Shut Up & Knit!

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The sun came out for six minutes yesterday and I was able to take a couple of photos.

The beads I used are 6/0 "E" premium Japanese glass beads.  The type sold at the craft stores in little tubes.  They are bigger than our traditional seed beads.

I used a size 7/1.5mm Susan Bates crochet hook that I purchased for this project.  The smalled one I had on had was a size 12 from the Boyes people.  Their sizing does not agree with the Susan Bates stuff and I really don't know what to think because the size 12 is pretty much the same size as the size 7.  WTF?!

Anyway, I poured out a few beads at a time into a saucer as I beaded my shawl.  Even though, I am currently pet-free, I did not want to have tiny dark glass beads everywhere.  Keeping them under control was important.

The whole thing was simple, fun and easy to pull off.  All in all, a great way to impress people without doing anything dangerous or life threatening.

In other news, thanks to Mark Harmon, I have two completed sweater sleeves and am once again working on the length of body.  With any luck, I'll be able to finish it by the end of the weekend.  I am so ready to move on.

With Mark Harmon, of course.

Ripple Lace

Ripple Lace from Evelyn A Clark's book, Knitting Lace Triangles.

The cashmere yarn was a gift from Carrie the Preggo, who also over dyed it.  The yarn is slightly variegated (shades of purple) which added to the shawl, I think.  It also smells lovely.

I used three beads at the points that I found at a local craft store and a crochet hook to help attach them.

Yes, the photo sucks, but it's cloudy here and y'all are lucky I managed to get one halfway okay photo out of the six million I took that were total and complete crap.

When winding the yarn, I managed to break it twice.  I was a bit more gentle during the blocking than I would normally be because I'm not emotionally stable enough to survive yarn breaking during the blocking/pinning process.

Y'all don't even know.

It is soft, light, beautiful and tragically mine.  Carrie told me she did not want it back once it was lace.

Can you believe it?

Where did the weekend go?

Wasn't it just Thursday?

Wasn't it?!

Yeah, anyway...

After much knitting in the round while reading blogs, I was finally at the point where I could knit the cables and be done with that sleeve.

I am currently pretending that I don't have another sleeve to knit. 

I need a little more denial time before getting back to the boring.  Good thing I don't have the long monkey arms, lemme tell ya.

I'm not totally sure about the cast off.  The pattern said loose, but I'm thinking maybe that's too loose.  But can a cuff be too loose?

I may need some caffeine before I can figure this one out.

A lot of caffeine.

I still love the yarn and the idea of the sweater, so I'm thinking things will work out. 

Until it starts to pill.

Thanks to my fabulous Joan, whom I love dearly, I was able to finish the cashmere shawl.  Now I need to soak and block it.  I mentioned to Joan yesterday that I was having a little trouble with the transition from the lace chart to the edging. 

She dropped what she was doing and looked up the pattern I was knitting.  In record time, she had the answer for me and, after a little tinking, I was back on track.

The problem?  I'm a dumbass.

Yes, I know that's not news.

Shut up.

A Sunny Sunday

I don't think it rained at all yesterday.  Clearly, I need to hunt down the local weather geek and smack them down for getting me all hopeful about rain and then not delivering.

Reminds me of this guy I used to...

Anyway...
Ribble Socks for Squishy

The pattern is from the book Socks, Socks, Socks.

Artyarns Ultramerino 4 is the yarn.  Color #238  and I used two hanks for this pair of size 9 girl socks.

I used my usual 2.75 mm dpns and my beloved CCSRs for the heels and toes.  It's the only way to go.

I love how they turned out and how easy (and fun) the pattern is to knit.  It's a good one for working on your cabling without using a cable needle skills.

The cabling without that extra needle comes in handy, ya know.

Like when you're working on a cabled sweater.

After taking a break from the cardi, I worked on the very boring sleeve this morning while reading blogs.  That helped me deal with the slow going knitting in the round.  I think I am now at the point where I can do the cabling for the cuff.  If I am, that will go a long way toward helping me love this project again.

Although, cheating on the cardi with some cashmere lace was lovely.

Then I hit a rough patch with the lace.

Maybe cheating was a  mistake.  :?

Off to look for errata for my lace before the cardi and I watch the football game.

Happy Sunday!

Where we pretend this is a knitting blog

I am totally over that sweater I'm knitting.

Yes, a week into the project and half way through the first sleeve.

It is dead to me.  Nothing more than just another disappointing failed relationship.

This doesn't bode well for a sweater in a month, people.

It may need to buy me flowers.  Not that I'm that easy.  Fairly easy, but not that easy.

Shut up.

That is a much better photo than what is here today.

Today is another grey cloudy day that may or may not bring us rain.  Nothing like a pink sunset.

Now kindly go visit Angie and wish her a happy birthday.

Thank you.

&

Happy Saturday!