Author: Chauntel Ensey

Today was not an accomplished day. I got a whole lotta nuthin’ done! Oh the kitchen got cleaned, the kids bathroom got sanitized but I didn’t get anything done that I wanted to do. I got a whopping 18 rows of the trellis scarf done. I am not inspired by the yarn or the pattern & I am thinking a pair of socks or felted slippers is going to be much more appreciated. I found myself on and off ebay drooling over yarn all day. Oregon Trail Yarn and Books was a hotspot of mine today. I love cones of yarn, in case you didn’t notice, and the Brown Sheep always gets my attention. On my watch list right now are these few things:

 Mill 2nds of cotton fine in candy apple, over 1000 yards of it.

 Lamb’s Pride 1lb Tiger Lily. I know I don’t need any more orange sweaters but I love this color!

 1lb Lamb’s Pride worsted Prairie Fire. This is hands down my favorite color in the lamb’s pride line. I love it! Amazing it’s not green huh?

 This is the one that is on the top of my list. I need to have a sweater this color! NEED IT! Pistachio worsted weight 1lb

Notice how the pictures get bigger the more I want the yarn?? Fantastic!

My Araucania Patagonia

should be here tomorrow! I am so excited I cannot contain myself~ what will I do with it you say?? I have no clue but a swatch will be done ten minutes after I open the package! I don’t want another cardigan, I don’t necessarily want another solid, plain sweater but there are not alot of options with this yarn to really show it off. I think once I look at it I will be inspired. I have 8 coming, that should be enough to make whatever strikes my fancy. If it is not enough for a pattern, I won’t use that pattern! I am thinking I want it to be something I can wear on humid, cool summer nights here in SB. Maybe I will just need to do some kind of simple openwork cardigan/jacket with straight drop sleeves, maybe 3/4 length, and a kimono style wrap front. Plain dropped stitches are too blah. Rippley waves are well, too wavy! I will have to go to the Stitchionary  to find my perfect stitch pattern.

Aren’t I just in the design mode lately? I doubt any of it will come to much other than a garment for myself but hey, that is what knitting is about sometimes! Selfish, narcissistic knitting. Fantastic!

That was my Earth Day, we didn’t drive the car anywhere at least! Didn’t use the house heater. We were rather productive (or non-productive depending on how you look at it) on this Earth Day!

The knitting machine. 12pm-6:30pm Saturday April 22, 2006 6 charity blankets complete.

Once again Tracy & I had a knitting machine marathon trying to get rid of all that charity yarn.

Here is the end product. 6 blankets, all they need is a bit of edging, washing and blocking.

I love the one on the end right, Tracy did that one. Rainbow Brite for sure! On the yellow blanket Tracy thought she would try something new, just for the hell of it. Now, the EZ-Knit book says that you can do fair isle, cableing, intarsia, we just didn’t believe them. So we figured the fair isle was going to be the easiest to accomplish & she did! She did 2 rows of fair isle, which is actually 4 rows of knitting, don’t ask.  But overall we decided that it would be something that would be totally feasible on the machines. My wish was that I could do the Kaffe Fassett shawl but our max width is only 160 stitches. That is not nearly wide enough!

We had a bit of a multi-tasking day. Tracy needed 2 colors for her Babette Blanket that we couldn’t get through Knitpicks in Wool of the Andes so we dyed our own! Let me introduce Vicious Green and Sunshine Yellow!

I did a hank of the green for my shawl also. It’s an absolutely gorgeous color! For the Vicious Green we layered the yellow & green dyes and added vinegar at the end to make the green really take hold. Then we cooked it in the microwave to set. It worked perfectly!! The yellow was an entire bottle of lemon yellow dye on the hank just barely covered with water. No vinegar or cooking needed.

I started to chart out the colors for the Kaffe Fassett shawl and found myself with a problem. I will have to use multiple sheets of graph paper side by side to get the whole triangle of the shawl graphed. I think I will just do the color and pattern on one paper, it will be the center of the shawl starting from the bottom cast on point and going to the top of the shawl. I only need to see the colors and not worry about the pattern. After a couple of repeats the pattern will be memorized and I will only have to worry about the colors. I am probably putting way too much thought into this and I should probably just cast on & figure it out as I go. I hate putting a ton of work into planning, coloring charts and then abandoning them after just a few rows of knitting. My gut instinct is to do it free form coloring, just knit with the color that strikes my fancy! Two color knitting isn’t all that difficult to begin with!

I am tempted to cast on today but I really can’t. The Jefferson needs to be finished and Mother’s Day is right around the corner and my mom’s trellis scarf only has 4 rows done. I cast on one night, then put it away. I was happy to even cast on with how many things I had going. So, those are the priorities in knitting right now. Once I finish either of those projects I can cast on the shawl, that is the deal with the devil I have made.

It came yesterday close to 6pm, I am on the end of every delivery route around here. But that is okay, it teaches me patience. I marked all the pages of the colorwork patterns that will defenitely have to be made into some things!

Persian Poppies, the shawl design

I didn’t look at the name of the next one, I was so tired I just stared happily at it for a while. At one point a few years ago I would have taken the picture into a tattoo artist & had it done, full back, with some changes. I love lotus flowers!

So here is the plan. Finish the Jefferson sweater, come up with a color plan & start swatching the persian poppies for a shawl pattern. Although the more I look at the lotus flowers the more I like them. When the time comes we’ll see! I say that a lot don’t I? Well, that is just how I work. Don’t plan too far ahead you never know what life is going to throw at you!

Going through some of my stash yesterday I came across something I completely forgot I had! Rowan Cotton Tape & the cotton tape book.  I bought them to make Carla

That is the perfect summer sweater! I have it on my chair waiting to be cast on. that is a very portable project so I don’t feel bad casting on when Jefferson still needs a front!

And last but not least, I leave you with the attack of the snails shot!

While weeding we found a snail nesting ground. Once their home was disturbed they decided to move on out! They are crossing the patio to who knows where. The larger ones have little ones piggyback. Almost cute! Of course, the kids just wanted to keep them all as pets, all named Gary.

Let’s just be honest, once I knew last weekend there was no way to get George’s sweater, the Jefferson,  done in time for his trip this Friday I gave up knitting full speed on it. I am still knitting it. Actually it is the only hand knit project I am working on at the moment. I have the crocheted granny square blanket but I put that aside in hopes of finishing the Jefferson. Unfortunately the knitting machine has temporarily taken over. Yesterday I messed around trying different yarns, most of which did not work out so well. So I broke out a bunch of different cone yarns to try. I found a super-winner!

100 stitches by 400 rows in just under 2 hours!! Once I get the edging finished I will take a picture wearing it so you can see the size, it’s the perfect large shawl!

Last night Suzanne, Tracy & I met for some coffee, knitting & Ross. Surprise! We ran into Summers & Jayme out for dinner! It was a nice surprise, they had been to Solvang and Summers had on the cutest windmill solvang t~ I am so jealous & getting myself one dammit!

Suzanne came bearing gifts, which always makes me want to yell Yippee!!! She gave me a poncho/capelet that she made and found it was the wrong size. I love it!! And it smells so good, Suz, you always smell soooo goooood!!!!

Isn’t it so pretty with the greens, so many greens! I have never met another with my love of all things green!

My dad loved his felted clogs! They were a tad too big but that is the good thing about felted gifts! They are easily resized.

I need to finish my sisters socks that are a just because gift. I need to get the lace scarf for my mom finished before Mother’s Day. I am making the Trellis Scarf using Knitpicks  Gossamer in color Red Hat. 

Other than that I am free to do whatever I want. I will finish the Jefferson sweater before I start anymore sweaters. It may be tough not to cast on for the Vogue microspun sweater.