Doodle THIS!

A finished object?!  What's THAT, you ask?!  I do, indeed, have one ;)

I was knitting away on my Doodler Shawl by Stephen West of Westknits (FB page) fame when the whole move thing happened....and ate away at my LIFE.  I had some laundromat time to knit, and that was lovely, if I was on my own (not gonna lie:  there were 2-3 times I skipped down to the laundromat, conveniently located 3 minutes from my house, SANS children.  BLISS.  TRY IT.).  Then it was hot, and I was quite the negative nelly about knitting - and preferred, instead, to pick up the Harry Potter books and the Outlander books and while away the hours, LOL.

Trying to really impress you with those wrinkles!  Poor shawl!

But.  I LOVE the shawl!  Hooray to me that it's DONE (albeit after three months). I did make the process only a TEENY bit more painful, in that I'm not a huge garter stitch lover.  I wanted to see some stockinette in there.  I incorporated the stockinette on the wedges, which clearly slowed me down a bit, what with all the purling, but it was honestly not a big deal to me.  In the end, I DO see how the all-over garter stitch pulls it all together, but I like having broken it up a bit.  I was pretty tempted to knit the long cable in stockinette, also, but I said a big EFF THAT SHIZ and forged ahead with garter.  I wanted that thing off the needles.  I would have been done so much sooner, but for the move.

LOL, funny little brother

The pattern is clearly awesome.  It was super well-written, and I did just fine.  I needed to watch a quick tutorial for the cast-on, but I think that was it???  LOL.  I am a bit sad that I didn't pick up quite right for the i-cord edge in the middle of the shawl, so, there isn't a cool i-cord look.  That loveliness is more obvious on the WRONG side.  Bah humbug.  Ah, well.  

I did try to make the most of my lovely yarn, which is from The Wool Barn.  I used the Silk Sock base in the colorways Sage, Autumn Delight (Maya is way awesome and custom-dyed that colorway for me!) and Metal.  I do overall think I should have used a purple, rather than the Metal, but that was my choice and nothing doing now.  I have realized over time, though, that I'm not a fan of 50/50 wool/silk blends.  I like a bit less silk in my yarn, mostly because I want it slightly less shiny.  The yarn itself is awesome, though, and everyone who has seen the shawl has loved it and commented on it, which is nice!

Overall, it was a lovely project, and now I dream of casting on for another Stephen West design, the Exploration Station...when I have time on my hands.  For now, I work on the Across the Pond shawl by Mina Philipp.  

In life/family news, we are better organized around the house, though there is still so much to do (I know I'm a broken record, LOL).  Matt's dad helped put in the tub, which is one of the last things to be finished in the bathroom.  The clawfoot is lovely, but we are naturally experiencing some leaks, so, I hope that is remedied tomorrow.  We also hope to complete a bathroom door and cabinet doors for the hall cabinet over the next week or so.  My sister will be visiting with her husband and children (new baby, too!!), and I'd love a cleaner and neater space for them to all run around in.  I will blog about that visit and hopefully another project in just a couple of weeks!

Poor dad

Grandma's first bike ride in a million years!

Matt won a cool sharp sword!

Free pottery lesson with Lisa!

Camden actually plucked away on this that evening...WITH the band!

LOLOL

Your usual box picnic

A Hike in Bryce Canyon....Minus the Hike: A Shawl

Omigosh - super excited about my second-ever shawl!  Well....let's not get hasty - it's a shawlette, more specifically - a teeny, tiny thing, to be truthful.

I used some awesome-possum MarigoldJen yarn, a 50/50 merino/silk in the colorway Greenridge (my Ravelry project page).  It is a fingering weight yarn, and it was simply divine.  Speaking of MarigoldJen, the Jenny behind the yarn is SUCH a sweet lady - sooooo nice and to work with (which means super patient with my 50 convos on Etsy, LOL)!!!  If you are not already in her Ravelry group, you need to join!  In fact, I was doing this shawl with her yarn as part of a KAL in the group...and I started to get quite worried I wouldn't make it!  Thank goodness I did!

The shawl pattern, Bryce Canyon by Very Busy Monkey, is written super well and is wonderfully easy to understand, but - you guessed it!! - I naturally had a couple of simple questions while knitting it, and one of the knitters in the VBM group was super helpful throughout!  Thanks, Nadja!

I tried to block aggressively, but I'm guessing I don't block as aggressively as I should, because I feel badly pulling on the yarn, aha!  I say this because my shawl is likely shorter than it should be, because of my row gauge.  My pre-blocked stitch gauge was right on, and I knew that would hopefully grow, but because I'm a loose knitter, I always go down a few needle sizes....which then makes my ROW gauge too tight.  Eff that, but whatever.  The shawl is a cute little thing on me - but quite a lovely size for Camden, LOL.  It was dry this morning, so, I was happy to wear it to the library today for story time - and Tiberius was happy to chew on it at said story time ;)

Fits camden well, aha!

Also, for the washing of the shawl, I used my Tuft Woolens (FB page) Lanolin bar in the Royal Apiary scent, which is part of the sample set you can purchase on Etsy - not sure it's my favorite smell, but it's the one I had already opened up, and it's a lovely wash!  I can't wait to dig into the others, and she is also a lovely woman to work with.  Snap if this shawl doesn't have a lot of good vibes tucked into it from all the wonderful people I worked with!

Not sure if this picture captures the color better/differently

You must know by now that I'm, of course, going to sneak in pictures of my kids!  Tiberius is getting huge, and Camden is a bit more "into" him now, which is nice - he loves when she makes him giggle :)

Loves her Tiny Titans comic books! 

Playing with his dad in a fun onesie knit up by my friend at That's What She Crafted (FB page)

Silk Shawl - Say WHAT??!!!

Ladies and gents, I introduce you to my first-ever shawl - the Beithe by Susanna IC on Ravelry.

ME????  How did I make it into a blog post???

This yarn is definitely a stash yarn - something I picked up years ago in Seattle at The Weaving Works.  It was the first silk I'd ever purchased (since then, I've only purchased silk blends), and it's a single ply....which is something NOW I'd never buy, as single ply is basically against my religion.  Single ply unto itself can be grabby/splitty, and the fact that it's SILK single ply...????  Yikes.

All turned out well, though.  I knew going into the pattern that this yarn wouldn't best represent, so to speak.  But I wanted something easy for my first shawl, and I didn't have a yarn that would work well for any pattern I could find in the right yardage.  I used Colinette Tao in colorway Marble, and it's lovely, though I'm not sure the photos capture it as well as they could (well, and my CRAZY GENIUS photography skills do NOT come into play, naturally).

The pattern is super easy to follow, and starts out with the lace edging then moves up through the stockinette with short row shaping.  I have NO idea how, but i miscounted at some point (I can only assume) and didn't have my short rows correct.  NO WAY/NO HOW was I going to rip out and figure out where I'd messed up - so, I fudged it and figured nobody would notice ;)

One SUPER SCORE from a weekend or so ago was a set of rubber mats to use as blocking mats.  I naturally printed out some Joann Fabric coupons and sprinted with the kids yesterday to buy T pins (and D rings...well...and a square of chocolate) for blocking.  I soaked the silk in plain water and blocked it out as best as my lazy self felt like doing....you can tell I'm no expert, and I don't own blocking wires, but I figured I was fine without those at this time, anyway.

I do have to say that I might wear this one a few times, but as it's white-ish and 100% silk, it might also be something I save for a special occasion for Camden down the road.  I'm glad I did it - and in record time:  12 days!  I am nervous to think about how long it'll take me to do the Bryce Canyon shawl, pictured below, for the marigoldjen KAL over July and August....as I also would like to join the KAL in Lete's Knits in August...lawds.  Too much to knit!

Source

DMK Cape Dress or Where Is My Kid Hiding???

My long-awaited (awaited by MYSELF, if you must know) cape dress is alllllll done.  Well, Camden's, though I clearly put in all the hard work.

Looks innocent and NOT HUGELY GIANT here, LOL

And by hard work, I mean that I cut the outer cape pieces a couple months back, and they've been sitting, gathering dust, as I had no lining fabric to match, and I must have some sort of silk/cotton-silk as a lining in this sort of project.  As lack of luck would have it, Mill End had NO cotton-silk blends in stock that were wide enough for this pattern - as you can see, it's QUITE voluminous (let's not beat around the bush here, people).  Granted, I cut a size 5, for some reason, but I do wish the pattern had overall better shaping, including in the neckline.  A size 3 would fit better, as long as the neckline was lower and the chest was big enough around.  The top of the back, though, seems quite snug, so, I don't think the size 3 would have fit well in that department.

Snugaroo, eh???

The pattern is the Cape Dress (not sure of exact name - too lazy to go look!) by DMKeasywear (Dear My Kids) on Etsy.  I'd link the exact pattern, but I haven't seen that particular one in the shop for a while.  (Is there a reason for that????)  I HAVE done one other DMK pattern at this point - this one, and I do love it:

Anyway, it's generally a quick sew, though I naturally made it take longer by not using my cabeza and sewing the hem in a way such that I couldn't turn it right side out.  No idea what I was thinking there - so...had to take out the 3853976 stitches and re-do it.  The wool didn't press too badly, and the silk was lovely enough to work with, so, all was well.  I'm not normally a HUGE BOW person, as many know, but eh - it'll work for this.  If I'd known THEN what I know NOW, I would have done a size 4, for REALZ, and I would have scooped out that neckline a bit more.  It's intensely high/tight.  I'm not sure that doing a size 3 would have worked - not sure if the chest circumference would have fit Camden.

The pattern itself, besides being quick, is written well and is super easy to understand!  I also think the pattern pieces are done well - that is something I appreciate, as I'm not a huge pdf person.

Here it is in all its gloriousness ;)

Don't be toooo afraid of this volume, y'all!

And how about this cuteness after story time yesterday???  This is Camden's friend, and they were racing around, getting a bit more energy out, naturally :)