Happy projects...

I finished Emma's DIC Shrug today...

Dream in Color Shrug. Yarn: Elenya (merino/alpaca blend) from Three Irish Girls; colorway Aiden.

The only changes I made to the pattern were that I did only about 2" of ribbing for the cuffs instead of the folded cuffs the pattern called for, and I only did eight pattern repeats instead of nine, which was a good thing because my daughter just isn't that broad. I probably could have even done only seven and it would have fit, because it stretched lengthwise more than I expected when I blocked it. It's a little roomier than need be under at the armpits in the back, but not so much that she can't wear it. Besides, she's a growing girl, so hopefully it will just fit her a little longer!

Anyway, this was a really nice pattern, very easily memorized and a very quick knit. And as I gushed in my last post, this yarn is wonderful and the colorway is nothing short of amazing.

With the shrug done, I've started another project...here are my pretty BamHuey skeins all wound into balls (I love how I ended up with successively smaller amounts each time I plied. I seriously need to invest in a jumbo flyer for plying.)


The picture does NOT do justice to the color of this yarn. As I was winding the balls last night, I was struck by how the fiber was so soft it felt like the silk on corn-on-the-cob when you're shucking it. And then I realized that the color of the yarn also resembles the color of the kernels on young, tender sweet corn cobs. However, Cheryl's colorway name of "Sun Beams" is much nicer than "Sweet Corn Kernels," don't ya think? LOL There is probably a reason no one has ever hired me to name colorways for their yarn company.

(Funny story...when I worked at the yarn shop, I had a penchant for describing yarn colors in the oddest ways, which people found amusing. One that sticks in my mind was the day a customer came in looking for a specific reddish-orangish color. I looked around and found one I thought was close to what she wanted, handed it to her and said, "Like this spawning-male salmon color?" Yeah. Can't figure out why no one has ever named their yarn "Spawning Male Salmon." Heh.)

Ahem...ok...moving on. After winding those balls, I could not stop myself from casting on for the Caricia shawl that it is to become...


These are the first twelve rows, which make up Chart A of this pattern. So far, so good. Seems like a pretty easy pattern. It is a lace knitting pattern (all of the WS rows are purled, except for the left and right edges), as opposed to a knitted lace pattern (in which there are knits, purls, YOs, etc. on both RS and WS...learned that distinction in Anne's lace class at Spring Fling). This level of lace knitting is comfortable for me right now. Eventually I will move up the difficulty ladder to knitted lace, but for now, semi-mindless lace knitting works for me. (Does it seem wrong to use the words "mindless" and "lace" in the same sentence? Yes. Yes it does. Hope karma doesn't bite me in the butt on that one.)

Lastly, I have now received all 18 squares for my afghan swap afghan!


I started this swap last July with a Rav group I'm in. It was originally for 12 squares (11 from other people, one for yourself). Then some of us wanted to do an extended swap so we'd have a total of 20 squares, which meant doing 7 more for other people and one more for ourselves. Got my last one in the mail yesterday. I waited to do my own squares until I had all other 18 so I'd know what colors I might need to add to bring it together.

Some people had very narrow color schemes for their afghans. Me? Not so much, as you can you tell. LOL I really wanted this to be a free form kind of project, and it definitely is that! I need to make myself one solid square (which I think will be orange, to play off the orange in the entrelac square) and one multi-colored (which I think will need to have some pink in it, also to pick up the pink in the entrelac square).

My plan for putting it together is to pick up and knit garter border strips between each square row-wise, and then put the rows together with garter borders (these border strips should help even out some of the sizes, as they didn't all end up exactly 12" x 12"...it can be kind of a challenge to knit an exact-sized square, though blocking is helpful), then finish it with a wide border all around. The process is much like how I understand piecing a lap quilt (not that I've ever finished a lap quilt...started, yes. Finished? :::sigh:::). I plan to do each of the individual border strips in different colors (which should be a great stash-busting exercise!), thus I should end up with a very cool, crazy afghan! Cannot wait to see how it comes out.

But before I work on my last pieces and putting it together, I need to finish my last square to send out. Should have that done in a day or two. In fact, I think I'll go work on it now!

Oh, and Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there! :)