Transaltantic

Originally I wanted to show my May socks, but I also wanted to share this project on Ravelry groups right away, and uploaded photos, so this shawl comes first. Doesn't matter to you, I know.
This project was a pleasure, from spinning the fiber to knitting this shawl.

Remember this fiber: FatCatKnits, Falkland, colorway Counter Point.


which turned into this yarn:


I wanted to use it for a shawl, but with only 357yds, there were not many options. As it turns out, many of my hand spun yarns are in the Sport weight category. I decided to add Cascade Yarns 220 super wash Sport to get more yardage, and the possibilities of a number of shawls grew.
Can I just say, I love the softness of this Sport weight yarn. I love to work with it, and I see a lot more of hand spun/Cascade projects in the future.

I finally decided on Stephen West's Transatlantic shawl. I liked it right away, but omitted the holes, even though I thought they were a clever touch. Maybe next time!

Well, this is what I got for my efforts:


A totally wearable, wonderful, warm, wooly shawl!









What a satisfying project! It's larger than the original, because I wanted to use up all of my hand spun yarn, and there were only a couple of yards left over. I needed 4 skeins of Cascade yarn (had to order more, I only had two in my stash). I used 3.75mm needles. I didn't stretch it after washing it. I only used two pins for the tip, and the top of the tip. :o)
The rest was just smoothed out on the bed, and had a heart shape. It's finial measurements are 27 inches x 88 inches.

Of course none of my projects are error free. I made a couple of mistakes, but you show me, if you can find them!
The response to this shawl on Ravelry was wonderful, and made me proud. It was just another shawl for me, even though I DO LOVE it!

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And a short note on the doggie front:
Maggie either has "growing pains" or trouble with her elbows. She'll be x-rayed on Thursday. Until then she needs to take it easy, and gets pain meds, poor thing. I remember Biko, and Sam having those problems too. The three "G's" are no longer, Grumpy, Goofy, and Googly, but Grumpy, Goofy, and Gimpy.

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Handspun Friday - variegated Merino

Some time ago I bought 8oz of variegated Merino fiber from FatCatKnits. This is undyed fiber, and it spun like butter. It makes a difference if the fiber was dyed or not. Good dyers do a gentle job dyeing, and the fiber does not felt, or cling to each other. In any case, it was a pleasure to spin this variegated merino for a change.



I did have specific plans for the finished yarn, but the first one, chain plied was too thick for the pattern I wanted to use it for. The following is chain plied yarn, 289yds.

Then I thought I'm doing a 2-ply yarn, which turned out a smidgen thinner, 414yds. I love the variegation in the finished yarn.


Here you can see them side by side. The left one is chain plied, the right one is the 2-ply. From the looks, I prefer the chain plied one, but both will have their purpose.



I was thinking of using the 2-ply to go with my Mimosa yarns, to knit a Daybreak by Stephen West. Although Mimosa is a chain plied yarn, the weight of both are close enough to use them together.



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Thanks for all the B-day wishes for Happy. He had a great day yesterday. Regardless of the bad weather he went swimming several times. He likes it the most, and it's hard to keep him from jumping in.
He also got to lick the bowl from the cookie dough, and he got to lick the peanut butter container. After all that he got a cookie just for himself, no sharing required. We had a lovely walk, just the two of us, I generally tried to spend more time with him, to give him more attention, which he obviously enjoyed very much.

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Happy Birthday, Happy!

My sweet boy turned two years old today. We love him to pieces!









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Estonian socks # 2

Over the weekend I've finished this pair of socks. It's my entry for Wandering Cat Yarns Summer Stitch-along.



I've been looking forward to knit with this sock yarn base for a while now. I absolutely LOVE it! This is a 3-ply sock yarn, merino fiber, with one strand being superwash, that's why the colors are not absorbed equally. It's not the usual soft merino, but that's totally O.K. with me. I only hope they will hold up well. It was a little splitty at first, until I got used to knitting with it, but I love the knit fabric it gave me on 2.5mm needles.







Excuse the many pictures, but I'm just so darn happy with them.

I've got the color work pattern from the book "Estonian socks all around the world". It's not a real pattern book with A-Z instructions, but I don't need that. I've made my May socks from that book too, but have yet to show them here on the blog. I've already planned a third pair, just have to pick the colors.

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And some sleeping dogs, which I love to let lie....



Happy and Denny



Denny and Maggie

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Vagabond mittens

Friday's Vet appointment went very well. Last time Happy had to go, he went with my son, and he put up a fuss, but this time, both he and Denny behaved very well, and I was proud of them.

Happy was done first, and got to go and wait in the car (with my son, and the A/C on full blast). It was so hot in the Vet's offices, it was very uncomfortable. Denny panted like a train, not just from excitement. We had to wait a little, before it was his turn, and he was so excited to meet and greet everybody who came in.

When it was his turn, he wagged his tail, and let himself be examined from head to toes. The Vet was astonished, that he melted like ice cream, and lay on his back, exposing his belly for a nice rub. I was just glad he was not grumpy that day, or maybe he's just grumpy with us. After he was done, we realized that Happy was due a shot as well, so I exchanged the two.
He was just his lovely self, no problems at all. He was just a little spooked, when a little, old Pug sniffed his legs. Why is it that our dogs act like elephants, and mice, when they see smaller animals?
By the way, Maggie weighs 25kg right now, and Denny weighs 27kg, Happy weighs 35kg. She is slightly taller than Denny, and still growing. The Vet said, Denny should loose a little weight, he is on the chunky side. Maybe now, with the option to cool off, he will like to run a little more.

After we got home, they ran into the pool to cool off. Well deserved relaxation. Maggie was happy to see us as well, and they played until everybody was too tired.

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Back in April I have knit these fingerless mittens. They are called Vagabond fingerless mitts by Misa Erder.



I used some left over Wandering Cat Yarns from three different shawls.



I really like this pattern, and want to knit more of them. Best of all, they fit my hands very well, without having to make modifications.



It's Victoria Day today, so the weekend is not over yet. Saturday was a hot day, and we discovered that our A/C is not working. I don't know how anybody can get through the summer without one. Service guy was called and an appointment booked asap. Summer is not my favorite time of year.

This weekend was also one for fireworks, but all our pups took it lightly. It was always hard to watch how Sam was afraid of all that noise, and there was nothing I could do about it.

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It's Cherries Season!

We LOVE cherries!





Yummy!

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Handspun Friday - Aca Pulco

It's been a while since I've finished this yarn, but I never got around to posting about it. There are only so many Friday's in a month/a year.
This is once again spun from some gorgeous FatCatKnits fiber.

8oz of Aca Pulco on Falkland.









fiber: Falkland
yarn: total of 785yds, chain plied


Wishing you all a wonderful weekend! We've got a long one, with Victoria Day on Monday. We still have a Vet's appointment in the afternoon ahead of us. Denny gets his booster shots, and Happy has to give blood for heart worm testing before we can get tick and flea medication. Oh goody!

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Air 17C - Water 12C

Denny opened swimming season today. It's a cloudy day, 17Celcius, the water is 12C. I always thought Denny was lazy, because he didn't want to run around like the others, but after he had his first swim of the day, he was like the energizer Bunny and whizzed around the property like a barrel of rum on legs.
He also loves to be chased, and the two Whites obliged him, and gave their best to chase him all over the place.
Once Happy saw how ecstatic Denny was, swimming like a beaver, there was no holding back for him, and he joined in on the fun. Meanwhile Maggie was running circles around the pool, watching them, slipping twice, and falling in the third time. Unfortunately she swam away from the steps, and held on to the edge, where I had to pull her out. There was no way I was going to jump in to teach her the right way out. That's a lesson learned another day, and with my son in the pool. Soon though.



Of course once out of the water, and rubbed off once, they wanted to be dry at once, as in RIGHT NOW! They rubbed themselves in anything fabric, even into my pants, which I'm wearing, and which are wet now too. But it was a hoot to watch. That also means from now on there will be wet dogs, every day, until October. I see a bubble bath or two coming up soon.



Wet but happy dogs!

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The three "G's"

There's not much going on here right now. The weather is cold, and rainy, with a hot sticky day mixed in, just to make us more miserable. The back yard is flooded, the grass is growing like it was infused with extra strong fertilizer. The pups are always dirty after a run around, and I'm hosing them off before coming inside. At least one and a half pups are happy about that. The third hides. Guess who.

So, I thought it's time to have the pups make an appearance again. Here's "Grumpy". He's such a hog, he's managed to carry all three rubber bones at once. It's not the best picture, I was chasing him with the camera to get a good shot, but he thought I was going to take away his toys.



Maggie is "Googly", one of her eyes is still not quite right. She has good days, and some are very googly. She already listens to her nick name "Googly". Happy was like that too, but he grew out of it. I hope she will too.



And Happy is "Goofy". He makes me laugh. He was playing with a chew toy, burying it in the sofa's folds, and digging it out again. He amused himself quite some time.



So, yesterday was cold, and rainy again, but we thought it was time to take down the makeshift fence around the pool. I put on my winter boots!

After we cleaned up, we let the dogs out. Happy ran around the pool, and off like nothing had happened. Maggie came outside, running like the fence was still there, very funny! And then I let Denny out, he stopped short, and after assessing the situation, he started wiggling with his whole body, he was just too happy. He ran up to the pool's edge, and sniffed around, wiggling all the while. I think he was most happy about it.

Later they were chasing each other (Happy and Denny), and of course they got hot. Both ran to the steps, and tipped their toes in, just to take them out as quickly. Happy looked at me, and ran to the hose. Apparently the cold water from the hose was preferable to the icy cold water of the pool. Denny hid as soon as I had the hose in my hands.

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Handspun Friday - FCK - London Fog

I'm really late with my blog post today, but it's not entirely my fault. Blogger was down for some time. Anyway, I've got my FatCatKnits SAL fiber all spun up. The reason why I've finished it so early in the month is, because I had this colorway in my stash already. So no long waiting for it to arrive in the mail.
I really like this colorway, but kind of regret having it on variegated BFL. I do love variegated fibers, but just this time, I wish I had it on some white fiber, so the colors would not be so muted.



fiber: dyed by FatCatKnits, colorway London Fog, variegated BFL, 4oz
yarn: 272yds, chain plied

I love the colors on the fiber, hated it on the bobbin before plying, and liked the finished yarn, even though it's muted. It might surprise me again, when knit up.

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I've been spinning more than knitting lately. It comes in waves.

I want to share this hilarious video with you. Maybe you know it already, but I just saw it yesterday for the first time.

Asterope

With time to spare I've gotten Asterope off my needles and in the mail, to arrive on time for Mother's Day. I'm quite happy that it made it from my hands to my mother's shoulders. This is another small shawl by Romi Hill from her ebook 7smallshawls.



The sterling silver pin came with the last pin & lace club, but I was happy to give it to my mom with the shawl.



This is a small shawl with attitude. The lace part needs all the concentration you can muster, especially the last chart. I didn't have a problem knitting it thank god, but from reading the trials and tribulations others had, I was happy that I was done with it, and got away without using life lines, and hair pulling.



I loved that the crochet bind off worked out so well. I was afraid I had either not enough stitches, or too many, but not so. Phew!

I've used the lovely Wandering Cat Yarns Twinkle Cat Gold (by the way, it's 10% off during the month of May with the coupon code WCYMAY10) for this shawl in the colorway Sparkling Rose. Needles were 3.75mm, hook 3mm, and it's 21" x 49". Well, it IS a small shawl, but my mom swears it's just right for her. She likes it the way it is.



We had a lovely weekend. The weather on Sunday was sunny and warmer, 16C, and we could sit on the deck and drink tea, and had Buchteln with Vanilla sauce. Denny was hiding under my chair to get out of direct sunlight. He suffers already, compared to the two White ones, who just close their eyes, and enjoy the warm sun.



Since Hannah could not be here, she's sent me this lovely cup for Mother's Day. I love cups, and mugs, and bowls. This one's especially interesting.



I hope you had a wonderful weekend too!

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Handspun Friday - Magnolia

When I can I'm participating in FatCatKnits SAL (spinalong) each month, with a special colorway (voted on) from her shop. April's colorway was Magnolia. There are many bases to chose from, and mine was on Falkland.
It was a pleasure to spin. I think it's my favorite fiber at the moment. I had 6oz to play with, more than it could fit on one bobbin, so I had to get creative.



I didn't want to get the colors all mixed up, so I separated the colors as much as possible.





I will use them both together in one project, starting to knit with the green/orange/orange/purple. I was thinking I'll give Daybreak by Stephen West another try, but first I need to get a contrasting colorway, either handspun, or commercial. I'm not sure yet.



fiber: Falkland
yarn: chain plied, total of 580yds, approximately Sport weight



Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!
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Wanted to add a video of the pups. They enjoy the warmer weather. Maggie plays with tennis balls like a cat. Happy wants to play with me, but he does not want to give up the ball.