Wednesday, June 13, 2007

What to do on hot, sunny days?

# 29 of 40



# 30 of 40


So, it's the middle of the week already! Can't believe it! Monday and Tuesday, like a good girl, I knit my two squares a week. It was hard, believe me. After that I must tell you, I feel quite naughty right now. It's like having some homework (cardigan) to do, but playing instead. Oh, yeah! I HAD to cast on for my hand spun shawl. It will be the Flower Basket Shawl by Evelyn Clark when it's all grown up. Lace in progress is not very pretty. The yarn? Ahem, VERY uneven. It didn't look like it but there are thick and thin parts all over. Sigh, got a lot to practice to get that more even. But tell you what, I still LOVE knitting with my own yarn. It's the "only mothers can love it" thing. As it's getting bigger I can see more of the color and I like it so far. I didn't get as much done as I would have liked, but today I will knit only on the shawl.




I started spinning another 4 oz of BFL this time. It's from Amy Spunky Eclectic as well, still from my first purchase. The color is golden rod, but I forgot to take a picture. Next time. The BFL is a little more slippery (if you can describe wool as slippery) as the corriedale. Never spun anything else but wool so far, so I notice the difference between wool roving. Can't imagine how silk will spin up. I'm not going there yet. I don't think I have a project in mind yet, but first comes the yarn, than the project. I'm taking it slow, spinning every day a little and enjoying every second of it.



I won a contest over at the Walker Treasury Project (best picture taken of a swatch), don't laugh! I've got 5 balls of Rowan wool cotton, which is very soft. Have never used it, but I think this might be a scarf someday. With it came those lovely Brittany Birch knitting needles, boy they are long but beautiful. Karen put also this "Loopy's Red Sock Kit" in the box, to knit tiny socks meant for holiday ornaments, or as "gift bag" for presenting gift cards or money (says so on the instruction). It's a neat idea. And there were yarn samples, two of which are silk, and the third one's merino I think (forgot and am too lazy to get up and go check). Anyway, thank you Karen, that was very generous of you!

edited: Here's my picture of the Waves & Shield swatch from Barbara Walkers Knitting Treasure ( I think it's in the blue one, please don't make me get up and look it up)


And here's a friendly face. Sam's shadow hopping again. Normally he would carry the ball in his mouth, but for a nice picture (and he thought I would throw it for him) he put it in front of me.


Sam's not the only one throwing balls in front of me. Biko's fixing her stare on a tennis ball. It was over 30 Celsius yesterday, she gets to go to swim in the pool, but Sam's keeping his cool in all the shadowy places he can find.

I didn't get to do the book contest. I will announce the winners this week though!

Keep cool!

21 comments:

The Kelly Green Rogue said...

I can't wait to see more of the shawl (I recently developed and interested in lace knitting)

Sue J. said...

I envy your ability to stick to your goal of two squares a week. I also think the shawl will be beautiful regardless of the uneven yarn. I think anyone who can spin is amazing. Never tried it. Of course, your boys are adorable. Hope you all are staying cool.

Heike said...

Hallo Monika,

sehr brav - wieder 2 Mosaike fertig!! Deine #29 stricke ich auch gerade, aber bin erst bei der Hälfte. Ich habe immer noch viel Spass an unserem Projekt. Ich bin´s noch nicht leid.

Knuddels an Sam und Biko und liebe Grüsse an Dich - es sei denn, Du möchtest auch geknuddelt werden!?

Teresa said...

I'm excited to see her all blocked out and stuff. I've got to confess, I've been spinning behind the scenes with the goal of knitting the flower basket shawl. It's a little of a "practice piece." Have you seen the size of the shawl I want to do!? It's going to take me years. I feel like I'm going to be a little old lady finally spinning up the last of the fiber on my little drop spindle.

Actually you do take great pictures of swatches. They're very clear and have no other objects in the picture.

Anonymous said...

Those squares are beautiful as I'm sure the shawl will be to!

TracyKM said...

Your yarn is beautiful! I just knit a FBS using a laceweight yarn that was somewhat slubby/thick-thin. I think it's okay with that pattern, because the pattern is somewhat rustic, organic, with the repetitive motif your eye can scan across easily and pick up multiple images and blend them into one. Does that make sense? LOL.
I was just looking at a website yesterday about large scale mosaic knitting. Dotty Knits or something like that. Stunning knitting and use of mosaic knitting. You've really picked up my interest to try it, I like the graphic nature of your squares and the minimilist feeling with only two colours.

Anonymous said...

I have knitting rules (like your 2 squares/week)which keep me in line too.
I can't wait to see the little flower basket grow - It's going to be beautiful in your very own handspun!

Anonymous said...

Oh, I forgot - I want to know which picture won the contest??

Tracy Purtscher said...

Uh oh...you're tittering on a slippery slope my dear...the cardy AND the shawl????....I'm going to be kind and not mention the squares cuz they have a logical reason behind them, and the spinning isn't a knitting wip at all!!!! LOLOLOL

One more project on the needles and I'm going to offically welcome you to the darkside of multiple wips! ;-)

DAWN said...

Love that seafoam green on the shawl. Lovely. Nice package you got. That red yarn does look extremely soft. Happy knitting!

Susanne said...

Liebe Monika,
Du hast ja schon angefangen mit dem wundervollen selbst gesponnenen türkisen Garn! Sieht toll aus und ich kann mir schon vorstellen, dass das ein ganz besonderes Gefühl ist, mit dem eigenen Garn zu stricken. Ich beneide Dich - habe mit dem Spinnen noch nicht angefangen, sollte ich auch besser bleiben lassen. Habe in den letzten Tagen festgestellt, dass ich über 30 kg Wolle in meinem Stash habe und ich finde, das reicht erstmal.
Übrigens herzlichen Glückwunsch zu Deinem Gewinn. Tolle Stricknadeln sind das und die Garne sind auch sehr schön, besonders das Rot ist wieder mal was für mich.
Schade, dass Du so weit weg bist, sonst würde ich Dich gerne mal zum Johannisbeerkuchen einladen :-)). Die Beeren sind nämlich schon reif und schmecken sehr süß.
Liebe Grüße
Susanne

Anonymous said...

I'm jealous of all your sunshine, it's been rainy and gloomy here for almost 2 weeks!

I can't wait to see your finished shawl, I am pretty sure you will have yours finished before, I even get mine cast on. Although, I did wind my first skein of yarn last night, so it's a start :-)

Anonymous said...

send the heat to the EAST please THE EAST!!!
I love how Sam stands with his two front feet pointing in opposite directions :)
Your shawl is looking great!

T-Mom said...

Wow! that green-blue yarn is SOOOOoooo pretty!!

I love the pictures of Sam and Biko, too. It's nearly 90 here, and the Ts are hot. We go out in the evenings when it's shady in the yard, and I top off their kiddie pool with fresh water. I'll try to get a pic of Taenzer wallowing.

Timber says Sam has great taste in balls.

Anonymous said...

Yay for doggy pictures! If you didn't post any today, I was going to ask/beg you for some. :)

Deb said...

You have a fabulous blog! I'm going through it slowly and am getting more and more jealous of your talent.
It seems that people educated in Europe are so much more advanced in their knitting skills. Perhaps it's because they learn those skills while very young and can hone them for more years.
All in all, every one of your creations are fabulous!

Strickfimmel said...

Und wieder 2 Mosaicquadrate fertig. Sehen beide schön aus. Bin gerade an meinem 11. Quadrat. Mir gefällt das, was Du schon aus Deiner selbstgesponnenen Wolle gestrickt hast, sehr gut. Das das Garn unterschiedlich dick ist macht doch gerade den tollen Effekt aus. Und schon wieder ein Contest gewonnen! Einen klasse Preis hast Du für das Foto bekommen. Meinen Glückwunsch.

Anonymous said...

Oh, that's going to be an awesome shawl - beautiful colorway and an amazing pattern - looking forward to seeing more of it! And I so love the pics of your furry boys playing, they're just too cute and so adorable!

Kris B said...

High fives for sticking to your goal. I don't think I could do that with all the other distractions of projects around. The shawl is moving along nicely. I like your swatch picture to. I'm curious what kind of ball is Sam playing with? It looks like it has a handle on it. We have not found a nice toy for my dog yet. He tears everything up. The only ball I found that he hasn't torn up is a basketball and he doesn't like to play with it. I guess because it's to heavy.

Devonshire said...

That squares are lovely. The waves are beautiful in the green. Yeah to winning contests! Those yarns are yummy. Sam looks great - hope he had fun with his ball.

Violiknit said...

You have such discipline with those squares. My hat's off to you! That swatch is indeed prize-worthy; so gorgeous! I love those "Sam and his big red ball" pics!