...and the crowd ROARED

7 Small Shawls: T - 6 hours.

Or at least they said congratulations a little. :)

But I? I am feeling absolutely elated! Part of that may be due to the sugar and caffeine high, but really, I think it's just because I finished the 7th and last small shawl of my 7 Small Shawls eBook subscription, wove in the ends and blocked her!

Yes! Today! The day was not without its share of drama, but more about that later! I can hardly believe my odyssey has come to a fruitful and timely end. I am flying high right now!

Here she is, #7!

She is knit side to side.

The yarn I used, Bugga! in Adonis Butterfly, was dreamy!

I think this may be the one I will wear the most.

Funny, eh?

So I think it's time for you all to guess the names of the last two. Don't you? Just to remind you a little, here is #6 in all her red glory.

There are two Pleiades sisters left: Alcyone and Asterope. Which is which?

Here are their other lovely sisters! There's Merope.

Maia.

Celaeno.

Elektra.

And Taygete.

Leave a comment with your guess by midnight PST, Wednesday January 5 to be entered to win a lovely copper swirl shawl pin, as shown below.

This time, I will choose two winners randomly!

As of the moment, the eBook does not contain the last three shawls: Taygete, Alcyone, and Asterope. They need to be test knitted first but will make their debuts early in the coming year! Thank you everyone, for joining me in my quest!!! (ETA: the ebook contains 7 of the 12 shawls I ended up designing and knitting in 2010, but more on the others later!)

Happy New Year!

iKnit

7 Small Shawls: T - 21 hours and counting down.

in my studio

on the stairs

on the couch

eating pears

In the dining room

at the table

in the family room

watching cable

iKnit

Getting it together

7 Small Shawls: T - 47 hours and counting down.

I tried. I really did. Even after the rabbit chewed up my swatch along with my needles. I tried to love the Malabrigo, so gorgeous in the skein. And really not too bad in the swatch either.

But I just could not feel the love when I began knitting the whole shawl, no matter how hard I tried. And after I ripped the thing out about 15 times, I finally admitted it.

And then? It was Bugga! to the rescue! This lovely skein of Adonis Butterfly was just the thing for me.

It's my very first skein of Bugga. And it is difficult for any product to live up to its hype, but I have to say...I love the stuff!

It's a beautiful clear color, and it's soft without losing its bounciness. The verdict: YUM.

This last shawl is knit side to side and it's been a nice relaxing knit for me, especially after the bunny episode. I keep thinking of it as shawl #5, since that's what it would have been before it went into time out, but now it's #7, the very last sister in the eBook! It has a lace cable running along the bottom and some nice texture up top. I really like the way it's coming together. And now? Off to bed with me!

Shamelessly smitten

7 Small Shawls: T - 3!!! days and counting down.

Ulp. Just sayin'.

I don't have a huge amount of time to blog, but I wanted you all to see the blocking pics of shawl #6! We'll have the usual naming contest after the 1st, but :drumroll: here she is.

I'm still working out the blocking with a cat in the house.

So far, I've tried the bed and the floor with a sheet pinned on top.

I didn't really like either one too much.

This is knitted up with Lisa Souza's lovely silk/cashmere in Forbidden City.

OMG, it's soft and amazing stuff.

The edging is a crochet chain bind off.

It's really easy. You'll see. :) We'll have a little tutorial.

I am in love.

Deeply.

Hope you like her. :)

Did I mention that the last sister is on the needles? She's a lovely fun little knit. As soon as I realized I wasn't enjoying her because I didn't like the yarn in this particular pattern (it took a couple of days - duh!), I switched. And now I am happy as a clam.

Hope you all had a fabulous holiday! xox!

Monday's Musing

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes. - Shakespeare (Portia from Merchant of Venice)

Much the same could be said for any kind gift, don't you think? :)

Merry Merry!

I caught a rare picture of a Christmas elf last night.

From my home to yours, whatever traditions you celebrate at this time of year: may this be a fine day and a warm and loving season!

Life is busy happening

7 Small Shawls: T - 8 days and counting down.

And I'm busy knitting in between life happening. :) Christmas cookies :knit: gifts for coaches :knit: swim practice :knit: stomach flu :knit: toy drives :knit: food drives :knit: Christmas shopping .... :knitknitknit:

Here's my red beauty.

She's further along than this shows.

I am so enjoying this yarn and pattern!

Soooooooo soft.

And then?

Next week, I get to knit another bonbon. Wheeeeeeeeeeee! It's vacation knitting. Not quite stress-free but almost. It would be totally stress free if it weren't for the deadline. I was thinking of trying to finish binding off as the clock strikes midnight, but that may be cutting it too close. I may have a ceremonial thread to clip, though. What do you think? There needs to be some sort of pomp for the occasion of finishing my shawls! (Really, though, I went back and counted. The last shawl of the eBook will be my 12th shawl designed and knitted this year.)

The new kitty is doing well. Here she is learning to spin.

She's taking to it quite well!

Well, I'm off! Toodles. :)

Popping in....

...to say I'll be back with some pics soon! But too tired right now; bed sounds awfully good. See you tomorrow!

Monday's Musing

"Be the change you want to see in the world." - Mahatma Ghandi

I always try to remember this while holiday shopping with cranky people. It makes me smile even if I don't quite feel like it! :)

Madame X...revealed

7 Small Shawls: T - 13 days and counting down.

Thank you all so much for guessing the next shawl's name in my contest! First, the winner, chosen by the random number generator at random.org: Iciclechic Ali! Congratulations!

Now for the name. Can I have a drumroll please?

Ready?

Taygete, pronounced Tay-EE-jet-ay, is a shawl fit for a nymph who, as a doe, roamed the forests under the protection of Artemis.

Everyone's reasoning for the two other names was so persuasive that I almost changed her name! But you'll just have to see the other two. I know you'll all understand!

Here to keep her sister company is a picture of lovely Elektra, as knitted by my friend A and modeled at Cast Away.

I want this shawl. I really really want it. But in the interest of preserving a friendship, I didn't steal it. :)

The lovely red is coming along nicely! I'm knitting away on her and will have more pics very soon!

Mmmmmmmmm

7 Small Shawls: T - 15 days and counting down.

Can I just tell you that this yarn is the most absolutely sumptuous, decadent, deliciously red and soft material ever known to human kind?

Wow. Forbidden City is an incredibly fitting name, isn't it?

It's like a wonderful book that you don't want to put down, but you also don't want to finish. Except that it's better because, last time I checked, books were decidedly not soft.

Between bouts of stroking intervals of knitting, I've been trying to decide on another color combination for the small size of Madame X (did you guess her name yet?!).

There's contrasty.

And not so contrasty.

I have a bag of thirteen 50 gram skeins of Koigu won earlier this year at the San Francisco Ravelry meet-up, and I've been playing with color combinations. I favor the speckled yarn for the lace section. Someone else favors it, as well. Notice that she went for the green? A gal after my own heart. :)

I do love my green.

And a more intimate view of yarniness.

I feel like a voyeur.

It's so difficult to decide! But I think it's got to be something other than green this time. I mean, really. How much green can one person knit?

Don't answer that.

...and green

7 Small Shawls: T - 16 days and counting down.

Introducing the 5th shawl for the 7 Small Shawls ebook.

I do love green.

Particularly when it's dyed by Kristine. (Did you know the yarn I used - including the exact colors I used: The French Monk's Finest and Magic Bean - is on sale?)

I wish you could see these amazing colors in person!

I'm absolutely thrilled with the way it turned out. And I loved every minute of knitting it - very relaxing.

You know what this means, right?

It's time to divulge her name so we won't need to call her "Madame X!" Leave a comment with your guess - there are only three possible Pleiades sisters left (Alcyone, Taygete and Asterope) - by midnight PST, Friday December 17th and I will choose at random a winner for the lovely nickel swirl shawl pin (from my site) pictured below!

So...start commenting already! ;)

Monday's Musing

“The only disability in life is a bad attitude.” - Scott Hamilton

Love this quote. And it's so timely considering the pre-teen angst around here lately. :)

Have a great week, everyone!

Rrrrrrrrrrrred!

7 Small Shawls: T - 19 days and counting down.

Yum.

I'm really loving red right now.

It must be the influence of The Bear! It's his favorite color.

I'm knitting away with abandon without bothering to get patterns ready for test knitters. I think I'm actually going to make my end of year deadline of designing and knitting all the shawls (10 altogether - 7 for the eBook), even though I lost a great deal of weekend time to a swim meet. Just the knitting on two shawls left to do.... Woot!

Drive by blogging

Today was a good micro blogging day, considering the paucity of free time when one is dealing with:

- a dead water heater that is pouring water into the wall and then all over the garage,

- a cat that misses the litter box (a social statement?) then knocks one's laptop computer upside down onto the tile floor,

- an attitudinal pre-teen,

- a cold,

- 3 hours of sleep (see cold above),

- the necessity of working very late to finish work not done today while draining the hot water heater and mopping up the garage.

There's a swim meet this weekend. I'm happy to report that it's indoors.

We have no hot water. Just thought I'd mention that.

On the other hand? It's really nice to have the luxury to complain about such comparatively trifling things, and I'm finding I have a difficult time staying cranky. I think that's a good thing. :)

I just finished the audio book version of The Three Musketeers. Freakin' awesome.

Have a great weekend!

In keeping with the season

7 Small Shawls: T - 24 days and counting down.

First, I just want to clarify what I said in my last post. I still fully intend to have my 10 shawls (including the 7 Small Shawls) designed and knit by the end of the year. YES! :) The ebook shawls just won't be test knitted and in your hands until a little later when my test knitters aren't doing their holiday knitting! But you'll be able to look at them here, see the process and watch the insanity them take shape. And I will try to make you drool. I will try my very best. :)

Speaking of drooling...this yumminess is cashmere and silk from Lisa Souza in the Forbidden City colorway.

And let me tell you that you have never seen or felt a more incredibly sumptuous and decadent yarn. It's fairly fragile, though, so if you get a little knot like I did, try not to yank on it (like I did). (ETA: I wasn't all that clear on the knot thing; there wasn't a knot in the skein. When I was winding it, the yarn slip knotted itself as yarn is sometimes wont to do. I tried to pull it out and broke the yarn - totally my fault.)

I nearly cried when it broke. I hate wasting even an inch of this yummy stuff! I am feeling very red these days, so I've put aside the bunny-chewed Malabrigo for the time being and I'm playing with the yummy red yarn!

Look what I got in the mail!

It's from Steven over at bitchesgetstitches, who had a little contest over on his blog. It's green. And it's sock yarn. That makes it totally and completely perfect. Many thanks, Steven!