Mirror Mirror scarf pics

It's taken me a few days, but at long last here are some pictures of the Mirror Mirror scarf.

I'm almost to the end of the first ball (of two) of the yarn I'm NOT enjoying, but it sure does look cool. The tension is so different between the two yarns; I constantly have to pull the Simply Soft, which slides easily and is nice to work with. The Portofino, on the other hand, constantly pulls against itself, and I'm having to be very careful that I'm knitting with the YARN and not the LOOP. I'll never use it again, but it sure does look cool in this scarf.

I've found the Susan G. Komen Tulsa Affiliate, and last year they had an auction in September to kick off the Race for the Cure (TM) but I haven't emailed them yet. I'd like to donate this scarf for the fundraiser, but we'll see. I know there's a place in Colorado and one in Southern California that are taking scarves specifically, so that's another option.

I just have to finish the dang thing first.

Started a fun pair of socks

but I can't give more details yet--I told the designer I'd wait until she's released the pattern to put up pictures, etc.

Yeah, like I needed to start another project! LOL! I sure am enjoying this sock so far though.

In other project news, I also started a double-knit scarf using Wool Ease and a novelty yarn that's a blast to knit except for the novelty yarn. The project is in my son's room and he's napping, so I'll have to post pics another time. The pattern is from Lucy Neatby, called Mirror Mirror and the novelty yarn is Portofino from Laines du Nord in the pink and white colorway. There's a yarn I won't use again--it's such a pain! I'm constantly having to make sure I haven't knitted one of those loops into the stitch, not to mention pull it away from the other side of the knitting. It's looking pretty cool though. I'd like to donate it to someplace that will auction it to raise money for breast cancer research, partially because it's the breast-cancer-awareness pink color, and partially because I've been feeling the need to do SOMETHING for charity lately.

I did manage to finish my "floves" (fingerless gloves) and I'm quite happy with them--but now it's not cool enough to wear them. Of course. ;-)

Here's the second one:

And now I'm going to go work on my sock some more. :-)

Lace Victorian Shawl Dyed

It's not quite the color I had in mind (or calculated for) but it's still beautiful!

The shawl isn't blocked or even close to dry--it's still dripping--but I did dry my emergency yarn swatch and that's what's shown below. Whenever I dye an item, I also dye some extra yarn for repairs since the dyed piece is a one-of-a-kind color. I got a little carried away with this swatch.

So here it is:

I think my dye may have been old--the color I was going for was a dark red-wine color and what I got is definitely plum! Since I'm now totally out of red dye, I'll be starting with a new batch this next time around, as soon as I order more dye....

Updated at 6:13 p.m.:
Uh, yeah. That was the recipe for PF #8 that I followed, NOT the recipe for PF #11. Sigh. I'd put the formula into a spreadsheet to figure out the quantities of dye stock solution I'd need and followed the wrong line! GRR! I still like the plum color, and it's exactly like the swatch for #8....

Type B+ personality?

Someone on one of the lists I belong to asked if I have a Type A personality, so I decided to find a quiz about it. Turns out I'm a Type B+?!?! I've never heard of the plus, but it's fun anway.

You Have A Type B+ Personality

B+ You're a pro at going with the flow. You love to kick back and take in everything life has to offer. A total joy to be around, people crave your stability. While you're totally laid back, you can have bouts of hyperactivity. Get into a project you love, and you won't stop until it's done . You're passionate - just selective about your passions.

Do You Have a Type A Personality?

Pix of Victorian Lace Shawl

I haven't blocked it yet, but here are some pictures of my shawl:

My daughter thinks she should be in EVERY picture and goes to tremendous effort to make sure she is, even if it is only her arm (above) or fingers (below). And you thought cats were bad about that.

In this picture you can see the nice, symmetrical increases, unlike in the original pattern from Elann. And the fingers on the bottom edge.

Here's the only picture I got *without* the children. It's not blocked, but you can see the shaping of it.

And here are the children, on top of it as always. It doesn't matter if it's a quilt or a knitting project, if I put it on the floor they'll be on top of it.

I've almost decided on a dark blue for dyeing the shawl, but I'm not totally sure yet. I thought I'd know by the time I finished it, but I still can't decide. If I do make this one blue, it'll be FOUR blue shawls, although I'm thinking almost navy for this one and the other three are medium-to-medium-light variegated blues. I love reds lately, but I think this shawl is too big and would be a LOT of red since it's worsted-weight yarn.

Relevant info:

• pattern: Aran-Weight Victorian Lace Shawl from Elann
• yarn: Wool of the Andes in natural from KnitPicks
• needles: started on US10s (I think) and changed to 11s somewhere in the vine lace. It was kind of a big jump, but the store I made it to didn't have any 10½ circs!! I was too impatient to drag my kids around to the LYSs.
• Started roughly 2½ weeks ago; I wanted to see if (barring pneumonia of course) I could have finished this shawl in the 16 days of the Olympics, and I've come to the conclusion that *wouldn't* have happened. Not to dyed-and-blocked stage, anyway.

This was a fun knit and I'm surprised at how much I like it--I thought it would be too heavy and bulky, but I'm pleased with it.

Bad blogger, O.K. knitter

Ooo, a bad pun! O.K., I'm in Oklahoma, and I'm doing O.K. on my knitting goals. Groan!! That would be the sleep deprivation talking, I think. Kids aren't feeling well so they're not sleeping well, and so neither am I. Whine whine whine.

I'm almost done with my Aran-Weight Victorian Lace Shawl!! I put it on some waste yarn in order to try it on, and I almost couldn't take it off. It's almost perfect!! I just LOVE the 3/4 shape. It stays on like a Faroese shawl and actually goes around my ample self. Yay!! I just need to bind off and dye and block it. Oh yeah, and choose what color to dye it. That's one of the hard things for me.

I also need a dynamite pin for it, and that's making me itch to pull out my jewelry stuff. Actually, what I really want to learn is metalsmithing, but I think my husband will kill me if I start another hobby. Maybe if I clean out this complete disaster of a sewing/quilting/computer/office/guest room. Yeah, right, like that'll happen any time in the near future.

Pictures of the shawl tomorrow, I hope....

DFS progress

As promised, here are some current pics of the Diamond Fantasy Shawl.

This is not pinned out or anything, just relaxed on the floor. It measures 17" from the tip to the top. Doesn't look like much, does it?

And here it is pinned out (although I'll probably block it a little wider--my circ isn't quite long enough to stretch it fully):

In one of the "miracles of lace blocking" it now becomes a beautiful patterned-shawl instead of a lump of yarn. It also grew 10" in length!

And a shot without the tape measure.

These things always look so different in photographs; I tend to focus on the details instead of the whole shawl, so when I see a picture I see the whole shawl instead of the little things. Isn't it amazing how that works?

Diamond Fantasy Shawl KAL and A.W.V.L.Shawl update

I've just joined the Diamond Fantasy Shawl KAL at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SiviaHardingKnits/.

I got distracted by the Knitting Olympics (yes, I still have to finish the second one, but it's getting close...) and put this project aside for a while. I picked it up tonight and managed to do 16 more rows, so I'm at about 42% complete. It's going really quickly! I'm nearing the end of my first ball of yarn, so we'll see how close to 50% I am when the yarn runs out. From that point I'll figure out if I'm going to add more repeats.

My DS isn't sleeping yet (and it's 10:15 P.M.!! after almost 2 hours of trying) or else I'd pop into his room and get the shawl for a progress pic. I'll grab it tomorrow and take one in good light.

It's been interesting to vacillate back and forth among the three shawls I have OTN right now: Frost Flowers and Leaves, which is in lace weight (and progressing very slowly), the Diamond Fantasy Shawl in fingering weight, and the Aran-Weight Victorian Lace Shawl in worsted weight. I'm coming to the conclusion that I really don't enjoy working with huge needles, although it is nice to get projects done more quickly.

Must.....not.......start.........more............projects..............

On that note, here's a picture of my progress on the Aran-Weight Victorian Lace shawl:

The shawl measures about 13" on the left edge; it's not pulled out as much as it could be because I desperately need to get a longer needle; I had to put the stitches back on the other side about 3 times as I was pinning it out. Point protectors? Hmm, they must have been in my bag, sitting right where they were supposed to be while I totally forgot about how useful they'd be in a case like this....

The color isn't quite right on these; it's really somewhere in between. Here's a closeup of the "English Mesh Lace" pattern:

Olympic Gold Medal

I'm a little slow getting my medal--thanks to Melissa for telling me to send an email, or I wouldn't have gotten it! I kept forgetting to check Stephanie's site.

Here it is:

I'm quite proud of it, even though I didn't manage to finish my original project, the Aran-Weight Victorian Lace Shawl. I have started it though....