Finished all the pieces!

All the pieces of the Vogue Cardigan are done and I will be seaming like crazy at my knitting night tonight. Not much to picture today, but tomorrow... if I can finish stitching and blocking, I should have a nice photo!
So the next project is on my mind and I was planning the jacket as I walked the golf course today. I want to make a nice and simple jacket from the hand dyed New Zealand Mohair. I have wound the skeins and am ready to start.
The quilt (from my other blog-------> ), is all completed through the center, and I am left with the borders only to finish. Worth a peak if you are a quilter (or sew at all). It is much easier than it looks, and the quilting is done in manageable pieces, so by the time the borders are added, the middle is ALL done and quilted!
Off to meet my Knitting Posse, and have a nice dinner and a few hours of gabbing and laughing and knitting.
Happiness!

Yarn in the Mail (again)

As promised, the mail order yarn that arrived last week! It was still in the box, and I did not even have time to unpack it, and touch it and dream of all the wonderful things that it could become! The first is a 50/50 cotton/linen. I had so much fun knitting the linen cardigan in the fall, I thought I may like the cotton mix. It definately feels more like cotton than linen, but I will know better after swatching it how it will handle. This one will be a tank top (if it knits smooth and not too stiff) or a lacy shawl or cover up if it is too thick for the top.... I will keep you posted.

The second yarn is hand dyed chunky mohair. 100 gram skeins with huge yardage, just three will make a light weight spring jacket. The middle skein seems a bit different dye lot than the other two, so I will have to work two balls at a time and alternate 4 rows of main dye colour and 2 rows of odd ball. This should work out fine for an overall similar dye effect to the whole coat.

The colours (by accident) match really well, so the tank top could be worn under the jacket and look really cool and co-ordinated! (not at all like me, but there's hope I guess!)

Relief!

I have had a major distraction from knitting and sewing over the last couple of weeks. Today I was hosting a bridal shower for my dear daughter, and there were lots of details and tasks and plans and emails... this afternoon it went over without a hitch. Robin's friends are so wonderful, and my friends are so special to me I cannot even put it into words. Thank you all (I know you read this!)
I am exhausted and happy, and spent the evening finishing the hem of the wedding dress. This too makes one more major task DONE. Tomorrow I knit and relax (after my Y workout and after a day of work....) life goes on.
I have some new yarn, some from Elann by way of Canada Post, and some from New Zealand by way of Jane, who traveled there in February. Photos and plans for the yarn will come soon, but for now I am tired and will sleep...
good night

Vogue Cardigan ....

Back is completely done (but not blocked yet), and the left front is about half done. The sleeves are knit at the same time, so it will come together quickly after the right front! There is a cool neckline that is knit as a pick-up-piece to pull it all together.

Fish and Fun

Knitting on the Vogue sweater, finished the back so far....

But would like you to meet the newest amusements in our home... pretty, big, goldfish....

There are three big orange ones and two "calico" ones....

such a sincere face! How could anyone not love these?

Now for some comic relief... Got this email about password security on the computer... level one, no one can see you type it.......

level two, no one can see the screen, unless over your shoulder.....

level three: total security!


Laptop version.....

Clever and fashionable! Only a knitter could have thought of this! I am so proud to be called a knitter. :)

My New Book Arrived!

I made a Blog Book out of 2009 blogs. The Blurb folks make it SO easy... You just drag your whole blog on to the software, and rearrange it to your liking. Then you upload it back to Blurb and they print it for you. I have also changed the settings to allow any of you to print your own copy. This gives you all the chatter and all the patterns and all the photos for the whole year 2009, from both knitting and sewing blogs, in a beautiful bound book. Also available is last years book (2008).

New Vogue Cardigan

I decided what to do with my hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester. The Holiday 2009 edition of Vogue Knitting has a lovely cabled cardigan with belt (#17) and the guage is perfect with my new wool (yes, I did the swatch to check). I started it last week, but it is on 3.5mm needles and quite fine, so I waited until I had enough to photograph. It starts with the back and the right sleeve and knits sideways across the whole back until the decrease for the left sleeve. The front is worked from the sleeve edge to the center for each half.

I have also done a few more chains in my chain link fence scarf. I do this when reading a chart to knit each row feels to involved (I am too tired or lazy). So both are progressing slowly.