New yarn box!!!

My wonderful, incredible husband made me an early Valentine's Day present:

This beautiful box is going to be my yarn box!!

It's big enough that I don't want my yarn stash to out-grow it (my quilt stash takes up about half the room, and I'm NOT going to do the same thing with knitting stuff) and it'll hold what I've got very comfortably. It's also easier to get into than the large plastic tub that's currently in the bottom of my closet. :-)

I'm so thrilled!! He did a fantastic job.

Now I just have to wait about 24 hours for the finish to really cure before I pack all my stuff in it...

Lace Charting group started

Call me insane, I just started a Yahoo group for charting lace.

The Aran-Weight Victorian Lace Shawl KAL list got me started on the topic, and Jodi and I had almost simultaneous thoughts about starting a new group for knitters interested in charting lace. Voila, here it is!

Frost Flower and Leaves progress

I've been working a little bit on my Frost Flowers and Leaves shawl, and I finished Chart 2 for the second time.

I haven't made a ton of progress on this since I last posted a photo but I've got a handle on the lace pattern now. Before when I was working on it I had to follow the cart really closely but now I feel like I only have to glance at it at certain parts. It's going much faster despite the rows being longer. Not that I'll work on it other than when everyone is in bed--I still need to concentrate! The good thing is that I didn't have to tink more than 3 stitches at a time during the whole second repeat!! Great, now I've cursed myself and will undoubtedly have to rip back. LOL!


The shawl in the photo looks a little odd because my needle isn't long enough to spread it out at a 90 degree angle, and I'm not going to put it on some waste yarn just to take a picture. Sorry! :-)

The lifeline (white cotton crochet thread) is dividing chart 1 and chart 2, in case you were curious.

Aran-Weight Victorian Lace Shawl KAL

I haven't been posting much--between figuring out the free pattern from Elann (not the best pattern, by FAR) and my 2-year-old not sleeping, it's been busy around here.

I joined the KAL for the shawl after seeing the picture of it and falling in love. The pattern has left a lot to be desired though, so I've spent a lot of time charting it out and figuring out how many repeats, etc need to be made for the transitions between the lace patterns to come out looking decent. I think I've done an O.K. job but I haven't started the real shawl yet. I actually signed up for the Knitting Olympics and thought I'd do this shawl for it. It'll definitely be a challenge to get it done in 16 days, but using worsted-weight yarn from KnitPicks I might stand a chance of getting it done in that very brief amount of time. Maybe.

I managed to get my yarn for the Diamond Fantasy Shawl dyed last week, and yesterday my swift arrived. Hooray!! Now I have two very nicely wound balls of yarn just waiting to be made up into that beautiful shawl. The yarn is Color Your Own from KnitPicks, and I LOVE working with it. I can see a whole lot more of that yarn in my future.

Of course, I have some projects I need to finish first including: the Flared Lace Smoke Ring I'm making from the neat possum yarn from my sister, the two Christmas stockings that I STILL haven't finished, and the Frost Flowers and Leaves shawl that's also a KAL. The smoke ring was supposed to be a kind-of-quick project, but I have to admit that I'm bored with it now—and it's almost halfway done. I'm going to really push myself to finish it though because it really is going to be beautiful. If it can just get it done.

On Saturday night I went to the Knit Wit night at Two Sticks and String. We had a great time, and among other things, I made this:

Gillian claimed it almost immediately. :-)

My Baby is Two Years Old

It's hard for me to believe, but my baby boy turned 2 today!

I haven't downloaded and edited the pictures from his little birthday dinner (at 2, I really don't think he needs a big party--but Gillian's 5th birthday we're going to have to do at least a little party...) but I hope to get to that tomorrow.

So, here are some recent pictures my Mom took, both with me (I couldn't get both kids to stand/sit with me at the same time, oddly enough).

I hate looking at pictures of myself. Oh, well--the kids both look great! We've got very good-looking (and smart, and talented, and wonderful) kids. ;-)

Knitting Row Counter Bracelets

One of the things I really wanted to do with my sister and my mom while they were here was to make row counter bracelets. They're one of THE new things that everyone seems to want, and I'm a sucker for a new piece of jewelry.

A trip to the bead shop and one very late night, and we made these lovely things:

The green one on top is my sister's, the one on the right is my Mom's, and the other two are mine. I just LOVE them!! (Click on the picture for a closer look.)

I see a lot more of these in my future, and I suspect one will go with me to the "dirty Santa" exchange at the K.N.I.T. guild (Knitting Needles In Tulsa) holiday party next Sunday.

Added Jan 8th at 11:55 a.m.:

Eva asked about how to use these. It's based on the principle of an abacus, with one color of beads as a "ones" row, and the other color as a "tens" row. It's hard to see, but there's a ring of beads that acts as a stopper. It has elastic in it so that you can push the beads through.

So to use it, you'd knit a row, then move a "ones" bead through the stopper. At the end of each row you'd move another "ones" bead through, until you have all 9 beads through. On the next row (row 10) you'd move all 9 "ones" beads back through to the beginning and move one "tens" bead through. You can keep track of 99 rows this way.

For example, if you had four "tens" beads and two "ones" beads, you'd have completed 42 rows.

There is a good set of instructions at http://people.delphiforums.com/knit_chat/knitchat/Counter.htm although we didn't follow them. :-)

I WON!! I WON!!

I'm so excited!!
I entered Amy's contest to win a gorgeous corset she made that ended up not fitting her, and I WON!!! The pattern is from Annie Modesitt and I've been drooling over it, but hadn't done anything about it yet. I'm SO excited!!

Thanks, Amy!!

Some finished gifts (finally!)

It's been a while since I last posted, but I've been busy! My family was here for Christmas, which was wonderful! My sister and I decided to do some presents for people, despite the fact that we knew they wouldn't be finished in time for Christmas.

We did hats for our cousins, simple 2x2 ribs using KnitPick's Andean Silk. What yummy yarn!!

The one on the left is the one my sister made, and I made the one on the right.

This is a hat I started for one of the cousins, but my sister deemed it "too girly" and appropriated it for herself. :-) It's also in Andean Silk. I've GOT to do something for myself out of that yarn!

And here's a picture of it on her:

I kind of made it up as I went along, and I think it turned out really well.

Here's a neck scarf I made using directions from a very nice woman, Sherry, on one of the knitting email lists I belong to. The color is a little off, but I couldn't get it right. It's a terribly hard color to photograph! It's more purply than in the picture, but you can get the idea. This is for my grandmother in southeastern Idaho.

These are some more 2x2 hats for my best girlfriends' husbands. The one on the left is really long so that he can fold more of it back. They're both made from WoolEase Chunky.