Yarntopia

Tomorrow I shall be at Rhinebeck touching a whole lot of yarny goodness despite the cold, wet weather. I'll be up at five o'something (actually, considering my insomnia, I will probably up at 4:51 a.m., the time at which my goddamn internal clock has reset itself) and ready to meet my homies at 6:30 a.m., well, after I stop at Starbucks because even though I am on the decaf, I still get a perk from the coffee goodness. I am assuming Starbucks is open that early. Huh. Maybe I should check that out. In any event, I am looking forward to Rhinebeck, even in my technically full-term preggers, waddling, sciatic state. In fact, even with me being me and the weather being the weather, the only downside I am seeing is that Lady Eleanor won't be making it. She is perfect for the weather, being that she is basically a horse blanket, but not-so-perfect for the occasion of wanting to be comfortable and unencumbered with shit. As you can see from the pictures, she is BIIIIGGGGG. I had kind of hoped to wear her, get pictures at Rhinebeck and use them for my nine month late FO post. Since it's not going to happen, I'll just do my FO post now.

The fringe is probably my favorite part. Makes me think of fishing ... stuff. Weird, huh? Nonetheless, that is what initially turned me on to this project. I loved the knotty goodness.



As I recall, the pattern requires one strand of yarn for each fringe, but I doubled or tripled it. I wanted substantial fringe, and being that the blanket shawl is so big and substantial, I think this was a good idea. The big substantialness is both good and bad. Yes, Ellie is cozy. But she is bulky. Heck, she totally hides my baby belly.



There is no using this as a scarf. When I tried, I looked like a woman in a dysfunctional birka. It doesn't go over my head, but damn if it doesn't try. She also is so heavy that if you move your, well, anything, the weight of the shawl shifts and down she falls. Being that I had no photographer, I was kinda stuck in weird, stiff poses in front of the mirror. When I sneezed, well, I had to start all over trying to get her up and on since she slithered to the ground. I suspect the the major reason for the bulk and heft was my yarn choice. I did make the shawl bigger, but I am bigger so my body should hold her up. At least that makes sense in my head. In any event, my yarn was stiff and bulky and I think that it gave Ellie a little too much body.



The good thing about this bulky yarn is that the wrong side is just as pretty as the right side, and at first blush, it is hard to tell the wrong from the right.



Overall I like Ellie. She used a lot of yarn. A. LOT. OF. YARN. Well, my version did anyway. But I like her and will futz around the house with her all winter long. And, should I come into some money to buy A. LOT. OF. YARN., I would make her again (and again).



Yarn: Noro Silk Garden Chunky, Color 8, Lot A, 28 skeins.
Needles: Addi Circs, size 6 mm (US 10)
Pattern: Lady Eleanor from Scarf Style
Time: Two months.
Care: Dry clean.

Abduction

Oh Internet, I have knit the mostly lovely sparkly blue socks. Rumor has it the Yarn Harlot also knit sparkly blue socks that are scrumptious and probably a gazillion times nicer than my stockinette peds, but I care not! My socks are fabu and I want to hold them and kiss them and love them forever. I love this yarn and its sparkly glory to the point that I want to buy it in every color. Mind you that this is something I would totally do, if I had, you know, a job, or disposable income. I am the girl who goes to Webs for X and can't find it. I also can't find Y or Z, but I can find one of my favorite sock yarns. So I buy it, and by it, I mean the exact same yarn, in the exact same color (and probably dyelot) that I have already used to make socks because, oh, how those socks make me smile and one day they will die and I will need to replace them so I must have the yarn. Me = idiosyncratic (so sayeth the polite people, others might just say I am a nutjob).

Anywho, this blue sparkly yarn is like that other yarn. Instant love. I have worn my sparkle peds once and enjoyed them thoroughly. I suspect that my love runs so deep because of the bling factor. I love me some bling. And, I can honestly (as if I would lie, pushaw) say that I have not had blinged out socks before. I cannot, however, photograph them because my camera has been abducted by aliens. I hope its anus is okay. When ever it returns, I will take pictures and share the sparkly love. Normally I would wait to tell you about a finished object, even one as lovely as The Sparkletastics, until I could provide you with photographic evidence. I am changing my own policy though because I still have not blogged about Ellie. Who? I KNOW. Lady Eleanor. The shawl that goes on forever and I could actually use as a horse blanket. The shawl that is so bulky on, it adds about 30lbs. The shawl that my husband has used as a blanket. The shawl that was finished in February, or was it January, and has yet to be mentioned on this here blog o' mine. Mind you, Ellie won't be blogged about anytime soon as it is about three gazillion degrees too warm out to put her on. Also, she makes me look huge. I am thinking that I will wait until it is cooler, and I have a HUGE pregnant belly for which to blame the additional girth, to blog about her. Assuming the aliens return my camera.

Good Thing

It's a good thing I figured out my issue with the Bee Fields Shawl and the SM when there was no M to S because it came up again! And, just like last time, my method worked perfectly. I really do wonder if this is something that a real lace knitter would now about and not have blinked over.

So Smaht

I figured out my problem with the Bee Fields Shawl. I had been told to SM when there was no M to S. I was sure I had messed up somewhere and just not caught it but for the life of me I could not figure it out. Finally I just decided to place a marker there and move on. And yah know what, it worked out swimmingly. I had not, in fact, messed up the previous row in some undetectable way. There were just a bunch of marker movings going on. I'm not sure if this is a typo in the pattern or if it just standard language when you are starting a new increase of pattern repeats that people use SM and not PM. Maybe it is just me being a novice lace knitter and I no understand words. Charts scary. Whatever the reason, I am cruisin' now. Well, as much as one can cruise on such things.

M is for ...

Major, massive undertaking.



Yes, that is my first "real" lace project. And, if I may say so my self (which, no duh, I can since this is my blog), I feel like I am really setting the bar pretty high. Not so much because there are a lot of complicated stitches, but because HOLY CRAP there are a lot of stitches period.



This is the Bee Fields shawl. BeFri bought the pattern for me as a Christmas gift and I have been working up the nerve to wind my Geisha yarn into a pretty ball and get to knitting. Being that it is such a massive undertaking for me, I had to psyche myself up. I do have one issue and that is my yarn gauge. It is smaller than the pattern's which means my shawl will be smaller than the pattern and that is NO GOOD! I want it to be nice and big and sqooshy. After reading the pattern, I realize I have no idea of exactly what I am doing or how this is working. Basically I am following along the pattern blindly and hoping for the best. I can't figure out how or where I could do extra stuff to make it bigger so I think I am going to e-mail Ann, the pattern creator. Hopefully she can say like, "Oh, just do an extra repeat of rows 1,161 through 2,378." Ha!