Lace Knitting

Well, I have placed the sweater in my KIP pile and am turning to my new fascination: lace knitting! I am casting the Goddess Knits MS9 shawl which will be a Faroese design. The yarn I am using is Yarn Chef's merino lace weight (Buttercream) in a colourway called Turning Leaf (it looks like a maple leaf, soft yellow and red, probably an over-dye). She does not repeat colourways; however, over time there are always a few that do look similar. As always, I buy more than enough for any project because I can always use the extra for other projects. I think I will also make her a pair of fingerless mitts to go with the shawl. (Yarn Chef has a shop on ETSY, please see my list of yarn artisans on the right for the link.) This is going to be a gift for my best friend, who happens to live in NE Ohio (Yarn Chef is in Columbus). I am also going to do the same shawl for me. Right now I am torn between several lace weight yarns that I have in my stash for this one.

I'll Probably Never Buy From Her

This is crazy!!! People wait for days and days for the glorious Sundara to post her new yarns -- and there were only three today which sold out almost immediately! I couldn't even get a second look at them. A person cannot even special order from her highness. Let me tell you, there are many talented yarn dyers out there who do gorgeous work and don't have the ego.

Troubles with a Sweater

Well, I still really love the pattern; however, I am virtually re-writing the thing! (I'll edit this tomorrow to give the URL of the original sweater.) Anyway, the sweater is a lovely dolman-sleeved pullover which can probably either be worn with the V-neck in the front or back (it is pictured on the model on the back). In addition, there is a band of eyelets done every 9 rows on the vertical plane. Anyway, looking at the original pattern, I figured it would actually be fairly easy to do this as a virtual one-piece, rather than separate front and back with applied ribbing. It is knit side-to-side in the original pattern! However, I was about 3 inches into it when I had to walk to the frog pond and rip-it all out. The stupid wrist band was too small -- on a size XL! I had to add 6 stitches in order so that it would fit. Then, I had to proportionally increase the stitches for the beginning of the sleeve proper. I'm still swearing at countless other little things that have been popping up. GRRRR!!! However, I did buy some gorgeous Ellyn Cooper cotton boucle yarn (sport weight) in the Thai Amber colourway that I will make another. This one is in Classic Elite Flash.

The Enchantress -- Playing With Leopards

This is a painting from the early 20th century by Arthur Wardle. Can you all tell I love kitty-cats (especially the big ones)!

Lady With The Leopards

I fell in love with this painting by Sara Stilwell Weber. As we ALL know, all kitties, whatever size, are still kittens to us and to them we are Mother.