Knitting Gallery

I'm at it again. Just had to show you some newer projects lest you think I'm slacking. So I told you I was attempting some lace work. Technically speaking, lace is only lace if you work lace stitches on both sides of the pattern. My pattern merely has purls on the back side, so I guess it doesn't really count, but I'm okay with that.

I made my shawl using Kaleidescope Yarn's "Koigu Lace Shawl" pattern. It came out like this after a whole lot of sweat and tinking. (Remember that awful knitting backwards? Maybe this is "ecaling", or removing lace, and it was dreadful.) After I finished, morbid curiosity got the best of me so I plugged the numbers into an arithmetic sum and determined this shawl has 26,560 stitches, not counting the crocheting. And THAT count includes only those that remain, if you catch my drift...

Looks pretty awful, right? Believe it or not, there wasn't a missed stitch anywhere, but when it looks like this, who cares? So Anna and I threw the whole thing in the bathtub with water and stretched the bejezus out of it and pinned every inch of its blessed long edges. Isn't Anna patient? And this is what we got:

The kind folks at Kaleidescope Yarns liked it enough to put it on their blog at kyarns.com. Since Anna was abnormally excited about all those pins and painstaking work, she deserved to try it on first.

Which meant she then wanted one, which meant she earned one, which lead to this...

Don't you dare say the colors are the same, because I can assure you too much time was devoted to selecting "Anna colors", so blame it on your display or my camera or that pink towel behind mine; mine has NO pink. I assure you, there's only one yarn in common, and she has eleven colors and I've got five. I still haven't blocked hers or crocheted the edge, but she was happy as a clam to wear it as is. My devious plan is to block it when she grows big enough to want it larger. I made it full size so it'll last longer than she wants, unless of course, she gives it to the cats.

Besides shawlS (I'm on a third one), I made Sara a bed, which she showed minimal interest in until Crystal our kitten claimed it. Now its first-come, first-serve. You don't need to mention that Sara's pretending the bed isn't there.

Here's a lovely "little" fair isle sweater I made. Suffice it to say, never trust your gauge, never bother doing a gauge test. I was right, then I ripped it out after the gauge said I was wrong, and now it'll fit a linebacker.

Anna got a new red ski jacket last year, and lest it look boyish, I made this hat using my on-hand Lamb's Pride Bulky. Pink in there? Naturally. And some sparkly sequins to boot.

Some mitts for me. My favorite colors, and sparkles for me too. It's not true that there's an age limit for liking sparkles.

And here are those pretty and soft leg warmers that warm Anna's ballet bag so nicely. They're knit using two yarns together. How nice and cozy.

I hope you've enjoyed strolling through my newest Gallery. This is my shortest gallery so far, and now I'm going back to something soothing, like geometry.

In case you're masochistic enough to read the psycho-shawl-induced state of mind I was in as I made shawl number 1 (or if you're considering trying one too) , feel free to read my journal. It really should be edited or broken up, but that's another day. Or you could volunteer. Thanks!

Oh, the bed has gained in popularity.