My Queen

I finished my Queen!

 Since my Japanese Iris' are long gone,

  I'm taking a pictures of it over my kimono.

 In true Ring Shawl tradition, I can slide Wooly's wedding ring through it!

 How cool is that?!

The Queen Ring Shawl - Heirloom Knitting

Gossamer Web's Phoenix - Japanese Iris - dyed by me 

Merino, silk, cashmere 2/52

2mm needles

72" square

I'm in love with Phoenix. It was easy to dye, easy to knit, and holds it's block like no other.
It's been 2 weeks since I blocked it, and those edge points are still sharp. Love love love.

Harvest Time

 We had an Indian summer, so we got ripe tomatoes. They're so sweet.

 Here's Ed Amame with the volunteer corn stalk. No actual corn, but it's fun to watch it grow.

Mr K and Corey harvested apples from this tree that's just their size.

 "Dad! We need a bigger box!"

How cool is that?! An apple tree just their size.

I can't believe summer is over. It's great knitting weather. Guess I better get busy on Maple.

I'm also thinking about The Wedding Ring shawl. I'll probably use Phoenix...I want it red. Which reminds me, I never did dye anything this summer. I also have turquoise Colourmart cashsilk, which would be cool... "something borrowed, something blue." Decisions decisions...

Happy Knitting! Happy Fall! :)

Why Try

Got the border done for The Queen. I'm knitting inward, all 4 borders in the round.
After I posted this photo in Ravelry, I realized I took a picture of the back. The sprouts should be pointing to the right. Scared myself into thinking I knit it wrong - lol! :) It's garter stitch, so maybe there is no wrong side. *sigh* Why do I try?

I ordered Kauni - EZ teal/turquoise and Evilla - natural - for my Challenge sweater. Added navy & pink Kauni I have laying around for an accent. Decided I hated the pictured picot edge, so I cut it out and just knit a plain edge and sewed it on. Might add something fancy to the bottom after I'm done.

See the giant XOX? Would it pass as Fair Isle? Probably not - lol! :)
And yes, there are gold beads in the center of the lotus' & blossoms.

I'm not seeing much of a transition in color in the background, but I'm okay with it for now.

I thought it was going to be my Christmas sweater, until I got my Rowan 48 Magazine....

Anastasia from the Russian Doll Collection by Marie Wallin. I absolutely love everything about this tunic. Must make. So what if it has rows with 3 colors. Must make. And, my mom collects those Russian nesting dolls...

Then Lorraine posted her Red Queen modeled my her daughter... Now THAT would make a perfect Christmas card sweater! I would wear it with my black boots. What's Wooly wearing? Who cares! lol!  Love those colors and big motifs. I'm into tunics this year.

Why am I wasting my time designing a sweater when I've got Marie & Lorraine to do it for me?! Why try. *sigh*    Isn't that terrific?! Don't worry, I'll finish the Challenge sweater, but not going to make it in VY, I've got Anastasia & Red Queen to knit! Yippee! :D

Meanwhile, we got 3 ripe tomatoes! and more on the way! Yummy!

And the coyote returned. I just finished packing my bag for work, looked out the open back door and there he was, eating cherries again. I grabbed my camera and started snapping pictures. I clicked my tongue and he looked right at me... not scared at all. Then Wooly showed up and he jumped into the neighbor's yard and their dog Isis went crazy. Wooly was hoping the coyote would make mince meat of Isis - his nemesis - but, he wasn't scared at all and jumped back into our yard. I told Wooly I just didn't want him to wander into the house, so I was standing by the door.

Told my mom and she said, "You saw him twice? You need to give him a name, Michele..."

I've been calling him Wylie - so original - heehee. I was going to name him Jozi, so it would be 'Jozi and the Feral Cats' - hahaha, get it?! (Josie and the Pussycats) But, I keep calling him Wylie. So, Wylie it is.

I've seen him several times, so I guess we're on his route.

"Can't catch me!"

My cute nephews and brother at the Bon Odori. Love that they're wearing their kimono jackets.

So, now do you know who my brother is? I swear he knows everyone. It's so funny when he introduces me to his friends and they say, "I didn't know you had a sister..." Guess he doesn't talk about me. Maybe that's a good thing, eh?! LOL! I always want to say, "Do you know our brother?..." and really confuse them. LOL!

If he mentions how I eat pizza - tiny bites, chew 100 times like a bunny... don't believe him!
He's made fun of the way I eat forever. Everyone I know makes fun of the way I eat. Hey, I'm enjoying my food, not inhaling it! No, I don't need help, get away! *sigh*

Okay, I'm going to try and focus on my Challenge sweater before I start Anastasia or Red Queen.
Feel like I should order the yarn for Anastasia though. You know how they discontinue colors so fast...

The Queen is just going to be on time out for a while, just not into lace for now.

Happy Knitting!
Why try? Because I can do it! Yes I can!
Rah rah! :)

Tree Catcher

I'm through row 83 of the border for The Queen. You can see the full miter in the corners and the spiders marching around.

I'm just starting the lace mesh now (top holes.) It still seems like a billion stitches per round but, for me,  it's better than knitting 4 separate borders, then sewing them together.

"hear ye, hear ye... all hail the Queen!"

"Poser! I've been wearing the real crown since the beginning!"

"Kamati, your crown doesn't have jewels! You're the poser!"

"Hey! I thought I was next in line for the crown!"

"Smoothie, you're a smurf... I mean surf. You'll never wear the crown."

Yep, everyone wants to be royalty, because royalty rules.
In reality, the crown fits the lamb because she has the biggest head. :)

Tomato News

Look at Topsey! See all the flowers?! AND the huge tomato!!

There are 5 tomatoes and lots of flowers. Can you believe it?!

Not to be outdone, Planter has lots of flowers too, and a tomato!

Can you believe it?! We might get salsa this summer! :)

How to Catch a Tree

Mr K is catching trees at grandma's house. It's a bamboo pole. I think he looks like Brother with that baseball cap on. I'm sure Corey can't wait to catch them too.

It reminds me of when we were little and Dad had us practicing our casting. We had real fishing poles, and never caught a tree. :)

That last picture is your classic pee shot (if you ask me.) lol!

Happy Knitting!
I hope the sunshine has arrived at your house.

Crowns All Around

"Take a Crown, pass it around... no wait, it's 'beer'... never mind."

I'm on row 60 of the border now and have Crowns all around. I'm following Q-knitter and doing a Full Miter. She knit her borders separately, then sewed them together. I refuse to sew, and am doing YO, K1(center stitch), YO between borders and knitting all 4 borders at the same time in the round.

I've got a few spiders knitted now (top, looks like eyelets.) Boy are they fun to knit. :)

I'm very happy with how it's going and rather obsessed with it.

I've gotten to row 100 on my Hibiscus. Still adding beads to the center of the O's. Eleven rows away from the neck opening. I love this knit too. :)

What Would You Do?

Wooly is asleep in his chair. I'm watching tv. I see something moving across the carpet and scream. Wooly jumps up, looks at me pointing and screaming, grabs a napkin, dives on the floor and says,

"Holey moley! You could throw a saddle on him and ride him to work!"

"AUGH! Hahaha, ride him to work. That's the hugest spider EVER!!!"

"What would do if I weren't here?!"

 "I would grab this ball of yarn (pink Lacey Lamb) and throw it at him!!! (I throw it as hard as I can, right were the spider was, and watch it bounce into the tv stand.)

"But, that wouldn't do anything."

"I would grab my shoe, and wack him with it!!!"

"Then you would have spider goo on the carpet."

"I don't care!!!"

"Would you pick him up and throw him away after you wacked him? or would you just leave him there and wait for me to pick him up?"

"Wait for you!!!"

"Haha! I wonder where he came from?! Under your chair?!"

"I DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT IT!!!!  UGH! Good thing you're here."

Tomato Experiment

 Wooly saw the Topsey Turvey commercial and decided he wanted to try it. We decided to buy 2 plants and do an experiment - one in a planter & one in the Topsey Turvey. Both plants (Bush Early Girl) were the same size, same planting soil, same fertilizer, same amount of sun & water....

The Topsey Turvey has 2 flowers blooming, but looks terrible. It's trying to lift it's head up. I'm wondering if it can photosynthesize through the underside of it's leaves. It looks stressed out to me.

The Planter has lots of buds, but no flowers blooming. It looks relaxed.

It's fun, because it gives us something to watch. On our walks, we look for other Topsey Turveys. There's a house with strawberry turveys, so we'll see if they get fruit.

I told my friend Tracy that we're just a garden gnome away from being in a trailer park... She died laughing.

I just want some tomatoes...
No spiders. No beer. No garden gnome. Just tomatoes.

And I want to be Queen. Where's my crown? ;)

Happy Knitting! Watch out for spiders.

It's All Looney

I picked up 1604 stitches for the borders. I find humming a tune helps distract me. I Ktb of each border stitch so their legs would be crossed, like a proper Shetland shawl.

I'm knitting in the round, so knitting odd rows and purling the even row. I was worried about purling in pattern, but found it's just a little slower. Glad I'm doing it this way. I hate sewing pieces together.

Through row 20 of the border. You can see the 'crossed legs' in the middle of the picture. Those are some huge jewels on that crown. Don't be too critical, in the Wise Words of Wooly, "It always looks like shit until you block it..."  Gotta love him. :)

It's ALL looney

Wooly has been having his own drama. I kept telling him we don't need drama. That's why I didn't blog on Wednesday... drama! I was relieved to go to work on Thursday until I got on the elevator & Helen told me that we have to stay at our desks unless we're on break & absolutely NO visiting... WTF? Sure enough, opened my email & there it was in black & white. They even have a bitch on patrol. So now I'm getting angry. Deep breaths.

We've been doing monthly furlough & were scheduled for one on Friday. We get an email that there's a 'crisis' so no furlough, you ALL have to be here tomorrow. WTF? Not that I care, I didn't have plans, but some people were heading out of town for the 3 day weekend. Cheryl shows up running her mouth about how we should be thankful we're needed because they could send us all on permanent furlough... Patricia, in her calm voice, was trying to reason with her. I said, "Yeah, you tell her Patricia!"  which led to Cheryl wagging her finger in my face while standing over me & bitching me out. I stood up. Threw my pen down. Put my hands on my hips and very calmly ripped her a new one without swearing or raising my voice - yay me! Pauline told Cheryl to leave and Patricia was leading her away and I said, "Yeah, walk away Cheryl. Go back to your desk. I guess the 'no visiting/stay at your desk' rule doesn't apply to everyone!" All the while, she was still running her mouth. My neighbors nervously giggled and said, ""Geez Michele, we've never seen you that mad.... ever! You got my back?!" I said, "Absolutely! Sorry guys! I'm sitting down now." Then I saw a Supervisor walk by & look over at me, I nodded at her and could tell she was going after Cheryl.

Right before we left, we got an email saying there's no crisis, so we get our furlough. Which was great, but too late. I was stressed out. My neck was killing me. I didn't knit that night.

The next day, Wooly hands me this...

I love my friends! I laughed so hard! and still do every time I look at this. Notice how she is very excited but well behaved and he... is not?! HAHAHAA! Kinda looks like me & Wooly, eh?! LOL!

I told them I'm showing this to everyone I know. We all need some levity.

So, don't let the 'turkeys' get you down! The sun it out today!

Love you all! Maybe next time I'll have a crown to show you! :)

Green Dragon

 "DUDE! You're awesome!"

"I know. Hold up, I've gotta do something..."

"C'mon Penguin Boy..."

"I'm coming... I thought I was a cat..."

"Okay you two... for the BLOG!"

"GRRR... Mighty Green Dragon!!"

"Geez... who invited Godzilla?! What's a blog?"

"You know... Auntie Michele... sends stickers..."

"Oh! I got stickers! Anyone want a sticker?

For your shirt, camera, phone, remote, floor, foot..."

I've got the cutest nephews ever...

In Knitting News

Anne's Hibiscus Cardigan is OUT!
I shamelessly begged Village Yarn & Tea to order the pattern.


I showed Mom and she wants one too... :)

Anne use to be my Spindrift yarn supplier. She spoiled me. She's focusing on designing & closed her online shop. She's fairislefanatic in Ravelry

I can't wait to start, but first I'm going to finish Delphine...

One more chart & I'll be at the shoulders!

I realized I wanted it shorter, so I cut out 2 charts.
I'm knitting checkerboard steeks for the armhole & vertical stripes for the neck steek.

This is designed by my buddy Lorraine. She's Knittingham in Ravelry.
I love this sweater & can't wait to wear it.

If you're not in Ravelry, you're missing out. Just saying. I'm glad I joined.

And I started The Queen...

"I want the tiara!"

After much thought, I decided to knit it inward. Work & turn so I garter stitch.
I've got 68/208 edge points done.

This is the Phoenix yarn I dyed this summer & it just happens to match my Japanese Iris. I love knitting with this yarn. Sorry I didn't pin block it, but I'm kinda scared, it's so thin!

I'm being very quiet about this because it's going to take forever & I'm enjoying sweater knitting right now.

So, got Thanksgiving plans?

We got invited to one of Wooly's friend's house last month.
Just now, Wooly's friend informed us that they WON'T be doing Thanksgiving.
Meanwhile, we told everyone else who invited us that we already had plans.

The 'cheese' stands alone...

I'm kinda pissed.

Wooly thinks we can just call one of our other friends & tell them we're available... basically invite ourselves over. I hate it when people do that.

I told Wooly we're just going to make our own dinner & have a quiet day by ourselves.... which is really fine with me... no stress... no expectations...

What makes it worse, is this is the second year in a row that this 'friend' did this!

Okay, I'm done venting.

What's on your list for Christmas? I'm thinking better 'friends'. LOL!

Happy Knitting! Peace out! :)

Dyeing for The Queen

My first attempt at dyeing yarn ever, in my entire life...
I say I got lucky! Beginner's luck for sure! LOOK!
Same color as my Japanese Iris! I'm calling her my Japanese Iris Queen!
I used Jacquard Lilac + Hot Fuchsia.

My favorite flower... besides my pink peony.

It's 2/52 gossamer yarn. Merino (60%) Cashmere (20%) Silk (20%). It's Fleegle's 'Perfect Yarn' which she has named Phoenix. She bought it in Japan & loved it, then realized she bought the last skein ever. She contacted a mill in China who could reproduce it for her, but the minimum order was 50 kilos. She asked in Ravelry's Heirloom Knitting/Princess group if anyone wanted a cone or 10 skeins (both equal a kilo). I ordered 1 kilo in skeins, with the plan to dye it for my Queen. Fleegle is going to open an online store later this year. She's dyeing yarn like crazy & will have laceweight too. I'm pretty sure she will do well since lots of people know her & she's got a great reputation & an awesome knitter. I'm thrilled to be in on this from the start! I'm usually asleep when great opportunities arise.

I also dyed some Knit Picks Bare Merino laceweight...

and got this! Lilac + touch of Hot Fuchsia. I'm going to make Mom's Christmas present out of this.

I also made what I'm calling Geranium for my Aeolian out of the other skein of KP Bare laceweight. Fire Red + touch of Salmon. I was so anxious, I forgot to take a picture of the skein.

Which is good, because nothing has been thrilling me since I finished The Princess.

I've also started Bluebird for Poohla's Christmas present. This is KP Gloss - Mermaid. It's a little more green than this picture.

I asked Poohla what her favorite color is this year. She said, "Turquoise!" I fell on the floor, because turquoise is MY favorite color. I dug through my stash & took her 5 skein of various blue/greens and asked her which is her idea of turquoise? She chose the Mermaid. Then said, "But that (lacey lamb) is the color of turquoise stones..." which I consider turquoise! Good thing I asked!

I'm going to try and get Christmas knitting & maybe Delphine done before starting The Queen. Last year I was rushing and ended up hurting my shoulder. Don't want to repeat that.

I hope to be dyeing more for myself later too. I still have 8 skeins of Phoenix, which will make 4 more large gossamer shawls. Fun fun fun! Oh! and I found out that you can test the color you made in your pot by dropping in a little yarn. I didn't know that! Like I said, "Beginner's luck!"

Have a great week! Sending some luck your way! :)

In Over My Head?

Princess my love...
The good news:
I got through the 3rd Border Chart & am ready to do the Laurel Leaf pattern.

The headache:

How to continue the edging around the 90* corner and make it look worthy.

There's been a lot of chatter & worry. The consensus is to short row it. (In Ravelry)

Boy, am I glad now that I'm using wool. I have faith in wool & it's forgiving nature. I'm sure it will gracefully curve around that corner. WOW! Thanks again to you all for encouraging me to just continue on with the merino. I love you!

The intimidation:

The members of the Princess Group in Ravelry are very accomplished and able to think outside the pattern.

I'm not.

One person did a provisional cast on & started knitting the border & will do the edging continually around at the end. She's brilliant. I wish I had thought of that! Next time, that's the way I'm doing it, especially if I'm not using pure wool.

After all, we want it to look fabulous after all the hours of concentration... every stitch counts.

The Queen

The good news:

After 13 days of waiting & convincing myself that she's lost & never arriving.... The Queen has made her appearance. I did my celebratory happy dance!

It's separate pages, not a booklet, which is great! I don't need to make copies of the charts. It came with samples of Cashsilk, Shetland Supreme & Gossamer Merino. That blue/gray cone is 2/48 cashmere/silk from Colourmart that I'm thinking of using. It's the same ratio of cashmere (70) to silk (30) as the Cashsilk, but slightly thicker... same weight as the Gossamer Merino (2/48) I'm using for the Princess.

The headache:

The Goddess says that you can complete it in 5 months... at 2 hours per night. HAH! That's so funny! She's a fast knitter. I'm not.

The Queen is made in 5 pieces - 4 borders + center. The Goddess says it took her 10 hours to 'finish/make up/sew' it all together. I hate sewing pieces together! (That's why I love Fair Isle! NO sewing!) UGH! At this point, I laid on the floor & sulked.

While lying there I thought, "Why can't I just knit the bottom border & continue knitting the center... while attaching the left & right border... the same way I have to do the Princess center... that way I just have to sew in the top border & the 45* angles where the borders join?"

I couldn't think of a reason why I couldn't do it that way... but I'm NO EXPERT!

I logged into Ravelry & guess what?! One of the members mentioned that she was going to do it that way too!! But, she's going to do the edging all the way around at the end. I think that doing it as written will be okay, because it's only a 45* angle to curve around & sew up.

I did my celebratory happy dance! I'm learning to think outside the pattern! And someone very experienced thought of the same method! OH HAPPY DAY!

I'm going to use 2mm needles & either the 2 blue/gray cones I have, or I'll order the Cashsilk... not sure what color... kinda liking the viola... the frost blue is pretty too.

Stitch Markers

I use jump rings as stitch markers & was getting frustrated because the gossamer merino was getting caught in the jagged joins. Just what I don't need! Cut yarn! I've noticed that people sell them with beads on the joins & thought, "Hey! I can make those!" so I did. They work great.

Meanwhile in Kamati & Smoothie's world...

"Hey Kamati, whatcha doing?"

"Ssshhh! I'm just looking! Mom said there's going to be gold hearts on the American Beauty Shawl. I don't see them in here..."

"Mom's gonna be mad! You KNOW how she feels about 'if it's NOT yours, DON'T touch it!!!"

"Shut UP! Use your indoor voice! lalaladeedahhh"

"KAMATI! ARE YOU GETTING NOSE JUICE ON MOM'S SHAWL??!!

Wooly caught them in the act & took this photo as evidence. I didn't find any nose juice, no harm... no foul.

The last chart for American Beauty is coming April 1st, so we get a mini break.

Until next time... Knit on!

And take time to celebrate! :)