I will confess to you that in my head, I am calling this project “Nympho.” Much easier to remember and to spell.

I think that it is interesting that when I Googled the word “Nymphalidea,” rather than get hits about butterflies (in the pattern description the designer explains that Nymphalidea is named for one of the largest families of butterflies, with varieties found in every corner of the world), the first page of hits were all for the shawl.

Anyway . . .

I am making nice progress on this piece. The pattern is easy to memorize and fun to knit . . .a win-win situation!

As I usually do when knitting a pattern that is not my own design, I hopped on Ravelry to check out the gallery for the pattern. This pattern has 707 projects listed in Ravelry! I filtered the projects by the ones that have helpful notes, and read all the notes. One project offered a very useful suggestion:

The main complaint appeared to be that the original shape, particularly the ‘peak’ on the top edge, made it difficult to wear. Therefore, after knitting Wedge D for the 18th time, I changed the welt rows and knitted them as follows:
Row 1: P2, P2tog, P to end
Row 2: as per pattern
Row 3: K2, K2tog, K to end
Row 4: as per pattern

So after my 18th time knitting Wedge D, I am doing the welt decreases as she describes.

I am thinking that when I finish, I’ll work an applied i-cord along the top edge to give it a nice finished look. I’ll have plenty of the solid welt yarn leftover, as the pattern uses double the amount of yarn for the wedges as for the welts.

Today, June 4, is “Hug Your Cat Day.” And I think I will do just that!

It’s June 1st, and that can mean only one thing: It’s the first day of Camp Loopy 2014!

So this morning (well, actually in the wee hours after midnight) I set aside my Array cowl temporarily. Here’s what it looks like now:

It is 7″ deep, so a little more than halfway there, since I want to knit to 12″ deep.

I got out this yarn, which I purchased specifically for my first Camp Loopy project:

This is Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball in colorway #2081 and Malabrigo Sock Yarn in the “Alcaucil” colorway. Here is the start of my project:

This is Nymphalidea designed by Melinda VerMeer, and it appeared in a recent edition of Knitty.

I actually started a different design and quickly decided it didn’t really work in these yarns, so switched over to this. I had two different patterns picked out as possibilities, so there was no fuss, no muss!

Because I am a loose knitter, I went down one needle size from what was recommended in the pattern, so mine is being knit with a U.S. size 5 needle.

Meanwhile, Loki has gotten into taking selfies while he lounges in my lap.