Cattywampus

Before & After

So here's the before:

And here's the after:

I made the torch disappear!  I really, really had no idea it was THAT easy to do that sort of thing.

And if I knew how, I would erase the letters from his t-shirt and make it a different color so it would be a classier picture.  We weren't exactly planning on this one, I was just playing with the timer on the camera and he wandered by and got sucked into my madness.

We had the most gorgeous weekend...

Low humidity, clear, blue sky

Barely a cloud in the sky - and the ones that were there were entertaining

Perfect for sunbathing on the deck

And watching the wildlife wander by

Wildlife of all sizes...creepy and furry

Also - a gorgeous weekend to be out practicing various photographing skills.  I am learning how to use photoshop too, oh the THINGS you can do with that program!  It's a little bit crazy.  I have learned how to remove things from a photo and I have an example to share with you, I'll put that in the next post.  I'm quite pleased with it myself.

I am thinking about doing a 30 day photo challenge...thinking because it seems like a lot of work, there are days when I most likely just won't want to be bothered, but I think I'll give a shot and post them here as well.  So if I suddenly am posting every day you'll know what sort of madness I'm about.

Some oohs and a meh.

The gift for DH's Godmother was finished in time (imagine!) and she put it on when she opened it, so I think she liked it.

This one was a rousing success! 

I also finished the Peacock Shawlette 

(I did mention I was having fun with the shawls, right?)

I love that it's bottom up, I adore the feather pattern with the slipped stitch ridges running up the body.   I also adore the fact that it's only complicated for so long and then it goes super fast.

In real life, this lovely yarn has some lavender running through it and a lovely sheen, it's Fibre Company Fingering (and I have enough to make another shawl if anyone wants to buy it from me, I doubt I'll make it in the same yarn again...).  Details on my Rav page. 

This one was for my mother for Mother's Day and here she is looking accusingly at the camera after she received it last Saturday.

I know, you say - accusingly??  That's her 'I just saw you a few weeks ago and I didn't even see this!  How did you knit this without me knowing about it???' look.  ;-)

I do believe she liked it.

All in all, a successful few weeks of gifting.

I think it turned out lovely, so lovely in fact, that I am knitting one for myself, but in laceweight, so I have added some repeats.  I am currently obsessed with it, so maybe I'll have it to show off in a few weeks.

And finally, here is Gemini, from the most recent knitty.

I am not impressed.  So unimpressed, in fact, that it is frogged and the yarn has been skeined, soaked and is hanging to dry.  The body is okay, but it doesn't look fabulous or anything, and the lace at the top displays an alarming amount of my undergarments AND it falls off my shoulders incessantly.  

I feel that I have reached an important milestone with the frogging of this top, a place where I can step back and say 'yes, I knit this, and yes it represents dozens of hours of my time, but I really, really am not going to wear it and I am going to reclaim the yarn for something better'.

I am quite pleased that I pushed through the desire to hang it up in my closet anyway, knowing at the back of my mind that it would end up at the back and never worn.  So, even though the shirt was 'meh', I am happy with the outcome and now I have some Hempathy to repurpose.

I will leave you with this hysterical picture.

We had a flat tire last Friday night, and due to a long series of events that it is not worth explaining - call it a night where Murphy's Law ruled supreme - Pixie had to ride on the flat bed while we sat in the tow truck.  Sweet little Pixie, she was fine, VERY focused on us in the cab of the truck.  I think I was more worried than she was, and now this picture is pretty amusing.  I can just IMAGINE what was going through her little head just then.

More actual knitting

DH's Godmother is having her 70th birthday this weekend and it occurred to me a few weeks back that if ever I was going to knit her a shawl, this would be the time to do it.  She is certainly a woman who appreciates the time and effort that goes into a knitted garment, so all the more reason.

I decided to knit Ishbel, which I have made in laceweight in the smaller size.  I used Ella Rae merino lace, which is a heavy laceweight, about halfway to fingering, I'd say.

It went insanely fast, especially with the drive to Gloucester and back to work on it.  I am very pleased with how large it turned out and with how delicate the lace looks.  With the heavier laceweight I was worried it wouldn't look as...well, as lacey.

The first picture is a more accurate color.  I used about 600 yards for this, and I have enough left to make another one - it is tempting, it's quite a lovely color.

Instead, I started a different shawl...

Thank you all for your ideas about what to do with yarn that is weighing me down, I decided to go with the Yarnstorming group on Ravelry.  They take nominations, collect donations, and send yarn to charity groups and to knitters who are going through hard times, financial or otherwise.

I can convince myself to give up yarn in this way, somehow thinking that what is weighing me down will go towards making someone else happy in such a way makes the lost money seem worth it.  So this past weekend I went through and pulled all sorts of yarn, a paper shopping bag full, out of my stash and when I get a bit more free time I will go through and label all the unlabled yarn and get it in the mail.

This is related to the new shawl, I swear.

While I was doing this, I came across some yarn that I've had for a long time, but am still not quite able to give up - there is quite a lot of that yarn, actually.  Nobody is buying it, and I have lost interest in it, but it's not in the 'weighing me down' stage yet.  One of them sparked my interest this weekend and I decided to make the Peacock Shawlette.  

Suddenly finding a use for yarn that I had fallen out of love with (like the Kauni as well) seems to be at the top of my motivational list and I am going to take advantage of it while it's there.  The Ishbel was knit out of yarn I had decided to sell as well, but it was repurposed to good use.  Of course, once again, about 2 days after I cast on someone inquired about buying it.  Ah well.

It does also help to remember that while it's incredibly helpful to have one's whole stash on Rav to peruse at will, actually seeing your yarn and fondling it can help to spark an interest to repurpose the yarn, seeing a picture of yarn just can't duplicate the multi-sensory reality.  Shorter:  If you pull out your stash, you might fall in love with some of it again!

Now to the knitting (sort of)

While in Gloucester, we did, in fact, attend a knitting retreat.  I do not have one solitary picture to prove it though.

This was a colorwork knitting retreat, covering two handing stranding techniques, chart reading, the history of knitting in the different places it originated, and more less any question you could think to ask that related.

At the retreat there were people of all skill levels, some who came to learn, some who came for a vacation with a friend, and some who came to enjoy the company of other knitters.  It was really a wonderful group and we had a great time.

My mother decided to knit a Norweigian ski hat, which she has since finished, and it is quite impressive.  Of course, I don't have any pictures of that either.

I (of course) couldn't do anything as normal as a hat.  I decided that I should go ahead and use my Kauni yarn that I bought eons ago.  I had been trying to sell it on Ravelry, but nobody seemed interested (until after I cast on for the sweater).  

So I picked a pattern out of one of Alice Starmore's recently re-published books and chose a sweater pattern (raglan pullover) and off I went.

I have about 3 inches done...it's going to be a while, especially considering that I am obsessed with knitting lace right now, but more on that in a minute.

Other things that are happening - spring continues its accelerated journey this year.  The roses are blooming.  The roses bloom for my birthday - in early JUNE.  

This rose bush is on a little side street, and I love it, it blooms for my birthday, in late May and early June, and then again in September.  I do appreciate its beauty, but I am sad that I won't be able to appreciate it in another month instead.

I love that the buds are yellowish with deep pink edging, but when the flowers open they are almost white with just the barest hint of blush on the tips of petals.  

Sigh.  I don't know what's going on with the weather this year, far be it from me to complain about an early, long spring in which we have had few rainy days - but it's not normal and that makes me more than a tad bit worried about what that means for the coming year and of course, what that means in the bigger picture.  BUT this is not a blog to talk about climate change implications...

I also like this picture.

You could layer a hundred meanings into it or you could just notice how it's funky cool that the background is clear but the fence in the immediate front of the picture is blurry...your choice.