Finished!!!
I don’t know if you’ll be able to see in this small picture, but about half way through the body of the shawl, I must have skipped a row, thus switching RS for WS. I didn’t notice until I had the shawl laid out flat, blocking. Oh well, I’m sure very few will notice while I’m wearing the shawl since it will be either bunched up or in motion with me.
Pattern: Curved Shawl from Victorian Lace Today
Yarn: Alpaca Cloud Autumn Heather
Needles: Harmony Wood Size 3, 24″ circular and dpns
I am soooo addicted to lace knitting now. I’d picked out my next project before this one was finished. I’d forgotten to wind my hanks into balls last week, so I came into work on Saturday morning to do it – I knew I couldn’t get through the whole weekend without starting the Myrtle Leaf …

I’ve had an unhealthy obsession with the Bayou colorway of Shimmer, and I’ve been scheming and plotting ways to work it into my not-so-lacy world. Now that Knitty has released their Spring surprises, Tempest has pushed me over the edge.
I thought I was so sneaky, and then the requests for yarn substitution help for Tempest starting rolling into my email inbox. On top of it all, Melissa wrote up a nice post on double-stranding our lace weight yarns for subtle color variation. At last, I had the work-related reasons I needed to do a little swatching.
I used Shimmer, in the discontinued Flower Garden colorway. I double-stranded it on US 6 needles, as per Tempest’s suggested needle size. Melissa and I talked a little about this yesterday, and we were both skeptical about knitting what would essentially be fingering weight yarn at a worsted weight gauge. The fabric could turn out …

After a little episode with a smoking cookie sheet under the broiler, I decided that I need some new pot holders. And, I wanted them to match my kitchen, which would require dyeing the yarn. The Fire King jadite color is one of my all-time favorites; but I can’t wear that color, so I painted my kitchen that color instead. I was so excited to try out dyeing in my new, dedicated dye pot. I followed Melissa’s excellent advice from her hand-dyeing podcast to test the dye color with the corner of a paper towel to get an idea of how it might look on the yarn. This was my first time to intentionally dye a pale, not fully saturated color. I’m pretty pleased with the results, although the yarn is a little bluer than perfect.

Yarn: Bare Peruvian …

I knit a finished, wearable piece of clothing that’s not a scarf!

I can’t believe it! I wish I wasn’t wearing black tights today so that you could see them better, but you get the idea.
Here’s how it happened. I’d been stalling on the second legwarmer, but I got a good 6 inches of knitting done on Tuesday evening when I went to listen to the Yarn Harlot speak at the World Forestry Center (BTW, if you missed it, she was as hilarious in person as she is on her blog). And then I got quite a bit done last night as I watched the final episode of Six Feet Under on DVD. And then this morning, when I went out to my car and realized I had left my headlights on (again) and my battery was completely dead (again), I thought of the Yarn …

I was on vacation last week, doing a HUGE basement repair project, which means hardly any knitting happened. Every time I sat down for more than 10 minutes, I fell asleep! Also, what I’m knitting on is kind of secret. I can at least tell you that it is our Bare Essential yarn, which Alison dyed using Jacquard Acid dyes in purple, emerald and sky blue, but that’s about it. For now, enjoy the stripes!
I always bring my knitting to work because it’s perfectly acceptable here to knit during meetings, but I especially look forward to Fridays because I am guaranteed to have half an hour of knitting time while I proof Kelley’s podcast. Her interview with one of my favorite designers, Kathleen Taylor, will go up later today. …

To celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, we’re having a “pot(luck) at the end of the rainbow”. Doesn’t everything look delicious? Alison baked that bread from scratch. I had no idea she was so multi-talented!

In addition to wearing a green sweater and gorging myself on bread, vegetable pie, red pepper and asparagus curry, strawberries, and chocolate, I’ve decided to get into the spirit of the day by making a list of all our green yarns. I love making lists. Here we go.
Lace weight:
Lost Lake Heather (Shadow)
Moss Heather (Alpaca Cloud)
Tide Pool Heather (Alpaca Cloud)
Fingering weight:
Green (Palette)
Mint (Palette)
Grass (Palette)
Ivy (Palette)
Verdan…
Terrain Twist (Essential)
Lily Pad Multi (Essential)
Meadow Multi (…Woodland Sage (Gloss)
Arugula (Felici)
Grass (Risata)
Sport weight:
Cilantro Heather (Telemark)
Rosemary (Telemark)
Pesto (Telemark)
No…
Grass (Shine Sport)
Green Apple (Shine Sport)
Moss Heather (Andean Treasure)
DK weight:
Lime (Crayon Boucle)
Spumoni (Twist)
Moss (Merino Style)
Asparagus (Merino Style)
Key Lime (Cot Lin)
Moss (Swish DK)
Asparagus (Swish DK)
Grass (Elegance)
Worsted weight:
Pampas Heather (Wool of the Andes)
Thyme (Wool of …

This is Spencer, our intrepid photographer. He’s getting all his lights set up in my kitchen so we can photograph a special dyeing tutorial for our June catalog. We were very fortunate to have an overcast day so we didn’t have to deal with bright sunlight coming in the kitchen window.

This is Alison, who has outlined every photo we need to take to go with the step-by-step instructions she’s written. The only free space in the whole kitchen for her to take notes was between the burners (don’t worry – they weren’t on at this point!) on the stove.

Hard at work. Honestly, tutorial photography days are really fun! What I like best is the “behind the scenes” look of all the piles of supplies and things that are just outside the photos …