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.

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.

Girasole update

Here is my girasole to-date. I love it! Working on this shawl/blanket has seriously slowed down my knitting on other projects. However, I only have ~1/3 of a ball of yarn left, and Tempted very kindly offered to dye more for me. So, I'm slowing down on the shawl so I won't get into a situation where I want to knit on it and don't have any yarn to do so.

Girasole progress

I'm moving right along with the Girasole. I had to transfer it from a 24" cable to a 32" cable (I have the Knitpicks harmony interchangeables). I just finished row 7 of chart C, for those of you who are doing it too. I know it may not be obvious to some of you, but I love blue. I really really love this color blue lol.

Talk about being a follower

I've fallen in love with the Girasole by Jared Flood (his blog is brooklyn knits-link to post). Wendy has done it, and I have several friends planning it or doing it. Most of the projects on ravelry are done either in fingering weight yarn (for a shawl) or in worsted (for a blanket). I want something in-between, so I've thought of finding a nice DK weight yarn to use. If I do use worsted, it will likely be Cascade Eco wool, and if I use fingering, it will probably be Tempted (she's also doing a girasole). I don't like shawls though. However, one of the knitting gurus at the LYS is doing it in fingering weight, and I really liked it. I'd mentally envisioned this blanket as being a future baby blanket, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Lol, I just bought the pattern, so I may be in a bit of trouble if I find the perfect yarn any time soon.