Work in Progress Wednesday

Happy Wednesday.  I don't know about you, but this seems like a long week.  Every morning when the alarm goes off, I wonder is this Friday?  That is bad on Monday.  But we're now to the half way point.

Spring has made an appearance in North Texas.  We can't say its here to stay yet, still time for winter to make one or two last strikes, but for now it is beautiful.

Knitting is going very slowly.  Why I would expect it to be fast when I'm not working on it is a technicality.  Elves are supposed to come at night and finish it.  I'm doing the Honey Cowl in the silk yarn that I won at guild.  Taking forever, but it will feel like heaven when it is done.

I had my women's group over for dinner a week ago Tuesday, which was Mardi Gras.  We had a great time with a Cajun theme for dinner.  It made me realize that this yarn is in Mardi Gras colors.  I have nothing that matches this so have no idea what I will do with it, but I can always wear it on Mardi Gras.

Of course at the rate I'm going it might not be done by next Mardi Gras.

This weekend we went to San Antonio, very cool city, to see my husband's aunt and uncle and also delivery the baby knits to the happy parents to be.  My aunt is working on an amazing baby quilt.  So this isn't my work in progress, but was too cool not to share.  I love the colors.

It has a real vintage feel to it.  Just gorgeous prints.  One more look.

Really cool.  I admire when people can put those things together and it all looks so coordinated.  Head over to Tami's to see what all the creative people are working on.  It will be Friday soon.

Finished Object Friday

Happy Friday.  I have been missing in action due to the new job.  Hopefully it will calm down soon.  The sun finally came out and I got some pictures of my lace curtains.

I never caught it with sun coming through it but you can see the beads in this picture.

I'm very happy with how it turned out.  I was quite tired of paper on the window.  You can get the pattern free at Crest of the Wave Lace Curtains on Ravelry.

Got to run, board meeting today and then off to San Antonio.  Tomorrow is my son's 16th birthday.  So hard to believe.

Head over to Tami's.

Finished Object Friday

Happy Friday!

I do have lots of finished objects this week, but not the photos to match.  I did finally finish the lace curtain but it has rained every day since and I want the pictures to show daylight at least if not sunlight through them.

This is the doll sized gansey from last weekend's workshop.  You can see how interested my cat is in this process.

I also finished a pair of fingerless mitts for my cousin.  I started them on Thursday and they were done by Monday so they never showed up on a Wednesday.  This is the Lush Fingerless Mitts pattern.  I did it in Paton's Classic Wool that I had in my stash.

I did make two but it is hard to take pictures of yourself.

Head over to Tami's to see the great projects people have finished.

Work In Progress Wednesday

Happy Wednesday.  I have completed a lot of projects in the past week so there isn't really anything on the needles - well yes, there is that blue sweater that hasn't changed in two weeks.  The tweed vest that I had forgot about because I know I have to start the i-cord edging again.  So tonight, I starting playing around with some left over yarn and making cuffs or perhaps fingerless mitts in a Bavarian Traveling stitch pattern.

I took a class on this technique in September and it is shocking how fast you forget things you don't use. The notes that made perfect sense could have been written in another language at first.

I have just started a new contract job yesterday which I am very excited about.  It should last four to six months.  Its a great organization a good staff and I'll have the ability to do the types of work I love the most.  It will probably interfere with knitting time but you can't have it all.

Head over to Tami's to see the great projects people have.

Gansey Workshop

This past weekend our guild brought in Beth Brown-Reinsel to do a workshop on Knitting Ganseys.  It was two full days and it was great.  I had taken a class with Beth on top down Arans almost ten years ago and she is a fabulous teacher.  She brought lots of samples to show of different types of garments.

These are small sweaters that you can complete in the workshop and fingerless mitts.  I love the center fingerless mitts.  I learned many new techniques and the drop shoulder, arm gusset and strap shoulder construction for ganseys, which means there is basically no seaming.  There are about 20 yarn ends to weave in though.  

Here is my completed sweater - not blocked yet.  Looks pretty bad at this point so I'm hoping that blocking will help a lot.  I'll show it blocked at the end of the week.  It was great to spend two days with a group of really talented knitters.

FInished Object Friday

Happy Friday!
I have two things to share today, making up for last week.  First, I finished Juanna's hat.

The pattern is Nantes Hat and I did it in the Cashmere/Merino/Silk.  I was very pleased with how it turned out.

The second thing to share is that my scarf pattern was published last Thursday on Knit Picks.  You can find it here.  I'm very excited about this and have had some nice comments which is just amazing to me.

I also got motivated and set up pages on this blog for tutorials and patterns.  I should have another couple of free patterns posted over the next week or so.

Have a great Friday.  I'm planning a trip to the museum this afternoon and (drumroll) my knitting guild is doing a two day workshop this weekend.  Can't wait to tell you about it next week.

In the meantime, go over to Tami's and check out all the great projects.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Happy Wednesday!  Today is a really busy day and I have to go to the dentist, which I hate.  So this will be brief.

No new projects, just progress on the old.  I have the back and front and part of a sleeve of one sweater.

I think this will be short sleeved, so I have to play around with it some more.  Here is the detail of the pattern.

And the end is in sight for the lace curtain panel.  Should be into blocking today or tomorrow.

Still plagued by differing amounts of nicotine stains on the yarn but I'll bleach it out at the end.

Knitting guild was last night and the program was on knitting backwards, something useful in short rows, entrelac, and lace edgings.  It was so cool.  I'm now wanting to plan my next project to use that skill.

Head over to Tami's to see all the works in progress.

Inspiring

This past weekend, I got the chance to go to the Walter's Art Gallery in Baltimore.  I grew up in Baltimore but hadn't had a chance to visit the Walters in ages.  Over a decade ago they opened an annex for Asian Art in a beautiful old house next door.  I had never seen the new space and it is spectacular.

This is a view from the first floor up through the spiral staircase to the dome on the fifth floor.  This was someone's house 160 years ago!  I always end up taking a lot of pictures of ceilings, doors and other architectural features.  Architecture translates to knitting!  Like these window screens -

Doesn't that call out for color work or fair isle knitting?  Okay, maybe a little complicated but very cool.
They have wide collections of lots of different types of art and I took tons of pictures.  I need to spend more time on my pictures because many came out blurry, but here is the final one for fiber inspiration:

6th century Byzantine.  The wool was dyed and then woven over undyed linen warp threads.  Isn't that just amazing that the colors can be that bright after that amount of time.  It was great to have the time to just wander around and be inspired.

Work in Progress Wednesday

Happy February!  As I wrote about yesterday, all is well in lace curtain land, just slow.  Bleach did the trick.  All we can figure is that the yarn was stained by nicotine from the years of being in my grandmother's work basket.  I'm still coming across sections of yarn in different colors but I'm calm because I know I will just bleach it at the end.

The time off did get me back on my mock cable sweater.  The back is done and the front is coming along.  This will be negative ease.  I'm not that skinny.

I'll switch back to the sweater tomorrow since I'll be traveling and don't want to be dealing with beads on a plane.  Sounds like a horror movie.  I'll probably skip Finished Object Friday - even though I have one - since I will be traveling.  It will keep until the next week.

What are you working on?  Head over to Tami's to see what everyone is working on.