Emily’s Knits

I’m wearing a shawl that I made myself in public!  I finally blocked Calypso on Saturday (my first real wet-blocking as well) and am wearing it to work today.  Pictures to come (posted already on Ravelry).  I’m so proud!

I also swatched Mystic Waters, which I’m really loving so far.  The tencel dries so quickly and looks so perfectly delicate when blocked!  I’m working on a miniature version of it (just the first 40 or 50 rows) from my Pound of Love ball as a shawl for my little sister’s American Girl dolls.  Nearly done, I have to figure out how I’m finishing off and whether I want faroese-style extended shoulders.

Monday night I got out my new swift and yarn baller (such an improvement over balling by hand!) and wound up one skein of the blue and teal yarn.  The colours look really neat in the ball :)

I’ve cast on the Deby Lake’s Calypso shawl, and so far I’m loving it.  The actual cast-on process was exciting – involving drink stirs and some paper clips as those were the best I could find for a second needle (long tail cast on) and stitch markers at the bar I was in.  I’m about halfway through the first section.  A little worried that I won’t have enough yarn since I was slightly over gauge even on size 5′s instead of the recommended 6′s.

On Hold

I’ve been on the Secret of the Stole III list since the end of July, and am partway through Clue 3.  I recently joined the Mystery Stole 4 group, but haven’t chosen yarn or beads yet.  I’m waiting to see how the rest of the pattern turns out, since I don’t have much time to devote to it anyway.

I set aside the baby blanket I was working on – I was uninspired, and the fish edging was harder than I had originally hoped.  There are a few easy solutions to that (create the border pieces separately then join, forget about the fish) but I don’t want to think about figuring it out right now.

Current

Right now I’m working on the Festive Fish blanket I started a while ago from Lion Brand Homespun in blue and green.  It looks like 2 balls of yarn (one in each colour) will come close to making three rows of five fish.  I’m very pleased with the way they’re turning out, though a little worried about the ultimate washability of the yarn.  I’ll take some pictures of the fish and post them soon.  I also have several thoughts of making the small daisy pillows quicker by using the same Homespun for those as well, and maybe some flat coasters in addition.

In projects that I need to finish off there are the final touches on Rosemary’s prayer shawl and then the rest of the SotSII-inspired shawl I started for Irina.

I’m tempted to stock up on Koolaid tomorrow when I go shopping – Safeway currently has the small packets on sale.

Future

I’m looking for a nice shawl pattern that will only require around 880 yards of fingering weight yarn.  The beautiful teal and blue wool that Jess and I dyed needs to be used!