Tres Chic Veronique

There are two important events in May: it's my birthday and the weather finally starts getting nice:) And, this year, the arrival of my first Yarntini sock club package made it even better.
Without further ado:
A Misocrafty pouch in one of my favorite Amy Butler prints, and self-striping Yarntini yarn in "Pure Breeze Stripe".
Blue! I can't seem to get away from this lovely color! I guess there are some things you just shouldn't fight...
I love this Misocrafty pouch! And check out a new detail: a tab. My previous pouch sadly lacked one, and I boldly emailed Joelene. And the next thing you know, voila!, a tab. I just love crafters.

But check out the other goodies:

• Lucy Neatby's Cool Socks Warm Feet-- Six Exceptional Sock Patterns for Printed Yarns

• Pure Breeze Lip Balm by Yarntini

• Stitch markers by sarkasmo.etsy.com

• and a little sample of Soak in Citrus.

I immediately wound the yarn and started a toe-up sock. Thanks to Yahaira, creator of Pureknits for putting together such a great sock club.


But the fun doesn't stop there! I received a birthday gift certificate to Brooklyn General from the very generous Spiders. As a coincidence, we happened to meet up at Brooklyn General, so I had to spend it... I got 11 balls of Rowan's Cotton Glace in a soothing, summery shade of pink (Peony). I already cast on for Agnes, from Rowan 35. This mag came out in 2004 (it's the one that has the popular Audrey sweater, I think it was the first knit-along that I lurked), and I've had my eye on the Agnes pattern ever since.


Thank you Spiders! And especially to Virginia and Lisa who are the organizers behind the Spiders birthday exchange. They not only remember everybody's birthdays, but they collect funds, have fantastic gift ideas, and they have even created a Spiders' bank account! And they decided that if there's leftovers, we'll have a smashing party!

And finally, I'd like to show you exactly how much yarn I started with for my Bloom shawl:

And how much yarn I have left over:

*phew* Just made it!

Oh, one last thing: I have 3 invites for Ravelry. Anybody interested?

Labels: Agnes, birthday, blumengruss shawl, Ravelry

This shawl has sucked the life out of me! (My temporary blogging hiatus has even prompted an ex to call me and ask when I was going to post. I'm now imagining all sorts of lurkers out there... Hi mom! Hi Chloe!).



Pattern Specs:
Pattern: Blumengruss Shawl (aka "Bloom", aka "My Maid of Honor's Shawl for Mom's Wedding!"), from The Art of Heirloom Knitting. I bought the book at Kinokuniya at Rockefeller Center, where I spent the better part of an hour looking at every single japanese craft book they had. It was hard to narrow it down to 2 books! (I also got a sewing book of skirt patterns, and realized when I got home that all the skirts come in one size. And I don't think I'm that size...).



Yarn: Habu Wool Roving, a-81, 8 oz (224 g), or 1,488 yds. I used almost all of it! Since this yarn is $2.80/oz, I spent a grand total of $22.40! Yarnmonster and Gleek wisely bought 8 oz each...
Marie generously allowed me to use her dyes, and the result was this beautiful blue/green color.



Needles: Oh, lots and lots. I made the first piece, a triangle on 2.75 mm (US 2) needles (which you can't really see in any of these pictures because it's in the folded-over part), then started the Feather and Fan along the edges of the triangle on 3 mm (also US 2!) needles. I was supposed to switch to 3.25 mm (US 3) half-way through, but I forgot... Then the edging was knit on 3 mm (US 2) needles. So this entire shawl has been knit on size TWO needles. Whoa. I didn't realize that...



Notes: Edgings take forever. For-freaking-ever. I thought I could bang it out in a week, then forgot that I was going to a conference for the first 3 days of that week, where every minute of the day was accounted for from 8 am to 11 pm. You can imagine how frantic I was by the end of the week... My deadline was looming... I knit on the train to Boston (Subway Knitter was right: the Acela is awesome!). I knit in the cab on the way to the hotel. I knit throughout the rehearsal (oh yes I did!). I knit throughout the rehearsal dinner. I knit until 3 AM. I knew it would be worth it: the wedding day was supposed to be cold and rainy. And then... Well. It turned out to be warm and sunny. *sigh* I did wear the shawl for about 5 minutes, and my aunt Tathy noticed and snapped a pic :) Hey, I wonder if she's lurking?



Date started: Well, the yarn was dyed on March 11th, and I started soon after that.
Date finished: April 28. Wow, that was long!



Sunny room and wheel courtesy of Yarnmonster.

Labels: blumengruss shawl

No, not that kind of blue! (Although, come to think of it, this inexistent Spring is getting on my nerves. It's 40 F/5C, dark and poring rain: boooo!).
I've suddenly realized that all my projects are blue! Although I'm not actively participating in Project Spectrum, I'm sure that all the blue I've been seeing on everybody's blogs during February and March has had a subliminal influence on me.

First up, the Bloom shawl. I stared and stared at the chart and the photographs in the book, and came to the conclusion that I followed the directions properly. Then how come their shawl is triangular and mine is not?! I thought about it while knitting a few more repeats in Garter Feather and Fan, then decided that perhaps through Aggressive Blocking I might be able to create a more triangular shape. Ah ha! Aggressive Blocking is a knitter's friend :)
This shawl is getting big, so I've been pinning it to an old comforter. I want it to be bigger still, and then I have to add a border all the way around. My deadline is in 2 weeks. And it's on size 2 and 3 needles. *deep breaths* But on a positive note, you can see that I have more than enough yarn.

I've also been working on the new Amy Butler bag, Frenchy Bag. I think I bought it based on the name alone... And wouldn't you know, I just happened to have purchased this adorable honeycomb and bees fabric by Etsuko Furuya. (I had my eye on the yellow one, but it is too cute to stay in stock anywhere. I was told at Purl that this fabric takes the slow boat from Japan. But I want it now! *pout*).
I'm still working on the lining, but I'm loving it so far.

And finally, I've also done some japanese embroidery/quilting called Sashiko. I stumbled upon the printed canvas and the thread at City Quilter, and immediately loved the bold geometric patterns. In fact, I showed it to Yarnmonster, who liked it as much as I did and bought a kit and a book a few days later!




Hmm, I think that the intent of Knit From Your Stash 2007 (ie to stop buying yarn and use what you already have) is completely lost on me, as I seem to go out and spend money on other crafts!
I might as well admit that I bought some fabric for a dress...

Labels: blumengruss shawl, sewing

Sometimes a knitting project is so easy, so obvious, it just flies off the needles.
My friends Jamie and Curtis just had a baby which they named ...... Daisy!
Well, of course, I had to knit a Daisy hat!


I have to admit that I was inspired by Blue Blog's flower hat, but since I didn't have the Itty Bitty book she used, I improvised.

Pattern specs:
Hat: based on the hat in Last Minute Knitted Gifts (baby size), but made a no-sew picot hem because I thought it would be more flower-like.
Flower: from Nicky Epstein's Knitted Embellishments.
Yarn: Paton's Grace in yellow, about half a ball, and oddments of white Merino Grignasco.
Needle: US 2 for hat, US 4 for flower.
Started: March 31st.
Finished: March 31st.

This success was offset by an annoying realization: the Blum shawl is not coming out triangular. And I thought I could simply follow the chart and disregard the japanese instructions... I am not ripping this out, and I'm thinking of adding little triangles on the side. What do you think?

Labels: baby Daisy, blumengruss shawl

I have good news, and I have bad news.

I'm going to give you the bad news first, ok?
I'd been working merrily along on Blumengruss (which, by the way, is such a harsh name that I'm going to rename it Bloom. Ah, much better).
Bloom is made of 3 parts:
1. You start with a triangle, knit from the bottom up. So the rows get longer and longer and lonnnnnnnger. I decided I'll keep the stitches live at the top.
2. Then, you pick up stitches along the 2 sides and you knit a V shape. (Yay for Vs!) Again, I will leave the stitches live at the end.
3. Finally, you knit a border all the way around, and pick up one live stitch every other row.
Here's a schematic, a la Grumperina:
Here's how far I got after about 3 days:
Cute, right? Well, what you might not be able to tell from this picture is that the yarn is an eye-searing, traffic-cone orange. In order to squelch this overly bright color, I decided to purchase new (neutral colored) yarn for the stripes. Don't look at me like that, buying new yarn is allowed if it's to complete a project! I immediately found this lovely Habu lace weight merino at my LYS:
The colors are called Brick and Whiskey.
So there, I was, chugging along, and then, one person said, in the kindest tone possible, "hm, those colors are very... 70s?". See for yourself.
And that's when it hit me. Those colors are hideous together. Want to see a close up?
I then spent the weekend asking anyone I knew whether these colors were not atrocious together. One friend said to me "I love you, but yes, those colors do not go together". Well then.

On to the good news!
I'm using the yarn I dyed with Marie last week!
And finally, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Gleek will have a first-day-of-Spring baby!

Labels: baby gleek, blumengruss shawl

Oooh, I could not believe it when I saw a package in front of all the mailboxes . Every time I see a package left out in the hallway (ie which could not fit into the mailboxes), I hope against all hope that it's for me. And this time, it was! (By the way, for those wondering about the christmas gift that my dad sent me from France, it got returned to sender! Grrr).
Whatever could it be?
Yarn? Yarn?! For me? A book? Chocolate?!! I'm in heaven!

This treasure comes to me courtesy of Jacqueline at Serendipity. I think I mentioned already that she was giving away prizes for her 2 year blogiversary. Yes, you read that right, she's giving yarn away. Just in case you can't tell from the picture, I'm going to spell it out for you: that's 2 skeins if KSH in Blushes, 2 skeins of Noro Lily (70% cotton, 30% silk --hmmmm), one ball of Opal, one chocolate koala filled with caramel, and one cute notebook.
I already have plans for all of the yarn. I think we can safely say that my knitting blahs are over!
1. I've been dying to make the Retro Rib socks (here's what Sarah's look like). Hot pink is a good color, don't you think?
2. The Noro screams baby girl to me, so Gleek is getting another baby knit. Maybe EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket... Gleek just posted a picture of the Baby Surprise Jacket that Sarah made for her, so it was the first thing that popped in my mind. I know, I should probably make something else, but the Baby Surprise Jacket has such an unusual construction that I have to try it. Thanks for the inspiration Sarah!
3. I have to make myself a bridesmaid shawl for my mother's wedding. It's at the end of April in Boston and my dress is short sleeved, so I know I'm going to freeze. And wouldn't you know it, I've had my eye on this japanese shawl pattern! It's from "New Style of Heirloom Knitting" aka the book that Am Kamin (the cardigan that's the subject of the Crossed in Translation KAL) and the Mountainash shawl that Grumperina is making are in. (Note: I bought the book at Kinokuniya, but you could order it from Yes Asia).



I'm going to use the pink KSH, orange Lacy Lamb (from the stash), and purple cashmere (also from the stash). I could also use the 1,500 yds of Habu single ply laceweight that's in the stash. In fact, I'm going to dye it at Marie's this week! See how good I'm getting at this Knit From the Stash thing?
This shawl is called Blumengruss, after the lied by Hugo Wolf. Every design in this book is music-inspired: there's a Debussy sweater (l'Isle Joyeuse), a Ravel sweater (Ondine), Mountain Ash is named after a piece by Jean Sibelius, and Am Kamin after a Tchaikovsky piece. Fancy!

Thank you Jacqueline!

Labels: blumengruss shawl, raok