Catalina

Just a quick update on Catalina.. I’m through the first repeat, with the handspun silk from Eilidh:

(Clickable thumbnails, as usual.)

The blue blanket wasn’t the best choice for a background, but it was convenient. The next repeat is a shade or two lighter, but it’s not quite as noticeable in person as it appears in these pictures. I’ll do a repeat in this yarn, then another in a still lighter aqua, then two repeats (which will be the center) in white before reversing and ending up again with the other skein of Eilidh’s handspun.

I have a few upcoming plane trips, so it’s possible that this will progress fairly rapidly. I want to get the DNA scarf completed by January 19, though, so maybe not. *shrug*

Too late for WIP-it Wednesdays.. must be FO Friday..

Or.. something. I’m sleepy and have been fighting a cold for the better part of what should have been a week of vacation, so this might be short and photo-laden..

(As usual, all pictures are clickable thumbnails.)

I have been thinking about making myself a new pair of fingerless gloves to replace the half-finger gloves I gave a friend last year for awhile. My sweetie gave me a swift for the holidays which prompted me to wind the two skeins of Chameleon Colorworks Evolution I had into center-pull balls and I decided it was soft and pretty enough (this is the Figgy Pudding colorway) to become fingerless gloves. I tried to do the Dashing pattern first, but the cable crosses made them *way* too tight, so I opted for a made up pattern for the cuff and tops and a basic glove pattern from a Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns for the hand. I like them. And they only took a day or so to knit up (yes, they’re both finished, even though only the first one is pictured).

Hrm.. this one’s a WIP..

An update on the DNA scarf. While it’s small enough in diameter to use a 16 inch circular, the tiny, tiny needles on the 16 inch Knitpicks Harmony needle made my hands hurt, so I’m doing what I think is pr’bly a bastardization of the two-circular method. It doesn’t make my hands hurt and I’m making better progress, so all is well. Hope to have this one finished and on it’s way to the recipient sooner rather than later.

A WIP that is now a FO..

These are another pair of Fiber Trends Felt Clogs, again just the uppers, made for my aunt Kathy, mom’s sister. This picture is while they’re drying, and, as with mom’s, they’ve got a bit of excess lint from the washer.

And two finished shots, but neither of them are terribly clear. The color is closest in the first one.

And finally, a finished picture of the Garter Rib Sweater, which was a holiday gift for my dad:

For all it’s plainness, it is pr’bly the first man’s sweater I’ve made that I really like. It fits well and looks very good on dad.

I’ve also made some progress on Catalina, but don’t have an updated picture because the battery in my camera is dying. I’m just about through with the first repeat, though.. well, maybe only 2/3rds of the way through.. I’ll take another picture once I change to the next color most likely.

Neither snow nor rain … stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.

And I’m much obliged to them for that!

(Clickable thumbnails; click the pictures to load larger versions)

Yea! Yarn for two pairs of socks for co-workers (promised at least a year ago), a skein of CotLin, which I suspect will become either another washcloth for the upstairs bathroom or a hand towel for same, and three skeins of black yarn to swatch for the DNA scarf, which I’m doing in trade for a friend who’s made some really very nifty garb for my sweetie. All of which would have been enough on their own, but also in the box were these lovely goodies:

Knitting Workshop is one of those books everyone tells you you should have in your knitting library. I’m not sure I agree just on the face of it, but it does contain a pattern that I’ve been intrigued by for some time – none other than the Baby Surprise Jacket. (And I needed another $10 or so to get the free shipping.. Shh! My logic makes perfect sense!) The needles, however, have been long awaited and meant that I could finally start…

Catalina!

Impatience.

A few weeks ago when I was out on the left coast, Cat, my friend who so graciously provided me with a place to sleep and played tour guide for much of my wandering, said she couldn’t let me leave empty-handed. Being a spinner herself, she gifted me with two lovely skeins of handspun silk singles in a deep aqua. I immediately knew what I wanted to do with them.

Several months ago I acquired six skeins of Morehouse Merino Lace weight in an assortment of colors – white, light turquoise, aqua, purple, red and heather grey – from the DeStash blog (sadly now defunct, but there’s a new one here). They won’t all work in a single garment (at least not to my color sensibilities), so I knew I’d need to match them with others to make something. As soon as I saw Cat’s handspun silk, I *knew* it would work beautifully with the white, turquoise, and aqua as a shawl or scarf.

The trick was finding a pattern that would work with the yardage I have (each of the skeins of Morehouse is about 220 yards, but there is likely about 360 yards of the silk going by weight and the yardage on the Morehouse as they’re very close in grist) – about 1020 yards – and look okay with the color gradations going from light to dark and back again (or vice versa).

Apparently, it’s Catalina! (Apologies for the blurry picture.. seems to be a trend lately.)

I love the scrollwork look of this shawl and since Cat is also a scribe, and the confluence of names is just too much to resist, this yarn can be none other. I haven’t decided yet if the silk will be the center (and therefore the “back”) or the ends, yet (though I’m leaning toward the ends because there’s more of if and I don’t want there to be a *huge* block of it in the center so that the other colors look like afterthoughts), and it would seem I have a few weeks to make the decision as I also don’t have the right needles for the pattern (US 2 24-inch circular) and KnitPicks is showing that they won’t have them available to ship until the 15th. (I’m also ordering US 1′s because I tend to knit loosely and might need to go down a needle size.)

All the same, now that I’ve picked out the pattern, I’m impatient to get started, especially as Jack will be traveling all next week so I’ll have lots of time to sit and knit. Yes, yes, I’ll likely finish the Sprung socks and possibly even work on the sweater I started a year ago, or start one of the other two that I have yarn for, but I’m excited *now* to knit Catalina. *pout*