Pooling can be good

I've been playing around with this "pooling stripes" project for a while. I love how the color sequence of the yarn takes center stage!







This was done with the leftover "Desert Flower" Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock from my Calorimetry, so I only had enough for something cowl-sized.

The stitch pattern was a very simple YO-k2tog done on both sides to make the fabric reversible. It gave me a lot of play in terms of being able to align the color changes. Some variation was inevitable because the color lengths in the yarn didn't stay consistent. The beige in particular would run anywhere from 0.5" to 2.5", so being able to play with the tension and the size of the YOs made a world of difference.

More pictures when it's dry!

Miss Dashwood

For a coworker's first grandchild:


I probably don't even need to say this: the baby is a girl. And as Lynn has been telling everyone, she has two sons, a husband, and two boy dogs, so she's been due for a girl in the family for a while. Ah, a perfect excuse to haul out Miss Dashwood, the girliest, ruffliest baby hat pattern I know of. For good measure, I used this fantastic color of Lily Sugar 'n' Cream, "Rosewood", which has the distinction of looking exactly like Neapolitan ice cream.

My only mod to the design was to leave off the earflaps and just attach a couple of yarn braids to the back of two of the bobbles. It makes it a little more summery. Other than that, I knit it as written, bobbles and all. Normally, I hate bobbles. I love them on this hat, though.

Here's Terttu!

My saucy new Finnish friend wants to say hi:










I loved this pattern so very much. Lankakomero's site is mostly in Finnish, but the pattern does have clear English instructions on how to follow the charts. The big graphic pattern means it actually works with variegated yarn, which doesn't happen with too many lace patterns. This was one 475-yard skein of Ellen's Half-Pint Farm merino/tencel sock yarn; it yielded a shawl 44" wide. It's a nice over-the-shoulder shawl.

Antidote for the blahs

Look what showed up today to help combat the rainy day blahs:




You may know the drill by now: it's a Jimmy Beans limited edition color. Again. This one is the June 2009 offering, called "Jimmy's Journey", and I'm a wee bit in love with it.

No decent shawl pictures yet, owing to the rain today. Tomorrow should be clear, so I'll shoot for then.

Guess what's blocking?

Terttu is done and in the final stages of prep!

Here's my blocking board, also known as "a towel on my bed":


I had a surprise trip to the emergency room yesterday after I fainted in the apartment rental office, and was KICKING MYSELF for not having my purse with me. This would have been some prime knitting time. (No, there's nothing wrong; according to the many many tests they ran, I'm in very good health).

Anyway, I finished up the last few rows today, wove in ends, and am properly wet-blocking this. A good once-over spritz from my iron's spray feature did the trick.

I'll get some good pictures when it's dry. It came out to a very respectable size of 44" wide; not bad for a skein of sock yarn!