Neater Nupps At Last

So I decided to finish up another UFO languishing too long, Dorothy Siemen's Hugs and Kisses scarf. This is for DD#2, who is in love with the Zephyr I used for Evenstar (I'm using it doubled). I haven't made anything for her in a bit, so I really ought to finish something for her. I'm truly half-way done, just haven't taken a recent shot of it.

I haven't looked at Swallowtail in a bit.

Part of the reason was Evenstar, but I have to admit, a bigger part of the reason was getting bogged down in nupps. Nupps (rhymes with either soups or sups, depending upon whom you ask), are lace-speak for bobbles. Bobbles are easy to do in worsted or Aran-weight yarn, tricky as the dickens in fingering or lace weight, even with sharp needles. A very clever person figured out a much easier way to work them using a crochet hook:



Just the excuse I needed to buy a set of these, right?

While I was gone

Spring sprung around the EK household:




And (cue the trumpets) Carefree was finished at 9:14 pm last night, in time to wear during the next cold front this weekend:


Thoughts on the pattern: Fun to knit, though there were a few confusing spots. In the end, I followed my instincts. I also shortened the collar by a half-inch; I didn't want it coming up so high in the back; I'm glad I did so.

Thoughts on the yarn (Jaggerspun Zephyr 2/8): I love it. I wish it came in more weights (fingering, sport, worsted).

And here's Swallowtail. I confess, much as I like Jamieson's Shetland yarns, I'm not liking Spindrift so much, or maybe I'm not liking Spindrift so much for a shawl. Hope it softens when I soak it in Eucalan. The color (Twilight) is absolutely heavenly.


Evenstar wants a photo taken before I begin the next clue:


And last, some new yarn I've acquired. Both are Dream in Color Starry, Midnight Derby (left) and Good Luck Jade.


Tonight is devoted to knitting clue 4 of Evenstar. Off to do it!

Good Deeds Can Be Rewarded

Last month, Southerngirlknits posted a challenge on Ravelry to entice knitters to donate to Doctors without Borders. Look what yours truly won from the challenge:


Such luscious yarn, super-wash, and 464 yards of it, enough for a lovely shawlette-type scarf. The corals are my favorite color in the universe too. Thank you so much Allison.

On the knitting front, I seem to be knitting Zeno's paradox here with Carefree: no matter how long I knit (and I usually work on it for 2 to 3 hours at a time), I'm still stuck at 3 inches away from the armhole.
Today I mean to conquer the armhole, though I also need to knit my swatch of Evenstar.
Correction: I knitted my Evesntar swatch, ha!


It's a knitting times like this that WIPs can go into hibernation. Not that the Carefree pattern is hard (it's not), not the yarn isn't a great yarn (I love it), it's the feeling of "the hurrieder I go, the behinder I get," as a folk saying has it. I like knitting to defined milestones (though I'm a process knitter; however I must finish garments because they are needed). And I want to have this sweater ready to wear next month, because the week after DD#1's wedding, there will be dinner parties every night feting the young couple for a week (Orthodox Jews do not go on a honeymoon right after the wedding but go away some time after this week of parties). I'd also like to finish my Shetland Triangles shawl, if for no other reason than it's such a fun knit and I'm about halfway done with it.

Speaking of the wedding, it's one month from today. That is a sobering thought. Response cards have begun flooding in. Some are amusing to read: some just say "yes"(and we have to scramble find the envelope it came in to figure out who didn't put names on the card), one says "We'll try to make it to the ceremony and ..." That's a quote. I'll take that as regrets. And some come with gifts in the form of checks for the couple. Lovely gesture if the checks can be negotiated. You see, the groom's parents gave him a legal name, but then always called him by a nickname. And insisted the nickname, not the legal name, be on the invitation. So the invitation reads something like this:

Experimental and Dear Husband Knitter
Robert and Isabelle Morton
request the pleasure of your company at the marriage of their children
Victoria Regina and Al.

Checks have arrived made out to Mr.and Mrs. Al Morton. Al Morton is not on the bank account; legal Name Morton is. Other checks have come to Mr.and Mrs. Victoria and Dear Husband Knitter. I think DD#1 can deposit that one. Tomorrow, DD#1 tells me, she and fiancee are going to open up a joint account, with nickname of fiancee included. A good solution. Why didn't we put Al in parentheses after legal name, as is correct according to Emily Post, Miss Manners, Letitia Baldridge, and all sorts of wedding mavens? The in-laws don't want people in their town to know their son has a legal name. This is the true reason; if I were a Girl Scout, I'd write "Scout's honor." **sigh** As I tell DD#1, this should be the worst stuff you have to endure, forever!

Knitter's ADD

Why do I do this to myself? Why? I must have knitter's ADD, that's the only explanation for why I have to have multiple projects going at once (my mother never did that, she knitted one item faithfully at a time). And to add insult to injury, I have to go and fall in love with a new pattern. Never mind I have books galore by AS and Debbie Bliss, and 20 years' of Vogue Knitting, and 5 looseleaf notebooks full of pattern booklets. No. I took one look at this beauty by Dorothy Siemens at Fiddlesticks Knitting and I was lost. I just ordered it from Sarah's Yarns. I even (for shame!!) ordered 2 cones of JaggerSpun Zephyr 4/8 DK yarn from the Weaving Rainbow because they have the best price for JaggerSpun Zephyr around, $44 per 1 pound cone (that's over 1100 yards of DK-weight wool and silk, folks). Most people are selling Zephyr DK for $60 to $70 per pound cone, and over $10 for a 2 oz hank. Color I chose: Blueberry, a denim blue.

How do you justify your yarn purchases when you have a sizeable stash? Me, I'm going to tell myself that all the worsted/Aran weight yarn I have archived is for family (except for one lot of Magpie to make Mendocino for myself, since I gave the Soft Lux one to daughter #2). All the CE Tapestry is for vests for DH; now that I'm acquiring a son-in-law, I have a new person to knit for, right?