New Books and a Couple of WIPs

I am so giddy.  I got a delivery from Amazon this morning.  I got two books I've been thinking about getting for a while.  I decided to splash out, as I considered both books an investment, for different reasons.

The first book is Sew What! Skirts.

This is a book I've had my eye on for well over a year.  I got the spiral bound version as I think it will make it easier to follow instructions when working on a project.  I've had a quick flick through the book already, and it seems to be exactly what I was looking for.  The book helps you draw up a basic pattern for a skirt that fits your measurements.  It then goes on to help you adapt that simple pattern into a variety of different styles.  I have a small waist, in relation to my large hips and I find getting non-elasticated skirts to fit properly quite difficult.  I made my first skirt nearly 2 years ago and it really was completed on a wing and a prayer, but I love it.  I really wanted to make more and I decided rather than referring back and forth to the internet a book would be a wise investment.

I hope to try out this book as the weather warms up and I start to emerge from my woolly garments.  When I give the book a test drive, I'll let you know how it goes.

The other book is something I have desired for a much shorter time.  It was only republished very recently, but there was so much talk about it all over the Internet I decided that I must look at it.  After looking at it, on Amazon, and from reading other knitter's views of the book I decided that for the grand total of £24.99 I was going to take a risk.  I downloaded a sample on my Kindle App and thought it looked great.  I was debating whether to get in on Kindle or whether to get the book.  I decided in the end that I love text books, especially craft ones, and I wanted to sit with this particular book on my lap.  If I'd know about it's size before I got it, I might have rethought that lap sitting!

My fingers are shown for scale.  The eagle eyed amongst you might have worked out what this mighty tome is.

Yes, it is all 712 pages of  The Principles of Knitting: Methods and Techniques of Hand Knitting.  If you work out the price per page, I'm sure it is an amazing bargain!  I have the Vogue The Ultimate Knitting Book.  It was one of my first knitting encyclopaedia and I really like it, but it isn't as technical as this new book seems to be.  The diagrams in the book look clear and easy to understand and I can see myself working through various sections of the book to learn new and interesting techniques.

The Internet is great for searching for tutorials on "how to..." but you need to know the name before you can search for the tutorial.  My thoughts are that this book will really help me to investigate new ways of doing things.  I have always loved learning and I especially like learning things about knitting, so this is a book I know I will treasure for a very long time.  I'm not sure if my shelves will take it's weight though!

So now I've told you all about my books I'll revert to that old standby for Wednesday, the WIP!

My Leaves of Grass shawl is coming along nicely.

Now doesn't that look great?  No, not really.  If I spread it out a bit you can see a bit more.

No, it still doesn't look great, does it?  I don't think this project will look good until it is cast off and blocked.  Until then I'll probably not bother sharing photos.  It's a shame I can't show you more as I've made pretty good progress.  I'm now on my first repeat of the outer lace section.  This section has two repeats of a 32 row chart.  After that is complete I do a knitted on border.  I think that border may take quite some time!

As a contrast to the complicated shawl I have cast on another pair of socks.  Yes, that does mean I have finished my other pair.  They are on my feet right now and mighty fine they are too.  But as this isn't a Friday I'm not sharing them with you!  I'll only tease you with my newly cast on socks.

They are very newly cast on, as in I'm only about a third of the way through the toes.  Socks have become my comfort knitting again.  It's lovely to have got back into the habit of knitting them.  I find the stocking stitch soothing when I'm feeling ropey.  Plus I get something useful out of it.

Hope you get better photos from other people's posts about their WIPs.  Click the button to check them out.

I have finished something!

It's a bit of a shock I know.  It feels like forever since I last shared a proper FO!  Today I can do a big Ta-Dah!

Please ignore my scruffy background.  Just look at the pretty and bright green shawl that I made!  Here maybe this will look better:

I always knew the lace would get lost a bit in this scarf, but I really don't care!  I love how soft it is and how vibrant the yarn is.  It cheers me up whenever I put it on.

The yarn is BabyLongLegs Merino Sock in Yoda and the pattern is LazyKaty by Birgit Freyer.  I really enjoyed the pattern and it really was very simple and fun to make.  I think the shape works really well and seems to sit around the neck a bit better than some other shawlettes.

The lace is a sweet and easy pattern to remember and is only a few rows.

In fact the hardest thing about the whole shawl was understanding the key for the crocheted cast off.  I got a bit stumped and looked at the ever helpful Ravelry for useful project notes, and found a couple of people had also struggled with the cast off.  There were a few mentions of how to follow the instructions using a video, so I've embedded it below so I can find it again!

Once I understood the bind off, it was pretty easy to do.

I think I may well make another of these shawls at some point, probably using some yarn I won recently.

It's pretty isn't it?  It was from a contest run by pinkundine of Misadventures in Craft. I got to choose the colour and instead of going to my normal deep purples and teals I decided to choose something bright and Spring-like.  I am so glad I did.  I am NOT a pink person at all, but these colours together really seem to make me smile.  I think it would be perfect for a LazyKaty shawl.  I don't think I'll get a chance to cast on for a while, what with all the other shawl knitting that is going on now and in the next few weeks, but it is nice to know it is waiting for me, whenever I want to cast on something simple, elegant and pretty.

To look at other people's finished objects, click on one of the buttons below.

WIP Wednesday

Well after a one day break of not blogging, I'm back to annoy you and fill your feed reader with nonsense.  As it is a Wednesday it is time to share my WIPs.

First off, I shared with you last Wednesday a scarf using the newly learned Tunisian Crochet.  I loved how it looked but when I left it alone for a few hours coming back to it was a nightmare.  I found it really hard to read where stitches should be placed and eventually gave up.  I unravelled the scarf and started again, but this time with a Tunisian Simple Stitch.

I love how dense the fabric is and the texture is still interesting.

So I've not really made any progress, but I think I stand a chance of finishing a scarf done in this stitch.  The moss stitch scarf would have been abandoned, never to be seen again.

As you may already know, I'm starting a KAL with my Lily's Slice of Pi Shawl over in my new Ravelry Group.  It doesn't start until 5th March and I my fingers were itching to do some lace.  I couldn't wait any longer to stitch something pretty so I cast on the pattern that I received in my Blog Hub Swap from Marie, Leaves of Grass by Jared Flood.

I'm sorry you can't see the lace very clearly, but this circular needle is too short to open it up enough.

The yarn is from my stash and is a 3 ply in 80% Wool and 20% Alpaca from Forsell called Naturell.  It's a lovely soft yarn although it is a bit hairy which hides the lace unless it is opened up quite wide.  I think it will be a lovely soft and warm shawl though.

This is my first circular shawl and so far I'm enjoying it, though it is not without it's challenges!

As a break from the new lace project I have my green stripey socks to churn out.

I'm onto the leg now and still enjoying going round in circles and watching the stripe sequence evolve.

By the way, do you like my new sock project bag?

When I saw it, I had to buy it!  It's from Nic's Knots.  It's a small and cute bag, and is the perfect size to carry around a pair of socks in progress.  Plus it fits inside my handbag!

I love the beads on the elastic that is used as a drawstring.

Sparkly huh?  I love the whole bag.

I feel like I've now got a reasonable balance of projects to get done now.  I just hope that when I add in the KAL on 5th March, I won't be overwhelmed, but I think it will be ok, even if  have to put Leaves of Grass into time out while the KAL goes on.  There is still time to join in with the KAL and get the discount on the pattern.  Come and have a look, the thread is already active with discussions about yarn.

In the meantime, if you want to see what other bloggers are up to, click the button below!

Blog Hub Swap - Day 7

Today is my last day of opening presents from my swapper, Marie.  The last parcel I opened was a pack of notelets that Marie had made herself.  There were 12 cards with different images of New York in sepia.  The images were taken from the New York Public Library's flickr set of public domain images.  I had no idea that this resource existed.  After just a quick look, I know I could lost for hours in their collections!

This is a really thoughtful gift, another one of time that I know Marie must have spent looking for the right images. 

Marie said in her accompanying note with this gift that she could tell I enjoy writing from my blog.  She's right, I do enjoy writing.  The only problem is I don't enjoy posting!  I am terrible at writing letters and then having to go out to the post box, especially in Winter.  In recent years with the advent of the Internet, Facebook, Emails and texting I do most of my writing via a keyboard.  The temptation for to email is made much greater by having done a secretarial course in my year out and learning to touch type.  Typing paid my way through university and helped me into the job market after graduation.  I type much much faster than I can hand write letters, so my letter writing has withered away.  I tend to limit myself to cards on birthdays or when someone is sick or struggling.  I don't post a letter just to say "hello". 

This last gift is one that has hopefully given me a kick up the backside to actually write to the people I care about, especially as so many of them are far away, up the motorway.

Marie has done a couple of blog posts about her part in the swap, which I hope you read.  They are interesting and shows the farmer's market where she got a lot of my gifts.  This has been a wonderful experience and it has prompted me to try new things and look in different areas of the Internet.  I've learnt more about about New York State and I have loved having presents to open every day.  Thank you so much Marie, you have been an incredibly thoughtful and interesting swapper!  I've enjoyed it so much.

Now I shall have to live vicariously through Paula's delight as she opens her gifts from me!  I will hopefully share a little about my selection process over the coming days as she opens more of the gifts.

Blog Swap Day 6

Day 6.  It's a bit sad because tomorrow is my last day of getting presents.  But, I'm not sad about today's gift.  Today's gift is a pattern, which was one of the compulsory elements of the swap.

I opened a card with knitted cables on the front and read my message from Marie.  In keeping with her whole swap she wanted to give me a pattern from a New York designer.  She obviously spent ages going through my favourites and she found three designers that I had favourited in the past: Melissa Wehrle and Jared Flood then she also added in Michele Wang.

Now I love these three designers and would have been happy to receive a pattern by any of them, but Jared Flood has a special place in my heart.  Jared aka Brooklyn Tweed is the designer of one of the first patterns I bought from Ravelry, Porom.  I knit it in December 2008.  It was a lovely hat

Looking at that photo makes me all nostalgic.  January 2009 is when that photo was taken and I was such a new knitter and blogger then, not to mention pretty rubbish at photography!  Jared Flood's blog really inspired me back when I first saw it.  He is such a great photographer and his blog was clean and simple with elegant and fun photography.  I wanted to blog like Brooklyn Tweed!  I later realised that I shouldn't aim to blog like anyone else.  Blogging is about finding your own voice, but learning from other bloggers is definitely a wise thing to do!  So I set about trying to improve my photography, which as you know is still a work in progress!

So after deciding that I really wanted a Jared Flood pattern I looked at the list of patterns that Marie gave me to choose from and narrowed my choice down to two patterns that I really love; Rock Island and Leaves of Grass.  I suppose it is hardly surprising that I would choose two lace shawls as my main choices, as I have been a bit obsessed with them lately.

I have yarn for both patterns, but I decided I really wanted to try a full circular shawl using Elizabeth Zimmermann's Pi construction.  The thing that cinched my choice for me was that the Leaves of Grass pattern is knit in 4 Ply to give a slightly heavier shawl, doubled over to use as a half circle, it will make it a lovely warm shawl.

I sent my request to Marie and I now have the pattern printed out and ready to go!

I have already chosen my yarn too. It's actually a 3-Ply or light fingering weight, that is 80% wool and 20% alpaca.  It is a natural shade and is is pretty soft but with a nice bounce to it, which should mean it will block nicely.

I'm really excited about this yarn and pattern combination, and I probably would never have bought the pattern, and the yarn would have been used for something else.  This swap has motivated me to do this (after I do my Lily's Slice of Pi Shawl KAL!)

I had so much fun working out which pattern I was going to choose.  It was great of Marie to go to all that trouble of slogging her way through my favourites list.  Once more, she has proved to be a fantastic swapper.  I'm such a lucky blogger :-)

Blog Hub Swap Day 5

When I first got my Blog Hub Swap parcel I noticed a fragrance.  It was sort of familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it.  Today I found out what the fragrance was.  It was coming from a squarish parcel.  When I unwrapped it, I found this:

It's such a pretty colour, and I think it will go well in my bathroom which is a pale blue purple colour.  I love the paper band, which I think is handmade.

The soap comes from 3-Corner Field Farm, another New York State supplier.  I am really loving my virtual tour around New York with this swap.  It has reminded me that there is more to New York than the City.  In fact my other half didn't realise there was a State as well as a City!  Looking at the photos on the website made me smile to think of the source of my soap.

Once I got this package open I worked out why it smelt familiar, it has a very similar smell to a soap from my childhood.  It was either Imperial Leather or Pear's, which were the only two soaps we ever used.  I don't know which one it was, but the smell of this soap is exactly what having a bath in my house smelt like!

I can't believe I only have two more days to go in my Swap, but to cheer me up, my recipient has now received her box of goodies!  The unveiling from Paula over at Knit and Seek will be great fun as I find out her reactions to all her gifts.

She has only opened one gift so far, so I've got another 6 days of watching the fun.  I'm also pleased she took photos of the box with all the wrapped parcels in, because I forgot to take one.  I was very proud of my wrapping so I was annoyed with myself for not remembering to take a quick snap, before sealing the box with vast quantities of parcel tape!

Paula is someone who has commented on my blog regularly for some time, and I have commented on hers too, so we have got to know each other pretty well over the last year or so.  I was delighted when I found out that she was to be my recipient as it was great fun buying/making things for someone I already knew and liked.

Come back tomorrow for more unveiling from my box and go and look at Paula's blog, it's very good you know!

Day 4 of Blog Hub Swap

I have got into a little morning routine this week.  I get up and do all things you do when you start your day.  Then, I go to my sofa, which is set up by the PC, and I reach for my lovely bag of wonders from Marie and I pull out a red wrapped parcel.  Then I peel back the paper and pull out Marie's little note and wrestle with the sticky tape sealing the bubble wrap.  I then smile broadly and pull out the camera.  Look what I got today!

This is fudge made with maple syrup.  Apparently this is from Wood Homestead in Stamford, NY.  I did a quick search on Google and found their Facebook Page.  I've never had maple syrup, it's not something that we get very often in the UK.  We tend towards the Golden Syrup end of the sugar spectrum.

As a purely scientific endeavour I felt that I had to try one of these "candies".  I feel I have to use inverted commas for this word, as I feel really Americanised using it.  In the UK we have sweets!  I can confirm that these are indeed delicious and sweet, but there is no overly sickly sweet after-taste, that you get with some fudge.  The flavour is really mellow and rich.  I am delighted to have a few more of these to treat myself with over the next few days!

I think I am going to hide these so no one else gets a look in!  Not only are they delicious they have really pretty shapes.

So back to my currently daily routine.  After I take my photos of the parcel, I look up the Month of Craft Photos subject and go and take my snap.  Today's subject was Day 17 - Last FO You Used.  All I had to do work out what this photo should be was to look down to see my slippers.  Remember these?

Then I looked across the room to see my cat taking advantage of another FO that gets used every day.

See that lovely fabric trapped underneath her furry backside? It was meant to be a project bag.  It was claimed by the cat, who loves it more than anything else in the world.  She plays with the ties, she chases it around the room, sliding across the floor, and then sits on it wherever it ends up.  I don't think I could take it off her if I tried!

Then I realised that this wasn't a FO that I used, it was used by my cat so it didn't count.  The slippers photo had to be the one submitted. I had to share this photo with you anyway, because I wanted you to see the face of a cat who isn't going to have her bag taken away!

So, that is today's morning routine out of the way.  I can't believe I have three more days of the Blog Hub Swap and eleven more days of the Month of Craft Photos.  So much extra work, and so much extra fun.  I wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Lily's Slice of Pi Shawl KAL

I have decided to do my first knit a long.  I didn't know how I was going to do it, so I asked the Blog Hub Group what they thought about where and how I should host one.  They very cleverly told me I should set up a group on Ravelry and host it there.  So I have.  My group is simply called Stitched Together Designs.

While I was working on the idea of a group, I set a Flickr group up too, which can be found here.  I am all alone in the Flickr group, but I thought I'd set it up anyway, if only so I could find all of my Stitched Together Designs project photos!  You will be pleased to know there are several other members in the Ravelry group. It won't just be me knitting there all alone!

The KAL is going to revolve around Lily's Slice of Pi Shawl.  I decided that I wanted to do a KAL after going through the test process for this shawl and really enjoying the social aspect of chatting in a small group over a couple of months.  I wanted to duplicate the experience, but this time I would join in the knitting with the group rather than worrying about stitch counts!

I have decided that this is going to be a loose and informal KAL.  I'm not going to offer any prizes or have any deadlines. I'm not a famous designer who is going to have sponsors lining up to offer prizes, and I can't afford to buy any myself.  So without any other perks, I have decided to sweeten the pot a little by offering a discount on the shawl pattern for people who join the Lily's Slice of Pi Shawl KAL - Joining thread.

If you join the linked thread I will message you a single use discount code which will be valid until midnight (GMT) on 5th March 2012.  The 5th of March is the date that the KAL is "officially" starting, but to be honest I think lots of people will start before this date.  In fact, I know that some people have already downloaded the pattern.  For those people who have already bought the pattern at the full price of £3.75 and still want to join the KAL, I will send them a discount code to be used on any other Stitched Together Designs pattern of their choice, and the code will be valid until midnight (GMT) on 31st March 2012.  The discount for both offers will be the same amount of £1.00.

I really loved knitting both versions of this pattern and I'm looking forward to doing it again, but with slightly less pressure, as it will be "for fun" rather than as a designing exercise this time. 

Now all I have to do, is decide on which yarn to use!

I'm Such A Lucky Blogger

I am you know - I'm, in the parlance of the school yard, dead jammy! (is that just a Yorkshire phrase?).  Today I plunged my hand into the big bag of goodies from Marie for my Blog Swap and my hand found the parcel that all knitters want to find the most - the YARN!!!!  I have just one thing to say - Oh My!!

Aren't these glorious?  If nothing else had come in my extraordinary box except these two skeins I would have been ecstatic!

This yarn is from Catskill Merino Sheep Farm, and is the Saxon Merino Lace.  This single ply yarn is hand dyed using natural dyes.  The website says this about my yarn...

Saxon Merino wool is custom spun into a lace weight singles yarn at the Green Mountain Spinnery; the yarn is uniquely hand-dyed at the farm in small, limited-edition dye lots.

Each skein is 350 yards and weighs 2oz.  For the Europeans this equates to 320m and 56.7g.  This means I got more than the swap minimum of 100g LOL.

We hear so much about American yarn in the UK.  For one thing it is much easier to obtain, it is cheaper and great quality.  If you want quality yarn in the UK you really have to pay for it!  One of the reasons I was delighted to get a box from the US was the thought of getting hold of some mystical American Yarn!  This is so much better than I dreamed of.  I love that this is from such a small dye lot and, that as it is hand-dyed, it is unlikely to ever be exactly matched again.  I know this is a very special yarn indeed.  It really is a local New York State yarn as it is grown, spun and dyed there.

Marie stated in her accompanying note that she couldn't find the lace weight in my "major" colours (I'm thinking of the greens and purples here) so she decided to "encourage my continued exploration of mellow gold".  Oh Marie, you have very much encouraged me in my love of this colour.  It is truly glorious.

It makes me think of the Summer.  I adore it.  I can't wait to start knitting with it, but I really want to make sure that this gets used for the perfect project.  I know I'm going to spend weeks obsessing about the right project for this yarn.  These babies are going to get knitted into something special and I am NOT going to let anyone tear the finished article from my fingers!

Marie you are a champion swapper - thank you so much for knowing what I would love.

Serendipity

I couldn't believe it when I looked at today's subject for the Month of Crafty Photos.  I've been really good and haven't missed a single day (so far).  I have been posting them in the Flickr Group and you can see them in the album on my Photo Challenges Page.  I haven't shared the last week's because there has been other stuff to talk about, but I am going to share with you today's photograph and when you see it, you will understand why I felt it serendipitous!

Today's subject was "A New Skill".  This is a photograph of my newly learnt skill of Tunisian Crochet!  Isn't it lovely?  It's a moss stitch scarf from the booklet I received from Marie.  The booklet is the Beginner's Guide to Tunisian Crochet and is available on Ravelry.  I love the appearance of this stitch. It is similar to knitted moss stitch but has an added dimension to it.

The reverse of the fabric looks very different.  I think before I go any further I would like reassurance that I'm doing this properly!

The yarn I chose was Sirdar Balmoral which is 73% Wool, 25% Alpaca and 3% Silk.  It is a wonderfully warm and soft yarn and it is draping beautifully with this new technique. I have 5 skeins of this yarn and I think it is a perfect fit with the pattern.  I can really see the appeal of Tunisian Crochet and plan on trying more of the stitches included in the booklet and seeing where it will take me.

I'm so pleased that the above photos match up with three of my current memes; A Month of Crafty Photos, The Blog Hub Swap and WIP Wednesday!  I couldn't have pulled that off I'd tried LOL!

Other WIPs include a pair of plain vanilla Discovery Socks in Regia.  I love this yarn as it is the perfect choice for everyday socks.  It can be machine washed and even tumble dried and is guaranteed for 10 years, which is more than most shop bought socks will last for!

This is a self striping yarn so I don't see any need to add any other embellishment.  These are just socks for me to wear every day, they aren't for fullfilling any creative need, but simply to put on my feet.  I can't stand shop bought socks any more and, in order to avoid them, I need more hand knit socks.  This pattern is quick and easy and the socks it produces fit brilliantly.  I have bought another two sets of this type of yarn to knock up another couple of pairs as soon as these are off the needles.  Maybe when I get enough ordinary hand knitted socks I'll start making something a bit more decorative!

I've also working on two gifts for family members and I can't really share them here (just in case they peek).

So now the WIPs are out of the way, on to the thing I know you all want to hear about...... my next gift in The Blog Hub Swap!!

Today's parcel was squishy, but I was fairly sure it wasn't the yarn that is required for the swap as it was quite small.  I was partly wrong, because it was made of yarn!

This stunning crocheted scarflette was made by Marie using hand dyed and hand spun 100% wool from HandDyedAndSpunToo on etsy.  It's a really pretty shade of green which I probably wouldn't pick myself but still love.  This is one of the great things about a swap, you discover new things about your likes and dislikes and try things you wouldn't necessarily try if left to your own devices - such as the Tunisian Crochet.

It's a lovely design and really warm.  I don't think of crochet as a solution for scarves, especially with such large motifs, but if done in the right yarn it really works.  The scarflette can pinned in place, or one end threaded through the gaps left between the motifs.

This gift is really beautiful and something I'd never make for myself which makes me treasure it more.  I shall be wearing it when I go out later to post my own Blog Swap Package!  I can't wait to see what will be in tomorrow's wrapping paper!

To help you wait for tomorrow, click on the button to see what WIPs are being created in blogland!  It should take up some time, clicking away happily!

The Blog Hub Swap - Day 01

I haven't mentioned that I am taking part in this year's Blog Hub Swap.  I love the The Blog Hub.  It's a group on Ravelry and I have met some great bloggers through it.  Last year I took part in the Knitting Crochet and Blog Week which was through the same group, but I missed out on joining in the swap because I found the group too late.  I wasn't going to miss out on joining in this year!

The swap is a circular swap, so we don't get a parcel from the person we send to.  It's an interesting way of organising the swap, as it means you get to know two bloggers much better.  You get to know the person you are making a parcel for as you have to "stalk" them and get to know their likes and dislikes, and you get to know the person who sends a parcel to you, as you get their little notes and see their choices.

I'm nearly finished with wrapping up my parcel and hope to get it sent off in the next few days.  I was so absorbed with putting my parcel together, I forgot I would be receiving one in turn!  Then the doorbell rang this morning and reminded me when a parcel from New York was deposited in my hands.

I could barely wait to get it open.  When I finally broke into the packaging, my cat decided that the contents of the box must be for her.  She actually tried to get her head into the box and chased it round the room.

But unless my parcel contains catnip, I'm keeping it all!  When I emptied my box and had a look at the contents I was fascinated.

Doesn't it look wonderful?  My swap parcel was from MarieInNY otherwise known as The Underground Crafter.  The idea of the swap is to send 7 gifts to your recipient so they can open one each day and have something to blog about.  I can tell you that it was very difficult to restrain myself to only opening one!

Marie enclosed a card which had "Open Me First" written on the front.  So I did.  My sender wanted to give me a tour around her native city of New York in my gifts.  I am so excited about this, as I have always wanted to visit.  It is unlikely that I will ever physically travel to New York as the flight would be too much for me and I don't know how wheelchair friendly the city is either!   This will be my way of getting around somewhere that looks so exciting, but is probably well out of my reach.

After looking at my pile of goodies, it appears that in addition to my wrapped gifts, I had a file of "extras" from Marie.

Inside this green folder was a huge print out of quilting patterns and techniques.  Marie said that she had lost her quilting mojo and hoped I could use the patterns she had included.  There are so many print outs that I can't begin to look at them all, but I plan to work my way through them and have a proper look soon.

As well as the quilting print out is a Beginner's Guide to Tunisian Crochet Scarves by The Underground Crafter herself! As well as the guide, Marie included a Tunisian Crochet Hook for me to have a go at this new craft.  I've wanted to try Tunisian Crochet for ages, I even bought a single Tunisian Crochet Hook at Ravelry Day in 2009.  I still haven't used it!  This guide looks well illustrated and just from a quick skim I can tell I will easily follow the clear instructions.  In fact I am really tempted to pull out a skein of yarn and give it a go straight away!

So after looking at my incredibly generous "extras" I opened the parcel that confused me the most.  I had no hint as to what could be contained inside.

Then I opened it up and was so happy.  One of my favourite treats to myself had come all the way from New York.

Proper New York nail varnish!  Woohoo, how glamorous!  Marie wanted to find colours with names from New York areas, and the purple one is called "Battery Park", but she couldn't track down her favourite areas, so she simply bought the colours she could see most of in my yarn stash.  What a clever lady!  Green and purple, my favourite colours for nail varnish.  I can't wait to get one of them on my nails.  Now I have to decide which one to try first - decisions, decisions.

Marie's "Open First Card" also had a challenge to me inside.  I intend to take up that challenge, but I will do it after my 7 packages are open.  Until then, her challenge will remain a secret between her and me.

Oh, what fun this week is going to be!

A Very big FO!

This has to be one of my biggest finished objects for a very long time.  This project was started in July 2011 and is now finally ready to be revealed.  May I introduce, Lily's Slice of Pi Shawl Pattern.

The shawl comes in two versions, the first, shown above has a ruffled border.  The second option has a straight border, as shown below.

There is very little difference in the pattern for the two version, but the ruffled version does require a greater quantity of knitting (and yarn)!

The navy shawl is knit in Fyberspates Scrumptious Lace, which is 55% Merino and 45% Silk and is a 2 ply laceweight yarn.  I used 760m of this yarn for the unruffled shawl. 

The cream shawl was knit in Rowan Fine Lace, which is made of 80% Alpaca and 20% Merino, which is also a 2 ply laceweight yarn.  I used 1007m of this yarn for the ruffled shawl.

This design works as a light weight shawl in either warm or cold weather.  The navy version is very comfortable in warm weather and is perfect to take on holiday for evening meals outside.

The cream shawl is much warmer due to it's alpaca content.  I often wear it as an additional layer when I go out, even in Winter, as it easily fits in my (admittedly large) handbag.

The shawl is constructed using Elizabeth Zimmermann's Pi Shawl construction, halved.  The result is a semi-circular shawl that only has 7 or 8 increase rows (depending on whether you chose to do a ruffled edge or not).  The increase rows are not within the lace charts, so whilst the shawl looks complicated, in reality it is not that complex as you do not have to try and fit in a variable number of repeats in the charts.

The pattern is written out in full, but also provides large clear charts so you can chose whichever option you prefer to follow during your knit.  The pattern is written in large clear font, as are all Stitched Together Designs, and stitch counts are provided on each increase row so you can check that you have the right number of stitches before you start the next lace section.

As you can see from all the photos, the shawl can be worn in many different ways and it's style is altered as easily as the yarn it is knit with.  My test knitters used a wide variety of yarn which can be seen by clicking on the testers name on this project page.  By the way, my gorgeous friend Jo is the model for the navy shawl photos (which she now owns).

Oh and it you are wondering about the name, Lily was my Scottish Grandmother and the largest lace section on the shawl is the Thistle Leaf Pattern.  Of course anyone with Scottish blood knows that the thistle is the national flower of Scotland, so the name seemed obvious (to me!).

The pattern is now available to download either directly from Ravelry or from my downloads page.  This 13 page pattern also gives tips on how to block this shawl to best affect, so this could be a good first lace pattern for someone who wants to move up from 4 ply shawlettes to a larger shawl in laceweight.  The price of the pattern is £3.75, which is roughly US$5.95/€4.48/AUS$5.51, at the date of publishing this post.

Lily's Slice of Pi Shawl Pattern 

I hope you believe that this FO is worth the wait!  If you have any questions about the pattern, please let me know and I'll try and answer them as best I can.

I am hooking up to my usual Friday Links.  To have a look at other people's finished objects, have a click of a button!