I always said I would never knit a shawl...

...and then I started the girasole. It took me 4 months and 1 day start-to-finish, although I did stop knitting on it for about a month and a half or so while I waited for more yarn (never start a large project without enough yarn btw).

Tempted graciously dyed more yarn for me, and she tried her best to match the original yarn, but it wasn't quite right. We had decided that I would knit the shawl and then overdye it to make the color uniform.

I kinda like the color as is. I'll let other people look at it before I make a final decision, but that spiraling is freaking awesome.

So much for not making shawls-now I have to decide if I want to make the mystic light shawl or the stacy shawl next.

Happy Birthday and (almost) knitiversary to me

My 26th birthday was on the 14th, and my 1 year knitiversary will be in November (I don't remember the exact date, so I just declare the whole month a holiday). Two of my great friends, Logan and Cody (blogerroo), sent me a combination birthday/knitiversary present.

Those awesome socks are the Summer Sliding socks (rav link) in my absolute favorite yarn Tempted Good Grrl. The yarn he sent me is Dye Dreams Twinkle Toes, a 50% merino/50% tencel blend sock yarn in the colorway Caribbean. He bought it at... wait for it.... RHINEBECK! I've totally got to go there some day.

A great big thank you goes to Logan and Cody! I love ya'll.

Those pictures I promised...

I finally pulled out my camera tonight. This is my owls sweater. I just started the short rows to dip the yoke, so I guess I'm about 65% done with it. This is for a KAL, and I have until Thanksgiving to finish it. I think I can do it, even though the striping pattern in the yarn is driving me crazy.

I got a hold of some of Tempted's Luxe yarn. It is a cashmere blend! The colorway is Emergency. I love it. I'm going to make a pair of fingerless gloves for myself.

As you may know, I am participating in the Wendyknits KAL. You knit a pair of socks in a month and they draw a random person out of those who finished to receive prizes. I won this skein of J.knits sock yarn for my August Seaweed socks. I'm not sure what socks I'm going to make with it yet.

I've decided to make a mystic light shawl, and I have 3 skeins of Tempted bad grrl to make it with. Isn't it pretty? There's blue and red in it, overdyed with chestnut. I really want to start the shawl, but I need to finish my girasole first.

Finally, here are my mock cable socks. I can safely say that these are for my mom for Christmas since she doesn't read my blog anyway.

I'm such a bad blogger...

I've knit a lot on several different projects recently, but I never seem to remember my camera before it gets dark outside. I've wanted to try taking more pictures during the day so that the colors come out better.

I stayed the weekend at Tempted's house (again) with her sister Muriel to help her get ready to post the Stacy Shawl kits on her etsy store. Wendyknits designed a shawl and knit it using 2 skeins of Tempted Luxe. This is the link to Wendy's post, this is the link to Stacy's post (last 2 posts), and here's the link to the etsy store. The shawl is so pretty and the yarn is the softest evah! (Psst-its cashmere!) Several of my friends are already knitting it or will be shortly.

I did get a lot of knitting time in. I managed to work on my Girasole, but Stacy had to help me a lot. Anyway, here is a picture of Muriel and I holding our shawls. She seems to think that she will catch up with me, but she is sadly mistaken lol.

I'm finally out of the insanity that is chart D. It is just a 4 stitch pattern repeat, but I really should have been using stitch markers. That's part of the reason Stacy had to help me so much.

I'm over halfway done with the Owls sweater, and I've started the Mock Cable socks for the Oct. KAL. They will eventually be a christmas present for my mom.

My Owls sweater

Here's my owls sweater to date:

I'm finally getting somewhere! I originally started it with some alpaca worsted, but I don't think the yarn is really worsted weight (it was bought from a local farm in Lancaster, Pa). So, I changed to Paton's Classic wool. Then, I had the opportunity to procure several skeins of Malabrigo worsted in my favorite color. I started over for the third time (making the s/m 36" version). Then, I realized the pattern called for bulky weight yarn. So I started over for the 4th time, this time making the 38" M size. Everything was going fine and dandy until I realized I had done the waist decreases at the wrong stitch marker, which led to another frogging. Now I've made up all of my backwards progress, and am finally making some headway. I just hope it fits.