Creative Blocking 101

While I'm still knitting away at my Autumn Shawl (16 entrelac rows down, 9 more to go, plus edging!), I finally got my butt in gear today and did a major blocking session. The thing is that every item I blocked needed an element of creativity.

First, my Crofter's Cowl, that I finished back in November as a Christmas gift? Yeah. That never happened. But I finally blocked it today. I had the great idea of blocking it around a rolled up towel to avoid getting creases from blocking it flat. Worked like a charm...

Next up, the Marian Seaman Scarf I test-knit a while back for Cosy. (She's now released the pattern, by the way.) Really fun pattern, with two lace ends connected by ribbing at the neck. The ribbed part didn't need to be blocked, but I wanted to block the lace ends to open them up. This was the result of that effort...

Why didn't I just block it stretched out straight you ask? Great question! The answer would be because the bulk of my blocking area was being taken up with this mutant creation...

This would be my Hemlock Ring blanket from hell. I have loved this pattern ever since I first saw it, and when the Spring Fling group on Ravelry did a Jared Flood KAL for March, I thought it the perfect time to cast on for it. While I did have a brief setback in the center section, it mostly flowed along nicely until somewhere in the feather and fan section.

There should be eight symmetrical sections in this blanket. Mine, however, did not work out that way. See this section here...

...it somehow ended up with almost twice as many stitches as it should have! And this section here, opposite from it...

It has far too few stitches. A couple of the other sections are also off, but only by a few stitches each. How I managed to totally muck up those two sections is absolutely beyond me. One reason I can think of is that Feather and Fan is actually of the devil and therefore Satan inhabits any project I try to knit with it. Another reason could be that somewhere during the course of knitting the feather and fan section, there was a shift in the time-space continuum, thus causing the stitches that should have gone in that bottom section to somehow jump up into that top section, causing this unfortunate mutation. A third reason could be that I, the human with the needles and string, got distracted and screwed it up. Personally, I'm voting for Satan. ;)

As I attempted to pin this out and block it today, my daughter asked why bother if it was such a mess. Well, as I see it, all is not lost! See the pretty middle section here...all nicely knitted and error-free? The part I initially fell in love with and the main reason I wanted to make the blanket to begin with?

I plan to be daring and figure out a way to safety cut a square out of the center of this little mess and turn it into a pillow with a pretty contrasting color of fabric behind it. What do I have to lose? Since I stopped knitting about 20 rows early, when I realized how messed up it truly was, it is very small for a blanket anyway. I won't feel too bad about cutting into it and wasting the peripheral yarn if I can make a pretty pillow out of it. At least then my time and effort and materials won't be a complete waste!

Oh, and despite being happy at work on the Autumn Shawl as well as a carry-around sock project, I decided I needed to cast on something new today. You see, the yarn for the Autumn Shawl is indeed very autumnal in color. And the sock is being made from a colorway called "Winterberry," which is largely a red/green/brown combination. Having finished my pretty, bright Caricia, I needed something else on the needles that reflected the brightness of spring. Thus today I cast on for the Traveling Woman shawl (yep, still on a shawl kick here!) with this Fleece Artist yarn in the pretty Moss colorway.

I'm still in the stockinette section of the shawl, so it isn't exciting to look at yet, other than the fact that the yarn is beautiful...I love semi-solid colorways!

Caricia

Blocked last night before I went to bed, unpinned this morning in between cooking for Easter, Part I, at my in-laws' today, which is where the pictures were taken...

 I love the way the colors flowed in the spinning from the palest cornsilky color up to some deeper, sunflowery yellows.

 Finished dimensions are 35" down the center and 70" across the wingspan.

 Plenty long enough to wrap around me!

 I think I was trying to look deep and thoughtful here...hm.

Ok, so it is bugging me that the center line of the shawl is not centered on my back in this picture! But my daughter was doing photographer duty, and she was like, "Yes! It's FINE!" So. :}

And just to recap, this is Anne Hanson's Caricia pattern, knit to the middle size (called "petite" in the pattern). The yarn is my handspun, which started out as BamHuey, a merino/bamboo blend from NewHueHandspuns, colorway Sun Beams.

Good things...

Good Thing #1: I finished my Caricia shawl tonight! Woohoo! It is beautiful and I love it! It is blocking now, but I hope to get some good pictures of it this weekend.

Good Thing #2: It's been Easter break week for us. I'm getting a lot of knitting done (see #1).

Good Thing #3: Our oldest came home on leave from NC on Tuesday for a week, so we get to enjoy him for Easter, too.

Good Thing #4: It was supposed to go up to 80 degrees today. I'm not sure if it hit it or not, but it definitely got close! Just for reference...we're in Pittsburgh. There are years we are wearing winter coats and walking through snow at Easter. This is the wonderful other side of Pittsburgh's wacky weather spectrum!

Good Thing #5: I planted a bunch of stuff in my salad garden today! (See #4). Some more onions, two types of lettuce, some arugula, beets, dill, basil and cilantro. Can't wait to eat it all! ;)

Sorry for the picture-less posts as of late. I'll make up for it soon, I promise!

Random thoughts on a Monday night...

...I declared this week to be our Easter/spring break from school. My plan is to relax and do as little of importance as possible.

...The oldest child called today telling me he was surprising us by coming home this week. I'll be glad to see him, but I'm selfishly hoping this does not infringe too much upon my aforementioned plans for relaxation and slothdom.

...Beating up boys at the gym and making them say "Ouch!" is a surprisingly good stress-reliever!

...I am having random pain in the bottom of my right foot and I'm not sure whether or not to be concerned about it.

...I asked the kids -- 13 & 15 -- if we could ditch the whole hiding-the-Easter-baskets thing this year. They were fine with that, though the boy-child asked, "Do we still get the candy?"

...Yes, most definitely yes!

...My efforts at destashing have reminded me of how many fabulous yarns I own and it is making me want to cast on many, many new things and knit them all at once.

...I am being steadfast in my refusal to cast on anything else until I finish the two shawls I am working on...Caricia, which I started last May, is now about 75% finished; my Autumn Shawl -- and entrelac pattern -- is about 50% done.

...It indeed appears to be the Year of the Shawl here in Lisaland.

...Spinning a batt of fiber that contains sparkly firestar in it results in everything around becoming sparkly...the couch, the floor, the dog...

...hard-boiling the last of the eggs the night before does not bode well when the kids request omelets for lunch the next day, and makes for an especially odd meal if you've already cooked the bacon and the hash brown patties.

...I planted onions and spinach in my little salad garden two weekends ago because it was so nice out and I couldn't resist. Still waiting to see if they'll do anything this early.

...What IS growing are my alfalfa seeds! My first effort at sprouting my own sprouts is an unmitigated success, which makes me so happy that I will never again have to spend $4.00 on a a container of sprouts that will end up rotting before I get them all used up.

Destash Update #1 - Sock Yarn!

Well, hey! I got in gear and put up a caboodle of sock yarn for sale today on my Ravelry page. Thought I'd list some of them here too, in case any pique your interest! I'm going to post pictures of them, as well as some basic info and the price (the colorway name or number is in italics), which includes shipping within the Continental US. If you're interested in anything or if you have questions about fiber content, washability, etc, please e-mail me directly at lmbwrites AT comcast DOT net! Thanks for perusing! :)

Cherry Tree Hill Supersock Select; Cabin Fever

Fingering; 420 yd.; $17.00

Colinette Jitterbug; Toscana (55)

Fingering; 320 yd.; $18.00

Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport; The Loopy Ewe

Sport; 2 skeins (one already wound into ball); 200 yd. each; $18.00 for both.

( also have 2 skeins (one in ball) of LL Shepherd Sock, Forest colorway, $11.00 Gone!)

Sold!

Malabrigo Sock; Eggplant

Light Fingering; 440 yd.; $12.00

(Note...this skein looks a bit tangled. Not horrible, but might take a little extra care in winding it.)

Noro Kureyon Sock; S164

Fingering; 2 balls; 462 yds. each; $30.00 for both

(Note that I also have 1 ball of this yarn in colorway S180 for $15.00)

Sold!

Knitterly Things Vesper Sock; Hellfire

Light Fingering; 428 yds; $20.00

Zen String Lotus Toes; Vitamin C

Sport; 330 yd.; $18.00

SWTC TOFUtsies; 734

Light Fingering; 464 yd.; $12.00

(I also have a ball of this yarn in color 728, a pink/orange colorway; same price)

The Alpaca Yarn Co. Paca-Peds H-T; Grapevine

Fingering; 450 yd.; $18.00

(This yarn includes a separate mini skein in it of contrast color to do the heels and toes. I assume it is the purple that you can see. I never took it apart to figure it out.)

Sold!

A Swell Yarn Shop Skinny Duet Sock Yarn; Berry Dijon

Fingering; 450 yd.; $20.00

(Also have this in Chocolate Fantasy and Enchanted Forest. Same price.)

Gypsy Knits; Knittin' Sittin' Hens

DK; 365 yd.; $18.00

The Great Adirondack Yarn Co. Soxie; Chagall

Fingering; 360 yd.; $15.00

Sold!
Claudia Hand Painted Yarns; Freesia

Fingering; 2 skeins; 175 yd. each; $12.00 for both

Zitron Life Style; 1860

Fingering; 2 balls; 169 yd. each; $14.00 for both

Sold!

Adriafil Knitcol; 047

DK; 2 balls; 137 yd. each; $14.00 for both.

J. Knits Superwash Me Light Sock; Cincinnati

Fingering; 550 yd.; $18.00

Destashing...

Maybe it's an early spring cleaning thing, or maybe I've finally come to my senses and realized that I will never, ever live long enough to knit even half my stash. Whatever the reason, I'm in big time destash mode right now. Yarn everywhere! Some staying, some going -- maybe to you? If you want to see what I'm parting with and you're on Ravelry, please check out my trade/sell stash page. I'll be adding a lot more over the next week or two, including a boatload of sock yarn (Seriously? Do I really think I have the patience to knit 100+ pairs of socks? Even if I did five pair per year, which is probably a good average, it would take me 20 years to use it all up! That's just crazy!) I'll also try to list some things here directly, but if you can peruse through Ravelry, that would really be the easiest and most expedient way to do it.

All prices include first class shipping within the Continental US...if you're out of the country, e-mail me at lmbwrites AT comcast DOT net and I'll get you a shipping quote for whatever you're interested in. All the yarn is clean and neat, kept in bins in my smoke-free home (we do have a dog, but the dog is never down here in my craft room/office...seriously...she has not figured out how to do steps...it's kind of funny).

Life has been busy...

...and it is totally inconceivable to me that it is already mid-March! As my friend Gina observed tonight on my Facebook page, I always seem to be traveling lately. Indeed, I seem to be in a season of road trips. Scranton (for a kickboxing match) a few weeks ago, Columbus (for the Arnold Sport's Festival) last weekend (seems like so much longer ago than that!) and Chattanooga (for a Disaster Response Training) this past week. Thankfully, I have no more travel plans in the near future until late April when I head off to St. Louis for Spring Fling. I'm looking forward to being home for a while! I need to get back into a normal routine.

In the midst of all the travel, I have been knitting. A couple finished objects for your viewing pleasure...

These are my Socktoberfest Mystery Socks from last October, which I finally finished during Ravelympics, one of my WIP projects. Sorry, it's not a great photo, but I was trying to show how pretty they are from both the front and the side. The pattern was from Kirsten Kapur, and the yarn is Schaefer Nichole.

This is one of my Waterfall socks. They were my February KAL project for the Spring Fling group, the focus of which was Wendy Johnson patterns. I did get both socks done by the end of February, but this is the only good picture I got, so just image a second one that looks just like this one. And I'll point out that I just got the second one done! It wouldn't have been a big deal had I not made the Feb. 28th deadline, but I felt a little crazy that day and opted to see if I could knit an entire sock in a day. And I did! I literally bound off that puppy at 11:50 p.m. A sock in 10 hours. Definitely a new record for me, and not one I'm feeling the need to repeat (let alone break) anytime soon! My hands were dead by the time I was done. LOL Anyway, as I said, it is a Wendy pattern (free!), and the yarn was Araucania Itata...really lovely yarn!

The other evening, I finished a scarf I was test knitting for Cosy. It needs to be soaked and blocked and then I'll put a picture up of it. It was for her Marian Seaman Scarf (which she does have posted on her blog and on Ravelry, but has not yet released the pattern), and it was a really fun project that moved along quickly.

My current knitting focus is the March KAL project for the Fling group. It needed to be a Jared Flood pattern, so I chose the Hemlock Ring blanket, which I'm knitting out of some stashed Queensland Kathmandu Aran in a nice, natural, tweedy color. I'm in the feather-and-fan part now, but oh my gosh, it gave me fits up to that point. At one point I had to rip out 20 rounds because I'd gotten it so messed up! But it's going along swimmingly now, so I'm not feeling frustrated with it anymore. ;)

Pictures forthcoming for Marian and Hemlock!