I’ve noticed a trend in my blogging over the last year or two….I’m getting very lazy about photographs. Really, what good is a knitting blog if it doesn’t showcase the actual knitting? So today’s post will do just that. A photo extravaganza!
Let’s start with PURPLE! I had such a craving for purple last month. And my fingers itched for the relaxing rhythm of entrelac. My winter wardrobe needed a purple scarf. All that comes together in this PURPLE ENTRELAC SCARF. Original title, yes?
The pattern is a free Ravelry download, and the pattern designer is my very own daughter-out-law, Laura Spradlin. Laura is now the proud owner of a lovely yarn shop in El Dorado, Kansas, so if you are ever passing through that area, be sure to stop in at Sugar Bunny Boulevard. (Yarn:Misti Alpaca Tonos Worsted)
Color is always important in my decisions about what to knit. One day early in the winter, I watched Diane Bloomer work on a scarf in shades of teal/green/blue that kept my eyes riveted on her work. I promptly picked up some of the same yarn, with some coordinating skeins, and the end result was a crocheted scarf that I have named Blooming Colors.
I used the Chain Lace Big Fat Scarf pattern from the book Crochet in Color. This is my second scarf using this pattern, but probably not my last.
I must be reacting to all the big sweater projects of 2010 by knitting smaller, more manageable projects now. One more scarf is in the works. This is the Advent Calendar Scarf (another free pattern on Ravelry), which I am doing in lace weight Classic Elite Alpaca Silk.
There are now four of us in the Thursday morning SSK group working on this, and helping each other through the rough spots. (Watch out for those nupps…..use a crochet hook…..what size beads did you get?….errata on the fourth section…..and so on.) We've all agonized through the nupps, a textural device that I am ranking right up there with bobbles for sheer excitement. In other words, no more nupps or bobbles in my knitting. Here's a close-up of my nupps, so I can prove that I at least tried them before I decided to hate them.
Scarves need hats, right? Right. I started with this pretty lace hat, but it didn’t go with any of my scarves. It's the Malabrigo Head Thingie, a free Ravelry download, but I did it with one skein of Punta Merisoft.
I moved on to a purple hat. (Pattern: by Jill Bigelow-Sutton; Yarn: Misti Alpaca Handpaint Bulky. )
And I’ve started a matching hat for the Blooming Colors scarf.
What else? I completed a pretty little cowl as a gift for a friend, but completely forgot to grab a photo before giving it to her. It's a Ravelry download called Botanical Scarf….yes, free. If you are a knitter and you are not yet on Ravelry, you certainly should be. One million plus knitters worldwide can’t be wrong!
And here’s a parting PURPLE shot of a pair of socks finally completed. The yarn is Santa Fe. The pattern is a feather and fan variation.
Purple hat, purple scarf, purple socks….isn’t it time I knit a purple sweater? Swatching as we speak.
