Archives for March 2011

Here we have an unblocked shawl:

And here it is blocked.

Unblocked, it measures 52″ along the top and 26″ down the center back. Blocked it is 70″ along the top and 30″ down the center back. It took a little under 600 yards of fingering weight wool, specifically Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in the Oceana colorway.

I’m calling it “Island Time Shawl.”

Pattern coming soon.

It has not escaped my notice that I have designed and knit 3 lace shawls in under 3 weeks. (And I have 2 more designs charted out waiting to be knit.) What’s up with that?

I really have no explanation except that I appear to be having a creative spurt. I am full of the spurty creativity, as Buffy and the Scooby Gang might say.

This happens from time to time. I’m not sure why or what triggers it. I just enjoy it while it lasts.

The next shawl is already on the needles but will take a little longer because I’ve got some required stealth knitting that I am working on at the same time.

Film at 11.

Happy Blogiversary to Me

Tomorrow (April 1) is my 9th blogiversary. Yes, I have been blathering on here at WendyKnits since April 1, 2002. In celebration, I am having a pattern sale in my Ravelry store. From now through the end of April 2011 all patterns in the store are 25% off (with the exception of the Japanese Garden Shawl). The discount is applied automatically when you put a pattern in your cart.

Just my way of saying thanks for reading my blog and knitting my stuff. 🙂

Speaking of the Japanese Garden Shawl, donations now total $4117.75.

Lucy sez:

“Momma’s had this blog longer than she’s had me!”

First off, my new shawl pattern pictured in my last post, the Vernal Equinox Shawl, is now available for sale in my Ravelry Store.

Second, I am well into a new shawl:

This is another new design knit from the bottom up — my new favorite shawl construction. I am using Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in the Oceana colorway. Like my last 2 shawls, I cast on with a U.S. size 8 needle and then switched to a U.S. size 5 to knit.

I love this yarn — it’s what I used to knit my Shetland Pi (available as a free pattern in 5 parts, linked to from my Free Patterns Page).

Third, donations from sales of the Japanese Garden Shawl are now just over $3800!

Fourth, Lucy has a new toy:

This toy was recommended to me (thanks, Susan!) so I immediately ordered one for the Little Princess. It’s the Bolt Interactive Pet Laser Toy and it is available from ThinkGeek here.

You can set it to emit random laser beams that continue for 15 minutes (or you can use it in manual mode). The beam bounces off an adjustable mirror within the toy so there is no danger of your kitty eyeballing the source of the beam directly.

Here you can see Lucy trying to figure it out:

Note that her beloved fuzzy rat is not far from the action.

Lucy gives the Bolt Interactive Pet Laser Toy two paws up!

I’m popping in with a quickie post today. I just finished doing my taxes and need to go lie down in a darkened room with a cool cloth on my head.

But look! Vernal Equinox and done and blocked!

Blocked it measures 70″ across the top and 30″ down the center back. It takes under 600 yards of heavy laceweight/light fingering weight yarn, using a U.S. size 5 needle.

In other news, Japanese Garden Shawl donations are just shy of $3400! Give yourselves a round of applause!

Lucy was napping while the Vernal Equinox shawl photoshoot went on. I know she’ll be kicking herself later for missing out.

At 8:00 this morning, the proceeds from sales of the Japanese Garden Shawl went over $2500 (they were $2502.00, to be exact — and it’s gone up since then). Considering that my fundraising goal was to raise $2400 by the end of April, this is very good news indeed and I thank you all very much. I dispatched another $1200 early this morning to the Red Cross, and will continue to send in donations periodically through the end of April. I’m not comfortable having so much money in my PayPal account so I’m happy to send it on to its final destination. (The Red Cross does not take PayPal as a payment method for donations, but I have a PayPal debit card linked to my account so can easily send donations that way.)

Again, thank you!

For those of you who wondered why there were elephants marching down the street outside my window, it is because the circus is in town.

Aside: A couple of readers  jumped to the erroneous conclusion that I was insulting Republicans by my remark in my last blog entry and at least one flounced off in a huff. I can only assume that these individuals are not aware that the elephant is the symbol for the Republican party.

If a herd of donkeys had marched down the street from Capitol Hill instead of elephants, I would have said that the Democrats were out and about. But no doubt I would have gotten a snotty email or two in response to that statement. So much for my attempt at humor.

Now, if when the clowns passed by I had said “Oh look, Congress is out” that would have been an insult.

See what I did there?

In knitting news, I finished my Vernal Equinox Shawl last night. Here it is in its unblocked state.

It measures approximately 56″ across the top and 26″ down the center back, unblocked. I don’t expect it to block out too large because it is silk and therefore not as stretchy as wool. Stay tuned!

And of course I started something else . . .

Lucy sez

“What are you looking at?”

In the first twenty-four hours that the Japanese Garden Shawl was for sale, it sold 254 copies. My proceeds per copy after PayPal takes its processing fee is $4.55 each — that’s a total of almost $1200!

So this morning I did this:

(You can clicky to enlarge.)

Thank-you to everyone who has bought a copy so far, and thank-you to the bloggers, podcasters, and Ravelry members who’ve talked about it here and there and are planning knit-alongs of the pattern. I have noticed that a number of you have bought multiple copies of the patterns to send as gifts to other knitters. You all are awesome.

While I realize that we’re not going to raise $1200 every day, I’d love it if we could raise another $1200 before the end of April. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

While I’m not crossing my fingers, I’m knitting along on my current project, another lace shawl knit from the bottom up. Here’s my progress so far.

This shawl will be somewhat bigger than the Japanese Garden Shawl — the cast on is about 30 stitches more. I have two skeins of Sea Silk, and I have used up one of them so far. This Sea Silk is in 100-gram skeins with approximately 437 yards per skein. I’m estimating that this shawl will take about one-third of the second skein. so maybe close to 600 yards total for the shawl? Well, I’ll find out when I’m done.

I’m calling this design “Vernal Equinox” because it looks spring-like to me. Not just the color, but the all-over lace pattern for the main body of the shawl is sort of flower-like.

I’m using Sea Silk because I wanted a non-wool shawl to keep at the office in the warmer months. But this shawl could certainly be knit from wool too.

Speaking of my office, here’s what I saw when I looked out my window today:

The Republicans were out and about. Hyuk hyuk hyuk.

Lucy sez:

“Hilarious.”