Grad

My daughter's grad is on May 31. A while ago I think I posted that I found some yarn in the same colour as her dress - 80% off!

I can't remember how many things I cast on and then frogged - a simple thin, lace shawl, a shrug, variations on the same. But I was never satisfied.

Finally, I was browsing on Ravelry and saw this:




Capelette by Be Sweet. I saw photos of people wearing it and it seemed to me to be just the right thing. Was that stockinette stitch, reversed every, what... 5 rows to create ridges? Looked like it to me. Did I need a pattern for that? I'd have to upsize it to 2X anyway. I guessed at the number of stitches. I was wrong the first time but the second time it was just right. 140 stitches does it.


I knit it on 6mm needles, I think at a gauge of 3.5 stitches per inch. I made 8 ridges. This is how it turned out (I added a brooch at the rosette):


Love it! She loves it! Mmm Hmm.

Ikea Knit Nights

Tonight, as with every other first and third Monday of the month, I went to Knit Night. I picked up my friend and her baby and we arrived at Ikea in Coquitlam at 6pm. We bought some supper - a good value for the money - and chatted while we ate. Then we started knitting.

Others showed up along the way, there were 7 of us tonight, all at varying skill levels from rank beginner to skillful crafter. We knit and instructed and chatted. It was really nice to be able to ask questions and get answers from others who knew what to do or who might do things a different way from how we would.

We discussed patterns and caressed the yarn and explained that all knitting is just knit and purl. It was a really comfortable experience that I cherish.

Spring

I had a fair while with not much knitting content, but somehow managed to 'attract' more yarn to my stash - twice on the same day once...shhh!

The diamond fantasy scarf is coming along slowly but surely. I've learned it is definitely not something I can take along with me to social situations or even do while watching tv. Mistakes happen. Nasty ones that involve tinking.

But, that being said, I'm not really using lifelines anymore. Really, I lost my small container of dental floss and couldn't put one in at the usual spot, the end the row repeats. So I just kept cruising. If I pay attention, counting the number of stitches between the repeat markers, I can fix anything two rows down. So now I'm doing a lot of counting and it's going fine.

I'm getting the itch to do some felting again. I wonder what? Probably not a bag because I've done quite a few of those, but I'll see.

Happy Easter.

Fibre Fest

I am the proud owner of more stash.

I found some:

lovely hand-dyed (many different blues) wool - 1200 metres.
shiny, smooth variegated green 100% rayon - 600 yds
muted maroon 100% cotton - 3200 yds

Heidi came with me, bringing baby Hadrian - he was the hit of the party, as always. We managed to spend five hours there. It wasn't a huge place, but there was lots for fibre addicts like us to look at. We each tried spinning on a wheel, then tried to come up with justification for having to buy one.

There were llamas and goats there to see but I would have preferred that they weren't. The smell was quite strong throughout the big room but most especially by the animal enclosures.

People were very friendly and willing to demonstrate or let us try things. Heidi and I had a great time.

I Feel Much Better Now

After the Diamond Fantasy Scarf sat in a small overnight time out I felt I could face it again. I ripped it back to nothing (again) and restarted.

I'm well past the point where I made my mistakes and things are going swimmingly (hope I didn't wreak the whole mojo by stating that). I've got lots of life lines and I count the stitches often to make sure I'm right on track.

This is definitely a not television or group knitting project - at least for me. But I've got my cardigan to do for those occasions - straight stockinette all the way up.

Diamond Fantasy Retry

I started the Diamond Fantasy Scarf by Sivia Harding in the wool/silk blend. Here's another photo from Sivia's website:








I started following the written out instructions, which don't include bead placement, so I decided where to put them myself. When I had finished about 37 rows I decided that what I had feared was true: I didn't like the placement of the beads in the diamonds. They were hiding behind three stitches coming together at once. But, no big deal... I didn't mind frogging it. I had used life lines but decided to just start again. The pattern takes a lot of counting and I wanted to get more used to it anyway. I started pulling right back to the start.



I planned the bead placement better and really like where they are now. "Look at how pretty they are," I told myself as I stretched out my work to see how the lace would look. "Hey, what's that?"



One of the diamonds was not knit correctly. Right at the start, too! Argh. I think I did a ssk instead of a k2tog. Part of one of the sides of the first diamond was slanted the wrong way. I had almost decided to leave it when.... I found another mistake. Oh. My. Gawd. What was I doing? Why didn't I use life lines this time - I had myself convinced that I was counting the stitches just fine.



I put it away for the night - I couldn't face it. I feel a bit better now so I'll rip it back and go for it again. This time, lifelines and double checking each row.



I like the pattern and it isn't all that hard, I just haven't had much experience with lace that doesn't have a really obvious repeat. Here I go again.

Diamond Fantasy

Yesterday dh and I went on a Valentine's Day outing. Both teenagers were at work (McDonald's) so we had the whole afternoon to ourselves and already had plans to have a date night.



We began by picking up prescriptions at Safeway pharmacy... yay! It wasn't too bad, I brought my cardigan to knit on so the waiting time was enjoyable, dh and me chatting while my fingers flew - gotta love stockinette sometimes.



Then I'd had a whim to visit Chinatown so we headed off there. It ended up to be a lovely long walk in that very colourful area of town. We picked up some great bargains in produce.



We had planned to go for dinner and a movie but it was still way to early when we left Chinatown so I mentioned that I wanted to visit a yarn store. Dh, supportive as ever, said sure. So I headed off to one I hadn't visited before - Homecraft Importers. But, we hit a huge traffic snarl and never got there. We backtracked and found ourselves on Main Street. Guess what's on Main Street? You've got it - Three Bags Full, my favourite lys.



Dh wished me fun while he let the seat back and had a little nap. I found some lovely yarn - Silky Wool by Elsebeth Lavold. I decided to do another project by Sivia Harding. I chose the Diamond Fantasy Scarf. Lovely lace. I chose a dark orange-red colour of the yarn.



Here's a photo of the Diamond Fantasy lace - I borrowed it from Sivia Harding's website:







Today I visited Bead Works in Newport Village and found some beads to place in the centre of the diamonds. I've done beads before but not in lace, only in ribbing. I'm going to love the challenge.


Oops, sorry, I digress. Back to what we did yesterday:


After the yarn store we went to see Jumper. We actually wanted to see Juno but we didn't actually check what time it started. When we got to the theatre the only thing starting in our time frame that we had any desire to see was Jumper. It was disappointing. A cool idea but there were many holes in the story. And, it didn't end that well.


After the movie we went to White Spot for dinner. I had their Tandoori Chicken Rice Bowl. Not bad at all.


Dh and I had a good time together and have decided to make more frequent plans to spend time together like this.