Friday, May 13, 2011

I'm a knitter... again!

Just thought I'd check in and let you all know that while BARELY, I'm still alive.  I had a very close brush with the Emergency Room on Tuesday and Wednesday and it appears that I've magically cured myself and the threat of the ER has diminished but I'm still not feeling well.  I don't have much of a choice regarding having to continue to go to work.  Besides being layed up, I've not really been knitting, altho I did finish two items that were sort of hanging on.  The first one was a sample of roving knit up into a small cravat that I posted a picture of in the button link tutorial.  It was made out of Silk/Wool pencil roving and knit on 10mm needles.  One 50g (40m) ball got a 14" long by 10stitch wide neck warmer.  Two balls would give you a very generous wide squishy warmer.  Mine is on display at Urban Yarns, along with the button link that appears in the below tutorial.
The second item that I finished was my Arizona knitting project.  It's a 3 repeat Feather and Fan wrap made out of two skeins of Fleece Artist Woolie Silk 3 ply.  I did 80 repeats of the stitch pattern and ended up with an unblocked shawl about a foot wide and 5.75' long.  I will harshly block it and it's also going over to Urban Yarns as a sample.  I think the wool is just lovely, I love that it's not superwash and I try and force it on people to buy all the time, so a sample knit up will help immensely.
I don't have pictures right now, but I will block it this weekend and get pictures for you!
Once I finished both of those items last week some time, I took a bit of a knitting hiatus.  I stuffed all my in progress pieces (that I love) into a bag along with all the beautiful yarn I've just purchased (including a highly prized skein of MadTosh Pashmina in Terrarium and the gorgeous souvenier yarn fro AZ) and promptly stopped thinking about them.  I had a moment that I wondered if I would ever knit again.  And then, when I thought I might end up in the hospital, I thought it would be a good idea to cast on something very easy, transportable and and something I could knit on while I suffered.  So I pulled out this gorgeous skein of purple and silver handspun yarn from Arizona and cast on a Mara (rav link).  Then I ripped it out.  See, thick/thin handspun does NOT look good in garter stitch.  So I recast it on thinking I'd try it in stockinette and it's divine!  Its literally all I can think about, it's all I want to do and I can't wait for it to be done!  And yes, I do find it ironic that I used to HATE HATE HATE purling and now when I'm thinking I need something simple to do when I'm sick, what I want to knit is back and forth stockinette!
The color on this project is divine and I ordered another skein of the gray so that I'm sure that I'll have enough!
See!
The other thing that I have to do (and am about 1/4 done) is my bestee's Hotwater Bottle Cover.  (rav link) It's my first time knitting with Spud and Chloe and I must say, it's pretty darn nice!  The bobbles are showing up just lovely and the cables really pop off the purl background.  I'm thrilled!  I changed the pattern to give it  couple sweet personalizations to make to it so that it's really special, but we'll have to wait before we can share that!
Thanks for sticking by me, even if I'm boring lately!

3 comments:

Karen said...

Take care of yourself and I hope you are feeling better soon!

chemicalika said...

Not boring at all!

That yarn is just lovely and it's looking beautiful in the simple stockinette.

Glad you're back to knitting and finding comfort in it and that you're starting to feel better (and that you didn't have to go to the ER - that sounds scary!!)

PJ said...

You didn't tell me you were pushing the HOSPITAL!! I hope you're feeling a little better everyday, I'm still sending big hugs and good thoughts your way.

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