Monday, August 30, 2010

Zetor shawl finished for my Mother in Law

Whew.... finally finished!

This was a tough one, cause it's acrylic. And the only reason I did a shawl in acrylic was because it was for my Mother in Law. I realized early on that anything I made for her would have to be wash & wear. :)


Two full months of summertime knitting.... my hands were literally sweating working with this yarn... although, you know what?

It's freaken gorgeous. It turned out really nicely.


Once I cast off, I tossed it into the washer on gentle cycle for 2 minutes, then spun it. I then pinned it out on my king size bed. After it fully dried out, I stretched it out a little more, straightening the spine (didn't realize it was so crooked until I saw the pic above) then steam blocked it. Well, truthfully, I steam 'ironed' it. Pressed very gently, but I ironed it to kill it. :)

I hope my MIL loves it!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Knitting, work, life

I’ve been knitting a lot. Even my dear husband has commented on it lately. (My response to him is “you watch a lot of sports, I knit. What’s the problem?”)

One of my recent projects was massive! Aeolian Shawl (can be found on knitty.com)was an eye opener of new things… it was a beautiful shawl done in a soft orange lace-weight yarn with mother-of-pearl beads and nupps (nupps are a 9 stitch bobble). The last 4 rows of the shawl took me 10 hours to do! The bind off alone took almost 2 hours! All I have to do is block it. And because of the shape of it, it’ll be another huge undertaking to block it, so that will have to wait for the week-end.

I finished a pair of socks for Annaliese, but they were too big. So, I cut the toe back to redo it, and now after fixing the toe and grafting it together, I hate the shape of it. So, I started a new pair. Not sure what I’m going to do with the ones I just finished though….almost considering running it through the sewing machine to fix the toes…

My 1 year contract runs out next Friday. I think I’m going to fix up my kitchen while I look for something new. Repaint the walls. Put up another shelf for storage. Maybe I’ll purchase a butcher block type of table on wheels… either repaint the floor, or buy some ceramic tiles for it…

Kids are going for their BROWN belts in TwaeKwonDo on the 27th. Unbelievable… my little karate kids!