Snow and Waves

Snow and waves... how can you have both? Well, here in Knottyland we managed both over the weekend. First, I finished the Print O' The Wave stole. Yes, I still have to weave in some ends. This little lacy thing took me six months to finish!


Details:
Needles: Size 4
Yarn: Alpaca Cloud from Knit Picks, in the color stream
Pattern: Print O' The Wave from Eunny Jang
Mods: I worked this in one piece instead of doing the center graft like the pattern calls for. I also blocked the body and then picked up my stitches based on the length simply because the pattern does not leave an edge stitch and I had a hard time figuring out where to pick up. I have quite a few mistakes on the border - not my finest work!

Now, for the snow. We had snow on Saturday. Only about an inch but that was more than enough for me! Big Boy went out with the camera and got this great shot of perfect little Baxter footprints. He had never seen snow before and wasn't too sure about this cold stuff under his toes.

My piglet was equally unsure about this cold stuff. Here we are making a snowball. Shortly after this pic was snapped he plopped down in the snow and was not happy about the cold stuff creeping through his pants. As you can see, he is standing on his own - at least for brief moments. He will occasionally take steps on his own too but once he realizes what he has done he will plop back to the floor.



I decided I needed a quick knit to work on so I started a pair of Fetching. I am holding two yarns together to get an Aran weight and make these guys warm and toasty. They are going to a young girl with more pairs going to her teen brother and sister. The next set will be in purple and the boy's will be in a tweedy brown. The mitts are really fun to knit but I don't like the way the picot cast off looks.

Oh My Eyes Hurt!

Because I have been looking at this...


Yes, that is a stitch holder in the middle of my lace panel. Why? Well, that is a good question. The other night around 10:00 I was working on Print O' The Pain in My Ass and realized I was working the wrong row of the chart. I did what any other good knitter would do... I tinked until I dropped a stitch. I picked up the stitch and kept going. Or. So. I. Thought. I heard a little popping noise and my heart sank. Turns out when I picked up the stitch I missed the part where it had dropped down and released a K2tog and each of those stitches dropped to a K3tog. Now, I have 5 loose stitches. ACK! I took it to SnB last night where the gals were nice enough to give me tips on how to fix my giant sink hole. Not one would take a bribe to do it for me though.

So, what is a girl to do during a crisis? She shops! My Big Boy was out of town this week and I was having a hard time sleeping so I was on Ravelry when one of those horrible ads showed up. Horrible because they make a girl do wild and crazy stuff, alone, in her bed, with a computer, at midnight...



The yarn is from Spritely Goods and is the Sylph in Watermelon Tourmaline colorway. I have no idea what its destiny is... other than to make me smile.

An Itch From The Clap?

I think I mentioned in my last post that I had a bout of contact dermatitis. Oh, how it itched and burned with no apparent cause. And, no apparent cure. I tried antihistamines, I mixed antihistamines, I stopped using soap (don't worry, I didn't sweat!), I changed detergents and even changed my coffee, and I took down my Christmas tree. Still. No. Relief. I itched... I burned... I didn't sleep. A second trip to the urgent care resulted in a cute 25-year old doctor who apparently didn't want to live to see 26. He told me he didn't see the red but since I knew my skin better... then he left the room before I could hit him with Piglet's goldfish crackers. I guess someone told him that you don't mess with a woman who is sleep deprived because he came in with a miracle cure. Prednisone. Yesterday I started thinking that I still needed to figure out what was causing my pain so that I didn't have a repeat episode once the performance-enhancing drugs ran out. I thought and I thought and just before my hair caught on fire it came to me... THE CLAP...



I know you are all totally confused now right? I had been working feverishly on Clapotis for weeks. I have not itched since I washed and blocked it and basically, got it off my skin. I know what you are thinking ('cause I am psycho psychic)...

• Yes, the yarn is cotton/silk - I suspect it was something in the silk that made me itchy.
• Yes, the yarn has been in my life for over a year (thanks for the reminder) BUT, I only touched it a few hours total and not a few hours every day. And, the project was never large enough to cover my legs, etc.
• Yes, the yarn has been worked, washed and reworked. So, it is possible that it has something to do with the Euclan reacting on the yarn or my skin. Plus, when I washed the Clapotis there was a faint color in the water. At first I thought it was some bleed from the yarn but now I think it may have been something else in the yarn.
• Yes, I wear clothes when knitting. However, I often have on my jammies and this thing ended up being long enough to drape across my legs and a bulk of my itching was on my legs, knees and ankles.

Here are the details of the Clapotis:

• Yarn: Noro Lily Multi (now discontinued) in a yellow/pink/green/orange colorway. About six skeins.
• Needles: Size 6 Options
• Pattern: Clapotis
• Mods: I added extra repeats to make it long enough to be worn as a wrap. I think I did 24 straight rows instead of 12. It is super long.
• Who: It is a gift for a friend.

Oh, I have some yarns and needles for sale over on Ravelry. Check out my sale/trade goods!