THERE HAS BEEN KNITTING

And I have the pictures to prove it.

With everything going on the last few months; the strike, my dad's visit, and my granddad's birthday.  I wasn't sure there would be much knitting.  But there has been loads of it.  Most of it has been due to my "Startitis", and not much completing.

The "PinWheel Baby Blanket" that I have been working on for my Tuesday knitting buddy has come to a stand still until I can get another ball of yarn for the edging.  I'm very pleased with how the blanket came out.  But I wanted to add a bit of oomph in the edging.  I just hope my friend and her little one likes it.

I finished the "Bandwagon" socks last week.  And all I can say is, I am in love with this pattern.  It's was easy to memorize, even for me.  And the resulting lace design is gorgeous on the foot.  The ribbing on the back of the leg makes for a very comfortable and cozy fit.

I used the Wollmeise I got in my May Loopy Ewe sock club package.  I have heard about the fabulousness of Wollmeise mostly from the Lime and Violet podcast, but I had yet to actually get my hands on some.  So as can be expected I was excited when I unwrapped my sock club package and discovered the yarn was a skein of Wollmeise in the gorgeous "pillar of fire" colorway.  Woo Hoo!

The size of the skein was also a very pleasant surprise.  Over 500 yards. After I finished my socks I had almost half the skein left.  so I decided to cast on another project I had been wanted to make for some time, the "Dream-Swatch" scarf.  And it's coming out beautifully.  I've got about half of it done.  And I think I'm still going to have quite a bit of yarn left over.  Maybe I'll make a pair of footies with what's left over.

Now that I've worked with Wollmeise, I'm on a mission to get my hands on some more.  There are several colors that I think would make beautiful shawls.  But after joining the Wollmeise group on Ravelry I discovered that the wonderful dyer has temporarily closed her shop due to an illness.  I'll have to wait until she's feeling well enough to start production again.  And I'll be waiting with baited breath.

Since I completed my first article of clothing a few weeks ago.  I've been thinking about what I wanted to make next.  After looking around on Ravelry I remembered a sweater that I had fallen in love with a long time ago.  It's called "Stargazer".  The pattern was originally published in "Magknits" in June of 2007.  And is now available as a Ravelry download, for $1.00.  That's right I said $1.00 people.  I couldn't believe it either.  I cast on this project in Butterfly Mercerized Cotton and hated it.  It was too heavy.  Then I cast it on in Berroco Comfort.  After I had finished about four inches I realized that the tight fabric was also going to be a lot heavier than I wanted.  So off it went to the frog pond.  I went back to Ravelry to see what some of the other Stargazers had been knit in and found that one was knit in Lion Brand Micro Spun.  And I remembered that I had bought a lot of the Micro Spun in purple when I first started knitting.  So I cast on again, and so far I'm loving it. The sleeve ends, neckline and waistband are knit going to be knit in black for the contrast. With the bright and shiny light purple body and sleeves.  I'll probably finish this just as it gets too hot to wear it.  But so far I'm on a mission to complete it.  I'll post some pics when I get a little further into it.

Back to knitting I go.  Happy knitting!!!

S.