel and you want to know what the heck is going on. I’m betting there are similar apps for other subway systems

Calorie Counter — a nice app that keeps track of your daily caloric intake and exercise, and syncs beautifully with a website where you can also enter data.

USA Today — great little news app, with the lead news stories every day, plus weather and photos.

Battery Widget — an icon that gives you a graphic representation with percentage of your  battery status.

Lucy Sez

“Where’s that leftover turkey?”

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!