I got a new toy!

It's a swift!

I took advantage of this week's 50% coupon at A.C. Moore and bought a swift before heading to the weekly Thursday night meeting of the Sweet Life Knitters. I'm knitted out tonight so I think I'll do a bit more beading.

Onward and upward?

Thanks everyone for you comments on the shawl! Lace is an interesting creature. After such a project, you really learn to read the stitches in your piece. This drastically cut down on problems before I got too far along. I didn't have to rip back to the life line that I carried.

Now, I'm moving on. I'm back to working on the Somewhat Cowl to get it done. I'm taking it one ball at a time, and I'm almost at the portion where I put the sleeves onto holders and work the body. That's exciting because right now, all the stitches are cramped up on my 24 inch needles and it's driving me nuts!

In other news, I'm still trying really hard to hold off on buying the Knit Picks Options set. This week, A.C. Moore has the 50% coupon. I think I'm headed to the Fairfax A.C. Moore to buy myself a swift.

Finished - Peacock Feathers Shawl

Friday, I brought the shawl with me to work so that I could prepare to block. I had planned on using the Yarn Harlot method of blocking. So I weaved in my ends and ran a line across the top.
Friday night, this was the scene:

Note that it is blocking on a queen sized mattress. I think I could use a king size in the future for blocking.


A bit more detail. There are pins across the top, down the center, and in each loopy thing along the sides.

Drumroll...

With a little help from Patricia, Mary, and Chris while at the bead store, we managed to take this picture. I photoshopped out the background. But the loopy things wouldn't stay flat.

A woman there asked if I made these for sale. Well...I'd do it if I judged you worthy. This is kind of like how a bank runs a credit check...this is a worthiness check. Patricia's answer to that woman was, "Do you have $10,000 lying around?" Yeah. I loved the lace, but it is time consuming and detail oriented.
But putting this on for the first time, I decided that I must make another one.

Details

Pattern: Fiddlesticks Knitting - Peacock Feathers Shawl
Yarn: JaggerSpun Zephyr - 50% Chinese Tussah silk, 50% fine Merino wool
Color: Cassis
Needles: Addi Turbo size 4

Almost done! Almost done!

I just crochet cast off the peacock feathers shawl. I'd go take a picture and post it but I'm really just too lazy to run upstairs to get the camera. Tomorrow night, I'll go pick up additional pins, and block. This shawl is off the needles!

Gasp! Diet.

I think it's time for a yarn/bead diet. me == :-(
Why? I have a lot of yarn. I have a lot of beads. I really need to use some of it up. And I really need to stop spending money so I can do things like...get a working oven. I think I am allowed to buy stuff like wire...cuz how else am I going to use up my beads? But I think the yarn diet portion will start after next weekend...after the Knit Happens end of summer sale.

Beading, knitting, and use of my hands

Legs were still a bit sore yesterday when I tried to go running. Then I spent a good say with my friend Shawn where we sat and caught up and beaded. I went up to her house up in Ellicott City, MD. I laced my way through sunflower petals and peony petals and moved onto knitting.
Knitting excitement: I'M ON THE EDGING! I'M ON THE EDGING! of the peacock feathers shawl! I'M SO EXCITED! I'M ALMOST DONE!!!!!!!
In other knitting, I'm thinking of signing up for International Tote Exchange II. I seem to be having a bag obsession lately. Signups close on Aug 25th so if any of you are interested, you should go, read the rules and sign up soon.

Catch up Post, with pictures!

I bought some storage for my beads at IKEA. These are working a lot better:


On Sunday, I went to Stitch DC Georgetown to check out the yarn sale and noticed they had Rowan Wool Cotton on sale. Monday night at SnB, I posed the question of "Should I go buy the Rowan Wool Cotton?" and Amber replied immediately with "Yes, ALWAYS YES!" before anyone could get a word in edgewise.
I had this Rowan design in mind. It's knitted. It involves beads. It's a corset styled top. Those three together bring me to my knees. For my size, I need 11 balls of Rowan Wool Cotton.

But if you count here, there are 13 balls. Well, I wanted one that's a little longer, and I wanted ruffles on the sleeves too, not just on the neckline. I think they cheated a little by not using ruffles on the neckline. So I got the 12th ball. But then, there was one remaining ball sitting there all lonely...so it also came home with me.
Damn you Amber!

Goings ons

Items for this week:
DC Restaurant week is going on this week.
A knitting group at Bead Obsessions this friday from 6pm-8pm.

20K is...

• 12.4 miles. For about the first 11.5 miles, I thought 20K = 12.8 miles. Imagine my happy surprise.
  
• Less than the distance from my house to Bead Obsessions if I take the Beltway


• Less than the distance from my house to work (in Rosslyn) if I take 395.


• The distance I ran this morning, for which I got my butt up at 5am and drove to Leesburg for.
  

Now I have an excuse to lie on my couch all afternoon and either knit or bead. Cuz I don't think I'll have much energy for much else. And I don't really have control of my feet at this point.

Lax in my blogging

All right, it's been a while. I'm lazy.

Socks

I have never had a reason to knit socks. I've been tempted lately by some of the knee socks patterns I've seen, but nothing has really pushed me over the edge. Until today. I picked up the latest copy of Rowan at Knit Happens cuz I was killing time before my Sunflowers class at Bead Obsessions and I had seen some of the pictures on their blog. And I saw these knee high socks and went "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh!". So then after my class, I went to Spring Water Fibers and bought yarn and needles. I'm thinking black knee socks with a pink ribbon through the top.

In other knitting news

I'm more than half way through chart 7 of the Peacock Feathers shawl. After that I have only the edging rows to do and then I can block! Whoo hoo!

Beads-teaching

I taught the first session of the Sunflower class and in the next two weeks, I also need to make all my parts. It is getting exciting to see the students improve on their skills and make pointier pointy leaves.

Beads-patterns

I'm excited because of something that happened today. Someone bought a pattern through my website: Judy Yiu Designs (the first purchase!) and it was someone I didn't know which means people I've never met actually read this blog since it's the only place where I have ever mentioned it. How exciting is that?!?!

And I started working on the pattern for the autumn leaves. I've got instructions for a maple leaf half written and I've got a picture for an oak leaf. We'll see how this goes. Hope to have it finished by October.

Beads-making

I've been having some inspiration problems lately. I'm still working on a second peony to go into my peony and Bells of Ireland arrangement. I've got vast numbers of unfinished flowers. Some unfinished cabochons. Some unfinished jewelry pieces. And not really knowing what I want to do.

For now...

It's a really early bedtime for me this Saturday since I'm running a 20K in Leesburg tomorrow morning...I think this means I need to leave my house by 5:30am. Ick. At least I'll have an excuse to spend the entire afternoon lying on my couch.