Thursday, May 22, 2008

Finished Objects -- and it feels good!

Since I've started feeling better, I decided it was time to get my knitting baskets cleaned up. After all, at last count I had something like 6 (it MAY have been 7) projects on needles.

So I finished up the Patons top-down sweater. I put the finishing touches on the summer entrelac top. Life was good.

But there were still a lot of projects in the baskets, especially at the shop. So I took a deep breath, and dived in.

Look! It's the ubiquitous Clapotis!
This was knit in Atacama from Araucania Yarns, colourway no. 503. (I see that the manufacturer has reworked their colourway numbers. Dang, I hate when they do that! I think it is PT4 that I used.) I love the purples. This shawl was originally intended to be a gift for a friend who loves purple, but the daughter changed her mind about gifting it. And abandoned the project! I couldn't stand the thought of this being left lonely, cold and lost in the bottom of a closet somewhere, so I finished it. Besides, in my drug-induced haze in March and April, this was a good project on which to knit. Not a whole lot of thinking involved, which was a good thing.







I have a very nice customer at the shop who fell in love with the Austermann Step, colourway number 18. She purchased the ball and attempted a lacey scarf. Unfortunately, the wool was too fine for her fingers to work with.

She refused to bring the wool back for credit, although she was willing to bring it back for me to play with. So I knit up a scarf for her to enjoy, and filled it with good wishes.

Good thing, too, since she had recently tumbled down a flight of stairs and torn loose the ligaments and tendons in one foot.

The stitch pattern is a simple Fishtail Lace, with two garter stitches on each side. I've linked to a scarf pattern, but only to illustrate the stitch details. I just knit this one without a pattern at all. I used a 4.5mm needle and 42 stitches and knit until I was mostly out of wool.

So you may be asking yourself, what remains in the knitting basket? I am still working on Arabesque in lace-weight merino, on the Great American Aran Afghan in Patons Canadiana, as well as a new project -- KnitNet's Cream Tee in a lovely green cotton. No photos of this one, though, since I am still not certain I have enough to finish. Trips to the frog pond are better left undocumented ... (The pattern was published in the 2006 Pattern-A-Day calendar on June 5.)

Carrie has returned from her art trip to New York and is now fully immersed in the race to the end of the school year. She had fun, saw lots of museums, saw Hairspray, did some shopping, and some sightseeing. The trip included a visit to Ground Zero, which she reports is a construction site now, and she is pleased to report that there will be a memorial garden to commemorate the folks who died on that sunny September day.

And even more exciting? Progress in the bathroom. I am waiting just a wee, tiny bit longer to show you all the photos, though, because I am still savoring them. Tee hee!

Bye!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Just wanted to say that the link you provided to the FishTails lace pattern does not work.
I found a workable one at: www.knittingpatterncentral.com/directory/lace_scarves.php
and discovered that it is the colour variations (not the knitting pattern) that make your scarf quite outstanding.

Happy knitting,
Janey
janeyknitting AT yahoo DOT ca