Fly By

The last few weeks have given new meaning to the phrase "flying by on the seat of your pants".

I've picked up a lace bug and knit these:

Montego Bay in Handmaiden Sea Silk

Swallowtail Shawl from IK.

I've frogged and made progress on Autumn Rose:

I flexed my first-time quilter's muscle to make a baby blanket for a close friend.

Finished the Ice Cream Socks (Cat Bordhi's Cedar Master Pattern)

I've gone to Hawaii to see sand, lava, and sunsets.

Made it back from Las Vegas (sorry no photos of that one).

Finished my original contract at work and received an extension.

Packed my bags for Italy.

*phew*

Icarus!

Finally, some decent FO photos (except for the background scenery of course). It's been impossible finding time for daytime photos.

Surprisingly enough, I am getting tons of wear out of this shawl (much more than I had originally thought). The silk makes it both lightweight and very warm for the chilly evenings we've been having as of late. As previously mentioned a few dozen times, I'm in love with this shawl. A 100% satisfaction FO.

Project Specs: Icarus
Yarn: Handmaiden Lace Silk in Bronze
Amount: 1 hank
Left over: 125 yards
Needles: 3.25 mm circs
Completed: July 10 2007
Modifications: None

Aside from plotting Icarus photo-ops, I've also been drooling over the Fall 2007 Interweave knits preview, and made some progress on both MS3 and the toe-up sock. Photos of those to come.

Chain reaction

Here we have...a finished Icarus blocking on the bed (better photos to come this weekend). I bought some blocking wires for the occasion. Although they were a little awkward at first (sticky wet silk and all), they ended up doing a fantastic job of the shawl.

See what I mean. Look at this edging! I'm obsessed. Icarus has definitely exceeded my expectations. I love when that happens. The colour in this picture is more accurate than in the previous one.

And here's what's been keeping me from progressing on MS3 (still only about 2 rows into the third clue). Meet my very first toe-up sock. It's Ann Budd's on-you-toes sock from the summer Interweave. I have no idea what possessed me to start this little guy. I just reached into the stash Friday morning on my way to work, found some Jitterbug and threw the mag into my bag for the commute.

That tricky European cast-on took me more than a few tries, but it was worth in the end. I made a few changes to it, namely I alternated right and left leaning M1s to keep things symmetrical and got rid of the first knit round on the toe since I felt it looked too pointy. Here's where things were Friday evening.

And Saturday afternoon.

Sunday evening.

And lastly, a sad, neglected MS3 just before I finished off the second clue. I've just picked it up again, so hopefully I'll make it through Clue 3 sometime next week. I love the mystery thing but I'm still not sure how I feel about the summer-long project monogamy that comes with it.

I also made my way back to the wheel this weekend, hopefully by the end of next week I'll finally finish the seaside singles I've been working on so I can start plying. Fine spinning is fun but slow...

Pretty

The family arrived yesterday to attend my convocation (later this afternoon). When my mother showed up, she brought me a parcel that I've been eagerly anticipating. It's the prize Nicole sent me from her Birthday Blog Bash, and can I just say yum, yum, yum!

I am in love with those stitch markers! They are delicate and beautiful. The yarn is KnitPicks sock yarn in a colourway called Cape Cod. It's so smooshy and colours are lovely together, I can't help but bury my face in it every now and then. The other half agrees since he's already decided that the yarn is destined to become "socks he can wear to work". Thank you Nicole, I am touched by your generosity.

In other knitting news, these last few days have also seen the end of Chart 3 on the Icarus front. The calculator says that I'm 77.7% of the way through this beast. The rows are starting to drag a little so it will likely be a few more weeks until this beauty comes off the needles.

On the (neglected) spinning front, the wheel and I have made up after a long hiatus. This is the (almost-full) first of two bobbins of singles. I can't decide if I should ply this bobbin now or spin up the second bobbin of singles first. I'm really excited to see the end result, but am also afraid that I won't be able to keep things consistent if I stop now.

Lucy is also progressing. Part of me is starting to worry that I'll run out of yarn since my row gauge is slightly off. To compensate, I've irrationally starting knitting one of the sleeves to get a better sense of how much yarn those will eat up.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Weekend Away

Last Friday I managed to finish Chart 1 of Icarus while being stranded on a runway for a number of hours waiting for the torrential downpour to stop. That's right, all 178 rows of that puppy are but a distant memory. Can you tell that I'm excited?

Once I finally managed to make it back from a whirlwind one-day trip home, it was time to repack my bags and spend a weekend vineyard hopping, knitting and relaxing before starting the Law Society's version of summer school today.

All of this dedicated knitting time ensured that progress on Icarus continued at breakneck speeds. This is what she looks like after you make it through Chart 2.

My sheer glee at having accomplished the knitting equivalent of a few hours on the treadmill, combined with the lovely result had me a little photo happy. I began taking pictures of Chart 2 as it admired the gorgeous weather.

And, as it contemplated the view of the lake and trees of Toronto's downtown.

I also made some progress on Lucy but since Chart 3 is inching along, you'll have to wait until tomorrow for that.

The new Knitty is up and as always, it's well worth the click.

Blobfest

Surprise, surprise the blob is growing. One (and a bit) more chart done, and another one and (just under) a half repeats to go before I can move on to chart two.

As I'm sure you know, I love, love, love the colours in this yarn. The above colours are not entirely true. In actuality the colour shifts are a little more subtle since the lighter tones are richer than I can capture with the camera.

Every now and then as things start to pool here and there, I start to worry that once everything has been blocked the colours will fight against the lace pattern too much and obscure the elegant details of Miriam's beautiful design. Any thoughts?

Although it's been all Icarus all the time over here for the last week or so, I haven't yet turned into a project monogamist. Meet my Lucy in the Sky Cardigan. I started this beaut waaay back in early March. After some minor gauge issues, I decided that it was best to shove this on the backburner until the exam chaos had passed.

I really haven't touched this project at all since then, and am very much looking forward to something other than lace after I write on Thursday.

And lastly, here's a requisite photo of the pooch who is infatuated with his new toy. It has these octopus-type tails on it that he loves to shake by tossing his head around so that they slap him in the face. It amuses me to no end.

28.2%

After a long day of knitting I managed to make it through another repeat and a half of chart one. This puts the count at roughly 28.2% of the way through this bad boy according to the shawl progress calculator over at Rose-Kim knits.

The rows are definitely getting longer. The good news is that the pattern has become totally mindless, making it possible to take it everywhere and maximize my daily knitting time. It's shocking how obsessed I've become with getting through the first chart. The thought of having to look at a new part of the pattern is making me giddy with anticipation.

Hopefully today I can either put this down, or learn how to read corporate tax law while counting to 7. T-minus 2 days on the exam front...eep!

k2 tog, yo, k1...

I managed to make it through the second Chart 1 repeat this weekend despite there not being much time for knitting. There's been some light colour pooling every now and then but I really like the texture that it gives to the piece. I've never knit with pure silk before and am loving the feel of it as it runs through my fingers.

When I first decided to do Project Spectrum, I wasn't sure that I would be able to come up with anything "metallic" for this month's colour triad. The colour, sheen, and drape of this yarn manages to be an aging bronze without becoming the tinny gold metallic I was envisioning for this colour set.

I'm hoping to finish one pattern repeat per day. This might be a tad unrealistic since my final licensing exam is on Thursday. After that, it's just a hop, skip and month of summer school until I can finally make the jump from law student to student-at-law.

Icarus, meet world

Many weeks ago I became obsessed with some HandMaiden Lace Silk in the Bronze colourway while at the Downtown Knit Collective's Knitter's Frolic here in Toronto. As previously mentioned, I try minimize the small apartment clutter by not buying yarn just because it makes me a little weak in the knees.

The natural coping mechanism that has evolved out of this self-imposed limit has been to create loose justifications for my purchases. Since I had to make something with this yarn (especially since this colourway has been on the radar for the last year or so) I tried to come up with a lace weight pattern that might work well with a variegated yarn.

Enter Icarus, a pattern that I always loved but never thought I'd actually make, not being the shawl type and all (if there is such a thing). In case I still wasn't convinces, there just happened to be a copy of the Summer '06 Interweave mag to my immediate left in which to check the yarn requirements. Suffice to say I caved. But really, can you blame me? Just look at this yarn...

I tried to ignore its silky goodness for about two weeks while I worked to get a few projects off the needles. Eventually I broke and wound it into a ball, just to take the edge off a little.

After a day or so I decided to knit a few rows to see how it would work up. Just an innocent little swatch. Luckily before the whole thing could devolve into a full blown obsession, I took up residence in a nearby library while studying for my bar admissions exams (creating some much needed distance from the whole thing.)

I can hardly put it down since making through the first pattern repeat yesterday. Expect that this lovely will progress quickly.