WIP it, WIP it Good

It's Wednesday, let's take a look at what I'm working on.


Print o' the Wave, using that gorgeous Malabrigo lace I bought the other day.

I didn't intend on working this shawl just yet. I just wanted to try out my new Knitpicks Harmony tips, and my sister hasn't given the thumbs up on the yarn I picked for her Juno Regina yet, so I cast on this one. I was only going to work one repeat to see what I thought and them put it up for later. Yeah right. Done laughing yet? Good.

Pictured here is ten repeats and change of the center panel. I'm doing the center all in one piece, rather than the two pieces grafted together. I just don't like the look of the seam in the middle. I think I'll have to cut out a couple of repeats as well. I've read a number of complaints that the pattern is short on yardage. I have 940 yards so I'm hoping it will be enough. I know the edging is 40% of the yardage, so I'll work the center until I have a little more than 40g left of the 100g I started with and cross my fingers that it comes out. I will cry if it doesn't. Seriously.

Icarus is pouting in the corner. Sorry, buddy. I've ordered some size 3 Harmony circs, I really don't like the needles I'm using for him, I think I'll go faster with the Harmony. I'll get back to him eventually.

Caturday!

Mino says "HI!"



Spooky just wants to be left alone in his box.



Ok, there, my cats, I am now a crazy internet cat lady. Hooray.

Am I Not Beautiful?

It's Friday, I think some Yarn Pr0n would be in order.

Malabrigo Merino Lace/Emerald

I had a great time shopping yesterday, checking out an LYS I hadn't been in before because it's way out of the way in the next city over. I found a number of gems, not in the least an amazing amount of Noro, scary crazy piles of the stuff. I would have adopted them all and brought them home and loved them and hugged them and called them George (yes, all of them George), but I am on a budget here, so no.

I could not resist the call of the Malabrigo, sitting there so seemingly innocent on the shelf, sweetly wound into it's little skein. I had to have it.

I don't know what it is about Malabrigo. The colors are so rich and the fiber is so soft, it is irresistible. I even have a pattern in mind for these particular specimens, Eunny Jang's Print o' the Wave. I just need to finish Icarus, do my sister's Juno Regina, clean the house, mind the kid, and apply for school. Not to mention the whole list of other patterns calling my name.

(Oh yeah, I think I've talked myself into going back to school, more on that later)

Bother

OK, I admit it. I have lost my mojo. I have a case of startitis that you don't even want to know about. Nothing is working out right. I have been caught in the knitting doldrums.

So, I dug out my Icarus Shawl. I've had this thing hanging around for a year and a half. When I started it I was in love. Oh, the yarn was so soft and glowed with an inner beauty. So light, so ephemeral. And them the basement flooded and I realized that the silt that now covered every square inch of the floor was the very same color of my shawl. The very same color that I reveled in was now nothing more to me than dirt. That spoiled me on the shawl. I worked on it a bit more, but I had lost my enthusiasm and eventually I gave up and put it away. Occasionally I would bring it out again and work a few rows, but it never caught me again the way it had before and back into the closet it would go.



So, I have brought it out again in the hopes that an old project can shake me out of my funk and maybe I can actually finish that thing. I have two more charts and the edging to go. I'm concerned though, I fear I don't have quite enough yarn, and it's a discontinued color. Granted I could finish off the edge in a different color, there is one that would look nice, but I can't shake the feeling that this shawl is doomed.

I am determined to finish it. I will, and it will be grand, warts and all.

A Minor Miracle

I went shopping today, which honestly is an astounding feat in itself. I went shopping for a specific item, a dress, further astonishment. The truly amazing thing is that I found one. In fact, it was the first one I pulled off the rack and it fit, it actually fit. No fuss, no grumbling at clothes racks, no prodding at unsightly fat rolls. I walked in, saw a dress, grabbed it, tried it on and bought it.

Ok, it's not much, I know, but I think it's wild.

I'm not one for shopping.

The sugar on top is that I also found a bra that fits on my first try. Holy shit. The swimsuits are on the racks, but I wasn't about to test how far my luck would stretch. Another day, when I'm feeling braver, and less pudgy.

Everybody Panic!

It snowed. White stuff fell out of the sky. Chaos ensued. I believe there were reports of dogs and cats living together.

Don't believe me? Well, here...



Unfortunately it's the slushy stuff, with sleet coming down on top of it and freezing rain expected later. There will be no snow angels or snow men or other anthropomorphic snow formations today. I have other plans.



Ah, snow days!

Knitters of the Caribbean

We found out yesterday that Hubs has won a trip to Puerto Rico. An all-inclusive week's stay at the Wyndham Rio Mar, in March. Just the two of us. Ah, heaven...

Problem being, I have no appropriate clothes. I don't own "resort attire". Most of my summer stuff is falling apart, and I really needed to buy new this year. Now I have to scrounge around and find something climate and resort appropriate at totally the wrong time of year.

And my tubby butt needs a swimsuit..shudder.

Am I complaining? Hell no! I get a weeks vacation, paid, on a tropical island. If all I have to do for it is find some summer clothes in winter, I think I have it good. Honestly, laying off the beer and pizza between now and then will be the hard part. (now I'm whining)