Still Alive

I should apologize for such a long lag between posts.  This weekend would have been wonderful for taking pictures, but instead I spent it doing things with my boys.

On Saturday, I went to the Woolery with my mother and one of her co-workers to help pick out yarn for a stole.  Deb was back, and I finally got to catch up a little.  Unfortunately, I didn't bring any of the finished shawls because my brain wasn't on straight (and I didn't know whether she'd be working or not) but I did get a couple of fun things.  For instance, I picked up this:

Silk/Alpaca/Merino/Donegal Bulky

I wanted a thick hug-like shawl for myself, and this particular yarn reminds me of birch trees.  To belabor the point that lace can be knit in anything, I'm knitting the free shawl pattern with it.  This is what one skein of 109 yards of bulky looks like when knit up

one skein knit up (plus stitch dictionaries)

This is what 2 skeins look like knit up

it did get bigger, but it's hard to take an accurate picture

And shortly I'll be able to show you what it looks like with a third, and final skein knit up on it.

This is not delicate, light, fluffy lace.  This is the kind of thing you throw on in the dead of winter, snuggling in and blessing the great Alpaca.  I will be using it until snow flies as an alternative to a coat.

Saturday I also took my boys out apple picking.  I suppose I could try to make myself sound smarter, but the long and short of it is I walked into a tree.  There were mitigating circumstances, but seriously?  I walked... into... a tree.  Yep, I'm a certified member of the brain trust.  So no knitting was done Saturday due to severe headache.  Go figure.

In the meantime, say, Friday and Sunday, I also knit on the leaves stole:

finishing the final edging, will be done shortly

And I put 3 more inches on the vines stole:

yeah, doesn't look that much different to me either...

I also worked on my prototype for the shawl commemorating my grandmother.  I'm using a "worsted" weight silk single from a cone.  I found that this yarn is more like a heavy fingering than worsted in my "test swatch" (erm, might have beeen a shawlette that I used to "swatch" since it's hard to tell how yarn will behave in a larger item using a 4x4 patch), so I'm knitting it up on size 3 needles.

So soft, so silky, plus shiny!

In the meantime, I'm auditioning yarns for the next time I have free needles.

There's these from Tanis Fibre Arts

blue label yarn in sand

blue label yarn in moss

This Grace Handdyed in peaches

pretty, plus silk!

Another Woolery find in Autumn colors:

autumn reds

A Malabrigo sock weight in November browns

squooshy plus tonal browns

And finally from Great Northern Yarns

navy blue cashmere and mink!

All of them yummy.  All of them beautiful.  How ever is a girl to choose?
Thank you to everyone who managed to read to the bottom of this book.  If you had a choice, which colors would you choose?