Wednesday 7 July 2010

WIP Round

My poor unloved blog. I really must try to keep up a bit better than this.

OK, so I guess we can call the Winter Ravelympics a slightly less epic fail than the summer games of 2008... As usual, the world got in the way and I finished a whole 4 (yes, four) snowflakes for the marathon rather than the 30 I had planned. Early injury forced me to retire - I did 3 in a day and my wrist was killing me so much I had to stop. Looking back on it now, I think I was using a too-fine hook. Next go around I'll use a 1.5 or 1.25mm hook with the Ancora instead of the 1mm. I still have a bazillion snowflakes in my queue, and I still want a bunch to hang in the bay window for Christmas, so I'll restart the marathon sometime in the autumn.

Ellie's bonnet did indeed get finished, and it did indeed look utterly exquisite.



She's a fair bit bigger than that now (she was 4 months in this pic and is 9 months now), the bonnet still fits and looks even better. I'll have to take another pic.

Recent news is that I have a yearning for lace, crocheted or knitted. So much so that I dropped £16.50 for a 100g, 1000m skein of this luscious, gorgeous, utterly beautiful 'Precious' silk laceweight from The Natural Dye Studio, colour 'Twilight' bought from Get Knitted. Now as we know I am not that good or fast a knitter, and I am terrible at finishing things. This yarn is TOO BEAUTIFUL to be left in a stash, or shoved as a half-finished project in the back of the wardrobe. And it's far too delicate to be frogged more than once or twice. So with that in mind, I went a-Raveling to find the best shawl pattern for this glorious yarn. Ravelry, as always, came up trumps with the Frozen Leaves Shawl, which is supposed to be reasonably easy as knitted lace goes and suitable for a beginner.

But I don't want to start this just yet. I have so many WIPs to finish, and I have so little lace experience, that I'm going to make casting on for Frozen Leaves my reward for a) finishing some things that have been languishing a while and b) successfully finishing a few smaller lace projects. Ravelry has provided some small lace patterns so b) is covered by 4-ply lace bookmarks and scarves and the odd shawl or two (or twenty) but a) is going to be a bit harder to manage.

I need to finish the Jellyfish and Elephant for Ellie, the Elephant only needs sewing together which is why I'm procrastinating - I hate sewing bits together. Although I finished the Calorimetry in 24 hours, the crochet Mille Fiori scarf to go with it is still only just over halfway done. Raspberry Tasha has been languishing in the sitting room knitting bag for months now and I want to be able to snuggle up in it when the evenings start to get cooler again. Loop-di-loop Scarf/Shawl/Wrap thing was started just before Ellie was born, frogged and started again because I didn't like the way the yarn was pooling with the original stitch count and is still waiting to be finished. As there is a skein and a half of Manos Silk Blend still to be knit, that one may take some time... Another Manos Shawl is part-way through being crocheted and I want that for the French evening we're going to on Saturday. Perdita X Nitt, poor thing, is still in need of an arm and some clothes (and perhaps a bit more hair) and her very own Little Emo to keep her company. I can't find the black yarn I used for her, and of course none of my other black acrylic DK matches. And the one and only bit of lace I've ever done, a lacey cowl knit in the round in Crystal Palace Kid Merino in "Strawberries and Limes" with lovely pink beads here and there isn't even on my Ravelry Projects page and I can't find the damn pattern. Sean the Sheep was going to be my new Ravatar once he was completed, he's still in bits. Plus I have a bad case of Second Sock Syndrome - my current sock is in Regia Stretch, Crazy Colours (lovely bright orange, green, yellow,pink and blue stripes) but I have at least 3 single socks waiting for pairs. And then there's that bag of alpaca in the corner that was supposed to be a zippy jacket for Jase by now. And the big Warm Fuzzies blankie, not had a stitch put in it for over a year. And several projects that are still just string... And. And. And.

So, in order to be 'allowed' (wrong word really, there is no Knitting Police after all) to cast on for this potentially glorious silk shawl, I have decided I have to finish at least the following:

An Ellie-phant for Ellie-boo (crochet but just needs sewing together)
Funky Jellyfish (knit)
Manos Lace Shawl (crochet)
Mille Colori Mille Fiori scarf (crochet)
Perdita X Nitt (crochet)
Strawberry Cowl (knit, in the round, with beads)

And make (and finish) these:

Lace Waves Bookmark
Lace Bookmark (direct .pdf link)
Fern Lace Bookmark
Crest of the Wave Scarf (direct .pdf link)
River Wrap (called "Lacy Wrap here)

Overcommitted? Moi? We'll see how I get on. Jellyfish and Manos shawl, here I come...