Shrug Gone Wrong
I had every intention of presenting a beautiful I DO shrug. Really, every intention. The thing is, after I finished knitting it.. like 3 weeks ago.. I had the feeling in my stomach that it is too big. I even got gauge. Heck, merino streeeetches... But, I hoped blocking would help. I procrastinated until last night.. and finally blocked the damned thing.
Yup, I even put on a strapless dress for you all to see. Sad to say, this little thingamajig will have to be ripped. Good thing the wedding reception won't be until the end of the year. Hallelujah. All is not lost though, because the mailman dropped this off today....*snicker* I think the gods are telling me that the shrug needs to be ripped too. Why else would I receive the yarn winder today?
Update on Clapo2: I ended up ordering that ONE skein of yarn to finish it off. It will take a month for it to get here. Keep your eyes peeled... *tap tap tap* 
Update: okay that was fun.... let's not do that again for this shrug. Thank you for the yarn winder, honey!.
Short
Moments after winding up that handpainted merino from Uruguay, I started knitting Clapo2 right away. 650yds of yummy goodness. I've often wondered what other knitters meant when they described their yarn as being sproingy, and now I know. Boing! boing! Now you if remembered my Clapo1, you would know that I used less than 600 yds of the Lorna's Laces goodness and still ended up with more yarn to knit an extra straight repeat ( I did 14 repeats, btw, using sz 7 needles). So I figured, ooh.. I can totally bump this baby up to 15-16 repeats no problem and wrap myself in this divine sproinginess.
NO. SUCH. LUCK.
I think I've been short-changed on the yarn. At first, I thought maybe it's the difference between knitting with sport-weight and worsted weight yarn, but then again, I am using the exact same needles and I am supposed to have more yarn than the last time, so what's the deal yo? I'm already into the third ball of yarn and if I were to use it up, I'd only have 11 straight repeats instead of the original 13 in the pattern. WTF? Another giant dishcloth? It would take about a month just to order another ball of yarn and wait for it to fly from Uruguay to Los Angeles. The more I think about it, the more angered I am because I've worked on it ALL WEEKEND LONG and I really wanted to have it done by next week.
Yes, I could probably rip it all out and make a narrower Clapo2. But I like the width, I like the parts that are already knitted up, and I want it to wrap around me, not just my neck. No siree, there will be no ripping the Clapo2. Why? Because the yarn sticks and dropping those stitches was no fun feat. I can hardly conjur up the courage to rip. Damn it. I sent an email to the lady who sold me this yarn.. so we'll see if she will respond to me. And it better be soon, cuz patience is not my virtue. I feel cheated. yuck.
How do you spend your evening with your loved one?
Today started out with me receiving 3 hanks of handpainted merino from Uruguay in the following colorway. These 3 hanks are destined to be Clapo-2, since Clapo-1 has been abducted by mommy dearest. And would you know it? BF came to visit me tonite. This is how we spent a romantic (heh heh) evening together.
First, we started out with the lovely yarn.... 
A few hours went by...
And 2 balls of lovely hand-wound yarn appeared. I was going to get to the third hank... but
BF decided that it's time to get me this! HA HA HA... 
And that is the end of our little show-and-tell for today. YIPEE!!!!! (Oh and just so you know, I already made good use of that 50% off from Joann for the swift that should appear on my doorsteps any day now)
It's all about the lace..or not
I started the Diamond Fantasy Shawl on Sunday, and boy was I pleasantly surprised. Initially, I thought that I'd be doing a lot of re-knitting because the pattern appeared complicated, but I could not be more wrong. Sivia Harding is a genius! I am totally enamored with the simple yet beautiful design. What you see here is just the first repeat of the pattern and I'm loving it.
And guess what? I finally decided on a color for the Cherry Blossom Shawl. It's a lovely reddish/pink lace yarn by Handpaintedyarn. Two hanks of Geranio. And I purchased a hank of their Velvet Grapes just because. One can never have too many lace shawls or scarves. It's soft, it's plush... it's a nightmare to wind by hand. And that vinegar smell.. whoosh! Actually, I think I'll just try to go to my LYS and see if they're willing to wind it for me. Think they'll let me?
Maybe I can start hinting around for a ball winder for my birthday. I'll be turning 26 in two weeks.. so it'll be perfect timing. woohoo.
*Edit: I left to have a martini with my colleague right after I posted... and thinking that I am immune to the alcohol, I picked up the shawl and knitted away. Two hours later, all the yarn is now re-wound into the ball again. Ha ha... martinis and lace knitting don't mix, yo!
Everyone loves Pink
It's been a week since I've posted the webpoll, and of the 82 votes so far, 35.37% of you have selected Peppermint, with 23.17% voting for Sunset. I googled knitbloggers who have used Peppermint, and their photos (
albeit amazing) have confirmed my suspicion - the pink ain't dark enough. And I quote Cartman from SouthPark: "Sheiza!"
There has been knitting this week, in some very pale pale pink merino yarn (well whaddaya know? The color resembles Peppermint so much so that it's almost freaky). As of right now, it will be temporarily known as... The Pink Blob.. No, I jest. It's actually I do from Knitty. And it's not for me. There's a little story behind this:Friend: "Winnie!!! I'm getting married!"Me: "Yay!! Congratulations! When is it?"Friend: "It's the end of the year, and I have a light pink/white strapless dress. I need a wrap to go over it. Can you knit I DO for me?"Me: "Bitch! You know I can't say no to that!...."Friend: "Heh heh... I know.."
There's a KAL for this, and although I'm not in it, I have been stalking their progress on the shrug ever since I committed myself to making this lacy thingamajig. There's a pattern error on Round 60, and I found this link to be uber useful. I've got one piece down, and the other piece shouldn't take much longer. After that, I just gotta Kitchener stitch and block like a mofo.
Feeling a little "ah..what the hell"... I purchased the Diamond Fantasy Shawl pattern and splurged on Cherry Tree Hill Supersock in Green Mountain Madness. I've made a conscious decision to stay away from pink for this one and damn it, it's going to look awesome. I visited A Mano Yarn in Venice and just sat on the floor with all their colorways spread out before me. It took me all of 40 minutes to decide on this one. Yea, once you decide you're gonna throw some cash into it, you had better make sure you won't regret it. And so, blues and greens it is.
You choose, I knit!
So my dear friends, it has come down to this. I cannot decide which colors I want for my Cherry Blossom Shawl. I am cheap - we all know that - so it will have to be one of KnitPick's color choices. I have narrowed down the color choices that seem doable for me below, and I will leave it up to you to make the choices.
Peppermint and Autumn are from their Alpaca Cloud collection, which is 100% baby alpaca. The bottom two - Sunset and Vineyard, from their Shadow collection, are 100% merino wool. Personally, I would have preferred a darker shade of Peppermint, but hey, that's just me.
A 5th option would be to purchase their Dye Your Own (in white), knit the cherry blossom shawl, then stick that whole shawl in a dye pot after I'm done knitting. That will be a new learning experience for me, since I have no clue in this whole dyeing arena. Unless someone is willing to do the dyeing for me after I'm done knitting, I will be forever indebted to you.
**Poll Closed. 82 votes total. Results: 35.37% Peppermint, 10.98% Autumn, 23.17% Sunset, 18.29% Vineyard, 12.2% Dye Your Own**
Erratic Knitting Ahead
Lately, my mood has been quite tumultuous, and I cannot for the life of me get a grip. After much blog-surfing, I have finally discovered why. All you Virgos out there, mercury is in retrograde yo! Yea, like I actually know what that means - but if it explains why I feel this way, then good. Blame the stars.
Knitting has been happening haphazardly, and here's proof: 
This is a finished sock that I blogged about previously. I finished the top with 4 rows of 1x1 rib and cast off using EZ's sewn cast-off. It works! It works! Suffice to say my circulation was not cut off at the least bit when I tried it on. The Figure-8 cast on close up is shown in the picture at the bottom. It's easy, it's pretty, and I'm going to keep using it.
So one must not be selfish and knit only for oneself. Therefore, one must purchase awesome new sock yarn and knit for others. Case in point - sock for BF in Trekking XXL Color 111. Photographing dark variegated colors is a royal pain in the butt, hence the crappy picture. 68 sts on sz 0 addi's, woohoo. This one is done in k4p1 rib, and trust me, I took a gazillion pictures to show you how lovely it is, but the camera begged to differ. It simply won't agree with me on the loveliness of BF's sock and refused to take pretty pictures. Screw it. 
One fine day, many moons ago, I ventured into my LYS to the scrap bin section and discovered two skeins of Manos yarn for $9.00. Yes, ladies, 2 skeins of Manos for $9.00. Now I'm not one to pass up a bargain like this, plus they have 4 balls of lilac Rowan Cork for $8.00. Go on, be jealous. But of course, one must not be selfish (again!) so I gave the Cork to a friend so she can enjoy my sinful purchase too. Now this dark red Manos, it wants to be the Devil Hat. I left out the horns, but added pompoms instead. I even felted them in hot water for a little bit too, and I love the results. Perhaps I could also lengthen the i-cord and make even bigger pompoms so I can stuff my bra with them. Why pay for expensive breast augmentation surgery when all you need are big pompoms? Tsk tsk tsk.. You agree? No?Girls, have you seen this? It's beautiful. I'm feeling the itch for lace-knitting again. I have my mind set on the Cherry Blossom Shawl too, but have yet to find the inexpensive yet good quality yarn that I can afford. Knitpicks has some good merino lace options, and at $2.29 for 440 yds, heck, I'd only be paying $6.87 to make the cherry blossom. Why haven't I made the purchase? Well, CHERRY blossom, my friends. I wonder why Knitpicks have decided not to carry anything in the RED color family... I'd be all over them already. Hmph.I'm still waiting for a package from my SYNO pal. I check my mailbox twice everyday.. even my neighbors' doorsteps.. cuz y'all know the mailman screws up sometimes.. No news yet, but I'm hoping soon. If you're reading this Swap Pal, fret not. I'm just impatient by nature and since mercury is in retrograde (what the hell does that mean really?), all kinds of neurotic irrational behavior is unleashed. I'll curb the beast soon, I promise.
Meet my Gobo Bag
Inspired by Diana's Sling Bag and Lauren's Trellising Market bag, I need one too. Now, Diana ventured into the dark world of crochet, and Lauren's market bag pattern is unavailable online, so what's a girl to do? Make up her own damn pattern! That's right, fellow readers, I just winged my own pattern. And because it's hobo-ish and lime green, I dub it.. GOBO. And just to spice things up a lttle, I added the leaf cravat by Teva Durham on the handle. Now tell me, does it not remind you of granny smith apples? Does to me.
And this is not all. If you don't like the sling bag look, there's always other options. Try slapping on a handle and voila!
Pattern: Gobo by Me (heh heh)Materials: Sugar'nCream, Hot Green, 2.5 balls (no yardage information), Sz 5-11 circular needles (Gotta love Denise Interchangeables)Time to completion: 2 daysNotes: Extremely roomy, light-weight and cheerful.Cotton can be a little too stretchy, so I'll probably shorten the handles next time if I do get around to making another one.Labels: FO
Yup, I even put on a strapless dress for you all to see. Sad to say, this little thingamajig will have to be ripped. Good thing the wedding reception won't be until the end of the year. Hallelujah. All is not lost though, because the mailman dropped this off today....*snicker* I think the gods are telling me that the shrug needs to be ripped too. Why else would I receive the yarn winder today?
Update on Clapo2: I ended up ordering that ONE skein of yarn to finish it off. It will take a month for it to get here. Keep your eyes peeled... *tap tap tap* 
Update: okay that was fun.... let's not do that again for this shrug. Thank you for the yarn winder, honey!.
A few hours went by...
BF decided that it's time to get me this! HA HA HA... 
And that is the end of our little show-and-tell for today. YIPEE!!!!! (Oh and just so you know, I already made good use of that 50% off from Joann for the swift that should appear on my doorsteps any day now)
And this is not all. If you don't like the sling bag look, there's always other options. Try slapping on a handle and voila!
