Spring-like

So it really feels like spring now. Baseball has been postponed the last 2 days, it's sunny but chilly, and I've got startitis. I just can't stop myself from starting more new projects. All with the intention of getting them done by the end of April. Ha. I did finish the Laminaria, that's gotta count for something. Took it to KotS yesterday. Lots of pictures. First up, the miracle of blocking:
That's the before. A lovely blob with ruffles.
That's the after. A crookedly blocked shawl. Yeah, it got fixed after the photo shoot. I had a heck of a time blocking this thing - I did it twice because I did it wrong the first time. And then had to fix the crookedness. But it's pretty!
Close up on the first chart section.
Close up on the blossom chart section.
Blurry close up of the edging charts.
Artsy close up at an angle. Well, my attempt at that, anyway.
Modeled by Joan at KotS (thanks Joan!) So that's all done and really, I"m very happy with how it turned out. It's gorgeous. So speaking of shawls...
That's through 6 correct repeats of the Caricia shawl. It's slightly goofy how you have to follow the pattern to get it right, but now that I know it's all good. And I'll be ready the next time I come across this in a pattern.
Isn't it a great center stitch? So that should go pretty quickly now. Ha. I shouldn't make those kinds of statements, the Knitting Fates don't like it. I'm making progress on the Atlantis socks.
Most of the foot of the second one done. This will be my primary car knitting - if I get any car knitting time. I have a feeling I'll be doing most of the driving tomorrow. Yeah, Ellie and I are heading down to NC to see Tommy as he arrives. Very excited. Need to decide what else will make the trip, knitting wise. Probably the shawl, probably not this:
A new sweater, the Swan Lake Cardigan. This time a spring/summer top. I'm using Prima, a new yarn from Debbie Bliss that is 80% bamboo, 20% merino, so it's nice and light. Loving it now that I've gotten past row 13 for the third time. Really, one of these days I will learn to read the pattern correctly the first time. That's the back, so we've got a ways to go. Especially because I started this the other day at work:
A handspun scarf, pattern is Midori. One of my goals this year was to knit more of my handspun, so I thought that I should really try to get a project done. And I've been trying to find the perfect pattern for this yarn for ages, I think this is finally it. It's nice and simple, and works well with the striping of the yarn.
What do you think? Guess I'm in a pink kind of mood this week too. And speaking of handspun...
That's the progress on my "Robes of Autumn" or I'm thinking of calling it "Amazing Technicolor Dream Fiber" because that's all I think of every time I see it. My trusty Flexi-Wrap roll holding the first batt, and the spindle with not quite half of the second batt.
Trying to show you the sparkle from the copper angelina - there are parts that are super shiny, and I'm loving it. Click on the picture to make it bigger and you'll see the shiny.

See? I've got a lot going right now. And I really need to get going, lots to do to be ready to leave in the morning. Should have lots of photos and fun to share next week. Happy Easter to you all!

In which boredom ensues

So life is pretty boring right now. Spring break at work - which means longer hours with less to do to fill them. Currently I'm re-entering all of the physicals into the computer, because somehow, even though it wasn't supposed to, the original excel file was erased when the computer got updated with new Clinic stuff. Grr.

Today should be better though, baseball scrimmage is scheduled to be played on the football field, and it's sunny out. Chilly, but sunny. And I've got the knitting, as always.
The finished test knit fingerless mitt. The pattern is called Talinay, and it's not yet released, but when it is, the proceeds are supposed to go to the Chilean Relief effort. I'll eventually get around to doing the other one.

I'm finally getting somewhere with the Laminaria shawl. I felt like I was stuck on the blossom chart forever.
Probably didn't help that I took a week off to finish all the green stuff. Or that I'm not particularly fond of some of the stitches in the blossom chart. But one chart left and it's done, which means that I should totally meet my deadline of this weekend so that it's blocked and dry in time to enter at KotS.
Close up, in case you're interested in that kind of thing. Blocking will do amazing things to this shawl.

And then on Friday night, I had the urge to start a new sock. So I did.
The Atlantis pattern from The Enchanted Sole, with Sanguine Gryphon's Eidos yarn (colorway Cleidophon). And by Sunday night, that's how far I was. Crazy fast.
I was a bit worried that I would run out of yarn for the second sock, since it's a bit longer in the leg than I normally do. But after a quick weigh in on Meagan's scale, it's all good, and I'll do the ribbing soon and move onto the second one. Yippee.
Yeah, if that yarn looks familiar, it's because this is not the first attempt to make it into a sock. A while back I attempted the Vilai pattern out of it and it didn't work. This is much better.

Alright, off to get ready for work. Hopefully I'll have something less boring to report next time.

Green Day

Hope everyone has recovered from the festivities of Wednesday. I, for one, am really wishing that Daylight Savings hadn't happened til this weekend. Oh well, it's now light out when I leave work - which is crazy, and I'm still getting used to it.

Back to St. Patty's, as is now the tradition, I met up with the Clan D and we headed off to Mass at the Cathedral. Then to the Galleria for lunch, where we were dismayed by the now mostly empty food court, that did not serve any food that Miss Kaylee would eat, so we went off again to the pizza place right next to the Cathedral (weird scary looking green cheese pizza was avoided, thankfully). And then I ran off to get a coffee during the toddler potty break, and then we set up camp at 13th and Superior and waited. And waited. The parade was nearly 30 minutes late this year, I blame the dignitaries - you know, the people up at the front with the sashes that you never know the purpose of, but heaven forbid if they don't get to march.

Anyway, there was a goofy moment when the blimp blocked out the sun (we were blessed with a gorgeous day again this year) and everyone kinda gasped, but all was well and the blimp moved on.
Here's the mini parade of Irish princesses:
Kaylee was unwilling to don the sunglasses or crown for photos, which was weird, but it's best not to argue with a 3 yo on a hectic day. So we saw some pipe bands:
And the police, didn't take a picture of the fire fighters -
it's amazing how many of them can get the day off to march in the parade compared to the number of cops.

Kaylee's St. Pat's day present - keeping step with the pipe band from the IA.
Can't even tell you how happy I am with the way it turned out, note the curly hair - that's the best part. Kaylee was excited that she got a sucker - not much candy throwing in the part of the parade that we saw, which is always disappointing to a toddler, not to mention most of it got thrown towards the pre-school that was set up across the street from us.
Note the hand knit fair-isle tam that was too big when I made it for her 2 years ago, and is still slightly too big.

And Kathleen didn't quite know what to make of all the nonsense, and mostly wondered why we couldn't just go home so she could take a nap in peace.
And the float from the East Side IA was very good this year:
Note what granny is doing next to the turf fire. Prolonging stereotypes - that's what.

For a moment, Kaylee got into the fun of it all,
but only for a moment, it was back off as soon as the picture was taken and she could see it on the camera screen.

And then Chris was back and we were off, so the rest of these pics are what I managed to Kinnear on the walk:
Some good stuff we missed. Oh well, had to get to the next party.

Photos from the club are not the greatest, I couldn't get a setting on my camera to take decent shots with the goofy lighting. Oh well, you'll get the general idea of madness and mayhem.
Then, back at the house, I attempted to get some good pictures of the doll with Kaylee, who at first was an unwilling subject. So I put the doll with Kathleen.
And lo and behold, all of a sudden, someone became photogenic.
And in fact, insisted that I take 3 pictures of her with her new doll.
Slightly bossy, but she makes up for it in cuteness. And lest you think that I left her sister out of the gift department,
Kathleen got some lovely little green booties, which she's probably already grown out of. Such is life. Hope everyone had a wonderful St. Patrick's Day! I know I did.

No name post

I'm not feeling clever enough for a title for this post today. We'll see where this goes, it might end up a bit random. I blame Daylight Savings Time.

Knitting. We'll start there. Here's the state of the shawl I started last week, Laminaria. I haven't touched it since last Wednesday.
Isn't it pretty? Why haven't I been knitting on the pretty? Because I'm goofy. I volunteered to test knit a pattern over on Ravelry. A fingerless mitten pattern, and one has to be done by this Thursday.
Because I love deadline knitting. Actually, it wouldn't be so bad, except that there's another deadline. Wednesday. St. Patrick's Day. And I have stuff to get done for then too.
Like a little Irish dancer dolly for Kaylee. The photo was taken yesterday, she now has an arm and a dress. The orangey-red is for her hair, wait til you see how that turns out. This is the pattern I'm using. It's going well, except that the appendages are a bit tricky to work.

Saturday was Spin-In day at knitting pal Paula's house. So much fun. I forgot to take my camera with me, so no photos of all the fun. I'm such a bad blogger. But I got a whole bunch of spinning done.
And none of it on my wheel. What?! I know crazy. But I really wanted to work on something really super pretty, and my limited experience with batts (the way that the fiber is prepared/presented) meant that I pulled out the spindles. That's a pic of the spun fiber against the second batt, so I'm halfway done. I'm definitely going to ply on the wheel (thank goodness!).
It's a lot thinner than I had expected it to be, but the fiber dictates, don't fight it. So I need to wind off the singles and get going on that second batt. Woohoo. Note the pretty sparkles. This fiber was bought more than a year ago, from an amazing Etsy seller, ArtemisArtemis, and the spindles are both from the spindle and fiber club from Zebisis Designs, also on Etsy. Have I mentioned how much I adore Etsy?

Yesterday, the fam came out for dinner and a visit. Here's photographic evidence of how big the kiddos are getting, note that Aubrey is starting to show curls - poor thing.