A New Shawl

As part of my resolutions for the year, I wanted to "finish" the Mixed Up Mystery Scarf by extending the bottom, Oscillation section. When I sat down to undo my bind off I could not undo the stitches, the yarn had felted just enough that I decided it wasn't worth the effort to use up the last of the yarn and add a few inches of knitting to the scarf so I decided it was time to start a new knitting project.

It was perfect timing too because I was trying to figure out my Craft Book Club project for Lagom: The Swedish Art of Balanced Living by Linnea Dunne and I learned that keeping a small knitting project on hand is a very Lagom thing to do so I decided I was going to pick up my knitting needles and find a project to knit while on my vacation. The pattern I finally decided on was from Elizabeth Zimmerman's Knitter's Almanac, the July project, a round shawl!

She said that a shawl was the perfect knitting project for a summer vacation and I definitely agree with her. (Shawls are kind of my thing to knit though.) This circular shawl uses pi (duh, it's a circle) to calculate how many stitches to increase and on which row to make the increases. It's a really simple pattern of knit rounds then yarn over, knit on the increase rounds.

I'm making up the decorative stitches as I go and have been inspired by the sunshine yellow color of the yarn to make a sunshine shawl. So far I've done a section of knit stitches only, the next section is yarn over, knit two together and the next section you can see is three knits, five purls. The section I'm working on now has cables and my final section will be a lace and cable combo then I want to finish it off with a lace border. I'm not sure how it will look or if I'll even have enough yarn... time will tell.

Last week while I was at the library I saw the guidebook for competitive entrants of the county fair and was seriously considering entering this shawl. The entry deadline is tomorrow and the shawl would need to be dropped off on Saturday. I was a major slacker this weekend and didn't knit a single stitch. I'm further than I was in the photo, but I'm not sure if I'll meet the deadline (last minute knitting is also kind of my thing). I've got to get stitching! I could win $3 for first place in the category and $20 if it is best in show! Wish me luck!

Finished or not, I'll be sharing my progress Tuesday along with the next Craft Book Club book selection!

Cross Stitch Family Portrait

After finishing the wedding portrait, I started work on their family portrait. Here are Kari, Taylor, and Willow:

Cross Stitch Wedding Portrait

I started working on this gift over a year ago and it kept coming out wonky so I'd start over. Finally I finished and my sister has her little cross stitch wedding portrait!

This is a little portrait of Kari and Taylor in their wedding outfits, similar to some others I've made for some friends. They were made following cross stitch patterns from Do-it-Yourself Stitch People book by Elizabeth Dabczynski-Bean. I made Taylor's legs two taller and Kari's two shorter and they are about the right height.

Tie Dyed Cropped Shirt

Not too long ago Katie, Chelsea, and I got together for a Crafternoon of tie dying! Unfortunately I suck at remembering to take photos so I didn't get any pics of their masterpieces, but here is the shibori type tie dye I did on a cropped shirt.

I'm doing slightly better with my photo taking. A few weekends ago I went on a photo walk and took enough photos to save seven! Major improvement, but I'm still not pulling out my camera much to take photos of everyday things like this tiny praying mantis. Anyway, here are two nature shots from the aforementioned photo walk. (Don't the ducklings look cute!) And an obligatory picture of Winslow.