It's Like Magic

When you first finish a knitting project, it can look a little....blah.

Of course, what you need is a good blocking.  In a sink or tub, run cold water with some gentle detergent...Euclan is a good choice, and you can find a selection of such things at your local yarn store.  I fill the sink up with the sudsy soap first and do not leave the water running onto my newly finished hand knit, which can make for a surprise felting and a few tears.  



Rubber Ducky, you're the one....you make bath time lots of fun....

Don't be surprised to see some dye bleeding out into the water.  After draining the soapy water, fill the sink again with cold, clear water, not letting it beat down on your hand knit. If there's a lot of color in the water, be sure to rinse an extra time or two to make sure the water is clear.

 

You can use blocking wires, straight pins, foam blocking boards, sock forms, the list goes on and on with what you can use to facilitate blocking out your hand knit.  With this particular shawl, I just decided to lay it out flat on a nice fluffy towel.  After I had removed it from the rinse water, I gently squeezed it, but DIDN'T wring it out (oh that would be so bad for a hand knit!!) and laid it out nice and flat.  Easy-peasy.

Check it out again.

Before:                                                                               After: 

 

Blocking makes a big difference, doesn't it?  I'd show some better shots of it being worn...maybe shots of me channeling my inner hobbit, dancing barefoot in a field of grasses with the shawl held lightly overhead, but the lighting outside is terrible today, folks.  Super cloudy.  Yeah, I'm totally blaming the weather on that one.  Ha ha!

In other fiber-y goodness news....there is a new arrival or three at Yarns Etc and Great Yarns.

Also, did you know that it's the 26th anniversary for Great Yarns???  26 years!  Happy Birthday!  May you have many many more!  On Friday and Saturday of this week there will be a big ole party, with cake (YAY!) and a sale (YAYAYAYAYAYYYYY!) on pattern books and loose patterns. 

Another gem to look forward to is the Stitch N' Pitch to be held May 19th at 7pm.  Section 211, only $9 a ticket, and lots of fun knitting and crocheting with friends and scaring the Muggles.  I'm looking forward to that very much!

Play ball!!

The Results Are In!

I was so pleased to see several comments from knitters after last week's blog post.  It looks like we're going to do a knit-along, folks!  I'm very excited, as it's my first knit-along.  Details are still coming together, and in a day or two I will present the pattern we will be knitting, along with some yarn options.  Seems like we're all split down the middle on the whole sock/shawl debate, but no one is threatening to unleash the clothes moths on us if we pick one and not the other (knock on wood).  Yet another reason why I love knitters, we're all pretty happy and laid back, so long as you don't take our yarn away!  I shall determine what we will do by scientific method.  Are you familiar with the Flip-a-Coin Research Institute?  Just kidding (sort of). 

In other news, have you been by your lovely local yarn store lately?  If not, you have got to see this:



Yarns Etc did a little shuffling of their chi recently, busted out the feng shui manual and aligned their chakras in a most pleasing manner.  Seriously, have you seen how gorgeously the yarns are displayed there now?  For instance:

I had to mosey through and appreciate all the yarns in their new cubbies...heck, I appreciate the yarns every time I go, new cubbies or not!  In one such cubby, there was a new kid on the block: 



Some people think I'm an enabler...I just laugh and laugh....

This is Malabrigo Arroyo, which is a sport weight, superwash merino from Uruguay and it is hand-dyed in batches of only five (FIVE!) skeins...which would make a beautiful project, as colorful and unique as a stained glass window.  

I also have finished another project here on the home front. 

This is the Landscape Shawl from Evelyn Clark.  I've had pictures of it up on the blog before, and while right here it isn't looking its best, try as I might to make the camera do it justice (it looks like oatmeal hurl here), it does look very nice in person.  Each band of the shawl is done in a different stitch.  Garter, seed stitch, stockinette, moss, etc.  It also has a lovely picot edging along the sides of the shawl.  I sized it down a little bit, since my mother-in-law, who requested it, did not want it to be overly large. 

I still am chugging away on my Pi Shawl as well.  It is much, much more colorful, thanks to the rainbow Kauni Effektgarn I'm using.  You may need sunglasses for this next picture:

I'm very close to knitting on a border, and then I will be faced with a quandary.  What am I going to do with this shawl?  Not exactly working as a blanket, too scratchy for my baby daughter (sorry, Kauni, but you know it's true), not sure if a circle shawl is my thing...I was drawn in by the slowly changing colors that make Kauni so cool though.   I'm a simple creature...some days I'd call my friend and say, "I was on yellow-green earlier today and now I'm almost to purple!"  It's the little things in life, I guess. 

So, to finish up, please feel free to add your two (or ten) cents in about the upcoming knit-along!!  I'd love it if we could get a bunch of us together working on something, helping each other along!  Keep coming back, too, since the pattern and yarn will be up in the next day or two!  See you soon!

The British Are Coming! The British Are Coming!!

Once upon a time, a prince fell in love with a girl.

And married her.

And the entire world went nuts about them.  Just lost their frickin' minds.  They couldn't get enough of them, seeing them together, separately, clubbing, brushing their teeth, whatever.  And not just the normal folks.  Knitters went nutsy foo-foo as well.  See this?

My friends, what we have here is commemorative yarn for the Royal Wedding.  Ta-dow.

It was truly a beauty of a yarn, a deep blue with just a little bit of sparkly tencel, and very reminiscent of a certain sapphire engagement ring.  This lace weight yarn is not only gorgeous and a bit unusual, it is a true collector's item.  Only 1000 skeins were made by Fyberspates, and this skein came with its own numbered certificate of authenticity.  And, if you too are an Anglophile in love with the newest Windsor smug marrieds, you may be able to order your very own skein at their website (ahem, I'll wait while you go check it out...no really, it's cool).

I got to touch the Royal Yarn when I came in to Yarns Etc this past Friday.  Leslie, who works there, had gotten this yarn, along with several other wonderfully sheepy things, from her mother, who had been to Britain recently.  Other gorgeous items included yummy wool spun from British sheep, and these really great little coasters...

And, lest you think I am moving on from the Royal Awesomeness of the Brits, I present this to you as well:

Now that is what I love about knitters.  It's one thing to be sitting there with your buddies, and cracking jokes about the royal family, but it takes a knitter to see the yarn potential in Prince William marrying Kate Middleton.  They not only have the balcony scene...

...they also have a Youtube video of the whole dang thing!

"Mawwiage....mawwiage is whut bwings us togethuh todaaayyyy...dat bwessed event, that dweam within a dweam.  Have you da wing?"  Um, sorry, got off track there.  Anyone know what movie that is from? 

Speaking of the Brits, another invasion of sorts was happening at Yarns Etc when I was there on Friday. 

Can I tell you that there is an obscene amount of Rowan yarn at the store right now?  Just for starters, I saw Roawan Colourspun, Purelife, Lima, Felted Tweed, Big Wool, Cashsoft Baby DK, Pure Wool DK, Kidsilk Haze, Purewool 4 ply, and the Rowan Studio Issue #23.  

All in beautiful colors for fall. And fall is coming, this summer nastiness can't last forever...uh...right?

I also saw Misti Alpaca Baby Me Boo, this sweet thick and thin yarn:

I also had a bit of an attack of glee when I spied a basket of this:

KAUNI EFFEKTGARN!!!!  This stuff looks so cool when I have seen it used on Ravelry (like this, this, or this) and I have had trouble tracking it down before.  I was so pleased to see some here!  I also saw a delivery of Shibui come in as well, and I had to breathe slowly and relax so as not to tear 'round the store like a Tasmanian devil. 

I know for a fact that the hot, sticky summer can't last much longer.  Want to know how I know?  Looky here:

Can you see it?  Try this one...

 
It's a gnarly old tree near where we live, but if you look closely, the leaves are turning....

Look What's New!

As if you needed a reason...

to go to the yarn store...

to come and see what's new...

  what's gorgeously soft and beautiful...

unbelievably shimmery...

a palette of colors to work with...

and exciting new patterns to knit up...

Seriously...why are you still looking at this?!?  Come on in!

SIDETRACKED

Best laid plans...  not so much!

There are plenty of things that will just have to wait a little longer for my knitting attention. 

I happily knit this tiny little hat out of the leftovers from my blankie, walked right into that one folks! Stripes are so adorable on little baby hats... then you get caught weaving in 42 ends on a hat that is no bigger than 6 inches!

Here it is modeled with some yummy new yarn from Aslan Trends. It is called Los Andes, and it's a nice thick and thin super bulky wool with great colors.

We also got the Aslan Trends sock yarn Santa Fe, a beautiful kettle dyed wool in the same great colorways. Can you tell that I favor the greens? The best part is that both of these great new yarns are super soft!

We'll just see what goodies come in next week.

Be well and happy stitching!