Small Doily finished

I blocked my doily last night, and here it is:

Well, that's the doily BEFORE blocking, and here's the after:

And a close-up of the edging:

And just in case you don't remember (and really, why should you?), here's a picture of the original doily pattern (from Nurhanne's site):

The deets:
I used size 10 crochet cotton (a really really BIG ball from my stash), 2.5mm Addi turbos (between a size 1 and 2 US), and the Ullstein doily pattern with many alterations and a totally new outer third. Start to finish it took me about three days with blocking; I started on Friday (I think, although it could've been Thursday night) June 23 and unblocked it last night, Monday, June 26.
The doily is 13" across.

It's not one of my all-time favorites, but I like my version better than the original.

Charting Lace CAL starting Friday

We're having our first CAL (Chart A Long) starting on Friday on my Charting Lace list, and I can't wait to see how everyone does! We're charting this doily, and there are some interesting twists.

I'm working on a different outer edge pattern that could be very interesting. We'll have to see if it's knittable. LOL!! The more I look at the doily from the last point to the edge, the more it bothers me. At least I know that if I totally mess it up, I can always rip back and finish it according to the pattern.

Here's the original doily, in a picture taken from Nurhanne's excellent site:

And hopefully in the next week or two I'll have my version finished. Hopefully. Yeah right, who am I kidding? It'll be a month or two....

World Cup Knitting update

I'm making progress on Gillian's cardigan for the Knitting World Cup.

What? You can't actually see the knitting? Let me move her off the pieces...

Oh, you STILL can't see the knitting? She really likes how this yarn feels....

There we go, the back is finished and the two fronts are on the needles. They don't look the same length because Gillian could hardly keep her hands away from them and kept smoothing them. They ARE soft--I stop every so often and just pet the knitting. :-)

I think she's going to like this sweater if I can get it finished.

10th Anniversary

Ten years ago today I married my wonderful man. I can't believe it's been that long! I'm even more in love with him now than I was then, and life has only gotten better.

Afghan blocks finished

I'm part of a group that is working on an afghan for a dear internet friend's husband, who has been pretty much the sole force behind keeping her alive the last few weeks. The group decided on blue to blue-grey to grey, so this is what I came up with:


This one is my first attempt at doing mitered squares. I came up with a different technique for making that 90 degree bend than I've seen in other places, although I've got too much going right now to explain it--as soon as this quilt show is over I'll have more time. The square really doesn't look as wonky in real life as it does in the picture. Really!


This one has "popcorns" all over it. I got the technique for these from The Knitter's Bible, which I highly recommend. I've only had that book for about three weeks and I've already tried three new techniques I hadn't run across before. And yes, I already know that the bottom edge doesn't have as many rows as the top edge. I decided that I can live with it. For a by-the-seat-of-my-pants square I think it came out really well.

Amazing Lace entry info

I've started on my Amazing Lace project, at last! I'm a little early for the KAL that'll start later in the month or in July (to be decided) over at the Sivia Harding list, but I decided to start anyway since I'm a lace junkie. I'm working on the Hanging Garden Stole in KnitPicks' Alpaca Cloud Stream. So far I really like it--for some reason it feels like it's going really quickly. Go figure! I'm only on row 19 so far but I'm really enjoying it.

Here's an introduction to my team member:

I was originally going to put beads all over it, but I've decided to put beads only around the outer edge. It REALLY slows things down to put the itty bitty bead on a crochet hook, take the stitch off the needle, slip the bead off the crochet hook and onto the yarn, repeat slipping the bead onto the stitch when it doesn't work the first time, then move the stitch to the right needle. I swear it takes me as long to put a bead on as it does to purl half a row. I think the next time I want beads on something I'll figure out how many I need and pre-string them. Of course I could always pull out what I've done and start over with the beads on the yarn, but I know I won't.


The countdown has begun to the Knitting World Cup, as well as the Green Country Quilt Guild's biannual show, Quilt Tulsa 2006: Bits & Pieces. Actually, the quilt show has a preview night on the 8th, then full days the 9th and 10th. Hopefully I'll be finished with the whole thing on Thursday when I deliver the ribbons. All 170 of them. I'm really wondering what in the heck I was on when I volunteered for this. And kept volunteering for jobs. Did I just temporarily forget my two children and loving husband that need my time and attention? I think everyone in my family will be relieved when my jobs are finished, but I do have to admit that I've enjoyed the process. Enough on that!

I need to finish repainting the bathroom cabinet so that I can get back to knitting!