Joyce Makes Art

All Over But The Finishing

Sixteen skeins and done. I still need to weave in some ends and block. But the results were too fun not to share a quick preview picture with you.

This Post is for you, Mom

Dear Mom,

This is your Dream in Color Shrug in progress. I love the pattern. The cashmere is, well, dreamy. I'm loving the not-quite-solid yarn.

I sure, um, hope it fits you when it's done. Really. It would be such a shame if it fit, say, me instead.

Love,

Joyce

Finished: Little Copernicus. Started: Dream in Color

Little Copernicus is finished.  Down to the sweet little Mother of Pearl buttons.  Very cute.  All it needs now is a baby!

I have knitting work to do.  I'm about three skeins away from finishing the endless black hole afghan.  And, I should be knitting it over the weekend as it's so big it can only be worked on at home.

But no.  Write it off to knitter's ADHD or spring fever, but I put the afghan down for the weekend.  I also bypassed two charming projects I've purchased pattern and yarn for, Norie and Laar by Gudrun Johnston, but not yet started.  And I even let the hat I'm knitting for my snowbound eldest child in some incredibly soft Eco Alpaca from Cascade Yarns sit swatched, but not started.

Instead I picked up the shrug I've been meaning to knit for my Mom for quite some time.  I have four luscious skeins of Jade Sapphire 6-ply Cashmere in the Blackberry Fudge colorway and I had selected the Dream in Color Shrug Pattern.  I selected that pattern after seeing this Shrug knit up last fall -- one of the dancers at my daughter's ballet school was wearing it, and it was beyond-words-amazing.  I always have lace anxiety (really, you keep count with kids chirping about homework, the Judge whining about "where's my dinner," and a Blackberry that goes off incessantly with work) but decided to tackle it and see what happened.

Things are always much more manageable after you start, right?  The 30 rows of ribbing zipped by in the dentist's chair (the pattern is knit from cuff to cuff).  The yarn is just fabulous.  It's soft, the knitted fabric is squishy, it's everything I like best in Cashmere.  And the lace is a simple 11 stitch 20 row repeat.  With only five sets of 11 stitches and a few extra on each end to the row, this pattern is very do-able, even for someone tackling their first lace project.  So much for the anxiety!

I'm midway through the second lace repeat and finding this to be lots of fun to knit.  But, I'm going to set it aside to pick up the afghan for the next few evenings.  It now has the benefit of being large enough to snuggle under while knitting.  And it's so soft and inviting that the time has come for me to finish it off and make it available to the whole family.

Drum Roll Please

And the winner of the silk hankies is.......

......#10 - Kathy.

You have Ollie to thank for pulling your number.

Please email me with your shipping address and I'll put your silk hankies in the mail to you.  We'll all look forward to seeing what you knit with them.

And if, like me, you are curious about how silk fibers are worked from cocoons, here is a fascinating (and quick) video showing cocoons being stretched over frames in a store in China.

 

 

 



Little Copernicus is Done

I just finished knitting the Little Copernicus sweater, and I'm so excited that I can't wait for daylight and the chance to take good pictures to share it with you.  I need to show it to you now.  Right this minute.  It is so tiny and cute!

Here it is, all done, and in need of a good blocking.  I'm hoping it's small enough to dry overnight, because I can't wait to sew on the tiny mother of pearl buttons I purchased for it.

The yarn is Elliebelly Pixie Merino, dyed in a Paintbrush colorway.  Here is a close up shot, so you can get a better idea of how the yarn works in this pattern and how nicely the picked up rib edging contrast with the stockinette body.

Never. Going. To. Stop.

I just keep knitting and knitting and knitting and knitting.  But it's like a black hole.  It doesn't seem to grow, even as skein after skein gets sucked it.  Although it is now long enough to cover a small-sized person, it doesn't seem like it will ever be a real afghan.  I suspect there is some metaphysical law of knitterly progress that I am not getting.

Knitting with Silk Hankies. Who Wants to Try It?

Silk hankies anyone?

 

I've had so many conversations with people about knitting with silk hankies since my original post on the topic, which piggy-backed on Stephanie McPhee's project, that I decided to share some of my hand-dyed hankies with a lucky reader.  Post in the comments below (make sure I have an email address so I can contact you if you win) and I'll pick a winner next Friday night. 

To get everyone started, here's a YouTube video that's very helpful.  It has very cute cats as an added plus.