Lace off, lace on

Montego Bay scarf, off.




Can I tell you how very much I love this scarf? I would have loved it if the yarn wasn't handspun by my very good friend Gina, but I love it so very much more because it is. The fiber itself is soft and pretty. I know the work that went into it's spinning and that adds so much to this scarf.

Details:
Montego Bay Scarf, Summer '07 Interweave Knits
Designed by Amy Singer
Yarn: The most beautiful handspun yarn I've ever seen, Endless Bliss by Sleepy Eyes in a Merino/Baby Alpaca blend with Angelina
Started: July 12
Finished: July 19
Fun, easy and fast.

Children of the Lir Stole, on.



This is not a difficult lace pattern, but I do need to pay very careful attention to what I'm doing. I've already made a few mistakes, but luckily the repeat is only 23 stitches long, and I can count. This is my first "big" lace project. Since it's done in sport weight yarn it's going sort of quickly. I need it finished for an October wedding, but I think I'm good on time. Speaking of wedding, here's the dress it's going with. I brought the fabric swatch to the TKGA show hoping to match it, and it does. Perfectly.



Thank you Mr. Miyagi.

The best of what's around

Summer raspberries



On toast



My Montego Bay scarf back lit by the morning sun:



Some recent acquisitions from the TKGA Show on Saturday:

An unknit sweater of Jaeger Baby Merino DK:



Enough Alpaca for my wedding stole. I think I'm going to make the Arctic Diamonds Stole from Winter '06 Interweave Knits.




Some Silk Garden:

When you give a 2 year old a camera... and WIPs

You get the most interesting photos. I'm not going to share the 20 photos of her feet, or the ceiling, or the back of her brother's head at a weird angle because they are all too out of focus. I will however share this, the last photo in the series. Obviously the last place she was playing with it because it's where I found it. God only knows how in this all this mess.



The kids' upstairs playroom. I used to pick up in here every day. Now I just close the door and hope for the best.

I've started two new projects and put aside the boy color tulip sweater. I saw my cousin over the weekend and I'm 90% sure she is having a girl baby. I will finish the boy sweater for another baby, but not this one.

The first new project is a striped cardigan for The Girl. It's based on The Basic Cardigan from Top Down for Toddlers with no collar, no eyelets, and worked at a bigger gauge. Other than that...



I'm using lion brand cotton ease for the first time. It's pretty damn awesome.

The second WIP is going to have to be done rather quickly. I'm working on the Montego Bay Scarf from Interweave Summer '07 to wear to a late summer wedding. I had an epiphany while considering the dress I'm going to wear, a sexy little number I've had in my closet for a while and never had the chance to wear. I recalled that the delicate blue floral silk overlay kind of matched the incredibly awesome handspun yarn that Gina gave me for my last birthday. I immediately ran upstairs, grabbed the dress, grabbed the yarn and viola! The perfect combination. This is a terrible photo, but gives the general idea:



I've finally captured the angelina sparkle in this photo. The yarn in person is so much prettier, but so freaking hard to photograph. (click to pic to see the sparkle)



Here it is all done up and lacy:

Tulips, revisited

The first Tulips baby cardigan came out so beautifully, I decided to make a second with the leftover Knitpicks yarn. There really was plenty of it left over. It's going to be for the same baby, but I'll have to wait for the birth to decide to give the girlish one or the boyish one. Actually the new one would look equally cute on a girl. I just didn't want to give a baby boy a sweater with pink in it. Two shades of pink even. So, I picked out what I perceived to be the most boyish of the colors I had left, two blues a purple and a green, and set out to make this:



I've got half of one sleeve done. I just need to decide how I want the button band to look. I'm either going to do it with the darker blue, or if I don't have enough of that color, I'll do the light blue around the neckline, and do green on one side and purple on the other. That may look a little funny, but we'll see.

What I did on my summer vacation

Finished a baby sweater:



Details:
Pattern: The Tulip Baby Cardigan, by Dream in Color
Yarn: KnitPicks Swish Superwash Merino in nine colors
Started: Wednesday, June 20
Finished: Wednesday, June 27
For: First Cousin, once removed due in August (if it's a girl)

I love this pattern and I'm really glad I subbed the yarn. The Swish is so soft and the colors are beautiful. I started another baby sweater for the baby if it's a boy, but I think I'll try this one again with more boyish colors.

Let's see, what else did we do this past week?

Went to the Baltimore Aquarium:









Went to the National Zoo in Washington, DC:






We also visited with friends and I got to go to a few yarn shops. I got enough yarn for a new wallaby for the boy, a cute brown sweater for the girl, a boy baby sweater for the new cousin (if it's a boy) and some souvenir yarn. I love shopping with purpose.