stash, knit, repeat

Seriously, I get bored on your behalf even thinking about an update entry. There’s the fir cone lace cardigan, which is now done but is still waiting for a proper photo shoot:

There’s the shoalwater shawl, which is another repeat closer to being finished but still, unblocked lace vomit:

And there’s the phyllo yoked pullover, which is currently still in the “miles of stockinette” stage.

Ugh.

There is one nail-biter issue with the shawl, actually. The pattern calls for “About 1200 yards lace-weight”. The Andrea silk has 1093. Now, in the pattern as written there’s an applied I-cord border at the top of the shawl, so I have an easy way to reduce my yarn requirements. The problem is, will it be enough? Anyone have any guesses?

I’ve been a busy little bee. The Fir Cone Lace Cardigan remains in the sidebar only because I haven’t gotten buttons yet. Everything else is done. Expect a FO report this week, but here’s a little preview.

Remember my lace query? It was for this:

That’s Andrea 100% laceweight silk from Schaefer Yarns. Hand-dyed, picked up at a Schaefer trunk show, in this most luscious colorway that reminds me of these wild roses that speckle Maine’s beaches. The perfect color for one of Jacob’s grandmothers, who just happens to need a fabulous shawl for Christmas this year. After all of your wonderful advice in comments and email, I decided to look for the simplest shawl pattern I could find (that wouldn’t drive me to tears with boredom). I chose The Shoalwater Shawl, which seems custom-made for busy variegated yarns.

The first repeat (of four) took me about three days. Unblocked-lace-looks-crappy photo:

Trying-to-stretch-it-out-on-a-throw-pillow-photo:

I’m really excited about it. Alas, it’s a terrible project for my spare moments during the day, because the rows are already taking forever, and it’s moderately fiddly. So, I cast on for another project. Well, honestly, I’ve only swatched so far. But rest assured, I will be well into the back before this weekend is out.

Because it’s knit in Calmer.

Now I know, various knitbloggers have been extolling Calmer’s virtues for awhile now, but until today I had managed to avoid the draw. I bought some for Knitting Nature’s Phyllo Yoked Pullover this summer, since my closest female friend covets the sweater, and it just sat in my yarn closet, waiting for me to get to it. It could afford to be patient, I suppose. Because now I may never go back.

I shall call him Mr. Swatchie. I will love him and pet him and hug him and squeeze him…

I am totally a winner.

This beautiful scarf arrived today from Grumperina, and I’m even happier now that I entered her contest. The scarf is luscious and an extremely welcome addition to my wardrobe. It’s even big enough for two, in a pinch!

Thanks so much, Grumperina!

No pictures of the fir cone cardigan today–gotta save my bloggable material. The second sleeve is around halfway done, and the blocked body is lovely. I’m really excited about giving it to my gram. This gift sweater knitting is making me think once more about a dressform…

Living in a place without any dramatic season change has me all messed up. The sunny 65-degree weather we’ve had for the past couple of months is totally lulling me into a false sense of security. How can Thanksgiving possibly be just a couple of weeks away? How can Christmas be right around the corner? It’s beautiful outside!

Good thing I’m so crazy about knitting, because urgency is utterly lacking here.

The body of the cardigan is pinned and blocking on our table. The fir cone lace part really wants to bump up, so I’ll need to press it before the garment is finished. It’s really turning out well, though. I think my gram will be thrilled.

Why block the body now, you ask? I need a little motivation to hike across Sleeve Island, because let me tell you, the pina coladas are nowhere to be seen.

I’d be a lot further along on Sleeve #2 if I hadn’t had to restart it three times today. That whole nursing-brain thing isn’t a joke, I tell you. My head is full of mush.

Of course, I’m already fantasizing about what I’ll do after the holidays. It’s been literally years since I’ve knit myself a sweater, with the pregnancy and the associated weight gain. But hey! I’m on a diet, and it’s working well, and I’m starting to get my old body back, and one of my favorite bloggers is starting a Debbie Bliss knit-along for after the holidays. Sign me up!

Now, what to knit… what to knit… what’s that? *How* many weeks left until winter holidays? Oh, crap. :)

You can’t win if you don’t play, the saying goes, and I guess it’s right. I usually don’t enter blog contests, but when the multi-talented Grumperina ran a photo contest for a very long scarf scarcely a week after I took this photo, I couldn’t resist.

And what do you know? I won! *does the little happy dance* I’m going to receive this gorgeous rose alpaca scarf. Just in time, too. The fall weather here in coastal CA isn’t cold enough for me to drag out my coats, but neither is a sweater quite enough. I’ve been wearing my pooling colors scarf, but a little variety will be a very very good thing. Thanks so much, Grumperina!!

(The best thing about winning this contest is that I got the email in the midst of my last-minute elections research, just when I was good and tired of useless, uninformative official candidate pages. It definitely gave me mood boost I needed to sift through piles of campaign crap.)

*****

The fir cone cardigan is really coming along.

(Unblocked lace: There’s nothing quite like it. Thank God.)

I’m basically done with the left front now; I should be sipping some kind of froufy drink on sleeve island this week. I still love the fabric, and the lace repeat has a nice rhythm to it. Next up is a shawl, though, and I’m anxious to get to it. Go, go, gadget lace!!

Wow, that was a busy week. Even though I’m home during the day, daylight savings really seems to have cut into my photo time. Or maybe it’s just because Jacob thinks naps are for weenies. :) Either way, I present to you a belated FO roundup:

Pattern: Classic Harry Potter scarf in Gryffindor colors.
Yarn: Cascade 220, scarlet and gold, 2 hanks each.
Modifications: Added 2 purl stitches, see below.

This scarf is knit in a tube to avoid both curling and a wrong side to the work. This results in an extremely warm, thick scarf. I wanted the scarf to stay flat nicely so I changed two of the knit stitches to purls, to help the scarf keep a shape. It seems to have worked, although I haven’t made a totally knit one so who knows?

As you’d expect, this is pretty boring to knit. But, I will say one thing for stockinette in the round: It makes for some truly mindless knitting that you can do anywhere, and hence I got this scarf done in record time. (I think 10 days, including blocking and fringe?) Despite the length. Seriously. It makes a good fence cozy.

FO gallery in the sidebar–you can see all of the nature-tastic pictures I snapped of the scarf while Jacob was playing in our front yard.

*****

I’m zipping right along on my gram’s fir cone lace cardigan, but still no pictures for you. I have to save them out, since even moving along quickly it’s going to take me some time to finish this puppy. My favorite thing about the cardigan so far is the construction. I’ve split for the armholes already, so those loooong rows are behind me and there’s no side-seaming to do! The sleeves will be interesting this way, though, I think.