Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Decisions, decisions

For Malabrigo March, Ive added a few additions to the original 5 projects. Altogether now I have 8 projects. Seems like a lot, I know, but 3 of them are 1 night projects. It's really 2 which will take about a week...


So, I've added a few and the pictures are where I'm attempting to get the color combo right. There's a wrap, called the Color Affection wrap, designed by Veera, who's becoming my favorite knit wear designer on Rav. This pattern is the FIRST pattern Ive bought on Rav. It's SO pretty. The assymetry is beautiful to me.
Anyhoo, I can't decide which color to use as the main. If I had one more skein of Vertiver, the pale green, that would hands down win. But, I'm having NO luck finding another skein of this colorway. Thus, I'm stuck with either Verde (dark green) as the main color (eh, would be ok) or a smaller wrap. My classroom stays COLD all year long. I'm excited to use this shawl for my day job.The chilly room is also why I chose to make my Color Affection in worsted, instead of sock or lace weight.

So far, I like the Verde as the main, but I'm not in love with it:

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Malabrigo March


Ok, if you don't know it by now, I'm ADDICTED to all things Malabrigo. I do HATE the pilling of the worsted, but I can't get enough of the company's luscious texture. I have a ton of Malabrigo in my stash. 6 skeins of worsted, 5 skeins of lace, 1 Rios, 1 skein of sock. And this March, I'm putting it all to good use for some healthy stash busting. Hopefully I'll win some prizes, but if not, I'll have a good time working on decreasing my ever growing bin of 'LUXURY' yarn.

My Malabrigo March submissions are *nearly* finalized. I'm only doing 2 of the specific project offerings in the ^MM12 KALs, mostly because I don't love anything they chose. Well, I do love a couple, but I'm not a good enough knitter yet to do those ones I love (Like this GORGEOUS thing! Damn that's a very convincing project photo!). There were NO specific CAL projects selected, which irks my nerves a bit. I should have submitted one, I guess. The crochet project delimma gets solved a little further down in the post. Double whammy, baby!











For Malabrigo March:

In the category of General Accessory

The Dominion Bracelet which I discovered in the Entrelac digital mag I ordered last week. My plan is to use a doubled SnowBird lace to make this. I'm also thinking about felting it, but I'll really have to see how it comes out before I make that jump.








Last night I received a copy of the Best of KnitScene. Most of the projects I had already seen when I review the book before I purchased it. But THEN I saw the Phiaro scarf and was awed by it's simple beauty. I love this scarf and before I even finished my dinner, had planned to make it of a newly acquire Noro stash. Sadly, the Noro cast-on was TOO sticky and I frogged it before I finished the first row. I'm using Malabrigo Sock in Tiziano. I think it'll be super classy and more a scarf than a shawl. I don't own shawls and don't wear shawls, so thinning this scarf will totally work for one skein.





2 Official KAL entries:
Last night I planned most of my MM entries, but this morning as I was drafting this blog post I saw these beauties and couldn't believe I missed them last night! These are totally me: I LOVE fingerless gloves, and this pattern is just quirky enough for me not to think I'm repeating myself for a third time on the easy mitts. I'm thinking about doing these in Vertiver, but then there is a picture of 2 different yarns being used for the 2 parts. I might go for a combination (and, YIKES!, maybe not even a Malabrigo!). I have 1 skein of Berroco vintage left over from my Boneyard Shawl which is green and the Vertiver is green... hmmmmm.



Hats are fast and give that immediate gratification. I like this one pretty well, so I'm going to give it a go, in a Rios. Paris Nights is a safe, kinda BLAH
color and the only reason I have it is because someone on Rav was selling it for a great price. Rikke hat=safe, fast, easy project.

Probably will gift it, so if you want it, speak up now!








And, finally, my Crochet submission.
My shawl will be my piece de resistance (I know, I forgot my accents on that phrase!), and it will double as the prototype for the Wyrd Sisters Yarn Shop class I'm teaching in April. This shawl is written in Japanese, but charted very clearly. I'm going to make it in Pearl Ten lace, which I'm thinking about doubling. I have 2 skeins of it, which means a thicker, but smaller shawl, than if I was to crochet it not doubled. Another possible problem with doubling would be a different color for the edging. I have 2 skeins of Frank Ochre lace I could use for the edging, but the deep purple-yellow combo is too Sports Team-ey for my wardrobe.




Wanna join the Malabrigo March Madness? You should. :)

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Bernat CAL Afghan.

It's week 2 of the crochet asking Afghan Emily and I are doing together. She is making two, which I thought would be easy enough. Then, we got this week's clue. Yikes! These are yarn intense. Still pretty basic.

I want to post pictures of mine on the bernat page...but I can't because I'm making mine from stash yarn (simple soft)  oh well. To ravelry I go!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Published Pattern!


Ok, so I'm beyond thrilled right now. One of my students from a Thursday night Wyrd Sisters class posted these gorgeous pictures online! So, Ive got my act together and created my first OFFICIAL looking pattern. WOOT!

Now, I just have to figure out how to get the PDF out there for others to buy... Right now it's at the shop, but I'd love ravelry members to be able to buy it, too.