Friday, July 29, 2011

Crescent Shawl


IMAG0341.jpg, originally uploaded by fudh4x0r.

Clearly, I need to work on lighting for Droid photography. This is draped over the back of the recliner.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

The Summer of Meh

I do not think I can cobble together a list of the books I've read since my last book related post, even if you held a gun to my head.  I suppose I could figure out what I've read on the nook, and recall a couple of library books I've read.  I will get to that later. . . .

Work on the house continues at our usual pace-- a day or two of sturm und drang and paint and arguing followed by a week of slack.  Well, if working and doing laundry and cooking and all the other administrone can be called slack.  The new windows are done, the garage door is repainted, the trim is nearly painted.  Wall painting continues and feels as if it will continue forever.

I've gotten in some knitting.  It was my intention to finish a blanket for lovely baby Jacinth and a shawl for lovely Aunt Bonnie prior to the end of the first week of August.  That will not be happening.  Well, perhaps one of them.

The shawl is being knitted in a vaguely crescent shape.  I have a 14 row repeat that consists of one row of YO K2 TOG, 3 rows of stockinette, 3 rows of stockinette where there are 11 evenly spaced KFB increases on the 2 knit rows, and then 7 more rows of stockinette.  The Paton Lace has delightful long color changes, but as the crescent has increased, the stripes were getting narrow.  Thus,  I shall manipulate in part of a second skein in order to balance it out a bit.  Once I finish this repeat I'm on, I shall do a row of K1 YO to double all the stitches and have a nice ruffly bottom until I run out of purple yarn.  I hope it softens a bit with washing as well.  I'm getting a bit of a dry spot on my tensioning finger. The yarn being 80% acrylic is going to require a steam block.    I haven't done that before and my ironing board died a quiet death.  I opened the closet one day and it was in the closet in 2 pieces.  The welded spot have given up the ghost.  I can't remember the last time I used the ironing board for anything other than blocking knitting.  I'm a slattern. 

My blanket body is finished.  I've picked up and knitted along the border and I THOUGHT I had increased to the correct number of stitches for feather and fan.  The joke is on me.  My plan was feather and fan along the straight-aways and increasing feather and fan at the corners.  Maddeningly enough, someone decided to move my stitch dictionary from the sofa to the floor.  The floor right by the litter box.  I shall be requiring a new copy of Vogue Stitchionary Volume 5.  Diablo even had the nerve to walk around yelling at me in that abrasive cat fashion.  I may chuck it in and do a simple lattice border.