Scarf Complete

The ISE scarf is complete! I'm so excited. On to blocking tonight. My hope is to get it in the mail by Monday. Pix to come...

The Yarn Lounge knit night was so much fun last night! We dressed in pj's and ate doughnuts, pizza and popcorn. The *best* part of the evening was the chair massage! Thanks to Stewart and Melanie for providing this to us. Elise, the masseuse, was wonderful. I felt so relaxed that I came home and went straight to bed!!

As the scarf grows

The ISE scarf is growing - slowly. I have used 2 balls of Classic Elite and started a 3rd ball last night. Currently, the scarf is 25" stretched. Does anyone know how much growth I can expect from blocking? And, what type of blocking should I use?

I'll head to The Yarn Lounge today to pick up a 4th ball of yarn. I hope this will be enough to finish. My secret pal said she preferred scarves 40" or greater...
The photo unfortunately looks a little like a pile of wool. This pattern is really beautiful and the colors in the Waterlily yarn are fantasic. There are subtle hints of light and dark greens throughout. I'm hoping to finish a good portion of the scarf this weekend and get it in the mail by next weekend. I hope my Pal likes it! She's in Indiana so I'm hoping the merino will help keep her warm this winter.

On another note...
My husband just returned from San Francisco. He never ceases to amaze me. During the course of his week in the city, he somehow scouted out a LYS in order to buy me a gift(maybe he used Map Muse?). He discovered Artfibers, where he picked out a beautiful selection of yarns (the shop owners gave him some interesting looks and thought the yarn was for him because he kept asking about yardage and gauge :).

The first yarn, Kantuta, (and hopefully you can see the colors in the photographs) is a luxurious super baby alpaca. He bought me 2 skeins in color #8 - 94 yds each. The second yarn, Alfabeto, is 76% silk, 19% superkid mohair and 5% wool. I have 2 skeins in color #2. Each skein is 250 yds. It's absolutely gorgeous.

So, the big question now is what should I knit with these yarns??! Ideas are most welcome!

Intarsia

I've been so engrossed in the ISE scarf that I forgot to mention the cool Intarsia class I took Sunday from Nancie Wiseman at Got Yarn in Midlothian. I found Ms. Wiseman to be terribly funny, with a dry sense of humor that is not unlike what I live with day in and day out! Of course, photos will come since I can't download photos onto this stupid laptop (Ben will be back with mine tonight - yay!); but, I was able to finish a little swatch with different colors. Once you get the hang of it, the twisting is not so difficult. Being a continental knitter (well, truthfully, only a continental knitter for the knit stitch and a thrower for the purl stitch), I started off having some difficulties holding the yarn. In the end, I think it might be easier to do the twist while holding yarn in your left hand. Joining new yarn was a bit of a challenge and I'm still not quite certain I have the hang of it. With so many projects waiting in the wings, it might be a while before I actually get around to knitting something in intarsia. It was fun to learn and at least it doesn't look entirely foreign to me.

Knit 10 Rows, Frog 20

I feel a little like Sisyphus today.

Ever have those days when that little voice tells you - "Don't knit lace today. Pick up something easy." Today was one of those times when I did not listen to the voice and continued knitting a lace scarf when I know there's no way in hell I'll figure out where I messed up (a missing yarn over perhaps?!)

I made so much progress on the ISE scarf on the way to Chapel Hill yesterday. I was delighted. I felt confident and bragged about how great a knitter I am because I could easily carry on a conversation for 8 hours in the car while knitting a lacey scarf. I believed I had moved to new knitting heights.

Ha! The knitted object has spoken and reminded me that I was being too confident about how easy lace is! (Didn't the Yarn Harlot write something about being overly confident about your knitting in At Knit's End ?).

Tonight was terribly sad. I ripped back all the work that I completed yesterday. Thank dog I put a lifeline in when I got into the car yesterday morning to go to Chapel Hill!

Ack! It's just a little bit of wasted time right? I think I'm learning that I don't work well under pressure. The deadline for this scarf feels like it's looming out there and I feel some strange need to make the scarf perfect since it's being knitted for a knitter. I have to get out of this mindset or I'll never finish!

Alas. Tomorrow is another day!

Off to read Stiff, a really gorey but hilarious book that will most likely help me forget my knitting woes.

knitting furiously!

i'm writing quickly as i haven't posted anything in over a week! i've been knitting furiously for the international scarf exchange. unfortunately, i can't post my progress b/c the hubby has my computer in san francisco. i'm making this cherry leaf scarf in classic elite waterlily 100% fine merino. the yarn is awesome to work with. can't wait to post a pix.

eyelet scarf

amy posted a comment about the eyelet scarf (the one that's taking me so long!). it's made from ggh soft kid (70% Super Kid, 25% Nylon, 5% Wool) in lt grey 4. the pattern is from the sept - february special issue of rebecca (no. 2). the pattern is not difficult, it's just one that i can't work on while in the company of others ( still have to count every row!) . thus, it's taking me 6 months to make! it also uses up a lot of yarn. it's 150 g and about 352 rows, mkaing it about 200 cm. i love it so far - just need the push to get it done!

labor day knitting

the holiday weekend has flown by. saturday, i drove to the yarn lounge and knitted for a bit with sangeeta, cate, melanie, roz and chesley. cate's blog has a good post of all the food we ate!

sunday, i walked down to the carytown books knitting group. i used to go quite a bit, but haven't been in months due to all the travelling ben and i have been doing. it just so happens that i returned on a day when rick was cooking hotdogs and hamburgers. it was a great party - pasta salad, brownies and knitting. i also caught up with jill, rick, rosie, becky, ann and natalie. rosie has a new a new puppy too - isn't he cute!?



in between gorging myself on brownies, i did finish the socks i have been working on. they are made with Schachenmayr Nomotta crazy cotton that i bought from cate at the yarn swap. they're so soft and although one is a bit shorter than the other (whoops!), i really like them.

other knitting projects this weekend included a hat for my counsin's children, made with classic elite desert - northern lights - that i bought form the yarn lounge at knit night. and, i blocked the baby sweater i finished a few weeks ago - after washing, it is so soft and snuggly!

tomorrow night, i'll head to southside for knitting at b&n. i'm hoping to start on some wrist warmers for myself made from the misty alpaca sangeeta bought for me a few weeks ago.

knit night

i'm a little behind in posting, but knit night this past tuesday was packed! my friend ann came - i haven't seen her in months. it was so much fun to catch up. plus, she always brings wine :) needless to say, i didn't get much knitting done, but bought some more ggh!! i love this stuff and it was 50% off! you can't beat that. i also bought some beautiful cascade that i'm going to make into a hat for my counsin's daughter phoebe (see nashville below).



wednesday was fun too. sangeeta and i were planning to go to the chesterfield county fair, but we were rained out. instead, we went to her new house to put up some paint swatches - my favorite thing next to knitting is picking out paint swatches! my husband always laughs because at any given time, i'll have small pieces of the wall painted in various colors.

i can't believe it's september already. i'm so excited for fall - ernesto dumped about 6 inches of rain over the past several hours, which has cooled us down quite a bit. fall always makes me happy - i always plan tons of trips. i'm going to the fall fiber festival this year for the first time. i'm also taking a class in intarsia in september at got yarn and going to the apple harvest festival in october. then there's the festival of india which will no doubt be fantastic. november is ben's birthday month, so we'll head to douthat state park (a rare find if you ask me!) and hike, knit, fish and relax.

okay - i'm off to watch poirot mysteries (my other favorite hobby). a rainy night is the absolute best time to watch these. i always feel like i'm in the UK