Thursday, April 21, 2011

Still on the needles

I've done quite a bit of work on my Owls sweater, but still haven't finished it:


Here's a closeup of the cute little owls:


There's a bit more knitting to finish off their ears, then the neck shaping, and then I just have to graft the underarm stitches and figure out how to fix the giant holes that are going to appear whenever I move my arms as this sweater has a bit of negative ease. I tried it on last week and was a bit disappointed to see how snug it is, and I also wish I knitted the body a bit longer -- I forget how long-waisted I am and I loathe having my lower back on display to the world when I bend over. Ah, but that's what tight-fitting t-shirts are for, right?

The other project on the needles is this scarf, my first real lace project:


It's a pattern I fell in love with this winter, Anne Hanson's Aria Delicato. I'm knitting this with Handmaiden Sea Silk in the Topaz colorway. The silk is stunning, an oceanic blue that simply glows. Blue typically isn''t one of "my" colors, but this one stirred my soul. Here's a better shot of the silk:


I was planning to knit this for a special friend, but I don't know -- it's so pretty I may keep it myself. Geez, what a rotten friend I am. ;-) Looking forward to blocking this because I've a feeling it's going to be a stunner -- and I found this great tutorial this a.m. that has me more confident about blocking and shaping lace.

A couple other projects are waiting in the wings. We live just a couple miles from Classic Elite Yarns/Hub Mills Store (lucky me!), so the other day I picked up a few skeins of CEY Portland Tweed in Black Forest and Amaranth (purple) for cabled handwarmers, along with some Silky Alpaca Lace for my next lace project. I really want to knit Jared Flood's Cinder scarf in the suggested CEY Ariosa yarn (cashmere blend), but right now my bank account can't take the burden. This means I have to stop by Hub Mills and pet the yarn every couple weeks or so.

So much stands between me and my knitting these days -- dealing with health issues, a move, a book project that needs wrapping up, teaching my students, writing articles -- that the only time I can hit the needles is when I'm watching one of my planned tv programs or when I'm in a doctor's waiting room. Sigh.

3 comments:

  1. Look at you being all industrious. I gave up knitting for myself years ago because I rarely ended up wearing the stuff. Now, I tend to make things for charity fund-raisers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello from Northern England! I found you on Ravelry, on The Blog Hub where you added your link. I have also knitted an Owls Sweater and wear it a lot when it is cold (i.e. often!) and love how each of the owls has it's own little personality. Can't wait to see it finished.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for commenting, Countess! I'm off to check out your site (and knitting). Just a bit more to go on Owls. :-)

    ReplyDelete

I love comments!