Continuing with orange, I just finished a very light wrap to the summer.  It is made out of cotton yarn with big needles and lots of of holes. It is a great design since it can be worn either way.  The body is primarily just knit and every three of four rows, there is a feather and fan stitch row to give it a little movement and there are short rows of silk ribbon.  With the feather and fan, the rows are a little squiggly, and that really looks nice.  It is a great little poncho cover-up to wear when it is warm.  I like it.

    

Let’s take a moment to admire the garden.  The clematis are truly amazing this year!

I have also been knitting like a crazy woman, some stuff I just can’t show you yet, but here is the completed Lace Stole that now belongs to Mango Moon.  The pattern is all written, and the garment has been sent off.  It was a real interesting adventure.  I hope they like it.  The pattern will introduced on their website and Facebook soon for purchase.

  

Having been busy writing a knitting pattern for my friends at Mango Moon, I  have been possessed.  Just like anything else, when I get a interesting challenge, all my energy goes to working on it.  I knit a sample and then have been painstakingly writing the pattern as I go along. 

It has been a challenge for me in that I usually just cast on and make things work out as I go.  That is fine for garments and projects that are mine, but here I had to be exact.  I counted, re counted and counted again.  I hate that!  The first 10 rows or so, I ripped out, and re-did several times.  That is so not me, but I want it to be right.

Once I got the count, writing it exactly took a lot of concentration.  While I work in a free form kind of way, I understand that not everyone else does, but they like the completed look.  So, I am writing this so someone can pick it up and do exactly the same thing I did, because I know there are people who need that.  For those that do not, they can pick up the pattern, get the general concept and do whatever they want. 

I am pleased with the final result and hope that others will too.  There will be a big reveal, once it is in the hands of the MM ladies.

Oh, Oh, Oh, the yarns from Mango Moon have arrived.  They are just delicious.  I have been asked to make a sample and write up the pattern for this:

It is a little thing I made while I was playing with a lace stitch and a denim jacket topper was born.  The lovely ladies of Mango Moon put it up on Facebook and got so many inquiries, they asked me to give them the pattern.  What an honor!  This is a great little piece to play with a variety of color and yarn.

I guess I am going to be rolling up balls of yarn tonight!  I really don’t have time to go to work anymore……

I had to buy it -  that’s all there was to it.  This is a bag that I saw during the Yarn shop Hop and I have to admit, I dreamed about it.  It is orange, and I apparently have an orange thing going on.  As I drove to the store yesterday, I thought if it wasn’t there, then  I wasn’t supposed to have it and I would get over it.  But, they had it – what was I to do – plus it was 25% off.  It still was sinfully expensive, but then I was convinced that Buster and Zoe would want me to have it for Mothers Day!

And with this fabulous clip as an accent – who could resist!  Plus it goes with the latest project – more details to come!

It could be a box of chocolates that is exciting, but today it is a box of goodies from Mango Moon, here all wound up and ready to go.  I can’t wait to dive in and start to play with these yarns.  I know exactly what I am going to make and the mystery is in how the colors and textures play with each other!

Then I pull out more lovelies from my stash to mix in and oh, oh, oh!

Just as I am writing this post, I look over on my work bench and see the neck piece that I am in the process of building.  Do we see a theme here?  It appears to be destiny.

Colors are funny that way,  there are color spurts, where no matter the medium, unconsciously, I work with the same colors.  Completely unaware, I am surprised when I notice it.  A similar phenomenon happens when I am in yarn store.  I gravitate to yarns in the same colors as those I am wearing and the sales clerk notices it, I have no idea that I am doing it.  Oh, the power of color!  I don’t need therapy – or maybe I do-color therapy. Ha!

I needed to change movement of my hands because they were sore from all the knitting of late.  Thankfully, I can pick up a little crochet project.  This is the free pattern and excusive yarn from Three Kittens yarn shop during the yarn shop hop.  The color is nothing like I would ever choose on my own, and that is why I like it.  The colorway is ”Babbling Brook” and it from Lorna’s Laces.  It is a real soft, and will work up nicely into the pattern Vänern Shawl.

I am using for the first time a Yarn Buddy.  I had no idea I needed one.  It was a freebie in Steven’s sway bag.  I have always pulled my yarn from the middle of a wound yarn cake and then when I was done using it I would re wind it because it had all collapsed.  Well, well, no more my friends.  These things are genius and I love them.  With my new buddy I call pull yarn off the outside of the cake and not have it all messy and across the floor etc.  Whoo hoo!

 

It rained like crazy last night, so this morning, green is new and fresh and wonderful.

 

 

Tree Peony – these blooms are dinner plate sized.

 

Grape hyacinth

Wild columbine

Finished the Harmonious Rings Cowl and I love it. The Moebius is a very gentle curve and it is quite flattering and gives nice interest at the neckline.  I mainly did it in two yarns; Noro and happy Hands. And I finally followed the stitch pattern and its looks nice.  I started having so much fun that I didn’t really know when to stop. I LOVE the big chunky resin beads.

It’s almost a Cinco de Mayo celebration!

Pic was snapped of me at Steven Be’s Fiber Fest  - boy is this serious!  I am trying to follow the stitch pattern and about to give up and do my own thing. 

Just realized this picture didn’t get posted here – two set of twins! Jeannie, Janie, Dolly and Me!  This was after our mad Yarn Shop hop – those big smiles are because we bought loads of new yarn!

I try – I really do try to follow a pattern.  But I just can’t, I am so easily distracted that, in no time flat I am off pattern and most times too lazy to go back and fix it so I just start making it up as I go.  Some people tell me that they can’t do that because if something is wrong, then they will always know that it is there and it will bother them.  First of all, I have forgotten the “mistake” was there about 2 minutes later. And, what is making something wrong?  This is a creative process, there is no wrong!

 

Case in point – took a class for Sivia Harding at the Fiber Fest this weekend.  Lovely woman, lovely patterns – kind of putsy for my style, but I really appreciate her lace work.  The class was about making a moebius and then working it into a cowl, or sweater etc. 

 

I totally got the moebius and love making them.  But in quite short order, I got tired of knitting with the same yarn.  And then there was a pattern, a pretty simple one, but because this is a class there is all kinds of distractions and I can not follow the pattern at all.  I just start changing yarns and making my own pattern.  I was reminded how much I love Noro Kuereon, It is so me, just when I get tired of a color, it changes.  I also used some Happy hands yarn that I have had for about 3 years and never found the right thing.

 

Then, there are beads to put on the cast off row.  Sivia has a very easy and fun way to do this, and all the other finished pieces I have seen have these lovely little beads on the edge.   Well, not me, chunky funky I say.  This is of my progress so far – nothing like anyone else's –and isn’t that the point!

Well, he did it again!   Steven from Steven Be handed out free swag bags to everyone who took a weekend of classes at the shop!  Free stuff from all the big companies in the fiber world.  Addi, Prism, Rowan, Frog Tree, Lantern Moon, Rowan, Universal Yarns, Louet, Tahki, Be Sweet, Noro etc. etc.  It just goes on and on!  Yarn, patterns and notions galore! 

I for sure need more storage now!

And just for kicks – I new scarf!  Really a lovely knit with Cascade Pima cotton and Malabrigo Rios.  It is my favorite colorway the Malabrigo has – PIEDRAS.  Everytime, I pick up a skein it is this colorway.

Finally getting to some of the yarn that I bought during the wild Shop hop.  Lots of single skeins and small projects.  So, I tried Moebius Knitting for the first time.  I have never tried it before and the first attempt had about three twist in it.  But then I got it and was able to make a couple of cowls.  Interesting for sure.  

Moebius ……..

Then another poncho!  I just can’t stop making them, they are such a fun explosion of color and texture.  this one started as a cowl, but turned into a poncho.  Don’t know how that happened, but your learn to just go with it.  It was easy using Be Sweet Magic Ball. 

   

Fun and simple poncho!  It is a giant triangle that is folded over and then seamed up the front. How simple and excellent is that!  It looks like it is wrapping you up in the back and the lines are going the right direction in the front.  This concept is Genius, and has lots of possibilities.

Sad news, we found out this week that Buster has renal failure.  He is in the “bag of bones” stage and when we took him in, the kidney failure was confirmed.  There is no cure, the main thing do do right now is just to get him to eat.  He is on Pepcid to help his stomach feel better.  The trick here is to get food to him without the little chowhound Princes Zoe eating it first!

We all knew I couldn’t do it! I broke my resolution to stop buying yarn. This is the pile of yarn that is from the Yarn Shop Hop.  This is just the stuff that is not already planned for a project and stashed with the pattern.  This is JUST the stuff that I don’t have a plan for yet. 

The Shop Hop was fantastic, mainly because, my pals Jeanie and Janie were here to do it with me.  We had a great time and I am sure between us we stimulated the fiber community sales in such a positive way, these stores are solvent until next years shop hop!

What is this????? This is what happens when you cross a chicken and a sheep. It is yarn with feathers felted into it and knit into a cowl. The yarn is from Pagewood Farm Yarns, and it is called Plumes.

 

Funky for sure! Saw it at Steven Be’s and Had to make it.

 “U-Knitted Nations Fun Cowl”

Do they look happy?

Here are my knittin’ twin gal pals J and J  with Steven at Steven Be’s yarn shop.  This is our first stop on the Big Yarn Shop Hop this weekend.  They flew in from Ohio and Pennsylvania special for this event.  Boy, are we going to have a blast!

And ya know, what I said a few weeks ago about not buying anymore yarn – well, that promise is already so broken!

 

This started as an experiment trying a new lace pattern.  I just cast-on with really no idea where it would go, I just wanted to try the lace pattern. I had a pile of different shades of reds that I pulled out.  I started along and thought about making a little shawl, but as I finished I threw it over the shoulder of a plain denim jacket and thought hmmmm, this could work as a nice yoke to give this jacket some snap.  Snappy indeed!

Finished the Linen shawl, it is quite comfortable and I love the color. My newly crochet bead necklace works really well.

Something new

I started experimenting with a lace pattern last night.   It is really easy and might have good results.  I have had a bag of pink/red, and yes, orange yarns that have been begging to be made into something.  Don’t know where this will end up, but it sure is fun to start something new.