I know it has been a long time since I posted about anything but my Fiesta Friendship shawl (link to last time I posted a photo).. in fact there has been very sparse knitting content, period! It has been a consuming project, and now that I am about 3/4ths of the way through, there's not a lot to show that doesn't look suspiciously similar to the last time I posted about this project. Hard on the motivation to share with you. However, since today is WIP Wednesday, I am going to let you in on a little secret. I have been making something else...
Now, I still am working, a handful of diamonds a week, to get that really big shawl completed. I even sorted out the gift yarns from many of you, as well as the fingering weights that I had in my stash, and have two smallish bags ready to pass along to someone else who wants to make either a diamond shawl or a full-on modular, patchwork blankie. All you have to do is let me know. Oh, and enter my birthday contest. A smallish collection is going off to Cynthia, a loyal Fibers customer, but that will still leave lots of yarns that I have used a few times in the shawl already, and need to pass along to the next intrepid knitter. I have a particular pink for the last of the large diamonds (coming in the next several days), then need to fill in on either side with more small diamonds, and finish off with a row of triangles at the top. Rowen contributed some yarns a week ago that should help me make it through to the end, with a bit more variety. I will see the end... sometime before winter ends!
However, in the past month, it has been All Odessa, All The Time (and can you blame me!). Odessa got undershirts. Odessa got a baby hat to go home in. And now that the weather has turned blustery and cold... Odessa is getting her first grammie sweater (ravelry link).
This is a really terrible photo as far as definition goes.. you can't actually tell that the back and the two fronts are done and pinned together. One sleeve was finished this afternoon, while it poured down rain and the house was being hit with high winds... sleeve #2 will be finished tonight. Check out the link above, which shows the sweater off better, and the cute little hat that mama Dawn has requested as well. I hope that baby Odessa likes it as much as we big people do.
The yarn I am using is Plymouth's Sara Superwash in a stunning raspberry tweed, which is a very nice yarn, but not exactly the same gauge as the one called for. We are not worrying about such complicated matters here at Slate Range Camp, though, since babies grow so quickly that anything you make them will fit at one point or another! And, as you can tell from this photo of DD Nikki holding Odessa at my birthday party... this is a grrl who needs a sweater and soon!
Nikki hosted a wonderful birthday barbeque at her house for me on Sunday, and luckily just ahead of the big storm. All of my growed-up kids were there, but DH was away, on yet another fire. The storm put an end to it and he arrived home late today, bringing me a great Pendleton blanket as a gift. Our family group helped me enjoy the day even without him, and he was delighted that we could send him a phone-photo so that he could feel like he was part of the party... the wonders of technology!
Jesse and Dawn got me a lovely Catherine Popesco locket (which resisted photographing this afternoon, in the dull storm light) so that I can put a picture of my baby grrl in it, and Nikki got me one of my favorite plants, a miniature rose. Come to think of it, all of my potted roses came by way of Nikki - what a sweet daughter!
One of those friends, Carrie, together with the sudden change in the weather, has really stoked up my knitting mojo, by showing me these.... when I went off to Knitty to peruse the pattern and contemplate making myself a pair, I was also inspired by this and then this! All of this inspiration led to my being even more inspired while waiting in line at the local JC Penney sale on Sunday... I spotted the perfect larger knitting bag, for only $4.99 (marked down from $55 and returned by someone who didn't like it when she realized that the flowers were actually peace signs, LOL... just waiting for me, I guess!). Plus, it's water-repellent whereas my favorite basket only goes out on dry days:)
Unfortunately, my personal, real-time queue here at the old Camp is pretty darn backed up! I have promised DH that he will get to wear his felted vest (Ravelry) this cold season, and dragged it downstairs to do the finish work that will allow me to throw it in the washer and felt it.
While cleaning out my studio, I did decide to unload some stash that will never turn into FOs in my hands, and to also take stock of what I have and what it can become in the relatively near future. I do not have yarn for Girl Friday, but I work in a yarn store, and suspect I can have the yarn by the time I have cleared the decks to make it... it is definitely top of my list for 'next sweater'.
In the meantime, I plan to finish my Mendocino vest (Ravelry) this fall, and to start on my Bohus sweater (Ravelry- though I will do a cardi version) later this winter, as well as come up with uses for two really nice yarns marinating upstairs in the studio.
I also have plans for three small handspun projects... one is a pair of thrummed mitts, another a little stuffed rabbit from some lovely handspun angora from Amy, and the third is a fair-isle inspired beret using my white Rambouillet paired with some lovely rose shades of roving (yet to be spun) that I got from my fellow guild spinner, hand-dyer and shepherdess, Sue Flynn while at the Celtic Festival last weekend. Those small projects might take until winter is over, but will also give me something to enter in next year's county fair display, a long-range concern of being a good and upstanding fiber guild member. Then, there's holiday knitting to be considered.... hmm, maybe I should start shopping for those gifts.
What about you, where do you stand on holiday knitting this season?
