scrunched up

It doesn't look like much, does it? That's the first ball of Cascade 220 superwash knitted up into my blanket. The edges are curling and the lace pattern is all scrunched up, but I have to believe it will look alright once it's washed. It will, won't it?

To reassure myself I've gone back to Ravelry and re-read all those comments about how much the yarn relaxed in the first washing. That should work in my favour, shouldn't it?

Deep breath ... and carry on. It'll be just fine, I'm sure.

edging

Using honey coloured waste yarn I provisionally cast on and have worked most of the bottom edging. When you look at the pictures on the pattern itself, and also the pictures within the project pages on Ravelry, you can see that the purl side of the edging winds up as the RS if you knit the pattern as written. I prefer the knit side as shown in my photo as my right side, so I'm adding one more row of garter stitch before starting the main panel of the blanket.

The yarn is Cascade 200 Superwash wool. It feels lighter than a worsted and seems ideal to me as the pattern calls for a sport weight yarn. I don't want a very thin blanket, but it's lacy, so a little lighter than worsted is not a bad thing. Given that it is lace, I figure I'll machine wash, tumble dry until just damp and then block into shape. We'll see how that goes.

plan B

Yesterday's hat plan met one obstacle after another. First, the yarn wasn't dry; still isn't, in fact. Secondly, I hit a few snags when I ordered this hat pattern. Seems the store owner's ISP doesn't like Canadian URLs, so the email with the download link was blocked. Late last night Julie emailed me the pattern directly out of frustration. And then, wouldn't you know it, the pattern asks for size 10 DPNs ... one of the few needle sizes I don't have.

Looks like the hat plan will have to wait a few days. Plan B? I guess I'll start another blanket for the Warm Hands Network. Several weeks ago I picked up 8 balls of Cascade 220 Superwash with this Estonian Lace Blanket pattern in mind. I'd love to show you that I'd made a start on it, but the first line of the pattern instructs me to provisionally cast on 161 stitches ... that might take a while.

a plan for hats

Buried in the bag of Lopi that was given to me, were a half dozen balls of Paton's Norspun - "a mostly acrylic Lopi wannabe", a fellow Raveler describes it. Last night I rewound and washed all of that. I've been thinking, thinking and thinking what I should do with it. Because of the high acrylic content, it's no good for the Warm Hands Network. What to do?!

Hey, wait a minute! Wasn't I lamenting last year that I should be doing more for Street Knit? Aren't there about a hundred patterns for hats and mitts in my queue? And just yesterday, didn't I express an urge to knit something small, quick and fun? Hats; that what I'll do!

finished sweater

When you mattress stitch a seam, the seam should be invisible. Having run out of blue yarn entirely, and having instead completed the side and sleeve seams with contrast colour yarn, I am relieved to confirm that is true. The sweater is done, seamed, ends woven in and buttons attached. Last night I gave it another Eucalan bath to relax the seams a bit and now it's laying flat on the spare bed to dry.

There's still enough Lopi yarn left for two more sweaters, and possibly some hats and mitts, but I think I'm Lopi-ed out at the moment. Time to take a break and knit something completely different. Something small, quick and fun, I think. But what?

pencil roving

When I talked to Laurie at the Black Lamb about drop spindle spinning she suggested I start out with merino pencil roving; "it makes it so easy", she insisted. Last night I dug out the bag of roving and gave it a go. Laurie was right, it really does make it easy. The pencil roving is already drawn quite thinly so not a lot of drafting is required. Look, my tension already looks quite even!

The bag of pencil roving I purchased was 225 grams, so if I spin it all - and I'm about 20% of the way through it now - then I should have enough yarn for a project, like fingerless gloves or even mittens. That's my goal. It's undyed though. Do I have to learn how to dye yarn next?

at the lake

We packed up the car early Friday morning to head to the Lake to bring Nancy her new Stand-Up Paddle Board. As soon as we arrived Gavin and Nancy donned wetsuits to try it out, leaving me onshore as the official photographer. Conditions weren't ideal - cold, rainy at times, windy and quite choppy - but Nancy was able to get up on her board, paddle around and have a bit of fun.

I did find time to knit a bit further on my Herringbone Ribbed socks. In fact, the first sock is nearly done. Like most things in this world, this pattern gets easier with practice. No need to look at the chart anymore, and I'm able to detect and fix mistakes much quicker.

One more thing ... although we may not have appreciated all the rain over the last couple of days, my garden certainly did! The daylilies are really coming on strong now. A few days of sunshine and things should really take off!