More Swatching ?????

Casablanca is supposed to start sometime in June, so of course the swatch is up and ready to knit. Overall there will be 700 beads on this piece, and I can't decide which ones I want to use ! Typically for lace I would be leaning towards a small bead (8/0 for those that care) but I think that as the theme is Casablanca I want to go with something a little larger. On my swatch I was trying out colors, none of them said Morocco to me, so it is back to the drawing board.......

The purple swatch below is the for real swatch for Mystic Meadows. Although I loved how the dye job looked on the yarn, for lace it was just too busy. Only a few more days until that one starts, so I must get back to work on the Christmas Sweater.

~M

Swatches, Starts and Choices Oh My.

I shouldn't but I did

It is not like I don't already have a project to be working on between the knit along clues. This dratted sweater is not going to knit itself while I am not looking, and although I am really, really, REALLY tired of knitting in red I really should get it finished.

The swatch for Mystic Meadows was published today, I don't have the right yarn, so I improvised. It is designed for a fingering weight yarn, but I used lace weight and upped the needle size to get the gauge. Then I didn't like the yellows and greens of Gossamer Carribean, so I overdyed it with a purple food color.

It does remind me of wild flowers though :)

~M

Talking on Tuesday

Not a lot to report on the knitting front, I am a little further up the back of the Christmas sweater.....feels like I have been knitting this one forever as it is the third try !

I did do the swatch for the Summer Lace Sampler by Bad Cat Designs. Yep, that is it up there. :) My sampler should end up being about 17 inches wide and just under 69 inches long if the swatch is correct....but we all know that swatches lie.

Yard work is slowly getting done. I did disturb a herd of elephants that was hiding in the long grass before I mowed. They were too far away by the time I got my camera to get pics of them.

~M

Sunday Slow Bee

Another clue bites the dust. Next one comes out on Friday...until then there is a Christmas sweater to be knitted and Bad Cat Designs Summer Lace Sampler swatch to do.

~M

Friday ?

It is Friday and there are no finished objects to show you.

Instead of knitting I went out to lunch, even ate some of it :)

Things around the house are taking longer and are turning into more complicated undertakings than they should, but I am half way through the second clue for Slow Bee....man is this one pretty.

~M

Slow Bee Me Wednesday

This is the first clue for the Slow Bee Mystery, worked in a 2/28 silk from ColourMart. There will be just under 3000 beads in this when it is done (from the materials list) and I am finding the beads are slowing down my usual frantic knitting pace. I cast on late Monday and finished up around lunch time today.

~M
yes, I ate the pasta salad :)

I can cast on the next one now

Let the casting on for Slow Bee begin :)
~M

Thou Shalt NOT

Thou Shalt not cast on for Slow Bee Mystery Lace until the last seven rounds of Secret of Bad Nauheim are finished.......except these last few rounds are going sooooooooo slowly. Probably has something to do with me keep putting it down and running off to find something more interesting to do.

I have now seen a couple of people's finished SoBN....and well, I still don't get it.

~M

Friday Notes

Usually Friday is For Finished Objects around the knitting blog community.

With the exception of the bookmarks I think that you have now seen all of mine, including My First Doily. :) It is a present for my Mom for Mother's Day, and a tutorial in knitting flat in the round.

Mystery Lace blew up and is gone as far as I can tell......so to use the yarn I joined three more knit alongs. (Yeah, math challenged, one shawls worth of yarn and three knit alongs....)

Dear Son#1's Christmas sweater was growing at an alarming rate...either the yarn was relaxing as I knit it or I was and he does not have a 40 inch chest so it was frogged and recast on last night. Smaller needles, less stitches and I think(hope) I got the math right this time.

I have been trying to hit gauge for a knit along that starts on Sunday. Suggested needles for the designers yarn are 3.5mm, in my thinner yarn I need a 1.25mm needle to get the row gauge. For someone who when she started needed a crow bar to get to her stitches I sure have loosened up with age.

~M

Ready for Finished Object Friday

I will talk about it on Friday. :)

~M

Christine's Rose Garden

It's done ! Blocked, steamed and feels like silk.

If I was making it again I would add an edging (either a simple fagotting like I saw another knitter had done) or actually add a border to it.

For now, it is good enough. :)

~M

It is just FUBAR

The biggest problem with knitting a pattern that is written by someone whose native tongue is not English is that Babel Fish is only so good.

I totally misinterpreted the last clue for SoBN and have knit something on the order of 16,000 more stitches than I need to. :( Usually I either "make things work" or frog the project and start over when I screw up badly....but this is pretty badly and will mean weeks of knitting again if I frog it. But, I have never successfully picked up from a lifeline - not that there is one in there, but I could maybe put one in.....guess I wait and see what the final clue looks like and go from there.

I suspect the project is going to linger in a ziploc bag for a while though.

On happier news, nearly finished Christine's Rose Garden. 6 more pattern rows, couple of garter stitch and we are on to seeing if I can kill acrylic.

~M
and no I didn't

She's on the row that never ends....

SOBN - It is the row that never ends, it just goes on and on my friend, somebody started knitting it, not knowing what it was, and she'll continue knitting it forever just because.....it is the row that never ends.

As you can see there is no possible way of stretching this out so you can see it. A 40 inch long cable will not hold over 1000 stitches spread out. And to top it off it is knitted in the round, so the row really does never end. :)

Swatch 2 for Slow Bee Mystery Lace. No matter which color I pick I will need to go down a needle size, but I just can't make up my mind whether I should chance running out of the silver-gray or go with the "too warm" tone lilac. Your thoughts ???

~M

Food, the peanut gallery has been asking about food....yeah I ate some.

Where I was Yesterday