Peacock Feathers - Done!

I finished up my shawl this weekend and blocked it last night.  I did not do the edging that the pattern called for.  It had you pick up stitches around the edge of the shawl and then work a picot bind off.  I did actually do the pick up of the stitches - I recommend using 3 different circular needles, one for each side, getting around those corners is a bit of a pain - but then decided that I really didn't want to do the picot bind off.  So I ripped all of that out and went to my book shelves and grabbed "Around the Corner Crochet Borders" by Edie Eckman and flipped through.  There were lots of really cool edgings, but I had a limited amount of yarn and didn't want to get too elaborate.  I started with a simple single crochet all the way around.  On the sides I worked 3 single crochets for 2 slipped stitches (so alternating 2 single crochet in a slipped stitch, 1 single crochet in a slipped stitch).  Along the neck edge I worked a single crochet in each stitch.  That seemed to give me the right proportion of stitches.  I worked extra stitches at the corners - 3 single crochets in each stitch before and after the corner.  Then I did a simple picot - single crochet, chain 3, single crochet.  On the sides I did not skip every other single crochet of the foundation, which gives a denser ruffle.  On the neck edge I did skip every other single crochet, which gave me loops that made it easier to block - I could just slide a blocking wire through them to get a nice straight edge.  I then placed pins in the middle of the diamonds on the edges as opposed to at the points.  I tried to get a blocking picture but was not successful.

Pattern:  Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend by Louise Robert
Yarn:  Biscotte & Cie Bis-Sock in Peacock Feathers
Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

MagicWaves Triangle - First Chart & One Repeat of Chart 2

I wanted to have a project that uses The Unique Sheep yarn to work on at the Retreat, so I pulled this kit off of my yarn tree and set it up before I left.

All of those plastic bags contain Earthfaire kits, most of them using Unique Sheep yarns.  I finished up Chart 1 while at the retreat and snapped a quick picture of it pinned out on the bed.  I then finished the first repeat of Chart 2 at the Tennessee house, but didn't get a chance to take a photo until this morning.

This is a cool pattern because the lace motif repeats itself and you can stop at any row, which means that you can use up all of your yarn.

Pattern:  MagicWaves Triangle by Kieran Foley & Nim Teasdale
Yarn:  The Unique Sheep Luxe in Snow Glint
Needles:  US 4 (3.5 mm)

Peacock Feathers - Six Rows of Diamonds Done

I took this project with me last week to Tennessee and North Carolina.  I figured it would be good car knitting.  Bruce and I first went to Tennessee so he could show me his Dad's place.  His Dad passed away in November, just a couple of weeks before mine, and he wanted me to see the place and help him decide what to do with it.  I suggested that we do it the same week that I go to Hawkesdene for The Unique Sheep Retreat as I was already taking that week off from work, and the Retreat is only a couple of hours away from the house in Tennessee.  I like the house.  It is right on a lake, and the land there has a nice feel to it.  The Cumberland Plateau overlooks it.  We're keeping it for now with the idea of moving there in a couple of years.  I'm eligible to retire in 2018.  It is smaller than our house here, only a single floor with a fully finished walk out basement but it has some distinct possibilities.  There is a full kitchen in the basement, and there is a garage built into the side of a hill.  That space is huge and has a strange appeal to me.  It needs a fair bit of work to make it habitable again, but it has such possibilities.

I will probably finish up this shawl today, just to get it done.  I love the way the color patterns repeat themselves in the diamonds.

Here is another photo, taken on my dress maker dummy.

Pattern:  Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend by Louise Robert
Yarn:  Biscotte & Cie Bis-Sock in Peacock Feathers
Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm)

Basic Toe Up Socks 5 - One Sock Done

I've been working on this sock off and on during odd moments riding in cars, listening to telecons, waiting for Bruce, and I finally finished it up this morning.  I immediately cast on the second sock and knitting that through the toe increases.  As simple and repetitive as this pattern is I still screw up occasionally.  On the last pair I knit I somehow started the ribbing half a round early, and on the second sock of this pair I managed to increase during a rest round on half of the sock.  I discovered this when I was on the second to last increase round and I counted my stitches and half of my sock had 26 and half had 28.  I did not rip back, I just did the increases on the half that only had 26 stitches and called it good.

I still don't know what to call these socks, and I don't know what the colorway is called.  I've searched their website and can't find it (I bought the yarn several years ago) and I even searched my email and found an old receipt that might have it, and it might be Cupcake, but somehow I just don't think this yarn looks like a Cupcake.

Pattern:  Basic Toe-Up Sock from Custom Socks by Kate Atherley
Yarn:  Biscotte & Cie Felix
Needle:  US 1 (2.25 mm)

Peacock Feathers - Two rows of diamonds done!

I've been working on this when I don't feel up to working on my latest test knit - lace requiring a bit more attention and not to be worked when one is tired.  It is so easy to pick up and put down, although I did have to reknit one diamond because I knit it in the wrong spot - it was coming off of one of the just knit diamonds and the diamond just below it so it was sort of going sideways.  Fortunately modular knitting is easy to rip back.  I do love the colors, especially against the weathered boards of our deck.  I ordered two skeins of another colorway to knit a second shawl.  I think they will be fun to wear when I want a splash of color.

Pattern:  Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend by Louise Robert
Yarn:  Biscotte & Cie Bis-Sock in Peacock Feathers
Needles:  US 3 (3.25 mm)