Loving the Fair Isle

I don't have a ton to show, but I've spent a limited amount of time working on the Inga Cowl. It's actually going pretty fast. During my limited weeknight knitting, I have a hard time getting halfway through a round on the Shetland Tea Shawl, so imagine my delight when I finished two+ rows last night on the fair isle neckwarmer. I was thinking, I might be able to finish this project. I don't really get that feeling when I work on the STS.

While I would really love to bring the clapotis into regular rotation for evening knitting, it's the best project of the four for knit night. It takes the least amount of concentration. I think I could finish it during a movie, but then what would I work on at knit night? Robyn's Christmas Stulpens maybe. Oh well. Everything will finish in it's own time.

I need to move the Flutter scarf back into the weeknight rotation. It's been resting since last weekend. It is a gift and the recipient is looking forward to it. That should motivate me. I think it will get today's movie knitting time. Not too complicated for a movie.

Back to the fair isle cowl, I love the twist the colorwork brings to stockinette. Not difficult knitting, but just enough of a challenge that I don't love interest. Similar to cross-stitch, but it moves so much faster.

Christmas In July - Making a List and Checking it Twice

I love to start planning for Christmas in July. And in these financially trying times, I'd rather spend my money on yarn then gifts so that means knitted gifts for folks for Christmas. To be ready by Christmas, I need to start knitting now or at least planning. So here goes.

Robyn SIL gets a pair of Stulpens made from the green Acero to match the Clapotis she got last year.
John DB might get a neckwarmer. He's a deer hunter so if my fair isle neckwarmer goes well I'll do one for him with deer. I'm thinking brown variegated with black or a camo-ish green and black or the green and brown together. There's a Madeline Tosh brown I didn't get at DFW Fiber Fest that I'm hoping will be available at the Whirled Fibers Grand Opening. I have the black and if I want green, I may use some of the green Acero I have in my stash.
Juana MIL a fabulous lace stole. I'm thinking the Estonian Shawl. I will use beads for nupps though. I have some KP lace called cappucino and I have brown beads. I'm ready to go.
Josey GIL something in lace. I have the swallowtail shawl and have considered giving it to her a number of times. I may actually follow through this year.
MOM She has the peacock shawl, but now I want something with some heft. Something that doesn't feel fragile. Something she could leave on the back of the pew at church. I found the perfect pattern tonight. The designer calls the pattern "Red Emperor" it reminds me of the Grandmother's Fan quilt she made for me. I'll use the Orchid Sundara. Oh, I just can't wait, this is going to be so good. The way the pattern works, I can knit the two ends and then fill in the middle until the yarn is gone.
DH he may get a deer neckwarmer too. We'll have to see.

I really need to wrap up the Clapotis and the Flutter scarf. I think the Stulpens will be my Knit Night knitting after the clap.

So many great projects and so many from stash. I love it.

Four Active Projects on the Needles

And by active, I mean I want to knit on them. And of course, that's driving me nuts. I don't have enough time in my day to knit on four different projects so I have to pick just one and how do I do that?Apparently time wasn't an issue over the weekend because I cast on the Inga Cowl. I couldn't help myself. I've been dying to see how the Sundara "Cerulean Seas" knits ups.

I also wanted to give the braided stitch a try. It was a bit of a pain, but it sure is pretty. At this stage it's a bit hard to photograph, but I gave it a shot.

The Inga Cowl isn't really a pattern, but I'm using the pattern for the Inga Hat and not closing the top. Although I'm not going to double knit it, I do think I will knit a lining. The lining could be the reverse of what I'm knitting for the outside or it could be a single color in stocknette. It depends on how the fair isle goes.

I want to give double knitting a try, but mixing DK with fair isle in a project this large could be more than I can handle. For my double knitting start I think I will knit earwarmers. They will make good Christmas presents and they aren't the time commitment of 17" to 20" cowl.

Flutter Progress

Whew! I've made it through the first half of the Flutter scarf, I hope Madonna never reads this. I'd hate for her to know how I'm feeling about knitting this gift. I picked the pattern, but ohhh it's kind of boring. 50 repeats of the same 4 rows over and over again. And that's just one half. Now I get to do the same thing on the other side. Ugh!

I am loving the yarn though. The semi-solidness of the Claudia's Hand-painted creates just the right amount of interest without fighting with the lace pattern.

I've knit 5 rows on the Shetland Tea Shawl. That's quite a feat at 588 stitches in a row. That's the equivalent of 13 repeats on the Flutter Scarf.

I can't wait a minute longer. I'm about to cast-on my version of the Tapestry Cowl. Actually the only thing it has in common with the Tapestry Cowl is it's a fair isle cowl. I'm not going to double knit it. And I'm using the Inga Hat chart.

I'm using the fair isle glasses case I started at guild as a swatch. On 3's I'm getting 8 stitches to the inch. That's way too small a gauge. I'm switching to 4's. I'll do a working swatch. Apparently the Tapestry Cowl calls for you to start with smaller needles. If the 4s are too small, I'll consider them to be my smaller needles for cast-on. I can't use size 3's to cast-on because the piece would only be 15" around and that's not going to fit over my head. No way, no how.

I caked the Cerulean Seas Sundara Sock yarn this afternoon. It is so dreamy. I cannot wait to get into the pattern.

Skeins Her Way is Having a Contest

Skeins Her Way Contest

Linking to her contest isn't even one of the requirements, but I like concept of the contest so much I want to share.

In a nutshell, she's a list maker and she wants to know what's on our list for summer knitting. So, it must be time to re-hash my 2009 knitting goals.

Here is the 2009 gift list I created in December 2008. Let's check progress.

Madonna's scarf - It's cast on and 45% done.
A Hulk Hat for Jack - done
A Calorimetry or Lace Headband for Jack's Sister - done
Liza's neckwarmer - done
A hat, bib and booties for Pedro and Margret's baby - The hat is done. Bibs and Booties - boring
A hat, bib and booties for Baby Rogg - booties done - bib and hat - boring
A hat, bib and booties for Ricky and Crystal's baby - hat done - Bibs and Booties - boring
April 2009 New to the list - Mom's Shonagon pillow - done and gifted and loved.
A lace head band for Brianna Ricky and Crystal's baby's older sister - changing to a floppy hat. She's only 4 - a headband, what was I thinking - I'm over hats. It's going to the bottom of the list

Summer List:
My goals for summer include finishing a few projects in between gift knitting.
Finish the Clapotis - I'm half a straight repeat and the decrease section from finishing.
Finish Flutter - I plan to finish Madonna's scarf before summer's end.
Re-Engage with the Shetland Tea Shawl - I'm itching to get back into this project. I even knit a row last week. Just to see if I could.

Those are my main three summer goals.

Bonus Summer goals:
Cast on my fair isle neckwarmer
Cast on the Spanish Peacock - but I need to get much further on the STS first.
Cast on my mittens for winter walking the dogs. I should settle on a pattern first.
Figure out Christmas knitting. Make a list and assign projects and yarn.

I just love this contest!

Clapotis

We went to see Marshall's dad in the hospital yesterday. I'd forgotten my knitting and I knew it was going to take a while. I remembered I had the clapotis in my backseat I grabbed it and knit about 5 rows. I'd forgotten how far along that project is.

I'd already planned to put it into rotation, but now I'm truly motivated to get working on it. I think I might actually be able to finish it.

Baby Bonnet

I tend to think of myself as a monogamous knitter, but I do like the benefit of having a couple of projects going at one time - one benefit is finishing two projects in a weekend. I finished the blue baby hat early on Sunday and then Sunday evening or maybe it was Monday evening, I picked up the pink bonnet and put the finishing touches on it. I'm pleased with how it turned out. It's probably too big for a newborn.Here's a picture of the back of the bonnet. I really wanted to see what it looked like before I knit it and I couldn't find a picture anywhere.

I knit this in a fingering weight bamboo yarn from Fiber Lady on size 3 needles. It took about 80 yds. To block it, I wet it and then hung it with cloth pins from the back so that it stretched forward. I didn't stretch it lengthwise at all, but it's still long. I'm curious to see how that going to look on the baby.

I like the pattern. I would knit it again although I might choose a different lace pattern for variety. Wonder what would happen if I knit a bonnet in lace yarn?