Laminaria!

This shawl deserves a big ! after it's name. I had to rip it only once, but since I stubbornly refused to use stitch markers (for whatever reason) i had to rip a few 1/2 rows from time to time to make sure everything matched up. I am getting much better at reading my lace work- that's for sure.



Laminaria from Knitty
Started in October 2008
Finished on New Year's Eve 08 in time to wear it out that night (unblocked- I'm not a miracle worker).



Yarn: Malabrigo Lace- Verdes
Proccured from Sakonnet Purls in Tiverton, RI
Needle: Size 4 Knitpicks Options



Size: Shawlette (small)
Took less than one skein of the yarn, which was great because I only had one!



Love that haphazzard blocking job. :)
I knew I had to knit this the moment I saw it, especially after I remembered the lovely green yarn in my stash. I would like to knit this pattern again in a solid color to really show off the stitches. It is a wonderful and gorgeous pattern and I must give lots of thanks to the Laminaria KAL on Ravelry for addressing all the issues I had with it even before I had them.
The Malabrigo lace yarn was lovely. Ever so slightly felted on the skein, I took extra care when winding it. However it knit like a champ, never once breaking- even through the 2-into-9 and 3-into-9 stitches of doom. It even held up to all the ripping and reknitting. I would love to work with it again. I also appreciated the softness (of course) because even prior to blocking when it was a ruffly bit of nothingness it never itched or made me sneeze.
Another set of needles freed!



P.S. In this shot you can also see the Brown Flop Hat, inspired by Knitting School Dropout's Brown Flop Hat (so original, I know). I lost all the photos from this so I will just give a brief description of the nuttiness of this knit.
I knit the first one (Classic Elite Wool Bamboo- good stuff) and it was perfect. Then I washed it and it grew to rasta proportions. I looked like an ugly mushroom and it was horrid. You think i would have paid attention to what I read about bamboo "relaxing" in A Knitter's Book of Yarn, but no. So I ripped, rewashed, hung the yarn to dry and reknit the darned thing on smaller needles with less stitches and then all was right in the world and it survived it's blocking with no growth. Sorry for no pics, but they didn't survive the great photo-delete of 2008. Reknit was started 3/28/08 and finished 4/2/08.

I Almost Made It

When I ordered my lovely Imogen kit, I figured "hey-I'm already paying to ship this sucker and have spent way too much $$ already so why not keep going?" and I threw a skein of the lucsious Handmaiden SeaSilk into the cart. Before xmas came I wound it up and put it in the gift queue to be done for the January migration to my homeland. I hemmed and hawed over the right pattern that would use only one skein. I wasn't sure if my momsies would like a triangular shawl, but it wasn't enough for a stole and a scarf seemed too skimpy, so I waited and waited and eventually...

I just took the damn ball with me to Colorado for her to see it and choose her pattern. Thanks to Ravelry and the wonders of the internets my mom chose the Shetland Triangle from Wrap Style. Excellent, since I had wanted to make it. And double thanks to inter-library loan for getting me the book in a prompt fashion. C'mon- say it with me: Yay Libraries!

This is what came out of it.
Fresh off the needles:





And this is what was left...



Blocking:







Shetland Triangle by Evelyn A. Clark
Featured in Wrap Style
Size 4 bamboo circular
Handmaiden SeaSilk in color Cornflower
12 repeates of main pattern
51" x 22.5"

A New Plan of Action

From now on I'm just going to knit dark colored things and photograph them on snow. Thank you Great NE Blizzard for providing a gorgeous, perfect backdrop.
Behold, my (so-far) MAGNUM OPUS OF STITCHES:











Specs:
Mystery Stole 3- Swan Lake Theme designed by Melanie Gibbons at PinkLemonKnits
Yarn: KintPicks Alpaca Cloud, black heather, 2 skeins
Needles: KnitPicks Options US 6
Beads: Smoke with silver lining from big-box craft store
Size: big enough
Started: July 2007
Finished: December 10, 2007
Thoughts: Wow- I loved knitting this thing! I've tried lace before, but with a sport-weight yarn and it is (still after 3 years) not coming along well (I'm talking about you Ene), but this went exceptionally well for my first time with laceweight. I only made a few mistakes and I know I'll be the only on who can see them. Better finished than perfect. It took a long time to complete, but it wasn't the only thing I was working on. The charts and directions were great and this was really a fun knit. I can't wait to try my hand at the double-winged version. All in all- wonderful!