Icarus Takes Flight

I don't have any new pictures to share this week. However, when I took Icarus to the Knitting Guild meeting yesterday , I realized I never made a proper post about completing it, other than including it on my Oak Lawn post.

So here are some more pictures & all the details.


After realizing that a Friday date meant that a trip to Chicago to see the Yarn Harlot would be possible this spring, the next thing I started thinking about was what knitwear should I take for the book signing.

I was having trouble deciding, until I thought of making something NEW instead. Icarus had been on my mental "To Do" list for a while, & I has some sock yarn marnating in my stash that I had mentally tagged "shawl yarn."



I loved this Dye-a-bolical yarn when I saw it at Knitorious, & had to snap some up right away, but it took a while for inspiration to strike with regards to how to show it off. I am so pleased with how this shawl turned out, & how it goes equally well with black jeans as with a black dress. I'm already wearing it quite often.

Unfortunately I don't think I'll be able to make it to the reschedule date at Oak Lawn, so the Yarn Harlot won't ever get to see it in person. I also have some of Rachel's yarn that I was going to give to Stephanie. It looks like I'll have to mail it instead.

Socks on Sunday

Something about finishing big projects gives me momentum to get around to smaller ones, I think. Case in point; I finished two more pairs of socks this morning.



Before you get too impressed, I have to admit that one sock was the second of a pair that I started in May 2007, a full year ago. The red/orange socks were started to be my "work on at the Harry Potter book launch" socks, since the colors reminded me of Gryffendor's house colors.



The other pair was from my "Santa Claus Yarn" that showed up in my Christmas stocking this year. For those who want to know where Santa got this yarn, it's Regia in one of the Kaffe Fassett colors.





I also finished weaving in the ends for my "Amtrak Socks." I think these socks will be worn fairly often, since they go well with black slacks for work or black jeans on the weekend. In fact, maybe I'd better buy another couple balls of this yarn before it's gone. I think this color may be discontinued at the factory already. This is also Regia yarn, which isn't as soft to work with as some yarns, but softens up just fine with washing & wearing.

Saturday Sky, May 17th, 2008

A Weekend Stuffed with Yarn

I think this past weekend may have been my best Mother's Day weekend yet. (Well, except for some allergy related vertigo, that is. But sitting still makes for good knitting time, at least.) This past weekend was completely busy with fiber related activities, & I even have FO's to show for it.

I took Friday off work, & went down to Knitorious EARLY in the morning for the filming of a Stitch N Pitch news spot.

My kids went with me, since the promo shooting was going to be finished early enough for them to get to school on time. One of my kids took this picture. Looking bleary-eyed & half asleep is what I get for waking up at 5 a.m.

I also managed to fit some extra knitting time in around the other things I did that day.



There is video of the event available at Fox 2's website. Linking directly to the video doesn't seem to work, so search "Knitorious" on their site & it should bring you to the story. This link might get you directly to the video, but if not, try the other way.



Saturday was the big STL Ravelry Members Yarn Crawl. I didn't get to participate in every stop, but I did manage to make some of them. It was a LOT of fun. I got to see Ann twice in two days! Mary Beth did an awesome job organizing the Yarn Crawl.
My aunts who were visiting from out of town even got to participate in the Kirkwood Knittery stop, when my Mom brought my kids to join me. (Having the kids with me meant the Loopy Ewe stop was more expensive than it otherwise would have been, though. I ended up with 3 red Loopy Ewe water bottles that I wouldn't have bought otherwise.) I didn't take enough pictures of the day -- should have taken more pictures & bought less yarn! For more details about the Yarn Crawl, I know Mary Beth is planning a big post to cover the whole day.





Over the whole weekend, I managed to finish toes on FIVE socks. Yes, I said 5. One was a second sock to match one I started all the way back in Summer of Socks 2007, another pair had been languishing since last fall, waiting for me to even up the last of the foot sections, & the third pair were my Amtrak Knitting socks from the trip to Oak Lawn. Socks go amazingly much faster on size 1 needles than size 0, I must say.

I still need to weave in the ends on those 5 socks, but the Kitchenering is DONE. Afterwards, I did what I always do when I finish socks, I filled the needles right back up again!

What's On My Needles this Wednesday

Since finishing Icarus, most of what I've been working on is socks. I got back to working on several pairs that were interrupted by the shawl knitting, as well as working a bit more on my Amtrak Socks.


The Amtrak socks, & the Regia Kaffe Fassett socks are my current "carry-around" knitting; the ones that go everywhere & get worked on while waiting in line & such.



The grey/black socks are Classic Elite Alpaca Sox, which finally have the gussets complete & will be my next set of "carry-around" socks. The black-with-colored-streaks socks are Mountain Colors Bearfoote, which are still at the gusset stage & require strong light for me to be sure the decreases are lining up with each other.


The blue-green socks & the second Lime & Violet "Spiceland" sock are both finally at the toe-decrease stage. The Lime & Violet sock had been in "time out" waiting for me to rip back 4 rows, because I overshot how long the foot should be to match the first sock. (There's a reason why I do all my socks 2-at-a-time now.)




Finally, but not on my needles, I thought this picture of Joxer was just too funny not to share.

Oak Lawn

This was a weekend full of trains, but not quite so full of yarn as I had been hoping.

Friday morning, my daughter & I got up VERY early to ride Amtrak to Chicago. At Chicago's Union Station, we turned right around & took the Metra commuter train back out to Oak Lawn. I had tickets reserved at Nana's Knitting Shop to see the Yarn Harlot at her stop in Oak Lawn, Illinois.



The Metra station is indeed just across from Nana's Knitting Shop. We stopped in briefly, but didn't stay very long, since we were still carrying our luggage. It was a couple blocks walk to the Hilton where the Yarn Harlot event was being held, & where I had reservations to spend the night.


Unfortunately, the Yarn Harlot had A.Very.Bad.Day. I was disappointed she couldn't be there, of course, but it couldn't be helped. My daughter was consoled by the promise of a trip to the hotel pool. On the way to the pool, we met some other out of town knitters who had made the trip to the Chicago area to see Stephanie. Our travel days were better than Stephanie's, though. At least we got to our destination, & had a chance to do some knitting & get together with other knitters.

One thing that this trip forced me to get done was a shawl that I had in mind ever since I bought this yarn a couple years ago. I bought two skeins of this Dyeabolical Yarn hand-dyed merino at my LYS & always had in mind to make a shawl with it. The colorway is "Dark Envy", available from Dyeabolical Yarns on Etsy or in St. Louis at Knitorious.

(The shirt says "Knitting is so DIY -- purchased from Cafe Press.)


The biggest advantage to taking the train -- Knitting Time! It's impossible to knit & drive. (Well, unless you are completely stopped in a traffic jam, but that's not driving, only frustration.) I did manage to get most of a pair of socks done over the weekend. As you can see in the first picture, I only had the cuffs done at the start of the train trip. Here is their status now.

Springtime is for Lace

Having finally finished a sweater this winter, I have gotten back on a lace kick.



This is the Icarus Shawl, pattern by Miriam Felton. The pattern was previously published in Interweave Knits, but is now available on Miriam's website.

I am using hand-dyed yarn from Dyeabolical. The colorway is "Dark Envy", available from Dyeabolical Yarns on Etsy or in St. Louis at Knitorious.



I really enjoyed watching how the colors flowed together & back apart while knitting the body of the shawl. It really broke up the monotony of knitting that section.

Rachel also hand-dyed the green yarn that I am using for the lace section. I'm very happy with how it is all tying together. I'm contemplating going back to the varigated for the last row or two & the bind off, just to tie it all together even more.

Why didn't I think of that sooner?

You know how sometimes you discover that the solution to a long-nagging problem has been right there staring you in the face all along? Sometimes it is even so obvious that you are torn between being thrilled at fixing the problem & being embarrassed that you didn't see it earlier.

I had one of those moments this weekend.


I got this bag on a trip to Maine with my grandparents many, many years ago. It resurfaced when going through boxes a couple years ago. At first I thought, "Yay! Perfect knitting bag, with added bonus of reminding me of a fun trip with my grandparents." That thought was quickly followed by, "Bummer! Velcro. Long strip of Velcro. Boo, hiss. Not good for yarn afterall"





I figured I would just use it as a bookbag, & it's been sitting by my computer desk for a while. I had a Eureka! moment yesterday, though. "Ohhhhh. Duh! I can just snip the yarn-snagging side of the velcro out." Once it was removed, this bag is now suitable as a knitting bag. Yay!

Besides bringing back happy memories of my grandparents, I also love how this bag has a zippered pocket inside it. That's not something canvas bags usually have nowadays.