Tri-Color Part 1

I really liked the Color Affection shawl when I first saw it on Ravelry.  My friend Ariel did too.  We decided to have our own knit-a-long and encourage each other on the project.  We decided a good start date would be July 1, after we'd each finished other projects.  And of course after I bought the yarn.  Picking the colors was both challenging and fun.

The knitting is very easy, pretty much just knit stitch.  

I finished my shawl while on vacation and blocked it this past weekend.

Here are the results.

It's really big!

Yarny Bike

While I was home recently we went to the bakery to get an orange chiffon cake, my favorite.  Near the bakery is a used bike shop.  The window display caught my eye.  It's a yarn-bombed bike!

A Flock of Sheep?

My boyfriend, my dog, and I were on vacation last week.  One day as we were about to begin a hike, we saw this sign.  

I got excited.  Imagine, a flock of sheep and their "guardian dog".  That would be a great sight for a knitter!

We didn't see any sheep.  They must have been grazing in a different area that day.  Oh well.  We had a great time.  All of us.  You can see it in Lucy's big smile in these two photos.

Since we are on the subject of signs and dogs, here is one that made me laugh.  I wonder how many dogs in Manitou Springs read the part pertaining to them.

Pleasance Shawl

I've been in a lot of yarn clubs over the past few years.  I don't always do the projects in a timely manner.  In earlier years some of the skills required were more advanced than mine.  Sometimes I am in the middle of other knitting and the club project gets put off.  Sometimes I just don't like the project and repurpose the yarn.  (That's a chance you take when you join a yarn club.)

Here is a project that is only one year behind schedule.  This is a Woolgirl kit from her Victorian Writers Club of last year.   Even though I tried to keep up with that club, I failed.  I really liked this project though.  The shawl is called Pleasance and it's by Susanna IC.   Back in January and February I participated in a Susanna IC mystery KAL.   Once that was over, there was a choose-your-own Susanna IC crescent shawl KAL.  I decided to knit this, therefore KALing and catching up on my kits.

I cast on February 29.  So far, so good.  I did 26 l-o-n-g rows of lace, including countless nupps.  Then, early in the short rows,  I messed up somehow.  I could not recover.  So I ripped this out.  All of it!  Including 26 l-o-n-g rows of lace with countless nupps.  It's painful to think about!  So I started over.  And now, late July, five months after I started, it's done.

I think it was worth the wait.

Big Splash

Lucy dives into the pond at the dog park with such enthusiasm!  Look at her big splash!  She does this over and over and over.

Spiral

I finished my spiral.  This is the project I started after visiting the yarn store in my home town last month.  This was a very fun thing to knit.  The pattern is here.  After the first 20 or so rounds, this is very intuitive.  Once you knit the body, the border is knitted on perpendicular to the body.  Every other row incorporates a stitch from the body.  So you are basically binding off at the same time.  I liked that.

Don't like to purl?  There are no purl stitches here.

My spiral ended up about 32" in diameter.  It's going to go on the back of a chair.  Or couch.  It could be made smaller or finer and be used on top of a table.  I've seen similar patterns used as baby blankets. 

Here are the posed photos.



Moo

I was stopped at a red light on the way in to work this morning.  I looked over and next to me there was a truck carrying two cows.  The one on the left (you can barely see her legs) was laying on her back, much as my Labrador retriever does.  The one on the right was looking down at my Jeep.  I had to take a picture.

I wonder if these cows had an appointment with a Chick-fil-A billboard.