At Last

Here's a little update on Ingrid's Bridal Knot Shawl. After a month long break, I"m back to working on it and I'm finally on the decrease section!

Close up of the center motif:

Here's 348 rows:

Why are my batteries always dead???

I really need to remember to plug the battery charger in the wall - it works so much better that way.

I've gotten a whole bunch done and really want to put up pictures.

I've finished the "baby butt covers" for Maggie's shower, I've finished an arm warmer based off of Eunny Jang's Endpaper Mitts, but with my own fair isle design. I have a sock done.

There's also stuff for swaps that I can't put up pictures of until my partner has them.

Hopefully Monday I can get some pictures up.

There seems to be a theme in my life

And that theme is masters. I'm waiting to get an e-mail back to find out if my Psych classes will work instead of Social Work ones. I really, really don't want to have to take Stats again! In the meantime, I used my Birthday money to finally enroll in the Master Knitting Program. The pin will be mine!!!

Yesterday, Kent had a manager's meeting in Madison, so since I was awake when it was time to leave, I decided to go along with and tour the yarn stores of Madison. I didn't even get lost (well, I got a little turned around, but Yahoo directions sometimes lie and you should use your common sense and go ahead and turn left on John Nolan even if they say to turn right) and I even found a new way to get to the zoo. After the boys got dropped off at their meeting, I went to Wisconsin Craft Market. It was kind of disappointing. They were listed as one of the distributers of Plymouth Galway, but nope, they didn't have any. It was basically a slightly nicer version of Ben Franklin's. Didn't get anything there.

Next I went to The Knitting Tree and drove in squares for about 15 minutes trying to park. They also were supposed to have Plymouth Galway (all I needed was one skein of color 143), but didn't. They were pretty nice. Kinda small, but a good collection of sock yarn. I got two hanks of Koigu KPPPM in a really pretty colorway. It's different shades of reds, oranges and purples. Unfortunately, I've been spoiled, so I didn't even think to ask to have it wound and they didn't offer, so I'm going to have to take it up to Iris to wind it.



Next I went to Lakeside Fibers and fell in love. The place is amazing. From the front it looks pretty small, but it keeps going forever. There's even a coffee shop hidden in back. They have an amazing selection and I could have blown the budget very easily. In fact, I kept petting a hank of Artyarns Cashmere. I managed to resist, but I did treat meyself. I got a hank of Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Raven (it's really hard to find sock-weight yarn in black). This will go with the KPPM to cheat at a pair of Fair Isle arm warmers.

Since the Bearfoot is 350 yards and I'm thinking I'll need somewhere aroun 150-180 yards for the armwarmers, I got more fun colorway yarn to work with. This is Interlacements Tiny Toes in Carbon Dioxide.

This was the impulse buy. It was on sale, otherwise I probably would have walked by, but it's such a pretty color - the flash doesn't do it justice. I got two balls of Louisa Harding Kimono Angora Pure. It's 70% angora, 25% Wool, 5% Nylon and was 25% off.


And the best part is that Lakeside Fibers does a punch card and on odd numbered Tuesdays gives out double punches, so I have the majority of a card filled up already!

I also finished a sock and a swap item (I almost put down what it was :) ). The sock started out a Baudelaire, but I was almost done with one sock and decided that I really did not like the way it looked with the yarn, so I frogged the whole thing and started over. I still did a toe-up sock (which is nowhere near as difficult as I thought it would be), but I put togeather my own rib and cable design. I love how it turned out so much, but I told myself no pictures to show off until they are both done.

I've decided I'm doing it!

I'm going to apply to Grad School. Since we're going to be up here at least another two years and I'm working nights, I might as well get my butt in gear and go back to school. Then I think I want to work for the VA.

More Snow = More knitting

We've gotten approximately 17 million inches of snow in the past week. Today was supposed to be an inch....there's at least four.

Luckily I have my leg warmers that everyone at work was making fun of. They might look like something Freddy Krueger would wear if Freddy Krueger were in Fame! but they're nice for tromping through snow to wash clothes.

I decided I need yet another project going, so I started with Baudelaire from Knitty. I'm using Schaefer Yarns "Anne" in a black and dark, dark wine colorway.

Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow

In order to leave work today, I had to literally shovel the car out. Luckily there weren't many people on the road, so my drive home today only took an hour. I got all the way up to 45 on the highway.


There's not quite as much snow as it looks like....part of the mountain is from the parking lot.

Picture Pages Picture Pages Time to Get Your Picture Pages

Hooray for freshlly charged batteries!!


Two hundred twenty nine rows done - with CD for scale.


The only way I can get it all into one shot is to stand above it, which casts a shadow.

I love the way this is turning out.

I had another close up I really liked, but it was a tad blurry.

I think I'm hitting the point where I'm losing a bit of steam. I've only gotten about 20 rows done in the past week. I should start taking it into work again, but in typical Shaughna fashion, I have four other projects going.

I've decided that I am insane. I'm using the Habu yarn double stranded to make myself a summer top - on size 0s. I currently have half an inch done.