creepy and cute ...

i've not made anything from this book yet, but it is very very cute! christen haden did a wonderful job on the creatures and the text too.


but if you're not up to making your own, you can purchased finished toys over on her etsy shop.

this pillow was crocheted by mom for my birthday. long gone are the days when i'd get a sewing machine, or a camera. instead, these are the days when i get something handmade for my birthday.


she was inspired by prudence mapstone's oh! picasso. the bicho pillow is freeform crocheted with various acrylics.

the next fellow was a birthday gift as well. everyone needs a moldy cupcake!


you too can make one, the instructions are over on julie king's gleeful things.

i finished one of them ....

i do not have a lot of splendid photos because i was taking pictures late at night.

but, i can say, this shawl is lovely! i really like the depth of color in the knitpicks palette heathers.

i had purchased 3 balls, just incase .... but, i only ended up using 2 balls (with 15 grams leftover of the second ball). so, this is good to know ... 2 balls of palette will deliver a nice swallowtail on 4mm needles, with beads instead of nupps.

i still have to finish the other one ... the marble heather one. but, i'll work on that over the holiday.

regarding the beads, they're 8/0 hex silver lined. the tube weighed 14 grams. i only used a portion of the tube. i only used a bead per nupp, and on the border at each picot. this time around, i also used a wee size 12 steel crochet hook to apply the beads. the hook worked fine, but sometimes i split the yarn a bit because the hook is too small for fingering vs. lace wt. yarn. but, it worked. and it was faster than my old method of stringing a piece of wire through the stitch to drop the bead down.

all that's really left is to weave in the 2 ends, and find a way to get it to the recipient.

lace bug

my knitting interests contantly vary. sometimes it's all about socks. sometimes, a bit of crochet. and lately, lace shawls ....


this one is a real beauty. she's called pavonis (pdf link). i found this pattern via ravelry. the pattern is written in finnish, but it does have charts.

she's still a challenge due to not understanding the instructions, and the repeat is large. the one advantage i have is previous shawl knitting, especially triangular shapes that begin at the top of the neck. without such experience, i would not be attempting this shawl.

oh! and i love the blue! all three of these shawls are knitted with knitpick's palette. i had ordered the colorcards recently to choose some colorways for holiday knitting. i was drawn to the heathers (with all their little bits of other colors) easily. but then this solid blue caught my eye as well. i love its clarity and intensity.

next up is good ole swallowtail (pdf link). this has fast become one of my favorite evelyn clark shawl patterns. there are lots of pretty ones out there, but i like how this one transitions through three different charts. right when i'm getting bored with one chart, "hey! i get to change!".


and if i get tired of working with the marble heather, i can switch to the garnet heather ....


i bought beads for both. i have yet to knit a swallowtail with the nupps. perhaps, if i ever do it in a finer yarn, i will slog through the nupps.

until then, i really like a sparkle in the sea of fuzz.

finished!

i really wanted to get this off the needles. i was knitting as fast as i could, because i thought i was going to run out of yarn.

i thought i was going to run out of yarn because ... the ball was shrinking !?


actually, i had misread the pattern. i love ravelry. i love that i can research a pattern before i knit it. i can find out if there is an errata, and see all the different yarns and versions knitted.

in my research, i interpreted jatta's notes incorrectly. she says ...

"To make scarf as big as in the pictures, repeat chart 2 9 times total. You can make more or less repeats."

i kinda skipped over the second sentence. i was fixated on 9 times total.


i got a second hank of yarn just in case. having the second hank in reserve meant that i did not run out. i finished binding off with a mere 11.5 yards left.

so, the shawl pictured is called zetor scarf. i did not mean to make it a full size shawl. i thought i was knitting something more the size of swallowtail.

i do love the finished product. i did not enjoy the process as much. i much prefer a shawl pattern that has transitions vs. one allover stitch pattern. i also had some problems in the beginning with keeping in pattern, ... i think because the dark heathered yarn was just hard to see. once i added stitch markers to delineate the repeats, things went smoother (or, i was at least able to find my mistakes sooner).

i did not add beads to this. part of me now wishes i had. the border is kinda narrow in proportion to the rest of the shawl. it lacks weight. i had really nice points after blocking, but now they've kinda relaxed and curled.

whatever.

specs: zetor scarf from jatta.
Gästrike 1-ply by Järbo Garn (660 yds/100 gr).
4mm needles.
on ravelry.